Romans 1:18-20 "The Self Revelation of God"

Introduction

The Book of Romans is vital to our understanding of the gospel. And no book in the Bible sets the theological stage better for us when it comes to apologetics in evangelism than the book of Romans.

When we think of the Revelation of God in the context of Romans 1, it is impossible to loose the perspective of the revelation of the righteousness of God in the gospel.

This is God’s work on our behalf, for this righteousness is what theologians refer to as an alien righteousness. Because it came from outside of this fallen world and it is not derived from within man. It comes from God Himself through the person and work of Jesus Christ.

The redeemed are only righteous because they wear the garments of the imputed righteousness of Jesus Christ by grace through faith alone.

It is this faith that the righteous live by, as we saw last Sunday. But there is another aspect of God’s revelation that makes the righteousness of God a necessity. I am talking about the revelation of the wrath of God in verse 18. Look back at your text.

I. The Revelation of Wrath (18).

The revelation of the righteousness of God is necessary because it is the only thing that can satisfy the wrath of God.

This happens because Christ absorbed the wrath of God on the Cross on our behalf. Being fully God He was able to be the perfect sacrifice for us.

The wrath of God is not a popular subject in our day. Many believe that it gives God a bad wrap and promotes negative PR about God.

God doesn’t need to be sparred the perception of bad PR over the vindication of His holiness. This is one of the things that is emphasized in heaven. as Angels and the redeemed are declaring it before Him at this very moment. And we will do it for all eternity with them.

God’s perspective revealed in the Scriptures is not the distortion. The distortion is being made by those who believe that the truth about God needs to be hidden or edited in order to appeal to fallen man.

The Apostle Paul is saying that the wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the ungodliness and unrighteousness of men.

This is all the sinful intentions and actions of men who are thinking, speaking and living contrary to the nature and character of God.

They live in direct defiance of God and attempt to suppress His revealed truth in their unrighteousness.

The idea of suppress here means to attempt to make something ineffective. In this case it is God’s revelation of Himself in nature. Look back at verses 19-20 of our text:

II. The Revelation of Nature (19-20).

You may find it amusing that God doesn’t believe in atheist. As a matter of fact the truth of God’s existence and His character and nature are evident to every person who has ever lived.

Everyone knows because as verse 19 tells us God has shown it to them. This is what theologians refer to as natural revelation or sometimes referred to as general revelation. And it is plain to all of humanity.

And these are the same people who at times defiantly declare that, “if God exist why doesn’t He make Himself known?”

Such a question and line of argumentation will never legitimize the unbelief of fallen man. Because Scripture declares the presuppositions that all of humanity come programmed with due to God’s design.

No one is exempt from this in the normal and natural sense of God’s revealed truth.

Verse 20 describes what we mean by natural revelation.

His eternal power and divine nature are His invisible attributes. Invisible because it is not the attributes that you perceive but the by-product of those attributes.

Art reflects the existence of an artist.

Creation itself displays the glory of God. He made the heavens and the earth before He made man. Man was created by God in His own image.

Man has the ability, even in his fallen nature, to display creativity. Man designs buildings and builds them. Man mixes paint and colors and paints portraits. Man’s creative existence is reflected in all the design his work and art in the world. (Bears don’t have thumbs)

This begs the question of the creative nature and being of God as man’s Creator.

Man can examine nature itself and see the order in the Universe from the Macro level down to the finest details of the formation of living cells that in their function reflect the activity of a miniature city in their microscopic order.

The irreducible complexity of DNA declares in scientific terms what was declared by the Psalmist in Psalm 139:14 “I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works, my soul knows it very well.

If we were created to be such by our Creator then it begs the question of the creative capacity of our Creator.

Man is also a relational being who is capable of having and sustaining relationships with others. He has capacity to know and be known.

And in those relationships we reflect the categorical concepts of good versus evil. We know instinctively the moral aspects and expectations that govern those relationships.

We function like this all the time and seldom give any thought to how these aspects of our human existence beg the question of the relational and moral identity of our Creator.

The vast size of the Universe then takes these character traits in our Creator and pushes them beyond our ability to comprehend. We conceptualize such an idea as Infinity to denote the unlimited ability and capacity of our Creator.

If God created the Universe then His power and ability is beyond the scope of His Creation.

To conceptualize Him to be less would be to think of Him as finite, limited in His being. God created space time and history but He is beyond it and distinct from His creation.

The Bible affirms these doctrines but you don’t need the Bible to know these things. All one needs is general or natural revelation.

And this revelation leaves all of humanity without excuse before God. Man suppresses the truth of what God has revealed and made known to them.

But Pastor, What about those who never heard the gospel? He judges them on the natural revelation that they know. But in their depraved nature they suppress that revelation by distorting it and they redefine the infinite being to reflect something of creation. Something more appealing and more user friendly.

Happens as well in our context. People don’t like to hear about they wrath of God on unrighteousness because they have fashioned a god who doesn’t exercise wrath.

People don’t like a God who exclusively saves through one way of salvation in and through Christ because it is not inclusive enough of the modern day pantheon.

It amazes me how similar our culture is to that of Rome in Paul’s day. Syncretism which mixes religious systems of belief was prevalent in Paul’s day just as it is in ours.

But in the book of Romans you don’t find instruction in how to accommodate the culture. You don’t find Paul telling the church how to be inclusive and content with Jesus Christ taking His seat in the pantheon of the gods.

No, what you find is a theological treatise on the fundamental truths of the Christian faith and a laser beam precise declaration of the righteousness of God revealed in the person and work of Jesus Christ.

Romans is the one book in the Bible that is the closest to a systematic theology of Christian belief.

Add John’s gospel to Romans and you have definitive high Christology along with it. Add Hebrews and you have a definitive exposition of that Christology and the connection it has between the O.T. and the N.T.

The point is that this is not a setting in our day to accommodate the culture but to confront it with the absolute definitive truth of God and His revelation in the Gospel. This is what Paul is doing in the church at Rome.

Conclusion:

Unbeliever you may be here today and you may be a self-proclaimed atheist or an agnostic. General revelation in nature puts you on the hook with all of humanity to believe in the God of nature who is revealed in the Bible.

How do I know the God of the Bible is the God that is revealed in nature? Because the God of the Bible is the only God who fits the description and character of the God of natural revelation.

And the gospel revealed in the Bible, in and through Jesus Christ, is the only way that such a being as an infinite and holy God could reconcile me to Himself without compromising His character and nature.

And this gospel is held out once again to you today that you may believe in Jesus Christ for salvation. You need a savior.

Believer the only reason we are not under that wrath is because Christ took our place and God opened our eyes to this truth by sovereign grace.

We are just beggars trying to tell other beggars where to find the bread.

And we are in Christ and His grace is keeping us as we are being sanctified by the Holy Spirit through the word of God.

Confess your sin and rest in Him. Let’s Pray!