Romans 1:18-32
Wrath
This isn’t a happy subject; but it is important.
Wrath means anger, passion, punishment, and vengeance. The Biblical word for God’s wrath carries the idea of swelling up in opposition. What we’re talking about in this post is God’s great swelling tsunami of passionate anger in response to the ongoing sinfulness of mankind.
God’s wrath is a big subject that we won’t exhaust here. It includes the original curse on mankind and the world in Genesis. It includes the eternal damnation of those who reject Jesus. But what about today, as you read these words? Are there people experiencing God’s wrath in normal life right now? This passage says so.
Who Experiences it?
Verse 18 states that God’s wrath is revealed against men who suppress the truth. There is truth that is obvious enough to make every person accountable for not worshipping God. What is made points to the Maker. What is produced points to the Producer. What is designed points to the Designer. What is created points to the Creator.
Verse 18 states that God’s wrath is revealed against men who suppress the truth. There is truth that is obvious enough to make every person accountable for not worshipping God. What is made points to the Maker. What is produced points to the Producer. What is designed points to the Designer. What is created points to the Creator.
Look out your window and you’ll see God’s power and divinity revealed. However, many people suppress this truth. Paul calls this the exchange in verses 23 and 25.
Truth suppressors exchange the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of animals. Truth suppressors exchange the truth of God for a lie. Truth suppressors worship created rather than creator.
While we may not bow before a golden calf; we bow to idols in many different ways today:
– The fear of man is the worship of people over the Creator of people.
– Drug addiction is the worship of substances over the Creator of substances.
– Sexual sin is the worship of sex over the Creator of sex.
– Gluttony is the worship of food over the Creator of food.
Bottom line number one: Those who choose to suppress the truth by worshipping creation rather than Creator trigger God’s wrath.
What does it look like?
God’s wrath as revealed today doesn’t look like Zeus’ lightening bolt striking your car in the McDonald’s drive through. Nor does it look like an earthquake and tsunami bashing the coast of Japan. It looks like release. It looks like abandonment.
God’s wrath as revealed today doesn’t look like Zeus’ lightening bolt striking your car in the McDonald’s drive through. Nor does it look like an earthquake and tsunami bashing the coast of Japan. It looks like release. It looks like abandonment.
Verses 24, 26, and 28 repeat the same phrase: Therefore, God gave them over. God’s wrath, as experienced today, is his giving us over to our idols.
His wrath is not violently dragging us away from our lusts; it’s letting us go to worship them and experience the consequences. He won’t force us to acknowledge the truth. He’ll release us into our lies until we can no longer see the truth.
Examples
Paul doesn’t leave this as an abstract idea. He gives specific examples:
1. God’s wrath looks like people owned by impurity, their bodies becoming dishonored (treated as worthless). (v.24)
2. God’s wrath looks like people owned by degrading passions. Paul specifically (and graphically) presents homosexuality as an example of this raw desire for worthless things (v.26-27). Perhaps he zooms in on this particular example because it is an especially flagrant suppression of the truth found in creation. One must ignore a number of obvious facts of biology, anatomy, and logic to believe homosexuality is natural. The result is born out in their own persons. (v.28)
3. God’s wrath looks like people owned by a depraved mind. This points back to verses 21 and 22 and the futile speculations of those who, professing to be wise, become fools. The result is a lifestyle of the improper (see the list in verses 29-32).
So, living a life of ongoing impurity doesn’t lead to God’s wrath. It is God’s wrath.
Living a life of ongoing degrading passion doesn’t lead to God’s wrath. It is God’s wrath.
Living a life of ongoing depraved thinking doesn’t lead to God’s wrath. It is God’s wrath.
Bottom line number two: God’s wrath is revealed today by his releasing people into the destructive hands of their idols.
Conclusion
But we know the truth here: We’ve all chosen idols over God. We’ve chosen to suppress the truth and worship created things over the Creator in a billion different ways. So what hope do we have?
But we know the truth here: We’ve all chosen idols over God. We’ve chosen to suppress the truth and worship created things over the Creator in a billion different ways. So what hope do we have?
We have one man who didn’t suppress the truth. We have one man who didn’t exchange the glory of God for images of man and animals. We have one man who didn’t worship the created over the Creator. We have the one who stood in the path of God’s great swelling tsunami of wrath. We have the one who absorbed it on behalf of all who would take shelter in him. We have Jesus.
Discussion Starters
1. Is it hard for you to think of God as wrathful? Why or why not?
2. Will people who have never heard about Jesus at all be condemned? Why or why not? How do verses 18-23 relate to this question?
3. Is it right for God to do what he does in verses 24, 26, and 28?
4. In this passage, what reasons does Paul give for God’s wrath? Why are some people experiencing God’s wrath?
5. Read verse 25. Brainstorm specific ways in which people worship created things rather than the Creator today. What are the results of this everyday idolatry?
6. How do verses 26-27 shed light on the heated topic of homosexuality?
7. How does this portrait of God’s wrath correspond with how you’ve always thought about God’s wrath? How is it different?
8. How can we love those around us in light of this passage?
9. How can your group pray for you this week?
