Treasures New and Old

Romans: God’s Wrath Revealed

In the last half of Chapter 1 of Romans, Paul concentrates on exposing the corrupted heart of man and how that without a redeemer, man’s lot is truly hopeless. Why? Because a holy God cannot allow sin in His presence. Because a just God must punish unresolved sin, and His wrath abides upon man until he/she is redeemed. Because man chooses to ignore all the evidences around him that God is the creator of all things and is, therefore, the one to whom we are accountable as created beings in His universe.

Let’s examine verses 18 through 25 in this first half of two articles examining the corrupt heart of mankind.

Romans 1:18-25:

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness; Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath showed it unto them. For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse: Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, And changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things. Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonor their own bodies between themselves: Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshiped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.

Paul now moves from his introductory statements and his encouragement to live by faith (see articles #1 through #3 titled “Introduction to Great Teaching“, “Preach the Gospel“, and “The Gospel and Faith“) to contrast those that live by faith (believers) and those that are lost and are spiritually dead. He explains the condition of a lost person as one who knowing chooses to reject the one true God for gods that he has devised in his own mind. Why? Simple:

Jeremiah 17:9: “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?”

Let’s attack this section of Romans verse by verse:

Verse 18 Notes: “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness;”

God has provided His creation for all to experience, see, and enjoy as evidence that He is (real and, indeed, God).

Psalm 19:1-4b: “To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David. The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament showeth his handiwork. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night showeth knowledge. There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard. Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world.”

God has placed His law in every man’s heart. Before Moses, and even Abraham, man knew about marriage, clean and unclean foods, murder, stealing, coveting, lying, lust, disobedience, deceit, blasphemy, and other sins. They knew them to be wrong as their conscience told them they were wrong. But they seared their conscience and became hard to sin.

For: gar (Strong’s G1063): This little word connects the verses before it to the verse(s) that follows. It is defined in other places in the New Testament as “give a reason, therefore, no doubt, seeing then, verily and because”.

All: Nothing escapes God’s attention despite those who think God does not pay attention.

God’s wrath: So Paul is contrasting the gospel, that he is not ashamed of, to God’s wrath, because it reveals (uncovers) the righteousness of God to the world as we who believe live our lives from faith to faith because the just will live by faith. However, just as God reveals His righteousness through us as we live out the gospel, His wrath is also revealed (uncovered) against all those who are ungodly (wickedly) and unrighteous (injustice; moral wrongfulness: iniquity, unjust, wrong (Wordsearch’s Strong’s G93).

Who hold the truth in unrighteousness: Hold: have, hold (fast), keep (in memory), possess, retain, seize (Strong’s G2722). Truth is truth. So these people have access to and may even understand the truth but have rejected it for false realities. Even worse, they wickedly regard God’s truth and unjustly and wrongfully malign God’s truth. The lost have many avenues or venues of truth to examine and ultimately reject them for their own prefabricated truth.

Examples:

- Evolutionists who examine the same data creationists do but reject a God-created universe and earth.

- DNA and other systems within the body are simply too complicated to have evolved. Scientists know that DNA has at least three levels of “software codes” but are baffled by how the code (and what level) dictates that at stem cell (has not yet decided to be any particular cell type) will become a nerve, heart, kidney, bone, cartridge, skin (and what type of skin!), blood, etc. cell. Yet despite the complexity and impossibility of evolution being able to “code” these error corrections and regenerative systems, they still reject God as the author. Even evolutionists recognize that all things left to themselves devolve not evolve, yet they will not release their stranglehold on the evolution theory for the ascent of man.

- Financial advisors who give worldly advice but reject God’s principles for finance.

- Psychologists who create all manner of psychosis but reject that the heart of man’s problems is his sin.

- God created male and female. But man has decided that there needs to be lots more genders. Now, even worse, there are those who claim to identify as something they are not, thus rejecting how God made them.

- Man has separated the human race into many races and pits them against each other when it is clear that there is only one race, the human race.

- God says life is precious – man kills babies in the womb and now is pushing euthanasia for not only the elderly and infirm, but for those who no longer enjoy the quality of life they feel they deserve.

- God has given us meat to eat, and some reject that and try to give animals equal rights, as well as, only eat vegetables, etc.

- God is the creator, but man has substituted Gaya as our mother earth – thus making a different god to worship.

- Man spins truth (twists it to fit his purposes to hide what is really happening). Torture the facts long enough, and they will confess to anything.

Verse 19 Notes: “Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath showed it unto them.”

