God’s Wrath Upon The Gentiles The Reason We Need Salvation 1:18-32

 God’s Wrath Upon The Gentiles

The Reason We Need Salvation

1:18-32

This section on God’s righteous wrath actually goes all the way to 3:20. We can divide it into three parts: (1) God’s wrath upon the Gentiles (non-Jews) in 1:18-32; (2) God’s Wrath Upon The Jews in 2:1-3:8; and (3) God’s wrath upon the whole world in 3:9-20. 

God’s righteousness in revealed through the gospel as God declares righteous those who believe in it. We need his declaration of righteousness because of our lack of righteousness and God’s wrath toward sin. 

God’s wrath is his strong and righteous anger toward sin. He is wrathful toward all ungodliness and unrighteousness. (18) Wrath is God’s reaction to sin. Through their sins, people suppress the truth about God, denying his righteousness and his right\authority to set the moral standards for mankind. 

All people should have some knowledge of God since he has shown it to them in creation. His eternal power and divine nature are revealed in the beauty, complexity, and order of creation. Because of this, their denial of God is unexcused. 

David saw the glory of God in creation. He wrote: “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork”. (Psalm 19:1)

Hymn writers have proclaimed it. Consider the lyrics of “How Great Thou Art”:

Oh Lord, my God

When I, in awesome wonder

Consider all the worlds Thy hands have made

I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder

Thy power throughout the universe displayed

Then sings my soul, my Savior God to Thee

How great Thou art, how great Thou art!”

In contrast, those who do not believe look at creation and either see nothing or a product of random chance.

People do not honor God or give thanks to him for what he has provided. (21) As a result, their thinking became futile and their hearts became foolish and darkened. In their foolish darkness, they began to worship things that God made rather than God himself. They made idols, images of resembling men, animals, and insects. 

Knowing this tendency in mankind, God prohibited his chosen people from making images to worship. The second commandment says:

“You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the LORD you God am a jealous God.” (Exodus 20:4-5)

Mankind’s turning from God had consequences. It produced dark hearts and foolish minds. It produced idol worship. Another consequence is the reaction of God. 

Because of mankind’s turning away from God, God gave them up to their vices. There are three statements in the following verses that: “God gave them up”. They are in verses 24, 26, and 28. The statement in verse 26 is a continuation of the statement in verse 24. God’s giving them up to their self degrading reveals his wrath upon them. 

First, because of their idol worship, God gave them up to impurity and the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves. (24) The exchanging of the truth about God for the lie of idols, led to the exchanging of God’s design for men and women to the lie of homosexuality. (26-27) 

God’s design is the union of men and women in marriage. Genesis 2:24 says: “Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.”

Second, because of their idol worship, God gave them up to a debased mind. That mind developed unrighteous thoughts and deeds. Paul gave a long list of these sins in verses 29-31. Those who did these things deserved to die. The wages of sin is death. (6:23) 

Paul also condemned those who give approval to those who commit these acts. And today we still see that happen in our culture and in various denominations. 

So, we see that debased thinking, leading to sexual deviance and the approval of it, is a judgment. God’s giving mankind over to debased thinking is a judgment on mankind.

Takeaways

The good news of the gospel starts with the bad news of God’s wrath toward sin. 

To know and understand God, we must know and understand that he is holy. 

Since God is holy, he is revulsed by sin. 

Our sin must be dealt with for us to be in communion with God.

Believers must also deal with sin in their lives. 

We need to resist temptation with Scripture and conform our mind’s to what Scripture teaches.

We should also pray for deliverance from sin motivated by our love for God.