Romans 1:8-32
We begin this morning, in our series of sermons from Paul’s letter to the Romans, to talk about the wrath of God. The wrath of God can sometimes be a pleasant thought. If someone has broken into your house and you envision the thieves coming before God and being confronted with their sin, it can be a bit comforting to know they will face the wrath of God. When we read the newspaper or watch the news on television and learn about despots and criminals and child molesters, the thought that these people who have inflicted pain and suffering on others for their own gain will come before God and justice will be done, this is comforting.
And so Christians read Romans 1:18-32 and say, “Tsk, tsk, tsk. Isn’t a shame how some people behave? Look at that description of homosexuals! Isn’t it amazing how accurately Paul described the decadence of modern day life? I’m so glad there will be a judgement for people like that.”
And yet Paul’s description of the wrath of God does not end in verse 32. It begins in 1:18 and goes all the way through 3:20. This section we are focusing on this morning is only the first part and Paul’s intention when he wrote 1:18 through 3:20 was that no one would be able to feel they were good enough to escape the wrath of God. If you read this first section of Romans and say, “Tsk, tsk, tsk,” then maybe you want to take a break from church for the next few weeks because if you don’t think you fit into this first group (and if you were honest with yourself and others, you would know you do belong in this first group), if you don’t think you fit into this first group, the following sections will help you feel you belong to the club of those deserving God’s wrath..
The idea that we are better than most people, that we are good people and not in need of a savior has been around a long time and has been among the greatest obstacles to people coming to faith in God. In a twelve-step program, the first step is to acknowledge that there is a problem that needs to be fixed. An alcoholic or drug addict cannot begin on the path of recovery until he or she acknowledges that he or she is an alcoholic or drug addict. Even people with a serious history of problems caused by drugs or alcohol are reluctant and resistant to admit they have a problem.
And so it is with us. Humans do not want to admit that they have a problem that needs to be fixed. Many non-Christians live with this sense that God grades on the curve. They may not be perfect but they are better than most people and so when they die God, if he exists, will take them and be grateful they are willing to come.
Many church-goers live with the sense that they are so much more decent and respectable than most people in society that they will elevate the standards of heaven just by their presence when they arrive.
This is not just modern man. Jesus had the same attitude to deal with when he talked with the religious leaders of his day. Jesus was having a meal in the house of Levi with tax collectors and sinners. (Sinners were common people not knowledgeable about the law and not abiding by its rigid demands.)
As Jesus sat there eating and talking with these people, the Pharisees saw him and questioned why he would eat with tax collectors and sinners.
On hearing this, Jesus said to them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”
Jesus did not mean by this that the Pharisees were healthy. He makes that very clear in his teaching. The Pharisees were sick but did not realize it. They were alcoholics who did not acknowledge their alcoholism. They were filled with cancer but ignorant of the disease that was destroying them.
Like the Pharisees, we tend to see others as deserving the wrath of God while we bask in the glow of respectability.
Romans 1:18-3:20 is written to dispute that delusion.
If someone is living with the delusion that he or she is a decent, good hard-working person and therefore deserving of God’s love and favor, how to you break them of that delusion?
Do you stand in their face and tell them what they really are? Do you research their life and find the ways that they have hurt people in the past and what have been the consequences of what they have done or not done? Do you try to make them feel guilty?
There was a Christian cult near Boston in the US that would have people meet in a circle while the two female leaders would list all the ways people in the group had sinned. People were encouraged to tell each other the ways in which they were bad people. They were made to feel guilty and the result was that people in this group gradually shriveled up and it took years for people who left that group to come back to health.
Pointing out sin in someone’s life or reflecting on sin in your own life is a destructive experience unless it is done in the context of love. An awareness of sin is a critical part of the Christian life but it is destructive knowledge unless it comes in the protective wrapping of God’s love.
This is the pattern in Scripture. Isaiah had an experience of the glory of God and then came an awareness of his sin. “I am a man of unclean lips.” Peter saw the holiness of Jesus when he pulled the net filled with fish into the boat and then he said, “Depart from me for I am a sinful man.”
And so this is also the pattern in Romans. Paul’s writing on the wrath of God that will make the case that every person stands under the wrath of God comes between two verses that speak of God’s redeeming love.
1:17
The righteous shall live by faith
3:21-22
But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known … This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe.
Paul’s teaching on the wrath of God comes in the tender wrapping of God’s love, God’s loving provision of a way out, God’s sacrifice for our eternal life.
This morning our worship has focused on God’s love for us and so this sermon comes as well in the tender wrapping of God’s love. May God protect you as you hear these words and may he allow you to have the gift of seeing how deep is your need of him.
Paul’s teaching on the wrath of God has four parts. He begins with the section we are focusing on this morning. Romans 1:18-32. This is his description of depraved Gentile society and it fits as a description of much of our modern world as well. The truth of what he writes is uncannily accurate. How could Paul write so accurately about our modern world unless he wrote of such deep truths that they stand true for generation after generation of those who rebel against God?
