Unrighteousness Revealed, Romans 1:24-32

One of the disadvantages of an expositional, verse by verse style of preaching is that sometimes you find yourself having to deal with a passage of scripture that you would rather not have to deal with. Charles Spurgeon said of this passage that it was not worthy of public discussion.  He refused to preach from this text because he felt that it was too upsetting to proper decorum.

While I might sympathize with him, I ultimately feel that I must recognize that if God felt comfortable talking about it, and Paul felt comfortable enough writing about it, so that it would be read in the church, I must be faithful to expound the Word of God as I come to it and not gloss over or skip passages that I don’t find appealing for some reason.

So with the adage of “fools rush in where angel’s fear to tread” ringing in my ears, I will try to be faithful to the word of God, and yet not overstate what God has said, or supplement what God has not said.

Now then as we come to this passage it is more important than ever to place it in the proper context.  Paul is writing a letter, and so there can be a danger in isolating this passage or any passage and taking it out of context.  If we are going to make something more out of it than what was intended it will come about more than likely by virtue of taking it out of context.  When we do that, we risk making more of it than it was originally intended.

So then the context of Paul’s message so far is really understood by verse 18.  “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness.”  From this point on, Paul is going to reveal man’s unrighteousness.  And so that is the title of my sermon.  Unrighteousness revealed. 

If you back up a verse, then you see the the opposite statement; righteousness revealed.  Vs17 “For in it [the] righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, ‘BUT THE RIGHTEOUS [man] SHALL LIVE BY FAITH.’”  So in vs 17 the righteousness of God is revealed in the gospel by faith.

Then in vs 18, the unrighteousness of man is revealed.  Now actually, Paul says the wrath of God has been revealed against unrighteousness.  Remember we said last week that God’s wrath was revealed by death.  The curse of death is upon all men and even upon all of creation.  And he says that death, or wrath, is due to sin or unrighteousness.  So sin is unrighteousness.  Notice Paul uses the word unrighteousness twice in vs 18 as if to emphasize that sin is the cause of God’s wrath.  As the scripture says, the wages of sin is death.

So I think in context then, Paul goes on to reveal the unrighteousness of men.  He begins to show in detail how unrighteous men are.  And this is going to continue for quite a while.  His argument comes to it’s climax in chapter 3 vs 10 when he declares by quoting an Old Testament text, “There is none righteous, no not one.”  Paul’s purpose is to show the exceeding sinfulness of sin.  His purpose is to take away all supports from both Jews and Gentiles, to show all as deserving the wrath of God, because all are sinners, and all sin qualifies for the penalty of death.

And furthermore, Paul shows in this text the progression of sin. The Bible makes it clear that we are born in our sins, we are born into a body of death.  We are born with a sin nature that we inherited from our father Adam.  Romans 5:12 says, “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned.”  Man sins because he is a sinner. Because he was born a sinner. It’s what John Calvin calls the total depravity of man.  

David said in Psalm 51:5 “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, And in sin my mother conceived me.”  

But though that is our natural condition, there is also a natural progression to sin, going from bad to worse.  That’s why Jesus made the case in the Sermon on the Mount that hatred constituted murder, lust constituted adultery.  There is a natural progression to sin that the Lord equates to that of a little leaven (which represents sin) corrupting an entire lump of dough. 

So Paul gives five steps in this downward progression of sin. He starts in vs 19 with revelation.  God revealed Himself to man by means of His creation.  The second step is rejection, vs 21. “For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened.”  They rejected the truth. The third step in their progression is rationalization.  Verse 22, "Professing to be wise they became fools." They thought they were smarter than God.

The fourth step of their downward progression in sin is religion. Vs.23, they “exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures.” Idolatry in all it’s forms is man’s religion of choice. In effect, he worships himself, making God in his image,  and puts forth his priorities and his desires as being acceptable to God.

And that leads to the last step, reprobation.  Vs. 24, God gives them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity.  Three times Paul says, God gave them over, in vs 24, in vs 26, and vs28. What it means is that they reach a point in their rebellion where God gives them over to their desires or lusts.  He abandons them to their lust.  He stops striving with them.  In Genesis God said, “My Spirit will not strive with man forever…nevertheless his days shall be one hundred and twenty years.” One hundred and twenty years was the time that Noah preached the gospel to them as he was building the ark.  Peter says of that time that the patience of God kept waiting. He was giving them time to repent, but they did not repent.

And in a similar way that is what God does during the course of a man’s life. Though man is born in sin and will progress in sin yet because of His mercy He is giving them time to repent until the time  comes of their death.  And yet Paul paints a picture here of man progressing further and further in his sin, until it consumes his body and soul. 

That brings us to the revealing of unrighteousness starting in  vs 24.  And in this verse, what Paul shows is that sin unrestrained results in the dishonoring of the body.  God gives them over to impurity “so that their bodies would be dishonored among them.” Sexual sin dishonors the body.  Those of you that were at our Bible study on Wednesday night a couple of weeks ago will remember 1 Cor. 6:18 which says, “Flee immorality. Every other sin that a man commits is outside the body, but the immoral (porneia) man sins against his own body.”  Immoral is porneia in the original language, which covers all kinds of sexual sins from illicit intercourse, to adultery, fornication, homosexuality, incest, etc.  Remember that Paul was rebuking the Corinthian church because they were tolerating a man who was committing incest with his father’s wife.  

And Paul uses that as an entrance to the subject of immorality on a broader scale in the church. All types of porneia was going on in the church, presumably among Christians.  They dishonored the divine design of their bodies which God had intended through immorality.  The opposite of honor is shame.  They did shameful things.  There is an inherent shame that comes upon the person who indulges in immorality.  There are all types of repercussions and consequences of immorality.  But one of the main ones that does not get much notice is the injury to the human psyche.  They hurt themselves.  They cheapen themselves. And they suffer great damage that is not necessarily seen by the eye, but it is felt by the body.

