The Wrath Revealed: Romans 1:18-32

The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people who suppress the truth by their wickedness.

Wrath. The word falls like a gavel.

We prefer grace. We want to skip to Romans 3:21, to the "but now" of justification. But Paul begins here—with wrath. The gospel is good news only against the backdrop of bad news. And the bad news is very bad indeed.

The wrath of God is being revealed. Present tense. Not just future judgment but current reality. Heaven is not silent about human rebellion. God's wrath is being revealed—in consequences, in the unraveling of human societies, in the internal decay of those who suppress truth.

Suppress the truth. Not ignorance but suppression. Humans know more than they admit. They hold down what rises up. They sit on the truth, keeping it from breaking through.

By their wickedness. The suppression is moral, not intellectual. People don't reject God because the evidence is insufficient. They reject God because they prefer their wickedness. The problem is not in the head but in the heart.

Since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them.

Plain. Evident. Manifest. God has not hidden himself entirely. What may be known—the limited but real knowledge available through creation—is plain to everyone.

For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.

The cosmos is a witness stand. Eternal power—look at the stars, the mountains, the ocean depths. Divine nature—the intricacy of a cell, the regularity of seasons, the beauty of a sunset. Clearly seen. Understood from what has been made.

Without excuse. The phrase falls heavy. No one will stand before God and say, "I didn't know." The heavens declared. The earth testified. The human conscience echoed. Without excuse.

For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.

Knew God. Past tense. There was knowledge. Real knowledge. But it wasn't honored. Two failures: they didn't glorify and they didn't give thanks. The two fundamental responses to God—worship and gratitude—were withheld.

And the result: futile thinking, darkened hearts. The mind spins in circles, the heart grows dim. The rejection of God doesn't lead to enlightenment. It leads to darkness.

Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles.

The exchange. This word will echo through the passage. Exchanged. Traded. Swapped the glory of the immortal God for... images. Idols. Representations of creatures rather than the Creator.

Claimed to be wise. The philosophers. The sophisticates. The enlightened ones who moved past primitive religion. They became fools. The word is moros—morons. Claiming wisdom, achieving foolishness.

Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another.

Therefore. Because of the exchange. God gave them over. Three times this phrase will appear—the most terrifying words in the passage. God gave them over.

Not active punishment. Abandonment. God let them go. Let them have what they wanted. Released the restraints. And they degraded themselves.

They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.

Another exchange. Truth for lie. The fundamental inversion. And the result: worship misdirected. Service given to creation rather than Creator.

Paul cannot help himself—even in this dark passage, he pauses to praise: who is forever praised. Amen. The Creator is worthy, even when creatures rebel.

Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts.

Second giving over. The spiral deepens. Sexual rebellion follows theological rebellion. When the Creator is rejected, the creation order is violated.

Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error.

The disordering of desire. What was natural exchanged for what was unnatural. The body itself becomes the site of rebellion—and the site of consequence. Received in themselves the due penalty. Sin carries its own judgment.

Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done.

Third giving over. Not just desires and bodies now—minds. Depraved minds. Minds that cannot think straight. Minds that call evil good and good evil. They did not think it worthwhile to retain knowledge of God—so God let their thinking deteriorate.

They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy.

The cascade of sins. Twenty-one items—the complete corruption. This is not a list of particularly bad people. This is humanity apart from God. Filled with wickedness. Full of evil. The heart that rejects God becomes a factory of destruction.

Although they know God's righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.

The final indictment. They know. Deep down, they know. God's righteous decree—that such things deserve death—is not hidden. Conscience testifies. And yet they continue. Worse: they approve. They celebrate. They call evil good and demand that others affirm it.

This is the human condition without God. This is why we need the gospel. This is why "but now" in Romans 3:21 will fall like rain on parched ground.

Wrath is being revealed. The darkness is real. And only against this darkness can we see how bright the light of grace truly is.