Paul’s Letter to the Romans

Part 7

The next contextual section of Romans comprises verses 18-23. The theme of Romans is the righteousness of God, but in order to give us a clear picture of God's righteousness, Paul begins with a description of man's unrighteousness; for as Paul says in chapter 3, verse 5: ...our unrighteousness demonstrates the righteousness of God....

Let's begin by reading from verse 18 through verse 23:

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures.

In verses 16-17, Paul has just described the righteousness of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes.  Now, in contrast, he describes the wrath of God that falls on everyone who does not believe and worships his own thoughts and idols instead of Him.

What does the phrase wrath of God mean to you?  What do you think Paul had in mind when he used it?

Barclay's background here really caught my attention:

In the early parts of the Old Testament the wrath of God is specially connected with the idea of the covenant people. Israel was in a special relationship with God. He had chosen them and offered them this special relationship, which would bring prosperity so long as they kept his law (Exodus 24:3–8). That meant two things. It meant that within the nation any breach of the law provoked the wrath of God for it broke the relationship. Numbers 16 tells of the rebelliousness of Korah, Dathan and Abiram, and at the end of it Moses bade Aaron make special atonement for the sin of the people "for wrath has gone forth from the Lord" (Numbers 16:46). When the Israelites were led away into Baal worship, "The anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel." (Numbers 25:3)

Further, because Israel stood in a unique relationship to God, any other nation which treated her with cruelty and injustice incurred the wrath of God. The Babylonians had ill-treated Israel, and "because of the wrath of the Lord she shall not be inhabited" (Jeremiah 50:13).

In the prophets, the idea of the wrath of God occurs, but the emphasis has changed. Jewish religious thought from the prophets onwards was dominated by the idea of the two ages. There was this age which was altogether bad, and there was the golden age which was altogether good, the present age and the age to come. These two ages were separated by the Day of the Lord. That was to be a day of terrible retribution and judgment, when the world would be shattered, the sinner destroyed and the universe remade before God’s Kingdom came. It was then that the wrath of the Lord would go into terrible action. "Behold the day of the Lord comes, cruel, with wrath and fierce anger, to make the earth a desolation" (Isaiah 13:9).  Ezekiel (7:19) speaks of "the day of the wrath of the Lord." God will pour out upon the nations "his indignation and all the heat of his anger." (Zephaniah 3:8)

 

But the prophets did not regard the wrath of God as being postponed until that terrible day of judgment. They saw it continuously in action. When Israel strayed away from God, when she was rebellious and unfaithful, then the wrath of God operated against her and involved her in ruin, disaster, captivity and defeat.

 

To the prophets the wrath of God was continually operating, and would reach its peak of terror and destruction on the coming Day of the Lord. Because he is God, because he is characteristically holy, God cannot tolerate sin, and the wrath of God is his "annihilating reaction" against sin.

 

Paul speaks frequently of this idea of wrath. But the strange thing is that although he speaks of the wrath of God, he never speaks of God being angry. He speaks of God’s love, and he speaks of God loving. He speaks of God’s grace, and of God graciously giving. He speaks of God’s fidelity, and of God being faithful to his people. But, very strangely, although he speaks of the wrath of God, he never speaks about God being angry. So then there is some difference in the connection with the God of love and wrath.

Further, Paul speaks of the wrath of God only three times. He does so here, and in Ephesians 5:6 and Colossians 3:6 where, in both passages, he speaks of the wrath of God coming upon the children of disobedience. But quite frequently Paul speaks about the wrath, without saying it is the wrath of God, as if it ought to be spelled with capital letters—The Wrath—and was a kind of impersonal force at work in the world. In Romans 3:5 the literal translation is, "God who brings on men The Wrath." In Romans 5:9 he speaks about being saved from the wrath. In Romans 12:19 he advises men not to take vengeance but to leave evil-doers to the wrath. In Romans 13:5 he speaks about the wrath as being a powerful motive to keep men obedient. In Romans 4:15 he says that the law produces wrath. And in 1 Thessalonians 1:10 he says that Jesus delivered us from The Wrath to come. Now there is something very strange here. Paul speaks about the wrath, and yet from that very wrath Jesus saves men.

