Introduction
I thought that for this evening I would do a one-off sermon on these verses from Romans 1. Although it’s a one-off sermon, it’s connected to some of what we learned in our recent studies in the books of Jonah and Nahum. I’ll point that out as we go, but for now, let’s turn to the text which is before us: verses 18 to 32 of Romans 1.
The text
And just to put these verses into context, Paul says in verse 15 that he is eager to preach the gospel in Rome. And then, in verse 16, he says that he’s not ashamed of the gospel, because it’s the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes. It’s the power of God for the salvation of Jews who believe; and it’s the power of God for the salvation of Gentiles who believe. It’s for Jews and Gentiles, because in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed that is by faith. When he refers to a righteousness from God, he’s referring to the way God regards as righteous those who believe in his Son. Though we may have done everything wrong, God regards us as if we’ve done everything right when we’re united with Christ through faith. He does not count our sins against us, but he pardons us and accepts us. And God reveals that this righteousness is available to us through the gospel, which is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: Jew and Gentile.
And having mentioned Jews and Gentiles, Paul goes on to address the Gentiles in verses 18 to 32 who are without excuse in the sight of God and who are justly liable to God’s wrath which he reveals from heaven. And then, in chapter 2, Paul makes clear that the Jews are no better off. They may think they’re better off than the Gentiles because the Jews have the law of God to guide them. But they’re no better off than the Gentiles, because even though they have the law, they have not kept the law. They are lawbreakers and therefore they too are justly liable to God’s wrath and curse.
In chapter 3, Paul concedes that the Jews have some advantages over the Gentiles. Nevertheless, the fact remains that there is no-one righteous, not even one. There is no-one who understands; no-one who seeks God. All have turned away. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of being like God in holiness and righteousness. All deserve God’s wrath and curse.
That’s the bad news. But the good news is that we are justified freely — pardoned and accepted — by God’s grace through the redemption that came by Christ when he gave up his life on the cross to pay for our sins and to cleanse us of our guilt.
So, that’s where Paul is headed in these opening chapters of Romans. And back in verse 18 of chapter 1 he says that the wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness. He’s addressing Gentiles. Or he’s addressing the wicked in general. And he says that God’s wrath against them is being revealed from heaven.
Notice that he’s using the present tense. So, it’s not that God revealed his wrath in the past or that he will reveal it in the future, but that he reveals it now in the present. And God reveals his wrath in the present through his preachers who declare to us that we have disobeyed his commands and that he is angry with us. And so, when God sent Jonah to Nineveh, he sent him to preach against the people in the city and to condemn them for their wickedness.
But then God also reveals his wrath in the present by bringing disaster on the wicked. Nahum announced how God was going to destroy the city of Nineveh and the Assyrian Empire because of their wickedness. And shortly after Nahum’s prophecy, the Lord did to Nineveh and Assyria what he said he would do. He revealed his wrath on them by destroying them. Or in the days of Abraham, God poured down burning sulphur on Sodom and Gomorrah because of their wickedness.
When God punishes the wicked in this life like that, it’s a foretaste or a foreshadowing of the great and terrible day of judgment which will take place when Christ comes again. On that day, he will judge everyone who has ever lived and he’ll send the wicked away to be punished for ever. When God punishes the wicked in this life by sending trouble and disaster on them, it’s a preview of what will happen when Christ comes again.
However, Paul refers in verses 24 to 34 to another way in which God reveals his wrath at this present time. We’ll get to these verses in a moment, but for now I’ll say that Paul uses the phrase ‘God gave them over’ three times in those verses. It’s there in verse 24 and it’s there in verse 26 and it’s there in verse 28. He gave them over in the sinful desire of their hearts to sexual impurity. He gave them over to shameful lusts. And he gave them over to a depraved mind. So, one of the ways that God reveals his wrath in the present is by giving us over to our sinful desires and by letting us fall deeper and deeper into sin and into all the misery that comes from sin.
