Exposition of Romans 1:18-32

Opening Remarks

Good morning!

I’m so glad to see everyone this morning, both online and in person. We are so blessed to worship God as one family together with countless other Christians today who join us in Spirit to adore Christ with worship, and listen attentively to God’s word so that we can know God’s will.

I hope you will stay with us after service for our Winter Mission Plan. I’ll introduce our church’s mission plan for the winter so that you know what we’re doing and where we’re going. I’ve worked hard to keep this under 30 minutes and hope to make it under 20 minutes.

And I hope we’ll see you tonight in Ithaca for fifth Sunday worship, weather permitting.

Your Bible reading assignment for next week is Romans 2:1-16.

PREACHING NOTE: stick close to your notes and move quickly!

Exegesis: First Argument

One particular feature of Paul’s rhetorical structure is that the intended effect of the flow of his theological arguments are cumulative and climaxes in chapters 9–11, with chapters 12-15 calling the Christians in Rome to action. Missing this continuity causes some to place Paul’s emphasis in the wrong place. And this is why I believe some have built entire theological systems, which Paul, as an early Jewish Christian, would hardly have recognized as his own. We must avoid this mistake.

For this reason we’re paying close attention to how Paul structures his thoughts and moves them forward so that we can preserve the continuity of his letter and evaluate the meaning of his individual arguments as we go. So let’s briefly take a step back so that we can understand where we’re going and make sense of the dense texture of his individual arguments in today’s text.

To navigate the complex challenges that Paul faces as he writes to a diverse audience, with whom he has no prior relationship, he sets out to accomplish his purpose of bringing about “the obedience of faith for the sake of Jesus’ name” (Romans 1:5) by proposing the central truth of the gospel, which he believes changes everything for everyone. And this central truth of the gospel is the propositional statement that the good news of Jesus reveals the righteousness of God. Paul then explains the meaning of this central truth through twelve arguments in Romans 1:18-15:13, in which he hopes to accomplish his mission and “bring about their obedience of faith”.

Paul’s first argument in Romans 1:18–2:16 is a “leveling argument”, which places his entire diverse audience on equal footing by describing the fall of humanity. One could read these verses as his Gentile-retelling of Genesis chapters 1-11. This is how humanity, including both Jew and Gentile, fell away from God and came under his judgment.

Paul’s second argument will briefly deal with Jews outside of Christ in a diatribal format in Romans 2:17-3:20. These continue Paul’s “leveling argumentation” by being based on common human experience.

After making his first two arguments, Paul will revisit, refresh, and expand his propositional statement in Romans 3:21-31 to prepare for his next lines of argumentation, which will draw on the authority of Scripture to explain how God’s redemptive plan is carried out in Christ by the Holy Spirit. However, he must be clear that Christians, whether Jewish or Gentile, are not to submit to the Mosaic covenant because Christ is the end of the Law as the means of salvation. Paul’s argumentation here isn’t against “obedience”, in fact he’s writing to bring about the “obedience of faith” (v.5), but against what theologians refer to as "covenantal nomism”, or what we might call “covenantal legalism”. Salvation is by God’s grace, which was shown to us in his Son, Jesus our Messiah. Now Christians are under a new covenant. So, Paul will enter his final discourse on this new way for everyone to respond to God’s grace in chapters 12–15.

Paul’s first argument is composed of two movements: the first movement is Romans 1:18-32, which contrasts the righteousness of God that is revealed through faith, with the wrath of God that is revealed from on high and realized in human unrighteousness; the second movement is in Romans 2:1-16, and explains God’s judgment against human unrighteousness, both Jewish and Gentile.

The Wrath of God Revealed

Paul’s primary proposition is that the good news of Jesus reveals God’s righteousness. For Paul, this is the central truth of the entire gospel. God is righteous, which you’ll remember carries the meaning of being “just” as well. God is righteous and just. Holy and good.

God’s righteousness demands that he must be just in how he deals with sinners.

