Romans 1:18-21, Part One, “Reject God’s Truth, Receive God’s Wrath.”
God’s wrath comes against all unrighteousness, the righteous will not receive God’s wrath. This is hard for many Christians to grasp, but as we will see, this is repeatedly taught in both Old and New Testaments.
First, what is “wrath” [orgé = God’s fixed, determined, controlled, settled indignation toward sin]. God loves righteousness with as much passion as He hates evil.
The prophets spoke repeatedly about God’s wrath:
Isaiah 9:19, “By the wrath of the LORD Almighty the land will be scorched and the people will be fuel for the fire; no one will spare his brother.”
Jeremiah 7:20, "Therefore this is what the Sovereign LORD says: ‘My anger and my wrath will be poured out on this place, on man and beast, on the trees of the field and on the fruit of the ground, and it will burn and not be quenched.’ ”
Ezekiel 7:19, “They will throw their silver into the streets, and their gold will be an unclean thing. Their silver and gold will not be able to save them in the day of the LORD's wrath. They will not satisfy their hunger or fill their stomachs with it, for it has made them stumble into sin.”
Biblical history is replete with demonstrations of God’s wrath: (Genesis 6-7) God destroyed all humans except for eight people, because of their wickedness; (Genesis18-19) God destroyed all but one family,and the entire region of Sodom and Gomorrah, for sexual perversion. God used Gentiles (Romans, AD 70) to destroy Jerusalem and its Holy Temple, for Israel had rejected God’s Son, putting Him to death. John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” 36 “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God's wrath remains on him.”
Colossians 3:5-6, “Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. Because of these, the wrath of God is coming.”
2Thessalonians 1:7-8, “When the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his powerful angels,
He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the
gospel of our Lord Jesus.”
Because God is Holy, He hates sin, and must therefore punish sin; His wrath (v. 18) is
revealed from heaven, [meaning continually being revealed or made known].as stated
earlier: the flood, Sodom and Gomorrah, Jerusalem and the Temple in A.D. 70.
God’s sovereign plan was to place His wrath upon His own Son, the Lamb of God, and
all those who believe in Him, repenting of their sins, will be saved to eternal life.
Look again (v. 18) “The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all godlessness
and wickedness, i.e., all the ungodliness and unrighteousness of men.”
God’s wrath will come against all who reject Him, all who worship someone or
something else, resulting in unrighteous [wicked, evil, sinful] behavior.
Notice (vv. 18-19), Paul says the ungodly “suppress the truth by their
unrighteousness,
since what may be known about God is plain to them [i.e, is evident within them], because God has made it plain to them.”
See Romans 1:18-21, add verse 28, then 2:14-15.
Do you see the importance of what is declared in those verses? God says that
everyone, Jew or Gentile, no matter what country they live in, no matter what language
they speak, no matter what opportunities they have been given to know God’s Word and
to hear His gospel, they are accountable to God who has provided evidence, in their
hearts and minds, and in the created world around them: His existence and His nature
clearly displayed; and yet, mankind continually suppresses [seeks to restrain by
opposing] God’s revealed truth.
God sent His Son into the world; He is the Light and Life of God, providing forgiveness
for sin and eternal life; but He was, and still is, rejected by the majority.
John 1:1-5, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word
was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without
him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of
men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.”
John 1:10-14, “He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the
world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not
receive him. Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the
right to become children of God -- children born not of natural descent, nor of human
decision or a husband's will, but born of God. The Word became flesh and made his
dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from
the Father, full of grace and truth.”
John 3:19-20, “This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved
darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the
light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed.”
God has provided enough evidence for His existence and His nature, therefore, we are “without excuse.”
Romans 3:23 says, “We are all sinners,” (Romans 6:23) says what we deserve for our sin is death, but God, in His great mercy, has granted us “eternal life in Christ Jesus.” He did this (Romans 5:8), “While we were still sinners,” by dying on the cross, for He took our penalty, therefore (Romans 8:1), “there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” (See Romans 10:9-10)
Acts 4:12, “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved [only Jesus Christ].”
1Timothy 2:3-4, “God our Savior wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.” 2Peter 3:9, “The Lord... [doesn’t want] anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.”
No one goes to hell by accident, coincidence, misfortune, or by God’s unjust punishment. God is a Loving, Merciful, and Gracious God, but He is also a Holy, Righteous, and Just God; therefore, a day of reckoning must occur, where rewards are given to those who obeyed and honored God, and retribution is poured out on those who rejected God’s revealed truth, that which is displayed in creation, proclaimed and delivered by the prophets and apostles, exemplified through the life of Jesus Christ, and written upon our hearts.
It really is all about Jesus Christ, who is (John 14:6), the only way, the only truth, and the only life from God; and no one is saved to eternal life, apart from belief in and confession of God’s One and Only Son, Jesus Christ: Creator, Sustainer, Lord, Savior, and Judge over all.