The Bad News - Part 1 (Romans 1:18-21)
INTRODUCTION:
Last week we looked at the theme of the book of Romans in chapter 1, verses 16-17. I said that if you get nothing else out of the book of Romans understand the incredible truth that righteousness comes from God through faith in Jesus Christ. This is the only way that we can be made right before God and be saved from sin and the eternal punishment of the lake of fire.
As promised last week this morning we are going to begin to look at the bad news of the gospel, the truth that we are all guilty, condemned sinners deserving God’s wrathful judgment. Paul’s bad news starts in verse 18 of chapter one and takes in the rest of chapter one, all of chapter two and verses 1-20 of chapter three. So, buckle your seat belts we are going to be looking at the bad news for a while. When we are done there will be no doubt that every person who ever lived on planet earth is a sinner guilty and condemned to suffer God’s wrathful judgment against sin. Every person except for One, the one man in all of the history of the world who perfectly did the will of God and perfectly kept the law of God so that He could be condemned in man’s place as the perfect substitute to pay for the sins of the world. But first the bad news because without it we have no need for the good news.
Let’s pray and then we will get into the passage of Scripture for this morning.
--PRAY--
SCRIPTURE:
Turn in your Bibles this morning to Romans 1:18-21. The rest of this chapter is a whole, but I cannot get through it in one message, so we are going to take it in chunks. Please stand if you are able in honor of the reading of God’s Word and follow along as I read.
Romans 1:18-21,
“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.” (Romans 1:18–21, NASB95)[1]
THE WRATH OF GOD (Romans 1:18)
Last week Paul laid out for us the theme of this letter, the theme is the gospel and he wrote that in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith to faith to faith. To each one who repents and puts their faith in Jesus Christ alone for salvation, believing that He died for their sin, that His death paid the penalty required for sin, that He was buried, and on the third day He rose triumphant from the dead proving that sin is paid for and death was conquered. To each person who believes, the righteousness of God is revealed as God imparts His righteousness to the one who believes so that we can stand before Him justified.
Why do we need God’s righteousness? Why do we need to be justified? Because we are guilty, condemned sinners who can do nothing to make ourselves right or justified before God. Paul begins the main portion of his letter to the Romans in verse 18 by affirming for us the righteous wrath of God. As human beings we do not want to talk about God’s wrath and because of this much of the Christian world has taken God’s wrath out of their gospel, they only want to talk about God’s love, and His mercy, grace and compassion. But that is not the whole picture of the gospel. God’s wrathful judgment against sin must be included in God’s plan of salvation or there is nothing to be saved from. A person cannot begin to understand God’s grace if he does not understand that God has a perfect standard that must be met; a person cannot understand God’s great love for him until he understands God’s fierce anger against man’s sinful failure to obey and perfectly keep God’s law, His perfect standard. A person cannot understand God’s forgiveness without understanding the eternal consequences of sin and without forgiveness you will suffer eternal punishment. Paul understood this and made sure his audience understood the fear of eternal condemnation that is ours as we come under the wrath of God for our sin, with this understood he would then offer a way of escape through the good news of the gospel.
This word that is translated “wrath” is a Greek word that refers to a settled, determined indignation, it does not refer to a momentary, emotional outburst of uncontrolled anger that humans are prone to having. When we speak of God’s wrath, we must recognize that God’s attributes are perfect. Just as God perfectly loves righteousness, so He perfectly hates evil. The perfect wrath of God against sinful mankind is seen in several places in the Old Testament. In the days of Noah, God’s wrath against sin destroyed everything on earth except 8 people. Later in perfect wrath He confounded men’s language when in sin they tried to make their own way to God. In Abraham’s day God in wrath against sin destroyed the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah with only Lot and his daughters escaping the destruction. These are just a couple of examples. John MacArthur writes, “God’s righteous judgment against sin is proclaimed before His gracious forgiveness of sin is offered. A person has no reason to seek salvation from sin if he does not know he is condemned by it.”[2] In this first verse we learn some truths about God’s wrath.
We must first understand that because this is God’s wrath it is completely and always righteous. Wrath or anger is the only response that holy God can have toward evil, toward sin. God could not be holy, if he was not angry at sin. God’s holiness demands that sin be judged by God’s wrath.
