18for
[the] wrath of God is being revealed from Heaven upon all [the] irreverence and
unrighteousness of men, ones suppressing the truth in unrighteousness.
And so it begins.
In verses 16 & 17 Paul referred to the hope of the
Gospel which tells us of a way of salvation, a way of deliverance from whatever
it is that’s wrong with us and the whole human race. He said that this deliverance
is a “righteousness of God” which is revealed in that Gospel and something
gained by faith. These words are the Gospel in a nutshell – but since it is the
most important nutshell in all the universe, it calls for a LOT of explanation.
Such is the book of Romans, and so that explanation begins.
First, we need to understand the problem. It is (obviously)
serious and will take the better part of three chapters just to explain. And
what is it? What is this problem we have that keeps one generation after
another self-destructing? What is it that keeps you and me self-destructing? The Gospel would offer us a solution
to this problem, but, once again, we first need to understand the problem.
“The wrath of God is being revealed from Heaven…” We’re in
trouble. BIG trouble. God is angry. People wrestle endlessly with this idea –
that God is angry, the idea of His “wrath,” but I suggest they do so
needlessly. Of course He’s angry. How could He not be? Does anyone honestly not want Him to be angry? What would any
of us make of a God who wasn’t? This world is filled with meanness and hatred,
lying and cheating, abuse and cruelty in every possible form. Yes, people can
(and do) do much good – and for that we can (and should) be thankful – but we’d
have to be hopelessly delusive to deny the vast extent of evil in our world.
I learned long ago, as you drive down the street, you don’t
want to know what is going on behind those closed doors. People’s cruelty to
each other is almost unfathomable. Of course that is true in third world
countries and amongst lower classes of people, but it doesn’t stop there. It’s
going on in suburban homes and mansions and palaces too. What would you think
of a God who wasn’t angry? What would
you think of a king who knew of the evil going on throughout his kingdom and it
didn’t bother him? What would you think of a parent who knew one of his
children was cruelly mistreating the others but it didn’t bother him?
Yes, God is angry and He should
be. Notice that His anger is being revealed “from Heaven.” In v17, the
“righteousness of God,” the solution to our problem, was revealed “in the
Gospel.” Now our problem is being revealed “from Heaven.” It isn’t just
revealed in the Scriptures. God’s anger against our sinfulness is being
broadcast straight from Heaven itself. All anyone has to do is stop being
delusive and the signs of God’s anger are being broadcast everywhere we look –
from the very fact that the entire Creation is crumbling before our eyes to all
the miseries of disease and of a world bent on killing us.
And why specifically is He angry? It is because of “all the
irreverence and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in
unrighteousness.” “Irreverence and unrighteousness.” You could probably just
translate this, “All the wickedness,” but the two words, in and of themselves,
do express the two faces of our problem. Old commentators would have said it is
the “two tablets of the Law,” where they used to see the two tables of the Ten
Commandments as the first tablet having to do with our relationship with God
and the second tablet our relationship with people.
The first word they would say represents the first tablet of
the Law and particularly our problem with God. I’ve translated it
“irreverence.” He said, “Thou shalt have
no other gods before Me,” and yet, as Calvin said, “The human heart is a
factory of idols.” Mankind will worship anything but God. Oh, they might get “religious” and invent some kind of god
to worship, but if it isn’t the true and the living God, it only degrades them.
Secular society spurns “religion” and then worships anything and everything
they think gets them what they want.
This problem with God feeds the other problem, our issue
with the Second Table of the Law. I’ve translated it “unrighteousness.” It
could be translated “injustice” or “wickedness,” but it specifically refers to
this problem of how we treat others, how we act in this world. In order to “get
what they want” humans will resort to any and every sin in the book. They will
even feign righteousness and religion to get what they want, or, if necessary
they’ll lie and cheat and murder each other.
The rest of chapter one will rehearse the awful expressions of
our irreverence and unrighteousness, but notice here in this verse where it all
begins, the Lord describes us as people who “suppress the truth in
unrighteousness.” Here is where the “irreverence and unrighteousness” from
earlier do morph into a single word. As I said above they are kind of the two
sides of the same problem. It is irreverence to break any of the Ten
Commandments, just as it is unrighteousness. It’s all wickedness, or simply
“unrighteousness.” And what do unrighteous people do? They “suppress the truth
in unrighteousness.”
Of course they do. They are of their father the devil. He is
a liar and the father of lies. He can only exist in his rebellion against God
by living a lie and telling lies. He can only advance his kingdom by deceiving
people. Jesus said, “I am the Truth.” Everything Jesus does, everything God is,
everything He says is true because He is
truth. The Bible is true because it is God’s Word, the Word of Christ, the
Sword of the Spirit, and it cannot possibly be anything but truth.
In order to live in unrighteousness, people must, like
Satan, live a lie, tell themselves lies, tell each other lies, believe their
own lies. This is precisely why today we have the “fake news media.” In order
to advance their causes, they must lie. Their causes are lies. They push God
aside so they can live in their immorality and pride, then they have to lie to
themselves and each other to make it okay, then they have to lie to everyone
else – even if they are a journalist for a major national publication or the
announcer for some syndicated talk show or “news” station, or a “famous” movie
star or singer. And this is precisely why so many people believe their lies.
Apart from Christ, all people are given to suppressing the truth in
unrighteousness. If you push God out of
your mind, you are living a lie and lose the ability to even discern when
someone is lying to you, when you’re lying to yourself.
If I may inject, this is precisely why it is so important to
study the Bible, to read it often, to
sit under the teaching of a godly pastor – so you are fed a steady stream of truth. Jesus said, “When you know the
truth, the truth will make you free.” That is one of the reasons I have studied
the Bible for myself these last 40 years. I want to be free. I want to know the
truth. I know my head is full of untruth. I know my natural man loves to feed
on lies and untruth. A person can only be certain to be freed from this world’s
lies by first of all knowing Christ, then giving serious attention to the Word –
the only source of absolute truth.
That’s why I “ponder” it. Do I really understand this? Is
this really how I think? Is my life consistent with this? And for me, when the
Lord does open my eyes, it’s not as if I make this valiant effort at change. To
a huge extent, to “see” the truth is already to be changed. This is because,
once again, at the root of our problem is this fact that we have suppressed the
truth in our unrighteousness. We actually see our world through untruth and act
accordingly. When we see the world through God’s eyes, through truth, we will
more likely act according to that, and live rightly.
Can I also say this goes way beyond even Bible truth? This
world’s affection for lies offends me spiritually but it also offends me as an
engineer, as a scientist. We are fed an almost total diet of scientific lies as
well. One week coffee causes cancer, the next week it cures it. We’re fed “poll”
data that was deliberately manipulated. We’re suddenly told that the polio
vaccine didn’t help at all, but actually made things worse (to which I say, “Excuse
me – I was alive back then and I know you’re lying”), and the poor young
parents are told not to have their children vaccinated. I won’t even get into
the obvious charade of “global warming.” Ever wonder why they keep getting
caught fudging the data? Why does anyone fudge data? Because the evidence doesn’t
support their desired conclusion, so they need to lie – as usual.
Yes, God is angry. And He should be. This world of lies and
meanness needs to end.
It will one day and the good news is that today this problem in your heart and mine
can be ending. The answer is this Gospel Paul is talking about. “Gospel” of
course means literally “good news.” There is good news! But before we are
really ready to embrace this good news, we need to understand the bad news.
That’s what this verse is about. This verse expresses in a sentence what Paul
will explain for the first three chapters of this book. It is the bad news. If
we want to understand the good news, we need the Lord to explain to us the bad
news.
And so it begins.
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