A Two-sided Coin
(Romans 1.18-23)
(Romans 1.18-23)
Because he loved your fathers and chose their offspring after them and brought you out of Egypt with his own presence, by his great power, driving out before you nations greater and mightier than you, to bring you in, to give you their land for an inheritance, as it is this day, know therefore today, and lay it to your heart, that the Lord is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath; there is no other. Therefore you shall keep his statutes and his commandments, which I command you today, that it may go well with you and with your children after you, and that you may prolong your days in the land that the Lord your God is giving you for all time.
(Deuteronomy 4.37-40)
(Deuteronomy 4.37-40)
Just a few thoughts to introduce a larger Biblical framework of God's wrath / judgement in Romans 1.18-3.20 by which you may begin to have a clearer picture of the the relationship between saving grace and judgment. It is only when you start to have some clarity of the righteous and holy person of God that you can begin to understand the vast gulf which, outside of Christ’s vicarious atonement, hopelessly separates the sinner from fellowship with God. It is natural to focus on the grace, mercy and love of God and his redemptive work in Christ, but both his loving, saving grace and his wrath / judgment are rooted in his holiness.
THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD
God, not man, is the central figure in the drama of biblical history. As one reads through the pages of Scripture, he is confronted with an ever deeper and broader understanding of the character of God. Dominant in God’s self-disclosure is the revelation of his holy and righteous character: He who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can seen. To him be honor and eternal dominion (1 Timothy 6.15-16; cp. Revelation 15.4). Paul has informed us that the righteousness of God is revealed in the gospel (Romans 1.17) wherein there is a power to save everyone who trusts in the vicarious atoning work of Christ. This is the premise of Paul’s gospel: that through faith in Christ a person has eternal life, and that that person will then live a life of obedience to Christ through his faith (Romans 1.5).
This good news of salvation is rooted in the doctrine of God’s righteousness. While the message of the gospel is designed for all mankind, it is savingly efficacious for the one upon hearing the gospel, despairs of his sin and pleads for mercy. Recognizing the poverty of his soul, he mourns his lost estate and begins to hunger for the righteousness of God. This is the one who receives mercy and whose life is transformed by the gospel (cp. Matthew 5.2-11). It is the love of God that motivates him to send his Son to become the sacrifice for sin. However, the love of God is not the starting place for Paul’s gospel; the starting place is the wrath of God. The wrath of God is a necessary consequence of God’s holiness.
THE WRATH OF GOD
The Bible teaches us that all events have their ultimate cause in the will of God (cp. Genesis 50.20; 2 Samuel 17.14; Isaiah 14.24-27; Amos 3.6; Acts 2.23; 4.28 etc.). For many such an idea seems too hopelessly fatalistic, but it is precisely the opposite that is true. The observable condition of the human race suggests that life is filled with suffering and sorrow. Death comes to everyone. There is not a day that goes by in which the newspapers are not peppered with accounts of man’s brutality. This cruelty is compounded by privation, disease and natural disaster. Moral and natural evil is a fact of life. The Bible tells us that this is the causal effect of the primal sin. Moreover, its affect on each succeeding generation insures the spiritual poverty of the human race. Why do we have so many holidays and festivals (even in the poorest of cultures)? Are they not temporary escapes from the drudgery of life? Yet, beyond this vale of tears there lies the looming threat of eschatological judgment, wherein every person will be required to give an account for everything he has done, whether good or evil. With such a reckoning required of every person, what hope is there for the human race? The plight of mankind is so hopelessly bleak that was not God mercifully disposed to save some there would be no hopeful prospect for the human race. Sin renders every person rightfully subject to the judgment of God; however, the execution of his justice is not merely retributive, as in the sense of a parent resolving the conflict of miscreant children. Indeed, the ultimate sin of man is not that they violate each other, but that they desecrate the holy image of God. David understood this when he confessed his sin: Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment (Psalm 51.4; cp. Genesis 20.6; Exodus 16.8; Acts 5.4).
PRESENT AND FUTURE JUDGMENT
There are two kinds of judgments evidenced in Scripture: temporal and eschatological. The temporal judgments of God are never to be understood as malicious or capricious. God’s design from creation was to have a covenant relationship with a holy people eager to please him (Exodus 19.4-6; Titus 2.11-14). Temporal judgments are evidences of his mercy to bring about repentance (Romans 2.4; cf. Luke 13.1-5) and restore fellowship with his creation. On the other hand, eschatological judgment is devoid of mercy for those outside of Christ; it is the final irrevocable condemnation that consigns everyone who opposes the gracious love of God in Christ to everlasting damnation. Just as God’s salvation in Christ is personal, so too is his judgment. Jesus knows his sheep by name (John 10.14), and he knows those who are not his sheep (John 10.25-30).
