Romans 1.19-The Reason for the Revelation of God's Wrath
Prairie View Christian Church
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Wednesday June 13, 2007
Romans: Romans 1:19-The Reason for the Revelation of God’s Wrath
Lesson # 24
Please turn in your Bibles to Romans 1:18.
Last evening we began a study of the second major section in the book of Romans, which appears in Romans 1:18-3:20 and deals with the universal need of the righteousness of God.
This passage is divided into three major sections: (1) The unrighteousness of the Gentiles (1:18-32). (2) The unrighteousness of the Jews (2:1-3:8). (3) The universal unrighteousness of men (3:9-20).
Last evening we began a study of Romans 1:18-32, which is divided into two sections: (1) The basis for Gentile guilt (1:18-23). (2) The results of Gentile guilt (1:24-32).
Last evening we began a study of the first section that appears in Romans 1:18-23, which deals with the basis for Gentile guilt before a holy God.
In this passage, Paul states three reasons why the entire Gentile world is unrighteous and condemned before God and thus in need of salvation and God’s righteousness: (1) They suppress the truth (1:18). (2) They ignore God’s revelation in creation (1:19-20). (3) They pervert God’s glory (1:21-23).
Last evening we studied Romans 1:18 in which Paul writes that the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth of God by means of their unrighteousness.
This evening we will study Romans 1:19 in which Paul writes that the reason why God has revealed His wrath against the heathen Gentile world is that they have rejected knowledge of Him that He has made available by observing creation.
Therefore, the entire Gentile world is held accountable by God who reject this revelation of Himself through creation since He has provided sufficient evidence of Himself.
Romans 1:18-19, “For 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.”
“Because” is the conjunction dioti (diovti) (dee-ot-ee), which functions grammatically as a marker of cause introducing a clause that presents the reason why God revealed His righteous indignation towards mankind who suppress the truth of God by means of their unrighteousness.
“That which is known” is composed of the nominative neuter singular definite article to (toV), “that which” and the nominative neuter singular form of the adjective gnostos (gnwstov$) (gnoce-tos), “is known.”
The definite article preceding the adjective gnostos converts the adjective into a noun and marks the word out as the subject of this causal clause and serves to distinguish it from the predicate nominative phaneros (fanerov$), “evident.”
“About God” is composed of the genitive masculine singular definite article tou (tou) and the genitive masculine singular form of the noun theos (qeov$).
The noun theos functions grammatically as an “objective genitive” meaning it functions semantically as the direct object of the verbal idea implicit in the articular adjective gnostos.
The article preceding theos is “anaphoric” denoting the fact that theos has been previously mentioned in the context and in particular in Romans 1:18.
The adjective gnostos pertains to being able to be known and signifies the universal objective knowledge of God as the Creator, which is resident in the soul of every human being as a result of observing creation.
“Evident” is the neuter singular (predicate) nominative form of the adjective phaneros (fanerov$) (fan-er-ros).
The adjective phaneros is related to the verb phaino (faivnw), “to bring to light, to appear” and basically means “visible, clear, evident, manifest, that which can be seen.”
The adjective phaneros functions as the predicate nominative in this causal clause meaning it is making an assertion regarding the articular adjective gnostos, “that which is known.”
The assertion is that knowledge of God can be seen and is visible to all men without exception.
“Within them” is composed of the preposition en (e)n), “within” and dative 3rd person masculine plural form of the personal pronoun autos (au)tov$), “them.”
The personal pronoun autos refers to its antecedent in Romans 1:18, which is the plural form of noun anthropos, “mankind.”
The preposition en is a marker of location defining the place where the knowledge of God resides, which is identified by the plural form of the personal pronoun autos, “them,” referring to the human race.
This knowledge of God resides in the soul of every human being and was acquired by their observation of what God has created.
The fact that this knowledge of God can be seen indicates that this particular knowledge of God does “not” refer to the knowledge of God that is inherent in the soul of every human being, which can be called “God consciousness.”
Also, further confirming this interpretation is Paul’s use of the conjunction gar in Romans 1:19 and 20.
For example, in Romans 1:19, he employs the causal conjunction gar, “for” after the prepositional phrase en autois, “within them” in order to introduce the expression ho theos autois ephanerosen, “God made it evident to them.”
God made knowledge of Himself visible to the human race by giving them eyesight so that they can observe His creation and come to the conclusion themselves that the intelligent design of creation demands a Creator.
Then, Paul uses the word again in a causal sense to introduce his statement in Romans 1:20.
Romans 1:20, “Since (gar) 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.”
All of this indicates that the reason why the human race has knowledge of God is because God made it visible to them through what He has created.
The fact that the adjective phaneros denotes that which can be seen and thus deals with a person’s eyesight and the use of the conjunction gar in Romans 1:19-20 and Paul’s statement in Romans 1:20 would rule out God consciousness as being in view here in Romans 1:19.