And Paul says that God reveals his wrath from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men. Some of the commentators think that ‘godlessness’ refers to sins against God and ‘wickedness’ refers to sins against other people. So, ‘godlessness’ refers to religious sins while ‘wickedness’ refers to social sins. But the point Paul is making by using these two terms is that we deserve God’s wrath. We deserve it, because of the ungodly and wicked things we do.
And then Paul goes on to say that people suppress the truth by their wickedness. In other words, because we’re sinners, we suppress the truth about God. That is, we suppress the truth that there is a God who deserves our worship and thanks. I’ll say more about this suppression later, but Paul means we push God out of our thoughts. We shove him to the back of our minds so that we don’t have to think about him. And the reason we suppress the truth about God like that is because of our wickedness. It’s because we’re sinners. What we should do is worship him and give thank him. But because we’re sinners, we don’t. We avoid him. And that’s what we all do throughout our lives until God comes to us by his Spirit and enables us to believe.
Paul goes on to explain in verse 19 that what may be known about God is plain to us. He means that it’s plain to us that there’s a God who deserves our worship and thanks. This is plain to us. How it is plain to us? It’s plain to us because God has made it plain to us. That is to say, he has shown it to us. He has made it apparent to us. He has demonstrated it. The Greek word Paul uses suggests God’s active involvement in our lives. Think of how someone might reveal a message to us by putting up a poster which we may or may not notice. But then another person points it out to us. He draws out attention to it. He shows it to us. That’s what Paul is saying here about God. God has shown us the truth about himself. He hasn’t just revealed it, but he’s made it plain to us personally. And ever since the creation of the world he’s made plain to us his invisible qualities, namely his eternal power and divine nature. He’s made plain to us that he’s mighty and powerful and that he’s wholly different from us.
And Paul says that these things about God have been clearly seen. That is to say, we have seen them. And he means we have grasped them. We have understood them. We have seen and understood God’s eternal power and his divine nature. So, we know that he is more powerful than us and we know that he is different from us.
And we have grasped these things about God from what has been made. When Paul refers to ‘what he has made’, we’re to think of the world around us, and we’re to think of ourselves, because we too have been made by God. And we’re also to think about God’s providence, or his works in history and in our own personal lives. Everything that is and everything that happens speaks to us about God, because God is the one who made all things and who directs all things. Again, I’ll say more about that later.
But to sum up what we’ve seen already, Paul says that God is revealing his wrath in the present against us for our godlessness and wickedness. And because we’re sinners, people naturally suppress the truth about God, which God has made known to us personally by the things he has made and done in the world. Every moment of every day, God shows himself to us. But because we’re sinners, people suppress what they know. And since God has made himself known to us, then we are without excuse. When someone is stopped for speeding, they might plead for mercy because they did not see the sign. But when God punishes someone for not worshipping or thanking him, they can’t claim that they didn’t know God. They can’t say: ‘If I knew you were there, I would have worshipped you. But I didn’t know.’ People can’t say that, because God has shown himself to everyone personally. Therefore we’re without excuse for not worshipping him. We are justly liable to his wrath and curse.
In verse 21, Paul once again makes clear that we all know God. However, even though we all know God, people do not naturally glorify him as God nor give thanks to him for his many gifts. Instead, our thinking became futile and our foolish hearts were darkened. People claim to be wise and to really understand the world; but in reality they have become fools. And in what way did our thinking become futile and our hearts become dark and foolish? In this way: we exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal beings.
So, not only do people suppress the truth about God, but they also exchange the true God for something else. They substitute the true God for something else. They fill the place which God is meant to have in our lives with something else. God is meant to fill our lives, but since people have suppressed what they know about him, then they have to fill their lives with something else. And this is why the world is full of false religions — and all those modern day -isms such as consumerism which are like a religion — because every false religion is something which people have settled for in exchange for the true God. God has made known to each person his eternal power and divine nature. But they push the true God to the back of their minds and they replace belief in God with a belief in something else.
Therefore, says Paul in verse 24. Therefore, since they have suppressed the truth about God and since they have replaced him, God gives them over in their sinful desires of their heart to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. So, God reveals his wrath by giving people over to their sinful desires which leads to all kinds of degradation.
