Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Romans 1:18

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness;

18 23. The necessity for the Gospel: Divine wrath; human (especially heathen) sin

18. For the wrath of God, &c.] The “for” marks the connexion as follows: “The Gospel is the secret of salvation, of justification before the eternal Judge; and as such it is a thing of supreme importance; for the Judge has proclaimed the doom of human sin. The question is not of mere theory, but of life or death.”

the wrath of God ] A phrase frequent in the N. T. All attempts to explain it away involve violence to the sense of Scripture: it would be as legitimate, in point of language, to explain away the Divine Love. Strong and even vehement accessory language is sometimes used with the word wrath: see Rom 2:8; Rev 16:19; Rev 19:15. On the subject generally, see especially Joh 3:36; Eph 2:3; Rev 6:16.

It must, of course, always be remembered that the “wrath of God” is the wrath of a Judge. In its inmost secret it is the very opposite of an arbitrary outburst, being the eternal repulsion of evil by good.

is revealed ] A present tense in the Gr. See on Rom 1:17. This “revelation” is a standing one, for all places and all times, and ever repeated to individual consciences.

from heaven ] A pregnant phrase. The wrath is “revealed” as about to be inflicted from heaven; by Him “who sitteth in heaven,” and who “shall descend from heaven” in “the day of wrath and righteous judgment.”

against ] Or, upon; i.e. “to descend upon.”

ungodliness and unrighteousness ] Sin, in its aspect as offence (1) against God, (2) against man; the awful opposite to the Two Great Commandments. “ Unrighteousness,” however, is obviously a wider word than “ ungodliness,” including the idea of injustice to God as well as to man; spiritual rebellion.

of men ] i.e. mankind; not a class, but the race. This is plain from the sequel, though the Gr. leaves it possible (grammatically) to render “of those men who hold, &c.”

who hold ] Lit. who hold down. The verb has several shades of meaning, and frequently = “to hold fast.” So e.g. 1Co 11:2; (E. V., “keep;”) 1Th 5:21. But the context here decides for the meaning “hold down, hold back, suppress.” The verb occurs once again in this Epistle, Rom 7:6: “wherein we were held,” i.e. “held down as captives.” Here the phrase is pregnant: “who suppress the truth, living in unrighteousness the while.” “The Truth” (of the awful Majesty of God) is, as it were, buried under sinful acts, though still alive, still needing to be “held down,” if sin is to rule.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

For – This word denotes that the apostle is about to give a reason for what he had just said. This verse commences the argument of the Epistle. an argument designed to establish the proposition advanced in Rom 1:17. The proposition is, that Gods plan of justification is revealed in the gospel. To show this, it was necessary to show that all other plans had failed; and that there was need of some new plan or scheme to save people. To this he devotes this and the two following chapters. The design of this argument is, to show that people were sinners. And in order to make this out, it was necessary to show that they were under law. This was clear in regard to the Jews. They had the Scriptures; and the apostle in this chapter shows that it was equally clear in regard to the Gentiles, and then proceeds to show that both had failed of obeying the Law. To see this clearly it is necessary to add only, that there can be but two ways of justification conceived of; one by obedience to law, and the other by grace. The former was the one by which Jews and Gentiles had sought to be justified; and if it could be shown that in this they had failed, the way was clear to show that there was need of some other plan.

The wrath of God – orge Theou. The word rendered wrath properly denotes that earnest appetite or desire by which we seek anything, or an intense effort to obtain it. And it is particularly applied to the desire which a man has to take vengeance who is injured, and who is enraged. It is thus synonymous with revenge. Eph 4:31, let all bitterness, and wrath, etc.; Col 3:8, anger, wrath, malice, etc.; 1Ti 2:8; Jam 1:19. But it is also often applied to God; and it is clear that when we think of the word as applicable to him, it must be divested of everything like human passion, and especially of the passion of revenge. As he cannot be injured by the sins of people Job 25:6, he has no motive for vengeance properly so called, and it is one of the most obvious rules of interpretation that we are not to apply to God passions and feelings which, among us, have their origin in evil.

In making a revelation, it was indispensable to use words which people used; but it does not follow that when applied to God they mean precisely what they do when applied to man. When the Saviour is said Mar 3:5 to have looked on his disciples with anger (Greek, wrath, the same word is here), it is not to be supposed that he had the feelings of an implacable man seeking vengeance. The nature of the feeling is to be judged of by the character of the person. So, in this place, the word denotes the divine displeasure or indignation against sin; the divine purpose to inflict punishment. It is the opposition of the divine character against sin; and the determination of the divine mind to express that opposition in a proper way, by excluding the offender from the favors which he bestows on the righteous. It is not an unamiable, or arbitrary principle of conduct. We all admire the character of a father who is opposed to disorder, and vice, and disobedience in his family, and who expresses his opposition in a proper way.

We admire the character of a ruler who is opposed to all crime in the community, and who expresses those feelings in the laws. And the more he is opposed to vice and crime, the more we admire his character and his laws; and why shall we be not equally pleased with God, who is opposed to all crime in all parts of the universe, and who determines to express it in the proper way for the sake of preserving order and promoting peace? The phrase divine displeasure or indignation, therefore, expresses the meaning of this phrase; see Mat 3:7; Luk 3:7; Luk 21:23; Joh 3:36; Rom 2:5, Rom 2:8; Rom 3:5; Rom 4:15; Rom 5:9; Rom 9:22; Rom 12:19; Rom 13:4-5; Eph 2:3; Eph 5:6; 1Th 1:10; 1Th 2:16, etc. The word occurs 35 times in the New Testament.

Is revealed – That is, revealed to the Jews by their Law; and to the Gentiles in their reason, and conscience, as the apostle proceeds to show.

From heaven – This expression I take to mean simply that the divine displeasure against sin is made known by a divine appointment; by an arrangement of events, communications, and arguments, which evince that they have had their origin in heaven; or are divine. How this is, Paul proceeds to state, in the works of creation, and in the Law which the Hebrews had. A variety of meanings have been given to this expression, but this seems the most satisfactory. It does not mean that the wrath will be sent from heaven; or that the heavens declare his wrath; or that the heavenly bodies are proofs of his wrath against sin; or that Christ, the executioner of wrath, will be manifest from heaven (Origen, Cyril, Beza, etc.); or that it is from God who is in heaven; but that it is by an arrangement which shows that it had its origin in heaven. or has proofs that it is divine.

Against all ungodliness – This word properly means impiety toward God, or neglect of the worship and honor due to him. asebeian. It refers to the fact that people had failed to honor the true God, and had paid to idols the homage which was due to him. Multitudes also in every age refuse to honor him, and neglect his worship, though they are not idolaters. Many people suppose that if they do not neglect their duty to their fellow-men, if they are honest and upright in their dealings, they are not guilty, even though they are not righteous, or do not do their duty to God; as though it were a less crime to dishonor God than man; and as though it were innocence to neglect and disobey our Maker and Redeemer. The apostle here shows that the wrath of God is as really revealed against the neglect of God as it is against positive iniquity; and that this is an offence of so much consequence as to be placed first, and as deserving the divine indignation more than the neglect of our duties toward people; compare Rom 11:26; 2Ti 2:16; Tit 2:12; Jud 1:15, Jud 1:18. The word does not occur elsewhere in the New Testament.

Unrighteousness of men – Unrighteousness, or iniquity toward people. All offences against our neighbor, our parents. our country, etc. The word ungodliness includes all crimes against God; this, all crimes against our fellow-men. The two words express what comprehends the violation of all the commands of God; Thou shalt love the Lord thy God, etc. and thy neighbor as thyself, Mat 22:37-40. The wrath of God is thus revealed against all human wickedness.

Who hold the truth – Who keep back, or restrain the truth. The word translated hold here, sometimes means to maintain, to keep, to observe 1Co 7:30; 2Co 6:12; but it also means to hold back, to detain, to hinder. Luk 4:42, the people sought him (Jesus), and came to him, and stayed him. (Greek, the same as here.) Phm 1:13, whom I would have retained with me, etc.; 2Th 2:6, and now ye know what withholdeth, etc. In this place it means also that they held back, or restrained the truth, by their wickedness.

The truth – The truth of God, in whatever way made known, and particularly, as the apostle goes on to say, what is made known by the light of nature. The truth pertaining to his perfections, his Law, etc. They hold it back. or restrain its influence.

In unrighteousness – Or rather, by their iniquity. Their wickedness is the cause why the truth had had so little progress among them, and had exerted so little influence. This was done by their yielding to corrupt passions and propensities, and by their being therefore unwilling to retain the knowledge of a pure and holy God, who is opposed to such deeds, and who will punish them. As they were determined to practice iniquity, they chose to exclude the knowledge of a pure God, and to worship impure idols, by which they might give a sanction to their lusts. Their vice and tendency to iniquity was, therefore, the reason why they had so little knowledge of a holy God; and by the love of this, they held back the truth from making progress, and becoming diffused among them.

The same thing is substantially true now. People hold back or resist the truth of the gospel by their sins in the following ways.

(1) People of influence and wealth employ both, in directly opposing the gospel.

(2) People directly resist the doctrines of religion. since they know they could not hold to those doctrines without abandoning their sins.

(3) People who resolve to live in sin, of course, resist the gospel, and endeavor to prevent its influence.

(4) Pride, and vanity, and the love of the world also resist the gospel, and oppose its advances.

(5) Unlawful business – business that begins in evil, and progresses, and ends in evil – has this tendency to hold back the gospel. Such is the effect of the traffic in ardent spirits, in the slave-trade, etc. They begin in the love of money, the root of all evil 1Ti 6:10; they progress in the tears and sorrows of the widow, the orphan, the wife, the sister, or the child; and they end in the deep damnation of multitudes in the world to come. Perhaps there has been nothing that has so much held back the influence of truth, and of the gospel, as indulgence in the vice of intemperance, and traffic in liquid fire.

(6) Indulgence in vice, or wickedness of any kind, holds back the truth of God. People who are resolved to indulge their passions will not yield themselves to this truth. And hence, all the wicked, the proud, and vain, and worldly are responsible, not only for their own sins directly, but for hindering, by their example and their crimes, the effect of religion on others. They are answerable for standing in the way of God and his truth; and for opposing him in the benevolent design of doing good to all people. There is nothing that prevents the universal spread and influence of truth but sin. And people of wickedness are answerable for all the ignorance and wo which are spread over the community, and which have extended themselves over the world.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Rom 1:18

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness.

The wrath of God

I. Its objects.

1. Unrighteousness.

2. Impenitence.

II. Its revelation.

1. In the conscience.

2. In the Word of God.

3. In Divine providence.

III. Its consummation.

1. Certain.

2. Terrible. (J. Lyth, D. D.)

The wrath of God

I. Of a holy God, whose hatred of sin is infinite.

II. Of a just God, who cannot but punish sin according to its true desert.

III. Of an omniscient God, whose eye there is no eluding, who is greater than our hearts and knoweth all things.

IV. Of an almighty God, whose ability to punish no created power can resist.

V. Of an unchangeable God, whose nature must continue eternally opposed to sin, whose knowledge no forgetfulness can ever impair, and whose power eternity cannot weaken! Who knoweth the power of His anger? (R. Wardlaw, D. D.)

Wrath in God and wrath in man

I. The difference of wrath as it is in God and as it is in man.

1. In man it is an exciting passion. It shakes him to the very centre of his being. It is seen in his countenance; sometimes in a ghastly pallor, and sometimes in scarlet fire. Not so in God; it wakes no ripple on the infinite rivers of His being. He is ever of one mind.

2. In man it is a malignant passion. It burns with a desire to make its object miserable. But there is no malevolence in the heart of God. Fury is not in Me. God is love; and all His other attributes are but so many forms of His love. All His threatenings are but love raising its warning voice to prevent His creatures from falling into rum.

3. In man it is a painful passion. The man who treasures anger inflicts a greater injury on himself than he can on the object of his hate. But nothing can disturb the peace of the ever blessed God.

4. In man it is a selfish passion. Mans wrath is excited because something has occurred which he supposes injuriously affects him in some way or other. There is nothing of this kind in the wrath of God. No creature can injure Him.

II. The agreement of wrath as it is in God and as it is in man.

1. Repugnance. Wrath in man raises his whole nature against the offence, or the offender, or both. There is at once a recoil, and an antagonism. Is there nothing answering to this in the wrath of God, in relation to sin? There must. Wickedness is repugnant–

(1) To His nature. He is essentially holy, and moral evil in all its forms must be necessarily disagreeable to Him (Pro 6:6).

(2) To His procedure. The construction of the universe, the moral constitution of souls, the essential conditions of happiness, personal, social, and national, show that Gods whole conduct as Creator and Governor is opposed to sin. As wrath in man separates him from his offender, wrath in God detaches Him from wickedness. He has no fellowship with wrong.

2. Retribution. There is in the wrath of man an avenging instinct. There is this retributiveness in the wrath of God. Not as a passion, but as an eternal and unalterable principle. The principle of retribution runs through the whole universe, so that the wrong never fails to meet with punishment. Thus the wicked now and here are going away into everlasting punishment. Every sin is a step adown. Every sinful feeling is a nest where the furies hatch their swarming brood.

Conclusion: This subject–

1. Corrects a theological error. The error is that Christs death was an appeasement of Divine vengeance. Christs mission was the effect, not the cause, of Gods love.

2. Supplies a terrible warning to sinners. Be sure your sins will find you out.

3. Urges the necessity of regeneration. The only way to avoid wrath is to avoid sin, the only way to avoid sin is by repentance towards God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. (D. Thomas, D. D.)

On ungodliness and unrighteousness

I. The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and impiety of men. This description of sinners use the name of God irreverently, in vain, and for criminal purposes. It is a consequence of such impious representations, to arraign the dispensation of Divine mercy by a Mediator, and to become incapable of salvation, by an unrighteous rejection of the best means Infinite Wisdom has appointed for its attainment.

II. The wrath of God is also revealed from heaven against every species of injustice and crime. Under injustice I comprehend every injury done to character and to fidelity, as it respects promises and engagements; and it may be extended to every mean and insidious art by which another is overreached and circumvented.

III. In what manner the judgments of God are made known and executed. Man, by the moral constitution of his nature, is susceptible of various and intense punishment; and his corporeal frame subjects him to another species of it. The constitution of things is adapted to the nature of man, and is either adverse or friendly in proportion to his obedience or disobedience to the laws of his Maker. (A. Stifling, LL. D.)

Gods wrath against wickedness

I. The worlds abounding wickedness.

1. Its exhibition.

(1) Men have renounced their Creator, receiving His gifts without acknowledging His kindness, and wilfully withholding from Him both homage and thanks.

(2) The renunciation of Jehovah soon led to gross and palpable idolatry. Men must worship something; and when they refused to acknowledge God, they were driven to find substitutes for Him. For awhile they were content to adore the works of His hands; but ere long they set up the works of their own. So low did they sink that they worshipped images of themselves. Nothing has been too mean, or too obscene, for man to worship. He has taken and set up for his god that which he should only have shrunk from in disgust or cast away with shame.

(3) With idolatry is connected–

(a) The most reckless profligacy of manners.

(b) Abandonment to every selfish and malignant passion.

2. Its guiltiness. It was wilful. Men had the truth, but stifled it in their unrighteousness; and therefore they were without excuse. The race began with a sufficiency of Divine knowledge; but it interfered with their bad passions and propensities, and so they resolved to adapt their theology to their base practices. This disposition, started at an early period, was maintained by every succeeding generation. In each age the light diminished; but still in each enough remained to convict the human conscience of wrong. God left not Himself without witness. Ever since the creation of the world His eternal power and Divine supremacy have been displayed in the material universe. Besides which, other means of religious instruction have always been accessible. Once in Judaism, and since in Christianity, God has maintained a testimony for Himself. Hence the wickedness of the world brings with it an infinite culpability.

II. Gods anger revealed against it.

1. Its mode. This is various. It was declared of old by the prophets. It was displayed in the great crises of the worlds history, as the Deluge, the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, the overthrow of the Egyptians in the Red Sea, and the downfall of Babylon, etc. Besides, there were the acknowledged miseries of life bewailed by philosophers and poets; could these be pondered by the thoughtful without the conviction that God was angry with the wicked every day? Above all there was death. Was it not in His wrath that the Almighty consumed the nations? All these evidences of Gods anger, backed by the internal monitions of every mans conscience, were patent to all long before the time of Paul, but they had all been cast into the shade by a still mightier and more convincing demonstration furnished by the gospel of Christ.

2. Its burden. The thing revealed is that He hates sin, and is resolved severely to punish those who practise it. Each individual who persists in his iniquity will die, and after death be judged, condemned, and banished into the outer darkness, etc. So also there is a day of wrath appointed for the world at large. Conclusion: Let the subject–

1. Convince you of sin.

2. Inspire you with salutary fear.

3. Turn you to the gospel of Christ. (T. G. Horton.)

The revelation of the wrath of God

I. The wrath of God.

1. Its nature. It is no easy thing to speak of wrath in connection with God. Among us it is known to be a passion, and seldom a righteous passion. But it is not a passion in God: Fury is not in Me; in Him it is principle, the love of order, a determination to maintain equity, a resolution to punish sin. It results, therefore, from the perfection of His nature. The legislator is not angry when he promulgates his laws, nor the judge when he pronounces sentence. But the case is that society cannot be maintained without laws, and laws are nothing without penalties and sanctions. In all well-ordered countries crime is punished; and can it escape in the empire of a Being who is righteous in all His ways, and holy in all His works? And this we contend to be essential to the very character of God. We could not esteem nor love Him if we supposed that He viewed equally truth and lies, honesty and injustice, cruelty and benevolence.

2. Its dreadfulness. If the wrath of a king be, as Solomon says, as the roaring of a lion, what must the wrath of God be? Who knoweth the power of His anger? Even according to Thy fear so is Thy wrath. In many cases the evil is far less than the fear; and when the reality comes it is found to be nothing compared with the apprehension. But here the reality will equal, will surpass all imagination.

II. The revelation of this wrath to our very senses.

1. To our faith. This is done by the Scriptures. There hell is naked before it, and destruction has no covering; there faith beholds the outer darkness where there is weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth.

2. To the conscience. Thus it is revealed in those uneasinesses and apprehensions which attend the commission of sin. When Josephs brethren were in the hold, they said one to another, We are verily guilty, etc. What was there here to remind them of Joseph? Oh, there was enough. Inhumanity deserves and demands punishment, and conscience knows it. And when Belshazzar saw the handwriting his face gathered terror, the joints of his loins were loosed, and his knees smote one against another. Why? How does he know but that it is an eulogium upon his character, or an announcement of the raising of the siege, or a prediction of the extension of his reign? There was something within him that foreboded of evil; and the interpreter, therefore, only came in to confirm the exposition of his own feelings. So was it with Herod, who, when he heard of the fame of Jesus, said, It is John the Baptist.

3. To our senses. All nature abounds throughout with tokens of Gods displeasure against sin. And before we dismiss this part of the subject we will observe that, while the existence of this wrath shows us the holiness and justice of God, the revelation of it displays His mercy and His grace too. He would not take you sinners by surprise. He has revealed the wrath before that you may escape it.

III. The objects against which this wrath is revealed.

1. Ungodliness. Ungodliness comprehends all the sins against the first table of the law. The ungodly do not fear God, do not love Him, worship Him, confide in Him. God is not in all their thoughts; they practically say unto Him, Depart from us; we desire not the knowledge of Thy ways.

2. Unrighteousness. Unrighteousness comprehends all the sins against the second table of the law. Unrighteousness is injustice in your regards and in your dealings with your fellow creatures.

3. All ungodliness, and all unrighteousness–the concealed and the open, the refined and the gross. You do not worship a graven image, but then you take the name of your God in vain.

IV. The class of victims peculiarly obnoxious to it. Who hold the truth in righteousness.

1. The heathen themselves never lived up to the light they possessed. This is the charge directly brought home against them by the apostle in this chapter.

2. It was not otherwise also with the Jews, they never practised what they knew. This is the charge the apostle brings against them in the next chapter.

3. There is not a man that lives up to his own principles; he does many things which he knows to be wrong, and he omits many things which he knows to be right. The plea of ignorance therefore can only be admitted in the case of idiots. The original is, who imprison the truth in unrighteousness; that is, the truth would speak in them, and struggles to be heard; but it is confined, imprisoned. Fashion, the god of this world, the love of fame, the love of money, the love of pleasure, these are the jailers that confine the truth in prison. Saul knew it belonged not to him to offer sacrifice; his conscience told him, therefore, that it was a sin; he struggled hard, but yielded. I forced myself. Herod knew John and revered him, yet for the oaths sake, and them which sat with him at meat, he sent and beheaded John. It was the same with Pilate.

Conclusion:

1. What then shall we say to the state of many born in a land of light, who have from children known the Holy Scriptures? With what accusing and condemning consciences you have forced yourselves on, you and God only know. I have read of a captain who, when he found his men begin to waver, threw himself on the ground, and exclaimed, Well, if you will flee, you shall tread me under foot. Conscience has done the very same with regard to some of you.

2. Let me beseech you to practise what you know. Do you believe that covetousness is a sin? Let the conviction go free; be ready to distribute. If you believe it your duty to make a profession of religion, and to join the Church of God, why, then, go immediately and give up yourselves, not only to the Lord, but to His people, and be concerned to walk in all the ordinances of the Lord blameless.

3. Is there nothing else revealed from heaven but the wrath of God? We deserve nothing else; but is there no way of escape from it? We have a revelation of mercy and of grace too. Jesus delivers us from the wrath to come. (W. Jay.)

The revelation of wrath

I. It is here assumed, the position being presently fully established, that all men are both unrighteous and ungodly.

1. They are ungodly. For, being the creatures of God, they owe to Him perpetual allegiance and service. Those who withhold this violate their moral obligations, and rob God of His due.

2. They are unrighteous. Indeed, it is hardly to be supposed that it could be otherwise. The more completely men are cut off from the fear of God the less regard do they have for the rights and happiness of their fellows. Besides, the claims of God being first and supreme, there can be no true righteousness where those claims are denied.

II. This being so, what aspect does the administration of the God of nature assume towards ungodliness and unrighteousness. Is it one of complacency? or of indifference? or not rather of active and resolute antagonism? Paul is not here writing of a revelation of righteous wrath which is to be made at the close of human history, but of one which is present and preparatory. It is made openly and incontestably from heaven. Not that it comes glistering down from on high as the shaft of livid lightning. When M. Arnold affirms that there is an eternal Power, not ourselves, which makes for righteousness; and when the Psalmist exclaims that the face of the Lord is against them that do evil, they but set forth, in varied form, the truth that the wrath of God is revealed from heaven. For heaven is the throne of God; and that throne is but the symbol of His supreme legislative and executive dominion. From that heaven–that throne–the wrath of God is being perpetually revealed–

1. In the human conscience. What but the manifested power of conscience, as an actual revealer of the wrath of God from heaven, gave occasion to the Proverbs, that the wicked trembleth at the shaking of a leaf, and fleeth when no man pursueth? Why fled our first parents, but that conscience had already revealed a coming wrath? Why that whispering, pallid terror in those ten bronzed Bedouins in the Egyptian treasure city? (Gen 42:21; Gen 42:12). Why does that agitated man in the temple treasury so vehemently press those officials to take from him his thirty pieces of silver? And why, when he finds that it cannot be recalled, does he hasten away to hang himself? Who knows not that conscience has compelled many a man to reveal secrets of iniquity, from whom no rack or torture could have extorted the disclosure? And though many a guilty conscience becomes so accustomed to its load as to be little incommoded thereby, it requires but that startling touch which Providence may, at any moment, give to cause it to awaken from its slumbers.

2. In the general moral sentiments of mankind–those sentiments as they are exercised in reference to those who invade human rights. It is quite true that, as human nature now is, it is not safe to leave the administration of justice in private hands. Therefore society has combined for the purpose of maintaining private rights by public power. This power for the administration of justice is ordained of God (Rom 13:1-7). And hence the penal laws and all the instruments of punishment are but so many mediums, through which the wrath of God is revealed against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men.

3. In the general course of providence, or of Gods own administration of the universe in reference to men.

(1) While those vices which terminate upon the individual himself, or which elude the vigilance of society, are subject to the remorse of conscience; and while those which prey upon the general community are repelled and punished by the officers of public justice; those which arise from the perversion or over-indulgence of bodily appetites are sooner or later overtaken and avenged by bodily disease and death. Now all these bear unmistakable testimony to the fact that the face of the Lord is indeed against them that do evil. But have we not also further proof of this in His more general government of nations and the race? Do we not find that so soon as any nation has become morally degenerate Providence has at once planted His standard and hissed for the gathering forces which should humiliate and punish that people?

4. In the Scriptures. In the Pentateuch the principles of the Divine government, including the revelation of wrath against sin, are clearly set forth. In the prophets those principles are so expounded and enforced as to warn against misapprehension and perversion; while in the historical books, the principles not only receive abundant illustration from Gods actual treatment both of Gentiles and Jews, but the additional information is given, on Gods own authority, that such and such calamities which had overtaken particular men and nations were revelations of His wrath from heaven against the ungodliness and unrighteousness of the sufferers. By these Scriptures the general truth is established beyond all contradiction, that verily there is a God who judgeth in the earth; and that, though hand join in hand, the wicked shall not be unpunished.

Conclusion: But–

1. It should ever be remembered that this revelation of wrath is but preparatory and predictive. It is neither perfect nor universal. Many criminals remain undetected, and, in this respect, unpunished, and sometimes the innocent are wrongfully convicted and punished. The whole effect, therefore, of the present revelation of the wrath of God from heaven is to remind us that we are under moral government; and that all are hastening onwards towards that day in which every one of us shall give account of himself to God.

2. And in prospect of that final retribution, this present revelation of the wrath of God from heaven may prove to us what ample and tremendous powers of punishment are provided for the unrighteous and ungodly. (W. Tyson.)

Who hold the truth in unrighteousness.—

Holding the truth in unrighteousness

The word hold signifies to restrain or hold back. Under the influence of unrighteousness they restrained or held back the truth from exerting its proper power. They laid it, as it were, under arrest, because its imperative dictates were such as opposed the inclinations of their depraved hearts. It is not merely that they kept the truth to themselves–holding it in concealment and captivity, and instead of disclosing to others what they knew, criminally leaving them in error and delusion, which some of the philosophers have justly been charged with doing in regard to the unity and other attributes of the Divine Being; but more generally that both philosophers and others refused to frame their lives even according to such knowledge of truth as they actually possessed, or had the ready means of attaining. They acted towards the truth, in voluntarily resisting its control, and shackling its freedom, as a foolish and unprincipled king does towards his best and wisest counsellor, whom he throws into prison to have him out of the way, resenting his past fidelity, and determined to be no longer troubled with his salutary but unpalatable admonitions. (R. Wardlaw, D. D.)

