The Revelation of God's Wrath, part # 1

Romans 1:18–25 (ESV)

¹⁸For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, …²¹For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking…²⁴Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves,

²⁵because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.

This passage connects man’s inability to respond to God as the Creator to God’s wrath.  Though God created man to rethink God’s thoughts and recreate his creation because of unrighteousness his natural inclination is to go the other direction.  In this the wrath of God is revealed.    

Verse 24 gives us the first way that God’s wrath is revealed from heaven against ungodliness and unrighteousness of men.  Because natural man has chosen to not honor God or give thanks and has begun to worship false gods, God gave them up to in their lusts to impurity.  God is not the author of sin and therefore did not tempt them, but because of their rejection he allowed their lusts to grow and they in turn dishonor their bodies among themselves.  This comes about because they did not follow the truth, but made a lie and worshiped the created being instead of the Creator Himself.  Many have argued or taught that the wrath is revealed simply in the consequences of sin, that is not the case.  Yes, God’s wrath in Scripture is a consequence of sin, but here the construction of the verse brings us to an understanding that the entanglements of sin are a consequence of the wrath of God as well.  Though God has given them over to this sin it does not mean that he has forsaken them entirely.  Though unregenerate man’s entire goal is to “suppress the truth” he is, to be sure, not entirely successful in his endeavor and is never as evil as he could be; he is quite inconsistent.  We call this area of inconsistency Common Grace.  It is to this natural knowledge of God and the discrepancies of lifestyle that the gospel appeals.    The majority of men will never come to Christ so will not see as Romans 2 says, “that God’s kindness leads them to repentance.” 

Romans 1:26–27 (ESV) ²⁶For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; ²⁷and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.

God’s wrath is further revealed as women and men choose to do what is contrary to nature and are consumed with passion committing shameless acts and thereby receive in themselves what is due to them because of their ungodly choices.

 Our hope is that each listening may experience the mercy of God by repenting of their sin.

The video version of this is available at www.youtube.com/user/churchoflittleton First Word # 76