The first two arguments Paul makes are about how God justly punishes human unrighteousness. Arguments three through nine are about how God justly redeems fallen humanity in Christ. Both lines of arguments are necessary to establish the righteousness of God in gospel claims. Unfortunately, the modern pulpits squeamishness about God’s judgment has left our gospel both imbalanced and philosophically indefensible. So it is my task today to assert the perfectly balanced and righteous wrath of God. I do hope you have taken the time to pray for me this week.

Romans 1:18–19 CSB

For God’s wrath is revealed from heaven against all godlessness and unrighteousness of people who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth, since what can be known about God is evident among them, because God has shown it to them.

Paul begins his defense of God’s righteousness by arguing humanity’s guilt before God. Humanity did not crawl out of some swamp in a state of ignorance, but was created in fellowship with him. We knew God.

We see this in the epoch of Job, who lived in the land of Uz and knew God long before the covenant of Abraham or the Law of Moses. Job, his family, and his friends understood who God was and his nature.

Consider Job’s unfaithful friend Bildad:

Job 8:1–6 CSB

1 Then Bildad the Shuhite replied: 2 How long will you go on saying these things? Your words are a blast of wind. 3 Does God pervert justice? Does the Almighty pervert what is right? 4 Since your children sinned against him, he gave them over to their rebellion. 5 But if you earnestly seek God and ask the Almighty for mercy, 6 if you are pure and upright, then he will move even now on your behalf and restore the home where your righteousness dwells.

Although Bildad is perverse in how he uses his knowledge of God, he correctly understands the nature of his Creator. Humanity began with the knowledge of God.

Consider Cain when he murdered his brother Abel:

Genesis 4:13–14 CSB

13 But Cain answered the Lord, “My punishment is too great to bear! 14 Since you are banishing me today from the face of the earth, and I must hide from your presence and become a restless wanderer on the earth, whoever finds me will kill me.”.

Cain’s punishment was banishment “from the face of God”. Our downward spiral into sin has separated us farther and farther from God, who is holy and unwilling to indefinitely dwell in the presence of evil.

This reflects the nature of God’s righteousness:

1 John 1:5 CSB

5 This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light, and there is absolutely no darkness in him.

Humanity was not ignorant of God. We understood our Creator from the beginning.

“For” (“γὰρ” v. 18)

You’ll remember from last week how we explained that the Greek word “γὰρ” functions as a “logical connector” and introduces the reasoning of the preceding verse. We should be clear that the reason the righteousness of God is being revealed is because the wrath of God is coming against the sinfulness of men.

God has elected in his righteousness to save some before he destroys the world because of its sin.

We should also point out that the argument in 1:18–3:20 answers an implied question from 1:17, which is, “Why has God revealed his righteousness and appropriated it by faith?” God is revealing his righteousness because he is about to reveal his wrath, “yes”, as we have just said, but he has appropriated his righteousness through faith because it was our breech of faith and faithfulness that caused our downward spiral into sin and death in the first place!

“God’s wrath is revealed from heaven” (v. 18)

As we’ve previously observed, the parallel between the unveiling of God’s righteousness and God’s wrath is clear.

N.T. Wright’s translations of this verse is insightful:

Paul for Everyone, Romans Part 1: Chapters 1–8 Humans Reject God and Embrace Corruption (Romans 1:18–23)

For the anger of God is unveiled from heaven against all the ungodliness and injustice performed by people who use injustice to suppress the truth

He describes the human race like a large tree that has become so rotten to its core that it must urgently come down before it collapses under its own weight and crashes into someone’s house. But you can’t just start hacking away at the tree. You attach ropes, saw off certain limbs, and make cuts in precise locations to drop the tree exactly where you want it to cause as little damage as possible.

The human race has become corrupt through its sin and will destroy God’s creation along with itself if left unchecked. I think this reality is undeniable at this point in human history. But God has planted a new tree, which he is cultivating through Christ to replace this rotten tree that he is about to cut down.

