“The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them.” Rom. 1:18-19
The previous email presented how God has revealed Himself through His creation and how His creatures took the truth of God revealed and exchanged it for a lie. The invisible Creator in some instances was depicted by a man-made sculptor of a cow. How does God respond to this rejection of Him as God? He rightly responds with wrath.
In Romans 1 God’s wrath “is being revealed”. “Us” engineers are known for being weak on grammar, but we’re smart enough to know that this phrase indicates something in the past that continues to the present. The question is, how is His wrath presently revealed? The answer:
“Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another.” V.24
“Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones.” V.26
“Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done.” V.28
God’s wrath is revealed by Him stepping back and letting sinful desires run amuck. Mankind chose to go its own way and God stepped out of the way and let them be ruled by corrupt desires rather than by Him. Interestingly, if you step back and see what a mess the world is in… what a mess individual lives are in, it’s because of 2 things. It is because of a choice mankind has made to reject the truth of God. It is also because God in wrath said in effect “if you choose to be ruled by lies, I’ll step out of the way and let those lies run their course.”
“Astounding good news” is best understood against the backdrop of extremely bad news. Romans 1 helps understand the backdrop. Worship God for the astounding good news of a Redeemer!
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It's so interesting, Randy, that in dealing with person after person caught in a lifestyle of personal sexual sin, that I discover that underneath was a personal choice to set aside clear knowledge of God before any of the fall into sin. So this passage is not just about 'mankind' and his original lapses from grace, but also a very individual confrontation of those who are caught in today's sexual wreckage.
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