diff --git a/liquibase-core/src/main/java/liquibase/change/custom/CustomChangeWrapper.java b/liquibase-core/src/main/java/liquibase/change/custom/CustomChangeWrapper.java
index 8692d8bf721..196ede8d865 100644
--- a/liquibase-core/src/main/java/liquibase/change/custom/CustomChangeWrapper.java
+++ b/liquibase-core/src/main/java/liquibase/change/custom/CustomChangeWrapper.java
@@ -305,7 +305,11 @@ public String getSerializedObjectNamespace() {
     public void load(ParsedNode parsedNode, ResourceAccessor resourceAccessor) throws ParsedNodeException {
         setClassLoader(resourceAccessor.toClassLoader());
         try {
-            setClass(parsedNode.getChildValue(null, "class", String.class));
+            String classNameValue = parsedNode.getChildValue(null, "class", String.class);
+            if (classNameValue == null) {
+                throw new ParsedNodeException("Custom change node has no 'class' attribute!");
+            }
+            setClass(classNameValue);
         } catch (CustomChangeException e) {
             throw new ParsedNodeException(e);
         }