Paul’s transition from God’s righteousness in salvation (1.17) to God’s righteousness in his wrath (1.18) is a natural and logical one. Grace and judgment are both rooted in God’s holy character. Thus, it is not surprising that we find many passages in Scripture that address the two extreme destinies of man. For example, the narrative of Abraham and Lot illustrates God’s willingness to deliver the righteous while destroying the wicked (Genesis 19.1-29). Ezekiel focuses our attention on the mercy of God, which he happily extends to the righteous while bringing a harsh judgment upon the wicked (18.10-23). The Israelites passed through the Red Sea and Pharaoh perished (Exodus 14; cp. Deuteronomy 30.11-20). This juxtaposition of grace and judgment is Paul’s contention as well (Romans 1.16-17; cp. 6.23; Ephesians 2.3-5).
The righteousness of God is plainly revealed in the gospel, but it is also true that God’s wrath is equally evident. Though he is patient and forbearing with respect to mankind’s sin (cp. Romans 3.25-26), he will not restrain his judgment forever (Romans 2.3-5; cp. Exodus 34.6-9; 2 Peter 3.9-10). It is not just the unbeliever who is the object of God’s wrath; the elect also were considered enemies of God until Christ reconciled them. Believers are restored to favor with God through Jesus (Romans 5.10; cp. Galatians 3.10, 13; Colossians 1.21, 22). All of this is written so that the Christian may come to appreciate how miserable and calamitous is his condition without Christ. For if it were not clearly articulated for us in Scripture that Divine wrath, vengeance, and eternal death lay upon us all, then we should be less aware of our wretchedness without the mercy of God, and less disposed to value the blessing of our great deliverance (cp. Calvin’s Institutes II. 16.2). The time for salvation has come. The kingdom of God has been inaugurated. There is no more time to delay: Behold, now is the favorable time; behold, now is the day of salvation (2 Corinthians 6.2b).
FOR WHOM IS THE GOSPEL INTENDED
The wonder of the gospel is that there is no crime too heinous, or any person so base or vile that the grace of God will not be sufficient for his sin. I found Adolf Schlatter’s introduction to this section (Romans 1.18-32) very compelling.
"To whom is the message of God that calls a person to faith communicated? Who is the one justified by God’s righteousness? It is the Greek who worships the idol, who is driven to insanity by erotic desire and who, like a predator, endangers all fellowship and tears it apart. It is also the Jew who hides the transgression of the law behind a boast about keeping the law, and it is the world, condemned to sin and death from its beginning, as well as the individual who has to obey the lust of the flesh and is the captive of his body. This is the miracle of grace, made manifest in the existence of the community, the work of the Son of God, the fruit of his death and resurrection. … God’s righteousness is being revealed, for God’s wrath is being revealed. The former is revealed through the gospel, the later from heaven. The former is made manifest from faith to faith, for the latter is revealed by godlessness and unrighteousness. The former saves everyone who believes, just as the later resists every godlessness and unrighteousness. The righteous one receives life from the former because of faith, for the latter rejects those who through injustice repress the truth." (Adolf Schlatter, Romans: The Righteousness of God, p. 28)
The gospel declares that the righteous will live by faith. The believer knows that God’s wrath is revealed both temporally and eschatologically against all those who suppress the truth of the gospel. This suppression of the truth is the unrighteousness and ungodliness of which Paul writes. The crucifixion of Jesus was a demonstration of God’s wrath against sin. It was the Father’s will to crush the Son (Isaiah 53.13). If God requires the execution of his only Son in order to redeem the elect, what do you suppose will be the effect of his wrath on those who reject the offer of salvation in Christ? See that you do not refuse him who is speaking. For if they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, much less will we escape if we reject him who warns from heaven (Hebrews 12.25). There is a universal and eschatological judgment forthcoming where the righteous demands of God will be met. There will be a holy vindication of God’s righteousness for those who supplant the truth of his holiness with a falsehood of their own making. Those who align themselves with Christ will one day be proven right (cp. Revelation 6.9-11).
THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF CHRIST
Paul’s theme of the gospel of God is rooted in the righteousness of Christ. The revealed (apokalyptetai)righteousness of God in the gospel is balanced by the revealed (apokalyptetai, same word) wrath of God. The Scriptures teach that God is everywhere present. While it is natural to emphasize the love and mercy of God evidenced by the gracious intercession and atoning work of Christ, God is equally present in his wrath. Where the righteousness that comes from faith is absent, the wrath of God will be manifest. Everyone will experience one or the other: either the mercy that brings salvation or the wrath that brings damnation. You need to understand that salvation is not a cooperative effort between God and man. Some mistakenly believe that grace comes to the person who, by a monumental effort, reaches out to God. “Only those who don't know God harbor the notion that it is the individual who changes God’s mind and who terminates God’s wrath by means of his works” (Schlatter, p. 29). The wrath of God is not something new. Adam experienced it when he was expelled from the garden, though he was spared the full eschatological force of it at that moment. God takes his holiness seriously; recall when the Lord spoke to Moses in Deuteronomy 32.48-52 that despite all Moses had done he was not allowed to enter Canaan because you broke faith with me in the midst of the people is Israel at the waters of Meribah-kadesh, in the wilderness of Zin, and because you did not treat me as holy in the midst of the people of Israel. Consider the admonition of Hebrews 12.14 Strive for peace with everyone and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no root of bitterness springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled … The day is coming nonetheless when those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, will face the full wrath and fury of God. At that time there will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek (Romans 2.8-9; cp. 2 Peter 3.9).
Therefore, the prudent person will take stock of his impoverished soul and he will heed the warnings of impending destruction; like Christian in Pilgrim’s Progress, he will flee the city of man and take the way of the cross to the Celestial City. The wrath of God is both present and future. More often than not the moral and natural evils of this world are credited to impersonal sociological and geological forces. The warnings of God are ignored, but just as the kingdom of God has a present and future reality, so too this world experiences a foreshadowing of the judgment of God. The greater and final judgment is still future (2 Corinthians 5.10). The Christian knows something of the holiness of God (cp. Hebrews 6.5) and will, by the transforming work of the Holy Spirit, come to love what God loves and to hate what God hates. This was the prayer of the psalmist: Do I not hate those who hate you, O LORD? and do I not loathe those who rise up against you? I hate them with complete hatred; I count them my enemies. Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting! (Psalm 139.21-24).
THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD
God, not man, is the central figure in the drama of biblical history. As one reads through the pages of Scripture, he is confronted with an ever deeper and broader understanding of the character of God. Dominant in God’s self-disclosure is the revelation of his holy and righteous character: He who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can seen. To him be honor and eternal dominion (1 Timothy 6.15-16; cp. Revelation 15.4). Paul has informed us that the righteousness of God is revealed in the gospel (Romans 1.17) wherein there is a power to save everyone who trusts in the vicarious atoning work of Christ. This is the premise of Paul’s gospel: that through faith in Christ a person has eternal life, and that that person will then live a life of obedience to Christ through his faith (Romans 1.5).
This good news of salvation is rooted in the doctrine of God’s righteousness. While the message of the gospel is designed for all mankind, it is savingly efficacious for the one upon hearing the gospel, despairs of his sin and pleads for mercy. Recognizing the poverty of his soul, he mourns his lost estate and begins to hunger for the righteousness of God. This is the one who receives mercy and whose life is transformed by the gospel (cp. Matthew 5.2-11). It is the love of God that motivates him to send his Son to become the sacrifice for sin. However, the love of God is not the starting place for Paul’s gospel; the starting place is the wrath of God. The wrath of God is a necessary consequence of God’s holiness.
THE WRATH OF GOD
The Bible teaches us that all events have their ultimate cause in the will of God (cp. Genesis 50.20; 2 Samuel 17.14; Isaiah 14.24-27; Amos 3.6; Acts 2.23; 4.28 etc.). For many such an idea seems too hopelessly fatalistic, but it is precisely the opposite that is true. The observable condition of the human race suggests that life is filled with suffering and sorrow. Death comes to everyone. There is not a day that goes by in which the newspapers are not peppered with accounts of man’s brutality. This cruelty is compounded by privation, disease and natural disaster. Moral and natural evil is a fact of life. The Bible tells us that this is the causal effect of the primal sin. Moreover, its affect on each succeeding generation insures the spiritual poverty of the human race. Why do we have so many holidays and festivals (even in the poorest of cultures)? Are they not temporary escapes from the drudgery of life? Yet, beyond this vale of tears there lies the looming threat of eschatological judgment, wherein every person will be required to give an account for everything he has done, whether good or evil. With such a reckoning required of every person, what hope is there for the human race? The plight of mankind is so hopelessly bleak that was not God mercifully disposed to save some there would be no hopeful prospect for the human race. Sin renders every person rightfully subject to the judgment of God; however, the execution of his justice is not merely retributive, as in the sense of a parent resolving the conflict of miscreant children. Indeed, the ultimate sin of man is not that they violate each other, but that they desecrate the holy image of God. David understood this when he confessed his sin: Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment (Psalm 51.4; cp. Genesis 20.6; Exodus 16.8; Acts 5.4).