In vs 25, Paul says that this happens because they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and exchanged the divine order of sex for a perversion.  He says they worshipped the creature rather than the Creator.  It’s interesting that immorality is correlated in the scripture with idolatry.  (Col.3:5, 1 Cor. 10:7, Eph. 5:5) And so in vs 25, rather than man honoring God with his body and serving God with his body, we see man serving the creature, serving his animal instincts, serving himself, serving his lusts.

This immorality and idolatry works it’s way in the progression of sin to the culmination of sexual immorality, which is homosexuality.  Vs 26 For this reason (What reason? The reason is they exchanged the truth for a lie)  God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural,  and in the same way also the men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their desire toward one another, men with men committing indecent acts and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error.”

First of all, let us be clear that Paul is condemning homosexuality as sin. Those churches today that attempt to rationalize homosexuality as an acceptable lifestyle are guilty of doing exactly what Paul is saying these men do; exchanging the truth for a lie.  But Paul makes it clear here and elsewhere that homosexuality is  unrighteousness.  The whole point of this passage is to reveal the progression of unrighteousness..  He is revealing the unrighteousness of men who reject the truth of God and set themselves up as their own god. And so all of these behaviors and attitudes  that Paul presents in this passage  are manifestations of sinfulness. There are 22 sins that are delineated here. Paul is addressing the sin of homosexuality first because he is showing that immorality dishonors the body.  When we get to vs28, then he goes on to list sins that are sins of the mind, or soul. But sin affects the entire being. The spirit of a man is dead because of sin, the soul of man is depraved because of sin, and the body is dishonored because of sin.  

Thus you cannot make the argument that the Gnostics did, that sin which was in the body did not affect the spirit and so it was not really sinful.  Paul is saying here that sin of the body and sin of the mind both corrupt and degrade the person so that they are exceedingly sinful.  

Paul says these sinful practices have an immediate consequence. “Receiving in themselves  the due penalty of their error.” The fruit of such sins produce consequences in themselves, in their bodies and in their minds.  Some people have tried to construe this to mean the AIDS epidemic.  I would not necessarily say make that connection, but I do think it’s referring to things like depression, self hatred, low self esteem, stress and suicidal tendencies. There are inherent consequences of sexual sins that affect the body and the mind and Paul says that is the result of such sins.

In vs 28 that leads us to the third time God gives them over, and this time it’s to a depraved mind.  “And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper.” God abandons them to their sinful practices which in turn affects their soul.  Sin is corrupting to the full extent of the person, not only the body, but the soul.(mind, will, emotion)

Man’s arrogance causes them to be given over to a depraved mind. “And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind.” They didn’t deem it worthwhile to acknowledge God any longer. They considered the knowledge of God as something worthless.

So God gives them over to a depraved mind to do those things which are not proper. Bad thinking results in bad practices.  An evil heart results in evil deeds.  Prov.23:7 says, “as a man thinks in his heart, so is he.”  Jesus said in In Matthew 15:19, "Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies, and these are the things which defile a man.”

Then Paul gives a dirty laundry list of these kind of practices.  What he calls every kind of unrighteousness. And there are 21 of them.  Some of them seem to overlap in their meanings.  But I think he wanted to give the full spectrum of sin which comes as a result of rejection of the truth of God. 

Now you will be glad to know that I’m not planning on giving a detailed analysis of all 21 sins.  I think they pretty much speak for themselves.  But there is an order here which I think gives us a method to consider them.  The first four sins are introduced by the words “having become filled…” And I think that speaks of the progressive nature of sin.  It starts out small, as a form of rebellion against God, and it continues to corrupt and corrupt until it corrupts the entire loaf.

Jesus equated sin with leaven, saying, a little leaven, leavens the whole lump.  In other words, a little sin begets more sin, and so on, until the entire person is corrupt.  So maybe Paul gives the first four as the starting yeast, so to speak, that soon corrupts completely.  The first four then starts with unrighteousness, which is simply rebellion against God, against God’s standard of  righteousness.  The next, wickedness, describes people who enjoy doing wrong. Greed is covetousness.  Wanting what is not yours, wanting more. And evil or depravity is a corrupt nature where wrong is preferred to what is right.

The next group in the 21 is a group of five sins. And this group is described as “being full of..” They reach a stage further along in their progression in sin. So what are these people full of?  First is envy. Begrudging what others have. Then murder.  Perhaps this is speaking of more of an attitude of murder, which Jesus said was hate. Strife; which is being angry, quarrelsome. Deceit; which is lying, treachery. And malice is spite, a desire to harm people. 

And then Pull gives the last group, which is a group of 12. I see these attributes as almost an outpouring of what has been filled up within them.  Having been filled up their sin spills out and affects others.  And we see that first in gossips; they spread rumors.  Slanderers; they publicly tell lies about others.  Haters of God; they openly attack God or His people.  Insolent: they treat others with contempt. Arrogant; is putting themselves first and of most importance. Boastful, they love bragging of the things that they have done. Inventors of evil; they take special delight in novel forms of evil. Disobedient to parents; they disregard what their parents teach them. 

And then their is what is considered a sub group of four which finish up the 12. Without understanding; senseless, they are fools. They have rejected God. And God calls such fools.  Paul is being nice; he says they are without understanding.  Then untrustworthy; they have no moral compass and so you cannot trust them.  He goes on to say they are unloving; meaning without natural affection.  Our society’s demand for abortion comes to mind as an example of being without natural affection. But a lack of natural affection certainly manifests itself in many other ways as well. And then the last one is unmerciful. These are cruel people, heartless people who only care about themselves. 