“Yes”, God is angry about what humanity has done. And he has every right to be. But the good news is that God isn’t just going to burn his whole backyard down, he is going to plant a new tree, and when the time is right, he will drop this old, rotten, gnarly monstrosity and finally be rid of the whole thing.

“Against all godlessness and unrighteousness of people” (v. 18)

Paul’s justification of God’s judgment against humanity is based on our corruption.

We understand from humanity’s origin story in Genesis that we are central to God’s plan to rule his creation (Genesis 1:26): that’s an essential part of what it means to be made ‘in God’s image’ (Genesis 1:26–27). So when humans go wrong, our whole dominion suffers.

You’ll see Paul make this point in the climax of Paul’s eighth argument:

Romans 8:18–22 CSB

18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is going to be revealed to us. 19 For the creation eagerly waits with anticipation for God’s sons to be revealed. 20 For the creation was subjected to futility—not willingly, but because of him who subjected it—in the hope 21 that the creation itself will also be set free from the bondage to decay into the glorious freedom of God’s children. 22 For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together with labor pains until now.

So we can see how from Romans 1:18 right through to 2:16, Paul lays out his charge against the human race in general: we are rotten to our core, and the eventual crash to which this will lead (See 1:32; 2:5; 2:16) is anticipated in the signs of corruption, disintegration and decay that are evident all around us. We see this corruption, so to speak, in the upper branches of the human race (See 1:24–31). Paul here is describing in our present passage (1:18-23) how this corruption begins with the rotting of the roots themselves. And this point is essential to understand because Paul’s discourse on “idolatry” is meant to describe the first cause of humanity’s corruption.

“Who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth” (v. 19)

Perhaps my greatest disappointment in today’s sermon is that I can’t spend more time on this verse. Paul describes the manner by which our faithless rebellion against God corrupts the whole human race. It is as if the corruption at our root in the form of idolatry gets taken up into the branches through our suppressing the knowledge of God in unrighteousness.

When God creates us in his image male and female, we suppress the knowledge of God by confusing the reality of our gender. And we pervert “masculinity” and “femininity”. Likewise, God created us free in this world, but we suppress the knowledge of God by subjugating one another.

So we can see how humanity’s downward spiral away from God into sin begins by faithlessly rejecting the knowledge of our Creator and replacing him with other things.

“Since what can be known about God is evident among them, because God has shown it to them”

Paul’s argument rejects both the notions of “the noble savage” and “the ignorant pagan”. Humanity is presented as repressing the knowledge of God through injustice and unrighteousness. Although we like to deceive ourselves about our innocence, Paul warns that we are not innocent. We will all be held accountable according to both the knowledge of God that we have received and what we have done with that light. As Paul will make explicitly clear in the second movement of this argument (see 2:6-16), no one is judged or condemned based on what they do not know. Instead, we are judged and condemned for suppressing and ignoring the knowledge of God available to us.

Romans 1:20 CSB

For his invisible attributes, that is, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen since the creation of the world, being understood through what he has made. As a result, people are without excuse.

Paul continues his defense of God’s righteousness by reinforcing his argument that God’s power and divine nature were made known to us when he created the world and were, indeed, understood through his physical creation so that humanity is without excuse.

“For”

Once again we encounter the logical-connector that presents verse 20 as the reasoning of verse 19. I think it is worthwhile to explain an essential principle of Bible translation here that might help you in your Bible studies. You will notice that the NIV translates the “For” in verse 20, but not in verse 18. Whereas the CSB does along with formal translations like the NASB.

In this case the NIV emphasizes the proposition of Paul’s argument in verse 18, which is helpful because it focuses the reader’s study of the “γὰρ” clause in verse 20 on the proposition in verse 18. However, other translations opt to preserve the sequential chain of arguments being made that trace back through verse 17 to verse 15, which is then based on verses 4 and 5.