Some readers of Paul’s letter might say, “Tsk, tsk, tsk,” and go on feeling self-satisfied with their own righteousness. But then Paul moves on to 2:1-16 from which Dave Robey will preach next week. This section is directed toward critical moralizers, people who feel they are basically good, better than others around them. Precisely the ones who would say, “Tsk, tsk,” at the depraved Gentiles and ignore their own sin.
Next, in 2:17-3:8, come self-righteous Jews who think that by knowing the law, they are good and finally, just in case you thought you could escape one of the other categories, in 3:9-20 the whole human race is revealed as sick, in need of a doctor.
In each of these four categories, Paul begins by pointing out that they have been given a knowledge of God and goodness. Secondly he confronts them with the uncomfortable fact that they have not lived up to the knowledge they received. They have suppressed it, contradicted it and are living in unrighteousness.
And then, therefore, they are guilty, without excuse before God. They cannot plead ignorance because no one can plead ignorance.
Paul’s goal is that every person hearing or reading his letter will be convinced that they are in desperate need of a savior and that is my prayer as well. As we move through these next few sermons, I pray that we will not feel condemned and be without hope but that we will be made aware of our tremendous and desperate need for a savior and rejoice, be filled with joy, because God has provided us with a savior, Jesus Christ.
Before we go any further, let me talk a moment about the wrath of God. We much prefer hearing about the love of God and the wrath of God has often made people feel uncomfortable. This feeling of unease about the wrath of God has led people to make false conclusions.
The first is that God’s wrath has been viewed as the anger we are most aware of, human sinful anger. A child knocks a lamp off a table, breaking it into bits and the parent reaches out and smacks the child. “I told you not to play in this room with your ball.” A father has a tough day at work, the traffic on the way home was horrible, he steps into the house to see a pile of bills he doesn’t know how he will be able to pay. He sits down in a chair and his children are setting the table. They drop a stack of dishes, breaking them on the floor and he comes in and yells at them and gives them a smack for not being more careful. Our anger is often unrighteous, selfish and unreasonable. That’s the anger we are most aware of and so we project that onto God. We do something God doesn’t like and he strikes out and smacks us, not because we deserve it but because he’s having a bad day.
That is the anger we know best and we don’t like thinking about God in that way, as an angry God who strikes out at us when we make a mistake. So some theologians have worked with Scripture to make the case that God is never angry. There is a way, they say, in the world that bad things happen but this is the outworking of sin in the world, not the character of God being expressed.
We don’t like thinking about a God of wrath but we cannot escape it. God is not angry like a parent who has had a bad day. God’s anger is not selfish or irrational. God’s anger is not a desire for revenge.
But God is a god of love and a god of justice. I’ve talked about this before when we were preaching from Galatians. Love and justice are parts of God’s character, who he is. You cannot take away love without taking away God and you cannot take away justice without taking away God. Because justice is part of God’s character, God’s wrath is a holy hostility to evil.
This is not something about which God has a choice. God cannot choose to be who he is not. He cannot not love. He cannot not be just and he cannot overlook evil. And so God’s wrath is expressed as a holy reaction to the evil in this world, to the evil that is in our hearts.
With this preface, let’s take a look at 1:18-32.
Paul begins by showing how all, even Gentiles who had not been privileged to receive the law from God, had received knowledge of God.
The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities – his eternal power and divine nature – have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.
It takes a lot of self-deception to view creation and not believe there is a creator of what we see. It is not necessary to go to Sunday School or Hebrew School to learn that God created the world. It is not necessary to read the Bible or hear the Bible preached or taught to know that what we see in the world did not appear without a creator.
The beauty of creation, a sunset or sunrise, a lightening storm, a tiny fragile flower growing out of a crevice in a rock or a tropical fish swimming among the coral of a reef – these speak to us of a God who values beauty who created the beauty we observe.
The power of creation, the waves of a storm crashing on a rocky shore, the upthrust from deep in the earth that formed the mountain ranges we love to see, the slow growth of a small tree that can split a boulder in two, the wind of a tornado that can pick up a car and deposit it miles away – these speak to us of a God who is all powerful.
What is interesting is that the more advanced we become technologically, the more of what we see cries out for a creator. The Hubble telescope is revealing pictures of explosions deep in space that dwarf any understanding of power we experience within our solar system. Electron microscopes reveal the intricacies of cells and atoms and DNA and we see the beauty of this microscopic world.
As we begin to understand how the world works, the order in the universe on both a macro and micro level, it becomes increasingly unbelievable that what we see came about by pure chance. The way in which blood flows as a liquid in our bodies but clots when exposed to air, turns it into a lighted billboard announcing to all who read it that God created.
When physicists discovered that the universe is expanding at a very precise speed – any faster and we would swept away to our destruction and any slower and the universe would collapse in on itself – when physicists discovered this fact, it was as if God’s existence was written across the sky for all to see.
From earliest primitive man to modern man with all his technology and knowledge, creation has spoken loud and clear about the existence of God so there is no excuse for any person who does not acknowledge his existence.
