As we consider how we as a church are to take the gospel
message to our brave new world, many forget the necessary and often difficult “pre-step”
that is paramount in the process of evangelism. One cannot help someone be
saved until he/she first helps someone understand that he/she is lost. This is
becoming increasingly difficult in our relativistic world. So much has become
culturally accepted and legal in our surrounding context that many believe that
they are doing alright, especially compared to others that they observe around
them. I’m convinced that so many in our city and our neighborhood either
consciously or subconsciously believe something akin to this statement: “as
long as I’m not as bad as so and so, I’m doing fine and don’t really need
anything in my life. In fact, by all appearances, I’m doing pretty good!” This
could not be further from the truth. Understanding the desperate plight of man
because of sin is something that everyone must acknowledge before they are able
to accept the gift of grace that Jesus has purchased on the cross. Thankfully,
Paul provides some helpful comments on this matter in Romans 1:18-23 and helps
elucidate the guilt experienced by the lost in an effort to point them to
salvation.
1) The Infraction is
Identified-1:18
After introducing the theme of his letter in 1:16-17—that in
the gospel, God moves mightily to put people in right relationship with himself—Paul
postpones further explanation of this good news until 3:21 and begins the bulk
of his argument on a relatively low but absolutely necessary note. While in 1:17, Paul revealed that the
righteousness of God is being revealed, he immediately reminds those reading
that the “wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and
unrighteousness of men” (1:18). The “wrath of God” was a common theme Greco-Roman
literature present. Most pagans in Rome believed that when the gods were
offended, they exercised wrath upon the earth. Here, Paul reveals that the one
true God is enraged by the ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. As a result,
His wrath is made manifest. Though not all sin goes punished in observable ways
now, and most of God’s wrath will be realized at the end of time (when Jesus
returns to judge the world), the present-tense verb “is revealed” makes clear
that in some ways His wrath is being executed today (see 1:24-32).
Unfortunately, I see this all too often in my line of work
at the hospital. So many, following a life of ungodliness and unrighteousness
are dealing with the long-term present effects of certain patterns of sinfulness—drug-dependence,
physical maladies, mental illness, etc. Others that I know, including myself,
experience relational strife, anxieties, fear, and the like as a result of
other choices made and sins endorsed. These are just a few examples of the possible
consequences of certain ungodly habits. To be sure, ultimate judgment does
await for those who do not have a relationship with God through Jesus Christ.
However, many will tell you in candid moments that some consequences of sin are
already very real.
According to Paul, the wrath of God is being exercised
against “all ungodliness and the unrighteousness of men” (1:18). Charles Hodge
believes that “ungodliness” refers to impiety toward God and “unrighteousness”
applies to unjustness toward humanity. Such a view suggests that a lack of
respect for God and His Word leads to a lack of justice for people and a
degradation of relationships.
When Jesus was asked “what is the greatest commandment?” He
responded with “love God with all of yourself” and then added “love your
neighbor as yourself” (Matt. 22:37ff). Here, Paul suggests that doing the
opposite of these—acting in an ungodly and unrighteous way toward God and
others—incurs divine wrath.
What kind of person behaves in this way and receives such
wrath? Those “who suppress the truth in unrighteousness” (1:18b). Here, Paul
describes the kind of person that makes it his/her habit to hold down the truth
or prevent it from surfacing. To put it more concretely, these are those who
attempt to drown the truth by holding it under the water of personal preference
and/worldly relativism.
These are those who understand something about the truth,
but do not want to accept it. These are those who aren’t just uncomfortable
with the truth, they don’t want anyone else to be comfortable with it either.
These are those who desire to advance their own truth rather than the absolute
truth of God. These are those who, as Jack Nicholson exclaimed in A Few Good Men, “can’t handle the truth”
and, by proxy, prove that they have no relationship with the Way, the Truth,
and the Life—Jesus.
So how does this happen? How do people move from lost and in
need of a Savior to antagonistic of any truth whatsoever and hateful of those
who claim it?
Because let’s face it.