Now what is important to note is that Paul equates these sins of the soul as deserving equal punishment as those sins of sexual immorality.  They are no less grievous to God. And I would suggest that if you are honest you heard your own attitudes and behaviors described as I was going through that list.  So none of us are exempt from the condemnation of sin.  He says in vs 32, “and although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them.”

What Paul is saying is that such people that commit these things know that they are doing wrong. They have an awareness within them that such vices are worthy of death.  God has revealed this to them in their conscience, and He has revealed His holiness in His creation, so that they know that they are offending a holy God. And I will suggest another possible way that they know this.  Because when societies make laws regarding right and wrong, they always follow the principles of righteousness that God has ordained.  Even in the darkest of Africa, they recognize that lying is wrong.  They recognize cheating as wrong. They recognize hatred as wrong. They may twist their laws to try to protect themselves, but people always recognize the sin in another person.  And our judgment of that sin in another is always very severe.  So I think that our judgment of other’s sin, condemns us of sin.  We know instinctively in our hearts what sin is. And we judge others by it.  So Paul will say in chapter 2 vs 1, “Therefore you have no excuse, everyone of you who passes judgment, for in that which you judge another, you condemn yourself; for you who judge practice the same things.”

But not only are we cognizant of our sin, and thus due the penalty for it, but  also Paul says we give hearty approval to those who practice sin. In other words, they encourage sin in others.  I was speaking to someone the other day who had a run in with an unbeliever who was trying to put him down and condemn him.  And I said the reason that he was acting that way was because he was jealous that you weren’t like him anymore; you were clean,  you were sober, you were trying to live for the Lord.  And so in their wickedness which they weren’t willing to repent of, the way to make themselves feel better is to make you look worse.  Ultimately, they are trying to bring you down to their level.  And that is really the culmination of sin, that it seeks to pull others down with them.  Eve did the same thing to Adam, and Adam was foolish enough to willingly go along with her for the sake of  companionship. 

So what is the conclusion of this study today?  It should be to show the complete corruptness of sin, the total depravity of man.  Sin is rebellion against God and that progresses to defilement and debasement of body and soul.  The person who is in sin is corrupted completely by sin and deserving of the wrath of God.  

But the good news is that when you come to the point where you recognize your hopelessness, and you recognize your sinfulness, when you stop trying to rationalize your sin,  then you are ready to be delivered.  You are able to be saved by faith in what Christ did for you on the cross. Taking our sin upon himself, that we might exchange the lie for the truth, the body of death for life in the spirit, that we might exchange our sins for His righteousness.  

The good news is that in his letter to the Corinthians, Paul  gave another long list of sins very similar to this list.  He said in 1Cor. 6:9-10 “Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals,  nor thieves, nor [the] covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God.”

But then he says this; 1Cor. 6:11 “Such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.”  Such were some of you. No matter how vile the sinner, God is able to save and deliver us from our sins.  The lesson here is as Paul said in another place, “Jesus Christ came to save sinners, of whom I am chief.”  When you realize your sinfulness, then there is the hope of salvation.  Jesus came to save us from sin and from the wrath of God against sin.  I hope you will turn to Him today in repentance and faith and be saved from God’s wrath. 

The Wrath of God, Romans 1:18-25

Last week we studied verses 16 and 17, in which Paul lays out his thesis for the epistle of Romans.  The thesis for the book of Romans is simply justification by faith.  The righteousness of God applied to man on the basis of faith.  The righteousness of God is revealed by the gospel, it is conveyed to man by faith, resulting in imputed righteousness, or to say it another way, the righteousness of Jesus Christ is credited to man’s account by faith in Jesus and what He did on the cross.  That is the gospel; the good news from God to man and Paul’s thesis for this epistle. 

Immediately following this statement of his thesis, Paul begins to elaborate in great detail the tenets of the gospel.  And I find it almost ironic that the first tenet he begins with is the wrath of God.  The subject of the wrath of God is not very politically correct in most churches today.  Everyone wants to focus only on the love of God.  And love is, of course, an important attribute of God.  But so is the wrath of God.  And what I believe Paul is teaching here is that you cannot be saved until you realize that you are lost.  You cannot be healed unless you first realize your terminal condition.

I believe the Bible as well as history shows that the greatest revivals have come as a result of an understanding the impending nature of God’s wrath, or God’s judgment.  One of the most famous sermons that was ever preached in this country was given by Jonathan Edwards to his church on July 8, 1741.  The title was “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.”  And that message (which Edwards read, mind you) was interrupted several times by people crying out in terror, “what must I do to be saved?”  The result of that message was the beginning of the revival known as the “Great Awakening.”  One of the most widespread, successful revivals that the world has ever known.

So it is entirely appropriate that Paul should begin his message of the gospel with a detailed description of the wrath of God. The wrath of God is a necessary attribute of a holy and just God.  God’s wrath and God’s love are perfectly balanced.  From a human perspective we tend to view wrath as something inherently bad, something to be avoided at all costs. But there is such a thing as righteous anger.  And God, who is righteous, must respond to sin.  Justice demands the wrath of God.  The cross is unexplainable without first understanding the wrath of God.  

Hebrews 1:9 says concerning Jesus Christ; “thou hast loved righteousness and hated lawlessness.” God is able to love perfectly and hate perfectly.  God’s anger is not capricious, it’s not spiteful.  God’s mercy is great, God’s love is great, and God’s wrath is great.  As great as God’s love is, so in like manner is how great his wrath is.

Here is the love of God.  God made man in HIs image, in HIs likeness.  He gave him the breath of life.  He gave him the world and all the animal life and the plant life of the world to rule over.  God gave man all that, and made him as the object of His love.  But here is the wrath of God.  Man rejected His Maker.  Man chose to believe a lie and the father of lies rather than the truth of God.  Man chose to rule over himself, rather than to let God rule over him.  Man chose to partake of the only thing in the world that God told him not to take of.  God had already made clear the punishment for breaking his law.  The punishment was death.  It was destruction. It was wrath. And it was deserved. It was just.  It was justice.