God’s existence is clear but that knowledge has been repressed.
For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.
Paul’s readers immediately understood what he was saying with the worship of gods and goddesses that was known throughout the Greek and Roman world. Temple prostitution, abhorrent acts with animals and people, sacrifices to idols, these were known to Paul’s readers.
Hinduism with its proliferation of idols comes immediately to mind when we read this text, but modern western man does not get off so easily. The idols of wealth, fame and power that have been substituted for worship of God, our creator, is no better.
The idol of knowledge and rationality that has made the academic world move away from worship of God may be a bit more sophisticated that bowing in front of a statue of a snake, but the worship of our human mind and our ability to learn as we explore is no less foolish.
God has made his existence abundantly clear to anyone who will look and observe creation and there is no excuse for those who repress the clarity of what they see and substitute worship of idols, be they carved statues or human rationality.
And so come the most terrifying words of this part of Paul’s letter. Three times Paul uses these words, Therefore God gave them over.
Vs 24
Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another.
Vs. 26
Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts.
Vs. 28
Furthermore, since they did not 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.
What is terrifying is that God’s wrath is not delivered as a thunderbolt from heaven or some other cataclysmic event, but simply by releasing man to do whatever he chooses to do. God simply lets go and says, “Do what you want.”
There are those who say that man is basically good and if given free choice will instinctively choose to do what is good for themselves and others.
This view has persevered despite WWI and WWII. This view has persisted despite all historical evidence to the contrary.
I had a horse and pony when I was growing up and one night my pony got into the feed barrel. He hadn’t been there too long but Don Johnson can tell you how dangerous that is because a horse or pony will eat and eat and eat grain until they die. If a horse is not prevented by a loving and wiser master, he will kill himself.
Humans are not much different. The 60s were a period in US history when God’s rules for living were largely thrown out the window. Freedom was celebrated. Free love, free drugs, free to do whatever you felt like doing and the consequences of that period of time have been a rise in broken marriages, broken families, broken children.
When the church becomes weak, anemic and irrelevant to society, society suffers.
There are two interesting verses in Colossians and Hebrews that came to my mind.
In talking about the supremacy of Jesus, Paul says in Colossians 1:17
He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.
In Hebrews where again, the supremacy of Jesus is being addressed, the writer of Hebrews says
The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word.
I’ve always viewed these verses as talking about the physical world. So in the nucleus of an atom there are positively charged protons. Like charges repel and yet these protons are packed together into a tightly confined space. The force that holds these protons together is one of the most powerful forces that exists in nature. And I’ve viewed this force as the powerful word of Jesus that sustains all things.
But after reflecting this week on this passage from Romans, I’ve thought that it is not only the physical world that God holds together, it is also the moral world that he holds together.
When God gives us over to our own desires, he releases us and we go gleefully to our destruction. We destroy our selves, our relationships and our world.
Paul concludes this section by making a list of the ways that we have done what ought not to be done. Thus far, Paul has mentioned primarily sexual sins, but now in this list of things humans do that ought not to be done, he expands to more than sexual sin. If you feel that you have escaped the wrath of God because the sexual sins listed thus far have not applied to you, then hold on to your seat and let me read a bit further.
Vs 29-32
They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed, and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.
This is quite a list and with this list, Paul moves right into our lives. Who here has never told someone something about another person that should have been kept confidential? Who here has never made a financial decision that benefited yourself at the expense of someone else?
The point is not just that you do or do not do the things in the list but that you have in you the potential to do those things.
Jesus holds in his hand your ability to live a moral life. When you walk away from him, when you dismiss him, when you suppress your knowledge of God, you run the risk of God releasing you to your own desires and this list of desires Paul provides is not a pretty list of desires to be released to.
Live in dependence on God. Take the hand of Jesus that is offered to you. Flee from the idea that you are good and therefore deserving of God’s favor.
Imagine yourself floating down a river. This can be quite pleasant, but from time to time you come to a section of rapids where you are battered against rocks and scraped and bruised.
But then along comes a rubber raft with an experienced whitewater guide. He lifts you into the boat and you continue down the river. What a relief, what a blessing to be in the raft and when you next come to a set of rapids, although it may be a bit scary, because of the rubber raft and the skill of the guide, you sail through the rapids without being damaged. You dry out and bask in the sun and life becomes much more pleasant.
After a while, you may forget about the gift you received of being lifted into the raft and look at those floating in the river and being beaten by the rocks in the rapids and feel that you are a much better person than they are. If only they were smart enough to climb into a raft.
Don’t forget that you are only a raft and a guide away from being in the same position others are. Don’t forget how desperately you are dependent on the raft and guide.
If you resist hearing the word that you are a sinner in need of salvation, let go. The road to recovery begins with an admission of need. It is not bad to be needy.
This is not a situation where someone is telling you how bad you are to see you suffer. It is a situation where someone who loves you is calling out and pleading with you to take his hand and be drawn to healing and recovery.
Do you need help? Yes! But that is good news not bad, because help is at hand.
