The title is hardly original, but it seems to capture the theme of this paragraph. Paul has given us a sum­mary of the gospel in verses 16-17. The gospel is good news. It’s all about salvation, righteousness and life. All the things that we need, but don’t have.

The apostle knows not everyone is convinced that they need the gospel. So in the next couple of chapters (until 3:20) he will set out with pains­taking thoroughness the natural con­dition of men and women. He acts like a surgeon who uses his scalpel to expose a devastating and fatal human condition; and as a lawyer who uses systematic argument and penetrating logic to prosecute his argument, which will lead to an inescapable ver­dict: ‘Guilty’! Before we are convinced of our need of the good news, we need to hear the bad news. Before we are convinced of our need of a Saviour, we need to know why we need a Saviour.

The Church today is guilty of neglect­ing (even omitting) and rushing over the diagnosis in its race to offer the prescription. The result is that Jesus is often offered like an ecstasy pill. He’ll give you a thrill. But once the thrill and excitement vanishes the new ‘believer’ is left disillusioned and confused. The late Frances Schaeffer once said that if he had one hour to explain the gospel he would spend the first 50 minutes on the bad news, and 10mins on the good news. We need to know the bad news first. The bad news is not very appealing, and is not very popular with many. It deals with such themes as the wrath of God, sin and the judgement of God. But this is where we must begin.

The Wrath of God is Real⤒🔗

Another word for wrath is anger (Greek = orgy). Some people get dis­turbed at this. They think that this is somehow unworthy of God. God should not get angry! Is God like one of us? Does He lose his temper? Does He ‘see red’? Does He fly off the handle? Does He lose the rag? Does He get mad? Is He irritable and moody? To think like this is to make God in our image.

God’s wrath is not capricious. His wrath is His controlled and permanent and holy opposition to all sin. ‘It is his strong and settled opposition to all that is evil arising out of His very na­ture.’ (Morris). It is not a whim; not blind fury; not a mere emotional mo­ment. God never goes ‘over the top’, never loses His temper. But it’s the reaction of His glorious and perfect nature to sin. It’s the inevitable reac­tion of One who is utterly good to what is evil. God hates sin with a per­fect hatred. Just as He loves with a perfect love, He also hates with a per­fect hate. The two are perfectly com­patible — just as we see (albeit imper­fectly) in any good parent. A mother’s love is unconditional — but such love is not a blank cheque to misbehave. If God did not have this perfect anger he would not be God. What kind of God would He be if He was indifferent or morally neutral to evil? I recall in November 1988, our manse in South Armagh was damaged — the result of a massive 500 pound bomb planted by the IRA. Most of the windows were blown in, and great damage was done. Some assessors from the Northern Ireland Office came to in­spect the damage and determine the level of compensation. One of these men knew me or at least knew of me because he knew my parents. He inspected the wreckage. He never spoke to me. He never said anything to me. He completely ignored me. An outrageous evil had been perpe­trated. Wicked men had sought to kill and destroy. Yet he said nothing! He appeared indifferent. Understandably, I have never forgotten!

What would you think of a God like that? One who didn’t care? One who was indifferent to the evil and mali­cious acts of men and women? That kind of God would no longer be God. He would forfeit the right! I’m glad that our God has a righteous anger against sin and wickedness. His wrath is real.

The Wrath of God Has a Reason (v. 18)←⤒🔗

‘God’s wrath is being revealed against all godlessness (asebeia) and wickedness (adikia) of men’ (v.18).

God is angry with men. It’s some­times said, ‘God loves the sinner but hates the sin.’ Can you, however, separate the sinner from his sin? Sin does not exist in a vacuum. Sin is not something abstract. It is with sinners that God is angry, and it is precisely this that constitutes the sinners predicament. God’s wrath has a reason.

He is against all godlessness and wickedness: one follows the other as night follows day. Godlessness is the root, wickedness is the fruit. Godlessness constitutes our rela­tionship with God; wickedness is the result, seen in our actions toward one another.

Godlessness is described in verses 21-23. ‘They neither glorified God nor gave thanks to him.’ What is godlessness? It is ‘God-less-ness’. It is man’s attempt to rob God of His ‘God-ness’ in order to steal it for himself. Godlessness is rebellion against God’s majesty and author­ity; it’s a determination to rule God out of one’s thinking and conduct. It takes us back to Genesis 3. Man sought to topple God from His right­eous rule. Man sought to make him­self the centre of the universe and be ‘number one’. He usurped the place of God.

‘Nor did they give Him thanks’ (v.21). The Scriptures exhort us to: ‘Give thanks to the Lord for He is good.’ ‘Sing to the Lord with thanksgiving.’ ‘Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise.’ ‘Give thanks in all circumstances, etc.’ Thanks is the great unpaid bill. God is to be thanked. Yet, countless mil­lions go through the average day with no conscious appreciation of God’s goodness or kindness to them, and without ever giving thanks to Him for his gracious provision of their needs. Even when the phrase, ‘Thank God’ is used, it is usually meaningless. But consider this: failure to thank God is not mere weakness or forgetfulness, but wick­edness. Remember Jesus question, ‘Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? Was no one found to return and give praise God except this foreigner?’ (Luke 17:17­-18). Failing to give thanks to God is a great evil. It devalues us. It puts us on the same level as the animal. Have you ever seen a pig give thanks to God before eating its food? Of course not! Yet many people be­have no better than pigs! Wickedness, the fruit of godlessness, is described in verses 24-32. The fruit is rotten and repulsive. Some people think that these verses should not be read in public! The disgusting fruit includes shameful lusts, lesbian­ism, homosexuality, evil, greed, de­pravity, envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice, gossip, slander, God haters, insolent, arrogance, boasting, disobedience, endorsement of evil, etc. It’s a slippery slope — it just gets worse.

