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We all know GOD exists. Sure, there are some atheists, but they are really kidding themselves. So, let us not think about that. We know there is a GOD. Here is the big question. Do we treat Him like GOD?

Think about it. GOD is GOD. GOD is great. GOD is good. We “know it”. Do we believe Him?

If we do not treat him like GOD, GOD says, in effect, “If that’s what you want, that’s what you get.” This is a case of be careful what you ask for.

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.

English Standard Version. (2016). (Romans 1:18). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.

The issue of the wrath of God is a topic most of us gladly want to avoid. We do not want to think about it. We want the warm and fuzzy feelings of love. We just kind of skip over these sections in our bibles. We should note that this revelation of the wrath of God is happening now. Paul uses the current tense here.

“The wrath of God is …”: God’s wrath is being revealed. That is happening now. It is not a future issue only. There will, in the future, be a day of judgement. When I begin to see things through this lens, it explains a lot. The wrath that is being revealed all ungodliness and unrighteousness. This is comprehensive in scope.

It may surprise us to find how frequently the Bible talks about the wrath of God. Yet if God loves all that is right and good and all that conforms to his moral character, then it should not be surprising that he would hate everything that is opposed to his moral character. God’s wrath directed against sin is therefore closely related to God’s holiness and justice. God’s wrath may be defined as follows: God’s wrath means that he intensely hates all sin.

Human history began with man knowing God. Human history is not the story of a beast that worshiped idols, and then evolved into a man worshiping one God. Human history is just the opposite: man began knowing God but turned from the truth and rejected God.

  • God revealed Himself to man through creation, the things that He made.
  • From the world around him, man knew that there was a God who had the wisdom to plan and the power to create.
  • Man realized too that this Creator was eternal … “His eternal power and Godhead” (Rom. 1:20), since God could not be created if He is the Creator.
  • These facts about God are not hidden in creation; they are “clearly seen” (Rom. 1:20).
  • “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament show His handiwork” (Ps. 19:1).

The word translated “hold” in Rom. 1:18 can also be translated “hold down, suppress.” Men knew the truth about God, but they did not allow this truth to work in their lives. They suppressed it in order that they might live their own lives and not be convicted by God’s truth. The result, of course, was refusing the truth (Rom. 1:21–22), and then turning the truth into a lie (Rom. 1:25). Finally, man so abandoned the truth that he became like a beast in his thinking and in his living.

The doctrine of the wrath of God in Scripture is not limited to the Old Testament, however, as some have falsely imagined. We read in John 3:36, “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.” Paul says, “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men”. Many more New Testament verses also indicate God’s wrath against sin.

Good News: Furthermore, we should feel no fear of God’s wrath as disciples of Jesus, for although we “were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind” (Eph. 2:3), we now have trusted in Jesus, “who delivers us from the wrath to come” (1 Thess. 1:10). When we meditate on the wrath of God, we will be amazed to think that our Master Jesus the Messiah bore the wrath of God that was due to our sin, in order that we might be saved (Rom. 3:25–26).

We have good news! Want to know how to be saved? Click here and here for more.

Sources:

  • English Standard Version. (2016). (Romans 1:18). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.
  • Grudem, W. (2020). Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine (Second Edition, p. 245). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Academic.
  • Wiersbe, W. W. (1996). The Bible exposition commentary (Vol. 1, p. 518). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.