How Big & Active Is Your God?

Romans 1:18-32

Do you have a favorite verse or passage in the Bible? Most Christians can cite a favorite passage, perhaps one that was significant for you in your faith or helped sustain you in times of turmoil. Whatever the reason, many of us frequently return to a verse or passage which brings great peace and comfort to us.

Do you have a least favorite verse or passage in the Bible? I do, and this next section is one of my least favorite. It would be fine and inoffensive if I merely chose to ignore or not believe it. However, contextually it is consistent and fits with the larger scope and narrative of Romans, so I must believe that it is included here for a reason. It doesn’t mean I have to like it. But it also gives me no license to dismiss it because I don’t like what it says.

There is an awful lot revealed in this passage, and some of it is controversial. Believe it or not, I’m not going to address much of it. In fact, I’m not going to dwell on most of the passage. The reason is that there is one small but significant revelation regarding God’s wrath that Paul shares. I have not been able to shake its implications since teaching it.

Paul shares that the righteousness of God is being revealed. Its revelation is necessary because of humanity’s corruption and our inability to save ourselves. It is experienced only by faith because God’s righteousness, or our salvation, is a free gift which cannot be earned or merited. Paul immediately transitions from God’s righteousness to God’s wrath. On the surface it can be an awkward shift, changing from what humanity desires to the very attribute of God which we fear and dread (or dismiss). However, one of the central points that Paul is making concerns the presence of God. It is the common attribute that links righteousness and wrath.

The righteousness of God, or our justification, concerns not only our eternal salvation, but also the eternal and everlasting presence of God, both in this life and in the life to come. The wrath of God, or judgment, involves the eternal and everlasting absence of the presence of God.

As a Christian, I believe that God is present and active. I believe He is actively seeking out those who respond to His invitation to respond to Jesus in faith as their Lord and Savior. I also believe that the gifts of a personal relationship with Jesus Christ aren’t only experienced in the afterlife but rather the moment Christ enters into our hearts and dwells within us, His Temple. That’s how big my God is.

Most Christians would not find such sentiments offensive. They would find this to be both consistent with Scripture and also an attractive gospel message. However, this section of Romans focuses on God’s present and future activity not in justifying people but also in dispersing His wrath, both in the present and in the future.

It’s not an attractive truth of Scripture. It generally is not one of the key points we share with non-Christians in regards to our personal faith. To put it bluntly, it’s a tough pill to swallow. But it is consistent with God’s presence and activity. We believe God is activity saving people. Can we also handle that God is also actively judging humanity it this present time?

Perhaps one of the difficulties in thinking that God is dispersing judgment upon people today is our visual depiction of God’s wrath. We envision God smiting rebellious and disobedient people, perhaps something akin to the wrath that Pharaoh and the Egyptians incurred at the Red Sea. We think of God’s wrath as something supernatural and grand (in other words, something that could only be attributed to God). Or perhaps our difficulty lies in the fact that we all witness evil and inhumanity transgressed against others that seem to go unpunished. We see evil dictators flourish and corrupt businesses succeed while average decent people suffer or pay the price. Maybe our difficulty lies in thinking God isn’t punishing the right people.

I don’t have issues with the wrath of God. There is ample evidence found in the entire Bible (especially in the Old Testament) that it’s hard to deny that it is one of the attributes of God. To me, this passage shakes me because of how it describes God’s wrath being revealed. The scary part of this entire passage is that God’s wrath is veiled in an understated format. The passage states that there are those who do not acknowledge or want God in their lives. Consequently, God may actually grant to them their desire, and remove Himself from their presence, thus removing God’s providence from their lives. That is God’s wrath. That is His judgment, and a costly one at that. How scary is that.