"For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ,
for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes,
for the Jew first and also for the Greek.
For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith;
as it is written, 'The just shall live by faith.'
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven
against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men,
who suppress the truth in unrighteousness,
because what may be known of God is manifest in them,
for God has shown it to them."
Romans 1:16-19, NKJV
There are so many things that can be said about this great Biblical passage, so many truths that can be learned from it. But above all that we can gain from understanding the Bible in general and this passage in particular is the overriding and underwriting principle of the wonderful whole: God wants us to know Him. God wants us to know His will. God wants us to know the way He has provided for humanity to be reconciled to Him.
Because humanity separated itself from God in the very beginning through our freedom to choose for ourselves rather than remain obedient to the simple commandment of God. And we've been searching for a way back ever since.
Not wanting us to flounder on our own trying to recover the lost love we had with God from the beginning, God inspired the Bible as a record of His dealings with mankind, as an instruction manual for life that covers every eventuality, every circumstance and happenstance, every possible situation we might find ourselves in, and as a signpost to salvation that could most simply be summed up in the words of Jesus that declare, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."
This gospel message is for everybody; I love it because it has saved me, and I am not ashamed of anything about the good news of Jesus Christ. From Genesis to Revelation, it is and always will be the unchanging and unchangeable word of God. And it is to that Word that we need to turn now, in these troubling times both in the world and in the church. What does the Word of God actually say?
Take this passage in Romans Chapter One, for instance.
The Gospel of Christ is the power of God to save everyone. That is absolutely true. It CAN save everyone. But it will only save those who believe in the message the Messiah it proclaims.
The Gospel of Christ reveals the righteousness of God. That is absolutely true. It shows us what God is like, and tells us that God wants us to be like Him. God wants us to love good and hate evil, to pursue Him and flee from sin. Repeatedly it tells us to be holy, because God is holy. To be perfect (or be perfected), because God is perfect and wants to perfect us. And throughout it upholds a high standard of life and living, of belief and practice. It declares God's will for everything, and tells us how to walk in it.
The Gospel of Christ also records the wrath that God revealed from heaven against the unrighteousness of mankind. Let the cringing begin.
God cast Adam and Even from His presence because they disobeyed His one command--don't eat the fruit.
God rejected Cain's self-determined sacrifice in favor of the offering He had established, the exiled Cain for his act of religious jealousy that murdered his brother.
God destroyed the entire population of the earth in a flood of water, saving only eight souls, because humanity had perverted itself with immorality and idolatry and corrupted itself with evil and violence.
God destroyed the four cities of the plain--including Sodom and Gomorrah--with fire from heaven because of rampant sin--homosexuality, sexual violence and perversion, pride, gluttony, laziness, selfish cruelty, and a haughtiness that hated anyone who spoke out against their behavior.
God punished his own people in the wilderness for the ultimate sin of unbelief that was acted out in strife, contention, rebellion, complaining, criticizing, idolatry, immorality, disobedience, and the rejection of God, His Word, and His prophet as they yearned to return to the bondage and slavery from which He had delivered them.
God commanded the whole-sale slaughter of seven nations who had defiled themselves with demons, idol worship, sexual perversion, and the sacrificing of their own children in hopes that it would give them a better life.
God sent famine and pestilence and disease and war and natural disasters of every kind imaginable to punish the willful disobedience of his people.
In 2 Peter 2:6 and Jude 7 it was written that these examples of God's wrath against sin--especially his wrath against Sodom and Gomorrah because they gave themselves over to sexual immorality and went after strange flesh--was set forth as an example, and a warning against the vengeance of eternal fire that awaited those who did not learn and turn from their sin.
In the end of the Bible, an entire book is devoted to describing the wrath of God upon the world that has rejected Him and His Word, and though they understand where the wrath is coming from, the Revelation repeatedly states that the people "did not repent." And they were destroyed as a result.
Romans Chapter One tells us that the wrath of God is revealed against and delivered upon three kinds of people: the ungodly (those who refuse to believe in Him), the unrighteous (those who refuse to live for Him), and those who know and suppress the truth in unrighteousness.
Both the church and the world seem confused about God's righteousness, and His means of declaring it. I don't enjoy preaching about God's anger over sin and His wrathful judgment of the same; it makes me fearful because of the stupid sinful things I find myself doing from time to time, even though I know better. I would much rather preach about love and joy and grace and peace and blessing. But those things are only available to those who believe.
I don't want people to die without Jesus. I don't want people to perish eternally in a devil's hell. I don't want my generation, and my nation, to suffer wrath because it would not heed the word of the Lord.
So I must preach against sin--like Moses, like Isaiah and Jeremiah, Joel, Amos, and Malachi, like John the Baptist and Jesus and the apostles and prophets who followed them. And like them, I must also preach salvation that comes through believing in Jesus Christ and Christ alone.
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