Because God cannot abide sin.  God cannot be holy and tolerate sin.  What communion has light with darkness?  We were made to be like God, to be one with God, to be the bride of God. To have communion with God.  And when we chose sin, we rejected that communion.  We broke that relationship with God for which we were made.  And the wages of sin is death.  Sin is destruction.  God’s wrath is rightly poured out on sin and sinners, to be destroyed from his presence forever.

In the great epistle of John, what some have called the epistle of love, is found the verse in chapter 3:36, "He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.”  That verse establishes that the wrath of God is a pre existing condition of man. Man was born into that wrath.  Man was born to die, he was born estranged and alienated from God.  He was born into sin.  

And that’s why Paul begins with the wrath of God. It is a pre existing condition.  It is the judgment of God upon the world.  He made it, and He has the right to destroy it when it no longer suits the purpose for which it was made. And sinful man is not able to achieve that purpose.  He is broken.  He is corrupted by the sin nature and as such he is destined to destruction.

So Paul says “the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them.” Now we might ask, how is the wrath of God revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men? How is the wrath of God revealed to men?  I would suggest that the way it is revealed is in death.  It is by death.  

Ecclesiastes 3:11 says that God has put eternity in the hearts of men.  I think that is the reason that death reveals the wrath of God.  Because somehow in our psyche death does not make sense.  Somehow we know deep in our souls that we were made for more.  Death cuts short life.  And so the wrath of God is revealed through death in all it’s forms, whether prematurely or in old age, it is the operation of the wrath of God.

And the wrath of God is revealed in action.  For example; by the flood. It’s interesting to note that almost all primitive cultures have a flood story.  They may have changed it, but at one point at least God gave the world a witness of His wrath that endured for generations, to be told to subsequent generations. The same can be said of God’s judgment on Sodom and Gomorrah. Another example of His wrath which became known to the nations was His judgment upon Egypt during the time of the Exodus.  These were meant to be examples to the watching world of the wrath of God which was upon the whole world.

And Paul says the wrath of God is revealed against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness. So God’s wrath is revealed against sin in all it’s forms.  Ungodliness refers to a lack of reverence for God, and unrighteousness to a lack of reverence for His law.  Both are sin; rebellion against God.  And we are guilty of both.

Not only does man rebel against the truth of God, but Paul says he also works diligently to suppress the truth.  The fool has said in his heart, there is no God.  There is a 6000 year war against the truth of God that is captained by no less than Satan himself, and willfully assisted by men of every generation to try to disparage or deny the word of God. Our unrighteousness provokes us to suppress the truth because we don’t like being convicted of sin.  John 3:19-20 says,  "And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed.”

The problem is that men love their sin, and they hate the truth because it reveals it as sin. So the sinner wants to validate himself, to defend himself, and to do that he must attack the truth. He wants to justify his sin.  And so to add insult to injury, in his sin against God he also calls God a liar. They exchange the truth of God for a lie. One of the most common refrains you hear today is the statement that “My God would never do so and so, because my God is a loving God.”  In saying that, they are guilty of idolatry, of making a god in their own image.  Of trying to manipulate God according to what they think He should be.  

Rob Bell, the notorious ex mega church pastor, the author of the book “Love Wins,” said “What kind of good, loving God would it be if He sent people to an eternal hell for what they did or didn’t do in the few short years they lived on earth? And if He was like that, then who would want to worship Him?”  That statement flies in the face of the truth of God’s word, which clearly teaches the reality of hell as the just punishment for sinners.  And in saying that, Bell is really attacking the character of God and suppressing the truth in unrighteousness.

But Paul indicates that all men are guilty of the same suppression of the truth. “In unrighteousness” just means that in their sin they suppress the truth.  Because of their sin they suppress the truth, because they love darkness rather than light.  They love their sin.  They love what they think is their autonomy. They want to determine for themselves what is good or what is bad.  And as vs 25 indicates, they exchange the truth for a lie. What is good is deemed as bad.  Right has become wrong.  Morality is pilloried, and evil is championed.  We live today in a society in which morality has been turned on it’s head.  When perversion is accepted and validated as normal.  Sexual abstinence among teenagers is said to be unnatural and unrealistic. Abortion is the law of the land.  Suppression of the truth is nothing less than trying to make their own version of the truth to accommodate their sin.

But Paul says that irregardless of their suppression of the truth, God has revealed enough about Himself to condemn them. Vs. 19, “because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them.” God has made Himself known through nature, through history and through man’s conscience. God has given enough revelation of Himself through these methods that man should have been convinced and convicted of God’s truth and his need for God. 

Paul says that what can be known about God through creation has been clearly seen, so that they are without excuse. Vs. 20; “For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.”

In vs16 and 17, Paul said that God revealed salvation through His gospel. In vs 19 and 20, however, Paul moves from special to general revelation.  He is saying that enough truth about God has been revealed in creation to turn men to God.  Unfortunately, today the lie of evolution  has been exchanged for the truth about creation.  I believe that evolution is a diabolical strategy to eliminate the general revelation of God in creation.  Just as the devil has systematically tried to destroy the word of God, he also is attempting to destroy the truth of God revealed in creation.

But there is a witness to a divine design in nature that is apparent if one would only look for it.  My son has developed lately an interest in aquariums.  And he now has a freshwater aquarium as well as a saltwater.  And as he studies and learns about all the different species of fish and coral and all kinds of living creatures in the ocean, he is constantly remarking how this great variety and creativity in these creatures is a testimony to a Creator.  He said the other night how this has enabled him to see that God has a personality, even a sense of humor.  And I think any study of nature should cause men to see the reality of God, unless they are prejudiced against the truth.

