The Unrighteousness and Condemnation of the Gentile (1:18-32)

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1. The Cause of the Condemnation: Willful Ignorance & Rebellion (1:18-23).

2. The Consequences of the Condemnation: Divine Abandonment (1:24-32).

 

Five major truths in this passage:

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1. Divine Wrath (1:18).

2. Divine Revelation (1:19-20).

3. Human Response: Rebellion and Rejection of Divine Revelation (1: 21-23).

4. God’s Response to Man’s Rejection of Divine Revelation (1:24-28).

5. Moral Depravity Resulting in Man’s Sinful Life and Behavior (1:29-32).

 

Universal human guilt is the theme of 1:18 - 3:20. Paul begins with the depravity, and sinfulness of the Gentile society (1:18-32), the unrighteousness and condemnation of the moralist and the Jew (2:1-3:8), and then finally the universal sinfulness and the resultant condemnation of all people (3:9-20).

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The Cause of the Condemnation: Willful Ignorance & Rebellion (1:18-23)

 

There is a parallel that links verses 17 and 18:

The righteousness of God is being revealed (v.17).

The wrath of God is being revealed (v.18).

 

In both cases the present tense is used. It describes that which is presently being revealed.

 

Paul begins the epistle with the “Gospel of God” (1:1). Then he refers to the “power of God” (1:16), the “righteousness of God” (1:17), and the “wrath of God’ (1:18). These doctrinal concepts are important markers in developing his argument with sustained logic. The Gospel is the Gospel of God. In the Gospel the saving power of God is demonstrated and the righteousness of God is revealed. God declares righteous the one who believes in Jesus and who is thus forgiven of his sins.

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God’s wrath is righteously revealed because people rebelliously suppress the truth about the only true and living God, and turn to idolatry. The consequence of idolatry is the moral degradation and disintegration of human society (1:18-32).

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1:18:  “The wrath of God.”   God’s wrath (orge) is “his determination to punish sin” (Hodge); his “settled indignation” (Hendriksen). God’s wrath is His rational retributive justice against sin. The wrath of God is totally different from human anger. God does not lose His temper. His wrath is not selfish, vindictive, malicious, or spiteful revenge. It is quite different from man’s emotional, momentary, selfish, and uncontrolled anger (thumos).“….his wrath is his holy hostility to evil, his refusal to condone it or come to terms with it, his just judgment upon it” (John stott). Grace is God acting graciously toward repentant sinners; wrath is God reacting in revulsion against sin. The word wrath is found 12 times in Romans (out of 36 times in the entire NT. The root meaning of the word is “to swell.”

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Many people today neglect the biblical teaching on the wrath of God. The wrath of God is a clear doctrine in the Old Testament (Psa.2:12; 110:5; Isa.9:9; 10:6; Jer.10:10; Ezk.21: 31; Nah.1:2-3; Zeph.1:15, 18). The Gospel of John which speaks so eloquently of God’s love (3:16) also speaks powerfully of His wrath. “He who does not obey the Son, shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him” (3:36).

 

John MacArthur points out six features that characterize God’s wrath in v.18:

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1. The Quality of God’s wrath – It is divine, it is of God.

2. The Timing of God’s wrath – it is revealed.

3. The Source of God’s wrath – it is rendered from heaven.

4. The Extent of God’s wrath – against all.

5. The Nature of God’s wrath – against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men.

6. The Cause of God’s wrath – who suppress the truth in unrighteousness.

       (Romans 1-8, MacArthur New Testament Commentary, 62-68).

 

God’s wrath is revealed against “ungodliness and unrighteousness of men.”   These are two expressions of evil and wickedness – impiety against God (godlessness) and injustice against man; lack of reverence for God and lack of respect for fellow man. leads to . Man’s enmity with God results in his enmity with his fellow man. God condemns humanity for spiritual and moral failure. The ungodly and unrighteous stifle, suppress and oppose the about God because it challenges their sinful behavior and condemns it.

 

1:19-20: The Gift of Revelation. God is a God of initiative. He has taken the initiative in revealing himself to mankind. Revelation is God’s self-disclosure . “His eternal power and divine nature” are clearly revealed through the world he has made. This basic knowledge of God through His creation is universally known by man. This proof of God is “evident within them.” Thus all men have evidence of God. All men have the ability to perceive intelligent design in creation. The creation reveals to all men the truth about God’s existence, His power and divine nature (Psa. 19:1). God’s revelation of Himself through creation can be clearly seen everywhere and by everyone, being understood through what has been made. Since the natural world bears witness to God, the rejection of this truth makes a man without excuse before God.

 

The reason for the divine wrath is because men have rejected God’s revelation in nature. Because God’s revelation in creation is self-evident, man is without excuse. The revealed knowledge of God through creation is undeniable. This knowledge of God has always been available to man. There never was a time when God did not reveal Himself to men. It was not from lack of knowledge that men abandoned God and sinned, but in spite of it. Therefore, man is without excuse.

 

1:21-23: Rejection of God’s Revelation. Man did not respond to God’s revelation. God was not acknowledged, honored or praised, even though they knew (perceived) God.  In rejecting God’s lordship over their lives, they became foolish and their thinking became darkened. Part of the consequence of the wrath of God is humanity’s loss of intelligent thinking. Spiritual blindness, intellectual darkness, and moral depravity are the ultimate consequence of rejecting God.

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The loss of knowledge of true God resulted in idolatry. Idolatry is the fundamental sin. The first creature man substituted for God is himself (v.23). Man attempts to deify himself. This is the essence of humanism. Idolatry was further manifested in the worship of birds, animals, and crawling creatures. The downward spiral and degradation of idolatry is clearly seen here – man, birds, animals, crawling creatures. He figured God as a man, then as a bird, then as a –four-footed animal and finally as a reptile. Idolatry is not pious religiosity; it is the miserable end of unbelief and depravity.

 

Here is the history of pagan religion; devising deities of their own making. Men refused God’s revelation and idolatry followed as a psychological necessity. Idolatry is the result of unbelief. Their darkness, futility and folly were seen in their idolatrous religion and worship.

 

Contrary to popular beliefs, the history of religion presented by Paul in Rom.1 did not follow an evolutionary model from animism to monotheism. Instead, humanity started with the revelation and knowledge of the true and the living God and declined into animism and polytheism. Modern “idols” may not look like the ancient pagan idols. Even in the postmodern age in which we live people devote their lives to, and trust in, many things other than God. Idolatry begins in the mind (today it is more l than l) when we exchange the idea of God for something other than God. Whatever is the supreme occupation of the soul is a “god.”

 

When man rejects God’s revelation, Satan impels men to worship things lesser than God and embrace false religion. Even with all the evidence in creation, people refuse to recognize their Creator, worship Him, or glorify Him as God.

 

There are four divine disclosures in Romans 1. For theological clarity, John Stott lists them in the reverse order:

 

• Firstly, God reveals his glory (his eternal power and divine nature) in his creation (19-20).

• Secondly, he reveals his wrath against the sin of those who suppress their knowledge of the Creator (18).

• Thirdly, he reveals his righteousness (his righteous way of putting sinners right with himself) in the gospel (17).

• Fourthly, he reveals his power in believers by saving them (16).

 (Romans, 69-70).

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