Romans 1:18-23 The Gospel - Gods solution to the sins obfuscation of God.

Romans 1:18-23, The Gospel - God's solution to the sin's obfuscation of God.

Nathan Wakefield / General

Theological Proposition/Focus: In Romans 1:18-23, Paul describes humanity's rejection of God through the suppression of truth and idolatry, illustrating how we consistently choose worshiping created things over the Creator. The message teaches that rejecting God leads to a distorted understanding of truth and results in moral degradation. It highlights the importance of acknowledging God's revelation in creation and scripture, urging believers to choose wisely in their worship and loyalty. True worship is a choice that honors God, recognizing Him as the ultimate source of value and truth, rather than turning to false idols that lead us astray.

Christ Focus: Jesus embodies the truth that we often overlook, as He is the fulfillment of God's plan for redemption. In rejecting our choice of lesser things, we are invited to embrace Christ as the ultimate truth and reality, who restores our relationship with the Creator.

Homiletical Proposition/Application: This sermon helps Christians identify areas in their lives where they may be prioritizing material, cultural, or personal idols over their relationship with God. It encourages reflection on how these choices affect spiritual health and invites a recommitment to God.

Introduction: Scripture Memory Verse Romans 1:16

Image: Making the wrong choice. Lima Beans

Have you ever made exactly the wrong choice? Or maybe you chose something you should have passed on? I have a pretty severe allergy to lima beans, but my mom doesn’t like lima beans either, so it was only after Emily and I were married that we discovered my allergy. I kept getting incredibly sick, and we couldn’t figure out why until one day we put all the pieces together and realized it was an allergy.

Shortly after figuring it out, a professor and I were working together, exploring computational solutions to partial differential equations. We had worked hard all morning, and it was time for lunch. He wanted to treat me, and it wasn’t until the food came out that I realized there were lima beans. I decided it would be okay; I would pick around the lima beans. I thought if lima beans were the line, I could get right up to the line. Well, it didn’t work out.

I finished lunch, wrapped up the work, and started the two-mile walk to Emily’s office at the hospital where she was doing her residency so we could drive home together. At this time, we carpooled—she would drop me off at the university, and when I finished, I’d walk back to the hospital, and we’d drive home. About a mile down the trail, I started to feel unwell. A little further, I realized I was in trouble. I knew there was a Home Depot just off the trail, so I stumbled into it, found the bathroom, and proceeded to empty my stomach. Then I called Emily and told her she needed to come get me as soon as she could.

It was one of the most miserable drives home I’ve ever had. I repeatedly needed to empty an already empty stomach, and it ended with Emily warning me: If you do this again, you’ll probably wind up in the ER. Even if you feel obligated to eat something, it’s the wrong choice.

Today, we’re going to dig into sin—a wrong choice, a choice that prevents us from knowing God as we should.

Setting the Stage:

Last week we saw that the Gospel helps us to understand the righteousness of God—a righteousness that provides a way of salvation despite the need for justice. A righteousness that has the ability to not only keep itself holy but to sanctify and redeem that which is not.

Verse 17 ended with the statement that "For in the Gospel the righteousness of God is revealed."

The reality is that God is good and loving, and that love drove Him to the cross to make the ultimate payment for each of us. But if we are to really understand this, then we need to understand sin better.

The Gospel is God's solution to sin, but to appreciate the righteousness of God in providing salvation, we are going to dig into God's righteous condemnation of sin.

Sometimes Baptists get a bad rap for focusing too much on sin, but I want us to understand that we focus on sin and condemnation so that we might better understand the significance of grace.

Body

Rejecting Revelation — God's wrath is the righteous response to the suppression of truth (18-20)

The wrath of God is revealed against humanity's ungodliness and suppression of truth. This sets the stage for understanding the gravity of rejecting God as the ultimate truth. We often hide or ignore God's clear revelation through creation, leading us away from genuine worship.

Let’s really dig deep into verse 18.

God's wrath is against the suppression of truth (18).

Our NIV translators chose not to translate an important word in the Greek (γὰρ) because they assumed it was clear, but I want us to note it because I think even more clarity is warranted. A better translation would be: "For the wrath of God is being revealed."

The word "for" connects verse 18 to verse 17. In verse 17, we see the main thesis: the gospel reveals the righteousness of God. So, what we have in verse 18 is the reality that the wrath of God stands parallel with the righteousness of God.