And I want to point out another interesting aspect in this verse. And that is that God is an invisible Spirit. Paul speaks of the invisible attributes of God.  Jesus said that God is Spirit and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth.  John 1:18 says that “God Himself no one has ever seen.”  Col.1:15 says that the Son “ is the image of the invisible God.”  1 Timothy 1:17 says the King of the Ages, the imperishable, the invisible God.  And Hebrews 11:27 says “seeing Him who is invisible.”  So we must recognize that God is a Spirit, and as such He is invisible. It is a grave error to imagine God as just like us, as perhaps a bigger or stronger version of ourselves.  But we need to realize that God is an invisible, omnipotent, omnipresent Spirit who is over all, and above all. 

Furthermore, Paul says these invisible qualities of God are “His eternal power and divine nature.” His eternal power is clearly seen in nature.  It is clearly seen in the power of a hurricane, in the power of the seas, in the power of the sun and the moon and the stars.  God’s incredible power is seen through the things which He made.  God has to be unimaginably powerful to have created and have control over such things as seen in nature.  And when we contemplate this power, it should be apparent that it is an eternal power.  The power of the stars is evident from light years away.  The God who made them must be superior to mortality. He must be eternal.

And Paul adds another attribute, which is HIs divine nature.  When you consider the way all of creation works together, how it is all connected and interdependent, it should impress on you the divine nature of God, the goodness of God, the wisdom of God. It should indicate that God has a divine plan for the world, since all things work together according to His grand design.

To describe such qualities Paul uses an oxymoron.  He says these invisible attributes are clearly seen.  It might be correlated to “seeing” the wind.  We cannot see the wind, it is invisible.  But we can clearly see the effects of the wind and so we know that it exists, and that it is powerful. There is much we can learn about the wind even though we cannot see it.  And so the soul of man clearly sees the nature of God through the works of God, or as Paul says through the things that are made.

So Paul says that man is without excuse, because nature is a witness to the invisible attributes of God, and yet they refuse to worship Him as their God.  Even before the relatively modern inventions of microscope and telescope, man was able to see the immensity of the universe in the night sky, he was able to monitor the heavenly bodies in their courses and plot the seasons and months and the tides by them with absolute precision.  He was able to study the way a tiny seed grew into a specific plant and the plant gave forth fruit after it’s kind, and in turn produced more seeds. He is able to see the variety and diversity of life in the birds, in animals, and in the sea.  Man is still discovering ever more varieties of animal and plant life even today.  If you look closely at the earth you will notice even the ground is alive with insects and animal life.  The more microscopic you go, the more life you discover.  And the opposite is true as well.  As you look at the stars you see further and further evidences of galaxies upon galaxies.  Surely, he who denies God is inexcusable.

But though they see the invisible attributes of God clearly in nature, yet they refused to acknowledge Him as God. Vs.21, “For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened.  Professing to be wise, they became fools.” There is a progression to sin. There is a hardening in rebellion.  And Paul is delineating that progression here.   Because their sin encouraged them to rebel against God they then suppressed the truth to try to justify their sin.  And though God revealed Himself to them again and again in nature they continued to defy Him, they chose not to honor Him, and they became futile in their minds and their hearts were darkened.  They loved darkness rather than light and so God gave them over to darkness. And their progression in sin progressed further and further away from the truth.  Until not only was their hearts darkened, but they were hardened.  Their consciences were blunted to dullness.  The light of the truth flickered out. They cannot reason correctly.  They no longer can see the truth.  The blind lead the blind, and the devil leads them all round in circles in the rat race of life, until they expire by one means or another and face the wrath of God.

The progression of their sin goes from bad to worse. Vs. 23 “and [they] exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures.”  Let us not just imagine primitive cultures are guilty of worshiping the images of man and beast.  Today our modern culture worships the beast as well.  They worship nature, they worship the environment.  The very thing that should have turned them to God, they worshipped it instead of God.  

Whether or not you want to believe in climate change or any number of other environmental initiatives, the fact is that there are a lot of people who have exchanged the glory of the Creator for the so called science of environmentalists, and as such they worship the creature rather than the Creator. Today there is a growing trend in society that there is nothing more sacred than nature itself.  Environmentalism is the new religion. And as we see so often in new laws that are made concerning the left’s view of the environment, it rules with a rod of iron like they once accused religion of doing. And if it’s allowed to run it’s course, then one day  the environmentalists will decide who will live and who will die.  How many children you can have.  What kind of food you can eat. What kind of cars you can drive. Whether or not you can fly in an airplane. It’s amazing how far they can reach into your life by the excuse of climate change, or what’s good for the environment. So don’t think that worshipping nature was just something that primitive people did hundreds of years ago.  It’s going on now. Man worships the creature rather than the Creator. Man worships man, he worships movie stars, athletic stars, music stars. In one form or another, man worships that which was created rather than his Creator.

Vs 24 “Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, so that their bodies would be dishonored among them.  For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.”  Three times in this chapter Paul uses the phrase, “God gave them over.”   I believe that means that people reach a point in their progression in sin that He finally gives them over to their desires.  They rebuke the conviction of the Holy Spirit to a point where He no longer speaks to them.  The light goes out.  

There is a verse in Isaiah that I really like that speaks of the mercy of God, which says, “a bruised reed he will not break, and a faintly burning wick he will not quench.” That speaks of God’s long suffering with sinners.  That is God’s mercy towards our weakness. Peter says His patience is waiting to lead us to repentance. But there does come a time when God no longer seeks to keep the flame burning.  There does come a time when God allows the broken reed to fall away unto perdition.  And I think that is what Paul is getting at here.  They reach a point when God finally will give them over to their depravity and their desire and their destruction. 