This is why I suggest reading from at least to translations: some great combinations are the CSB and NIV or NASB/ESV/NKJV and NIV.

“His invisible attributes, that is, his eternal power and divine nature”

As we have just said, no one is judged or condemned based on what they do not know. Instead, humanity will be judged and condemned for suppressing and ignoring the knowledge of God available to us. Though God is invisible, his nature and power is not.

So we should be clear that God’s eternal power and divine nature is the universal standard to which humanity is accountable as those who are created in his image or likeness.

Paul essentially poses another question for our deliberation: “what have we done with the knowledge of God?” For Christians, the knowledge of Christ has certain moral obligations, not the least of which is enlightening the world with the light of Christ.

“Have been clearly seen since the creation of the world, being understood through what he has made”

This explains the argument in verse 19 that “what can be known about God is evident among them, because God has shown it to them.” How has God shown his divine nature and power to humanity? He has revealed himself to us through what he has made.

“As a result, people are without excuse”

Paul’s defense of the righteousness of God’s judgment begins with humanity and moves to the individual. People are accountable to God because the human race did not begin in total ignorance of God. We knew God. We understood his divine nature and power. You’ll recall the sayings of Bildad and the condition of Cain. Humanity is without excuse because the human race was not ignorant of God but actively suppressed the knowledge of God in sin.

Romans 1:21 CSB

21 For though they knew God, they did not glorify him as God or show gratitude. Instead, their thinking became worthless, and their senseless hearts were darkened.

“For” (διότι)

This verse is mechanically difficult to translate. You’ll notice that we are not dealing with the same “γὰρ” clause that we have now become familiar with. Yet, most translations render “διότι” here as “for” because it is the most functional English word available. Some formal translations like the ASV and NKJV will render “διότι” as “because”, while some dynamic translations opt simply to imply its presence and leave it untranslated, the reader has to watch out because “διότι” functions a little bit differently than “γὰρ”.

Here’s the difference: διότι introduces 1:21 as a clarification and amplification of the last propositional clause in 1:18 regarding the revelation of God’s wrath towards those who suppress the truth by their wickedness, whereas γὰρ in 1:20 is the logical reasoning of the subordinate clause in 1:19. Usually γὰρ explains the logical connections between clauses, whereas διότι gives the reasoning of propositions.

I bet your glad you came to church today.

“Though they knew God”

Human beings were made to know, worship, love and serve the creator God.

Implied in Paul’s argument is an assumption about human purpose and design. Our relationship with God was and always will be the way to healthy and fruitful human living. And this means we must be willing to let God be God, to trust his divine wisdom, and to celebrate and honour him as God.

“They did not glorify him as God or show gratitude”

Our greatest sin was rejecting God and replacing our relationship with him with other substitutes. Instead of glorifying him as God and expressing our gratitude towards him for the abundance of life he has given us, we have suppressed the knowledge of God with sin and turned towards replacements that serve our wicked purposes.

“Instead, their thinking became worthless, and their senseless hearts were darkened”

Paul’s argument now begins to move from addressing the moral accountability of the human race towards the individual. His argument does not deny individual ignorance of God at various levels, nor is he arguing that the knowledge necessary to restore us to a right relationship with God is available to the human race through nature, as if nature constitutes a third gospel testimony. Instead, his argument is that people are morally accountable to God because the knowledge of God’s divine nature and power that is available in varying degrees to them.

However, our downward spiral from God into sin has caused our reasoning to become worthless and darkened our inner persons. We are increasingly devoid of the knowledge of God, knowing less and less about our Creator and his divine nature. And far from serving as an excuse for our sin, Paul’s argument is that such ignorance is destructive of the whole human race and our dominion. We are so intimately connected to God, and our well-being is so intimately fixed to our knowledge of him, that the farther we dive into sin, and the more we become ignorant of him, the more destructive we become.