PRESENT AND FUTURE JUDGMENT
There are two kinds of judgments evidenced in Scripture: temporal and eschatological. The temporal judgments of God are never to be understood as malicious or capricious. God’s design from creation was to have a covenant relationship with a holy people eager to please him (Exodus 19.4-6; Titus 2.11-14). Temporal judgments are evidences of his mercy to bring about repentance (Romans 2.4; cf. Luke 13.1-5) and restore fellowship with his creation. On the other hand, eschatological judgment is devoid of mercy for those outside of Christ; it is the final irrevocable condemnation that consigns everyone who opposes the gracious love of God in Christ to everlasting damnation. Just as God’s salvation in Christ is personal, so too is his judgment. Jesus knows his sheep by name (John 10.14), and he knows those who are not his sheep (John 10.25-30).
Paul’s transition from God’s righteousness in salvation (1.17) to God’s righteousness in his wrath (1.18) is a natural and logical one. Grace and judgment are both rooted in God’s holy character. Thus, it is not surprising that we find many passages in Scripture that address the two extreme destinies of man. For example, the narrative of Abraham and Lot illustrates God’s willingness to deliver the righteous while destroying the wicked (Genesis 19.1-29). Ezekiel focuses our attention on the mercy of God, which he happily extends to the righteous while bringing a harsh judgment upon the wicked (18.10-23). The Israelites passed through the Red Sea and Pharaoh perished (Exodus 14; cp. Deuteronomy 30.11-20). This juxtaposition of grace and judgment is Paul’s contention as well (Romans 1.16-17; cp. 6.23; Ephesians 2.3-5).
The righteousness of God is plainly revealed in the gospel, but it is also true that God’s wrath is equally evident. Though he is patient and forbearing with respect to mankind’s sin (cp. Romans 3.25-26), he will not restrain his judgment forever (Romans 2.3-5; cp. Exodus 34.6-9; 2 Peter 3.9-10). It is not just the unbeliever who is the object of God’s wrath; the elect also were considered enemies of God until Christ reconciled them. Believers are restored to favor with God through Jesus (Romans 5.10; cp. Galatians 3.10, 13; Colossians 1.21, 22). All of this is written so that the Christian may come to appreciate how miserable and calamitous is his condition without Christ. For if it were not clearly articulated for us in Scripture that Divine wrath, vengeance, and eternal death lay upon us all, then we should be less aware of our wretchedness without the mercy of God, and less disposed to value the blessing of our great deliverance (cp. Calvin’s Institutes II. 16.2). The time for salvation has come. The kingdom of God has been inaugurated. There is no more time to delay: Behold, now is the favorable time; behold, now is the day of salvation (2 Corinthians 6.2b).
FOR WHOM IS THE GOSPEL INTENDED
The wonder of the gospel is that there is no crime too heinous, or any person so base or vile that the grace of God will not be sufficient for his sin. I found Adolf Schlatter’s introduction to this section (Romans 1.18-32) very compelling.
"To whom is the message of God that calls a person to faith communicated? Who is the one justified by God’s righteousness? It is the Greek who worships the idol, who is driven to insanity by erotic desire and who, like a predator, endangers all fellowship and tears it apart. It is also the Jew who hides the transgression of the law behind a boast about keeping the law, and it is the world, condemned to sin and death from its beginning, as well as the individual who has to obey the lust of the flesh and is the captive of his body. This is the miracle of grace, made manifest in the existence of the community, the work of the Son of God, the fruit of his death and resurrection. … God’s righteousness is being revealed, for God’s wrath is being revealed. The former is revealed through the gospel, the later from heaven. The former is made manifest from faith to faith, for the latter is revealed by godlessness and unrighteousness. The former saves everyone who believes, just as the later resists every godlessness and unrighteousness. The righteous one receives life from the former because of faith, for the latter rejects those who through injustice repress the truth." (Adolf Schlatter, Romans: The Righteousness of God, p. 28)
The gospel declares that the righteous will live by faith. The believer knows that God’s wrath is revealed both temporally and eschatologically against all those who suppress the truth of the gospel. This suppression of the truth is the unrighteousness and ungodliness of which Paul writes. The crucifixion of Jesus was a demonstration of God’s wrath against sin. It was the Father’s will to crush the Son (Isaiah 53.13). If God requires the execution of his only Son in order to redeem the elect, what do you suppose will be the effect of his wrath on those who reject the offer of salvation in Christ? See that you do not refuse him who is speaking. For if they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, much less will we escape if we reject him who warns from heaven (Hebrews 12.25). There is a universal and eschatological judgment forthcoming where the righteous demands of God will be met. There will be a holy vindication of God’s righteousness for those who supplant the truth of his holiness with a falsehood of their own making. Those who align themselves with Christ will one day be proven right (cp. Revelation 6.9-11).
THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF CHRIST
Paul’s theme of the gospel of God is rooted in the righteousness of Christ. The revealed (apokalyptetai)righteousness of God in the gospel is balanced by the revealed (apokalyptetai, same word) wrath of God. The Scriptures teach that God is everywhere present. While it is natural to emphasize the love and mercy of God evidenced by the gracious intercession and atoning work of Christ, God is equally present in his wrath. Where the righteousness that comes from faith is absent, the wrath of God will be manifest. Everyone will experience one or the other: either the mercy that brings salvation or the wrath that brings damnation. You need to understand that salvation is not a cooperative effort between God and man. Some mistakenly believe that grace comes to the person who, by a monumental effort, reaches out to God. “Only those who don't know God harbor the notion that it is the individual who changes God’s mind and who terminates God’s wrath by means of his works” (Schlatter, p. 29). The wrath of God is not something new. Adam experienced it when he was expelled from the garden, though he was spared the full eschatological force of it at that moment. God takes his holiness seriously; recall when the Lord spoke to Moses in Deuteronomy 32.48-52 that despite all Moses had done he was not allowed to enter Canaan because you broke faith with me in the midst of the people is Israel at the waters of Meribah-kadesh, in the wilderness of Zin, and because you did not treat me as holy in the midst of the people of Israel. Consider the admonition of Hebrews 12.14 Strive for peace with everyone and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no root of bitterness springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled … The day is coming nonetheless when those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, will face the full wrath and fury of God. At that time there will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek (Romans 2.8-9; cp. 2 Peter 3.9).
Therefore, the prudent person will take stock of his impoverished soul and he will heed the warnings of impending destruction; like Christian in Pilgrim’s Progress, he will flee the city of man and take the way of the cross to the Celestial City. The wrath of God is both present and future. More often than not the moral and natural evils of this world are credited to impersonal sociological and geological forces. The warnings of God are ignored, but just as the kingdom of God has a present and future reality, so too this world experiences a foreshadowing of the judgment of God. The greater and final judgment is still future (2 Corinthians 5.10). The Christian knows something of the holiness of God (cp. Hebrews 6.5) and will, by the transforming work of the Holy Spirit, come to love what God loves and to hate what God hates. This was the prayer of the psalmist: Do I not hate those who hate you, O LORD? and do I not loathe those who rise up against you? I hate them with complete hatred; I count them my enemies. Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting! (Psalm 139.21-24).
Reflections on Romans 1.18-23
And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their deeds were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his deeds have been carried out in God. (John 3.19-21)
Pop culture versions of Christianity are saturated with false notions about God. I would venture to guess that many people’s views about heaven and hell, God and the devil are shaped more by the media and the entertainment industry than they are by Scripture. When pressed about the reliability of one’s information about God a person may offer some general reference to the Bible saying something somewhere. The fact is most people are abysmally ignorant as to what the Bible says about God. But God does not excuse a person’s ignorance about himself. Quite to the contrary, the Bible declares that everyone instinctively knows about God (cf. Psalm 19). The very nature of reality declares some truth about God. However, this truth is suppressed by man’s unrighteousness (Romans 1.18). God has made the truth of his existence, his eternality and his power plain to them, but they refuse to acknowledge it. Refusing to acknowledge and love the truth is similar to the rebellion associated with Satan: The coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders, and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. Therefore God sends them a strong delusion, so that they may believe what is false, in order that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness (2 Thessalonians 2.9-12). Those who are saved by faith have internalized the truth of the gospel and are motivated in all their actions by it. Jesus said: If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. … Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin. The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed (John 8.31-32, 34-36).
CHARACTER TRAITS:
CULTURAL SHAPE SHIFTING
The Christian who does not want to be culturally annihilated needs to think biblically and to develop a Christian worldview. He must learn to think critically and constructively within a biblical framework. To know God ought to be the true goal of learning. “To see God is the highest aspiration of man, and has preoccupied the rarest human spirits at all times. Seeing God means understanding, seeing into the mystery of things. It is, or should be, the essential quest of universities” (Malcolm Muggeridge, Jesus Rediscovered, p. 95). This has not only failed to take place in our universities, but in large measure it has failed to take place in our churches as well. There are three levels of learning. First, there isrote knowledge. This mechanical repetition may take place without thought for the meaning of the information assimilated. In Sunday school children learn their catechism without necessarily understanding the full theological importance of each concept, but they are acquiring the truth of God as a part of their lives. Second, reflective knowledgerequires understanding of the material being learned. Contemplation about what has been learned by rote is the next step in internalizing truth. Lastly, transformative or redemptive understanding brings the person’s life into conformity with the truth learned. One might think of this three step process as confession (speaking the truth), contemplation(internalizing or meditating on the truth) and conformation (externalizing or acting on the truth). The Christian who has a redemptive understanding of the Word of God will live a life conformed to its truth. I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect (Romans 12.1-2; e.g., Acts 7.54-60; Romans 9.1-4; 1 Samuel 12.23-24).