Paul says that as a result of their rebellion God gave them over to impurity, which means uncleanness,  and their bodies are dishonored.  It’s interesting to note that Paul is writing from Corinth, a city rife with sexual immorality.  And as we studied in 1 Cor. 6 on Wednesday night, when a man commits sexual immorality he sins against himself.  That is what I think Paul indicates here when he says their bodies are dishonored.  We bring shame upon our own bodies in sexual sins.  We bring consequences in the physical body that are destructive when we deviate from God’s plan of marriage.

Col.3:5 states, “Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry. For it is because of these things that the wrath of God will come upon the sons of disobedience.”  This outpouring of God’s wrath is yet future, but even now God allow a foretaste of this wrath by finally abandoning them that continue in their wickedness, so that they perish in their rebellion.

God allows that judgment to fall on them because according to vs 25, they “exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator.” They worshipped and served the creature. That is the sin of idolatry. Rather than worshipping and serving the Creator who gave them life and the world and it’s creatures to enjoy, they rejected God and served and worshiped the creature, and so therefore they deserve the wrath of God.

At the close of his sermon on the wrath of God, Jonathan Edwards made this appeal; “Therefore, let every one that is out of Christ, now awake and fly from the wrath to come.”  There is but one way out from under the wrath of God, and that is through faith in  Jesus Christ.  He has taken the stripes due to us from God upon Himself that we might go free. Isaiah 53:4-5 says “Surely our griefs He Himself bore, And our sorrows He carried; Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, Smitten of God, and afflicted. But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for our well-being [fell] upon Him, And by His scourging we are healed.” Jesus has borne the cross for you and for me, if we just come to Him in faith. He has taken our sins upon His shoulders, bearing our punishment, bearing God’s wrath which was due to us, if we would just believe on Him as our Lord and Savior.  

The invisible, immortal God that the world has never seen has manifested Himself fully and completely in the man Jesus Christ, that we might know God fully and completely, and that we might have life through HIs death.  An even worse fate than the one described here by Paul of the pagan Gentiles who did not know the scriptures but had the witness of creation to teach them, is to be had by those who hear the truth of God’s word, who hear the gospel of justification by faith in Christ, and yet consider the blood of Jesus Christ as no account and continue on in their rebellion against God. To those, the wrath of God will surely come with a vengeance that surpasses that of the ignorant pagans of time past.  I pray that you will not refuse to answer His call today.  Do not harden your heart against God.  

Today, if you hear His voice, if you are outside of Jesus Christ, I urge you to fly to Jesus.  In the hymn Rock of Ages it says, “Foul I to the fountain fly, wash me Savior or I die.” There is a antidote for the wrath of God, and that is to look to Jesus who took the wrath of God which I deserved upon Himself that I might be set free.  Look to Him and receive justification and life.

The Power of the Gospel; Romans 1:16,17

If you are a person who has achieved even a basic level of maturity, who has even a rudimentary intelligence, then you probably have come to the realization that life is not all that we wish it to be. It doesn’t take too long for the average person as they live their life to realize that something’s wrong, something’s missing. It may seem like some other people manage to get it right and things seem to work out for them, but we think for us it’s just not the case.   But I think that rather than that being a personal  deficiency it is actually a universal problem.  It even affects those who are still in the process of maturing; such as teenagers and young adults.  People that you would think should have every reason to optimistic and full of hope for the future are instead finding themselves becoming disillusioned with life.  Millions of young people today are depressed and  searching for answers to life in therapy and counseling and the use of anti-depressants and so forth.  The suicide rate for young people has reached almost epidemic proportions in this modern age as they become disillusioned and so despondent over life.

And if that’s true for young people, then how much more so is it true for the person who has reached middle age and done all the things that society tells us are necessary to succeed at life and yet found disappointment and emptiness rather than joy and fulfillment.  Yet even so,  most of us manage to convince ourselves that a happy life is still achievable, if we just do a couple of things, or if we can just acquire enough things, or get enough money, or get in shape, or find true love, or whatever it is which we feel is the missing ingredient.  And so we pull our shoulders back and thrust out our chin and we power on in the hope that things will get better, that we can somehow get things right and find whatever it is we need to make life satisfying and fulfilling and enjoyable.

The wisest man that ever lived wrote in the book of Proverbs; “There is a way which seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death.”  And what Solomon was getting at is that though man might try every conceivable tactic, he is still unable to figure out a way to circumnavigate this life.  Ultimately, no matter if you manage to get rich, no matter if you are beautiful, no matter if you achieve fame or power, one day death comes to everyone.  Solomon says in Ecclesiastes that all is vanity and chasing after the wind. 

Peter, quoting the prophet Isaiah said, “All flesh is as grass, And all the glory of man as the flower of the grass. The grass withers, And its flower falls away.”  The principle of death affects all aspects of life, turning man’s glory into decay, putting an end to all our struggles, it’s the end of life for every living creature.  

And yet there is more to that quote from Isaiah.  This diagnosis of life which seems so hopeless, so despondent, so depressing, has an antidote.  That dire prognosis has a prescription of hope.  Isaiah said it is this; “But the word of our God stands forever.” Hallelujah! That is hope.  That is something to rejoice about.  That’s good news.  That God has spoken and His word will not fail, His word will not pass away. The life giving word of God endures forever.

This word of God is no less than the gospel of Jesus Christ which Paul is proclaiming in this epistle.  Gospel means simply “the good news of God”. The angels proclaimed the good news from heaven to the shepherds at Jesus’s birth saying, “Behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people; for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.”  The good news is God has sent a Savior for mankind. This gospel is  the hope of the world.  It’s the light that shines in darkness.  It’s the word of life that banishes death in all it’s degrees.  It’s the truth of God that sets us free from the corruption that is in this world.  Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth and the life.”