Romans 1:22–23 CSB

22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man, birds, four-footed animals, and reptiles.

Paul wrote this letter from the Greek city of Corinth—a city full of idolatry and immorality. He saw firsthand the folly of human reasoning once it becomes disconnected from God’s divine nature and power. And this explains why Paul’s first two chapters to the Corinthians were about the difference between “divine and human wisdom.”

“Claiming to be wise, they became fools” (v. 22)

There are very few individuals who will claim total folly for themselves. When it comes to excusing our sin, we are willing to admit ignorance. When my youngest does something he knows is wrong, reflexively the first words out of his mouth are “I didn’t know; it was an axe-i-dent.” But when we aren’t being faced with our moral accountability for sin, we claim wisdom. We think we know best.

Paul’s argument is that when our thinking becomes disconnected from the knowledge of God, even our “best” is sheer destructive folly. His proof, as we will see momentarily, is the evidence of human evil. Consider the injustice and unrighteousness that oppresses the whole world. This is not the result of God’s will, it is the result of human reasoning that rejects the knowledge of God and claims to know a better way for itself.

“And exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man, birds, four-footed animals, and reptiles” (v. 23)

An exchange has taken place: the knowledge of God’s divine nature and power has been replaced by the knowledge of the creature. We replace God’s divine nature as our light with the light of human nature or other creatures. And this light is our darkness.

Romans 1:24 CSB

24 Therefore God delivered them over in the desires of their hearts to sexual impurity, so that their bodies were degraded among themselves.

Paul’s argument advances from the accountability of the human race to our personal accountability before God. We suppressed the knowledge of God and corrupted our very own natures. So God allowed us to free-fall into sin so that we could experience the destructive consequences of rejecting his divine nature and power.

“Therefore” (διό)

διό is a “logical inferential conjunction”, which means that Paul is describing the logical conclusions of the argument that he just made. The result of suppressing the knowledge of God is the moral and spiritual destruction of the human race.

“God delivered them over in the desires of their hearts to sexual impurity, so that their bodies were degraded among themselves” (v. )

An important answer is implied here to the skeptical question, “Why does an all-powerful and good God allow evil?” The continued presence of evil in this world is God’s response to humanity’s rebellion, which foretells and anticipates his coming wrath. Simply, the knowledge of God’s divine nature and power tells us that the reality of human sin anticipates his judgment after he exercises his mercy.

God temporarily allows evil because we demanded it in anticipation of both the good news of our redemption and the righteous exercise of his divine justice and power that is to come. He is carefully planting a new tree before he destroys the rotten one. There will be a redeemed human race to supplant this corrupt one.

The question we must deliberate about here is this: will we continue to suppress the knowledge of God in unrighteous deception or turn from this corrupt generation and enter the Kingdom of God through the grace that has been given to us in Christ by God’s divine righteousness?

We’re going to speed up now for the sake of time and look at the remaining verses at the propositional level rather than the clausal level.

Romans 1:25 CSB

25 They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served what has been created instead of the Creator, who is praised forever. Amen.

Paul recapitulates and amplifies his argument: we have both collectively suppressed the knowledge of God as one human race, and individually rebelled against him in this unholy exchange whereby we serve destructive lies in place of God.

Another important point is being made: humanity has not become the “masters of our own destiny” as we supposed when we rebelled against God; we are not free. We simply serve the cruel taskmaster of sin. This will be the all important argument made in chapters six and seven.

Romans 1:26–28 CSB

26 For this reason God delivered them over to disgraceful passions. Their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. 27 The men in the same way also left natural relations with women and were inflamed in their lust for one another. Men committed shameless acts with men and received in their own persons the appropriate penalty of their error. 28 And because they did not think it worthwhile to acknowledge God, God delivered them over to a corrupt mind so that they do what is not right.

We see an important thematic parallel between these verses and verse 24, which describes the destructive impact sin has on human nature. In verse 24, Paul describes the human body as being “degraded” by sin. Then in verses 26 through 28, Paul describes sin’s destruction of human passions.

