The Word of God is saturated with illustrations
of God’s love for all of mankind. He is
“longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any
should perish, but that all should come to repentance”
(2 Peter 3:9); that all should come to believe
and be saved. Because believers exhibit a genuine
concern for those near and far who are
headed for an eternity in the Lake of Fire, the
question certainly demands a biblical answer.
Has God made provision for those who have
never read a Bible or heard its message? In the
first chapter of the book of Romans, Paul answers
that question loud and clear.
After introducing himself in the first 15 verses,
Paul reveals his reason for writing and the
theme of the epistle – to proclaim the righteousness
of God, revealed in the Gospel of Christ; a
righteousness that becomes the believer’s by faith.
He goes on to explain why we need that righteousness
– because the wrath of God has been
revealed from heaven against the ungodliness
and unrighteousness of those who are restraining
the truth. In verse 17, God’s righteousness is revealed.
In verse 18, God’s wrath is revealed.
Paul’s urgency in writing concerning the
Gospel of God is based upon the fact that
those who have not received the righteousness
provided by a just God shall surely be the objects
of His anger. His wrath against sin is revealed
in three ways.
First, sin is revealed historically. In Peter’s
second epistle, Chapter 2, we read that “God
spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them
down to hell, and delivered them into chains of
darkness, to be reserved unto judgment” (2
Peter 2:4). Furthermore, He “spared not the old
world, bringing in the flood upon the world of
the ungodly” (2 Peter 2:5). Later, He condemned
the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, making
them an example of what would happen to
those who lived as they did. It is clear that
God’s wrath has been revealed in history,
and stands as a warning to all who choose
to live contrary to His will today.
God’s wrath is also revealed prophetically
in Romans, Chapter 2, verse 5, where
we read of “the day of wrath and revelation
of the righteous judgment of God.”
But God’s wrath against sin and the sinner
is also being revealed presently, “For the wrath
of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness
and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness” (Romans
1:18). The remainder of Romans, Chapter 1, is
given over to describing how God has allowed
mankind to wallow in every sort of sin, and how
they will reap the consequences of their wickedness.
For example, at the end of verse 27, Paul
writes that “men, leaving the natural use of the
woman, burned in their lust one toward another;
men with men working that which is unseemly,
and receiving in themselves that
recompence of their error which was meet.”
They will receive in themselves the payment for
their perversion. ”Be not deceived,” we read in
Galatians 6:7, “God is not mocked: for whatsoever
a man soweth, that shall he also reap.”
Similarly, “What fruit had ye then in those
things whereof ye are now ashamed? for the
end of those things is death” (Romans 6:21). Sin
corrodes, it corrupts, it devastates, it tears down
what is good, it destroys, and always “the wages
of sin is death” (Romans 6:23) and destruction.
The impiety and unrighteousness of mankind
are closely related in the sense that one
fl ows from the other. Godlessness is the source
of wickedness that results in wrath. A godless
person is one who lives as though God does not
exist. Intellectually, religiously, he may believe
that God exists, but he acts as though God were
non-existent. “When they knew God, they glorifi
ed him not as God, neither were thankful;
but became vain in their imaginations, and their
foolish heart was darkened” (Romans 1:21).
Their choice of godlessness results in the wickedness
described in the remainder of the chapter.
“And even as they did not like to retain
God in their knowledge” – that’s godlessness,
“God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to
do those things which are not convenient”
(Romans 1:28) – that’s wickedness.
Whenever man rejects God and His authority,
he has set himself to be the center of all
things and makes himself – his desires and his
will – the measure of right and wrong. Such
humanism is pervasive around us today, but
the concept goes back to the Garden of Eden
and Adam’s deliberate rejection of the boundaries
set by the God with whom he had fellowshipped
there. Another defi nition of humanism
is found in Romans 1, verse 25, “[They] changed
the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and
served the creature more than the Creator.” In
other words, man is his own god – setting his
own standards for living and worshipping –
and serving created things, first of all himself.
When God’s truth is rejected, man becomes
truth unto himself, thereby exchanging God’s
authority for his own. The result is wickedness
and corruption that grows, spreads, and deepens
because there are no longer any limits to be
observed. Jeremiah said it this way, “The heart
is deceitful above all things, and desperately
wicked: who can know it?” (Jeremiah 17:9). In
the descriptive litany of Romans 1:30, Paul goes
on to say that they are “inventors of evil things.”
What a commentary on the ungodly human
race, undeniably still demonstrating their destructive
priority around us today.
It’s not as though sinners are unaware of
God, “Because that which may be known of
God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed
it unto them” (Romans 1:19). Man is born with
an innate knowledge of God. It is part of his
spiritual identity – the image of God in which
mankind was created. Romans 2:14 states: “For
when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do
by nature the things contained in the law, these,
having not the law, are a law unto themselves.”
The following verse continues, “Their conscience
also bearing witness, and their thoughts
the mean while accusing or else excusing one
another.” The point here is that every man possesses
an inner knowledge of God, of godly
standards of right and wrong, and knows instinctively
when he fails to follow them.
But there is another means by which God has
revealed Himself to mankind. “For the
invisible things of him from the creation
of the world are clearly seen,
being understood by the things that
are made, even his eternal power and
Godhead; so that they are without excuse”
(Romans 1:20). In making Himself known
to man, God first put an internal revelation
in the soul of every man. He then reinforces
that insight with external revelation – the created
environment in which he lives. David sang a
beautiful song about that:
The heavens declare the glory of God;
and the firmament
sheweth his handywork.
Day unto day uttereth speech, and
night unto night sheweth knowledge.