Romans 1:18-32 -- Part 1
Knowing God
In his theme of the letter to the Romans, Paul unwraps God's gift of the glorious good news of Jesus Christ to explain "why" he cannot wait to proclaim it throughout the capital city of the Roman Empire (vv. 15-17).
The good news is that Jesus' perfect life, atoning death and victorious resurrection powerfully saves everyone who trusts in Jesus. But not only are we saved the moment we trust in Christ, but more importantly God's righteousness is revealed in that through the gospel God's faithfulness to His promises has been perfectly demonstrated and we have been declared to be right with God solely on account of the work of Jesus Christ alone. Now that's good news!
It is this theme of the gospel that Paul now turns to fully develop before our eyes: how God demonstrates His own righteousness in declaring us, who are sinners, to be right with Him.
As Paul says in Rom 3 and 4:
God now demonstrates His righteousness at the present time in that He is both just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus (3:26).
To the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is reckoned as righteousness (4:5).
It is Paul's intent now to unfold "how" it is that God has demonstrated His righteousness in putting us into a right relationship with Him.
Note the clear, smooth transition between Rom. 1:16-17 to 3:21 ("righteousness of God" to "but now the righteousness of God"). This theme of the demonstration of God's righteousness in and through the gospel is momentarily interrupted by 1:18-3:20, which we will begin looking at this morning. Paul has already introduced us to the large, overarching theme of the gospel and in chap. 3 he will return to the that theme and unfold the gospel in full detail, but first he has to tell us "why" we have to be saved in the first place and "what or whom" we are being saved from.
So, before Paul tells us "how" God has already accomplished our salvation which puts us in a right relationship with Him, He has to tell us "why" God has to put us right in the first place. Already in the theme of the letter Paul has spoken about God's powerful work for our salvation through Jesus Christ and he is going to return to displaying the gospel before us in chap. 3, but it is now his purpose to turn to v. 18 this morning where Paul now tells "why" we have to be saved.
But why does Paul have to now unfold for us the terror and threat of God's wrath instead of just going right to chap. 3 and developing for us the theme of the gospel of Jesus Christ? Let me give you at least 3 reasons for doing so, so that you can appreciate more what Paul is going to do in this first section of his letter:
1. We cannot rightly hear the answer until we understand the problem. This is just common sense. If we don't understand the question or the problem that has arisen out of a certain need we do not see how the answer fits.
2. Equally we will only appreciate the answer (God's grace in the gift of Jesus Christ) to the degree that we fully grasp the seriousness of the problem (we have offended a holy God and therefore we are under His wrath).
When we declare that we are saved we normally do not take time to think seriously what we are being saved from? Who we being saved from? Who has this gracious God through Jesus Christ saved us from? Are we being saved from ourselves, from Satan, from some other evil despot? No! Paul tells us in v. 18 that God saves us from Himself -- by His grace and love God has saved us from His own wrath and condemnation. That's why we call grace "amazing"!
3. It is only as we see the true nature of our sin -- it's dominating, ruling force in our lives -- what we often call "total depravity" -- that we appreciate why God's gift of righteousness can only be received through faith alone and not by works of the law. We are so bound to our sin nature that it is only by God's power, available in the gospel, that we can be rescued or delivered us from death and condemnation.
In v. 17, Paul spoke of the "revelation of the righteousness of God" but now in v. 18 he turns to the "revelation of the wrath of God." Paul now turns to answer the question, "why has God manifested his righteousness and why can it be appropriated only through faith?" The answer is found in 1:18 - 3:20 and 1:18 (READ) serves as a heading for this whole section.
As we said last Sunday, as God reveals his righteousness in the gospel He is revealing His faithfulness to His promise to redeem us and forgive all our sins. But that promise was given in the context of God's law and how we have not kept his law but rather lived in rebellion to God's law. Therefore, because of our rebellion we are under God's wrath.
The attribute of the wrath of God has never been a popular understanding of God's character in the age of the church from Marcionin the 2nd cent. to C.H. Dodd today. But the wrath of God is a necessary attribute related to God's justice. God delivers His law to mankind along with the promises of reward for obedience and threats of punishment for disobedience or transgressions of God's law.
But "why" does God punish transgressors?
Because God is holy -- separate from all sin so that he cannot even look upon our sin:
God is light, and in Him there is no darkness at all. 6 If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth (1 John 1:5-6).
If God is going to maintain his holiness -- separation from sin -- he must distance Himself from every violation of His holiness to display that He is the Holy One.
But if God is going to be just or righteous then he must punish all transgression of His law in order to display his goodness upon those who obey his law.
If God rewarded those who obey and then equally rewarded those who transgressed God's law, then what would the reward mean?
What value is the trophy if there is not distinction between those who ran well and those who simply made it across the finish line at the Olympics or what value is it if everyone who graduates is declared to be the valedictorian?
The value of the reward means something only as the contrast is made between the one who works hard and the one who doesn't work at all.
But you are beginning to see the problem here! No one is holy. No one has obeyed God's law. Everyone in this world has transgressed God's Holy character in thought, word, and deed. None of us measures up and therefore no one will be receiving the reward of entering into the Holy presence of God -- that is unless God displays his power and grace to act sovereignly on our behalf. Now you are beginning to see not only why Paul must start with the subject of God's wrath, but more importantly why God has orchestrated human history so that his power and grace would be on display for all to see. God knows that it is only against the darkness of His wrath that we truly stand amazed at the glory of His grace.
Now you see why Paul is so eager to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ (vv. 15-17) -- all who stand outside of Christ are the objects of God's wrath. This wrath will be poured out in fullness on the coming day of judgment, the day that God has set and He alone knows, but as we see in v. 18 that the world is presently -- already begun to taste God's wrath ahead of time -- "the wrath of God IS revealed from heaven."
