The Wrath of God

Scripture Reading:  Romans 1:18-25.

Memory Verse: "But unto them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath . . . " (Romans 2:8).

Introduction: Man's degeneration from righteousness to defilement and perversion is explained in Romans 1 as a basic 3-step process. Each of these downward steps are further testimony to the unbelief in the heart of men.
  The first distinctive trait of unbelief is the suppression of truth (Romans 1:18). "This suppression of the truth is not passive. It carries the idea of holding something down. This is much like the little boy who smuggled his dog into his room to spend the night. When he heard his parents coming, he put the dog in his toybox and sat on the lid, then tried to talk to his parents while ignoring the repeated thump of his poor pet. The idea of suppression here is, continual and aggressive striving against the truth. Paul opens our eyes to the fact that all who are without Christ are in the constant process of holding down the truth and therefore are subject to God's abiding anger."--Donald Grey Barnhouse, Man's Ruin, (Romans 1:1-32), pp. 184,185.
  The second distinctive of unbelief is the perversion of the truth. Romans 1:23  shows how man's degeneration progressed through the perversion of idolatry. "First they worshiped an image of a man, second birds, then quadrupeds, and ultimately reptiles--crawling things. You cannot go any lower than this . . . So we see that first man suppresses the truth about the greatness of God, and then he perverts it by worshiping insulting images. In essence, having gotten rid of the true knowledge of God, he worships images with which he is comfortable. The ungodly man worships himself."--R. Kent Hughes, Romans, Righteousness From Heaven, p. 33.
  The final distinctive of unbelief is the perversion of life itself. "The logic here is so clear: first a suppression of the majestic revelation of God, then a perversion to man-centered idolatry, and finally a perversion of man himself . . . In the end, man lowers himself to a condition below God's created purpose."--R. Kent Hughes, Romans, Righteousness From Heaven, p. 35,36.
  "In the end their humanism (man-centeredness) resulted in the dehumanization of each other." (R. Kent Hughes, Romans, Righteousness From Heaven, p. 36.) Man goes on from here to live absolutely contrary to the very order of creation.

Lesson Questions:

1. What counterpart to God's righteousness is revealed? Romans 1:18a; Hebrews 10:28,29; John 3:36; Ephesians 5:6; Psalms 2:5,12; 1 Corinthians 16:22; Colossians 3:5,6; 2 Thessalonians 1:7,8.

2. Against whom is God's wrath revealed? Romans 1:18b.
Note: The term 'hold the truth' in vs. 18 is not used here in the positive sense as it is in Hebrews 10:23. The meaning here is 'restrain, or withhold,' as it is used in 2 Thessalonians 2:6,7.

3. How could all of mankind be found guilty of suppressing the truth of God when most of them lacked the Scriptures? Romans 1:19.
Note: "The use of the Greek aorist tense for the words translated 'has shown' points to a definite, powerful and unequivocal act of God in which knowledge of God has been made available to man in the inner recesses of his being."--Alan F. Johnson, The Freedom Letter, p. 41. Men were created and given a conscience.

4. What are the two truths about God that have been sufficiently revealed so that man has no valid excuse of ignorance? Romans 1:20; Psalms 19:1-6; 97:6; Acts 14:15-17.
Note: "'That which may be known of God . . . ' This is one of the key lines of the whole Bible. It is the impassable frontier between natural religion and revealed religion. It is the boundary between what man thinks about God and what God has been pleased to make known about Himself."--D. Stuart Briscoe, The Communicator's Commentary, Romans, pp. 40,41.

5. Examine the four ways in which Romans 1:21 tells us that men reject God. 1 Corinthians 10:31; Jeremiah 13:15-18; Nehemiah 9:26; Deuteronomy 32:6; 2 Timothy 3:5,7; 2:15,16,23; 1 Timothy 6:20,21; Colossians 2:8; John 8:43-47.

6. What is the result of man absurdly rejecting God's truth for man's philosophies and relligions? Romans 1:22,23; 2 Kings 17:13-16; Isaiah 44:9-17; Exodus 32:1-8.
Note: "A. W. Tozer wisely observed that idolatry begins in the mind when we pervert or exchange the idea of God for something other than what He really is . . ."--Donald Grey Barnhouse, Man's Ruin, (Romans 1:1-32), p. 239.

7. What was God's response to man's rejection of Him? Romans 1:24; Acts 14:16; Hosea 4:17; Psalms 81:11,12; 2 Chronicles 30:7; Jeremiah 13:24,25.

8. What further step into spiritual degradation did man take as a result of dishonoring his own flesh? Romans 1:25; Deuteronomy 11:16; Isaiah 42:8; Jeremiah 10:14.