Holding down the truth

The heathen world would not allow the truth to exercise its proper and legitimate influence upon them. They failed to educate their minds to perceive it, or their hearts to love it. The eye can be trained to discover beauty in the landscape and in works of art; or it may have its very powers of vision impaired and destroyed by gazing at the sun or on the snow. So man, by a holy walk and conversation, may fit and prepare his soul to discern and value the truth concerning the eternal power and character of God; or by unrighteousness he may injure his spiritual faculties and be unable to read the revelation of God, though plainly written in the book of nature. The following are some of the steps by which men keep back the truth:–

1. They are prejudiced against it.

2. They positively hate it.

3. They neglect or misrepresent it.

4. They deny and dethrone it in order to enthrone and exalt falsehood.

5. They revile it. (C. Nell, M. A.)

Repression of Gods truth

Two interpretations: One, that a man may be of unrighteous life and yet have a knowledge of the truth; he holds the truth, but is unrighteous in spite of it. The other, that men keep down the truth by their unrighteousness. Compare 2Th 2:6, where the word here translated hold is translated withhold. We take the latter. Mans unrighteousness withholds, keeps back, represses Gods truth. This is evidently the view of the revisers of the Authorised Version, for they translate: Who hold down the truth in unrighteousness.

I. All things demand for their proper development suitable conditions and surroundings. Truth no exception to this rule. We observe that it requires–

1. An appreciative spirit–love for truth.

2. A receptive spirit–openness to truth,

3. An earnest spirit–zeal for truth. Such, and such alone, attain truth; into such minds only will truth enter or come to anything. This with respect to truth generally. Religious truth requires something more.

4. An obedient spirit (Joh 7:17; Joh 8:31-32).

II. Trust involves a moral element because it does not concern the intellect alone, but regulates the life. The text declares that unrighteousness–sin–represses the truth. This appears from the following considerations: Sin–

1. Destroys the love of truth.

2. Sensitiveness to truth.

3. Zeal for truth.

4. Obedience to truth.

Hence it destroys the conditions necessary to the development and progress of Gods truth.

III. It follows from all this.

1. That a sinner is disqualified for pronouncing upon Divine truth.

2. That our doubts–all scepticism–are finally referable to a sinful nature in ourselves rather than to any inherent difficulties in the truth itself.

3. That the progress of Christs religion is hindered not only by outward sin, but by the imperfections and inconsistencies of those who profess it. (H M. Jackson.)

The truth held prisoner

I. What is that truth which men hold prisoner? Religious and practical truth which tends to the right ruling of the heart and life in obedience to the will of God. The truth is two fold.

1. The truth of natural religion, or the dictates of a natural conscience, agreeable to those common notices of good and evil left in man since the Hall.

2. The truth of revealed religion, which comprehends the whole truths of the law and of the gospel also.

II. How men hold truth prisoner.

1. In others.

(1) By putting truth into an ill name, casting reproach and disgrace upon it, on whatever pretences.

(2) By resisting and opposing the truth.

(3) By an authoritative shutting up of truth. This often follows as a judgment.

2. In themselves. This is what the text mainly aims at. It is kept prisoner–

(1) With respect to others, when it is kept back from preventing sin in them. This is done two ways.

(a) When it is restrained by undue silence. If the Lord call men to bring it forth, silence in that case is a bond laid on truth. Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of Me and of My words, etc. When is truth held prisoner by undue silence?

(i) Negatively, not when one has no sufficient call to bring it forth. There is a time to keep silence, and a time to speak. And in discerning these times there is much spiritual wisdom. Truth kept in silence, during the proper time of silence, is not kept prisoner, but entertained in its lodging suitable to its character. A fool uttereth all his mind, but a wise man keepeth it in till afterwards. Truth is too sacred a thing to bring forth just to make a show of, and far more to prostitute to mens lusts and humours. There is an unseasonable venting of truth, by which truth and holiness gain nothing, but lose much (1Sa 22:10). Our Lord forbids it. Neither cast ye your pearls before swine.

(ii) Positively, when the honour of Goal requires the bringing it forth (Mar 8:38). When the Lords honour is at stake, truth is like a fire that will seek a vent, and get it in a tender soul. Thus speaks Jeremiah, His word was in mine heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I was weary with forbearing, and I could not stay. And it exposes men to the wrath of God, to hold in truth in that case, for that is to sacrifice Gods glory to mens own interests. Again, to hold it in when the good of our neighbour requires it to come forth, is to hold it prisoner, Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thine heart: thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbour, and not suffer sin upon him. Where there is any probable appearance of sins being prevented in others, by means of the coming forth of truth, it is not to be held in, nor can it be so, without the guilt of imprisoning it.

(b) When by words or actions, one holding in the truth, leads another into sin. This is to hold truth prisoner with a witness, shutting the prison door with double bars.

(2) In themselves several ways. As by–

(a) Neglecting, overlooking, and not adverting to it in the management of their hearts and lives. The light shines about them, but they take no notice of it to order their steps by it. This is put the Lords candle in them, under a bushel.

(b) Not obeying truth speaking to them in their consciences.

(c) Going on in opposition to known truth, knowing the right and doing the wrong. They are of those that rebel against the light.

(d) By overcoming the truth in their war against it. Many a battle there is betwixt truth in the conscience and a mans lusts, till the man taking part with his lusts against the truth, convictions are murdered, the troublesome light in the soul is put out, and truth is taken and held prisoner, that it can no more disturb the man in the enjoyment of his lusts.

III. Truth is unjustly thus treated, wrongly held prisoner by sinners. This is clear, for that–

1. It is Gods messenger to men and His deputy in the soul, over which they have no power and authority. So that one cannot hold it prisoner but in unrighteousness, or in rebellion against the God of truth.

2. It is never guilty of any crime against men, that it should be so treated. Falsehood and lies are ever contrary to mens true interest, but the truth is never so.

3. It cannot be held prisoner but for an unrighteous cause, and in favour of some lust or other.

4. A just God will clear it, and set it free at the cost of those who hold it prisoner. They shall know, saith the Lord, whose word shall stand, Mine or theirs. If truth prevail not to mens reformation, it will prevail to their destruction.

IV. To confirm the doctrine. Consider–

1. A persons treating truth thus is rebellion against God, who is the God of truth and Lord of light. If our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things.

2. It exposes men to severe temporal judgments. It was our first parents holding truth prisoner which brought in the flood of miseries on the world (see also 1Pe 3:19-20).

3. It exposes to spiritual judgments (Isa 6:8-10; Rom 1:21-23).

4. It exposes to eternal judgments.

Conclusion: Consider–

1. The evil of it.

(1) It is ingratitude to God of the deepest dye.

(2) It is direct disobedience to God, a flying in the face of His orders.

(3) It is a rising up against God in open rebellion and war.

(4) It is working against our own interest in favour of Satan and our lusts.

It is the putting out of the candle which God in compassion to our darkness has lighted unto us. It is like one travelling through a wilderness of pits, rising up against his guide, binding him and casting him into one of them. Like captives conspiring against their deliverers, or sick men against their physicians, to their own ruin.

2. The greatness of the hazard.

(1) Men so doing grow worse and worse.

(2) It brings on judicial blindness.

(3) It brings on judicial hardness (Isa 6:10).

(4) It provokes God to give up with men and to give them over to their own lusts. Ephraim is joined to idols, let him alone.

(5) It paves the way to the unpardonable sin (Heb 6:1-8).

(6) It is often punished with the prevailing of the spirit of error and delusion (Isa 66:3-4).

(7) It provokes God to remove the gospel from among a people, and to leave them in darkness (Rev 2:5).

(8) It will aggravate a persons torment in hell.

It shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the day of judgment than for you. Remember the doom of the servant who knew his masters will, but did it not. As the sharpest vinegar comes of the most generous wine, so the most fierce wrath comes from the despising of truth revealed to one in the gospel.

3. Set truth free, loose its bands that it may reign freely in your hearts and lives. That is–

(1) Resist not truth laid before you.

(2) Slight not nor overlook truth in the conduct of your lives.

(3) Submit to the truth, to the truth in the Word, and to truth in your conscience, as the ruler of your life.

(a) It will set you at liberty. Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.

(b) The way of truth is the way of holiness and happiness. (T. Boston, D. D.)

Gods truth and mans treatment of it

I. The thing spoken of here as the truth.

1. Truth in the spheres of science, literature, art, philosophy, is an object worth attaining. But it is not in reference to such truth that Paul writes. Truth, indeed, is one, in whatever you may find it, whether in geological records or in the Bible. It means universally the reality as opposed to that which is not real. Now we want to know what the reality is in everything that comes before our minds. We want the historian to give us the reality as he narrates for us the events of history. So also in the higher matters of religion. The truth about God and His relation to man; truth bearing upon our duties, destiny–this is our supreme want. That which distinguishes us from the brutes is the possession of a religious nature with its moral capacities.

2. It is only as this religious nature grows that the man himself can be said to truly grow; and this growth can proceed only in connection with religious truth, which is its proper food. Take away light and moisture from the plant, and it dies. So our spiritual being can live and grow only in the light and under the vitalising influence of religious truth. Christ assigns two functions to Divine truth in relation to our fallen humanity.

(1) A liberating work. Christ says, Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. With all the progress of civilisation, and the spirit of civil and political liberty, moral slavery still prevails among every people. And men are not very adverse to it. A very real slavery this; because, while the body may be free, the man himself is fettered by the love of sin and the spirit of worldliness. How shall he be made free? The truth is the only instrument to effect his liberation. The truth, not any truth. The truths of physical science or of political philosophy, however precious for other purposes, are wholly insufficient for the liberation of a soul from sin and guilt.

(2) A sanctifying work. Sanctify them through Thy Truth. Growth in holiness of character is the great thing–greater than any advancement in culture, than brilliant talents and genius; than the acquisition of material wealth or social rank and power. As we grow in holiness we grow in real greatness and in real happiness.

II. Mans conduct in reference to the truth. It does not get access to the heart, does not get its rightful power and ascendancy; it is checked, hindered, held back in its design to bless by unrighteousness. In what way? Notice–

1. That sin extinguishes the love and desire for the truth. It does not do so in regard to secular truth. The astronomer in his observatory, the chemist in his laboratory, the geologist among the rocks–each in his own way seeks the truth and desires it. But it is very different in regard to the truth as it comes to us in Gods Word, and sounds in the conscience. Why?

(1) Because it does not offer itself as mere abstract truth, to excite speculative interest; it comes with great demands; it is truth which claims obedience; and it is not so easy always to obey the truth as to talk about it and admire it.

(2) The truth is a rebuke to a life of sin; and we do not like to be rebuked for that which we know to be wrong.

(3) The truth, again, reveals to man the peril to which a life of sin exposes him. The sinner, therefore, closes his eyes to it. He desires to be undisturbed and at peace in his sin.

2. Sin destroys the souls sensitiveness to the truth. It weakens the souls power of moral perception, beclouds the inner vision. (A. Bell, B. A.)

Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell

Verse 18. For the wrath of God is revealed] The apostle has now finished his preface, and comes to the grand subject of the epistle; namely, to show the absolute need of the Gospel of Christ, because of the universal corruption of mankind; which was so great as to incense the justice of God, and call aloud for the punishment of the world.

1. He shows that all the heathen nations were utterly corrupt, and deserved this threatened punishment. And this is the subject of the first chapter, from verse 18 to the end. Ro 1:18-32

2. He shows that the Jews, notwithstanding the greatness of their privileges, were no better than the Gentiles; and therefore the wrath of God was revealed against them also. This subject he treats in Ro 2:1-29 and Ro 3:1-19.

3. He returns, as it were, on both, Ro 3:20-31, and proves that, as the Jews and Gentiles were equally corrupt, they could not be saved by the deeds of any law; that they stood equally in need of that salvation which God had provided; that both were equally entitled to that salvation, for God was the God of the Gentiles as well as of the Jews.

By , the wrath of God, we are not to understand any uneasy passion in the Divine Being; but the displeasure of his righteousness, which is expressed by the punishments inflicted on the ungodly, those who retain not God in their knowledge; and the unrighteous, those whose lives are profligate.

As, in the Gospel, the righteousness of God is revealed for the salvation of the ungodly, so is the wrath of God revealed against the workers of iniquity. Those who refuse to be saved in the way revealed by his mercy must be consumed in the way revealed by his justice.

Ungodliness] ,, from , negative, and or , I worship, probably intended here to express atheism, polytheism, and idolatry of every kind.

Unrighteousness] from , negative, and , justice; every thing contrary to strict morality; all viciousness and profligacy of conduct.

Who hold the truth in unrighteousness] In what sense could it be said that the heathen held the truth in unrighteousness, when they really had not that truth? Some think this refers to the conduct of their best philosophers, such as Socrates, Plato, Seneca, c., who knew much more of the Divine nature than they thought safe or prudent to discover and who acted in many things contrary to the light which they enjoyed. Others think this to be spoken of the Gentiles in general, who either did know, or might have known, much of God from the works of creation, as the apostle intimates in the following verses. But Rosenmuller and some others contend that the word here does not signify to hold, but to hinder; and that the place should be translated, who through maliciousness hinder the truth; i.e. prevent it from taking hold of their hearts, and from governing their conduct. This is certainly a very usual acceptation of the verb , which Hesychius interprets , , , to retain, hinder, c. these men hindering, by their vicious conduct, the truth of God from being propagated in the earth.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

He proceeds to prove the principal proposition laid down in the foregoing verse; the causal particle for implies as much. Men must be justified by the righteousness of God, because they have no righteousness of their own to justify them, they themselves are all unrighteous. This he proves both of the Gentiles and Jews. He begins with the Gentiles, and proves it upon them, from this verse to Rom 2:17; and then he proves it upon the Jews also, from thence to the end of the 3rd chapter. {Rom 2:18-3:31}

The wrath of God is revealed; it is revealed in the word of God, or rather, by the judgments which he inflicteth.

From heaven; i.e. from God in heaven. Plagues and judgments spring not out of the dust, proceed not originally from second causes, much less do they come by chance.

Against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men: the abstract is put for the concrete; he means unrighteous and ungodly men; but he chooseth this way of speaking, because God, when he punisheth, aims at the sins of men; and would not punish their persons, but for their sins. By ungodliness, understand sins against the first table, which are mentioned Rom 1:21,23; by unrighteousness, sins against the second, of which there is mention at large, from Rom 1:26 to the end of the chapter.

Who hold the truth in unrighteousness: by truth, understand all that light which is left in man since the fall. There are in all men some common notions of God, his nature and will; some common principles also of equity and charity towards men, which nature itself teacheth, and upon which the consciences of the Gentiles did accuse or excuse them. These natural notions concerning God and their neighbour they did not obey and follow, but wickedly suppressed them. They imprisoned the truth which they acknowledged, that they might sin the more securely. The metaphor is taken from tyrants, who oppress the innocent, and imprison them: so the Gentiles did by the truth which they had by nature, they kept it in and under.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

18. who holdrather, “holddown,” “hinder,” or “keep back.”

the truth inunrighteousnessThe apostle, though he began this verse with acomprehensive proposition regarding men in general, takes up in theend of it only one of the two great divisions of mankind, to whom hemeant to apply it; thus gently sliding into his argument. But beforeenumerating their actual iniquities, he goes back to the origin ofthem all, their stifling the light which still remained to them. Asdarkness overspreads the mind, so impotence takes possession of theheart, when the “still small voice” of conscience is firstdisregarded, next thwarted, and then systematically deadened. Thus”the truth” which God left with and in men, instead ofhaving free scope and developing itself, as it otherwise would, wasobstructed (compare Mat 6:22;Mat 6:23; Eph 4:17;Eph 4:18).

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven,…. The apostle having hinted at the doctrine of justification by faith in the righteousness of Christ; and which he designed more largely to insist upon in this epistle, and to prove that there can be no justification of a sinner in the sight of God by the deeds of the law, in order to set this matter in a clear light, from hence, to the end of the chapter, and in the following ones, represents the sad estate and condition of the Gentiles with the law of nature, and of the Jews with the law of Moses; by which it most clearly appears, that neither of them could be justified by their obedience to the respective laws under which they were, but that they both stood in need of the righteousness of God. By “the wrath of God” is meant the displicency and indignation of God at sin and sinners; his punitive justice, and awful vengeance; the judgments which he executes in this world; and that everlasting displeasure of his, and wrath to come in another world, which all through sin are deserving of, some are appointed to, God’s elect are delivered from, through Christ’s sustaining it, in their room and stead, and which comes and abides on all impenitent and unbelieving persons. This is said to be “revealed”, where? not in the Gospel, in which the righteousness of God is revealed; unless the Gospel be taken for the books of the four Evangelists, or for the Gospel dispensation, or for that part of the ministry of a Gospel preacher, which represents the wrath of God as the desert of sin, the dreadfulness of it, and the way to escape it; for the Gospel, strictly taken, is grace, good news, glad tidings, and not wrath and damnation; though indeed in Christ’s sufferings for the sins of his people, which the Gospel gives us an account of, there is a great display of the wrath of God, and of his indignation against sin: but this wrath of God is revealed in the law, it is known by the light of nature, and to be perceived in the law of Moses, and may be observed in the Scriptures, where are many instances and examples of divine wrath and displeasure; as in the total destruction of the old world by a world wide flood, the burning of Sodom and Gomorrah, turning Lot’s wife into a pillar of salt, the plagues of Egypt, and the several instances mentioned in this chapter. This wrath is said to be God’s wrath “from heaven”, by the awful blackness which covers the heavens, the storms and tempests raised in them, and by pouring down water or fire in a surprising manner, on the inhabitants of the world; or “from heaven”, that is, openly, manifestly, in the sight of all; or from God who is in heaven, and not from second causes; and more especially it will be revealed from heaven, when Christ shall descend from thence at the day of judgment: the subject matter or object of it,

against, or “upon” which it is revealed, are,

all ungodliness, and unrighteousness of men; that is, all ungodly and unrighteous men; or all men who are guilty of ungodliness, the breach of the first table of the law, which respects the worship of God, and of unrighteousness, the breach of the second table of the law, which regards our neighbours’ good: and these persons are further described as such,

who hold the truth in unrighteousness: meaning either such who know the Gospel, which is “the truth”, and do not profess it openly, but hold and imprison it in their minds, which is a great piece of unrighteousness; or if they do profess it, do not live up to it in their lives: or rather the Gentile philosophers are designed, who are spoken of in the following verse; [See comments on Ro 1:22]; who had some knowledge of the truth of the divine Being, and his perfections, and of the difference between moral good and evil; but did not like to retain it themselves, nor communicate all they knew to others, nor did they live according to that knowledge which they had.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

For the wrath of God is revealed ( ). Note in Romans Paul’s use of , now argumentative, now explanatory, now both as here. There is a parallel and antecedent revelation (see verse 17) of God’s wrath corresponding to the revelation of God’s righteousness, this an unwritten revelation, but plainly made known. is from , to teem, to swell. It is the temper of God towards sin, not rage, but the wrath of reason and law (Shedd). The revelation of God’s righteousness in the gospel was necessary because of the failure of men to attain it without it, for God’s wrath justly rested upon all both Gentiles (1:18-32) and Jews (2:1-3:20).

Ungodliness (). Irreligion, want of reverence toward God, old word (cf. 2Ti 2:16).

Unrighteousness (). Lack ( privative and ) of right conduct toward men, injustice (Rom 9:14; Luke 18:6). This follows naturally from irreverence. The basis of ethical conduct rests on the nature of God and our attitude toward him, otherwise the law of the jungle (cf. Nietzsche, “might makes right”).

Hold down the truth ( ). Truth (, , from privative and or , to conceal) is out in the open, but wicked men, so to speak, put it in a box and sit on the lid and “hold it down in unrighteousness.” Their evil deeds conceal the open truth of God from men. Cf. 2Th 2:6f. for this use of , to hinder.

Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament

For. All men require this mode of justification, for all men are sinners, and therefore exposed to God ‘s wrath.

The wrath of God [ ] . Not punishment, but the personal emotion. See on Joh 3:36.

Ungodliness and unrighteousness [ ] .

Irreligiousness and immorality. See on godliness, 2Pe 1:3; also 2Pe 2:13.

Hold [] . Not possess : compare ver. 21. Rev., correctly, hold down; i e., hinder or i. Compare 2Th 2:6, 7; Luk 4:42.

The truth. Divine truth generally, as apparent in all God ‘s self – revelations.

Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament

1) “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven,” (apokaluptetai gar orge theou ap ouranou) “For wrath of God is revealed, unveiled, or disclosed from heaven; Heavens Holy God, Son, Holy Spirit, Holy People, and Holy Place reveal or unveil the unholiness and corruption of all men, under the wrath or incensed anger of God, when Satan was cast down, and when Adam sinned, Gen 3:22-24; 2Co 5:21; Luk 10:18.

2) “Against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men,” (epi pasan asebeian kai adikian anthroponi “Against all impiety and unrighteousnessness of men,” so that in man’s unregenerate, unsaved condition, none can enter heaven. All are quarantined from entering it, except those saved, those who are born again, Joh 3:3; Joh 3:6; Rev 21:27; Heb 12:14.

3) “Who hold the truth in unrighteousness,” (ton ten aletheian en adikia kateckonton) “Who have or hold the truth (moral and ethical standards of God) in unrighteousness, continually. “God is angry with the wicked every day,” whetting his sword of righteous judgment continually, awaiting the hour of full falling furor, horror, and torments that hang like a suspended knife over the neck of the wicked, the stubborn, the rebellious every moment, every breath, while they wake and while they sleep. God’s anger is yet tempered with mercy and compassion, as he calls the sinner to salvation, ere the lever of justice suddenly comes in death –when it is too late. Psa 7:11-13; Rom 2:2-9; Rev 6:12-17; Rev 14:9-11; Rom 3:20; Rom 3:23; Rom 6:23.

Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary

18. For (42) revealed, etc. He reasons now by stating things of a contrary nature, and proves that there is no righteousness except what is conferred, or comes through the gospel; for he shows that without this all men are condemned: by it alone there is salvation to be found. And he brings, as the first proof of condemnation, the fact, — that though the structure of the world, and the most beautiful arrangement of the elements, ought to have induced man to glorify God, yet no one discharged his proper duty: it hence appears that all were guilty of sacrilege, and of wicked and abominable ingratitude.

To some it seems that this is a main subject, and that Paul forms his discourse for the purpose of enforcing repentance; but I think that the discussion of the subject begins here, and that the principal point is stated in a former proposition; for Paul’s object was to teach us where salvation is to be found. He has already declared that we cannot obtain it except through the gospel: but as the flesh will not willingly humble itself so far as to assign the praise of salvation to the grace of God alone, Paul shows that the whole world is deserving of eternal death. It hence follows, that life is to be recovered in some other way, since we are all lost in ourselves. But the words, being well considered, will help us much to understand the meaning of the passage.

Some make a difference between impiety and unrighteousness, and think, that by the former word is meant the profanation of God’s worship, and by the latter, injustice towards men; but as the Apostle immediately refers this unrighteousness to the neglect of true religion, we shall explain both as referring to the same thing. (43) And then, all the impiety of men is to be taken, by a figure in language, as meaning “the impiety of all men,” or, the impiety of which all men are guilty. But by these two words one thing is designated, and that is, ingratitude towards God; for we thereby offend in two ways: it is said to be ἀσέβεια, impiety, as it is a dishonoring of God; it is ἀδικία, unrighteousness, because man, by transferring to himself what belongs to God, unjustly deprives God of his glory. The word wrath, according to the usage of Scripture, speaking after the manner of men, means the vengeance of God; for God, in punishing, has, according to our notion, the appearance of one in wrath. It imports, therefore, no such emotion in God, but only has a reference to the perception and feeling of the sinner who is punished. Then he says that it is revealed from heaven; though the expression, from heaven, is taken by some in the sense of an adjective, as though he had said “the wrath of the celestial God;” yet I think it more emphatical, when taken as having this import, “Wheresoever a man may look around him, he will find no salvation; for the wrath of God is poured out on the whole world, to the full extent of heaven.”

The truth of God means, the true knowledge of God; and to hold in that, is to suppress or to obscure it: hence they are charged as guilty of robbery. — What we render unjustly, is given literally by Paul, in unrighteousness, which means the same thing in Hebrew: but we have regard to perspicuity. (44)

(42) The connection here is not deemed very clear. [ Stuart ] thinks that this verse is connected, as the former one, with Rom 1:16. and that it includes a reason why the Apostle was not ashamed of the gospel: and [ Macknight ] seems to have been of the same opinion, for he renders γαρ, besides. In this case the revelation of wrath from heaven is that which is made by the gospel. This certainly gives a meaning to the words, “from heaven” which is hardly done by any other views. That the gospel reveals “wrath,” as well as righteousness to be obtained by faith, is what is undeniable. Salvation to the believer, and condemnation to the unbeliever, is its sum and substance. The objection made by [ Haldane ] is of no force, — that the Apostle subsequently shows the sins of mankind as committed against the light of nature, and not against the gospel; for he seems to have brought forward the evidence from the light of nature, in order to confirm the evidence from the light of revelation. The expression is, “Revealed is the wrath of God,” and not has been. See Act 17:30

This is the view taken by [ Turrettin ]; and [ Pareus ] says, “There is nothing to prevent us from referring the revelation of wrath, as well as the revelation of righteousness, to the gospel” — Ed.

(43) It is true that the immediate subject is the neglect of religion; but then injustice towards men is afterwards introduced, and most critics take it in this sense. — Ed.

(44) This clause, τῶν τὴν ἀλήθειαν ἐν ἀδικία κατεχόντων is differently rendered, “ Veritatem injuste detinentes — unjustly detaining the truth,” [ Turrettin ] ; “Who stifle the truth in unrighteousness,” [ Chalmers ] ; “Who hinder the truth by unrighteousness,” [ Stuart ]; “Who wickedly oppose the truth,” [ Hodge ] ; “Who confine the truth by unrighteousness,” [ Macknight ]

“

They rushed headlong,” says [ Pareus ], “into impiety against God and into injustice against one another, not through ignorance, but knowingly, not through weakness, but willfully and maliciously: and this the Apostle expresses by a striking metaphor, taken from tyrants, who, against right and justice, by open violence, oppress the innocent, bind them in chains, and detain them in prison.”

The sense given by [ Schleusner ] and some others, “ Qui cum veri Dei cognitione pravitatem vitæ conjungunt — who connect with a knowledge of the true God a wicked life,” seems not to comport with the context.

“

The truth” means that respecting the being and power of God afterwards specified. — Ed.

Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary

CRITICAL NOTES

Rom. 1:18. The wrath of God. , Gods displeasure. The phrase is plainly anthropopathic. May express a particular instance of displeasure.

Rom. 1:19. That which may be known of God.That concerning God which is knowable. St. Basil called the natural world a school of the knowledge of God. God is knowable though still unknowable.

Rom. 1:20. The invisible things of Him from the creation.Cyril said that the eternity of God is proved from the corruptible nature of the visible world. Gods divinity, invisible attributes, manifest from creation. Manifested by the first creation and by consequent processes. Eternal power and supremacy written on natures works. The word creation appears to refer to the act of creation and also to the results of that act.