 

Let us go back to the prophets. Very often their message amounted to this, "If you are not obedient to God, the wrath of God will involve you in ruin and disaster." Ezekiel put this in another vivid way—"The soul that sins shall die" (Ezekiel 18:4). If we were to put this into modern language we would say, "There is a moral order in this world, and the man who transgresses it soon or late is bound to suffer."

 

The whole message of the Hebrew prophets was that there is a moral order in this world. The conclusion is clear—that moral order is the wrath of God at work. God made this world in such a way that we break his laws at our peril. Now if we were left solely at the mercy of that inexorable moral order, there could be nothing for us but death and destruction. The world is made in such a way that the soul that sins must die—if the moral order is to act alone. But into this dilemma of man there comes the love of God, and that love of God, by an act of unbelievable free grace, lifts man out of the consequences of sin and saves him from the wrath he should have incurred.

Why does Paul contend that there is no excuse for failing to acknowledge God?

I believe that it is almost inevitable that humans will ask the question, "Where did we come from...how did we get here?"  From what I can find, there are three main answers to that question:

  1. It all happened by chance. However small the chance may be is beside the point. An infinite number of universes may have started up spontaneously and amongst them this one occurred and here we are in it. Or alternatively, there is only this one universe and by chance it turns out the way it is, down to the last detail, including men and microbes.
  2. Let us stick with what we can observe and experience. We cannot and do not know anything beyond that. Therefore there can be no conclusive answer to the question: Where did it all come from?
  3. It was all purposefully and intelligently designed by a pre-existent Being whom we call God. Pre-existence simply implies God was already there when it all started up and His origin does not, and need not be part of the answer.

These three approaches broadly represent atheism, agnosticism and monotheism as embodied in Christianianity, Judaism and Islam. Clearly there are shades of differences and variations between these approaches that complete the broad spectrum of ideologies.

Paul argues that by observing the world we can know something about its Designer.  It can easily be observed that suffering follows sin.  Break the laws of agriculture and your harvest fails.  Break the laws of architecture and engineering and your building collapses.  Break the laws of health and your body suffers.  Look at the world!  See how it is constructed!  What you find will tell you that it didn't happen by chance, no much more than that, it will speak of its Designer.

Tertullian, the great second century Christian Father, said, "It was not the pen of Moses that initiated the knowledge of the Creator. …The vast majority of mankind, though they had never heard the name of Moses—to say nothing of his book—know the God of Moses none the less. Nature is the teacher; the soul is the pupil. One flower of the hedgerow by itself, I think—I do not say a flower of the meadows; one shell of any sea you like—I do not say a pearl from the Red Sea; one feather of a moor fowl—to say nothing of a peacock—will they speak to you of a mean Creator?  If I offer you a rose, you will not scorn its Creator."

Where does man turn if he does not acknowledge God?

Instead of looking out to God, he looks into himself.  He involved himself in vain speculations and thought he was wise.  He made his ideas, his opinions, his speculations the standard and law of life instead of the will of God.  He saw the universe as self-centered instead of God centered.  Instead of looking out to God, he looked into himself and like any person who does not look where they are going, he fell.

Where did he fall?

When you hear the word idolatry what images come to mind?

I usually think of the "golden calf" Aaron made for the rebellious Israelites or a bunch of half-naked Africans dancing around a fire in front of some wooden image. Thinking of idolatry in those terms keeps me from seeing it as a problem in my life...nothing about those images seems to relate to me!

In truth, idolatry is just another word for egocentricity...the "self" replaces God!  The glory of God is exchanged for images of human and animal forms.  Man makes the idol and brings it offerings and prayers to advance his own schemes and dreams.  His worship is for his own sake, not for God's glory.

In this passage we are face to face with the fact that the essence of sin is to put self in the place of God.

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