Paul goes onto say that God’s wrath is revealed, the verb tense in Greek indicates that it is not just revealed one time, but that it is constantly being revealed. This word means to bring to light, to uncover, to make known. Throughout history God’s wrath against sin has been made known to man. When Adam first sinned in the garden of Eden by eating the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, he immediately experienced God’s wrath against sin by being separated from God. The sentence of death fell immediately on Adam and Eve and was passed down to all their descendants. Even the earth felt the wrath of God from Adam’s sin as it too was cursed. As I already mentioned God’s wrath was revealed at the flood, at Sodom and Gomorrah. But more than any of these, the greatest revelation of God’s wrath against sin was that which was placed on His own Son on the cross. Jesus Christ took upon Himself the sin of the whole world and bore the full force of God’s wrath against sin as its penalty. God’s holy hatred of sin requires that the penalty for sin be paid, because of this He allowed His perfect, beloved Son to be put to death as the only means by which the penalty could be paid and by which sinful man could be redeemed from sins’ penalty. God’s wrath against sin is revealed to us.
This revelation of God’s wrath is from heaven. This is where God sits upon His throne and from there, He renders His verdict upon man’s sin and His wrath against sin is constantly revealed in the world. Heaven reveals God wrath in two ways. First, His wrath is revealed through moral order. What this means is that sin has natural consequences. God in this sense is not specifically intervening but is letting the law of moral cause and effect work. In other words, man must suffer the natural consequences of sin. Second, God at times reveals His wrath against sin through His direct and personal intervention. We have already mentioned several of these times when God intervened. I might also point out a time in the New Testament in Acts 5 when Ananias and Sapphira lied to the Holy Spirit and immediately fell down dead. This was direct and personal intervention of God’s wrath against sin.
Paul goes on to teach us that God’s wrath is against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. God’s wrath is not selective, it is against all who deserve it, it is universal. It does not matter the extent of your goodwill, God’s wrath is against all, but not indiscriminately, it is reserved for sin and administered justly. When Paul speaks of ungodliness, he is referring to man’s relationship to God, ungodliness refers to a lack of reverence for God, a lack of devotion to God, and a lack of worship of the true God. This type of failure leads to some form of false worship. Unrighteousness includes the idea of ungodliness but is more directed at the result of ungodliness. Sin first attacks the glory and majesty of God and then God’s law or standard. Righteousness is seen in a person that is rightly related to God, a person who is not rightly related to God does not act righteously. Man’s relationship with God will be reflected in his relationship with man. Remember that it is sin that God hates. He does not hate people, He hates the sin that people naturally practice, and sin brings God’s wrath.
What about those people who do not have the same opportunity as others to hear the gospel? How does God hold all people responsible for their spiritual failure, for their sin? Paul answers those questions with the last phrase of verse 18, “who suppress the truth in unrighteousness.” (Romans 1:18c, NASB95)[3] God can hold man responsible because of man’s sinful disposition. Man’s natural tendency is to follow sin and resist God. Our sinful nature is so much a part of us, Paul calls it unrighteousness here, but it is our sin nature that is such a part of us that we have within us a desire to suppress, put down or hold down the truth, to oppose the truth about God and to oppose God’s truth. Paul is going to declare in verse 19, that which is known about God is evident within us because God made it evident to us. Each of us according to Paul have internal God-given evidence of God’s existence and nature. So, no matter how little opportunity we have to hear the gospel, God assures us that those who truly seek Him will find Him, but our problem is that we are inclined to suppress and oppose the evidence. As sinners we resist the truth of a holy God, because if a holy God exists then such a God will hold us accountable for our sins that we love and do not want to give up. Is God right in holding us responsible for our sin? He is because we seek to suppress the truth in our sinfulness.
MAN IS WITHOUT EXCUSE (Romans 1:19-20)
We understand that we are born sinful, but why should we suffer God’s wrath against sin when we never asked to be born? This question needs to be answered and I believe that Paul does answer it in Romans 1:19-23 where he explains why God is justified in His wrath against all sinful people. In these verses Paul gives four reasons why sinful man deserves God’s righteous wrath. We will only have time to look at two of the four reasons this morning, but we will look at first, God’s evidence, and then hopefully man’s rejection and next week Lord willing we will look at man’s wisdom, and man’s religion.