Many people in the church fail to grasp the truth of the gospel because they mistakenly confuse having a childlike faith (Mark 10.15) with childish faith (Hebrews 5.12; 1 Corinthians 15.20). The church is filled with people who take a simplistic approach the Bible and shy away from being solidly grounded theologically. The postmodernism of our age has wrapped its tentacles around many believers and they privatize their faith. They have been told that faith is a private matter and not a topic of polite conversation. “As a result, our lives are often fractured and fragmented, with our faith firmly locked into the private realm of church and family, where it rarely has a chance to inform our life and work in the public realm. The aura of worship dissipates after Sunday, and we unconsciously absorb secular attitudes the rest of the week. We inhabit two separate ‘worlds,’ navigating a sharp divide between our religious life and ordinary life” (Nancy Pearcey, Total Truth, p. 35). A Christian’s faith is often relegated to the status of a sacred “value,” grounded in one’s subjective worldview. This worldview may have value for a particular individual, but is seen as having no intrinsic worth for the society at large, which is governed by a rational naturalistic worldview. “Religious truth” is viewed as wholly subjective, devoid of empiric validation, and, consequently, it is of little social importance. This attitude towards religion has been absorbed into the fabric of the Christian church and has resulted in Christians unwittingly suppressing the truth of God. It has been a factor in promoting religious pietism as a substitution for doctrinal studies. The sacred cows of this age include the autonomy of the individual, the inalienable right to pursue pleasure, natural causality(reductive naturalism), and absolute moral relativism. These, at least in part, are the ideological enemies of the gospel. The Christian who wants to combat the spirit of the age cannot hope to do so successfully if he subliminally accedes to these precepts of postmodernism.
CONFLICTING WORLDVIEWS
The Bible declares that God is infinite in knowledge. He is light and in him there is no darkness. The light of the Word came into the spiritual darkness of the world and that darkness could not overpower him (John 1.5). Yet, the unrighteousness of the world constantly seeks to hold the truth of the gospel captive to its revisionist religion. Ignorance about God leads to unbridled affections (Proverbs 19.2), and the lack of restraint leads to death. It is a sin to suppress truth about God, namely, his power, his creative work, and his divine nature. These things are plainly evident from what has been made. Knowing this, it is reasonable to acknowledge God’s glory and to thank him for what he has done. However, the thought of being dependent is abhorrent to the autonomous self-actualizing man and he is unwilling to give up his sovereignty (Genesis 3.5). Interestingly, an increasing number of people in the scientific community are being compelled, by the evidence of science to acknowledge that the complexity of creation suggests a designer.
It is not merely creation about which Paul is speaking in Romans; it is the gospel itself. When Christ is rejected, men fail to acknowledge the supreme love and glory of God revealed in His redemptive work. God’s great glory is in the death of His Son; and failure to acknowledge this is to diminish God’s greatest good by attempting to elevate that which is of lesser worth in its place. God gave his one and only Son as an atoning sacrifice so that whoever believes on Him might have eternal life. This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men love darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil (cp. John 3.16-21). It is not unreasonable that God should love the honor of His name. Love for sinners is the happy result of His grace, mercy, compassion and the glory of His name. So it is reasonable that those who reject the Son of God should suffer the consequences of their hatred for God. Sin is an attack on the glory of God, which He is committed to upholding at all cost. God cannot excuse sin and at the same time maintain His transcendent holiness. In order to bring these sinners into His presence while maintaining the worth of His glory, He propitiated His terrible wrath with the death of His Son. Jesus laid down his life to glorify the Father’s name (John 12.27-28; 13.31; 17.4). The greatest expression of the glory of God is in the death and resurrection of His Son. In this, both God and the Son take pleasure.
WRATH AND RIGHTEOUSNESS
The wrath and righteousness of God are not contradictions in God’s character. The divine will is exercised in God’s wrath when he punishes those who defend with lies their ungodly behavior. But if our unrighteousness serves to show the righteousness of God, what shall we say? That God is unrighteous to inflict wrath on us? … By no means! For then how could God judge the world (Romans 3.5-6; cf. 9.14)? It is a common fallacy to judge the Bible by personal experience rather than to subject personal experience to the scrutiny of Scripture. This mistaken approach to understanding the character of God is grounded in the subjectivism of the individual rather than the objective self-disclosure of the person of God in sacred Scripture. Thus, one comes to believe that the wrath of God is contrary to his love rooted in is false understanding of holiness.