Because: “on the very account that, or inasmuch as” (Strong’s G1360). So why is the wrath of God abiding on these kinds of men – those who hold God’s truth wickedly? Because . . .

That which may be known of God is manifest in them: These people have knowledge (a gnosis) of God that is manifest (apparent, public knowledge, open for all to see – Strong’s G5318) and even refer to that knowledge but still reject it or hold it wickedly. Examples:

- “I’m going to hell and will be there with all my buddies.”
- “Why would such a loving God allow so much suffering?”
- “Yeah, I tell lies, and cheat, and steal little things, but, hey, I’m not a murderer!”
- “Oh, Jesus was a great prophet, but surely He can’t save people from their sins . . .”
- “I’m a good person. I am sure my good deeds outweigh anything bad I have done.”

All of these examples reveal that these statements are made by those who accept that there is a God, but they believe that they have a better way than what God has provided.

For God hath showed it unto them: Their conscience, the heavens, tribal and governmental laws, moral codes, obviously the Bible and the Ten Commandments, the cosmological problems that don’t fit any of the cosmology models like the Big Bang (dark matter, dark energy, the universe heating up as it expands instead of cooling down as expected), DNA, and all of the complex systems in the body (twenty-six steps needed to coagulate blood), and so many other evidences, all disregarded for what they point to in favor of theories that reject God. Mount Saint Helens created a canyon in a couple of days that had thousands of layers of sorted strata that looks exactly like the Grand Canyon in its strata layers. If I were not aware of what happened in 1980 and, then again, in 1982, I would think that that canyon was laid down over thousands if not millions of years. Over 140 feet deep, carved along the once bed of the Toutle River, it is now called the “Little Grand Canyon”. Formed virtually overnight. Such clear evidence and man still rejects what God has said about the creation of the earth.

Verse 20 Notes: “For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:”

The invisible things of him from creation of the world are clearly seen: Man has the earth, elements in the earth, the stars, the structure of the periodic table, the unique properties of water, the ways chemicals react in predictable ways, and many other evidences that proclaim a very highly intelligent being designed them. They simply could not be randomly formed no matter how much time is involved. From the beginning, these things pointed to a creator with intelligence and design capability infinitely beyond man’s ability. Yet man wishes to not only ignore the Creator, but prove that He doesn’t need to exist. They wish to disprove God.

Take the attempts to create life in the lab. A dismal failure. Very controlled conditions, introduction of immense planning and preparation on the part of scientists, and they were only able, after many years, to produce some very simple proteins that perished after a short time. Success! Except (1) they were never complex enough to be alive; (2) they could not form together to form more complex proteins; (3) the conditions were extremely controlled (as opposed to the primordial soup conditions claimed by evolutionists); and finally, (4) look at the planning and design and intelligence they poured into the tests – nothing close to random.

God is invisible: But His creation is clearly seen, and the more we study it, the more convinced we ought to be of a creator – an infinite, intelligent designer. Not to mention where did it all come from? Everything from nothing? Sounds more like a special creation than a Big Bang.

Big Bang blow up: So everything in the universe came from a speck so small (virtually nothing) we could never see it. So dense that all particles in the universe were trapped in this speck. Today’s scientists have seen and measured black holes: super compressed materials from stars and planets that are so dense that even light cannot escape them. But wait, they have size! Different types of radiation rays do escape them. There simply cannot have been a speck that held all the material we see in the universe that, then, exploded. Everything from nothing. But that is actually true since everything was created from nothing by the spoken Word of God.

Rather than except the obvious, man makes up alternative theories just so that he doesn’t have to face God – for if he does, he will also have to accept God’s laws and be subject to those laws and, ultimately, face the claims of Jesus Christ.

Being understood by the things that are made: Man has no excuse. As we dig deeper and deeper into certain sciences, the obvious should bring man face to face with the reality of God and acknowledge Him. Instead, they are blinded by their own sins, by Satan, by false science teachings, etc., and have bought a lie and are comfortable with it. Understood: Strong’s G3539 – perceived, observed by the mind, contemplated, comprehended – they see design everywhere, but they reject what their minds tell them about that design.

Even his eternal power and Godhead: They reject that He is divine (godhead). They reject that He is eternal. They reject that He is all powerful. They raise their fists toward heaven and say, “There is no god.”

Psalm 14:1: “To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David. The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good.”

They are without excuse: Bottom line: no one will be able to stand before God and say, “But I didn’t know!” As Paul works through the arguments of these early chapters, we will see why man is without excuse. Greek word is anapologetos (Strong’s G379) (with a negative “a” (Strong’s G1) in front of apologeomai (Wordsearch’s Strong’s G626) which is a part of the word from where we get apologetics which means make a defense, provide an excuse, provide a legal plea. They won’t have one!