What do you mean by God's wrath? Isn't wrath a bad thing?

Here is where we need to be careful. While we tend to think of wrath and anger in a negative light, there are times when it would be unrighteous not to respond severely.

Let me give some examples: if you come across someone hurting a child and choose to ignore the situation or allow it to continue, that is unrighteous.

With this in mind, let's dig further into the verse.

Notice a key and important phrase: "godlessness and wickedness of people." Have you ever heard the phrase "hate the sin, not the sinner"? There is some biblical warrant for this phrase. Now, before I go too far, we need to understand that one day all who reject God will face eternal punishment (Romans 2:5). But for now, we must understand that God's wrath is against unrighteous acts. God loves sinners and desires their salvation.

Now, with that behind us, let’s dig a little deeper. The biggest problem we face—and really, what humanity has faced since the garden—is the suppression of truth. This is what Satan did to Eve back in the garden, and it is what people continue to do today. People suppress the truth. What is that truth? Let’s look at verse 19.

The truth that is suppressed is the reality of God (19).

Supressing the truth of God is significant, it is like not telling people they are in a burning building!

The truth that is suppressed is the truth of God Himself. Let’s take a minute to understand just how significant this is. If this building were to catch fire and our security people chose not to tell us, leading to our perishing, they would be guilty of an egregious act. Now realize that the infinite God of the universe—the one who created the world and desires a relationship with us—has made Himself known and is offering redemption and salvation. Yet, instead of turning to Him, people try to cover up God. How egregious is that act? Is it not worthy of God's wrath?

You might not know everything about God but you can know enough and are responsible for that information.

The implication of verse 19 is that human beings cannot know everything about God, but we can know enough. We are responsible for knowing what God has revealed. Easy enough, right? Well, maybe.

This truth is knowable without any special revelation (20).

Verse 20 highlights an important fact: God's existence does not require any special revelation. God's existence has been clear from the creation of the world.

Though God Himself is invisible, His attributes are evident in creation. Scripture offers several examples:

• God's eternality is evidenced in Ecclesiastes 3:11: "He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end."
• God's careful planning and intentionality are evidenced in Psalm 104.
• God's glory is on display in the heavens, as stated in Psalm 19:1-4: "The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of His hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they reveal knowledge."
• God's care is displayed in Matthew 6:28-30: "And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin."

Image: The intelligent design movement

The Intelligent Design (ID) movement argues that life's complexity and the universe's fine-tuning point to an intelligent cause rather than undirected natural processes. Michael Behe, a biochemist, proposes the concept of "irreducible complexity." He argues that some biological systems are too complex to have evolved through gradual evolutionary steps.

Examples:

• The Bacterial Flagellum: Often compared to an outboard motor, it consists of a rotor, stator, and propeller. ID advocates argue that its complexity couldn’t arise incrementally.
• The Blood-Clotting Cascade: A sequence of biochemical reactions that prevents blood loss. ID proponents suggest that the removal of any component would render it ineffective.
• The Immune System: A complex network of responses to neutralize pathogens, argued by ID advocates as too intricate for stepwise evolution.

I’m not trying to sound conspiratorial, but I’ve seen firsthand how some researchers stretch or obfuscate data to fit narratives. While scientific claims deserve consideration, they are not as infallible as often presented. People suppress the truth.

Overlooking the Obvious — Each person is accountable to glorify and give thanks to God (21)

God's invisible qualities have been made clear to humanity, yet people choose not to honor Him. Failing to acknowledge God, despite His evident power, is foolish. This choice results in futile thinking and darkened hearts. We must see Christ as the light that dispels ignorance and invites us to embrace God's revealed wisdom with gratitude.

It is not enough to know of God; He deserves worship.

We are called to worship as in Psalm 95:6, but we often choose not to worship.

Let’s take a moment to consider the significance of this. People choose, willfully, not to worship God. Consider Psalm 95:6: "Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the Lord our Maker." We are called to worship God.

Failure to worship and thank God is a foolish decision that inevitably leads to a spiral.

John Witmer wrote, "When truth is rejected, in time the ability to recognize and to receive truth is impaired." I have personally seen this happen. People convince themselves of falsehoods and begin to spiral out of control.