Rom. 1:21. Vain in their imaginations.. Thoughts, reasonings, disputations. The heart in this passage plainly refers to the mind. , wanting in foresight.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.Rom. 1:18-21

God manifest in His works.In these days we often give undue prominence to the truth that God is love. We seem to forget that this is compatible with Gods holy and just indignation against sin. We do not question the love of the wise earthly father when he punishes the child. God is love, and as a wise God His wrath is revealed against ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. Most surely the wrath is revealed, though we cannot always read the revelation. The prosperity of the wicked in this life may be more in seeming than in reality, and the end will surely come. The way of transgressors is hard. Gods love is not a mere vapid sentiment, and cannot be allowed to override the eternal righteousness. Now St. Paul here shows that ungodly men are not excused because God has made Himself known in the frame of human nature and in the frame of the world. He anticipates modern objections, and classes those amongst the ungodly and unrighteous who tell us that by an intellectual necessity they have crossed the boundary of experience and discerned in matter the promise and potency of all terrestrial life. We fail to grasp the meaning of the expression crossed the boundary of experience. Is that the ascertained result of a series of trials and experiments? If so, are we to be told that the ascertained result of a series of trials and experiments is nil, and that in matter are found the promise and potency of all terrestrial life? Is it an intellectual necessity? Is it not rather a moral obliquity which forces to the conclusion that matter is self-creating, and that God as creator is to be banished from His own creation? However, we still believe that God exists, and that His attributes are manifest in the frames both of man and of the world.

I. Creative energy is clearly seen in the world.That there has been and is a Creator our faith is yet sufficiently strong to accept, though we have read books assailing its reasonableness. All that the scientists so far have done is to attempt to shake the authority of the Bible. They have not yet given us anything axiomatic. Their guesses, inferences, and so-called signs of evolutionary processes, of the eternal generation, of matter, do not amount to a demonstration. Certainly they do not formulate a creed. The scientists are not yet sufficiently agreed as to meet in general council, and to formulate a creed as to the worlds origin which should supplant the Apostles Creed. And meanwhile through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which do appear. Faith first embraces the doctrine, and observation declares that the faith is not unreasoning, is not unreasonable. We cannot lift the creature into the high position of being his or its own creator. A creator always is. A creature must at one period be represented by the words is not, if there be meaning in words, and if we still admit the word creature into our vocabulary. So that the creature is, and yet is not. He or it is both negative and positive at one and the same time. That which has been created creates itself. That which was once without life and motion gives life and motion to itself. The beautiful form, the graceful structure, the physical organism, are the products of evolution, and they have evolved themselves. They had power before they had being. They had qualities before there were material substances in which those qualities could inhere. Man is a production, and before his creation he produced himself. The producer and the product are identical, which is ridiculous. And the argument is not invalidated if we push our inquiries further back, and say that the potency of matter generated other potencies. Is there then such latent potency in one piece of matter that it can go on producing other pieces of matter far transcending the original in size, in grace, and in beauty? The primeval pieces of matter would be vastly astonished if they could see their wondrous progeny. Less than the famous dragons tooth has brought forth multitudinous lifephysical, intellectual, and moral. Can it be that matter has produced mind? Can it be that coarse matter has so mixed and fused and purified and etherealised its creations that there has been produced the intellect of man? Unutterably grand was the potency of the first germ-force which has produced immortal mind, which has sent floating through Gods universe the mystic strains of music, of poetry, of eloquence, and of philosophy. Matter is the mother of mind? Yea, mind is only matter, and the careful mother has done immensely well to her child. Let us reverence matter, for she has in her family group the human intellect, with its powers of memory, perception, acquisition, and retention. Can we believe the strange doctrine? Can we fancy the soul growing out of matter and embracing in its loves and yearning the great unknown? But why should matter be more potent in energy in past ages than in these days, when it has the advantage of being helped by some modern scientists? Why does she not produce other worlds? If this be deemed unnecessary, why does she not renovate our planet so that all defects may be removed, and a sphere given which should meet the scientists idea of the best possible world? Through unknown ons, let us say, matter has remained in much the same condition, and nature shows no development of creative energy all along her mighty pathway; she does not even give a sign, show a trace, of the glory of once having been a creator. Man is a temple in ruins, but the glory has not all departed, for he is majestic in his ruins, and there are traces of great moral glory. But where are the signs on this world temple that it was once a creator? On the temple of the material universe we find no traces of an inscription to the effect that it once possessed creative energy and built itself. The world is a looking-glass into which we look and see there reflected as the creator neither matter nor human mind, neither evolution nor protoplasm, but God the Father and God the Son, a glorious unity. The evidences of design and order in the universe are sufficient for all practical purposes and adequate to establish the belief in unsophisticated minds that there has been an intelligent creator.

II. Eternal power and wisdom are clearly seen in the world.The atheist can give no true account of the multitude, elegance, variety, order, and beauty that may be traced in the green earth with its ever-varying charms, and in the widespread heavens adorned with myriads of worlds. The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament showeth His handiwork. No, says M. Comte; at the present time, for minds properly familiarised with true astronomical philosophy, the heavens display no other glory than that of Hipparchus, of Kepler, of Newton, and of all who have helped to establish these laws. No persons, says Dr. MCosh, were more willing to admit than the parties here named that the laws which they discovered must have existed before they could discover themthat the glory belongs to Him who established these laws, and to them but the reflected glory of having first interpreted them to mankind. We are told that the undevout astronomer is mad. What strange madness has seized the atheistical astronomer? How can one gaze at the stars without thinking of Him who alone spreadeth out the heavens, and treadeth upon the waves of the sea, which maketh Arcturus, Orion, and Pleiades, and the chambers of the south! Who can behold this brave oerhanging firmament, this most excellent canopy, the air, the majestical roof fretted with golden firethese spangled wonders, these lucid orbsand not be filled with admiration of the wisdom and power there displayed! We say and feel that a God skilful in design, infinite in resource, and omnipotent in execution must have produced those spangled heavens. Here we have a comprehensive statementeternal power. The scientist tells us that there is a latent potency in matter. How does he know if it is latent? Did he find it out with his microscope? Did he pursue the potency and discover it in the hiding-place? However that may be, there is a power antecedent to all time powers. The eternal power is beyond our comprehension, and is therefore unknowable. Eternity we know as a word, but we cannot know what it is as a condition. If it be possible for us to know eternity, then it is grasped by a finite nature and loses its infinity. It becomes a bounded eternity, which is a contradiction. Eternity we only know in part. We can simply know it as a mysterious something stretching before and after time. And yet we do not say that there is no such thing as the infinite because the finite cannot contain the infinite, and thus because it transcends our knowledge. We know the infinite in part, and believe in the unknowable. So let us not deny the eternal power because it is to us in all its vastness unknowable. Let us rise from the known to the unknown, from the powers of earth to the vast unknowable eternal power.

III. The true divinity is clearly seen.The divine nature is made known both by the frame of man and of the world. A superhuman power is revealed as needful to the production of all things. If humanity could not project itself into life before it had life, then we are shut up to the conclusion of an antecedent agency giving to humanity its potencies and its energies. Divinity precedes humanity. We would not exclude the idea of divinity, for humanity is exalted by the connection. Atheists try to exalt themselves by seeking to confute the notion of a God; but in this instance it is strikingly true he that exalteth himself shall be abased. How sadly abased is humanity when divinity is banished from its conceptions! A superhuman agent is above the human race, a supernatural force is above and before all natural forces and powers; and that supernatural agent and force is the God, is the divinity, is the creator of the heavens and the earth.

IV. The mental vision is obscured.The scientist laughs and says, All this may seem right to you, but it is all wrong to me. I have no need of your hypothesis of a divine being; matter is all-powerful, self-generating. Do you question my honesty? Are not my intellectual powers above the average? Does not the literary world accept with eagerness and pay liberally for my contributions? The apostle would reply, The foolish heart is darkened, and thus the mental vision is obscured. Some of our modern scientists of a sceptical turn are praiseworthy in many respects; but there must be in them a fault somewhere, even if they are not open to Cowpers charge:

Faults in the life breed errors in the brain,
And then reciprocally those again.

Let us, however, not commit the common sin which is involved in the words, The landscape has its praise, but not its author.

*** My acknowledgment is due to the Sabbath Observance Society for permission to make use of my sermon on the Divine Unity, to which the adjudicators awarded a prize.

Rom. 1:18. Gods truth and mans treatment of it.Two interpretations have been given to these words, either of which yields perfectly good sense. One is that the words simply mean that a man may be of unrighteous life, and yet have a knowledge of the truth. He holds the truth he possesses a certain knowledge of, but he holds it in unrighteousnesshe is unrighteous in spite of it, and this is his condemnation. But there is another meaning of the word which is here rendered hold. It sometimes signifies to hold back, to restrain, to hinder. This sense of the word is adopted by many as that which we ought to attach to it in the passage before us; and then it would read, Who keep down the truth by their unrighteousness. Taking this to be the meaning of the text, let us look at it from this point of view. And notice mans conduct in reference to the truth. Who hold the truth in unrighteousnessthat is, as I have explained, who keep it down by their unrighteousness. It is checked and hindered, held back in its design to bless, by reason of unrighteousness. In what way? Notice:

I. That sin extinguishes the love of and desire for the truth.It does not do so in regard to secular truth. The man of science pushes his inquiries into the domain of naturethe astronomer in his observatory, the chemist in his laboratory, the geologist among the rocks, each in his own way seeking the truth and desiring it. Sin does not perceptibly repress their enthusiasm nor lessen their desire for truth in science. And so likewise in other branches of inquiry. But it is very different in regard to the truth as it comes to us in Gods word and sounds in the conscience. Why?

1. Because it does not offer itself as mere abstract truth to excite speculative interest. It comes with great demands; it is truth which claims obedience; and it is not so easy always to obey the truth as to talk about it and admire it. It prescribes, not simply the way in which we should believe, but also the way in which we should walk; and to walk rightly is a little harder than to believe rightly. Gods truth addresses us in the imperative mood, and men shrink from its demands.

2. The truth is a rebuke to a life of sin. Every page of Gods truth goes dead against sin; and he who loves sin, who has no wish to give it up, but is bent upon keeping it, does not care to read his rebuke and to see himself written down condemned.

3. The truth again reveals to man the peril to which a life of sin exposes him. It denounces judgment against sin, reveals the wrath of God against ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. Sin extinguishes all love and desire for the truth, because the truth claims obedience, rebukes and condemns sin, and declares its certain punishment.

II. Sin destroys the souls sensitiveness to the truth.It weakens the souls power of moral perceptions. If we cultivate the habit of obeying the truth and following its lead, we shall proportionately increase our sensitiveness to its teachings. Our visions shall become clearer, and we shall have larger and distincter views of it. Obey divine truth. When you hear it speak to you, follow its indications of conduct and duty, and you will become more and more sensitive to it, you will recognise the truth with growing facility. But disobey what you know to be the truth, let it be a habit with you to disobey, and soon the voice of truth will be quenched and you will cease to hear it. You know how soon conscience may lose its sensitiveness, and gradually that which at one time you looked upon as sin, and were right in looking upon as sin, has come to be regarded as innocent, as something quite allowable even in a Christian man. Beware of trifling with the truth! It is to your interest that it should come into a position of power in your nature, that it may bless you with its freedom. Beware, therefore, of letting some cherished sin hold it back and prevent it from rising within you. That sin is destroying the souls sensitiveness. Even in the best of us the truth is kept down. It would bless us far more than it does; but some sin checks it, and the truth is crippled in its power of usefulness to us.Alex. Bell, B.A.

Rom. 1:21. Gratitude.

I. The obligation.It is the duty of all men to cherish a spirit of gratitude towards God. This is evident when we consider the number, variety, magnitude, and ceaseless flow of the benefits which we enjoy.

1. The works of creation furnish us with ground for thankfulness, in that they afford pleasure to the senses, support to our life, and are an evidence of the goodness of God.
2. The structure of our bodies and the endowments of the mind are a ground for thankfulness: health and reason are inestimable blessings.
3. The position in which God has placed us is a ground for thankfulness,the pleasures of society; the facilities we enjoy for mental and moral improvement.
4. Gods providential care is a ground for thankfulness: we have been guided, guarded, and sustained.
5. The spiritual blessings that are so freely bestowed are a ground for thankfulness,the gift of Christ and the offer of pardon and peace to all who believe on Him; the gift of the Spirit, with all the benefits which He confers; the promises of God and the hope that is set before us; the joy that is unspeakable and full of glory. There is no means of measuring or weighing these gifts, and their cordial acceptance is the condition of receiving many more.

II. The consequences of neglecting this obligation.

1. The loss of much real enjoyment;
2. The loss of mans respect;
3. The hardening of the heart;
4. The withdrawal of the blessings slighted;
5. The cursing of the blessings, though they remain;
6. The infliction of future punishment. How may gratitude be expressed?
1. By giving to God our hearts best love;
2. By working for Him among our fellow-men.Preachers Assistant.

SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON Rom. 1:18-22

Man unaided cannot attain righteousness.By some of those to whom the apostle addressed himself it might be thought that this method of justification was unnecessary, for that if men fulfilled the duties incumbent on them nothing more could be required to render them objects of divine favour. And no doubt, if they fulfilled their duty completely, this would be the fact. On this supposition the revelation of a new species of righteousness as the means of their acceptance with God would be wholly superfluous; for if mens own perfect obedience and freedom from sin entitle them to be justified, the necessity of any other method of justification would be entirely taken away. But the apostle goes on to show that all claim to justification on this ground is utterly hopeless, since nothing can be further from the actual condition of mankind than such an unsinning obedience as this mode of justification would require. This point he proceeds to establish by describing the moral condition of mankind; and in order to show the conclusiveness of his proof he begins by laying down this maxim, that the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness. If this then be the case, as it cannot be denied, and if men be ungodly and unrighteous, as is also unquestionable, it follows that justification cannot be attained by their own obedience, and therefore that it must be sought by the righteousness of faith revealed in the gospel. It cannot be doubted that God has manifested with sufficient clearness to mankind in general His wrath against sin; nor can it be doubted that the knowledge of this displeasure implies that sin deserves punishment, and that it will actually receive the punishment which it deserves. These are truths which may be understood by all who will give due consideration to the subject; and if, notwithstanding this knowledge, they still continue to act impiously and unrighteously, they can have no claim to be justified on the footing of their own works, seeing their works are such as to subject them to inevitable condemnation. It has been maintained, indeed, that unaided reason is wholly incompetent to discover the being and perfections of Godthat our minds are so darkened and debased by sin that, had not the knowledge of God been communicated and preserved by a divine revelation, it must have been finally lost in the world. This opinion has been brought forward to support the doctrine of the utter corruption of human nature by sin. But it is an opinion neither warranted by experiencefor, without denying all history, we cannot deny that these doctrines were known at least to some of the ancient philosophersnor authorised by Scripture; for here St. Paul acknowledges that what may be known of God was manifest to the philosophers and legislators to whom he alludes. No doubt the effects of sin in debasing the human mind are great and deplorable, but its operation is chiefly on our moral nature; for if we take the apostle as our guide, we shall own that it has not so completely deranged our intellectual powers as to disqualify us for discovering that there is a God whom we are bound to worship and obey. This knowledge the heathen actually possessed, for God hath showed it unto them. There is, indeed, no department of nature which we have the means of observing but which may lead the contemplative mind to infer the being and perfections of God; for in all the objects that lie open to our inspection we find such manifest proofs of wise contrivance adapting the means employed to the ends to be accomplished, as cannot be explained on any possible supposition unless on admitting that they proceed from the appointment of an all-wise creator. They became vain in their imaginations. To become vain, according to the Scripture use of that phrase, often means to become addicted to idolatry; as in 2Ki. 17:15-16 : They followed vanity, and became vain, and went after the heathen, and made to themselves molten images, and worshipped all the host of heaven. It seems to be in this sense that the word is employed here; and the meaning of the passage appears to be, that all their notions or reasonings on the subject tended to vanity, that is to idolatry, and led them to the folly of worshipping idols rather than the living and true God.D. Ritchie, D.D.

The beauty of nature should make us feel God.Surely vain are all men by nature, who are ignorant of God, and could not out of the good things that are seen know Him that is: neither by considering the works did they acknowledge the work-master; but deemed either fire, or wind, or the swift air, or the circle of the stars, or the violent water, or the lights of heaven, to be the gods which govern the world. With whose beauty if they being delighted took them to be gods, let them know how much the Lord of them is: for the first author of beauty hath created them. But if they were astonished at their power and virtue, let them understand by them, how much mightier He is that made them. For by the greatness and beauty of the creatures proportionably the maker of them is seen. But yet for this they are the less to be blamed: fot they peradventure err, seeking God, and desirous to find Him. For being conversant in His works, they search Him diligently, and believe their sight: because the things are beautiful that are seen.The Wisdom of Solomon.

A mill without a miller is as absurd as a world without God.If man thinks it a great thing to have invented telegraphy and the telephone and other modern wonders, and if in connection therewith he talks of the march of intellect and of the advance of science, why should he deem it unneedful or unmanly to believe that infinite wisdom was engaged in and displayed by the invention and formation of the human body? But further, the brain, as the seat of thought, as being now generally regarded as the mysterious sphere of intellectual operations, declares both mans greatness and mans divine origin. Yes, man is greatman is God-fashioned because he thinks. And the wonderfulness of mans nature is still more declared by the fact that his thinking machine cannot explain the process which itself performs. Some of the noblest intellects have spent time and energy in trying to solve this difficult problem, but it still remains one of the quesita. Theories have been broached, only to be nullified by succeeding theories, and the only true theory at present in existence is that it is a baffling mystery. Here a question naturally arises: If man made himself, if man evolved himself out of concomitant and concurrent chaotic atoms, why can he not more easily understand himself? The inventor and maker of a machine can understand and explain all its parts. The painter knows how his effects were produced. The poet can dissolve into their parts and explain his own rhythmical measures. And yet man, too proud to own a God, must be humble enough to confess that he cannot understand himself. Let man perfect that in his physical frame which he considers imperfect, and then we shall have more patience to watch and listen as he struts with lordly airs and contemns in abhorrent language the master-work of infinite wisdom and power. We think, but cannot tell what we do when we are said to think. We cannot explain how we think. We cannot name, by any term less meaningless than the ego or self, that mysterious person which is said to think. Was then this thinking power or faculty self-evolved? Surely it is by no means satisfactory to declare that thought is a mere mixing or moving or shaking up of nervous fluid or phosphorescent particles in the brain. Are ideas merely phosphorescent gleams? In a certain sense it is true, just as we might say, No brain, no thought; no man, no thought. Nerve fibres require a living agent. Phosphorus is not self-acting. Who brings the phosphorus into action, and consents to spread over the universe its sweet intellectual light? Does the match strike fire by a process of spontaneous combustion without the aid of an active agent? Surely his power of thought lifts man above mere materialism, and is the noblest of endowments? It should speak to us of the divine origin of our nature. We come forth from and are sustained by God. The mind stamps the man with unspeakable greatness. Thoughts can penetrate and subdue where implements of husbandry and weapons of war are ineffectual. The grandeur of mans intellectual nature in its highest forms must strike us with solemn awe. How sublime this power of thought! How gloriously noble to be able beautifully to delineate on canvas either some stirring incident of external life or soul-moving conception from the internal; to trace in marble rare forms of beauty; to make the granite live and speak in our presence; to embody in poetry fancys rich visions; to give with pen, ink, and paper living, lasting embodiment to the aerial, unsubstantial results of intellectual processes; to control the fiercest animals and the very elements of nature; to speak, and the winds are hushed, the storm is stilled, the angry waves are calmed, the ancient rocks are rent, and forth there comes the living stream sparkling in heavens sunlight; to think, and the material world is touched to its very centre; to remember, and all the past is summed up, and moves before me in stately procession, forming groups, now solemn and now joyful; to love, and I am linked to the whole universe and the whole universe is linked to meearth and heaven, man and God, are joined in blessed union! Well may we take up the old refrain: What a piece of work is man! How noble in reason! how infinite in faculties! In form and moving how express and admirable! in action how like an angel! in apprehension how like a god! The beauty of the world! the paragon of animals! The great Shakespeare would consent as we add: the masterpiece of the Creators works! Man is great even in the ruin entailed by the Fall. The very magnificence of the ruins declares at the same time his greatness and the fact that he was made in the image of Godmade by the Creator, and made to bear the Creators likeness and to be His vicegerent in this lower world.

The provisions of nature speak for God.It may be assumed for a principle, which common experience suggests to us, that matter of itself does not run into any order, etc. If not now, then not yesterday, nor from eternity; it must therefore by some counsel be digested. There is not indeed any kind of natural effect which, either singly taken or as it stands related to the public, may not reasonably be supposed to contain some argument of this truth. We do not indeed discern the use and tendency of each particular effect, but of many they are so plain and palpable that we have reason to suppose them of the rest: even as of a person whom we do plainly perceive frequently to act very wisely, at other times, when we cannot discern the drift of his proceeding, we cannot but suppose that he hath some latent reason, some reach of policy, that we are not aware of; or as in an engine, consisting of many parts curiously compacted together, whereof we do perceive the general use, and apprehend how some parts conduce thereto, we have reason to think they all are subservient to the artists designs. Such an agent is God; such an engine is this visible world. We can often discover marks of Gods wisdom; some general uses of the world are discernible, and how that many parts thereof do contribute to them we may easily observe; and seeing the whole is compacted in a constant order, we have reason to deem the like of the rest. Our incapacity to discover all does not argue defect, but excess of the Makers wisdomnot too little in itself, but too great perfection in the work in respect of our capacity. The most to us observable piece of the universe is the earth upon which we dwell; which that it was designed for the accommodation of living creatures that are upon it, and principally of man, we cannot be ignorant or doubtful, if we be not so negligent as to let pass unobserved those many signs that show it. If we look upon the frame of the animals themselves, what a number of contrivances in each of them do appear, suitable to the kind and station of each! If we look about them, what variety and abundance of convenient provisions offer themselves even to a careless view, answerable to all their needs! Wholesome and pleasant food to maintain their life, yea, to gratify all their senses; fit shelter from offence, and safe refuge from dangers: all these things provided in sufficient plenty for such a vast number of creatures; not the least, most silly, weak, or contemptible creature but we may see some care hath been had for its nourishment and comfort. What wonderful instincts are they endued with for procuring their food, for guarding themselves and their young from danger! But for man especially a most liberal provision hath been made to supply all his needs, to please all his appetites, to exercise with profit and satisfaction all his faculties, to content his utmost curiosity. All things about him do minister to his preservation, ease, and delight. The bowels of the earth yield him treasures of metals and minerals, quarries of stone, and coal serviceable to him for various uses. The commonest stones he treadeth upon are not unprofitable. The surface of the earth, what variety of delicate fruits, herbs, and grains doth it afford to nourish our bodies, and cheer our spirits, and please our tastes, and remedy our diseases! How many fragrant flowers for the comfort of our smell and delight of our eyes! Neither can our ears complain, since every wood hath a choir of natural musicians to entertain them with their sprightful melody. Every wood, did I say? Yes, too, the woods adorned with stately trees yield pleasant spectacles to our sight. Even the barren mountains send us down fresh streams of water. Even the wide seas themselves serve us many ways: they are commodious for our commerce; they supply the bottles of heaven with water to refresh the earth; they are inexhaustible cisterns, from whence our springs and rivers are derived; they yield stores of good fish and other convenience of life. The very rude and disorderly winds do us no little service in cleansing the air for our health, in driving forward our ships, in scattering and spreading about the clouds, those clouds which drop fatness upon our grounds. As for our subjects the animals, it is not possible to reckon the manifold utilities we receive from themhow many ways they supply our needs with pleasant food and convenient clothing, how they ease our labour, and how they promote even our sport and recreation. And are we not, not only very stupid, but very ungrateful, if we do not discern abundance of wisdom and goodness in the contrivance and ordering of all these things, so as thus to conspire for our good?Barrow.

Forasmuch as by all things created is made known the eternal power and Godhead, and the dependency of all limited beings infers an infinite and independent essence; whereas all things are for some end, and all their operations directed to it, although they cannot apprehend that end for which they are, and in prosecution of which they work, and therefore must be guided by some universal and overruling wisdom; being this collection is so evident that all the nations of the earth have made it; being God hath not only written Himself in the lively characters of His creatures, but hath also made frequent patefactions of His deity by most infallible predictions and supernatural operations,therefore I fully assent unto, freely acknowledge, and clearly profess this truth, that there is a God.Pearson.

Mental vision needful.These things, Paul says, are seen, though invisible, by their manifestation in the external world. This manifestation is perpetual and universal. It is from the creation of the world. These words may indeed be rendered by the creation, etc., but not consistently with the latter part of the verse; nor do they, when thus rendered, give so pertinent a sense. These invisible things are seen, being understoodthat is, it is a mental vision of which Paul speaks. The eye of the sense sees nothing but the external object; the mind sees mindand mind possessed, not of human power and perfections, but of eternal power and divinity. The word rendered divinity means the divine majesty and excellence, and therefore includes all the perfections of God. These perfections are manifested by the things which are made: so the word here used properly means (see Eph. 2:10); but it may also mean works generally. Being understood by His works would then include the dispensations of His providence as well as the products of His hands. The common version, however, is more natural and appropriate.Hodge.

A wise agent revealed in the world.Is it not a folly to deny the being of a wise agent who sparkles in the beauty and motions of the heavens, rides upon the wings of the wind, and is writ upon the flowers and fruits of plants? As the cause is known by the effects, so the wisdom of the cause is known by the elegance of the work, the proportion of the parts to one another. Who can imagine the world could be rashly made, and without consultation, which in every part of it is so artificially framed? No work of art springs up of its own accord. The world is framed by an excellent art, and therefore made by some skilful artist. As we hear not a melodious instrument, but we conclude there is a musician that touches it, as well as some skilful hand that framed and disposed it for these lessons; and no man that hears the pleasant sound of a lute but will fix his thoughts, not upon the instrument itself, but upon the skill of the artist that made it, and the art of the musician that strikes it, though he should not see the first when he saw the lute, nor see the other when he hears the harmony,so a rational creature confines not his thoughts to his sense when he sees the sun in its glory and the moon walking in its brightness, but rises up in a contemplation and admiration of that infinite spirit that composed and filled them with such sweetness.Charnock.

ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 1

Rom. 1:20. God manifest in creation.Nature forces on our heart a Creator, history a Providence.Jean Paul.

Gods way of making worlds is to make them make themselves.Drummond.

Manufacture is intelligible but trivial; creation is great and cannot be understood.T. Carlyle.

I say the acknowledgment of God in Christ
Accepted by thy reason solves for thee
All questions on our earth and out of it.

Browning.

My own dim life shall teach me this,
That life shall rise for evermore,
Else faith is darkness at the core,
And dust and ashes all that is.Tennyson.

I have gone the whole round of creation; I saw and I spoke;
I, a work of Gods hand for that purpose, received in my brain
And pronounced on the rest of His handiworkreturned Him again
His creations approval or censure; I spoke as I saw;
I report, as a man may of Gods workalls love, yet alls law.Browning.

Rom. 1:20. The mirror in Arcadia.I stand before an attractive picture. The design, the colouring, and the general effect declare that it is the production of a master-mind directing skilful fingers. It is not surprising to read at the bottom of the painting the name of a great artist placed before the word pinxit. No such thing, I say to the admiring materialist, that painting was its own pinxit. It is a self-evolved picture. It produced itself before it was in existence. He laughs at my folly, and scoffs at my ridiculous scepticism. Has nature no picture galleries? Are there no fine artistic effects? Am I to be told that natures own hand painted these pictures before there was such a hand in existence? It is not more ridiculous to say that the picture painted itself than to say that the world created itself. There is a mirror reported to be in the temple of Arcadia which represented to the spectator, not his own face, but the image of that deity which he worshipped. The world is a looking-glass, and yet it does not reflect to us the image of itself as a creator. We look into that glass, and see neither matter nor human mind, neither protoplasm, a fortuitous concourse of atoms, development, nor evolution, but God reflected as the Creator.

