In this brief look at Romans, we’ve already seen Paul’s delight in and focus on God’s good news. God is showing us his righteousness. And he’s revealing it by declaring that those who trust him are also right—in his eyes. Given our constant desire to be ‘right’, it’s hard to imagine any news that could be better—but more about this later.
In the mean-time, there’s something else to say. Paul doesn’t forget his theme. He returns to it, in almost identical words, as soon as he can[i]. But he knows that we need to discover something else first.
Another revelation is happening at the same time. It’s God’s wrath. Our Creator is not content to let us go our own way. He’s not happy with us. And he wants us to know that we matter to him.
Now it may seem to be contradictory for God to reveal that he has a gift for us, but at the same time, to reveal that we are in trouble. But then, it makes perfect sense. You can’t give anyone something they don’t want. And they won’t want it if they think they already have it. And they may be offended if you offer them what they think they have.
So, if it’s good that God is revealing his righteousness, it’s also good that he is revealing his wrath. We need to know what we need.
Paul talks about Gentiles first—people who haven’t grown up knowing about God’s revelations in the Bible. Then he speaks to Jews who, for ages, have had the benefit of hearing what God has to say.
So, to the first group—to the world in general, here’s what Paul says[ii].
First, God is always revealing himself—to everyone. This is not offered as a proof. It’s a personal communication.
Everything we can see, including ourselves, is evidence—a never ending supply of it—that God is real and present and engaged. So, if we say he isn’t real, it’s because we’re choosing not to know him.
Second, those who reject God must elevate something else to take his place. We can’t exist without someone or something to look up to. So, we worship what is made, or something we make—anything but God himself. And something we can attempt to control.
Third, because we are disconnected from what is real, our thinking and affections become—over time—pointless and dark. God gives us up to the results of our choices [iii].
Paul lists a number of things that would have been clearly visible in the first century Roman world. He mentions impurity, passion and sexual license. Community life is rife with everything that makes it hard to live together—envy, deceit, malice, slander and boasting, for example.
Here’s where we need to read what Paul says carefully. What is provoking God to wrath is not, first of all, what people are doing but what they are believing. They’re living as though he doesn’t exist. Their behaviour is a consequence. It’s what God has given them up to—to awaken them to where their choice leads.
They think they have dismissed God, but what they are doing is happening because God has given them over to their own choices.
And of course, what Paul says about the first century world is happening in our communities as well. The evidence for God is abundant. And so is the evidence of what happens when we dismiss him as irrelevant.
Disbelief in the true God is a majority position in much or our world. So is the idea that we should be free to follow our own passions. And so is the belief that prosperity and happiness follow when we remove restraints.
But the generations that are abandoning faith in God in our communities are not growing richer, stronger or happier. And if we can see that this is happening, we are watching God revealing his wrath.
And, interestingly, if we choose to live without God, we have to congratulate each other for choosing our own life-style. Everyone has an inbuilt need to be acknowledged as right. So, because we don’t know the righteousness of God, we have to create an approval of our own. Only this can explain the constant stream of ‘virtue signaling’ that we are hearing.
We’ve come to the end of this first section. But next, there’s a section, three times as long, to show that we are all in the same predicament. Paul talks to those who believe in God.
For Paul’s first century world, this is Jews. For us, it is ourselves who go to churches, read Bibles and say prayers. I hope you stay with this! Paul will show that God’s wrath, rather than being ‘revealed’, is being ‘stored up’[iv].
If we don’t understand ourselves or our predicament, we may not understand the message God wants us to understand—that real righteousness always comes to us as a gift.
I hope you are encouraged by all this. God is not content to stand by and see what happens. He’s revealing himself—to everybody.
[i] Rom. 1:17; 3:21
[ii] Rom. 1:18-32
[iii] Vv. 24, 26, 28
[iv] Rom. 2:5
Simply True 