"It is the same God who makes both available; in both instances God is the one at work and what God undertakes does not degenerate into an antithesis in conflict with itself. Because wrath brings about death, there is a saving work of God; because God causes the individual to be in need of help, God grants him Christ who conveys the salvific message. Because the individual becomes the enemy of God and humans on account of his own volition and striving, God does not link salvation with human volition and striving; instead God presents it to him by making him a believer and by God becoming the one who works in and through him. Because Paul maintained the unity of the divine will and did not attribute to God a will in conflict with itself, he was able to present to God a faith that was tantamount to assurance. For this reason he frequently expressed the unity between the destroying and saving work of God." (Adolf Schlatter, Romans, p. 33)
In summation we may state the obvious: mankind is morally deficient. He loves sin more than he loves the truth, he exchanges the truth of God for a lie, he is unwilling to glorify God, and he delights in unrighteousness. You cannot love the truth of God’s holy beauty and love unrighteousness at the same time. The heart and the mind are in conflict. When the heart is focused on self-adulation it will be at war with the truth. The apostle John wrote, And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their deeds were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his deeds have been carried out in God (John 3.19-21).
CHARACTER TRAITS:
- The enemies of Christ pursue things that have no eternal value, but the believer seeks to obtain a lasting treasure that does not perish or wear out (Luke 12.33).
- God gives his children their daily bread (Matthew 6.11), but he also gives them eternal life because his kingdom is their first priority (Matthew 6.33; 7.7-11).
- The one who lives by faith puts on the Lord Jesus Christ, and makes no provision for the flesh (Romans 13.14).
- Those who suppress the truth have a carnal mind and live according to the pattern of this world (Romans 12.1-2; cp. Galatians 5.16-25).
- Those who live by faith in the Spirit set their minds on things that are above (Colossians 3.2); like Paul they seek to bring every thought captive and obedient to Christ (2 Corinthians 10.5).
- The Christian seeks to gain Christ (Philippians 3.8), because Christ has already made the believer his own (Philippians 3.12; cp. Romans 8.29; 1 Timothy 6.12).
- For those who pursue the truth of God in Christ there is no place for self-adulation (Philippians 2.3; Romans 12.3). Their chief aim is to glorify Christ. They do what the unrighteous are loath to do, namely, give honor and thanks to God (Romans 1.21).
CULTURAL SHAPE SHIFTING
The Christian who does not want to be culturally annihilated needs to think biblically and to develop a Christian worldview. He must learn to think critically and constructively within a biblical framework. To know God ought to be the true goal of learning. “To see God is the highest aspiration of man, and has preoccupied the rarest human spirits at all times. Seeing God means understanding, seeing into the mystery of things. It is, or should be, the essential quest of universities” (Malcolm Muggeridge, Jesus Rediscovered, p. 95). This has not only failed to take place in our universities, but in large measure it has failed to take place in our churches as well. There are three levels of learning. First, there isrote knowledge. This mechanical repetition may take place without thought for the meaning of the information assimilated. In Sunday school children learn their catechism without necessarily understanding the full theological importance of each concept, but they are acquiring the truth of God as a part of their lives. Second, reflective knowledgerequires understanding of the material being learned. Contemplation about what has been learned by rote is the next step in internalizing truth. Lastly, transformative or redemptive understanding brings the person’s life into conformity with the truth learned. One might think of this three step process as confession (speaking the truth), contemplation(internalizing or meditating on the truth) and conformation (externalizing or acting on the truth). The Christian who has a redemptive understanding of the Word of God will live a life conformed to its truth. I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect (Romans 12.1-2; e.g., Acts 7.54-60; Romans 9.1-4; 1 Samuel 12.23-24).
Many people in the church fail to grasp the truth of the gospel because they mistakenly confuse having a childlike faith (Mark 10.15) with childish faith (Hebrews 5.12; 1 Corinthians 15.20). The church is filled with people who take a simplistic approach the Bible and shy away from being solidly grounded theologically. The postmodernism of our age has wrapped its tentacles around many believers and they privatize their faith. They have been told that faith is a private matter and not a topic of polite conversation. “As a result, our lives are often fractured and fragmented, with our faith firmly locked into the private realm of church and family, where it rarely has a chance to inform our life and work in the public realm. The aura of worship dissipates after Sunday, and we unconsciously absorb secular attitudes the rest of the week. We inhabit two separate ‘worlds,’ navigating a sharp divide between our religious life and ordinary life” (Nancy Pearcey, Total Truth, p. 35). A Christian’s faith is often relegated to the status of a sacred “value,” grounded in one’s subjective worldview. This worldview may have value for a particular individual, but is seen as having no intrinsic worth for the society at large, which is governed by a rational naturalistic worldview. “Religious truth” is viewed as wholly subjective, devoid of empiric validation, and, consequently, it is of little social importance. This attitude towards religion has been absorbed into the fabric of the Christian church and has resulted in Christians unwittingly suppressing the truth of God. It has been a factor in promoting religious pietism as a substitution for doctrinal studies. The sacred cows of this age include the autonomy of the individual, the inalienable right to pursue pleasure, natural causality(reductive naturalism), and absolute moral relativism. These, at least in part, are the ideological enemies of the gospel. The Christian who wants to combat the spirit of the age cannot hope to do so successfully if he subliminally accedes to these precepts of postmodernism.
