The Foundation of Salvation: The Wrath of God
Romans 1.18 – For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness,[…]
In Romans chapters 3-8 the Apostle Paul addresses many issues concerning the salvation of man. Each argument, however, is only a branch that emerges out of the central theme of his epistle, which is the doctrine of Justification by Faith (apart from the works of the Law). It is important to understand that though the Apostle does address several different issues, his reasoning for doing so is always to ultimately restate and emphasize his overarching argument of justification by faith in Jesus.
Paul doesn’t begin to argue for this specific doctrine until halfway through the third chapter of Romans (verse 21). He does, however, set the stage for this argument, in a very intentional way in the first two chapters, which is what we are going to look at. Before Paul ever begins to address his main point he lays a foundation for his case, completely convincing his readers of their need for his proposal.
Paul lays out his case in Romans 1-2 that every man has fallen short of the glory of God and is, therefore, under the wrath of God. He emphatically defines his case in 3.9-20:
What then? Are we better than they? Not at all. For we have previously charged both Jews and Greeks that they are all under sin.
10 As it is written:
“There is none righteous, no, not one; 11 there is none who understands; there is none who seeks after God. 12 They have all turned aside; they have together become unprofitable; there is none who does good, no, not one.” 13 “Their throat is an open tomb; with their tongues they have practiced deceit”; “The poison of asps is under their lips”; 14 “Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.” 15 “Their feet are swift to shed blood; 16 Destruction and misery are in their ways; 17 And the way of peace they have not known.” 18 “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”
19 Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. 20 Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin.
This is absolutely staggering. This is a slap in the face to even the slightest degree of humanism. God says that none are good, none seek after Him, none care at all about Him, and therefore all humans have become absolutely unprofitable or ἀχρειόω which is literally translated as ‘useless in character’. So the LORD of glory says that we have all become useless. This is also before He condemns our mouths, our actions, and claims that we all pursue destruction and misery. And if that isn’t enough we are all mockers of God.
Paul wasn’t just making a point, he was taking a sledge hammer to any form of ideology that doesn’t reckon man to be a treacherous, ungodly enemy of God. This is painful to embrace, but it is in the embracing of this truth that the love of God is revealed to us in a powerful revelatory way. When we meditate on and come to terms with the depravity of our nature and condition, the greatness of the God’s love is seen. The fact that He could love something as awful as us shows us the ineffability of His nature.
Unless we view the world threw a lens which incorporates this understanding into the equation we have a false paradigm, and not only that we present an incomplete Gospel. The wrath of God cannot be ‘mentioned in passing’ any more than the love of God or grace of God can be. Each element is essential and must be emphasized to a degree that does it justice. Our world view and our Gospel presentation must line up with the Truth of the Scriptures even if it hurts due to our sympathy for others. People are hurt. They are broken. But if we do not see the underlying issues at hand (ungodliness and unrighteousness) as being the reasons for their brokenness (as well as other accompanying issues such as injustice and a lack of vindication or exoneration) then we can’t touch on the core issues which God desires us to address in preaching and evangelism.
Though the main thrust of his case is in 3.9-20 Paul beings to state his case as early on as 1.18.
Romans 1.18 – For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness,[…]
Paul starts off by showing us that there is a twofold problem in connection with the salvation of man. He shows us that the problem is with God. God exists and is holy, that’s the problem. God is placed in opposition to man through man’s consigning to sin. We have chosen to rebel against God and what flows forth from that is 1) ungodliness and 2) unrighteousness. These two elements form our twofold problem with the salvation of men.
· The first part of our problem is that the wrath of God is against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men.
· The second part of our problem is the actual ungodliness and unrighteousness of men.
· Part one deals with our nature, part two deals with our behavior.
· God is justly opposed to 1) who and what we are and 2) what we do.
For this reason it is essential that we address man’s ungodliness before addressing his unrighteousness. Humanism, worldly philosophies, psychologies, and religions all seek to address the secondary issue of righteousness but they are permanently deceptive in that they disregard man’s foremost need of godliness.
Man’s primary need is godliness. Paul states ungodliness before unrighteousness, because unrighteousness is a consequence of ungodliness. Failure to recognize this is the whole tragedy of the modern day world. The world is medicating the symptoms but forgetting the disease. – Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones
So here we can see the necessity of addressing man’s ungodliness before we address his unrighteousness. Anything less is an inadequate presentation of our Lord’s Gospel.
As an interpretive and doctrinal rule we must start where the Apostle starts. Paul says that the first great problem is the problem of God’s wrath. That’s the starting point. This can’t be stated often enough. Evangelism, itself, does not even start with the Lord Jesus Christ; it starts with God. There is no meaning to evangelism apart from God and the wrath of God. It is the foundation of all that we believe and present. There is no sense or meaning in anything else.
We can’t invite people to ‘come to Jesus’ as a friend, a healer, a comforter or even as a Father. He is first and foremost ‘Savior’, always. Paul presents this as non-negotiable. Jesus came to seek and save that which was lost. Why do we need salvation? Because the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men.
This is one of the most essential parts of the Salvation Message, which is widely being neglected today because of cowardice and/or ignorance. We don’t want to confront people with a God who’s wrath is kindled against ungodliness and sin, and as a result many of our converts are not truly converted into the Kingdom.
Paul’s Gospel delivers man from the wrath of God. Here’s Paul’s whole case: he’s proud of the Gospel he preaches, because it, and it alone, can deal with the question of the wrath of God ‘against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men’. If it can’t do this then it is no Gospel because there is no good news. This is the main objective and purpose; not chiefly to do something to us subjectively, but to bring us into a right relationship with God.
What about humanism? Is God’s wrath against humanism? The answer is, “Absolutely”.
Martyn Lloyd-Jones said, in essence, that the wrath of God is against all ideologies, unless their aim is to bring man back into the position of submission and obedience to God.
It really doesn’t matter how moral or idealistic a person may be; if they haven’t acknowledged their sin, folly, and rebellion, it’s all useless and nothing they aspire to counts as righteous before God. On the contrary, it is offensive to God. What matters of us begins at our justification, and our justification will not come without repentance.
Filed under: Soteriology - (The Study of Salvation)
