Romans 1:18: "The Wrath of God"

In a world so full of tolerance and acceptance of all beliefs; in a world so full of compromising and pacifism, Paul's next topic is truly a problem for so many to read, let alone believe. That is the subject of God's wrath. Many will pass over this and not truly comprehend or embrace its impact. Many will say that if God is all-loving He cannot be wrathful. Many pick and choose what they want God to be from the Bible. They have no problem accepting that He loving, merciful, kind and patient, but cannot accept the fact that He is wrathful. People think that if God is all-loving that He cannot be wrathful. What they fail to understand is that, "'My thoughts are not your thoughts, Neither are your ways My ways,' declares the LORD. 'For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts'" (Isa. 55:8). If God got angry like we got angry, He would not be God. However, God's anger and wrath, is without sin. God's wrath is in response to attacks on His holiness and perfect righteousness. If God did not show hatred and anger towards his holiness, how could we respect Him as Lord over all. What we must learn from this, and perhaps cultivate in our own lives to the best of our ability, is the controlled anger towards things that disrespect God and His holiness. Although tainted and not a perfect example, let's pretend that my wife is being attacked by a mugger. Would it be reasonable for me to think, "well I need to be loving at all times to all people, I should just let this person do what he needs to do and then leave"?. No - of course that would be unloving and totally disrespectful to my wife. In the same way, God has to stand up against sin and against attacks on his holiness. We can never truly understand what a perfect anger is, but we should learn to stand up and get angry over attacks on God's perfect holiness. Instead, we often get angry over things done against us, and this is an uncontrolled anger that often leads to sin.

Therefore, we must step back and understand that God's wrath is not only perfect, but it is real. You cannot read through the Old Testament without seeing numerous displays of God's wrath (Isa. 9:19, Jer. 7:20, Ezek. 7:19, etc.). God has and always will hate sin. He has and always will punish sin (as He did to Adam and Eve in the garden). Paul, in v. 18 tells us of this wrath, and who this wrath is directed towards. This begins a section in which Paul, "presents an extended discussion of the condemnation of man tat extends through Chapter 3 and verse 20" (MacArthur).

We have briefly explained what God's wrath is and what it isn't. We also learn in v. 18, where it originates "from heaven". Satan presently is the prince of the air and the ruler of this fallen world. As long as he is allowed (by God for the present time) to rule this world is fully corrupted and in slavery to sin. God, who resides in heaven, watches over this earth and is heaping judgment and wrath on it as it opposes Him. According to MacArthur, "Heaven reveals God's wrath in two ways, through His moral order and through His personal intervention. When God made the world, He built in certain moral as well as physical laws that have since governed its operation." God has set up certain rules on this earth (ie gravity), and these act as deterrents to improper and immoral behavior. For example, a man that gets angry and punches a brick wall will break his hand. "The second way in which God reveals His wrath is through His direct and person intervention. He is not an impersonal cosmic force that set the universe in motion to urn its own course. God's wrath is executed exactly according to His divine will" (MacArthur). We can see this clearly through the Old Testament, as God would supernaturally get involved with the natural order of the earth to physically display His wrath (ie the Flood, the plagues, his numerous chastisements of the Israelites in the desert, to name a few). We cannot understand when and how God will exercise His wrath, but we do know that He will. At times he will let 'the wicked' seemingly get away with everything. In this case, God is not intervening supernaturally to show His judgment. However, face to face before a perfect and Holy God without Christ, God will unleash all that built up wrath on Him in eternity. God's wrath escapes no one. We learn in Romans 3:23, "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God". And because of this, we all face God's wrath. It is only those who believe in Christ, and put our faith and trust in Him, that escape God's wrath. It does not mean that God did not pour out His wrath on our sins. It just means it was done on the cross in the person of Jesus Christ. He became our substitute and willingly accepted the wrath that was due us.

Paul then moves on to what and who the wrath is directed at, "against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness." MacArthur writes, "It is not like the wrath of a madman who strikes out indiscriminately, not caring who is injured or killed. Nor is it like the sin-tainted anger of a person who seeks to avenge a wrong done to him. God's wrath is reserved for and justly directed at sin." Ungodliness is anything that is not of God, therefore, sin. So we can see that God's wrath is focused on our sin. We learned earlier that we, "have all sinned and fall short of the glory of God". We also learn in Ps. 14:1, "There is no one who does good." Therefore, God is perfectly just in His wrath towards every single person who has ever walked the earth. Again, it is only in God's mercy, that He provided a way out. We shouldn't be as amazed at the fact that God has wrath, but that He is as merciful as He is if you look at what mankind has done to His name throughout history. MacArthur more deeply explains the idea ungodliness as it "refers to lack of reverence for, devotion to, and worship of the true God, a failure that inevitably leads to some form of false worship." As detailed earlier, God's wrath is against anything and anyone that does not bring Him glory. The unrighteousness of men "encompasses the idea of ungodliness but focuses on its result. Sin first attacks God's majesty and then His law. Men do not act righteously because they are not rightly related to God, who is the only measure and source of righteousness" (MacArthur). Therefore, Paul has laid out that God's perfect and righteous wrath from Heaven is targeted against all who oppose God, and He may unleash it on us here on earth, but for certain in eternity; and this is all with one exception. For those who believe in Christ, that wrath was unleashed on Him, instead of us.

To the question of how we can all be held accountable for this unrighteousness, Paul answers at the end of v. 18 and a long treatise follows in v. 19ff, "who suppress the truth in unrighteousness". MacArthur beautifully states in his commentary, "...because of his sinful disposition, every person is naturally inclined to follow sin and resist God. This phrase could be rendered, 'who are constantly attempting to suppress the truth by steadfastly holding to their sin.'" In what will be discussed further in the following section, Paul shows us our accountability to this sin. Everyone has been given evidence of God's existence and the world screams of his truth, and although man has been given these evidences internally with a conscience and externally with creation, they refuse to give God the glory due His name.

May we constantly be reminded of God's wrath and how he abhors sin. May we also be reminded of the avoidance of facing that wrath by the cleansing blood of Christ.