God's wrath is a present reality. God is already punishing sinners in this life which anticipates the future judgment at the end of time. Paul shows us how God's wrath begins in this age as God hands individual sinners over to their chosen way of sin/rebellion and its consequences (vv. 22-25). But this is merely a foretaste of God's future judgment where He will cast all sinners outside of Christ away from His presence in utter darkness.
Here Paul shows us what is the essence of Gods' wrath toward sinners -- it is His distancing Himself from the sinner, either in turning them over to their sin or by in the end finally and fully casting them completely from His presence.
So why would removing sinners from God's presence be considered punishment? How would it be punishment to be separated from God's presence of goodness, mercy, and love?
Because we were created to find our highest goal in life, our well-being, significance and security in the fullness of God's presence. It is only in the fullness of His presence that we are complete and fulfilled as God's creation -- it is only in God's presence that we work correctly. If you have a tree that is planted in rich soil, watered well, and receiving plenty of sunlight it will thrive and flourish. But the minute you take away those things that the tree is dependent on, not only will it no longer thrive without nutrients, water, and sunlight -- it will die.
When we choose to find the deepest longings of our hearts filled by the things of this creation (vv. 22-25) we are moving further and further from God's presence. God's greatest possible judgment is to then simply give us those things in which we so easily satisfy those longings with the things of this world and to turn us over to them so that we move further and further from Him until the final judgment comes and we are simply removed from His presence all together. In the end, God finally gives us what we want -- a life without Him.
Sometimes, we see people who are so happy filling their life with more and more things in this life -- spending all their time and energy accumulating stuff, all the while they are moving further and further from God and worst of all, God is simply giving them over to the true desires of their hearts until one day they have moved so far from God that all they can do is deny His existence ("they no longer see fit to acknowledge God any longer" (v. 28)) and live as if He no longer matters in their lives. Sometimes God's greatest judgment is to give us what we really want in exchange for wanting Him.
Now, if we can only be happy, satisfied, secure, at peace, joyful in God's presence, then the things of this creation can never truly satisfy those deep longings. And if we are going to persistently attempt to fill those longings in the things of this world and not with what or whom will truly satisfy, then as Paul says below, God will simply give us our desires to turn away from Him and walk away. This is what Jesus meant by the warning:
“No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will hold to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth" (Matt. 6:24).
And Paul:
But godliness actually is a means of great gain, when accompanied by contentment. 7 For we have brought nothing into the world, so we cannot take anything out of it either. 8 And if we have food and covering, with these we shall be content. 9 But those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a snare and many foolish and harmful desires which plunge men into ruin and destruction. 10 For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil, and some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith, and pierced themselves with many a pang . . . Instruct those who are rich in this present world not to be conceited or to fix their hope on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly supplies us with all things to enjoy. 18 Instruct them to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, 19 storing up for themselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is life indeed (1 Tim. 6:6-10, 17-19).
It's not that having a lot of things in this world is necessarily bad or evil but the deeper and deeper that we build the foundation of our life in this world, or the more extensive we grow our roots in the soil of this creation the greater chance we have of satisfying the deepest longings of our hearts in this age and not in Christ alone.
Jeremiah had warned Israel about this:
“Has a nation changed gods, when they were not gods? But My people have changed their glory for that which does not profit. 12 “Be appalled, O heavens, at this, and shudder, be very desolate,” declares the LORD. 13 “For My people have committed two evils: they have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, to hew for themselves cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water (Jer. 2:11-13).
Jeremiah teaches us something very important about life. We all have deep longings in our hearts for finding our identity and security in life -- God made us to be complete and whole. He created us to bear His image where we would glorify God and enjoy His presence forever.
Sinned entered the human race when Adam and Eve decided to find their identity or significance in their own resources and not God. Ever since then, man has been moving further and further from God in rejecting the fountain of the living, flowing waters of life to hew out for themselves broken cisterns that can hold no water.
Think of the Samaritan woman at the well -- she sought her security in life by moving from one man to another hoping that the next one would provide the love she so longed for with each one disappointing her more than the one before until she finally met that one man who offered her the water of life so that she would never thirst again, which will become in her a well of water springing up to eternal life (John 4:13-14).
When she learned that the deep longings of thirst can only be quenched in Jesus Christ and not by the things of this world she left her water pot and ran into the city to tell of the man who revealed to her all the things she had done and declared that she had been with Jesus the Messiah so that the whole city came to Him (John 4:28-30).
So why is it that God's wrath is now being revealed upon all those who are outside of Jesus Christ? Why is it that God does not wait until the final day of judgment to begin revealing his wrath upon sinners?
Because that day has already begun at the cross of Jesus Christ. The last days are here -- they have already begun in Christ. Just as we who have trusted in Christ have already gone through God's judgment in that Jesus Christ was judged in our place, so those who are outside of Christ are already experiencing God's condemnation.
That is what the cross of Jesus Christ is all about. We have been saved from the wrath of God because that wrath was poured out on Jesus Christ in our place. And there Jesus experienced God's full judgment in that God turned His face from Him and the fellowship they had known for all eternity was ruptured. God treated His Son upon the cross as the most notorious sinner who ever lived and departed from Him.
Jesus Christ stood in your place and experienced that complete loneliness, insecurity, insignificance so that you would never experience even a taste of God's condemnation. Now through faith in Jesus Christ you have exchanged your life as an enemy of God to now being His son or daughter in Christ. For as Paul says:
THEREFORE having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we exult in hope of the glory of God. 3 And not only this, but we also exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance; 4 and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope; 5 and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us. 6 For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For one will hardly die for a righteous man; though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die. 8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him. 10 For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. 11 And not only this, but we also exult in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation (Rom. 5:1-11).
Amen!
-SDG-