But just as in the day when Noah was building an ark in preparation for the flood, the world thinks that the gospel is foolishness.  They laughed and scorned Noah in the days before the flood, and the world has derided the gospel as foolishness ever since. 1Cor. 2:14 says, “But the natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know [them], because they are spiritually discerned.”

But thanks be to God that even though the world may treat it as foolishness, God makes His word known to some. In 1Cor. Paul says “For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.” “For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.”

That’s why Paul says in vs16 that he is not ashamed of the gospel.  Because “it is the power of God for salvation.”   Paul is not ashamed to proclaim it to everyone, in every nation, to all men and women, both young and old, Jew or Gentile. Because it cannot fail.  Because there is life giving power in the word.  Because the word of God stands forever.  Because the gospel is the answer to life’s questions. It reveals life’s purpose and meaning.  It is the answer to death.  Jesus said in John 6:63, “the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.”

Paul is not ashamed because though the philosophy of men may fail, though the wisdom of man may fail, though science may fail, though attempts at religion may fail, though the heavens and the earth may fail, the word of God stands forever.  It’s powerful.  By the word of God the heavens and the earth came into existence.  Every thing that is created exists by the word of God.  Again and again in the Genesis record of creation it reads, “And God said…and God said,” and it was so. God gave life by His word.  God’s word is the source of life.  It’s the source of wisdom.  It is truth and it is life.

Paul says he is not ashamed to proclaim the gospel because he knows it is the power of God. The word of God is powerful.  The writer of Hebrews says in Hebrews 4:12 “For the word of God [is] living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.”  The word of God is living, it gives spiritual life to that which is dead, to that which is powerless, to that which cannot help itself.  It gives sight to the spiritually blind, healing to the spiritually sick, life to the spiritually dead.  It is powerful. The word of God is the gospel, the good news for mankind. 

Paul is not ashamed to proclaim the gospel because it is the power of God unto salvation. This word “power” is dunamis in the original Greek.  That’s the word from which we get our word dynamite.  As I said in my opening statements, man is unable to make fundamental changes in himself that are actually able to overcome the shadow of mortality which casts a pall over all of life. 

But the power of the God is powerful enough to transfer souls from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light.  It’s powerful enough to change men from sinners to saints.  It’s powerful enough to give life to the dead.  It’s able to give sight to the blind.  It’s able to save men from their sins, even deliver from the penalty of sin which is death.  The power of God through the gospel is able to deliver men from Satan’s power, from judgment, from death, and from hell. 

The gospel is the power of God, Paul says.  It’s an unlimited power, an incredible power that can transform lives.  Jesus said that what was impossible with men is possible with God. With God all things are possible because there is no power that is greater, there is nothing that God cannot do, there is nothing that is beyond His reach. 

Romans 5:6 says, “When we were yet without strength, Christ died for the ungodly.”  Man couldn’t save himself, he is powerless to give life to that which is dead.  But Christ died for the ungodly in order to bring us to God, to reconcile us to God.  He died that we might have life in Him.

So Paul is unashamed of the gospel for it is the power of God unto salvation.  Salvation means deliverance, to save, to rescue.  The problem of mankind is that they are on the road, so to speak, to perdition.  All that life was meant to be has been corrupted by sin. Paul says in Romans 8 that all of creation groans under the weight of sin.  That sin resulted in the penalty of death which is passed on to all men, for all have sinned.  Sin resulted in alienation from God, who is the source of life and by whom all things have their being.  And by that alienation from the source of life there comes death for all men.  There is a futility in all things because nothing has permanence. Everything has become corrupted and infected with the terminal virus that is sin. Romans 5:12 “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.” 

But Paul says the gospel is the power of God unto salvation. Salvation is deliverance from sin and death.  Salvation is God rescuing those that are lost. Salvation is setting men free from the captivity of Satan.  Salvation is a divine transformation of the unrighteous into righteousness. Salvation is from God. He is the author and finisher of our salvation.  

Paul says he is not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also the Greek. God’s salvation is available to everyone who believes.  Believe means to trust in, to have confidence in, to have faith in. So Paul is saying that salvation is available to everyone who believes in what?  In God? No, that is not faith unto salvation. The Bible says the devils believe in God and tremble.  But they are not saved.  It is believing in the gospel.  And the gospel, Paul says in vs9 is the gospel of God’s Son, the good news concerning Jesus Christ. 

So as Jesus said, HIs words are spirit and they are life. Believing in Him,  believing in who Jesus said He was, believing in what He accomplished through His death and resurrection, believing all that He taught, constitutes trusting and believing in Christ.  The power of the gospel, the life giving, transforming truth of the gospel is accessed by faith in Christ.  Not faith in faith, but faith in what Jesus accomplished on our behalf.  

And what Jesus did on our behalf is He left His throne in heaven and took on the form of a man, becoming our substitute, taking our sins upon Himself, and dying in our place, and taking our penalty upon Himself.  The Apostle’s Creed states it this way; I believe in God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth. I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord. He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary. He suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried. He descended to the dead. On the third day he rose again. He ascended into heaven, and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again to judge the living and the dead.

 And what Paul is saying is that those who believe in Jesus Christ, in that good news which He accomplished on our behalf, will receive salvation by the power of God. We who believe will be transferred into the kingdom of His Son and receive new life in Him. 

Paul goes on to say that in it, that is, in the gospel, the righteousness of God is revealed. This salvation of God is possible because we are made righteous through Christ.  According to 2 Cor. 5:21, “God made Jesus, who knew no sin, to become sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.”  What we must believe about Christ is that He is righteous, He knew no sin.  He was the Holy Son of God spoken of by Isaiah in chapter 53; “By His knowledge the Righteous One, My Servant, will justify the many, As He will bear their iniquities.” He goes on to say that “He poured out Himself to death, And was numbered with the transgressors; Yet He Himself bore the sin of many, And interceded for the transgressors.” 

