Daily Thoughts from Romans: God’s Present Wrath (1:18-23)

Daily Thoughts from Romans: God’s Present Wrath

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.  (Romans 1:18-23 ESV)

There’s no such thing as an honest atheist according to Paul.  Everyone knows God.  They just don’t honor him as God or express thanks to Him.  Who He is has been made crystal clear from creation itself.  He’s made it so plain to us that we are without excuse for denying it.  The truth is we don’t want to admit it.  We suppress the truth in our ungodliness and unrighteousness because to acknowledge it means we must submit to our Creator, trust Him to guide us aright, and to care for us and love us, and we can’t do that.  Like Adam and Eve we must trust ourselves to determine good and evil.  We have to be in control.  Acknowledging Him scares us to death.  So we hold down the truth, repress it like a traumatic memory.

But truth, no matter how traumatic, won’t stay repressed.  The glory of God puts pressure on us internally, and religiosity spills forth in our own distorted perspective.  We create God in our own image, a God we can be comfortable with, a God like us, or like one of the other creatures He made.  And we expect our God to dance to our tune.  If we sacrifice to Him He’d better give us what we need.  If we’re good He had better reward us for being so good.  Our futile thinking lacks illumination and we’ll even worship pieces of wood or stone we have fashioned into an image of our God.

Such repression of the truth merits the wrath of God.  Paul is showing us the necessity of a divine rescue.  We are drowning in an ocean with no land in sight.  We cannot rescue ourselves.  We’re just treading water and we will sink beneath at any moment without a Savior.

I would give worlds, if I had them, that Age of Reason had not been published. O Lord, help me! Christ help me! O God what have I done to suffer so much? But there is no God! But if there should be, what will become of me hereafter? Stay with me, for God’s sake! Send even a child to stay with me, for it is hell to be alone. If ever the devil had an agent, I have been that one. (renowned American author Thomas Paine’s dying words)