Rom. 1:20. The harmony and order of creation.The famous astronomer Athanasius Kircher having an acquaintance who denied the existence of the Supreme Being, took the following method to convince him of his error upon his own principles. Expecting him upon a visit, he procured a very handsome globe of the starry heavens, which being placed in a corner of a room in which it could not escape his friends observation, the latter seized the first occasion to ask from whence it came and to whom it belonged. Not to me, said Kircher, nor was it ever made by any person, but came here by mere chance That, replied his sceptical friend, is absolutely impossible; you surely jest. Kircher, however, seriously persisted in his assertion, took occasion to reason with his friend upon his own atheistical principles. You will not, said he, believe that this small body originated in mere chance; and yet you will contend that those heavenly bodies of which it is only a faint and diminutive resemblance came into existence without order and design. Pursuing this chain of reasoning, his friend was at first confounded, in the next place convinced, and ultimately joined in a cordial acknowledgment of the absurdity of denying the existence of God.

Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell

PART TWO

JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH IN THE GOSPEL, Rom. 1:16 to Rom. 11:36

I.

Proposition Stated. Rom. 1:16-17

1.

Not ashamed of the Gospel. Rom. 1:16 a

2.

The Gospel Defined. Rom. 1:16 b

3.

What is Revealed in the Gospel. Rom. 1:17

II.

Proposition Needed, Rom. 1:18 to Rom. 3:20

1.

Needed by the Gentiles. Rom. 1:18-32

Text

Rom. 1:18-25. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hinder the truth in unrighteousness; Rom. 1:19 because that which is known of God is manifest in them; for God manifested it unto them. Rom. 1:20 For the invisible things of him since the creation of the world are clearly seen, being perceived through the things that are made, even his everlasting power and divinity; that they may be without excuse: Rom. 1:21 because that, knowing God, they glorified him not as God, neither gave thanks; but became vain in their reasonings, and their senseless heart was darkened. Rom. 1:22 Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, Rom. 1:23 and changed the glory of the incorruptible God for the likeness of an image of corruptible man, and of birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things. Rom. 1:24 Wherefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts unto uncleanness, that their bodies should be dishonored among themselves: Rom. 1:25 for that they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.

REALIZING ROMANS, Rom. 1:18-25

37.

Where is Gods wrath revealed? Not from where, but where? To say simply from heaven will not answer the whole question. If you wanted to show someone the revelation of Gods wrath, where would you look?

38.

Is there some difference between ungodliness and unrighteousness, or was this said only for emphasis?

39.

You will observe that Paul says certain men hinder the trutha most interesting word. Look up (even in our text here) a fuller meaning of the word. What does the word hinder suggest as to mans responsibility to the truth?

40.

Mark carefully the phraseology in Rom. 1:19. Knowledge of God is manifested in two places: to man, and in man. Does this mean that man is born with some innate knowledge of God, or that he is born with the faculty by which he can learn of God? Could it mean both? If so, how? Come on, friend. Do not bog down in your thinking processes. This is too important a matter to be treated lightly. This is most intriguing: think it out! Rom. 1:20 will help you.

41.

What two things about God can we learn from nature? What two things cant man learn from nature?

42.

What should be the natural response of man upon viewing the handiwork of God? (Cf. Psa. 19:1-6)

43.

If it is natural for man to understand some things about God through the creation, then it would be fitting to say that they were senseless who failed to acknowledge these things, How is it that the thought entered some persons minds that they could attribute creation to some other source?

44.

Will you note the use of the term heart in Rom. 1:21. Compare it with Psa. 14:1. Note that man does not say with his mind there is no God. What causes a man to become a fool? Read Rom. 1:22.

45.

In what way is God incorruptible? Is there some order in the idolatry described in Rom. 1:23?

46.

I thought God never gave up, and taught us never to give up. Here it is stated that God did give up. (Cf. Rom. 1:24) With todays emphasis upon the physical body, there is a real danger that men will fall into the same trap. How is the body dishonored?

Paraphrase

Rom. 1:18-25. Next, the gospel alone is the power of God for salvation, because it alone grants pardon to sinners on repentance: wherein the law of nature, vs. Rom. 1:32 and in the law of Moses, the wrath of God is plainly revealed against all impiety and unrighteousness of men; who conceal the truth concerning God from the vulgar, by their unrighteous institutions.

Rom. 1:19 Of this crime, all the Greek legislators, statesmen, and philosophers, have been guilty: Because that which may be known of God, is known among them; for God hath manifested it to them, by his works of creation.

Rom. 1:20 For his invisible attributes, even his eternal power and Godhead, though not discernible by the eye of the body, ever since the creation of the world, are clearly seen by the eye of mans mind, being understood by the things which he hath made; so that they are inexcusable. (The apostle means that the Greek legislators and philosophers were inexcusable.)

Rom. 1:21 Because, though they knew God, they did not glorify him as God, by teaching the people what they knew concerning him; neither did they give him thanks, by making him the object of their worship; but became foolish by their own reasonings concerning the worship fit for the vulgar; and their imprudent heart was darkened, so as to relish idolatry equally with the vulgar.

Rom. 1:22 Thus, the Grecian statesmen and philosophers, who assumed the pompous title of wise men, became fools in their public institutions of religion:

Rom. 1:23 For they misrepresented the perfections of the incorruptible God, by an image made in the likeness of corruptible men, and of birds, and of beasts, and of reptiles, and thereby led the vulgar to believe that God was like the animals whose images they worshipped.

Rom. 1:24 Therefore also, as the just punishment of their impiety in likening him to men and beasts, God, through the lusts of their own hearts impelling them, gave these pretended wise men up to every sort of uncleanness; whereby they dishonored their own bodies between themselves.

Rom. 1:25 I speak of the legislators, philosophers, and priests, who changed the truth concerning God into falsehood, by likening him to men and beasts; and who, pretending to worship God under these symbols, worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is to be praised for ever. Amen.

Summary

The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against the impiety and injustice of all men who keep down the truth. The Gentiles had the truth, for God had made it known to them. But when they knew God, they did not glorify him as God. By their reasonings they became foolish, and dull in heart, and exchanged the honor due to God for the worship of idols. For this, God gave them up to base passions, and as the result, they dishonored their bodies among themselves.

8.

Paul has now presented the universal plan for salvation. What is his next logical step?

Comment

Since Paul has just laid down a universal plan for obtaining justification, it is only logical to read in the ensuing verses of the universal need for this plan, thus giving the reason for its inception. In Rom. 1:18 we find the general heading for the development of the thought of the universal need. The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who hinder the truth in unrighteousness. We will find as we examine the lives of men universally that they deserve nought but the wrath of God; and that this heavenly vengeance is brought upon man by his disobedience to what he knows to be Gods law.

The Gentiles (the heathen) were (and are) desperately in need of this justification found in the gospel, for they held the truth down or hindered it by their unrighteousness. Notice that they were not ignorant of the truth, but, having the truth, they did not choose to obey it, but rather to suppress it (Rom. 1:18). Paul then tells us of the truth they possessed. He speaks of their knowledge of Gods everlasting power and divinity which they attained from the material creation about them. Paul remarks that this truth about God has thus been accessible from the creation of the world.

In view of Gods wrath which he must visit upon them, such persons have no excuse to offer, for even though they knew God to be the one of all power and the one truly divine being, they did not choose to accept him as such, and gave him neither glory nor thanks. They looked rather to their own accomplishments and wisdom, and thus became not humble before this great Creator, but vain, and with this false use of their senses their heart was darkened.

Though such action appeared as the mark of wisdom to the Gentiles, it was rather the mark of folly, for they thus exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for the glory of corruptible man and even of birds and four-footed beasts and creeping things. In this whole descent, there was the awful act of exchanging what they knew to be truth (that God was the creator and thus the natural object of worship) for what they knew to be a lie (that man, the creature was to be worshipped). Such action led them to participate fully in the lusts of their hearts, which brought about uncleanness and dishonoring of the body, and God had to give them up. (Rom. 1:18-25)

9.

Why is Gods wrath brought upon man as suggested in Rom. 1:18?

10.

What truth regarding himself did God manifest to the Gentiles?

11.

In what manner did God reveal this truth to the Gentiles? For how long?

12.

Why were the Gentiles spoken of said to be without excuse?

13.

What would you say was the primary cause of their sin? the secondary? the result?

14.

With what attitude did these Gentiles regard themselves?

15.

For what did they exchange the glory of the incorruptible God?

16.

What was the awful act committed throughout this whole descent?

17.

They are said to have exchanged the truth of God for a lie. What was the truth and what was the lie?

Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series

(18) As a preliminary stage to this revelation of justification and of faith, there is another, which is its oppositea revelation and disclosure of divine wrath. The proof is seen in the present condition both of the Gentile and Jewish world. And first of the Gentile world, Rom. 1:18-32.

Revealed.The revelation of righteousness is, while the Apostle writes, being made in the Person of Christ and in the salvation offered by Him. The revelation of wrath is to be inferred from the actual conditionthe degradation doubly degradedin which sin leaves its votaries.

From heaven.The wrath of God is revealed from heaven, inasmuch as the state of things in which it is exhibited is the divinely-inflicted penalty for previous guilt. Against that guilt, shown in outrage against all religion and all morality, it is directed.

Ungodliness and unrighteousness.These two words stand respectively for offences against religion and offences against morality.

Who hold the truth in unrighteousness.Rather, who suppress and thwart the truththe light of conscience that is in themby unrighteousness. Conscience tells them what is right, but the will, actuated by wicked motives, prevents them from obeying its dictates. The truth is their knowledge of right, from whatever source derived, which finds expression in conscience. Hold is the word which we find translated hinder in 2Th. 2:6-7having the force of to hold down, or suppress.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

(a.) The extreme depths of heathen self-depravation , Rom 1:18-32 .

1. Heathen depravation commences with apostasy from the acknowledgment and worship of God arising from moral dislike to his holiness and in spite of the full power of knowing him, (Rom 1:18-22.)

2. Bestializing God, God abandoned them to their own impulses to bestialize themselves sexually, (Rom 1:23-27.)

3. Under this self-debasing process, doubly abandoned by God, the whole brood of possible vices spring up in confused and multitudinous variety, (Rom 1:28-32.)

In this portraiture it is to be noted:

1. That the apostle does not hold that historically and outwardly all depravity is equal; that is, that all persons, classes, and ages of the world are equally wicked.

2. Apostasy from God, springing from averse disposition, is the first stage and condition of all other extreme wickedness.

3. Sexual depravation is one of the earliest and productive stages, and the deepest.

4. Depravity, historically speaking, is not universally total, that is, pushed to the extremest display of wickedness possible to our nature. Depravity of all consists in this, that in all alike is the capacity for the extremest wickedness. And it is redemption even from that capacity that man needs.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

18. Wrath Divine wrath is the intense divine opposition of good against bad, of right against wrong, of holiness against depravity. It exists most intensely in the most holy nature, and therefore most perfectly, and in truth infinitely, in the heart of God. It reveals itself in the form of penalty against those who embody the evil guiltily and responsibly in their own persons, such penalty being in the form of misery or destruction.

Revealed from heaven Commentators have indicated various ways in which the apostle could truly say that God’s wrath is revealed from heaven: by Scripture revelation, by the monitions of conscience, by the terrors and convulsions of the elements, by the judgment at the last day. We do not think the apostle had any one mode in view; but by a strong and almost poetic conception he describes what is true to the eye of an awakened conscience, the wrath of God disclosed like lightning from the sky upon the guilty head.

Ungodliness All apostasy from God first.

Unrighteousness All wickedness against man, second and consequent. Yet God appropriates both as sin against himself, and over both are lowering the revelations of his wrath.

Hold Impede, hold back, repress. Truth would destroy wickedness, and so wickedness fights against and forces back truth.

In unrighteousness Or by unrighteousness, the meaning would be much the same. The truth designated by the apostle is the truth of the divine nature (Rom 1:19; Rom 1:25; Rom 1:28) and of the death-worthiness of sin, (Rom 1:32.) It is these truths that human wickedness, to secure its own existence, opposes and represses, so that they lose all ascendency and known existence.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

I. THE RUIN.

FALLEN MAN WITHOUT THE GRACE OF CHRIST, Rom 1:18 to Rom 3:20.

1. Condition of the heathen world, Rom 1:18 to Rom 2:16 .

The structure of human salvation must base its pillars deep in the profound of human ruin. Of that ruin, therefore, the apostle furnishes a just but gloomy picture.

1. He first portrays the heathen world, illustrating man’s fall by the extremes of depravity to which condemning history shows that human nature can go, (Rom 1:18-32.)

2. Leaving this deep depravity of the heathen masses, and approaching the Jews by covered advances, he next takes the case of the more moralized yet inconsistent heathen, whose rebukes of vice condemn themselves, (Rom 2:1-10.)

3 . He touches the case of heathen who may be considered as keeping the law, (Rom 2:11-16.)

4. Having approached by ascending steps, he may now, without cause of offence, treat the case of the Jew, and through much and earnest debate with the Jew, conceptually present, he attains the conclusion that all are under sin, (Rom 2:17 to Rom 3:20.) Such being the Ruin, there comes a demand for the Remedy.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

‘For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hinder the truth in unrighteousness,’

‘For –.’ This connecting word immediately lets us know why God has revealed His salvation and His righteousness. It is because of what man had become in his ungodliness and unrighteousness.

In contrast to those who have ‘experienced the righteousness of God’ by faith, and have thus enjoyed the experience of God-given righteousness, are those who are still languishing in ‘ungodliness and unrighteousness’. They are both religiously and morally bankrupt (even though they may outwardly be highly religious or highly moral). They are both ungodly and disobedient to His truth. They have not become participants in God’s grace. They have not experienced His righteousness. And indeed it can be their own unrighteousness which is for them a hindrance to the truth.

We should note here that what hinders men receiving the truth is not lack of knowledge, or difficulty of understanding, or the absence of ‘proof’. The hindrance lies in their unrighteousness. For it is a consequence of their unrighteousness that they ‘hold down (keep suppressed, render inoperative) the truth’. They refuse to listen to the voice within. Unrighteousness causes blindness in the hearts of men because it makes them close their eyes. Man does not will to see. As Jesus Himself said, ‘If any man wills to do His will, he will know of the teaching, whether it be of God or whether I speak of myself’ (Joh 7:17). And the corollary is that those who are in blindness are those who do not ‘will to do His will’. They may protest that they want to do God’s will. But what they mean is that they want to do their own will which they see as God’s will. And because of this they close their eyes to God. They are not willing to ‘see God’. Against this deliberate unrighteousness ‘the wrath of God is revealed from Heaven’, in other words, He makes a response which is due to His total antipathy to sin. ‘The wrath of God’ is Scriptural terminology for God’s abhorrence of, and antipathy towards, sin, an antipathy which results in Him having to act against it in condemnation and judgment, because it is contrary to His very nature. It does not necessarily indicate what we mean by anger. It is a sense that is unique to a holy God.

But we may ask, ‘how is the wrath of God revealed from Heaven? It is revealed in a number of different ways:

1). It is firstly revealed in the Scriptures. The Scriptures continually point to the fact of God’s anger against sin and sinners (e.g. Lam 2:1; Lam 2:3-4; Lam 2:6; Lam 3:1; Lam 4:11; Lam 5:22 and often in the prophets).

2). It is revealed in man’s conscience as God illuminates the inner man and fills a man with the fear of God. Conscience makes cowards of us all.

3). It is revealed in everyday living. Those who worship the beasts of the earth will themselves become beastly (Rom 1:23-27). Those who refuse to have God in their knowledge will become more and more unrighteous (Rom 1:28-32). They will become ‘children of wrath’ (Eph 2:3). This is evidence of the wrath of God.

4). It will be revealed on the day of Judgment on those who are ‘under wrath’ (Rom 2:5; Rom 5:9; Joh 3:36; 1Th 5:9), when our Lord Jesus Christ is ‘revealed from Heaven’ (2Th 1:7-8), ‘taking vengeance on those who do not know God and those who do not obey the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ’.

So the wrath of God is both present and future. Men live under and experience His wrath now, and they will come under His wrath in the day of judgment.

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

The Wrath of God Is Revealed From Heaven Because Of Man’s Ungodliness And Unrighteousness (1:18-21).

In stark contrast to the righteousness of God being revealed (Rom 1:17), we have the wrath of God revealed from Heaven (Rom 1:18). The point is that those who fail to respond and receive the righteousness of God will face the wrath of God. And there will be no excuses,. Indeed all are seen to be totally without excuse because ‘what God is’ is revealed in such a way that man has no excuse for not believing. It is thus not lack of evidence that is the problem but the lack of a heart open to the truth.

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

God’s Call through Natural Revelation: Testimony to Man’s Mind In Rom 1:18-32 Paul first reveals how God’s wrath is at work within the Gentiles as they reject His revelation to them seen in creation (Rom 1:18-19), which bears witness to man’s mind and understanding. (This general revelation of God to the Gentiles stands in comparison to the special revelation given to the Jews through the Mosaic Law, whom Paul will address in the passage that follows.) When the Gentiles reject God, He pours out His divine wrath by turning them over to their uncleanness, to work all manner of depravity. God turns them over to a reprobate mind as a form of judgment; thus, their judgment has already begun by God turning them over to their wicked passions, for in hell they will be totally consumed with their tormenting passions. These pagans have begun to experience hell on earth in a lifestyle of blind depravity. Thus, God’s wrath is seen in their darkened minds and perverted lifestyles, being completely alienated from God (Rom 1:20-32), living a life of partial torment.

Human Depravity The Progression of Human Depravity – The underlying message of Rom 1:18-32 is that God is justified in pouring out His divine wrath upon mankind because of human depravity. In this passage of Scripture Paul explains the actual condition of the heathen from a divine perspective. In man’s depravity Paul shows a progression of events in the life of a godless person, revealing how man chooses his conditions as a result of his ungodliness:

1. Man knows that there is a God by creation. (Verses 19-20)

2. Man stops giving God the glory that He alone deserves. (Verse 21)

3. Man, as a result, lives life according to vain imaginations, which darkens his heart. (Verses 21-23)

4. Man fills his life with impurity. (Verses 24-25)

5. Man goes deeper into perversion, knowing no boundaries to sin. (Verses 26-27)

6. Man’s mind loses its ability for moral judgment. (Verses 28-32)

According to Rom 1:18-32, idolatry leads to fornication and fornication leads to homosexuality. This same progression of degradation in the heart of man can be found in the book of Genesis also:

1. Verses 19-20 (Genesis 1 – The creation of man)

2. Verse 21 (Gen 4:16, “Cain went out of the presence of the Lord.”

3. Verse 21 (Gen 6:5, “every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.”

4. Verse 22 (Genesis 11 – Tower of Babel)

5. Verse 23 (Jos 24:2 – Abraham’s fathers served other gods.)

6. Verse 23 (Genesis 19 – Sodom and Gomorrah)

This progress of depravity can progress in a nation as well as in an individual. In the time of Noah, man had progressed to a state of depravity that God had to destroy them. Paul the apostle alluded to this progression of depravity in his letter to Timothy.

2Ti 3:13, “But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived.”

God Gives Mankind Over to His Depravity – The phrase “God gave them up” is used three times in this passage of Scripture (Rom 1:24; Rom 1:26; Rom 1:28). It reveals that God created mankind with a will to choose between good and evil, and that God honors this decision. Thus, He gives them over to their evil passions. These people had rejected the truth with their minds, where the will of man dwells (Rom 1:18-20). As a result their hearts became insensitive to God (Rom 1:21). Then their passions became inflamed towards fleshly indulgences through idolatry (Rom 1:22-23). God gave them over to (1) to lasciviousness, uncleanness (or sexual sins) (Rom 1:24), (2) to homosexuality (or deeper sexual perversions) (Rom 1:26), and (3) to a reprobate mind, a mind completely seared of a conscience to discern between good and evil (Rom 1:28). Rom 1:28-32 describes a society characterized by reprobate minds (1Ti 4:2). We observe that a person is progressively given over deeper and deeper into depravity. Rom 1:24 describes fornication and lasciviousness. Rom 1:25 describes idolatry. Rom 1:26 describes homosexuality. Finally, the conscience becomes unable to discern between good and evil (Rom 1:29). The Goodspeed translation of Rom 1:24 reads, “So God abandoned them, with their heart’s craving, to impurity, and let them degrade their own bodies.”

Illustrations It is interesting to note from Rom 1:18-32 that God gives depraved mankind the desires of his own wicked heart. We also see how God gave the children of Israel their evil desires in the wilderness by sending them quail (Num 11:31-34, Psa 105:40). How much more will God give His obedient children the desires of their hearts (Psa 37:4).

Psa 37:4, “Delight thyself also in the LORD; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.”

We see an example of God giving a people over to their evil desires in 1 Samuel 8 when the children of Israel wanted a king like other nations.

1Sa 8:6-7, “But the thing displeased Samuel, when they said, Give us a king to judge us. And Samuel prayed unto the LORD. And the LORD said unto Samuel, Hearken unto the voice of the people in all that they say unto thee: for they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them.”

Note another example found in Psa 81:12 where God gives the children of Israel up to their own hearts’ lusts as they rebelled in the Wilderness:

Psa 81:12, “So I gave them up unto their own hearts’ lust: and they walked in their own counsels.”

Paul describes those with a reprobate mind, whom God has given over to their depraved lifestyles, as “having their conscience seared with a hot iron” (1Ti 4:2).

Rom 1:18  For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness;

Rom 1:18 “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men” Comments – Although the grace and forgiveness of God has now come to mankind through the Gospel of Christ Jesus, the wrath of God has been revealed since man began to sin. God’s wrath has also been revealed, as the Old Testament recounts numerous events of divine judgment falling upon mankind. Man knows he has done wrong, because his conscience tells him of his sins. In fact Paul will tell us in Rom 1:18-32 that God has turned some men over to a reprobate mind because of their persistence in sin, so that they no longer have a clear conscience to direct their lives towards good. Since God’s wrath has already been revealed, there is not the need t put the same emphasis upon His wrath as there is the need to reveal His righteousness through the preaching of the Gospel. We now need the Gospel in order to reveal how our sin and guilt can be cleansed.

Rom 1:18 “who hold the truth in unrighteousness” Word Study on “hold” Strong says the Greek word “katecho” ( ) (G2722) means, “to hold back.”

Comments – The phrase “who hold the truth in unrighteousness” sets the tone of the rest of this passage of Scripture by describing the character of those men who receive God’s wrath. It is displayed against those who willingly reject the light that God has given to them, as stated in the next verse. God is not against mankind; for He sent His beloved Son Jesus Christ to die for men. However, He must judge rebellion, and this passage in the epistle of Romans tells us He does this by turning such men over to a reprobate mind.

The unrighteous lifestyles of the heathen suppressed the truth, both for themselves and for others who lived under that person’s sphere of influence. For example, God could reveal a great amount of truth to thosw whose heart is open to the Word of God; but these lifestyles hindered God’s work in their lives. Also, those under the sphere of a heathen resisting the truth are denied access to the truth themselves. An unrighteous man will suppress God’s Word from his wife and children, and all others under his dominion, raising a generation of lost souls who live in darkness, thus, propagating unrighteousness into the following generations. Entire societies are then born who do not know God. We see the governments of Islamic, Hindu, and Buddist cultures, as well as communist countries, suppressing the truth from the people, plunging entire nations into darkness and bondage. Such nations flounder in fear and poverty, not understanding why their lives are so difficult. Often, these people are very superstitious and religious, seeking answers beyond their mortality. Such darkness leads men into idolatry, as Paul is about to denounce in the following verses (Rom 1:19-32), which is the clearest exposition of human depravity in the Holy Scriptures.

Illustration Many people in such pagan cultures would accept the Gospel of Jesus Christ if only someone would come and preach it to them (Rom 10:14). T. L. Osborn has preached the Gospel in over forty nations. He says that he has never preached in a heathen nation without a positive response from the crowds. [139] Although the Word of God may be suppressed from them because of those exercising power over such societies, many heathen long for the truth.

[139] T. L. Osborn, Good News Today (Osborn Ministries International, Tulsa, Oklahoma) , on Trinity Broadcasting Network (Santa Ana, California), television program, 1990-91.

Rom 10:14, “How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?”

In a similar aspect, some Christian denominations suppress the full Gospel message from their followers by denouncing its message and prohibiting it from their pulpits. Thus, multitudes of denominational Christians are in darkness regarding the full extent of their redemption in Christ Jesus, living below the standards that Christ purchased for the Church because of lack of the knowledge of God’s Word.

Rom 1:18 Comments – Rom 1:18 begins an expanded definition of verses 16-17 on the Gospel of Jesus Christ, which exposition will last until Rom 11:32. Based on Rom 1:17, if a man is not living by faith, then God’s wrath is subject to this man’s life. God’s wrath is revealed to mankind by the fact that He gives depraved men over to their lustful passions (Rom 1:24; Rom 1:26; Rom 1:28) so that their conscience no longer functions; but rather, it becomes seared and unable to distinguish between good and evil. We get an Old Testament example of this divine principle by reading Dan 4:1-37, which gives us the story of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream of the cutting of the great tree and his subsequent seven years of madness for exalting himself and his eventual restoration. God also turned him over to a reprobate mind, but restored him because he repented. In a similar manner Rom 1:18-32 describes how men abandon God and fall progressively into deeper conditions of depravity, first idolatry, followed by fornication and finally homosexuality, as God turns them over to a reprobate mind. Since mankind refuses to repent, God turns them over to the deepest forms of depravity. This human depravity becomes the testimony for other men so that they can come to know God’s divine judgment and wrath against all forms of ungodliness and unrighteousness of men.

Rom 1:19  Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them.

Rom 1:19 “Because” Comments – Rom 1:19 answers the question of why God visits His wrath upon man. He does so because man knows about God, yet rejects Him; for God reveals himself to them thru His creation.

Rom 1:19 “that which may be known of God is manifest in them” Comments – By the very fact that these ungodly men suppress the truth by deeds of unrighteousness, they bear witness to their knowledge between good and evil. Paul will then explain in his next statement how this knowledge of God is acquired by all men; and after having understood God’s righteousness through Creation (Rom 1:19 b-20), their conscience becomes a tool to guide them in choosing between good and evil (Rom 2:15).

Rom 1:19 “for God hath shewed it unto them” Comments – Paul tells us in the next verse how God has showed His divine attributes to them through His magnificent creation.

Rom 1:20  For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:

Rom 1:20 “For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made” – Comments Paul may be using a word play with (invisible) and (clearly seen) in that both share the same root word . Paul could have used a number of Greek words that expressed the idea of revelation and comprehension, such as (to uncover), (to perceive), or (to impart a revelation). Instead, Paul uses a word play to contrast two extremes, that which is entire invisible, and that which is entire visible. Those divine attributes that are entirely invisible to man is clearly perceptable when one beholds creation. It is through God’s visible creation and also by His manifested interventions in the affairs of mankind that man understands the invisible attributes of God, such as His divine nature and eternal power (Psa 8:3; Psa 19:1-3; Psa 148:3-4, Act 14:17).