In verse 25, Paul once again refers to the exchange people make: people exchange the truth of God for a lie. Every false god is a lie. Every false religion is a lie. They are false and not true. They are a substitute for the real thing. And instead of worshipping our Creator, people worship and serve created things. And so, because of this, God gives them over to shameful lusts.
There you are again: this is how God reveals his wrath in the present. He gives people over to their sinful desires and to unnatural sexual relations: women sleeping with women and men sleeping with men. Paul says people are inflamed with lust or consumed with passion. Their sinful desires have overtaken them.
Furthermore, says Paul in verse 28, since they didn’t think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind to do what ought not to be done. He means they did not see fit to acknowledge God. They did not worship him. They did not give thanks to him. And God punished them by giving them up to a depraved mind which leads to all the sins listed in verses 29 to 31.
And then, in verse 32, Paul says that they knew God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death. He’s referring now to our God-given conscience. So, another way God speaks to everyone is through the conscience, which is a kind of ethical-organ which makes clear to us that there’s a difference between right and wrong behaviour or good and bad behaviour. And our conscience condemns us when we do wrong and it commends us when we do right. And so, everyone knows God’s righteous decree. But because we’re sinners, people continue to do those things which they know are wrong. And what’s more, they even approve of those who do these sinful things.
So, to sum up, God has made himself known to each person personally so that everyone knows him. But instead of worshipping and thanking him, people naturally suppress the truth about God and they replace him with something else so that instead of believing in the true God, they believe in something else. Therefore God gives people over to sexual immorality and to shameful lusts and to a depraved mind. In other words, he reveals his wrath in the present by letting people fall deeper and deeper into sin and into all the misery which comes from it.
Common grace
Having gone through the text briefly, let me say something again about God’s common grace which is related to what Paul was writing about.
So, remember that there’s a distinction between God’s special grace and his common grace. God’s special grace is his kindness to sinners that leads to salvation. So, we are justified — pardoned and accepted by God — by grace alone. Our salvation is due to his kindness and it’s not something we can earn or which we deserve. That’s God’s special grace.
His common grace is his kindness to sinners everywhere and it does not lead to salvation. As the psalmist says in Psalm 145: ‘The Lord is good to all and his mercy is over all that he has made.’ Because of God’s common grace, or his kindness to all his creatures, he sends the sun and rain on all kinds of people, including the wicked. He gives us life and breathe and everything else. This is God’s common grace, his kindness to all his creatures, but it does not lead to salvation.
I mentioned last week that we see God’s common grace in his treatment on Nineveh in the book of Jonah. Though they were very wicked and deserved to be condemned and destroyed, God was merciful to them and he did not bring on them the disaster they deserved. The book of Jonah did not say that God forgave them. It says he relented and he let them go on living for a time. So, because God is merciful and good to all, he postponed his judgment on them and he preserved their life in the world.
Because of his common grace, God maintains the life of the world. And because of his common grace, he restrains our natural inclination to sin. That is, he restrains our sinfulness. He keeps people from being as bad as they could be so that we’re able to live quiet and peaceful lives for the most part. If God did not restrain our natural sinfulness, life on the earth would be unbearable, because people would think nothing of hurting or killing each other. But God restrains our natural sinfulness and he keeps us from giving in to our sinful desires. He does this inwardly through our conscience. He also does it outwardly by placing rulers over us with the authority to punish wrongdoers. He also does it by giving us good examples to follow. And so, because of the threat of punishment, people keep the law. Or people will follow the example of others. Or they will obey the voice of their conscience.
However, since God is under no obligation to us, then he is free to withhold his common grace from us and to loosen his retraining power over the objects of his wrath. And as a result, he gives them over to their own sinful desires and he lets them fall deeper and deeper into sin. And since sin causes misery, he lets them fall into more and more misery and sorrow as his judgment on them. And in this way, he reveals his wrath against them. Sometimes, he sends trouble and affliction into the lives of the disobedient. On other occasions, he lets them go their own way. And their own way leads to misery.