Falling For Falsehood — But time and time again, people choose to give glory and thanks to that which is not God (22-23).

There is deep irony in claiming wisdom yet falling into idolatry. Exchanging God's glory for images of creation is foolishness at its peak. However, we in modern times are no better. We need to identify modern idols in our lives—be it success, technology, or self—and recognize Jesus as the true image of God deserving of our worship. This turn from idolatry to embracing Christ aligns our lives with God's ultimate truth.

You cannot become wise while rejecting wisdom (22).

There is a deep divide between wisdom and knowledge.

It only took me 50 math courses and writing a text book to understand the freshman high school concept of inverse functions.

I have taken a lot of math courses in my life—and I mean a lot. By the time I was teaching at UNL, I had taken well over 50 math classes. One day, as I was writing material for what would eventually become the calculus book I authored (and that UNL now uses), I realized what an inverse function truly was. Now understand, inverse functions are typically taught to high school freshmen. After more than 15 years of studying math, I began to truly understand the concept. Sure, I had the knowledge; I had enough knowledge to ace tests involving inverse functions. But I lacked understanding—I lacked wisdom.

The Greco-Roman world valued σοφός (wisdom) highly. However, Paul argues that the world's attempts at wisdom result in foolishness. The Greek word φάσκοντες, an adverbial participle translated as "although they claimed," was commonly used in Greek to describe a claim without rational substantiation. Implicitly, Paul scoffs at those who think they are wise but whose actions prove otherwise.

Image: Most of us have met someone who thinks they are wise but in reality are not.

Have you ever met someone who thinks they are much smarter than they actually are? If your answer is "no," it might be you. If your answer is "yes, everyone I know," it probably is you... Regardless, we know people who fit this description. They think of themselves as wise, but in reality, they are not.

Rejecting God always seems to lead to replacing God (23).

Human foolishness reaches a climax when we take the ultimate step of worshipping the created rather than the Creator.

C.S. Lewis argued that everyone has a God-shaped hole in their heart. Evidence of this is all around us, particularly in the ways people fill that void with anything but God. Yet the results are never as fulfilling.

The text speaks of the glory of the immortal God. Numerous passages emphasize His glory:

• Psalm 104:1-2: "Praise the Lord, my soul. Lord my God, you are very great; you are clothed with splendor and majesty. The Lord wraps himself in light as with a garment; he stretches out the heavens like a tent."
• Revelation 4:11: "You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being."
• 1 Timothy 1:17: "Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen."

We have the opportunity to worship the immortal God of the universe, yet we often trade this for something far less.

A few months ago, I took a young boy flying. He was an interesting kid, but one thing he did made me chuckle. As he climbed into the airplane, he brought a toy airplane with him. While we prepared for flight, he was entirely focused on explaining the parts of his toy airplane to me. Even as we flew, he talked about the toy airplane. Now, I enjoy toy airplanes, but the boy didn’t seem to realize we were in a real airplane, and I was offering him the chance to fly it!

Replacing God with anything other than God is foolish (23).

The ancient world often turned images of various creatures into gods. Paul lists four examples: humans, birds, animals, and reptiles. All of these are perishable. Some of them, like reptiles, have incredibly short lifespans.

For instance, the Labord's Chameleon from Madagascar typically lives only 4-5 months after hatching. This brief adult lifespan is among the shortest for vertebrates. On the other extreme, the Greenland shark can live up to 400 years. Yet even 400 years is insignificant compared to eternity.

We foolishly exchange the immortal for the finite. And when I say "we," I mean it. You may not worship a carved idol, but modern idols abound: sports, food, money, self, political figures, heroes. We exchange the glory of the immortal God for things that fall woefully short.

The Solution: Jesus

This passage does not yet present the solution to the problem. That is what the whole book is about. However, consider an important reality: we seem to have a deep need for something concrete to worship. God has not left us without such a tangible representation.

• Colossians 1:15: "The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation."

• Hebrews 1:3: "The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven."

• John 14:9: "Jesus answered: 'Don't you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, “Show us the Father”?'"

• 2 Corinthians 4:4: "The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God."

• John 1:18: "No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known."

</p>These passages highlight Jesus as both the representation and revelation of God. In His words, actions, and very being, Jesus makes God known to us. The solution to rejecting revelation, overlooking the obvious, and falling into foolishness is to look to Jesus.</p>