Psa 8:3, “When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained;”

Psa 19:1-3, “The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge. There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard.”

Psa 148:3-4, “Praise ye him, sun and moon: praise him, all ye stars of light. Praise him, ye heavens of heavens, and ye waters that be above the heavens.”

Act 14:17, “Nevertheless he left not himself without witness, in that he did good, and gave us rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness.”

Note how God describes the intricacies and marvels of His creation to Job in Job 38-41. The more one observes creation in all of its detail, the more one is convinced that only God could perform such a marvel.

Rom 1:20 “even his eternal power and Godhead” – Comments – Creation reveals two aspects about God’s divine character. First, it reveals that God is the all-powerful and eternal creator. Secondly, it reveals that there is a God who is overseeing His creation as the Godhead. The amazing intricacies of nature tell us that creation has a purpose and a divine Creator who is intervening in His creation to insure that it fulfills its purpose.

Rom 1:20 “so that they are without excuse” Comments – The same Greek word “without excuse” (G379) will later be directed to the Jews in Rom 2:1. Thus, Paul is telling the Gentiles that they are without excuse because of the general revelation they have received about God, he tells the Jews that they are also without excuse because of the specific revelation that they have received directly from Him.

Rom 2:1, “Therefore thou art inexcusable , O man, whosoever thou art that judgest: for wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself; for thou that judgest doest the same things.”

Rom 1:19-20 Comments – The Witness of Creation to God’s Divine Character Joh 1:1-5 reveals to us the divine attributes of the Word of God. The Word is (1) eternal, (2) God Himself, (3) the medium of creation, and (4) the source of Life. Benny Hinn says that the “Word” within the context of this passage of Scripture means, “the Revelation of God.” [140] In other words, since the beginning of time, God has revealed Himself to mankind through His creation by the means of “the light,” or the revelation of Himself, that shines in the darkness of every man’s soul. Hebrew Rom 3:1 tells us that there are two aspects to God’s being; His essence and His glory. Joh 1:1-5 tells us that the Word is an attribute of His essence, and Psa 19:1 says creation reveals His glory. God’s glory is revealed to mankind through His creation, while His essence is revealed through the Word of God. God’s creation reveals to mankind a general revelation of Himself (Psa 19:1-6), while the Word reveals specific details of God’s divine nature or essence (Psa 19:7-10).

[140] Benny Hinn, “Fire Conference,” Miracle Center Cathedral, Kampala, Uganda, 5-6 June 2009.

Heb 1:3, “Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high;”

Psa 19:1, To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David. The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork.”

Rom 1:19-20 tells us of the witness of Creation to God’s divine attributes. This testimony of the divine Creator has been proclaimed since the creation of the world (Isa 40:21). No one with a heart that believes in God has any problem believing that He can make the heavens and the earth in six days, for an All-powerful God could have created the world in a second if He so chose to do so. All of Creation declares that there is an omnipotent Creator. The Scriptures tell us in Rom 1:19-20 that creation as a whole was designed to testify to the eternal power and divine character of the One who created it. In God’s wisdom, we see passages scattered throughout the Scriptures that reveal to us that every detail and tiny aspect of God’s creation was designed to testify of a particular aspect of God’s divine character, for this is exactly what Rom 1:19-20 is saying. We can learn of God’s ways of dealing with man by looking within the laws of nature. We see this comparison between God’s creation and our lives all the time in the form of sports and institutional logos, national emblems, etc, when they take the form of animals or other objects in nature. [141]

[141] Additional symbols of God’s divine character revealed in nature can be found in Frances Roberts, Come Away My Beloved (Ojai, California: King’s Farspan, Inc., 1973), 178-9; Rick Joyner, The Call (Charlotte, North Carolina: Morning Star Publications, 1999); and Sadhu Sundar Singh, At the Master’s Feet (London: Fleming H. Revell Company, 1922).

Isa 40:21, “Have ye not known? have ye not heard? hath it not been told you from the beginning? have ye not understood from the foundations of the earth?”

God’s Creation – Solomon must have seen the glory of God in His magnificent creation in order to write about trees, beasts, birds, creeping thing and fish. Note:

1Ki 4:32-33, “And he spake three thousand proverbs: and his songs were a thousand and five. And he spake of trees, from the cedar tree that is in Lebanon even unto the hyssop that springeth out of the wall: he spake also of beasts, and of fowl, and of creeping things, and of fishes.”

The book of Canticles uses figurative language of many aspects of God’s creation to symbolize our relationship with God.

As we go forth from our house each day, do not go with a closed mind, but look around you and behold the glory and majesty of our God.

We read in fifteenth chapter of 1 Corinthians about the resurrection of the dead. In this lengthy passage Paul the apostle uses the order of God’s creation to explain the resurrection of man. He tells us “there is one kind of flesh of men, another flesh of beasts, another of fishes, and another of birds. There are also celestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial: but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another. There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars: for one star differeth from another star in glory.” (1Co 15:39-41) Paul then states that in a similar way the resurrection of man will yield a different body of a different glory.

The Heavens – As we look up towards heaven or try to look beyond the horizon, we are reminded that God’s mercy and forgiveness is likened to the width and height of His creation.

Psa 103:11-12, “For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him. As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.”

The Sun – The Jewish day began at dusk. Therefore, as the sun sets each day and rises in the morning, so was Jesus Christ crucified and resurrected to become the Light of the World. With each new day comes God’s mercy and compassion (Lam 3:22-23) just as our faith in Jesus brings God’s mercy into our lives.

The Stars – We read in E. W. Bullinger’s book The Witness of the Stars how the twelve constellations in the heavens serve as a witness to the redemptive work of Jesus Christ over all of creation. [142]

[142] E. W. Bullinger, The Witness of the Stars (London: E. W. Bullinger, c1893). A number of other books have been written on this subject, including Frances Rolleston, Mazzaroth (New York: Cosimo Classics, c1862, 2008); Joseph Seiss, A Gospel in the Stars (New York: Carles C. Cook, c1884, 1910); William D. Banks, The Heavens Declare (Krikwood, Missouri: Impact Christian Books, 1985); D. James Kennedy, and Nancy Britt, The Real Meaning of the Zodiac (Fort Lauderdale, Florida: Coral Ridge Ministries Media, c1989).

Day and Night The fact that we work during the daytime and rest at night testifies to the fact that we are to serve the Lord in this life, because after we die there is no way to undo what we have done while we were alive. We will be judged based upon the works we did in this life “while it was day”. Note Joh 9:4.

Joh 9:4, “I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work.”

Regarding the brightness of the noontime sun, Peter tells us to if we will submit our hearts and lives to the Word of God and allow it to have supreme authority in our lives, then we will begin to grow in our revelation of its meaning. God’s Word will become brighter and brighter in our hearts day by day just as the sun brightens the day hour by hour.

2Pe 1:19, “We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts:”

The Mountains and Valleys When John the Baptist began to prophesy out of the book of Isaiah he cried, “Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be brought low.” Within this context, the mountains are figurative for those men who are high and proud and lift themselves up in this world. The valleys represent the lowly who have been pressed down in this world. Thus, the epistle of James tells us that God will humble the proud and exalt the lowly.

Luk 3:4-6, “As it is written in the book of the words of Esaias the prophet, saying, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be brought low; and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways shall be made smooth; And all flesh shall see the salvation of God.”

Jas 1:9, “Let the brother of low degree rejoice in that he is exalted: But the rich, in that he is made low: because as the flower of the grass he shall pass away.”

The Elements of the Earth – Ecc 1:5-11 tells us that when we observe how the basic elements of the earth, which are heat, wind and rain, continually recycle themselves and return to their origin, we can learn that there is also nothing new in the way humanity behaves itself in society. As nature has cycles, so does human history.

The Precious Metals and Gems – When we consider that the most valuable treasures on earth, such as diamonds and gems, gold, silver and brass, even oil, all must be dug out from the depths of the earth, we cannot help but compare this to the fact that God’s treasures of wisdom and understanding must also be sought out in a similar way. How often have we sought out direction from the Lord much like a miners digs and makes great efforts to finding hidden mineral ores (Pro 25:2).

Pro 25:2, “It is the glory of God to conceal a thing: but the honour of kings is to search out a matter.”

The Forces of Nature – His catastrophic acts in nature, such as floods, fires, earthquakes, tornados, hurricanes, volcanic eruptions, famines and pestilences all reveal His eternal judgment (Genesis 19 and Jud 1:7).

Jud 1:7, “Even as Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.”

Lakes and Rivers – We are to draw deeply out of our spirit to know His fullness and peace just as the lakes hide their secrets in their depths. We are to move ever forward on this journey of life that He has ordained for us to walk just as the brooks flow ever onward towards the sea. We are to keep this channel of water free from obstructions and debris, to straighten is course so that our journey is not hindered. The intricate and wonderful details of His creation testify to His intricate and wonderful plan that He has ordained for each of our lives.

The Clouds and Rain – The book At the Master’s Feet, by Sadhu Sundar Singh, gives many metaphors of nature as it reveals the divine principles of God. Here are some of them:

“Just as the salt water of the sea is drawn upwards by the hot rays of the sun, and gradually takes on the form of clouds, and, turned thus into sweet and refreshing water, falls in showers on the earth (for the sea water as it rises upwards leaves behind it its salt and bitterness), so when the thoughts and desires of the man of prayer rise aloft like misty emanations of the soul, the rays of the Sun of Righteousness purify them of all sinful taint, and his prayers become a great cloud which descends from heaven in a shower of blessing, bringing refreshment to many on the earth.” [143]

[143] Sadhu Sundar Singh, At the Master’s Feet, translated by Arthur Parker (London: Fleming H. Revell Co., 1922) [on-line], accessed 26 October 2008, available from http://www.ccel.org/ccel/singh/feet.html; Internet, “III Prayer,” section 1, part 5.

The Wind – Frances J. Roberts says that God’s voice is heard in the blowing of the wind, in the rustling of the trees, in the tumbling of the flowing streams, in the breaking of the waves. [144]

[144] Frances J. Roberts, Come Away My Beloved (Ojai, California: King’s Farspan, Inc., 1973), 178.

The Plant Kingdom Note these words from Sadhu Sundar Singh:

“In the same way as climate produces a change in form, colour, and the habits of growth in plants and flowers, so those who maintain communion with Me undergo a development of their spiritual nature in habit, appearance, and disposition; and putting off the old man they are transformed into My own glorious and incorruptible image.” [145]

[145] Sadhu Sundar Singh, At the Master’s Feet, translated by Arthur Parker (London: Fleming H. Revell Co., 1922) [on-line], accessed 26 October 2008, available from http://www.ccel.org/ccel/singh/feet.html; Internet, “III Prayer,” section 3, part 6.

The Grass and Flowers of the Field – The flowers tell us not to worry about our clothing, for He will take care of His children. The beauty in His flowers tells us that He is concerned about the little things in our lives and His desire for us to prosper and have a happy life. Just as surely the rain and snow come down and water the earth and it brings forth seed to eat and seed to sow, so will God provide for us as we do His Word (Isa 55:10-13). Also, there are many passages in the Scriptures that compare our brevity in life to the grass and the flowers that flourish today and are gone tomorrow (Jas 1:9-11, 1Pe 1:24-25). The brief beauty of the flower can reflect man’s short-lived accomplishments in this life. For both quickly vanish away and are forgotten.

The Planting of Seeds We read in 1Co 15:35-38 compares a grain of seed as it is sown, dies and resurrects in a different body to the resurrection of man. Thus, nature is used to teach us a spiritual lesson.

Trees – As the trees grow upwards towards the sun, ever dependent upon it for life, so do we ever look upward to our Heavenly Father as our source of life. A tree being cut down is used to describe how the Lord will cut down the nation of Israel.

Isa 6:13, “And though a tenth remains in the land, it will again be laid waste. But as the terebinth and oak leaves stumps when they are cut down, so the holy seed will be the stump in the land.” ( NIV)

As the trees sway in the wind, so do our hearts often sway to the circumstances that blow into our lives (Isa 7:2).

Isa 7:2, “And it was told the house of David, saying, Syria is confederate with Ephraim. And his heart was moved, and the heart of his people, as the trees of the wood are moved with the wind.”

The budding of the trees symbolizes the changes of divine seasons as well as telling us of the changes of the seasons of nature.

Luk 21:29-31, And he spake to them a parable; Behold the fig tree, and all the trees; When they now shoot forth, ye see and know of your own selves that summer is now nigh at hand. So likewise ye, when ye see these things come to pass, know ye that the kingdom of God is nigh at hand.”

The Animal Kingdom – The Lord revealed His majesty to Job by revealing the glories of His creation (Job 38-41), such as the mighty beasts. These four chapters in Job reveal a great amount of details of how creation declares the glory of God. The moth in the book of Job teaches us how frail our life really is without God’s divine hand of protection upon us (see Job 4:19). The animals described in the book of Proverbs reveal God’s wonders (Pro 30:18-19), His wisdom (Pro 30:24-28) and His beauty (Pro 30:29-31).

Creeping Animals and Florescent Light Note these words from Sadhu Sundar Singh:

“There are little creatures far inferior to man, like the firefly, with its flickering light, and certain small plants among the vegetation in the Himalayas, which by their faint phosphorescent radiance illuminate as far as they can the dark jungle where they live. Tiny fish also that swim in the deep waters of the ocean give forth a glimmering light which guides other fish and helps them to elude their enemies. How much more ought My children to be lights in the world (Matt. v.14) and be eager in self-sacrifice to bring into the way of truth, by means of their God-given light, those who by reason of darkness are liable to become the prey of Satan.” [146]

[146] Sadhu Sundar Singh, At the Master’s Feet, translated by Arthur Parker (London: Fleming H. Revell Co., 1922) [on-line], accessed 26 October 2008, available from http://www.ccel.org/ccel/singh/feet.html; Internet, “IV Service,” section 2, part 4.

Animals and Their Camouflage Note these words from Sadhu Sundar Singh:

“To pray is as it were to be on speaking terms with Me, and so by being in communion with and abiding in Me to become like Me. There is a kind of insect which feeds upon and lives among grass and green leaves and becomes like them in colour. Also the polar bear dwelling among the white snows has the same snowy whiteness, and the tiger of Bengal bears upon its skin the marks of the reeds among which it lives. So those, who by means of prayer abide in communion with Me partake, with the saints and angels, of My Nature, and being formed in My image become like Me.” [147]

[147] Sadhu Sundar Singh, At the Master’s Feet, translated by Arthur Parker (London: Fleming H. Revell Co., 1922) [on-line], accessed 26 October 2008, available from http://www.ccel.org/ccel/singh/feet.html; Internet, “III Prayer,” section 3, part 1.

The Animal Kingdom and Its Sight Note these words from Sadhu Sundar Singh:

“If they do not use these heaven-sent powers in the service of God and His creatures they are in danger of losing for ever those heavenly gifts. This is what has happened to certain fish that live in the deep waters of dark caves, also to some hermits in Tibet, for both have lived so long in darkness that they have entirely lost their sight. In like manner the ostrich, through not using its wings, has lost altogether the power of flight. Take heed, therefore, not to neglect whatever gifts or talents have been entrusted to you, but make use of them that you may share in the bliss and glory of your Master (Matt. xxv.14-30).” [148]

[148] Sadhu Sundar Singh, At the Master’s Feet, translated by Arthur Parker (London: Fleming H. Revell Co., 1922) [on-line], accessed 26 October 2008, available from http://www.ccel.org/ccel/singh/feet.html; Internet, “IV Service,” section 2, part 5.

Bees and Honey Note these words from Sadhu Sundar Singh:

“Just as the bee collects the sweet juice of the flowers and turns it into honey without injuring their colour or fragrance, so the man of prayer gathers happiness and profit from all God’s creation without doing any violence to it. As bees also gather their honey from flowers in all sorts of different places and store it in the honeycomb, so the man of God gathers sweet thoughts and feelings from every part of creation, and in communion with his Creator collects in his heart the honey of truth, and in enduring peace with Him at all times and in all places, tastes with delight the sweet honey of God.” [149]

[149] Sadhu Sundar Singh, At the Master’s Feet, translated by Arthur Parker (London: Fleming H. Revell Co., 1922) [on-line], accessed 26 October 2008, available from http://www.ccel.org/ccel/singh/feet.html; Internet, “III Prayer,” section 3, part 4.

The Birds – In the Sermon on the Mount, the birds tell us that our heavenly Father will always provide our needs, so we are not to worry about food.

The Birds – Jeremiah tells us that as the stork knows it appointed times and seasons, so should we be able to observe them and understand that God has appointed times and seasons for man to know and to follow.

Jer 8:7, “Yea, the stork in the heaven knoweth her appointed times; and the turtle and the crane and the swallow observe the time of their coming; but my people know not the judgment of the LORD.”

The Beasts – As we observe how the ox knows his owner and the ass his master’s crib, so should we see how we are to honor the Lord (Isa 1:3).

The Ram Dan 8:1-27 gives us the vision of the ram and the he-goat butting heads in battle. It is the natural characteristic of these animals to butt heads. Thus, as we see battles fought in nature over territory, so do we understand that there a battles being fought in the heavenly realm.

The Human Body – 1Co 12:12-30 explains how the many parts of man’s physical body is a type and figure of the spiritual body of Christ, the Church.

God created man with a nature to hunger and thirst on a daily basis as a reminder of our daily need to be feed spiritually. Note:

1Pe 2:2, “As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby:”

“I have infused into man’s nature hunger and thirst, that he may not in sheer heedlessness regard himself as God, but that day by day he may be reminded of his needs and that his life is bound up with the life and existence of Someone who created him. Thus being made aware of his defects and necessities, he may abide in Me and I in him, and then he will ever find in Me his happiness and joy.” [150]

[150] Sadhu Sundar Singh, At the Master’s Feet, translated by Arthur Parker (London: Fleming H. Revell Co., 1922) [on-line], accessed 26 October 2008, available from http://www.ccel.org/ccel/singh/feet.html; Internet, “III Prayer,” section 2, part 10.

Ecc 11:5 teaches us that the mystery of the forming of a child in the womb testifies to us that God’s ways are beyond our understanding.

Ecc 11:5, “As thou knowest not what is the way of the spirit, nor how the bones do grow in the womb of her that is with child: even so thou knowest not the works of God who maketh all.”

Mankind and His Inventions – Note these insightful words by Rick Joyner regarding the glory of God’s creation:

“Soon after, I awoke. For days afterward, I felt an energy surging through me making everything look glorious. I loved everything that I saw. A doorknob seemed wonderful beyond comprehension. Old houses and cars were so beautiful to me that I was sorry I was not an artist so that I could capture their beauty and nobility. Trees and animals all seemed like very special personal friends. Every person I saw was like a library of revelation and meaning, and I was so thankful for eternity so that I could get to know them all. I could not look at anything without seeing magnificence, hardly believing that I had walked through so much of my life and missed so much.” [151]

[151] Rick Joyner, The Call (Charlotte, North Carolina: Morning Star Publications, 1999), 33-4.

Ecc 11:5 teaches us that the mystery of the forming of a child in the womb testifies to us that God’s ways are beyond our understanding.

Ecc 11:5, “As thou knowest not what is the way of the spirit, nor how the bones do grow in the womb of her that is with child: even so thou knowest not the works of God who maketh all.”

Human Trials The Scriptures tell us when we are tried and tested by God is it for the purpose of purifying our hearts.

Pro 17:3, “The fining pot is for silver, and the furnace for gold: but the LORD trieth the hearts.”

Human Calamities When Jesus Christ was asked about the tragedy of Pilate killing some Galileans He quickly responded by calling His hearers to repentance. Jesus then tells them a second story of human calamity when the tower of Siloam fell upon eighteen people killing them and again calls them to repentance. We learn from these two stories that refer to human calamities that such events are God’s call to repentance. God uses such tragedies to call men to repentance as Jesus Christ did so in this story.

Luk 13:1-5, “There were present at that season some that told him of the Galilaeans, whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. And Jesus answering said unto them, Suppose ye that these Galilaeans were sinners above all the Galilaeans, because they suffered such things? I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish. Or those eighteen, upon whom the tower in Siloam fell, and slew them, think ye that they were sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem? I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.”

Illustration – I took my four-year old daughter on a walk this particular sunny day in June 2003. She had been crying in the house and I wanted to get her attention onto something else, a trick that a parent soon learns in calming a child down. On this walk, I was not in a hurry, in fact, I made the walk slow and particular. We looked at each flower and tree. There were a variety of flowers, each one attracting a particular type of butterfly or species of bee or even some small birds that preferred nectar instead of seeds. A glance into the sky revealed the annual migration of small white butterflies moving south to an unknown destination. Each bird in the sky and in the trees had its own unique behaviour. One small bird found itself in the rear view mirror of a parked car and continuously hovered in front of it, confused about the other bird in the mirror. Nature was all around us, showing to us its amazing secrets. Over all of this beautiful creation we realized that God had designed it for our pleasure.

Rom 1:21  Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.

Rom 1:21 “Because that, when they knew God” Comments – The Scriptures declare that every many “knows” God. This phrase may be better translated, “when they know that there is a God.” It is creation that declares to every many there is a God who is all powerful and involved in the affairs of mankind.

Rom 1:21 “they glorified Him not as God” Scripture Reference – Note similar verses:

Psa 106:20, “Thus they changed their glory into the similitude of an ox that eateth grass.”

Jer 2:11, “Hath a nation changed their gods, which are yet no gods? but my people have changed their glory for that which doth not profit.”

Many Americans have changed their glory from “In God we trust” into glorifying one another; thru sports, movies, military strength, beauty contests (Pro 31:30), education and technology.

Pro 31:30, “Favour is deceitful, and beauty is vain: but a woman that feareth the LORD, she shall be praised.”

Rom 1:21 “neither were thankful” Comments – Every human being has a reason to be thankful to God, even if they do not serve Him and glorify Him.

Rom 1:21 “but became vain in their imaginations” – Comments The word “vain” means “worthless or futile.” The result of not glorifying God is to live a life of activity, and even hard work, so that in the end their life made worthless. This lifestyle will also, thru the years, cause the heart to become hard and darkened towards God.

2Co 4:4, “In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.”

Rom 1:21 “and their foolish heart was darkened” Comments – A better translation reads, “and their dull, insensitive heart was darkened.” In other words, their hearts became insensitive to God.

Rom 1:21 Comments – Rom 1:21 reveals that a corrupt mind will corrupt the heart of man. That is, the heart will eventually follow the reasoning of the mind. A human being can be born with a conscience that understands the difference between good and evil. But, when a person practices evil and avoids good, his heart becomes darkened to the little amount of light that he once had about God. This is a progression of evil actions that leads to vain imaginations that result in a darkened heart. In other words, their bodies, their minds and then their hearts become corrupted in that order. The following verses (Rom 1:22-32) will explain this progression of events and how God gives them over to their vanities and “turns them over to a reprobate mind”, which is a mind that no longer is able to understand the difference between good and evil.

The human heart (or spirit) becomes darkened when light is suppressed. The mind is the channel of information to the human heart. When the mind focuses upon sinful deeds and darkness, the human spirit receives no light, and the person can only walk in darkness. Now, when light does come to them in the form of the truth, and a person rejects the truth, it leads him down a road of further alienation from God through a hardened heart. This hardened heart progressively becomes darker and more rebellious against the will of God.

Rom 1:22  Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,

Rom 1:22 Comments – We see an example of the foolishness described in Rom 1:22 when we read about the Athenians in Acts 17; for they considered themselves to be wise in the midst of pagan temple worship.

Scripture References – Note a similar verse:

Psa 14:1, “The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good.”

Rom 1:23  And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things.

Rom 1:23 Comments – Perhaps the most dramatic example of idol worship today is found among the Hindus of India. Their pagan temples are full of images of creatures made by the hands of God.

Rom 1:24  Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves:

Rom 1:24 “Wherefore” – Comments The word “wherefore” can mean, “for this reason.” That is, they did not give God the glory, but rather, they glorified themselves and the things that they had created.

Rom 1:25  Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.

Rom 1:25 “Who changed the truth of God into a lie” Comments They exchanged the truth that they knew about God for a lie. These people rejected the little bit of revelation they had been given about God and chose to believe a lie instead.

Rom 1:25 “and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator” – Comments – As a result of man’s rejection of the truth, entire nations removed themselves to the far corners of the earth without carrying with them the pure knowledge of God. Anthropological and sociological studies will show that all of these people groups were given over to idolatry, witchcraft, and pagan forms of worship. There is no group that is an exception, because this is how man lives when he rejects God. I have observed this common facet of ancient societies in the museums in Uganda, East Africa, and the southern Philippines. The artifacts displayed before missionaries brought Christianity to these societies testify of idolatry and witchcraft.

Rom 1:25 “who is blessed for ever. Amen” – Comments – Paul does not simply pause here to bless the Lord because he wants to sound spiritual. He had been caught up into the presence and glory of God on a number of occasions. These inexpressible experiences (see 2Co 12:4-5) left Paul in a state of awe and reverence. As he writes about this attribute of God, he gives Him glory as recalls those heavenly experiences in the presence of a holy God.

2Co 12:4-5, “How that he was caught up into paradise, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter. Of such an one will I glory: yet of myself I will not glory, but in mine infirmities.”

Rom 1:26  For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature:

Rom 1:27  And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet.

Rom 1:26-27 Comments The Progression of Human Depravity – After mankind give themselves over to idolatry and fleshly indulgences and fornication, their flesh is no longer satisfied with these pleasures, and they long for something new and strange. The next step towards total depravity is homosexuality, as described in Rom 1:26-27.

Rom 1:28  And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient;

Rom 1:29  Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers,

Rom 1:30  Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents,

Rom 1:30 “inventors of evil things” Comments – While driving in a neighborhood in the early 1980’s, I saw a cartoon character’s face of Mickey Mouse nailed on a tree. I thought of how man is constantly imagining new fairytale stories for himself. The Lord immediately quickened this verse to me as being fulfilled in the cartoons of Walt Disney cartoon characters. Why: because they give no glory to God.

Rom 1:31  Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful:

Rom 1:31 “covenant breakers” Comments – The word “covenant breakers” describes someone who is faithless to promises or vows. Today’s rising divorce rate in the U.S. is an example of a covenant breaker.

Rom 1:32  Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.

Rom 1:32 Comments – Rom 1:32 means that these reprobate sinners not only commit sins in secret, but they openly and boldly consent to those who do the same. This phrase not only modifies the immediate context discussing homosexuality, but it can reach back into the more distant context to include fornicators and idolaters. A homosexual was ashamed to reveal his sinfulness in many modern societies for years. In recently, these people in many communities around the modern world have openly displayed their perversions through gay parades and other means. This reveals the greater degree of depravity among these reprobate sinners. The deepest level of human depravity is displayed when an entire society allows homosexuals to publically proclaim and practice their perversion. Every society deals with some degree of moral depravity, but only those societies who have progressed deepest into human depravity allow homosexuality to be publically promoted without condemnation. A number of developed countries during the twenty-first century allow such depravity without condemnation.