The term “God consciousness” is defined as the recognition of the existence of a Supreme Being.
At some point in life, every normal person reaches God-consciousness.
The specific age varies among individuals and depends on several factors, including mentality, geographical location, and education.
In some cases the point of God-consciousness, also termed the “age of accountability,” might not be reached until the late teens or early twenties.
But in every individual, God-consciousness involves mental activity and information on which to act.
Man has the ability to arrive at God-consciousness through the activity of his own mind.
Some people become aware of the existence of God from listening to other people who believe in the existence of God.
Also, people learn about the existence of God by the very structure of society, which is based upon human recognition of truth and morality.
This phenomenon has no explanation apart from the existence of God.
Every person has volition and conscience; he has the ability to distinguish right from wrong.
A material, ungoverned universe can know nothing of moral values and distinctions apart from the absolute righteousness of a Supreme Being.
Another way that people become aware of the existence of God is the human mind possesses the concept of a perfect and absolute Being.
Therefore, the existence of God is a necessary ideal-tendency of the human mind.
There are several passages of Scripture, which refer to this concept of God consciousness.
Ecclesiastes 3:11, “He has made everything appropriate in its time. He has also set eternity in their heart, yet so that man will not find out the work which God has done from the beginning even to the end.”
John 1:9, “There was the true Light which, coming into the world, enlightens every man.”
Romans 2:14-15, “For when Gentiles who do not have the Law do instinctively the things of the Law, these, not having the Law, are a law to themselves, in that they show the work of the Law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness and their thoughts alternately accusing or else defending them.”
The life of Helen Keller is a perfect example of a person who had knowledge of God without seeing or hearing the creation.
A disease left her as a very young girl without sight, hearing and speech.
Through Ann Sullivan’s tireless and selfless efforts, Helen finally learned to communicate through touch and even learned to talk.
When Miss Sullivan first tried to tell Helen about God, the girl’s response was that she already knew about Him-just didn’t know His name.
Romans 1:18-19, “For 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.”
Let’s look at the statement “for God made it evident to them.”
As we noted earlier, “for” is the causal use of the conjunction gar, which introduces a statement that gives the reason why the entire human race has knowledge of God, namely, because He made it visible to them by means of observing His creation.
“Made it evident” is the verb phaneroo (fanerovw) (fan-er-o-o), which means, “to make visible what is invisible” and is related to the adjective phaneros that appears earlier in Romans 1:19 and is translated “evident.”
Therefore, in Romans 1:19, the verb phaneroo refers to the invisible God making Himself visible to the human race by means of what He has created.
Psalm 19:1-4, “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge. There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard. Their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world.”
Acts 14:16-17, “In the generations gone by He permitted all the nations to go their own ways and yet He did not leave Himself without witness, in that He did good and gave you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying your hearts with food and gladness.”
The Scriptures teach that the second member of the Trinity, the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ is the Creator.
Genesis 1:1, “In eternity past, God created out of nothing the heavens and the earth.”
John 1:1-4, “In eternity past the Word has always existed and the Word has always existed face to face with the God (the Father) and the Word has always existed as God. He was in eternity past face to face with God. All things came into existence through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into existence that has come into existence. In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men.”
Colossians 1:15-17, “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by Him all things were created, {both} in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities-- all things have been created through Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.”
As we all know, evolution is taught in our schools as an alternative to the creation account that is taught in the Bible, but it takes more faith to believe in evolution than it does to believe the Biblical account of creation.
There are 3 essential areas into which evolution cannot move and which evolution cannot solve: (1) It cannot bridge the gap from nothing to something. (2) It cannot bridge the gap from something to life. (3) It cannot bridge the gap between life and humanity-that is self-conscious human life with a volition.
We know that through the law of cause and effect, that the law requires an adequate cause for every effect.
Now I think it is safe to say that creation is a pretty big effect and therefore demands a Creator with eternal power and divine nature.
Robert Jastrow, an astrophysicist and director of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, as saying, “Now we see how the astronomical evidence supports the biblical view of the origin of the world....The essential elements in the astronomical and biblical accounts of Genesis are the same. Consider the enormousness of the problem: Science has proved that the universe exploded into being at a certain moment. It asks what cause produced this effect? Who or what put the matter and energy into the Universe? And science cannot answer these questions....For the scientist who has lived by his faith in the power of reason, the story ends like a bad dream. He has scaled the mountains of ignorance; he is about to conquer the highest peak; as he pulls himself over the final rock, he is greeted by a band of theologians who have been there for centuries.”
William Cullen Bryant eloquently spoke:
My heart is awed within me, when I think
Of the great miracle, which still goes on,
In silence, round me-the perpetual work
Of thy creation, finished, yet renewed
Forever.