In our current context, there is nothing congenial or sanguine about many in
the atheist/postmodern ranks. Some will stop at nothing to suppress and
silencing any claim of absolute truth in general and biblical truth in
particular. Leaders of this march—Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, Richard
Carrier, etc. treat Christianity and the absolute truth it claims not as a
worldview worthy of serious consideration, but as radical, dangerous, and in
need of extinction. In so doing these become what they claim of their opposing
interlocutors—intolerant, oppositional, narrow, and bigoted.
2) The Infraction is
Delineated-1:19-23
Paul goes on to describe exactly how this infraction takes
plan in the human person in verses 19-20. First, God has supplied evidence of
himself in the human person--“because that which is known about God is evident
within them” (1:19). In other words, there is ample evidence to suggest that
human beings are made in the image of God.
(1) Psychologists and
anthropologists from every walk of life recognize that humans possess a unique
openness to the world around them and to their own future. This is witnessed in
the goals that are set, hopes that are formalized, imagination, creativity, and
exploration. (2) These same scientists recognize the incredible tension that
there is within the human person that comes as a result of wanting to be
something that they are not yet or desiring to achieve something that is not
yet realized. Many recognize that many believe the present isn’t satisfactory
as it exists now and most maintain hope for something more. (3) This has led to
an identity crisis and (4) a pervasive search for a perfect community in which
this tension can be satisfied. (5) Pervasive religion (a.k.a. “Sacred Play”),
is one practice that many around the world have given themselves to in an
effort to participate in something more than themselves—something sacred or
divine. All of these, and many more considerations, suggest that there is something
about the human person that resembles something more than what limited to this
world—something beyond this world or divine.
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.”
Paul suggests that “God made it evident to them” (1:19b). In
other words—people who are honest enough to recognize what the Bible,
Anthropologists, Psychologists, etc. are all saying will, in a moment of honest
reflection come to terms with the fact that there is something knowable about God
in the human person. When the human person is appreciated for all of his/her
sophistication, potential, intelligence, etc. it becomes clear that God’s
fingerprints are all over each of us.
Not only is there evidence of the divine in the human
person, but evidence of God is pervasive throughout creation. Paul says, “for
since 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” (1:20a). This statement confirms what the psalmist celebrates in Psalm 8
when he says “when I gaze into the night sky and see the works of your fingers”
and what is exclaimed in Psalm 19—“the heavens declare the glory of God, and
the sky above proclaims his handiwork.” It is obvious in these passages that
the cosmos most impressed ancient writers. When the ancients looked to the
skies, even without the technology available today to help them appreciate all
that there is in the vast universe, they couldn’t help but acknowledge the God
who created them.
A closer look at the skies today betrays the same sentiment.
According to Gribbin and Rees, "The conditions in our Universe really do
seem to be uniquely suitable for life forms like ourselves, and perhaps even
for any form of organic complexity.” Such conditions necessary for life include
the proximity of the earth to the sun, the arrangement of the planets and the
stars, etc. It is almost as though a grand designer precarious measured these
things exactly for his purposes.
However, whether you are looking in a telescope at the stars or in
a microscope at bacteria, the story is the same. A lot has been learned about
certain biological machines including the tail that propels bacteria cells. This
sophisticated piece of equipment contains multiple parts, including a rotor that
by itself can operate at 6,000 to
17,000rpm. With the tail/flagellar
filament attached, the apparatus spins at speeds up to 1000 rpm. The direction
of rotation can be switched almost instantaneously, caused by a slight change
in the position of a protein in the rotor. Even environmentalists marvel at this
complex machine as it is highly efficient and uses very little energy. The
bacteria flagellum is one example of an irreducibly complex naturally-existing mechanism
found in one of the simplest organisms in the world. This glorious complexity
witnessed in the petri dish is more evidence of divine design.