An absolutely essential point to Paul’s argument is the idea that both our physical and spiritual natures have been completely corrupted by sin. Human nature has both physical and spiritual dimensions; “body”, “passion”, and “mind”. In more modern conceptions, we have “biology”, “emotions”, and “will”. Another delusion that comes from the folly of human reasoning that Paul rejects is the idea that we are merely material beings. We are not. We have spiritual dimensions. Or in modern terminology, we have non-material aspects to our nature. Your “will” and “emotions” are not the results of mere biological processes, which is why these often set themselves on things that run contrary to our biological needs and well-being.

Conclusion: God’s Just Sentence

Paul’s first argument in 1:18-2:16 is composed of two movements. The first movement concludes with human accountability to God by rejecting the premise that we are really ignorant of what is “right” and “wrong”. Instead, we have suppressed the knowledge of God even though we understand his righteous nature.

God’s divine nature and power are the universal standard to which we are all morally accountable.

Romans 1:29–32 CSB

29 They are filled with all unrighteousness, evil, greed, and wickedness. They are full of envy, murder, quarrels, deceit, and malice. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, God-haters, arrogant, proud, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, 31 senseless, untrustworthy, unloving, and unmerciful. 32 Although they know God’s just sentence—that those who practice such things deserve to die—they not only do them, but even applaud others who practice them.

Where does the injustice that we see afflicting the world come from? One of the inescapable conclusions of Paul’s argument is that human evil comes from our rejection of God. First at the fall, and subsequently in our downward spiral away from God into deeper and darker depths of depravity.

Everything you see above composes the great moral burden imposed on the human soul by sin. These are the things that cause us to cry out “Where is God?!” We hear the question of the cross arise from the deepest recesses of the human soul, “My God! My God! Why have you forsaken me?!”

When skeptics ask where is our all-powerful and good God in all this sin, it is the very evils that they have chosen over God that provoke this question!

Where in God’s creation do we derive the knowledge to justify greed? Where do we get the idea that “murder” is good? What about slander? These do not come from the knowledge of God. These are the lies that we use to suppress the knowledge of God in our rebellion against him. And then we have the audacity to charge God with injustice. Every soul will answer God and give an account for the folly of their reasoning!

I now want to address one final side to Paul’s argument: “they knew God’s just sentence”. Humanity knew God as we see in the discourse between Bildad and Job. We did not crawl out of some swamp in a state of total ignorance about God. For anyone who is unfamiliar with the book of Job, it describes humanity during the time after Noah before God’s covenant with Abraham. The human race knew God’s justice. And they knew God’s just sentence that those who do such things deserve to die because God had just wiped out the human race with the flood - all except Noah and his family.

This conclusion does not address our personal accountability before God in the sense that some random Zhou in China knows that God has decreed that sinners die, someone on an individual level might actually be ignorant of this sentence. The second part of Paul’s first argument that we will examine next week will deal with how God’s just judgment is administered at the personal level.

Instead, this conclusion deals with the accountability of the human race before God in light of our sinful repression of the knowledge of God. We knew better! We should never have gotten this bad. We should never have done what we did. And every single one of us alive today plays some part in continuing to suppress the knowledge of God in sin.

The good news of Jesus is set in the context of how wickedly we have behaved in rebelling against God. This is the reason we assemble together every week. To restore what has been lost to humanity through the grace of Christ. We glorify God as our Father. We seek to honor him with our lives by learning his good and perfect will and conforming ourselves to his righteousness. You will see this argument made in Romans 12:1-2.

By returning to God through Christ, our relationship with our Father is restored and God makes everything right again. So let us now celebrate the salvation that has been given to us by remembering Christ, whose body was crushed, and whose blood was shed in order to prove God’s righteous love and mercy towards us so that we could once again know God and trust in him.

Let’s now lift one voice together to worship God!