CONFLICTING WORLDVIEWS
The Bible declares that God is infinite in knowledge. He is light and in him there is no darkness. The light of the Word came into the spiritual darkness of the world and that darkness could not overpower him (John 1.5). Yet, the unrighteousness of the world constantly seeks to hold the truth of the gospel captive to its revisionist religion. Ignorance about God leads to unbridled affections (Proverbs 19.2), and the lack of restraint leads to death. It is a sin to suppress truth about God, namely, his power, his creative work, and his divine nature. These things are plainly evident from what has been made. Knowing this, it is reasonable to acknowledge God’s glory and to thank him for what he has done. However, the thought of being dependent is abhorrent to the autonomous self-actualizing man and he is unwilling to give up his sovereignty (Genesis 3.5). Interestingly, an increasing number of people in the scientific community are being compelled, by the evidence of science to acknowledge that the complexity of creation suggests a designer.
It is not merely creation about which Paul is speaking in Romans; it is the gospel itself. When Christ is rejected, men fail to acknowledge the supreme love and glory of God revealed in His redemptive work. God’s great glory is in the death of His Son; and failure to acknowledge this is to diminish God’s greatest good by attempting to elevate that which is of lesser worth in its place. God gave his one and only Son as an atoning sacrifice so that whoever believes on Him might have eternal life. This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men love darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil (cp. John 3.16-21). It is not unreasonable that God should love the honor of His name. Love for sinners is the happy result of His grace, mercy, compassion and the glory of His name. So it is reasonable that those who reject the Son of God should suffer the consequences of their hatred for God. Sin is an attack on the glory of God, which He is committed to upholding at all cost. God cannot excuse sin and at the same time maintain His transcendent holiness. In order to bring these sinners into His presence while maintaining the worth of His glory, He propitiated His terrible wrath with the death of His Son. Jesus laid down his life to glorify the Father’s name (John 12.27-28; 13.31; 17.4). The greatest expression of the glory of God is in the death and resurrection of His Son. In this, both God and the Son take pleasure.
WRATH AND RIGHTEOUSNESS
The wrath and righteousness of God are not contradictions in God’s character. The divine will is exercised in God’s wrath when he punishes those who defend with lies their ungodly behavior. But if our unrighteousness serves to show the righteousness of God, what shall we say? That God is unrighteous to inflict wrath on us? … By no means! For then how could God judge the world (Romans 3.5-6; cf. 9.14)? It is a common fallacy to judge the Bible by personal experience rather than to subject personal experience to the scrutiny of Scripture. This mistaken approach to understanding the character of God is grounded in the subjectivism of the individual rather than the objective self-disclosure of the person of God in sacred Scripture. Thus, one comes to believe that the wrath of God is contrary to his love rooted in is false understanding of holiness.
"It is the same God who makes both available; in both instances God is the one at work and what God undertakes does not degenerate into an antithesis in conflict with itself. Because wrath brings about death, there is a saving work of God; because God causes the individual to be in need of help, God grants him Christ who conveys the salvific message. Because the individual becomes the enemy of God and humans on account of his own volition and striving, God does not link salvation with human volition and striving; instead God presents it to him by making him a believer and by God becoming the one who works in and through him. Because Paul maintained the unity of the divine will and did not attribute to God a will in conflict with itself, he was able to present to God a faith that was tantamount to assurance. For this reason he frequently expressed the unity between the destroying and saving work of God." (Adolf Schlatter, Romans, p. 33)
In summation we may state the obvious: mankind is morally deficient. He loves sin more than he loves the truth, he exchanges the truth of God for a lie, he is unwilling to glorify God, and he delights in unrighteousness. You cannot love the truth of God’s holy beauty and love unrighteousness at the same time. The heart and the mind are in conflict. When the heart is focused on self-adulation it will be at war with the truth. The apostle John wrote, And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their deeds were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his deeds have been carried out in God (John 3.19-21).