The Bible calls a spade a spade. It says plainly that homosexual prac­tice is sinful in God’s eyes. This however does not give us reason to be homophobic. The homosexual is often seen as a modern day leper; as a disgusting pervert; as an irretriev­able sinner. We need however to restore some balance. What they do is sinful; but we need to remember that such people are still human be­ings though sinful. Jesus is the friend of sinners. These people need Je­sus! Paul reminds the Corinthians believers; ‘this is what some of you were; but you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.’ (1 Cor. 6:11). John Newton once said, ‘I have never despaired of any man since God saved me.’

The Wrath of God is Righteous (vs. 19-20)←⤒🔗

Might God be unfair? Might His wrath be too severe and unjust, especially toward those who have never heard the gospel or never seen a Bible? The answer is ‘No!’ God has made Himself plain to everyone. God is not hiding away in some remote un­reachable part of the universe; nor does He play hard to get. Instead He has provided us with a massive and spectacular visual aid to assure us of His existence and presence — the entire created order. It’s like one giant billboard. This concept is what we call ‘general revelation.’ It’s ‘general’ because it’s for everyone to see. Psalm 19 speaks about it: ‘The heavens declare the glory of God, the skies proclaim the work of His hands, etc.’ Creation proclaims the handiwork of God. As a result, men and women are without excuse. Eve­ryone is aware that there is a God who is supreme. ‘Nobody can plead that he is ignorant of the existence of God. It can clearly be seen there is an unseen’ (Olyott).

There is enough evidence of God in a flower, in a tree, a pebble, a grain of sand, a fingerprint, in a bowl of rice, to make us glorify God and thank him.

Our problem is not lack of evidence or information! Instead, ‘men sup­press the truth by their wicked­ness’ (v.18). They refuse to recog­nise the fact and face up to its evi­dence. The motorist who ignores the traffic lights or the road signs can argue all day with the police officer — but it doesn’t alter the fact that he drove through a red light! Signs are there to be seen and obeyed. The swimmer who ignores the flags on the beach is courting trouble. The evidence for God all around is incon­trovertible. Tiger Woods suppressed the truth about his private life and hid it from his wife. But the truth cannot be suppressed successfully. He knew the truth. Others soon came to know. His wife came to know. Soon the whole world came to know. Strictly speaking there is no such thing as an atheist — one who says there is no God. There are anti-theists: those who refuse to acknowl­edge God, those who do not like the thought of God. But an atheist has to suppress the truth to remain con­sistent.

Someone has said that, ‘for an athe­ist to find God is as difficult as a thief to find a policeman ... and for the same reason!’ An atheist is a man on the run! The problem is not lack of evidence or ignorance. It’s a moral problem. It’s not that man does not know God — but that man does not like this God! His problem is rebel­lion, which he needs to repent of. That’s why God is angry. That’s what makes the gospel necessary and urgent. We are sinners in the hands of an angry God. We need to be saved from His wrath.

The Wrath of God is Revealed (vs. 18, 24, 26, and 28)←⤒🔗

‘The wrath of God is being re­vealed from heaven.’ (v.18a). Just as God’s righteousness is being revealed in the gospel (v. 17); so God’s wrath is likewise being re­vealed in judgement (v. 18). Both these aspects of God’s character are constantly being revealed. Don’t think for a moment that God has abandoned the world or that He is unable to act in judgement. No! God is actively and constantly expressing his righteous judge­ment in human history.

The Bible records some spectacu­lar examples of this: e.g. the flood, the destruction of Sodom and Go­morrah, the plagues on Egypt, the destruction of Sennacherib and his army, the punishment upon Uzziah, the judgement on Nadab and Abihu, etc. In the New Testa­ment we read of God coming in judgement upon Ananias and Sapphire, Herod Agrippa 1, and others. The Bible also makes it very plain that God has appointed a Day of wrath — the day of judgement — the last day in which He will judge the world in righteousness.

What Paul is here emphasising is that judgement is being revealed now — right in front of our eyes! We read three times that, ‘God gave them over’ to their sinful ways (vs. 24, 26, and 28). He has aban­doned them — what a terrible pun­ishment! As though God said to them, ‘Enough is enough. Have it your way. Depart from Me. Do your own thing and pay the conse­quences.’ C.S. Lewis comments perceptively that, ‘they enjoy for­ever the horrible freedom they have demanded.’ The freedom they craved is a poisoned cup. The freedom proves to be a horrible bondage. It’s the story of the Gar­den of Eden repeated. The free­dom promised and anticipated brought only bondage to sin. In­stead of reaching the heights, they sank to the depths. This is the wrath of God being revealed in ac­tion. True freedom is not found run­ning away from God, but in coming to God and doing His will.

None of us can afford to be complacent or to point the finger at the wicked world. The sins listed in verses 29-31 come a bit closer to the bone for many of us. None of us is immune from these things. We may, by the grace of God, have been pre­vented from the ‘grosser sins.’ But none of us can claim innocence! None of us is free from strife or deceit or malice or gossip or slander or arrogance or boasting. What makes it worse however, is when people who should know better, just continue to sin without any regret, even applaud­ing the sins of others (v. 32).

Paul, the lawyer has presented his devastating case against us. The sur­geon has exposed our fatal condition. We are all guilty before God. We have no excuse. We have nowhere to hide.

We have no defence. We need to be saved from the wrath of God. Only God can deliver us from His wrath. That’s why we need the gos­pel. ‘For in the gospel righteousness from God is revealed.’ ‘How shall we escape if we ignore such a great salvation?’ (Heb. 2:3).