For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For His invisible attributes, namely, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. (Rom 1:18-20)So Paul starts his explanation of how the gospel reveals the righteousness of God ... with heaven's revelation of God's wrath. Really? That's the first point we want to make in reference to God's righteousness? As it turns out, yes. The gospel is about salvation. Saved ... from what? It is the fundamental question. Why do we need salvation? The answer is ... God's righteousness. God is righteous and our condition demands justice. What condition is that? We "suppress the truth." What truth? The truth about God. The truth about who God really is.
"You know," some might counter, "I'm not sure Paul is right here. I mean, we don't suppress the truth about God; we embrace it." Is that so? This suppression occurred first in the Garden. "Did God really say ...?" (Gen 3:1) followed with "You will be like God" (Gen 3:5). It was the first sin. And I would contend it is the regular sin. It's the Energizer Rabbit of sins -- it just keeps going and going. Unbelievers do it. Believers do it. It is the fundamental reason we violate God's commands ("sin"). We suppress the truth of His authority, His love, His wisdom, His faithfulness, His goodness, His omnipotence, His omniscience, His sovereignty ... "His eternal power and divine nature." We understand that unbelievers do it, but so do we believers. We question God's choices when we don't like it. We question God's rules when they go against what we want or think we need. We question God's love when the uncomfortable occurs. We balk at surrendering to Him when it means we won't get our way. None of this makes sense if we are affirming God's power and nature. We aren't. We're suppressing the truth about Him.
Paul says here that we are without excuse. We know all this. God "made it plain." In a very real sense it can be said that God doesn't believe in atheists. Paul goes on to say, "For although they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks to Him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things" (Rom 1:21-23). That's us. We are ungrateful. We don't honor our Maker. We exchange God for ... us. Clearly, then, righteousness must respond. God's righteousness must act. And it is from that righteous action that we need to be saved because He is right and we are not.
That is where the gospel begins. In that gospel we find the horribly bad news (Rom 1:18-3:20) followed by the best possible good news (Rom 3:21ff) wherein those who deserve justice receive grace and mercy. But that grace and mercy is greatly magnified by the demand of justice that we have earned. The God who can be "both just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus" (Rom 3:26) is a truly amazing God offering truly amazing good news. Let's not miss the magnitude of this good news ... or His righteousness in it.
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