Think of the parable of the Prodigal Son. The son asked his father to give him his share of the estate. In other words, he wanted his share of the inheritance now, before his father had died. And the father did what his son asked and he let his son take the money and leave the family farm and go to a far off country where he squandered the money and ended up destitute. The father might have stopped his son, but instead he let him go his own way. And that’s what God often does with his wayward creatures. He loosens his grip on them. He withdraws his restraining presence in their lives. And he lets the wicked go their own way so that they fall deeper and deeper into sin and into all the misery that sin causes.
That’s what Paul is talking about in these verses. God reveals his wrath in different ways. Sometimes he reveals it through preaching. Sometimes he reveals it by sending, as it were, a bolt of lightning from heaven as he did with the people of Sodom and Gomorrah and with the people of Nineveh. He pours out his wrath on them by sending diaster into their lives. But then he also reveals his wrath in an ordinary way by letting people go their own way. He gives them up to their own sinful inclinations.
And the good news of the gospel is that Christ the Saviour bore in our place the punishment we deserve when he died on the cross. And since he has satisfied the justice of God on our behalf, then no further payment will ever be required from us. God will never ever punish us for our sins, because Christ was punished in our place. If we disobey God and continue to disobey him, without confessing it or turning from it, he may discipline us. But when he does so, it’s not because he hates us and is punishing us. It’s because he loves us and he wants to correct our wayward behaviour the way loving parents will discipline their children to correct their behaviour and to show them the right way to live.
General revelation
Having said something about God’s common grace, I want to say something now about God’s revelation. And just as there’s a distinction between God’s special grace and his common grace, so there’s a distinction between God’s special revelation and his general revelation. In special revelation, God makes himself known through special appearances and through dreams and visions and through prophecy and through miracles and through the incarnation of his Son and through his written word, the Bible. And through these means, he makes known his will for our salvation. That’s God’s special revelation.
In general revelation, God makes himself known through ordinary things and through ordinary events. And, as Paul says in Romans 1, through these means he makes known to the whole world his invisible qualities, namely his eternal power and his divine nature.
And so, in Psalm 19 we read that the heavens declare the glory of God and the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech and night after night they display knowledge. In other words, God’s creation speaks to us and it says to us without words that God is great and glorious. Creation tells us that there is a God who is powerful, because he made the world and everything in it. And it tells us that there is a God who is wholly different from us, because he alone is the Creator.
And creation also speaks to us of God’s goodness. So, in Acts 14, we read of the time when Paul and Barnabas went to Lystra and performed a miracle. The people who saw the miracle thought they must be gods and began to worship them. But Paul and Barnabas insisted that they were only men, and not gods, but they had come to bring them good news and to tell them to turn from their false gods and to turn to the living God who made the heaven and earth and the sea and everything in them. And they said that in the past, God let the people go their own way. Yet — and this is the important part — he did not leave himself without testimony. He did not leave himself without a witness. Everyday God bears witness to his kindness by giving us rain from heaven and crops in their seasons and he provides us with food and fills our hearts with joy. God reveals himself and he bears witness to his kindness by filling our lives with good things.
And so, the creation — the heavens and the earth and all that they contain — speak to us of God’s power and divine nature and his goodness. And since we are part of God’s creation, then God reveals himself through us. When we look at ourselves in the mirror, God is revealing himself to us and he’s showing us his power and his divine nature and his goodness. We see his power in that he made us. We see his divine nature in that he made us different from himself. We see his goodness in that he made us in his image. And since he had given us a conscience, then he speaks to us through that and makes known to us what is right in his sight and what is evil in his sight.
And God reveals himself to us in the way he controls and directs the whole of history and in the way he controls and directs our own personal lives. In Lamentations we read: ‘Who can speak and have it happen if the Lord has not decreed it?’ And so, our daily lives are the outcome of God’s decree. And therefore in the events of our lives, God reveals himself to us in a very personal way. He stops us in our tracks at times to show us how weak we are compared to him. He answers our prayers to show us his fatherly care. And he continually makes known to us that we depend on him for all things. And so, we sometimes think to ourselves how could we possibly do without him, because our day-to-day experience tells us that God is faithful and good to us.