Illustration While a missionary in Uganda, East Africa, I was having a conversation with an Indian who was born and raised in this nation. We were discussing the problem of corruption among the local Africans, and I commented that they should be ashamed of themselves for stealing government funds and lying so openly. His reply to me reflected his insight into the mindset of corruption when he said, “In Africa there is no shame.” Having been raised in a Judeo-Christian culture, integrity served as the moral fiber of society, and people generally felt shame when committing sins against their fellow people. However, there is a mindset of individuals that feels no shame in their sins, and this is the mindset that Paul is describing in Rom 1:32, a person who openly and blatantly sins without feeling any sense of guilt or shame.

Rom 1:29-32 Comments The Characteristics of Depraved Society Rom 1:29-32 describes the characteristics of a depraved society. A reprobate mind is a mind completely seared of a conscience to discern between good and evil. Paul describes those with a reprobate mind as “having their conscience seared with a hot iron” (1Ti 4:2).

Rom 1:28-32 gives us the list of characteristics of a depraved human being. After having rejected the revelation of God that they once had, they turn themselves over to a lifestyle of fleshly indulgences, which is the means by which their mind becomes vain and their foolish hearts are darkened. Once a man loses his ability to discern between good and evil because his conscience no longer speaks to him, his acts become exceedingly sinful.

If we examine this list of vices, we can see that the list begins with sinful actions of their bodies, then sins of a vain mind, and finally sins of a darkened heart.

Sins of a Depraved Body “fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity.” (Rom 1:29)

Sins of a Vain Mind “whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, without understanding, covenantbreakers.” (Rom 1:29-31)

Sins of a Darkened Heart “without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful.” (Rom 1:31)

Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures

God’s Wrath Reveals Man’s Rejection of His Call Rom 1:18 to Rom 3:20 gives us a lengthy teaching on the depravity of mankind, both Gentile and Jew. Throughout this lengthy passage Paul will explain how man’s sinful nature serves as a testimony of why God is righteousness in inflicting His wrath upon mankind from heaven, as stated in Rom 1:18, which is the underlying theme of this passage in Romans. Since the Gospel of Jesus Christ declares man’s depravity and God’s righteous judgments, then man’s depravity also serves to reveal God’s righteous judgments. In this passage of Scripture Paul builds a case for man’s depravity so that he can explain in the subsequent passage of God’s only way of justification for mankind, which is through faith in Jesus Christ.

The first way that we understand God’s standard of righteousness is to be made aware of His divine wrath that rests upon a depraved humanity. Therefore, Paul will first expound upon man’s unrighteousness, or depravity, and show how God has given man over to his unrighteous passions. God pours out His divine wrath because He has revealed His divine nature to mankind (Rom 1:19-20), and they have rejected it (Rom 1:21). Thus, Paul proves that God’s standard of righteousness for mankind has been revealed to him since he was created in the Garden of Eden. There is, therefore, no excuse for sin and depravity. Rather, it is a choice that man makes for himself.

In Rom 1:18-32 Paul reveals man’s depravity and rejection of God. He explains how God has revealed Himself to mankind (Rom 1:19-20) and how man has fully rejected Him (Rom 1:21-32). Thus, we understand why God the Father has destined all of mankind to divine wrath. Paul then broadens his definition of depravity by addressing those who condemn evil and consider themselves moral and good as he reveals their sinful nature through their conscience (Rom 2:1-16). In Rom 2:17 to Rom 3:20 Paul further broadens his definition of man’s depravity to include the Jew. He directly addresses the Jews as he uses the Law to convict them of their sins. In Rom 3:9-20 Paul draws his argument to a conclusion by stating that both Jews and Gentiles are both under sin. So, although the Jews were entrusted with the oracles of God, these oracles only declare that all have sinned.

Thus, Paul proves in his arguments that man has rejected the three witnesses of God the Father. Mankind has rejected the witness of creation (Rom 1:18-32), the witness of his conscience (Rom 2:1-16), and the witness of the Law (Rom 2:17 to Rom 3:20). He has rejected the physical testimony of creation, the testimony of his heart through his conscience, and the testimony of his understanding through the Law, which witnesses have testified to man’s spirit, soul and body (1Jn 5:19).

1Jn 5:19, “And we know that we are of God, and the whole world lieth in wickedness.”

Outline – Note the proposed outline:

1. The Depravity of the Heathen Rom 1:18-32

2. The Depravity of the Moral Man Rom 2:1-16

3. The Depravity of the Jew Rom 2:17 to Rom 3:20

Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures

The Moral Decay of the Gentile World.

The refusal to heed the natural revelation of God:

v. 18. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness,

v. 19. because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath showed it unto them.

v. 20. For the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse;

v. 21. because that, when they knew God, they glorified Him not as God, neither were thankful, but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.

Paul had pictured the revelation of the righteousness of God in the Gospel. And this revelation was sorely needed in view of another revelation of God, namely, that of His wrath, which is being uncovered and made known as a reaction of His holiness and righteousness against every transgression of His will. Down upon, against every ungodliness and unrighteousness of men this wrath is made plain and exerts its power. Whether a person is neutral and irreligious, or whether he openly denies and violates the divine Law: in either case God, from the throne of His majesty and power, will reveal, and now reveals, His wrath in the last judgment. The punishment which is being meted out to the willfully unrighteous blasphemers is a part of the final judgment upon them. Its coming is inevitable, because these irreligious and immoral people are characterized by the fact that they held back, checked, repressed, hindered, the truth in unrighteousness. Men have the truth, the revelation of God in nature. And this truth is intended to have moral effect, to keep men in check, to guide them in the way of civic righteousness. But they hold back the truth, they resist its influence, they close their eyes to its promptings; and all this in unrighteousness. Men willingly serve unrighteousness in preference to the truth; they reject the truth and accept the unrighteousness and godlessness, and thus their guilt is brought out all the more strongly.

The meaning of the truth which Paul has in mind he brings out in the next sentence. What may be known of God is evident to them, for God has given them evidence to that effect. What is knowable of God, what men can conceive of with regard to His essence by means of their senses, that is plain to the hearts of men: He has given them this knowledge, He has made it plain to them. It is a knowledge which is transmitted to men through the works of creation. For the invisible attributes of God, some phases of His divine essence, are plainly seen since the creation of the world, are brought to the knowledge of men by means of the things that are made, through the creatures themselves. Human reason, when rightly used, cannot help but perceive the divine qualities as manifested in the work of creation and providence. It is clear to human intelligence that there must be an eternal power that governs the universe, and that this Godhead has also other attributes, such as wisdom, goodness. The completed creation preaches these qualities of its Master; it praises the incomparable greatness and glory of God. So clear and unmistakable are these evidences of the existence of God, of the creation and preservation of the universe by His almighty power, wisdom, and goodness, that men are without excuse and defense. The impulse given by God that all men should recognize His majesty and prepare their hearts in a corresponding manner is so great that every evasion of their plain duty leaves them with a bad conscience. They will not be able to advance a single reason for the purpose of mitigating their offense. It cannot be the fault of God and His creation if man does not properly recognize and serve Him; on the Day of Judgment no man will be able to allege the innocence of ignorance. Note: The apostle does not represent the natural knowledge of God as a sort of means of grace, by which men might attain to the saving knowledge of God. It is only when a person has been converted to God through the Gospel that he makes the proper use of the natural revelation of God. But the natural knowledge of God is to serve as an incentive to stimulate earnest and untiring search for the true God, Act 17:27.

Having stated wherein the truth consists which men so consistently hinder and reject, Paul now shows in what way men oppose the truth and nullify its influence. Though men had come to know God by means of the natural knowledge, though this knowledge is before their eyes always, though the idea of monotheism is ever found in the midst of polytheism, yet men would not praise and thank the true God as God. They refuse to have their knowledge influence their actions, their mode of living. They will not permit their passive knowledge to become an active worship. Instead, they fell to reasonings upon the essence and cult of God, and in their perverse, self-willed reasonings and speculations they were made vain; their instinctive. perception of God became confused and uncertain; their unintelligent, foolish heart became darkened. Their thoughts were directed toward vain, foolish, evanescent things; they refused to accept instruction for their own benefit. This is the condition of all men by nature. The book of the works of God in creation is before their eyes, and they cannot but acknowledge the existence of God and the presence of certain divine manifestations, but they refuse to have this knowledge influence their thoughts and will; they deliberately hinder all good effects of the instinctive. knowledge. And what they reason and speculate themselves, all their conclusions and judgments, is altogether wrong and perverted, just as they have not the slightest desire and intention to manifest any gratitude for the blessings received from the providence of God.

Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann

Rom 1:18. For “There is no other way of obtaining life and salvation.” Having laid down his proposition, the Apostle now enters upon the proof of it. His first argument is, “The law condemns all men, as being under sin; none therefore are justified by the works of the law.” This is treated of to chap. Rom 3:20. And hence he infers, “therefore justification is by faith.” The wrath of God signifies the vengeance of God, the destruction and punishment which he will inflict upon sinners. This is revealednot only by the general light of nature, (if I can use the expression, when every thing good is from grace,) and by frequent and signal interpretations of the divine providence, but likewise in the sacred oracles, and particularly by that same Gospel which reveals God’s manner of justifying men. See Act 17:30-31 chap. Rom 2:5. 2Ti 1:10. Ungodliness, seems to comprehend the atheism, polytheism, and idolatry of the heathen world; as unrighteousness their other miscarriages and vicious lives; according to which they are distinctly treated of by St. Paul in the following verses. The same appropriation of these words may be observed in other parts of this epistle. Of men, means of men of all nations, all men every where. Before, it was only to the children of Israel that obedience and transgression were by revelation declared and proposed, as terms of life and death. The word rendered hold, signifies to retain or hold fast; and then the Apostle’s meaning will be their holding fast, or retaining, or knowing the truth in speculation, though they violate it in their lives. They are not wholly without the truth, but yet do not follow what they have of it; living contrary to what they do know, or neglecting to know what they might. This is evident from the next words, and from the same reason of God’s wrath, given chap. Rom 2:8 in these words, who do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness. See Locke, Bengelius, and Hammond.

Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

Rom 1:18 . This great fundamental proposition of the Gospel, Rom 1:17 , is proved ( ) agreeably to experience, by the fact that, where there is no , there is also no of righteousness, but only of the wrath of God. “Horrendum est initium ac fulmen,” Melancthon, 1540.

] Emphatically placed, in harmony with the . in Rom 1:17 , at the beginning.

] The antithesis of . , Rom 1:16 . The of God is not to be explained with several of the Fathers (in Suicer), Erasmus, and many later authorities, as poena divina , which is nothing but a rationalizing interchange of ideas, but rather in the proper literal sense: wrath , an affection of the personal God, having a necessary connection with His love. The wrath of God, the reality of which is indisputable as the very presupposition of the work of atonement, is the love of the holy God (who is neither neutral nor one-sided in His affection) for all that is good in its energy as antagonistic to all that is evil. [421] Even Lactantius has aptly remarked, de ira Dei , v. 9 : “Si Deus non irascitur impiis et injustis, nee pios justosque diligit; in rebus enim diversis aut in utramque partem moveri necesse est, aut in neutram.” See on Mat 3:7 ; Eph 2:3 .

] is neither to be connected with , as Beza, Estius, and many others hold, nor with the bare (Mehring), but, as the order of the words and the parallel definition in Rom 1:17 require, belongs to ; so that heaven, the dwelling-place and throne of God (comp on Mat 6:9 ), is designated as the place from which the of the issues. “ Majestatem irati Dei significat,” Bengel. The revelation of righteousness takes place , Rom 1:17 , as something spiritually brought home to the consciousness through the medium of the Gospel; but that of the divine wrath descends from heaven , manifested as a divine matter of fact; by which description, however, the destructive character of this working of divine power is not expressed (Th. Schott), although it is in fact implied in the entire context. But what revelation of divine wrath is meant? Paul himself supplies the information in Rom 1:24 ff., in which is described what God in His sufficiently well-grounded (Rom 1:19-23 ) wrath did ( ). God’s wrath therefore is revealed from heaven in this way , that those who are the objects of it are given up by God to terrible retribution in unchastity and all vice. Against this interpretation (comp Mehring), which is adopted also by Tholuck, Weber ( vom Zorne Gottes , p. 89), and Th. Schott, it cannot be objected, with Hofmann, that Paul must have written ; for he here in fact expresses the general proposition of experience, to which the concrete historical representation subsequently shall correspond; the divine axiom is placed first ( present ), and then the history of it follows ( aorist ). Irrelevant is also the objection of Philippi, that always denotes a supernatural revelation. For means to reveal what was previously unknown, what was veiled from our cognition, so that it now becomes manifest; and, in reference to this, it is a matter of indifference whether the revelation takes place in a natural or in a supernatural manner. [424] The mode of revealing is not indicated in the word itself, but in the context; and hence according to the connection it is used also, as here, of a revelation in fact , by which a state of things previously unknown comes to our knowledge (Mat 10:26 ; Luk 2:35 ; 2Th 2:3 ; 2Th 2:6 ; 2Th 2:8 ). Moreover, even according to our interpretation, a divine revelation is meant, by which there is certainly brought to light a , namely, the connection of the phenomenon with the divine . According to others, Paul means the inward revelation of the divine wrath, given by means of reason and conscience (Ambrosiaster, Wolf, and others, including Reiche and Glckler), in support of which view they appeal to Rom 1:19 . But, on the contrary, requires us to understand an cognisable by the senses; and Rom 1:19 contains not the mode of the manifestation of wrath, but its moving cause ( ). Others hold that the of the divine wrath has come through the Gospel (“continens minas,” Grotius), and that is to be again supplied from Rom 1:17 . So Aquinas, Bellarmine, Corn, Lapide, Estius, Grotius, Heumann, Semler, Morus, Bhme, Benecke, Maier; comp Umbreit, who includes also the Old Testament. It is decisive against this view that , just because it is parallel to in Rom 1:17 , lays down a mode of manifestation quite different from . Had the latter been again in Paul’s mind here, he would have repeated it with emphasis, as he has repeated the . Others hold that the manifestation of wrath at the general judgment is meant (Chrysostom, Theodoret, Theophylact, Oecumenius, Toletus, Limborch, Koppe, Philippi, Reithmayr, and Ewald). The present, considered in itself, might be chosen in order to express a vivid realisation of the future, or might be accounted for by the , which, it is alleged, is to be again mentally supplied (Ewald); but the former explanation is to be rejected on account of the preceding purely present . in Rom 1:17 ; and against the latter may be urged the very fact, that is not repeated. Had this been the meaning, moreover, the further course of the exposition must have borne reference to the general judgment, which it by no means does; and therefore this interpretation is opposed to the connection, as well as unwarranted by Rom 2:5 (where the mention of the revelation of judgment belongs to quite a different connection); and not required by the idea of itself, since that idea is adequately met by the divine matter-of-fact revelation of wrath here intended (see above), and besides, the word is repeated intentionally for rhetorical effect. Lastly, while others have contented themselves with leaving the here in its entire generality (Olshausen, Tholuck; comp Calovius), and thus relieved themselves from giving any explanation of it, the reference to the religion of the O. T. (Bengel and Flatt) seems entirely arbitrary and groundless, and the interpretations which apply it to evils generally affecting the world as an expression of the divine wrath (Hofmann), or to the external and internal distress of the time (Baumgarten-Crusius), are too general and indefinite, and thereby devoid of any concrete import in keeping with the text.

. . . . .] contains the hostile direction (comp Dem. 743, 22) of the . : against every ungodliness and immorality of men , which, etc. and (Plat. Prot. p. 323 E; Xen. Cyr. viii. 8, 7; Tittmann, Synon. N. T. p. 48) are distinguished as irreligiousness and immorality , so that both describe the improbitas , but under different aspects, in reference to the fear of God and to the standard of morals; hence the former, as involving the idea of impiety, is the stronger expression. Comp Dem. 548, 11 : , . That the distinction between them is not to be understood, with Kllner, following Theophylact, Grotius, Calovius, Wolf, and many others, as profanitas in Deum and injuria in proximum , is proved by the following .

. . . .] who keep down the truth through immorality , do not let it develop itself into power and influence on their religious knowledge and their moral condition. The article ( quippe qui ) introduces that characteristic of the , not yet more precisely defined, which excites the divine wrath. Rightly in the Vulgate: eorum qui. See Winer, p. 127 [E. T. 174]. It may be paraphrased: “ of those, I mean, who .” Comp Khner, a [430] Xen. Anab. ii. 7, 13. Bengel, moreover, aptly remarks: “veritas in mente nititur et urget, sed homo eam impedit.” This is the peculiar, deeply unfortunate, constant self-contradiction of the heathen character. Comp Ngelsbach, Homer. Theol. I. p. 11 ff. On , to hinder , comp 2Th 2:6 ; Luk 4:42 ; 1Ma 6:27 ; Plat. Phaed . p. 117 C; Soph. El. 754; Pind. Isthm. iii. 2, and Dissen in loc [433] Against the interpretation of Michaelis, Koppe and Baur, who take here as meaning to possess (1Co 7:30 ; 2Co 6:10 ), “who possess the truth in unrighteousness, who know what God’s will is, and yet sin,” Rom 1:21 is decisive, where the continuous possession of the truth is negatived by . ; wherefore also it cannot he rendered with Melancthon and van Hengel: who hold the truth in the bondage of immorality (Rom 7:6 ; Gen 39:20 ; Gen 42:19 ). The is correctly interpreted in the sense of divine truth generally; the mode of revelation , in which it is presented to man’s knowledge, is furnished by the context, here, by Rom 1:19 f., as the truth apparent by natural revelation in the works of God; not therefore in the sense of the doctrine of the Gospel , which is hindered in its diffusion by Jews and Gentiles (Ammon, comp Ewald).

] instrumental . To make it equivalent to (Reiche, following Theophylact, Beza, Calvin, Piscator, Raphel, and others; comp in Rom 1:4 ) arbitrarily deprives the representation of an element essential to its fulness and precision, and renders it tame; for it is self-evident that the . . is unrighteous or sinful, but not so much so that it takes place through sin .

Finally, it is to be noted that Paul, in . (correlative of ) . . . . , expresses himself quite generally , making apparent by . the audacity of this God -opposing conduct; but he means the Gentiles , as is indicated even by (comp 1Co 6:1 ), and as is confirmed beyond doubt by the continuation of the discourse in Rom 1:19 ff. Koppe supposed that Paul meant the Jews especially, but included also the Gentiles; Benecke, that he speaks of the whole human race in general, which view Mehring specially defends. But the peculiar character of what is contained in Rom 1:21-32 shows that the Jews are to be entirely excluded from the description which is carried on to the end of the chapter. It is not till ch. Rom 2:1 that the discourse passes over to them, and makes them suddenly see themselves reflected in the Gentile mirror.

[421] The idea of the divine is diametrically opposed to every conception of sin as a necessity interwoven with human development.

[424] In this case it cannot make any difference whether God is or is not the revealing subject, as is most plainly seen from Mat 16:17 .

[430] d refers to the note of the commentator or editor named on the particular passage.

[433] n loc. refers to the note of the commentator or editor named on the particular passage.

Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary

Rom 1:18-32 . Proof of Rom 1:17 deduced from experience, and that in the first instance with respect to Gentile humanity (the proof in regard to the Jews begins at ch. 2).

Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary

PART FIRST

The Doctrine of Justification by Faith as the Restoration of the true Glorification of God

CHAPTERS 111
_____________________
FIRST DIVISION
SIN AND GRACE IN THEIR FIRST ANTITHESIS, THE REALLY RELIGIOUS AND MORAL LIFE. THE ACTUAL ENTRANCE OF CORRUPTION AND SALVATION. GODS WRATH AT ALL HUMAN UNRIGHTEOUSNESS; THAT IS, THE WORLDS REAL CORRUPTION MATURING FOR DEATH, AND HASTENED BY THE JUDGMENT OF GOD; AND THE OPPOSING JUSTIFICATION OF SINNERS THROUGH THE MERCY-SEAT, OR PARDON IN CHRIST IN RESPONSE TO FAITH. THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF FAITH

Rom 1:18 to Rom 5:11

First Section.The beginning of all the real corruption of the world, and of the Gentiles in particular, together with the judgment pronounced on it. The neglect of the general revelation of God in creation by the neglect of the real worship of God in thanksgiving and praise (Rom 1:18-21).

Second Section.The development of Gentile corruption under Gods judicial abandonment (the departure of His Spirit, and the decree of ripeness for judgment). From arbitrary symbolism to the worship of images and beasts; from theoretical to practical corruption; from natural to unnatural and abominable sins, to the completion of all kinds of crimes and iniquities, and to the demoniacal lust of evil, and even of evil maxims (Rom 1:22-32).

18For the wrath of God [Gods wrath] is revealed [in opposition to that revelation of Gods righteousness, Rom 1:17] from heaven against all ungodliness [godlessness] and unrighteousness [iniquity] of men, who hold [hold back]73 the truth in unrighteousness; 19Because74 that which may be known [which is known]75 of God is manifest in them;76 for God hath shewed [God manifested]77 it unto [to] them. 20For the invisible things of him [his unseen attributes] from the creation of the world are [are, since the creation of the world,]78 clearly seen,79 being understood by the things that are made [by means of his works], even his eternal power and Godhead [Divinity,80 , not]; so that81 they are without excuse 21[inexcusable, ]. Because that, when they knew God [because, knowing God, or, although they knew God, ], they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful [they did not glorify him as God, nor give thanks to him as God]; but became vain in their imaginations [thoughts], and their foolish heart was darkened.

22, 23Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, And changed [exchanged] the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man [for a likeness of an image of corruptible man], and to [of] birds, and fourfooted beasts [quadrupeds], and creeping things [reptiles].

24Wherefore God also82 gave them up to uncleanness, through the lusts of their own hearts [God delivered them over, in the lusts of their hearts, to uncleanness], to dishonor their own bodies between themselves [so that their 25bodies were dishonored among them].83 Who changed [They who exchanged]84 the truth of God into [for] a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more 26[rather] than the Creator,85 who is blessed forever. Amen. For this cause God gave them up [delivered them over] unto [to] vile affections [shameful passions]:86 for even their women did change [exchanged] the natural, use into 27[for] that which is against nature: And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust [lustful excitement] one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly [working the (well known) indecency, ], and receiving in themselves that recompense of their error which was meet [the due reward of their error].

28And even as they did not like [And as they did not deem it worthy, orworth while, ] to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate [worthless, ]87 mind, to do those things which are not convenient 29[becoming];88 Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication,89 wickedness [malice], covetousness, maliciousness [badness]; full of envy, murder, 30debate [strife, ], deceit, malignity; whisperers, Backbiters [slanderers], haters of God,90 despiteful [insolent], proud, boasters, inventors of evil things 31[villanies], disobedient to parents, Without understanding, covenant-breakers 32[truce-breakers], without natural affection, implacable,91 unmerciful: Who, knowing [although they well know] the judgment [just decree] of God, that they which [who] commit [practice, ] such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them [approve of those who practise them, ].

General Remarks.The whole section, in its progress to the end of the chapter, relates more particularly to the heathen world (Tholuck, Meyer). Yet it describes the corruption in its original form as a general corruption of humanity. The antithesis: Heathendom and Judaism was a subsequent development. Rom 1:24, with its causality in Rom 1:22-23, constitutes the more definite beginning of heathenism. Tholuck recommends the treatise of Adam, Exercitationes Exegetic, 1712, pp. 501738, on the section Rom 1:18-32. Tholuck remarks: What the Apostle says of the relations of the Gentile world, and afterwards of the Jews, to God, naturally applies to their universality, but to individuals only in a greater or less degree. We add: So that a relative opposition is embraced within the general judgment (see Rom 2:6 ff.).

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

First Section, Rom 1:18-21

Rom 1:18. For Gods wrath is revealed. The of the , as the revelation which was historically earlier, is contrasted with the revelation of the righteousness of God from faith. It is therewith intimated that that righteousness denotes grace, or justifying righteousness; but that the is an exercise of penal righteousness which precedes it.92 The wrath of God, as an emotion of God, is His personal displeasure at sin as , as conscious transgression, as apostasy, as unbelief, and therefore as the limitation of His personal revelation in the world. It is a displeasure which is revealed by such decrees of penal justice as death and the terrors of death, especially in retribution for obstructions placed in the way of the divine life (Exo 4:14; Exo 4:24; Psa 90:7-8), by a decree of blindness in retribution for the hinderances to His truth (the present passages; Isa 6:10; Romans 9.; 2Co 3:14; Mat 13:14; Joh 12:40; Act 28:26), by the abandonment to the lusts of the flesh in retribution for the general resistance to His Spirit (Eph 2:3), and finally, by a decree of reprobation and condemnation in retribution for the hinderances to salvation by apostasy and unbelief (Mat 3:7; Mat 22:13; Joh 3:36; Rom 5:9). Comp. my article, Zorn Gottes, in Herzogs

Realencyklopdie. This has its immediately, so far as it is declared to the conscience of man as Gods decree from heaven; but it becomes especially an by the witness of the law, and is perfected in the light of the gospel. It is revealed in a real manner from heaven, as a message from the height of the holy, supernatural world, and from the throne of Divine government. And it is revealed in an ideal way by the light of righteousness, which, like a flame of wrath from the kingdom of the Spirit, shines down into the realm of consciously guilty human life, and explains its dark fate. The older writers understood by , punishment alone, taking metonymically the operation for the cause [metonymia caus pro effectu = , ]. But we must unite both. The opposite of is not merely (Tholuck), but (see my Positive Dogmatik, p. 109). According to De Wette [and Alford], wrath is only an anthropopathic conception of the righteousness of God in punishment; but by this interpretation its procession is obliterated. The internal of wrath involves its external , but it is one-sided to confine it to the punishment which God has determined for the heathen world (De Wette), or the wretched condition of the world at that time (Kllner), or to the manifestation of the punishment in the conscience (Tholuck), or in the gospel (Grotius). From the beginning, the deeds of wrath have ever succeeded the in its opposition to Gods government and revelation. But the complete thereof does not appear before the New Testament of grace. The reason of this is, that the worlds guilt reaches its climax in the crucifixion and death of Christ. The the rebellion of unbelief to the revelation of the divine light and life (Rom 2:4-5; Rom 8:6-7)sums up the whole idea of sin which incurs the guilt of Gods wrath. The idea of the itself is Gods abandonment of man to the judgment of death. And the idea of the of this is the entire revelation of the judgment of God in the corruption of the world amid the light of the gospel, for the conscience of humanity, especially the body of believers. The idea of the is the heavenly world in its ideal laws, which lie also at the foundation of the earthly world, and react against all abnormal conduct with punishment and death. The present, , must be emphasized; it is neither merely a historical reference to the misery of the old world (Kllner, and others), nor (with Chrysostom, and others) a reference to the future day of wrath. It means, rather, a progressive revelation of the judgment in opposition to which the progressive revelation of the righteousness of salvation in the gospel acquires its perfect significance and clearness. The certainly refers chiefly to , but it is indirectly declared thereby that the is from heaven, although, as a judgment immanent in life itself, it breaks forth from its internal state, or is caused by it. Special interpretations of the : The religion of the Old Testament (Bengel); storms and natural disasters (Pelagius); external and internal necessities of the times (Baumgarten-Crusius).