Paul wants us to understand that even apart from the written revelation of God that we call the Bible, what is known about God is evident to man, even sinful man, because God has made it evident to us. Paul is saying that all men through all of history have evidence of God. What our physical senses can perceive of God our inner senses can understand to some extent. God has given evidence of Himself to all mankind, so it is not that man lacks the knowledge of God, but rebels against it because of his own unrighteousness. God has never left man to try and figure out something about God, instead God has given ample evidence about Himself. Because of this no person can plead ignorance of God, because entirely apart from Scripture God has made Himself known in the world. God has always made Himself known and will continue to reveal Himself to mankind. Because of this overwhelming evidence of God, no person can claim that God’s wrath against them is unjust. What is translated in verse 19 as “that which is known about God…” could be translated “that which is knowable…” We understand that sinful man is finite and even with the special revelation of Scripture we cannot know everything about God. Paul is declaring that which is capable of being known about God apart from the special revelation of Scripture is known by fallen man. God has given testimony of Himself throughout the world and His attributes are reflected in His creation. Paul when he was ministering at the city of Lystra during his first missionary journey spoke these words to the people in Acts 14:16-17, ““In the generations gone by He [God] permitted all the nations to go their own ways; and yet He [God] did not leave Himself without witness, in that He did good and gave you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying your hearts with food and gladness.” (Acts 14:16–17, NASB95)[4] God did not leave Himself without witness, the very goodness of life is a witness of the goodness of God who provides that goodness to us.
Paul goes on in verse 20 to give us the evidence that God has given to man. Paul writes, “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.” (Romans 1:20, NASB95)[5] Since the creation of the world God’s attributes have been displayed, attributes which without the creation would be invisible, but because of creation are clearly seen. Two examples are given by Paul which man can perceive through his natural senses. The first being God’s eternal power which speaks of His unfailing omnipotence which is seen clearly in that it was God’s omnipotence that brought the creation into existence and sustains its existence. Second God’s divine nature is seen in the care and the order with which His creation runs, and it is also seen in the kindness and compassion seen in His goodness to us sending the rains and the sunshine that we might produce food to satisfy our hearts with food and gladness as Paul told those a Lystra in Acts 14.
God’s witness of Himself is for all mankind. It is not just for certain people who are more perceptive than others. His attributes are clearly seen through His creation, no one can truly look at anything that God has made and say that it has appeared by chance. The care and intricacy of all that is made points to a Master Designer who is God. To deny that is simply foolish. King David declared the same truth in our Scripture reading this morning from Psalm 19. David said without speech and without words the heavens are telling of the glory of God and their expanse is declaring the work of His hands. Paul says because of this revelation of God man is without excuse, they are without excuse because they do not take this knowledge and follow it which would lead them eventually to Jesus Christ. Instead they suppress this truth that is evident about God and in so doing they reject Jesus Christ. If a person was to take the evidence that is available to all and believe it, then I believe God will provide for that person to hear the gospel by some means. We have examples of this in the Scriptures. The Ethiopian eunuch in Acts 8 was sincerely seeking God and the Holy Spirit sent Philip to witness to him. The eunuch believed the gospel and was saved. Cornelius in Acts 10 feared God and prayed and in a vision from God an angel told him to send for Peter. Peter came and preached the gospel to Cornelius and his household and they were saved. God directed Paul to go down by the river where people went to pray, and Lydia was there in Acts 16 and she heard the gospel presented by Paul and was saved. If one is truly and sincerely searching for God, God will provide a way for that person to hear the gospel.
CONCLUSION:
I am going to stop here today, we only looked at the first of the four reasons that Paul gives that sinful man deserves God’s righteous wrath. Sinful man deserves God’s righteous wrath because God has given to man evidence about Himself. Man can clearly see God’s eternal power and divine nature through creation and what God has made, so man is without an excuse. This week look for the evidence of God in your day to day life, in the creation around you, and within your own body. God has left His fingerprints on everything that He has created, and they are there for us to see and acknowledge that God exists and then we become evidence to others around us as we proclaim the glory of God and the provision of salvation through His Son, Jesus Christ.
[1]New American Standard Bible : 1995 Update. La Habra, CA : The Lockman Foundation, 1995
[2]MacArthur, John F., The MacArthur New Testament Commentary – Romans 1-8. Chicago, Ill. : Moody Press, 1991
[3]New American Standard Bible : 1995 Update. La Habra, CA : The Lockman Foundation, 1995
[4]New American Standard Bible : 1995 Update. La Habra, CA : The Lockman Foundation, 1995
[5]New American Standard Bible : 1995 Update. La Habra, CA : The Lockman Foundation, 1995