Suppression and exchange
And yet, as Paul tells us, though people all know God, they do not know him. Though people all know him, they do not acknowledge him. Paul says that God makes himself known to every person personally, so that no-one can say they never knew him. God makes himself known to every person personally. But people do not know him, because they both suppress the truth about God and they exchange him for something else.
I mentioned J.H. Bavinck when we were studying the book of Jonah. He says that this suppressing of the truth is not a conscious action. In other words, we aren’t aware of it. He compares it to the psychological idea of repression. So, someone has a thought or desire which they cannot acknowledge because it might cause them anxiety. And so, without knowing it, they bury the thought or desire deep down inside. They repress it unknowingly. But though it’s buried deep inside, it still affects them in some way and they need a therapist to help them uncover it and confront it. Or psychologists also tell us about the ways we practise self-deception. There’s something unpleasant in our life, but we can’t bear to face up to it. And so, without realising it, we manage to deceive ourselves. We hide the truth from ourselves.
And people don’t want to face up to their knowledge of God. They know God is there, because God makes himself known to us continually. But without realising what they’re doing, they bury the idea of God deep down inside. They put him to the back of their mind. They suppress the knowledge. They repress it.
But they can’t get rid of it entirely. And so, instead of acknowledging God, they fill the place which he should have in their lives by exchanging the truth about God for something else. Instead of believing in him, they believe in something else.
And so, people create other gods, which they say are powerful and divine and good. And people worship them, instead of worshipping the true God. Or take a secular religion like consumerism. According to consumerism, we can make a better world for ourselves through our knowledge and expertise and our technological know-how. And through these things, we’ll be able to spread wealth and prosperity throughout the nations. And when that happens, then everyone will be happy, and there will be heaven on earth because of all the goods and services we’ll be able to consume and enjoy. And so, instead of believing in God, people believe in consumerism and rely on it to make them happy and secure. God reveals himself as the one we’re to trust, but instead of trusting him, people trust in something else.
And people do this because we’re sinners and we’re naturally inclined to turn away from God. But since we can’t make sense of our lives without him, people replace the true God with something else. And they rely on that other thing instead of relying on the true God.
Most people don’t really think about this too much. They don’t analyse what they’re doing. They don’t work it out. They’re just living their lives and trying to get through each day and they’re trying to cope with all the troubles and trials of life and they’re trying to deal with their own anxieties and fears and with problems that are bigger than they are. And they wonder how they can cope and who can help them. And they wonder about what they need in order to be happy.
But God is speaking to them every day through what he has made and through the course of history and in their conscience and in their heart. God is speaking to them and he’s saying to them that he’s the one who can help them. He’s the one who is powerful and he’s able to overcome all their misery. He’s the one who is good and he’s able to fill their lives with good and not with evil. He comes to them and tells them that they can trust in him. And he comes and tells them that they should worship him and give thanks to him. He comes to them and tells them these things. But because they’re sinners, they bury those thoughts deep inside and they rely on something else instead.
Conclusion
But thanks be to God who came to us, not only in his general revelation to all, but in his special revelation, and in the preaching of the gospel in the power of his Spirit. And he has made known to us, not only his eternal power and divine nature and his goodness, but he’s made known to us his will for our salvation through faith in his Son who gave up his life on the cross to make peace for us with God. And by his Spirit he has taken away our darkness and he has enabled us know God and to know his love and mercy and grace in Christ Jesus and to know his forgiveness. He has revealed to us the righteousness that is from God and which we receive by faith so that God now regards us as if we’ve done everything right even though we may have done everything wrong.
And as we leave this place and go back out into the world, and as we meet people who talk to us about what they believe, we’re able to bear witness to the true God, who is so much greater and kinder and loving and gracious than whatever it is that they’re relying on. And what we tell them about the true God and his power and his divine nature and his goodness will not seem strange to them, because deep down inside they know it’s true, because God himself has made it known to them. And he commands everyone everywhere to turn from worthless things that cannot save and to turn to the true God who saves through faith in his Son.
Sermons and Stuff 