Against all ungodliness and unrighteousness. The [godlessness, impiety] is the fundamental form of personal misconduct toward God; but the word is more especially significant in that it describes ungodliness as the absence of reverence for God. See Rom 1:21. The [unrighteousness, iniquity] is the correspondent fundamental form of misconduct toward Gods law in life, and therefore not toward our neighbor alone. Theophylact, Tholuck, and many others: Profanitas in Deum, injuria in proximnm. [So Hodge: , impiety toward God; , injustice toward men.P. S.] Meyer, on the contrary: Irreligiousness and immorality, which is supported by the following description. [ is the fountain of , but both act and react upon each other.P. S.]Of men. Antithesis of . The word signifies, first, the universality of guilt; second, the weakness of mans enmity against Almighty God.

Who hold back the truth. Description of the obstructions which, as the wicked reaction against the revelation of God, cause the reaction of Divine displeasure in the form of the . The truth is the revelation of God in its most general sense, as the unity and harmony of all the single Divine acts of revelation, with a special reference here to the natural revelation of God (Rom 1:19-20); although the doctrines of the gospel (of which Ammon explains ) must not be excluded from the general idea, nor must the natural knowledge of God be substituted for the revelation of God. The (to grasp, to hold, here with the accessory idea of holding back) strikingly denotes hinderance, keeping back (Meyer, improperly, keeping down); as is the case with in Joh 1:5.93 An odd explanation is this: Who possess the truth with unrighteousness; that is, sin against, better knowledge (Michaelis, Koppe, Baur).In unrighteousness. Not adverbial (Reiche, et al.), but instrumental (Meyer).94 The word must be understood here in the wide sense, according to which all sin is . See 1Jn 3:4. The sentence must be understood, however, in its general force, though with special reference already to the Gentiles. The history of this is the history of the kingdom of darkness in humanity, which is consummated in the , 2Th 2:8; comp. especially also 2Th 1:8. According to De Wette, the operates so as not to let the truth come to appearance and development. But it also so operates as to pervert the individual elements of the truth into distortions, errors, and strong delusions, and thereby calls down the wrath of God. We must observe how decidedly the Apostle here views the ethically as ; and how he derives the errors of unbelief from unrighteousness, and from misconduct toward the ethical laws of the inner life.

Rom 1:19. Because that which is known of God.95 The in Rom 1:19 may be regarded as an explanation of the statement in Rom 1:18, with special reference to the holding back of the truth of God; the in Rom 1:21 as the explanation of the preceding ; and the in Rom 1:24, as well as the in Rom 1:26, as the explanation of the revelation of Gods wrath. Though the of Rom 1:19 is not to be regarded exactly the same as , it does not serve specially as a proof of the motive for Divine wrath. For more particular information, see Tholuck and Meyer.96

The knowledge of God.97 Tholuck distinguishes three meanings of : 1. That which is known of God (Itala, Vulg., De Wette [Meyer, Philippi, Alford, Wordsworth.P. S.]); 2. what may be known (Photius, and many others; Rckert); 3. knowledge [ = . Fritzsche, Tholuck, Hodge.P. S.]. He shows that , according to the classical use of the language, means, what may be known; while means, what is known. But in the Septuagint and New Testament the signification, known, is undoubted. Nevertheless, many expositors, from the time of Origen down to the present [Theophylact, cumenius, Erasmus, Calvin, Beza, Grotius, Ewald], have pronounced in favor of the translation, what may be known. But this signification does not make good sense, since it is difficult to distinguish between what may, and what may not be known of God, and since every thing that may be known of God was by no means revealed at the beginning to the nations (see Meyer). We understand what is known of God concretely as knowledge [Kenntniss, ], notitia deiwhich should become true knowledge [Erkenntniss, ] by living appropriation. Luther has made the untenable distinction, that the reason of man can know that God is, but cannot know who or what He is. Tholuck justly remarks that the Apostle immediately afterward speaks of a certain knowledge of the nature of God. [The book of nature is a , as Basil (Hexameron, i.) calls it, a school of the general knowledge of God, and there is no nation on earth which is entirely destitute of this knowledge.P. S.]

Is manifest among them.98 Erasmus, Grotius, Kllner, and Baumgarten-Crusius, adopt this explanation.99 On the contrary, Tholuck, Meyer, and De Wettewith reference to Rom 2:15; Gal 1:16strongly advocate Calvins interpretation, cordibus insculptum. [So also Beza: In ipsorum animis, quia hc Dei notitia recondita est in intimis mentis penetralibus; and Hodge: It is not of a mere external revelation of which the Apostle is speaking, but of that evidence of the being and perfection of God which every man has in the constitution of his own nature, and in virtue of which he is competent to apprehend the manifestations of God in His works.P. S.] But stands in Gal 1:16; and in Rom 2:15, the question is Gods manifestation by conscience, and not by creation. De Wette says: If the knowledge of God had been something common among them, it would not have been suppressed ().100 But this is not conclusive. We could say with more propriety: If there had been no general knowledge of God among them, there would have been no common guilt. We must admit, however, that among them presupposes in them, or the existence of a knowledge of God in their hearts.God manifested it to them. This was not first of all , but manifestation through creation. And thus there arose from individuals a manifest knowledge of Goda . The reference of this to the gnosis of the philosophers (Erasmus, Grotius) is too contracted. But there was a tradition of the knowledge of God among men which preceded the development of heathenism. (It is hardly worth while to mention the explanation of Luther, Koppe, Flatt, that is the mere dative.) [There is a threefold revelation of God: 1. An internal revelation to the reason and conscience of every man (comp. Rom 2:15; Joh 1:9); 2. an external revelation in the creation, which proclaims Gods power, wisdom, and goodness (Rom 1:20); 3. a special revelation, through the Holy Scriptures, and in the person and work of Christ, which confirms and completes the other revelations, and exhibits the justice, holiness, and love of God. The first two are here intended.P. S.]

Rom 1:20. For his invisible attributes [, ]. Explanation of the declaration: God manifested it to them. Meyer: That may not be seen of Him (sein Unschaubares), the invisible attributes which constitute His essence, not actiones Dei invisibiles. (Theodoret and Fritzsche: In relation to both creation and providence.) The pictures of creation, however, are also permanent actiones, and so far providence is at least indicated. [The is subsequently explained by , and , and the , followed by , as Tholuck remarks, does not annex a new idea (and also), but it partitions the into the two ideas of and . Paul has in view simply some of the Divine attributes, not the whole Divine being (which would rather require to ); the pagan knowledge of God is only partial and fragmentary, though sufficient to leave those who possess it without excuse.P. S.]

From the time of the creation of the world. Not out of the creation (Luther, and others). This idea is contained in . (De Wette). , moreover, is here equal to , (Fritzsche).Being understood by the things that are made.101 An oxymoron, Arist., De mundo C. [vi.]: [ ] .102 Meyer thus paraphrases the : It is beheld by being perceived with the reason. We might ask: Should the sentence read, The invisible becomes visible by knowledge, as the means; or, it becomes visible as something known, perceptible to the reason? The latter thought is preferable here, since it is better adapted to the participle, and presupposes the import of the power, the thought-life of man. Philippi also limits himself to the middle form: The invisible is seen; an oxymoron which is explained and qualified by the addition of . It is not seen by the bodily eye, but by the eye of the Spirit, the , the reason. Our view is favored by the original sense of , a conception which passes through looking down and looking over into looking at.By the things that are made [ by and in (his) works, , instrumental dative.P. S.]. These are therefore signs of the attributes of God. Schneckenburger (after Episcopius, and others) includes among them the government of God in history. But the conception of , creature, is against this view. Baumgarten-Crusius, following the Syriac and other versions, takes , in an ablative senseby the creaturewhich is quite untenable.His eternal power and divinity. [, from , ever-enduring, eternal, belongs to both nouns. Here is the germ of the physicotheological argument for the existence of God, as in Rom 1:19 the ontological argument is intimated.P. S.] Here, as in the Creed [I believe in God the Father Almighty], omnipotence serves as the representative of the attributes of God. Tholuck: In the contemplation of nature, the first thing which strikes man with overpowering weight is the impression of an infinite, supernatural omnipotence (Book of Wis 13:4). All religion has its root in the feeling of dependence on supernatural powers (?). To the patriarchs God first revealed Himself as , as the Almighty; Exo 6:3 (Gen 17:1).103And his Divinity. , from , is the summary of the divinities, or divine excellencies, and must be distinguished from , the term which denotes the Divine Being itself. The omnipotence is completed by the remaining Divine attributes, through which it really becomes omnipotence in the full ethical as well as metaphysical sense. It is onesided if Schneckenburger refers it only to Gods goodness. Reiches thought is better, that wisdom and goodness are chiefly meant.

So that they are without excuse. Meyer does not regard the as expressing a consequenceas most commentators do [Vulg.: Ita ut sint inexcusabiles; Chrysostom, Luther, Reiche, De Wette, Fritzsche, Tholuck, Philippi, Ewald, Alford, Words worth, Hodge]but a purpose (in harmony with Calvin, Beza, and others): In order that they may be without excuse. But this rendering leads to a monstrous view of the purpose of the creation of the world. It is too fatalistic even for the conception of predestination, which it was once designed to support. Meyer urges in its defence that , in the Epistle to the Romans, when used with and the infinitive, has always a teleological sense, against which [De Wette and] Tholuck (p. 67) protest. Then he insists that the results must also be determined beforehand. But this would be a kind of predestination which is self-contradictory: Predestinatedto have no excuse; that is, predestinated for guilt. The other explanation implies by no means a sufficientia religionis naturalis ad salutem, but it permits the possibility of another form of the course of development from Adam to Christ. [The object here is to show mans guilt, not Gods sovereignty. Comp. on the Textual Note104. Hodge: Paul does not here teach that it is the design of God, in revealing Himself to men, to render their opposition inexcusable, but rather, since this revelation has been made, they have in fact no apology for their ignorance and neglect of God. Though the revelation of God in His works is sufficient to render men inexcusable, it does not follow that it is sufficient to Lead men, blinded by sin, to a saving knowledge of Himself. Wordsworth: It can hardly be thought that the conviction, confusion, and condemnation of men was any part of the Divine plan in creation, although it followed as a consequence from it.P. S.]

Rom 1:21. Because, although they knew God, &c. The explains first of all how far they are without excuse; then, indirectly, how their guilt of holding back the truth in unrighteousness commenced. Incorrect construction: cum cognoscere potuissent (cumenius, Flatt).105 Meyer has no ground for opposing the solution of the participle into the sentence: although they knew God (not, perceived Him). The contradiction between knowing God and the designated neglect of Him is obvious indeed; but herein precisely consists the inexcusableness. The ignorance () of the Gentile world, Eph 4:18, &c., is improperly regarded by Tholuck as an apparent contradiction; for the Gentile world was not such at the outset, and its ignorance is the result and punishment of its great sin of neglect. They lost even their imperfect knowledge (), because they did not raise it to full knowledge () through the labor of the heart, [ , the one true God, in opposition to the false whom the heathen worshipped.P. S.]

They glorified him not as God. According to His divinity (Joh 4:24). They were not wanting in worship, but in worship suitable to God. Melanchthon refers to theoretical, and to practical conduct toward God (as recognition and reverence); but Tholuck very justly rejects such an interpretation, and regards as the general term for worship, and , as the special designation of that species in which the feeling of dependence exhibits itself in the most tender and truly human way. In our opinion, the former denotes rather all worship, so far as it should be preminently the glorification of God; the latter denotes the same worship as the grateful recognition of the Divine government for human welfare.106

But became vain []. They became idle, foolish, in devising vanities (Isa 44:9), vain idols, (Act 14:15). [, , vanitas, is a characteristic term for idol-worship; Deu 32:21; 2Ki 17:5; Jer 2:5; Act 14:15.P. S.] As man, so his God. The axiom may also be reversed: As his God, so man himself (Psa 115:8); They that make them are like unto them. The human mind is made dumb, wooden, and stone-like, by dumb, wooden, and stone idols (comp. Act 17:29). But that vanity began in the inward life.In their imaginations [thoughts, reasonings, speculations, ], Tholuck: We can scarcely coincide with the Vulgate, Fritzsche, Meyer, and Philippi, in translating simply by cogitata. But since the word is used usually malo sensu, and the antithesis is more expressive, we may translate it, with Luther: In their imagining; Beza: rationibus suis. We need not think exclusively of the reasonings and conclusions of the philosophers (Philippi). Mythology was complete with its growth of ideals and images long before philosophy proper was conceived.

And their foolish heart was darkened. The supposition that foolish () is used proleptically in the sense that their heart was darkened so as to lose its understanding (De Wette), is not only unnecessary (Tholuck), but altogether irrelevant (Meyer: because it destroys the climax).107 Positive darkness was the result of the negative neglect of the heart to regard the Divine tokens, and to weigh them understandingly. The , the centre of life, is first, darkened; then the , the developed thought-life (Eph 4:18), Tholuck: In this section the Apostle coincides so fully in word and thought, with the Book of Wisdom, chaps. 1315, that Nitzsch regards it almost impossible to ascribe perfect originality to him. Yet he himself admits that the fundamental thoughtthe tracing of idolatry back to sinwas unknown to the Alexandrine author, &c. (comp. Nitzsch, Deutsche Zeitschrift, 1850, p. 387; Bleek, Stud, und Kritiken, 1853, p. 340).

Second Section, Rom 1:22-31

Rom 1:22. Professing themselves [i.e., while, not became, they professed themselves, , or pretended] to be wise. De Wette: This is referred by many, and also by Tholuck, to the philosophers of ancient Greece and Rome. But these were above idolatry, and, besides, were later than the origin of idolatry, &c.108 The latter remark requires special attention. The question here is concerning the very ancient origin of heathendom, as characterized by the far-fetched ingenuities of symbolical mythicism. Nor could Paul have had in thought merely the pride of Grecian wisdom. But in contemplating it, he could also judge concerning the origin of heathenism. Comp. 1Co 1:19-25; 1Co 3:19. Calvin: Neque enim id proprie in philosophos competit, etc., sed que commune est gentium ordinumque omnium. Nemo enim fuit, qui non voluerit Dei majestatem sub captum suum includere, ac talem Deum facere, qualem percipere posset suopte sensu.They became fools. Not, they have by this means shown themselves to be fools (Kllner), which weakens the thought. [Their folly was in proportion to their, boast of wisdom. There can be no greater folly than to worship a beast rather than God. Wordsworth in loc.: Intelligence is no safeguard against superstition. Knowledge puffeth up (1Co 8:1). It often engenders pride, and pride is punished by God with spiritual blindness, which is the mother of idolatry.P. S.]

Rom 1:23. And exchanged, &c. They have abandoned the real [ ]the contemplation of Gods glorywhich was communicated to them through the spiritual contemplation of the creation, which was manifested to the Israelites in the Shekinah in the exalted moments of vision, and which was finally communicated to Christians in the righteousness of Christ for faith. They exchanged this glory for their religious imagesthat is, for vanity, folly, and darkness. The cannot be taken for (Reiche [E. V.]), but is instrumental (Meyer). It denotes the external element of their exchange. [The verb , when it means to exchange, is usually construed with or , permutare rem per rem or re, but in the LXX. with , after the Hebrew , as in Psa 106:20 : , … Tholuck quotes also Sophocles, Antig., 1:936, for the same construction. The contrast of and sets forth the folly of such an exchange.P. S.] Grotius: , figura, qu apparet in simulacro. Meyer quotes Rev 9:7 in favor of this view. But the expression seems to indicate that the worship of images proceeded from an arbitrary, self-created symbolism. They believed that they wisely expressed and maintained the of God in the symbol or likeness of a human image. For this purpose they naturally made use of the image of the external and therefore perishable form of man. This was specially the case among the Greeks. There were also the Egyptian images of beasts: of birds the bird Ibis; of four-footed beaststhe Apis, the dog and the cat; and of creeping thingsthe crocodile and the serpent. Tholuck: The Egyptian worship was at that time domesticated at Rome;109 and the expression of Paul relates as well to the adoration of the symbol, generally practised by the cultivated classes, as to the adoration of the image itself, as a real idol, which prevailed among the great masses (see Tholuck). [The common people saw in the idols the gods themselves, the cultivated heathen, symbolical representations, or, at best, only the organs through which the gods operated. A similar difference of a gross and a more refined superstition is found in the Roman Catholic Church with regard to the images of saints. The Scriptures make no account of this distinction, and denounce all image-worshippers as idolaters.P. S.] The Apostle traces the downward tendency of heathendom, by passing, first, from the likeness to the image, and, second, from the image of man to the images of creeping animals. [Wordsworth: observe this repetition, marking successive stages of their moral and intellectual degradation: ending in the transmutation of the living God of heaven into the likeness of unclean reptiles crawling upon the earth!P. S.]

Rom 1:24. Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness. The Apostle evidently distinguishes two degrees of this abandonment; Rom 1:24 and Rom 1:26. As the unnatural sins of lust are not mentioned before Rom 1:26, so may we understand Rom 1:24 as referring to the natural forms of sensuality. But lewdness is the sin common to both degrees of corruption. That the Apostle should regard sins of lust as the immediate result of religious apostasy, rests: 1. On the Hebrew idea of whoredom, according to which religious whoredomthat is, idolatryleads to moral whoredom as its most immediate result (Numbers 25; Ezekiel 23); just as, reversely, moral unchastity leads to religious lewdness (Solomon, Henry IV. [of France]). The heathen forms of worship are therefore connected in various ways with the practice of lust, or they are even the worship of lust. 2. On the ethical law, that moral principles stand in reciprocal connection with religious principles. The image of corruptible man is an image of the natural man, who, like Jupiter, indulges in love intrigues. The image of the bull likewise indicates the deification of the generative power of nature.

Wherefore God gave them up [, delivered them over]. The abandonment must not be regarded, with the Greek expositors [since Origen], as a mere permission110 (see Chrysostoms remarks, quoted by Tholuck [who dissents from him]), nor, on the other hand, as referring to a Divine predestination of abandonment to the judgment of condemnation. (Tholuck, the editor of Calvins Commentaries, calls this the Calvinistic view, according to which God is the effective author of sin;but this he could certainly not prove from Calvins exposition of the present passage.) The abandonment is rather the first stage in the exercise of punitive authority (see my Positive Dogmatics, p. 468). God executed this punishment on a grand scale in the origin and growth of heathendom. He allowed the Gentiles to walk in their own ways (Act 14:16; Psa 81:13; Psa 147:20). The permittere in this punishment becomes an effective operation by Gods withdrawal of His Spirit; which measure His holiness requires.111 Paul has already said that this withdrawal is retributive; but he now makes it especially prominent: in the lusts of their hearts, , &c. The must not be understood as instrumental [by or through] (Erasmus [E. V.], and others), nor like (Piscat., Estius, and others) [but signifies the element or moral condition in which they were already when God, by a judicial act, delivered them over to a still worse condition.P. S.]. The negative punitive judgment becomes positive in this, that they can no longer control the lusts of their heart after Gods Spirit is withdrawn from them. It is in harmony with Gods righteousness that sin should be punished by sin.To uncleanness. The sins of thought and heart became sins of deed. The expression filthiness (Unfltherei, Meyer) seems too strong for the beginning of the development of uncleanness. In Gal 5:19 (to which Meyer refers), the description passes from the grosser to the more subtle forms.

So that their bodies were dishonored. De Wette and Tholuck [Meyer, Alford, al.] maintain that does not occur in the middle (Erasmus, Luther [E. V.]), but only in the passive voice. The bodies were already dishonored by natural lewdness, by which they lost their dignity as temples of God, and were degraded into instruments of sensual lust (and not merely woman; Tholuck). See 1Co 6:16.Between themselves. Three explanations: 1. The is instrumental (Theophylact, Kllner). Then the moral subject is wanting. 2. The has a reciprocal signification equal to , reciprocally (Erasmus, De Wette, Tholuck, and others). Meyer: One dishonors the other. This construction is favored by the reciprocal sexual intercourse which disappears in the unnatural lewdness described in Rom 1:26. 3. Reflexive (Vulgate, Luther, Calvin, and others). Tholuck remarks on this, that to themselves does not give clear sense. Comp., on the contrary, 1Co 6:16. We may adopt the second explanation, and yet the third need not be given upnamely, that in natural lewdness not only does one dishonor the other, but each dishonors himself.

Rom 1:25. They who exchanged the truth of God. According to Meyer and Tholuck, Paul returns expressly to the cause of the abandonment. But by this they overlook the definite progress of thoughtnamely, the argument for the abandonment of the second degree which follows in Rom 1:26. As a punishment of the heathen for squandering the of God for the paltry sum of images, their own bodies have lost their . But they are further charged with bartering the truth of God for the lie of idolatry, since they have served the creature . Therefore God gave them up to a lie of sexual lust, to a lust . It is from this parallel, which the commentators have overlooked, that exact exegetical definitions on this passage arise.They who exchanged, , Quippe qui. The expression denotes them as the same, but characterizes them more fully. The sense is, they exchanged for (sie tauschten um), , which is not merely more emphatic (Meyer) than . It includes, with the exchange, a very strong conception of change, of variation.The truth of God. Explanations: 1. The truth revealed to the Gentiles (Camerarius, Reiche, and others). 2. is genit. object.; therefore the true knowledge of God (Piscat., Usteri. [Alford: the true notion of Him as the Creator]). 3. is genit. subject.; the truth or reality of God, the true Divine essence, according to the analogy (Tholuck, Meyer). Tholuck (with Theophylact, Luther, and others) takes it exactly as [and for . So also Hodge: a periphrase for the true GodP. S.]. The of God is Gods revelation in glory, and so is Gods truth the (see Rom 1:19) of his essential truth in the truthful relations of creation. The name of God is the revelation of His nature; not His nature in and of itself. But this revelation divides itself into the when we have in view the whole majesty of His name, and into the when we look at the real harmony of its antitheses. They have forsaken the general manifestation of this truth of God. They have, indeed, utterly squandered it for the gain of a mere liefor the lying idols. [ = , is used emphatically for idols in the Scriptures; Jer 13:25; Jer 16:19; Isa 28:15; Isa 44:20; because the heathen gods do not even exist, and yet they are worshipped in the place of the only true God, who is the Cause of all existence, and the Author of all truth.P. S.] Idols are lies not simply as dii imaginarii (Grotius). They are embodied lies. Man must make them, and they pretend to represent Him who made man (Isa 40:19-20). They have mouths, but they speak not; eyes have they, but they see not (Psa 115:5; Psa 135:16; Wis 15:15). The worshipper of idols has a dark consciousness of this contradiction. Even his worship is mendacious. Tholuck quotes Philo, De Vita Mosis, i. 3 [where it is said of the Israelites who had made the golden calf], Moses wondered . Comp. also Isa 44:20; Jer 3:10; Jer 13:25; Jer 16:19.And worshipped. [only once in the N. T.] denotes religious reverence in general; denotes worship [with sacrifice, and other acts and rites]. The conception of the . passes from fear and reverence to worship. Of kindred but not of identical character is the distinction of Theophylact, and others: internal and external worship.The creature rather than the Creator. [, any created being or thing, belongs to both verbs, but is conformed to as the nearest, while would require the accusative.P. S.] The has been interpreted in three ways: 1. More than the Creator [in the relative sense], (Vulgate, Erasmus, Luther [E. V., Grotius], and others); 2. against the Creator [contra creatorem; comp. , Rom 1:26], (Hammond, Fritzsche, and others); 3. In the sense of comparison [and exclusion], pr creators, prterito, or relicto creatore (Hilarius, Theophylact, Beza, Tholuck, Meyer [Olshausen, De Wette, Philippi, Alford, Wordsworth, Hodge], and others). The third explanation is correct in the sense that it includes the second: Passing by one with the disregard and rejection of the same (see Luk 18:14). The in Rom 1:26 perfectly corresponds to this rendering. In both cases, the statement must not be understood absolutely; otherwise heathendom would have been the negation of all religion, and unnatural lust the negation of all propagation of the human race. It denotes the outbreaking sovereignty of a religious vice, which is completed in a sensual one. [Wordsworth derives from this text an argument against the Arians, who assert Christ to be a creature, and yet profess to worship Him; and against those who pay religious worship to any creature, since no one is to be worshipped, according to the Scriptures, who is not God by nature, and since there is no middle between Creator and creature.P. S.]

Who is blessed forever. Tholuck: The doxology is added to the name of God by Jews and Mohammedans when they must state something that is unworthy of Him, as though the writer would remove all suspicion of any share in the statement, &c. It is more natural to seek the explanation of this custom in the indignation of religious feeling, and in its confidence that God is exalted above the profanation of His name.112 Tholuck informs us that an Arabian writer added, after every heresy which he mentioned: God is exalted above all that they say! The Apostles expression, at all events, must not be regarded as a mere form, but as candid emotion (Meyer); which yet does not exclude the thought indicated above (Chrysostom, Grotius)., .113 Who is blessed, with reference to all future eternity, is likewise an expression of the confident expectation that he shall be blessed (Meyer therefore rejects, without good reason, the explanation of Fritzsche: celebrandus).

Rom 1:26. For this cause God gave them up. The refers specifically to Rom 1:25, and takes its place with the of Rom 1:24 and the of Rom 1:21 as a subdivision under Rom 1:18.

Unto shameful passions. The was already in Rom 1:24, but now it becomes a passion. Meyer: ., genit. qual. Since whoredom is also a shameful passion, the substantive must be retained: Passions of the shameful and degraded condition. There was first a departure from honor to simple dishonor; then still further downward, to a passionate course of dishonor, which might almost be described as passion for vileness. The unnatural sins of lust rest upon unnatural passions, and these spring from the root of the unnatural, lying deification of creatures and images. Man is for God in a religious sense, as the man and woman are for each other in a moral point of view: this is the natural condition, the truth of the relations (Eph 5:25). Therefore the perversion of nature, unnaturalness, or the lie of the service of the creature and of the idols, is punished by the perversion of nature, unnaturalness, or the lie of sexual gratification. Tholuck praises the modest reticence of the Apostle in the expression, although his expression is clear enough. He also says: The self-degradation and self-condemnation of man appears most strikingly in the peculiarly (?) Grecian sin of pederasty (, 1Co 6:9), which, at the time when Paul wrote, was largely practised also in Rome. After Xenophon, De Lacedm. Republ., ii. 14, has mentioned that this vice was forbidden by Lycurgus, he adds, that this is not believed by some, . Even the most distinguished men have incurred grave suspicions in this matter, some justly, others unjustly. Comp. Gessner, De pderastia Socratis in vet. diss. Gott. ii. p. 125. Seneca, a contemporary of Paul, writes in Rome, Ep. 35: Transeo puerorum infelicium greges, quos post transacta convivia ali cubiculi contumeli exspectant; transeo agmina exoletorum per nationes coloresque descripta. The most hideous and yet the most accurate picture of Roman licentiousness at that time, is given by Petronius, a contemporary of the Apostle. Even women (called tribades) committed the same Outrage, which was called by a smoother term after a famous predecessor in the crime, Sapphic Love. [Seneca writes, Ep. 95: Libidine vero ne maribus quidem cedunt, pati nat; dii illas deque male perdant, adeo perversum comment genus impudicit viros ineunt.]114

For even their women. and , instead of and , on account of the sexual reference. Reiche says erroneously: In a contemptuous sense, for description of the bestial. The expression is euphemistic for usus venereus, and therefore we must not supply , or (Fritzsche). Tholuck explains thus: The Apostle places the female sex first, because the abomination of the crime is most horrible in that sex, whose noblest ornament is modesty (1Ti 2:9) [similarly Hodge]. It may be observed, on the contrary, that the Apostle here generally passes from the less to the more abominable crime. He probably alludes, in Rom 1:26 (as Tholuck remarks), to the debauchery of the tribades (frictrices, the Lesbian vice, ), where women commit abuses with women, but perhaps he included the more secret sin of onanism. This appears from the antithesis in Rom 1:27 : Men with men. This sin is referred in a two-fold way to the deification of the creature: by and by .