Note: Paul made these arguments some two thousand years ago, and we have learned so much more in those two millennia. But what we have learned is that creation is so much more complex than Paul’s day thought, and, thus, evidence for a really intelligent creator continues to mount.

Verse 21 Notes: “Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.”

Paul is arguing that there is no one in the world that does not know about God. With all the evidence we cited (and tons we have not), man is without an excuse, because they know that there must be a God and have rejected Him (His holiness, His authority, His Word, etc.).

Glorified him not as God: They refuse to acknowledge God’s authority over them. His commandments are grievous to them.

1 John 5:3: “For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous.”

To acknowledge God is to acknowledge His authority, and thus, force man to be either knowingly be disobedient, or reject God altogether.

Neither were thankful: The unrepentant man will not thank God for to do so is to accept His authority.

Romans 8:5-8: “For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.”

But became vain in their imaginations: dialogismos, doubting, reasonings, disputations (Wordsearch’s Strong’s G1261). Vain – here means to render foolish, wicked, idolatrous (Strong’s G3154). They came up with reasons why they can reject God and not obey Him or His Word. These are not harmless thoughts and reasons, but wicked ones – “Hath God said?” . . .

And their foolish heart was darkened. As man rejects the light of God’s Word, he automatically falls deeper and deeper into spiritual darkness. At some point, he can no longer see or understand the light of truth having convinced himself that he is okay and doesn’t need God.

Matthew 6:22-23: “The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single [focused on God], thy whole body shall be full of light. But if thine eye be evil [divided, compromised, rejecting of God’s Word], thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light [knowledge] that is in thee be darkness [lies and science falsely so called, and evil reasonings], how great is that darkness!“

Verse 22 Notes: “Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,”

Christians are so backward
Conservatives ought to be shot
Church people need a crutch to live
The Bible is just a bunch of backward sayings of ancient man
No scientific evidence of God or that the Bible stories actually happened
Moses crossed the Reed Sea not the Red Sea, which was only a few feet deep

1 Corinthians 3:19: “For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, He taketh the wise in their own craftiness.”

Became fools: (moros – moron) (Wordsearch’s Strong’s G3474); to become insipid; as a simpleton:- become fool, make foolish (Strong’s G3471). Spiritually, they are morons.

Verse 23 Notes: “And changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things.”

They have made God a grievous, unfair, mean God; or an impotent God, or a watchmaker God who does not care about His creation. They have made gods in their image and, since we all know man’s terrible failings, so too, must their gods have failings. Why are all of the Roman, Greek, Norse, etc. gods so warlike, so petty, so limited in their power, constantly attacking each other and killing or imprisoning each other? Because they are in man’s image.

Ancient Egyptians and others fashion their gods after birds, crocodiles, dung beetles, and other creatures, or the sun and moon, and other objects they don’t understand.

Or they come up with a system of reincarnation and worship cows and other beasts as their ancestors.

Man has created a god for just about everything!

Verse 24 Notes: “Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonor their own bodies between themselves:”

Gave them up: Delivered them, surrendered them, committed them, let them slip deeper into their own sins.

To uncleanness: moral and physical impurities.

Through the lusts of their own hearts: When man is unrestrained by God’s Word, law, or His spirit (as with Christians); his lusts, desires, longings, and craving will wax worse and worse. Drug addicts, sex addicts, smokers who can’t quit even when they have cancer, angry people, and so many other sins and things that bring bondage – even diabetics who know they need to control their sugar intake, but can’t seem to.

To dishonor their own bodies between themselves: I don’t need to elaborate on this phrase . . .

Verse 25 Notes: “Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshiped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.”

Who changed the truth of God into a lie: “Hath God said?”

And worshiped and served the creature more than the Creator: Well said – needs no interpretation.

Who is blessed forever. Amen: Doesn’t matter what man tries to do, God is still blessed and blessing those who love Him.

Maranatha!

Bro. Joe

References

Strong, J. Strong's Hebrew and Greek Dictionaries. Meyers, R. (2005). e-Sword. [computer software] . Franklin, TN: Equipping Ministries Foundation. (Original work published 1539)

Strong, J. Strong’s Talking Greek_Hebrew Dictionary. Wordsearch. (2020). Wordsearch Bible. [computer software] . Nashville, TN: LifeWay Christian Resources. (Original work published 1890).

Article Archives

Privacy Policy