One even smaller example is worth mentioning—junk DNA. For
years scientists believed that the majority of our DNA was not used and highly
irrelevant. Only 2% of our entire DNA makeup is responsible for what is present
physically in who we are. The other 98 percent or so was believed to be discarded
left-overs from a long evolutionary process and no longer viable. However, new
breakthroughs in genome research has concluded that these DNA units called “junk”
are actually very important as they act as chemical switches that turn genes on
and off. In other words, this junk DNA actually controls everything from our
eye color to what kind of diseases one might develop in our lifespan.
Therefore, whether the person looks toward the heavens, under
a microscope, or even at what is nearly invisible, divine design and sovereign
sophistication can be witnessed. Though this revelation of God (called general
revelation) is not able to save the sinner by itself, when it is recognized and
appropriated rightly, it is capable of ushering the lost closer toward the
revelation of Jesus Christ.
Paul concludes that those who suppress the truth, in spite of
all of the evidence of God in the human person and in creation “are without excuse”
(1:20b). God has provided ample evidence of His goodness and creative power.
However, instead of embracing this and following these evidences as they lead
to the greatest revelation of all—Jesus—many explain it away, ignore it
altogether, or seek to drown it in relativism. These are without excuse and
will incur the wrath of God both now and later.
Not only do the lost incur the wrath of God, the Bible says
that they prove to be foolish—“for even though they knew God, they did not
honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and
their foolish heart was darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools…”(1:21-22).
In other words, though many can appreciate the beauty and design they witness
within the human person and in creation and marvel at the sophistication that
characterizes the universe, they do not give God credit, thanks, or praise.
Instead, they provide inferior explanations for the extraordinary. However, these
ultimately prove incomplete, inconsistent, or inadequate.
One glaring example of this is found in the inadequate
explanations for morality that are endorsed by naturalists/humanists/atheists.
While Christians recognize morality—right/wrong, good/evil—as rooted in a good
God who is the ultimate standard of goodness by which everything else is
judged, atheists tend to believe that morality is rooted in one of the following:
what is expedient, what is necessary for survival, or what I choose. However,
just because something works or is efficient doesn’t mean that it is morally
good in every sense. Pragmatists have often walked over people or shrugged off
ethics in the name of efficiency and expedience. Not only that, but survival,
especially of the fittest, in some ways guided Hitler’s campaign against what
he believed were inferior races during WWII. Also, who/what has decided that it
is a good idea to survive/thrive in the first place? Who gets to make the
decision as to what constitutes necessary? Finally, moral relativism that believes
anything goes lead to anarchy and chaos as opposing convictions on moral norms
are ultimately not sustainable. In the end, only God can adequately explain
moral phenomena. However, in spite of the futility of these naturalistic
explanations, the atheist/humanist/naturalist digs in his/her heels. As a
result, their hearts are hardened against God and robust explanations that
include the divine are exchanged for incomplete ideas—“professing to be wise,
they become fools.”
In their unbelief, these betray the fact that they have “exchanged
the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man
and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures” (1:23). Scientists
have replaced Jesus as the ultimate authority, The Origin of the Species is revered over the Bible, the Church is
less frequented than the museum, prayer has been replaced with mindfulness, and
the Gospel message has been traded for the news cycle. Paul compares the reverence
for these inferior things to worshipping birds, four-footed animals, and
crawling creatures. While many pagans did worship such idols literally in Paul’s
day, today these silly gods have been replaced with the academy, government,
philosophy, and the influential voices therein.
So What?
Everyone who has ever walked this planet is guilty of the
infraction highlighted in Romans 1:18. We all have proven ourselves ungodly and
unrighteous and as a result have failed to honor the Lord and love our
neighbor. In so doing, we suppress the truth of the Lord as found in His word
and, have chosen other things to believe in instead of the ultimate truth who
is Christ. All of us either idolized ourselves over Jesus, adopted some
alternative worldview over the Christian faith, or followed an inferior program
over what is found in the Canon of Scripture. Consequently, all are lost and in
desperate need of what only Jesus can give.
Is this something that you have recognized and taken care of
in your life? Are you ready to trade was is futile and inferior for what is
truthful and perfect?
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