This holy, spotless, righteous Lamb of God bore our sins on the cross, becoming sin for us, paying our penalty, and as God transferred our sins to Him, He also transferred Christ’s righteousness unto us, so that we might be declared righteous, justified by faith in what He did for us. The power of the gospel is salvation to everyone who believes in what Jesus has done, and in His righteousness.  So that we may say like Paul in Phil. 3:8-9  we may say “I count all things [I once held dear in this life] to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that may gain Christ,  and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from [the] Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which [comes] from God on the basis of faith.” HIs righteousness credited to my account is the basis for my salvation.

The good news of the gospel is not that God commands us to be righteous and we must try to attain to His standard of it, and if we do so then we can be delivered from death and enter into everlasting life.  But the good news that God commends Christ’s righteousness to us by faith.  We believe in Him and what He has done and what He has said, and God transfers our sins to Him, and His righteousness to us, so that we might be justified before God, made righteous before God, made holy, and we receive the life of God, even the Spirit of God to dwell in us.

The gospel reveals Jesus Christ, our righteousness.  It reveals God’s standard of righteousness. And it reveals the manner in which Christ accomplished that transference of righteousness to us.

And what Paul states here is that the gospel reveals God’s righteousness “from faith to faith. As it is written, the just shall live by faith.” What Paul is saying here is that this gospel is not something new. The quotation which he gives from the prophet Habakkuk shows us that Paul is basing this principle of imputed righteousness on the Old Testament. Habakkuk said, “BUT THE RIGHTEOUS man SHALL LIVE BY FAITH.” What was true for OT saints is true for NT saints. And from faith to faith means God revealed his righteousness to old dispensation saints through faith, and He reveals His righteousness to new dispensation saints through faith.  

All the Old Testament saints were saved by faith.  Paul restates that principle in Romans 4:3 saying, “For what does the Scripture say? ‘ABRAHAM BELIEVED GOD, AND IT WAS CREDITED TO HIM AS RIGHTEOUSNESS.’” Justification before God is through faith, where God credits Christ righteousness to your account on the basis of faith in Him.

So then to every age and to all people everywhere, the question of “What must I do to be accepted by God?” is answered by “the righteous shall live by faith.”  And that is the way the gospel is communicated; from faith to faith.  We that have faith have a responsibility to tell others the good news of Jesus Christ.  We must tell them that in Christ alone is there hope in this life.  In Christ alone is there life that continues beyond the grave.  In Christ alone are the questions of this world answered.

So let us not be ashamed of this gospel.  For it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes.  So many people are seeking for happiness and satisfaction in all kinds of things, but nothing can satisfy the searching soul like Jesus.  Nothing else can reconcile us to God so that we might have life as we were designed and created to have.  Let us boldly and confidently proclaim the good news, and pray that God will give them eyes to see and ears to hear, that they might believe and be saved.

At the crucifixion of Jesus, there were two thieves who were also being crucified, one on his right and one on his left.  As the mob was cursing Jesus and spitting at Him, and mocking Him, one of the thieves joined in the chorus of derision. Luke 23:39-43 says “One of the criminals who were hanged [there] was hurling abuse at Him, saying, "Are You not the Christ? Save Yourself and us!"  But the other answered, and rebuking him said, "Do you not even fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed [are suffering] justly, for we are receiving what we deserve for our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong.”  And he was saying, "Jesus, remember me when You come in Your kingdom!"  And He said to him, "Truly I say to you, today you shall be with Me in Paradise.”

This incident illustrates beautifully the salvation that Paul said comes on the basis of faith in Christ.  Notice first of all that the thief feared God, that is He had a holy reverence for God.  I believe that indicates that He recognized that Jesus was God in the flesh. And notice also that he recognized his own sinfulness and that sinfulness rightly condemned him to death. “We are suffering justly, and are receiving what we deserve for our deeds.”  Thirdly, he recognized Jesus’s righteousness. “This man has done nothing wrong.” Fourthly, he recognized Christ as Lord. “Jesus remember me when You come in your kingdom.” What a statement of faith!  He was dying, and he could see Jesus was dying.  And yet he has faith that Christ will come again to claim His kingdom.  He recognized that Jesus, by His righteousness, was able to save him. And lastly, he received that salvation on the basis of his faith. “Today you shall be with Me in Paradise.” 

There is no other information about this dying thief in scripture.  So I can only imagine what happened next.  But I think I can assume that later that day, when his life ebbed away, and he closed his eyes in death, he found himself taken to the gates of Paradise.  And perhaps an angel there stopped him, and said, “Stop thief!  By what right do you enter these gates?" It probably seemed to him that only minutes had passed since he was hanging there on the cross, a dying thief who was getting his just reward for the deeds he had done in his life.  But he remembered the exchange there on the cross with Jesus.  And so he lifted up his head, and pointed through the gate at Jesus standing there, and said, “I’m with Him.  I’m here because He said I could come.  It’s by His righteousness that I am able to enter.”

Ladies and gentlemen, I ask you that same question today.  By what right can you enter the kingdom of heaven?  If you are claiming anything other than HIs righteousness which God granted to on the basis of your faith in Christ, then you cannot enter.  Only by faith in Christ will the righteous live.  I hope that you have trusted in Christ, believed in Him for your salvation.  There is hope in none other.

We are going to sing a closing hymn which I think illustrates this doctrine well.  It’s Rock of Ages.  And I want to close by reading just a line from that song before we sing it.

“Not the labors of my hands, can fulfill thy law’s demands.  Could my zeal, no respite know, could my tears, forever flow. All for sin could not atone, thou must save, and thou alone.”