[Romans Study 5-1]
The Wrath of God [Romans 1:18-32]
18 The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness,19 since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 20 For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.
Understand The Wrath Of God to Understand His Gospel
In the previous study, we looked at the great proclamation of the gospel – ‘The righteous by faith shall live,’ and this is the theme of the this Epistle to the Romans; it says that God in His infinite wisdom, and in His infinite love and mercy and compassion, has found a way to save the unrighteous and to make them righteous. The way is that He gives to us to achieve this is from the righteousness of His own Son, our blessed Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Now that is the heart of the gospel – that we have a righteousness from God, with the righteousness of His own Son given to us. And that is wonderful and blessed good news.
Why is Paul so proud of this gospel? Why is he so pleased with the fact that he has been called to be a herald and announcer of this righteousness by faith, and of the fact that it is only the righteous by faith that shall live?
It is because something else has also been revealed, and that revelation is that nobody else shall live! Oh yes, the righteous by faith shall live, says verse seventeen. Yes the righteous shall live, says verse eighteen, but nobody else shall live. That is why the gospel is so vital and so important, so unique and so glorious – it is the only way.
Here, we come to a new section of scripture, which runs from 1:18 to 3:20 of the Epistle. This section can be well described as ‘darkness.’ Here we see a complete darkness and despair that we may not want to look at in detail. However, we cannot understand the gospel without understanding it. This is the section that shows us the absolute necessity of the gospel. If you understand this, you will not only understand the gospel but you will embrace it immediately, and thank God for it for the rest of your life. How essential, therefore, is this tremendous section!
This whole Epistle is nothing but an exposition of what the Apostle is telling us here in verses sixteen, seventeen, and eighteen.
Why Does Paul Start With The Wrath Of God?
Paul says to all men, whether Gentiles or Jews, that the wrath of God has been revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and wickedness. Paul does not begin with dulcet words to encourage and comfort the young believers in Rome. He is not interested in attracting people and enthralling them by using the words of emotional appeal, but instead he confronts them with the wrath of God from the very beginning. In other words, the gospel that was preached by the Apostle Paul was never human-centric. It was always and invariably God- centered. Paul, without even a fleeting thought, never worried that the Romans would not want to further read his Letter.
The tragedy is that we do not believe in the power of the Holy Ghost as the Apostle Paul did. Paul did not stop to ask, “Will the Romans like this doctrine? I wonder whether, when they see that this is my message, that they will stay away?’ Paul knew that everything depends upon the power of the Holy Ghost. He would warn men and it is the gospel that provides this power.
Therefore, Paul begins with something fundamental, something staggering – the wrath of God! Wrath here means God’s hatred of sin. God hates sin, God despises sin. All that is opposed to God is hateful to God. All that belongs to the realm of darkness, of sin, and of Satan is abhorrent to God. The wrath of God means that from God’s view of sin, God’s hatred of sin, and God in His justice and His righteousness dealing with sin, will unequivocally punish sin.
Why does he start with sin? Because only after we realize that we are sinners before God, will we know the necessity of salvation. Salvation is salvation from sin. Jesus said that it is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. (Matthew 9:12; Mark 2:17; Luke 5:31) We must first know that we are sinners and have fallen sick, and only afterwards will we ask God to bring us healing and salvation.
If church does not examine one’s sin, he will corrupt. When sin is not prosecuted but covered up, society will stink and its people will have only have the verisimilitude of peace. They will never have true joy. You can feel perfectly happy and yet still be damned. There are such things as false joy, false peace, and false thrills in life.
So Paul begins with the wrath of God against sinful humanity. He shows no mercy in pointing out human’s sin starting from 1:18 to all the way to 3:20. As we study this section, we, in our humility, should be completely broken down and totally shattered. We must be torn to rags. We must realize that we are actually dying because of our sins. Then we will want to seek a different way to live. In other words, our Bible study should be spiritual and not mechanical. How easy it is to come to this passage and to intellectualize it and say, ‘Yes, the wrath of God’ – and then pass on quickly. No! We cannot afford to do that. Our hearts should be moist and humble to receive the Word.
Republished with permission from Dr. Christy Tran, the author of “The Epistle to the Romans: Paul’s Love Letter from God.”