Rom 1:27. And likewise also the men. The construction indicates that the unnatural burning ( = , 1Co 7:9) was inflamed by unnatural excitement in the shameful act itself. The means the complete perpetration of the abomination.115Receiving in themselves the due reward of their error. According to Ammon and others, the destructive consequences of lust. According to Tholuck, the self-degradation. According to Meyer, the designated lusts themselves, as the punishment for the , Rom 1:21-23. [Alford and Hodge likewise refer the to their departure from God into idolatry.P. S.]. But the is certainly the godless aberration into unnaturalnessthat is, into a lie against nature, and we must think of the punishment as proportionate thereto; therefore not only the absolute self-deception, but also the shameful perversion of the sexual character (a man in a horrible way the woman of all men). Therefore, in themselves, not through themselves (Tholuck); nor reciprocally (Meyer). Meyer erroneously excludes here from consideration the destructive results of debauchery.

Rom 1:28. And as they did not deem it worth while [ ] to retain God. A further and more general development of moral corruption, based on a further and more general unfolding of religious corruption. . The comparison is at the same time causalwhich Tholuck denies. On the correspondence between the darkening of knowledge and practical corruption, see the quotations from the heathen writers, in Tholuck [and Wetstein. Cicero says, De Nat. Deor. Romans 12 : Haud scio, an, pietate adversus Deos sublata, fides etiam et societas, et una excellentissima virtus justitia tollatur. The assertion of modern deists, rationalists, and infidels, that morality is independent of religion, is an idle delusion. The wise heathen knew better. Religion is the backbone of morality, and irreligion the mother of immorality and vice. He who is most true to God, is most true to himself and his fellow-men; and he who denies God, is not likely to recognize any binding obligation to man, except on purely selfish and utilitarian grounds. Immoral religionists and moral irreligionists are exceptions, and confirm the rule.P. S.] The = [here, to think it worthy, or worth while; comp. 1Th 2:4; 1Co 16:3].To retain God in (their) knowledge [ , Erkenntniss]. Tholuck makes the equal to the in Rom 1:21. But here the question is concerning per ceptionthat is, the reception of knowledge into the inner life. Besides, the is stronger than . Here again the punishment corresponds to the guilt; therefore the is not a mind incapable of judgment or discernment [judicii expers], (Beza, Piscat. [Bengel]), but the adjective is passive, according to the use of language: worthless (good-for-nothing) mind. [, from , receivable, worthy of reception; , worthless, worthy of rejection. The heathen did not lose the moral faculty of discerning between right and wrong, good and bad, but in spite of it they practised the bad, and encouraged its practice in others (Rom 1:32), thereby increasing their guilt. It is the video meliora proboque, which makes the detoriora sequor so peculiarly criminal.P. S.] The and are a paronomasy. The is the perceiving and deciding intelligence, and mediates all the impressions for moral self-determination and action.Things which are not becoming. The , in the technical sense of the philosophical schools, are things contrary to duty, or immoral; but in a more popular sense here, they are an expression of moral abhorrence.

Rom 1:29-32. Being filled with all unrighteousness. Tholuck: The accusatives , , &c., depend on , as Erasmus has already remarked: because their thoughts are so impure, they also commit unbecoming things. [Some connect the following accusatives with of the preceding verse, so as to express the state in which, and the reason why, God abandoned them; but it is better to connect them with the subject of , understood, so as to express the consequences of such abandonment, and the various forms of which they practised, , all manner of immorality, is general; the following terms are specifications. Similar catalogues of sins: 2Co 12:20; Gal 5:19-21; Eph 5:3; 1Ti 1:9-10; 2Ti 3:2-4.P. S.] De Wette remarks that the following catalogue of sins, like a similar one in Gal 5:19, is unsystematic; though stands first, as the principal, conception. Likewise Tholuck (against Bengels and Glcklers attempts at classification) maintains that the Apostle states a [rhetorical accumulation] of manifestations of sin, and cites the paronomasies and , and . But the paronomasies are no proof, and so we attempt the following construction:116

I. Vices. The chief vice, , unrighteousness, at the head. This is divided into , malice [disposition to inflict evil], wickednessbold form; and into , avarice, covetousness; , badness, malicepusillanimous form. On the addition of , to the above, see Textual Note [117]. The expression means, that every wicked person had not merely one crime. By the vices are here meant permanent and cold traits of character, in distinction from deeds of impulse, in which the guilty persons appear as , full and drunken.

II. Evil deeds, or criminal acts. The chief sin, , envy, at the head; divided into , murder; , strife, contention; , deceit, or fraud; , malignity, treacherous conduct. The chief source is ; but in all these evil deeds they appear as drunken.

III. Wicked characters according to their deeds. , whisperers, backbiters [one who slanders secretly]; , slanderers, calumniators; , haters of God, despisers of God, scorning God (Gottverchter). Tholuck: Promethean characters. In the classic literature, and especially the tragic department, the word occurs only in the passive meaning; hated by God, hateful to God [see the quotations of Meyer in loc.]; but the context plainly declares in favor of the active rendering, which has been adopted by most commentators from Theodoret down to the present, and which alone is in harmony with the Christian spirit. Classic usage also favors the accessory thought: ungodly, wicked. , insolent, overbearing, those who perpetrate criminal ; , those who are proud, self-conceited, those who conduct themselves arrogantly above others; , boasters, who do not design, like the previous class, to crush others by the force of their greatness, but make a lying show of it; , inventors of villanies, or crimes, swindlers, and adventurers; , disobedient to parents; apostasy from the piety and affection due to parents is a fountain of corruption (see Mal 4:6; Luk 1:17). [Hodge: That such should be included in this fearful list, shows the light in which filial disobedience is regarded by the sacred writers.P. S.]

IV. (Rom 1:31.) Wicked characters according to their sentiments, in leading psychological types. , without understanding [or insight into moral things, blinded, besotted]; corrupted intelligence; , according to Philippi, and others, quarrelsome, implacable; according to Meyer, covenant-breakers [perfidious]; we construe the expression psychologically: unstable, unreliablecorrupted will. , destitute of affection, heartless; wanting even in natural feeling and natural lovecorrupted feeling. (, implacable, irreconcilable. Probably an insertion). , unmerciful, without pity and compassion: a totally corrupted state of feeling (Mat 25:31 ff.).

V. Wicked maxims (Rom 1:32). Demoniacal pleasure in wickedness on the part of those who are conscious of the deadly guilt of sin (for example, heathen philosophers, magistrates, judges, etc.); and who not only commit sins worthy of death, but also approve them in others by their endorsement and principles.The announces a new element, a new degree. This degree was of course not reached or thoroughly accomplished by all, but the generality were guilty to this degreea fact which is shown by the crucifixion of Christ. Grotius has alluded to the defence of many crimes by the philosophers [e.g., the defence of hatred, revenge, even pederasty and sodomy]; and Heumann [and Ewald] to lax criminal justice. The of God in the knowledge of the Gentiles is in part the institution of law and in part Gods punitive dealing, so far as the latter is referred by the heathen conscience to Divine justice. [ (comp. Luk 1:6; Rom 2:26; Rom 8:4; Rev 15:5, in the Septuagint often for the Hebrew , ,) is here the righteous decree or sentence of God as the Lawgiver and Judge, declaring what is right and wrong, and connecting death with sin, and life with righteousness. Meyer: Rechtsbestimmung; Lange: Rechtsurtheil; Alford: sentence; Wordsworth and Hodge: decree. This decree is inscribed not only on the revealed law of the Old Testament, but also on the conscience or moral sense of every man. The latter is here meant.P. S.]

Rom 1:32. Are worthy of death. Photius: According to the Mosaic law. The Socinians: Civil punishment by death. Meyer: Eternal death, by which Paul has in mind the heathen notion of the state of punishment in Hades.118 Fritzsche and De Wette: The misery of sin, and similar results. But the meaning is the general idea of death in the Gentile consciousness of guilt, as the punishment of the most varied forms of sin. [Alford: , a general term for the fatal consequence of sin; that such courses lead to ruin. Hodge: All evil inflicted for the satisfaction of justice. This passage shows that the judicial abandonment of God does not destroy the free agency or responsibility of men. The stream which carries them away is not without, but within; it is their own corrupt nature. Umbreit: Life and death are ever set over against one another in the Old and New Testaments, the one as including all good, the other as all evil.P. S.] The is a stronger expression. [It brings out more clearly the idea of repetition and continuance of action than .P. S.]

The progress is very apparent from wicked passions to wicked acts; from these, to wicked characters, according to the positive methods of action; from these, to wicked characters in whom the inclination for what is good is extinguished; and from these, finally, to wicked maxims. This progress is also expressed by the change of the forms. The same sins are not described throughout these different categories. According to the fundamental conception of unrighteousness, the first category may be regarded as the general category. The second describes sins against our fellow-men in their individual relation; the third, those against human society; the fourth passes on to settle the character of self-corruption in its psychological forms of sentiment; and the fifth, to the complete demoniacal consciousness and approval of sin.

[This dark picture of heathen corruption (which does not exclude honorable exceptions; comp. Rom 2:14; Rom 2:26) is by no means overdrawn, and can be fully verified by testimonies from the first writers of the classical age of ancient Greece and Rome, such as Thucydides (3:8284, on the moral state of Greece during the Peloponnesian war), Aristophanes, Horace, Catullus, Juvenal, Persius, Sallust, Seneca, Tacitus, Suetonius. Comp. my Church History, vol. i. p. 302 ff., and the works quoted there. I shall only refer to a passage from Seneca, the philosopher and contemporary of Paul, De Ira, ii. Romans 8 : All is full of crime and vice; there is more committed than can be healed by punishment. A monstrous prize contest of wickedness is going on. The desire to sin increases, and shame decreases day by day. Vice is no longer practised secretly, but in open view. Vileness gains in every street and in every breast to such an extent, that innocence has become not only rare, but has ceased to exist. It is true, the history of Christian countries often presents a similar picture of moral corruption (with the exception of those unnatural vices described Rom 1:26-27, which have almost disappeared, or greatly diminished within the pale of Christian civilization). Think of the state of the Latin Christians in the fifth century as described by the priest Salvianus, who charges them with every vice, and puts them, in a moral point of view, beneath the barbarians; of the condition of Catholic France under Louis 14. and 15.; and of the large capitals of Europe and America in our days. Yea, in some respects the most diabolical forms of sin are brought out by contrast under the Christian dispensation, and apostasy from Christianity is worse than heathenism (comp. 2Ti 3:1-9). But there remains this radical difference: the heathen corruptions were produced and sanctioned by the heathen mythology and idolatry; while Christian nations are corrupt in spite of and in direct opposition to Christianity, which raises the highest standard of virtue, and acts continually on the world as a purifying and sanctifying power.P. S.]

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL

1. The revelation of Gods salvation is at the same time a revelation of Gods wrath. One conception is eclipsed by the other. It is a vain delusion to imagine that we can separate the doctrine of redemption from that of wrath. The conception of wrath is the conception of the absolute and personal energy of the Divine government of love in punitive righteousness. Redeeming love is the absolute and personal energy of Divine righteousness in the saving exercise of love. Can a soul enjoy the experience of salvation by faith, without passing through an internal judgment, and feeling of Divine displeasure? For further information, see the Exeg. Notes; Tholuck, pp. 56, 57; Meyer, p. 49; the article Zorn Gottes, in Herzogs Realencyklopdie [vol. xviii. p. 657 ff.], together with the literature on the subject enumerated there [especially the monograph on the Wrath of God by Ferdinand Weber, with prolegomena on the doctrine of the atonement by Franz Delitzsch, Erlangen, 1862.P. S.]

2. The essential characteristic of all forms of unbelief consists in mens holding back or hindering the truth in unrighteousness. Modern culture attempts to separate the ideas and utterly from each other. But the biblical view will not allow such a separation. Unbelief is misconduct toward the moral claims within the horizon of the internal life. This misconduct has its degrees. The germ and principle is sin as transgression () in general. The definite determination is apostasy, which manifests itself also as opposition to Divine truth. Therefore the two fundamental forms of specific unbelief are: apostasy, and hostile attack. The third degree is hardness of heart. But the measure of power in human obstacles to the revelation of God is related to the power of Divine reaction against these obstacles, just as the power of man (as weakness) is related to the omnipotence of God.

3. The idea of the revelation of God by nature pervades the entire Bible. See Ps. 8., 19., 104., and others; Isaiah 40. According to Schneckenburger (Beitrge zur Einleitung ins Neue Testament, 10th essay: Pauls Natural Theology, and its Sources), Philo was Pauls source. See thereon, Tholuck, p. 64. The pamphlet of Hebart also belongs here: Die natrliche Theologie des Apostels Paulus (Nrnb., 1860); likewise Zcklers Theologia Naturalis, or Entwurf einer systematischen Naturtheologie. [Frankfurt a. M., 1860, 2 vols.] The latter has viewed natural theology in a more primitive than usual sense. We must bear in mind that natural theology, since the revelation of salvation, has assumed a different form from what it had before the revelation of salvation, and especially as the basis of the original revelation. The symbolical natural religion which prevailed down to Abraham is distinguished from the revelation of salvation herein, that God revealed Himself there specially by symbols and signs, but here by the Word. See also the article Raymond of Sabunde, in Herzogs Real-encyklopdie [vol. xii. p. 571].

4. According to Paul, as according to all the Holy Scriptures, humanity has fallen from its original ideal height; but according to the majority of those who set themselves up as the advocates of modern culture, it has risen from a rough, beast-like state. Wherefore Reiche also (p. 157) has expressed the opinion that the Apostle has here expressed only a cotemporary opinion of the Jews. The testimony of history is against the view of modern culture. It proves the gradual decay of the Hindus, the Arabians, the Ethiopians, the Indians, and, finally, even of the Greco-Roman world, with all its relative glory.

5. It is improper to regard the description of the Apostle as a description only of the corruption of the heathen world. It shows us first how the Gentile world arose, and then what became of it; but it does not commence with a Gentile world. Therefore it goes back, fundamentally, to the genesis of sin in the fall of man; but then it shows how the fall of man in its second form (with the self-boasting of man after the flood) became the genesis of real heathendom. The corruption arose from the original symbolical religion which prevailed from Adam down to Abraham. For men magnified the simple symbolism of naturewhich God had givenby their own arbitrary symbolizations, and then mythicized the symbols; that is, they deified them. Thus mythology arose from symbolism, and idolatry and then image-worship arose from the symbolical view of nature. Recent research has commenced to exhume from the ruins of myths the gold of the original symbolism. Comp. my treatise On the Relation between General and Ecclesiastical Symbolism, in the Deutsche Zeitschrift fr Christliche Wissenschaft, &c ., 1855, Nos. 46; and the recent writings on heathendom by Wuttke [Geschichte des Heidenthums, 1852 ff.], Dllinger [Heidenthum und Judenthum, 1851], Stiefelhagen, Lasaulx, and others. [Schelling, Philosophie der Mythologie, 1857; Fabri, Die Entstehung des Heidenthums, 1859; Ngelsbach on the Homeric, and Post-Homeric Theology, 1840, 1857; Gladstone, Studies on Homer, 1858; W. S. Tyler, The Theology of the Greek Poets, 1867.P. S.]

6. The description of the original form of natural religion does not justify the conclusion that the revelation of God in Christ would not have occurred under the presupposition of human righteousness. But it leads us to conclude that the progress from the one to the other would have been effected in the form of a historical continuity.
7. The explanation of Gentile corruption from the great peccatum omissionis. They have not honored and thanked God (Rom 1:21); this is a penetrating glance which sheds its light also upon the first fall, as well as upon every genesis of sin. On the significance of this passage for the whole Epistle, see the Introduction and the Exeg. Notes.

8. Gods positive government, which impels evil through trial and temptation into the process of development from righteous judgment (sin punished by sin) and to righteous judgment (Rom 11:32), corresponds with Gods negative abandonment, in which the first ground for the punishment is revealed, not only because God, as the Holy One, must withdraw His Spirit from the consciousness of sinful man, but also because He regards man in his freedom, and leaves him to its action (see my Positive Dogmatics, p. 468).

[Sin punished by sin. The Rabbinical tract, Pirke Aboth, 100:2, Rom 1:1, says: Festina ad prceptum leve tanquam ad grave, et fuge transgressionem; prceptum enim trahit prceptum, et transgressio transgressionem; quia merces prcepti prceptum est, et transgressionis transgressio. Seneca (Ep. 16): The first and greatest punishment of any commission of sin is the sin itself which is committed. De Wette, ad Rom 1:24 : This view (that sin is punished by sin) is no mere Jewish doctrine, but it is universally true from the absolute standpoint of religion. Schiller:

This is the very curse of evil deed,
That of new evil it becomes the seed.

But this judicial punishment of sin with sin does not make God the author of sin in any sense. Dr. South (Serm, ii. on 2Th 2:11) says: God may make one sin the punishment of another, though it still is to be remembered that it is one thing for God to give a man over to sin, and quite another for God to cause him to sin; the former importing in it no more than Gods providential ordering of a mans circumstances, so that he shall find no check or hinderance in the course of his sin; but the latter implying also a positive efficiency toward the commission or production of a sinful act; which God never does, nor can do; but the other He both may, and, in a judicial way, very often does. In all which God is not at all the author of sin, but only pursues the great work and righteous ends of His providence, in disposing of things or objects in themselves good or indifferent, toward the compassing of the same; howbeit, through the poison of mens vicious affections, they are turned into the opportunities and fuel of sin, and made the occasion of their final destruction; Rom 9:17; Rom 9:22. Dr. Hodge: God often punishes one sin by abandoning the sinner to the commission of others. Paul repeats this idea three times, Rom 1:24; Rom 1:26; Rom 1:28. This judicial abandonment is consistent with the holiness of God and the free agency of man. God does not impel or entice to evil. He ceases to restrain. He says of the sinner, Let him alone; Rom 1:24-28.P. S.]

9. The deep truth in the proof of the connection between religious and moral corruption.
10. The intimate connection between the denial of the of God and the degradation of the of the human form by whoredom, and between the denial of the truth of God and the degradation of the true relations of human nature, as represented by Paul, has not been properly observed. See Exeg. Notes.

11. Other enumerations of sins and crimes in the Scriptures: see 2Co 12:20; Gal 5:19; Eph 5:3; 1Ti 1:9; 2Ti 3:2.

12. Sin reaches its climax in wicked maxims and principles. They are demoniacal in their character, and the intellectual side of the service of the devil, which may be known not only in its gross forms, but also in the subtle form of cowardly idolatry of what is base, and which in this shape is widely diffused. [Yet, even in the most reprobate sinner, the voice of conscience cannot be entirely extinguished (knowing the judgment of God, Rom 1:32). It makes him uneasy and miserable on earth, and will be his condemnation in the other world.P. S.]

13. While the Apostle has here described the dark side of heathendom, the second chapter shows that the whole of heathendom does not appear to him under this dark aspect. In the first chapter he describes the prevailing Antinomian tendency of heathendom, in opposition to the prevailing legalistic tendency of Judaism.

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL

Rom 1:18-21

In what does the beginning of all the real sinful corruption of the world, and of the Gentiles in particular, consist? 1. In the neglect of the general manifestations of God by creation; 2. in neglect to worship God by praise and thanksgiving.Against what will Gods wrath be sent from heaven? 1. Against all ungodliness; 2. against all unrighteousness of men who hold back the truth in unrighteousness (Rom 1:18).

The revelation of wrath, and the revelation of love, as they, 1. Are opposed to each other; 2. are closely connected with each other.The revelation of God in nature is a revelation of His invisible naturethat is, of His eternal power and Godhead (Rom 1:19-20).He who knows God, should praise and thank Him.The knowledge and worship of God.Neglect of the worship of God leads to obscuring the knowledge of God (Rom 1:21).

Luther: Where there is no faith, reason falls from one depth to another, until it is totally blinded in its speculations, as is the case with all self-conceited and heated brains (Rom 1:21).

Starke: Even after the fall, every man has a natural knowledge of the nature and works of God; yet this is not sufficient to lead him to salvation (Rom 1:19).God esteems our knowledge according to the means we have of obtaining it. Thus He demands more knowledge from the Jews than from the Gentiles, and still more from us Christians (Rom 1:21).As God is a living God, so must our knowledge of Him also be vital, and express itself in praise and thanks (Rom 1:21).Langii Op. Bibl.: Whoever denies the wrath of God, and describes God alone according to mere love, thereby obscures also the greatness of the grace and love of God, and leads others to despise this grace and love (Rom 1:18).Hedinger: God does not leave Himself without a witness among the heathen. All creatures eloquently testify to His might and wisdom (Rom 1:20). From Quesnel: Hugo de Arca: Omnis creatura tribus vocibus nobis loquitur: prima est famulantis, accipe beneficium; secunda admonentis, redde debitum servitium; tertia comminantis, fuge supplicium (Rom 1:20).

Bengel: Whatever is under heaven, and not under the gospel, is under the wrath (Rom 1:18).The heart of man conforms to its thoughts (Rom 1:21).

Gerlach: The sin against which Gods wrath is directed shows itself in the double form of ungodliness and unrighteousness, according as man sins more directly against God, or against himself and his neighbor (Rom 1:18).As soon as man ceases to direct himself to the holy and gracious God, he worships only Gods power and beauty (?), and makes Nature his God (Rom 1:21).

Heubner: The denial of God can never be excused, for man can know God (Rom 1:19).

The Pericope for the 11th Sunday after Trinity (Rom 1:16-20).Heubner: The joy of the Christian in the confession of faith: 1. Disposition; 2. necessity; 3. how are we fitted for it?How shall we learn to estimate properly the value of the gospel? 1. When we experience its power in our own hearts; 2. when we perceive properly the wretched condition of the human race without Christianityits religious as well as its moral condition; 3. when we learn the insufficiency of natural religion, which reveals Gods existence and power, but not His mercy toward sinners.The relation of natural and revealed religion: 1. Harmony; 2. difference; 3. inferences.

Lange: For the wrath of God. Wrath a proof of the gospel: 1. Of its necessity; 2. its truth; 3. its glory.On the difference between the knowledge and perception of God.The general manifestation of God, or the relation between natural religion and revealed religion in its narrower sense.The beginning of all sin is always at bottom a sin of neglect.The two sides of piety: to praise God, and to thank Him.

[Tillotson: Rom 1:18-19. If it were only the wrath and displeasure of men that the sinner were exposed to, there might be reason enough for fear; but the wrath and vengeance of men bears no comparison with the wrath of God. Their arm is short, and their power small; they may shoot their most poisonous arrows at us, and at last kill us; but they cannot pursue us into the other world. But the wrath of God has none of these limits.The fear of Gods wrath: Men may harden their foreheads, and conquer all sense of shame; but they cannot perfectly stifle and subdue their fears. They can hardly so extinguish the fear of hell, but that some sparks of that fire will ever and anon be flying about in their consciences.South (sermon on Natural Religion without Revelation, sufficient to render a sinner inexcusable (Rom 1:20): I heartily wish that all young persons would lodge this one observation deep in their minds: That God and nature have joined wisdom and virtue by such a near cognation, or, rather, such an inseparable connection, that a wise, prudent, and honorable old age is seldom or never found but as the reward and effect of a sober, virtuous, and well-spent youth.Scott: Even to this day, if any nations seem to be sunk into so entire a stupidity as to have no notions of a God remaining among them, this still more clearly proves, not mans want of rational powers, but his carnal enmity to God and religion, through which he becomes more and more the besotted and blind slave of Satan.Clarke: Pauls purpose is to show: 1. That all the heathen nations are utterly corrupt, and deserving of punishment; 2. that the Jews, notwithstanding the greatness of their privilege, were no better than the Gentiles.Hodge: The folly and darkness of which the Apostle here speaks are expressive of want of Divine knowledge, which is but the effect and cause of moral depravity.J. F. H.]

Rom 1:22-32

Abandonment of the Gentile world: 1. Why did God abandon them? a. Because they changed His glory into something transitory and corruptible; b. His truth into a lie. 2. In what respect did God abandon them? a. In pollution of the flesh and spirit; b. in utter hardness of heart (Rom 1:22-32).How dreadful to be abandoned by God! Because 1. His Spirit departs; 2. sin becomes punishment.Has Paul described the moral pollution of the Gentile world in too dark colors? No. For what the Apostle says is corroborated by witnesses from its very midst. 1. Of ancient times (Aristophanes, Horace, Juvenal); 2. of the present day (modern Hindu literature, &c).He who would describe sin, must be strengthened by looking up to God (Rom 1:25).The heathen world of the present day is the same as that at the time of Paul, and therefore can be converted only by the same means (the gospel).He who knows how to do good, and does not do it, sins (Rom 1:32).What men are hardened? Those who (1) know Gods righteousness, (2) yet do what deserves death, and (3) are not contented to have pleasure in those who do it (Rom 1:32).

Luther: The real Epicureans are those who live as if there were no God; who boast much, and would have others boast of them that they are something extraordinary, when they really are not (Rom 1:30).

Starke: It was a crime of pride, when they said, We are not so foolish (Rom 1:22).To consider ones self wise and shrewd, and yet to possess foolish principia, is the greatest folly; especially when exhibited by the worlds wise men in published writings (Rom 1:22).The wisest and most learned are often also the most perverted.It is absolutely unreasonable to worship God under the image of a beast; for what king, prince, and honorable man would permit himself to be represented in the form of an ox, or hog (!). How much less can God be treated thus (Rom 1:23).He who forsakes God, will be forsaken also by God (Rom 1:24).The most direct path to atheism, is to regard God unworthy to be known (Rom 1:28).Goodness goes gently, but evil goes violently, and will be host in the house. It foams and ferments like new wine (Rom 1:29).Hedinger: Sin is sometimes the punishment of sin (Rom 1:24).Osiander Bibl.: Teachers and preachers must be careful to speak of sins against God and nature in such a way that those sins be prevented and guarded against, rather than learned and committed (Rom 1:26).Cramer: Although the neglect to know God is regarded by the world as no sin, or, if a sin, the least of all, it is really a fountain of all sin, and, finally, of all the penalties consequent upon sin (Rom 1:28).

Heubner: The ruin of the Gentile world is a warning for Christians: Apostasy from the word of God induces similar aberrations at all timesa new though more refined heathenism (Rom 1:22).God forsakes only those who will not hear Him (Rom 1:24).A wicked state of heart leads to absolute pleasure in wickedness itself (Rom 1:32).

Besser: Unnaturalness follows from the deification of nature (Rom 1:27).

Lange: The connection between religious and moral ruin is exhibited also in the world at the present time.The barbarous disregard of the human person in all sexual sins, as often concealed beneath the most refined masks of culture, is closely connected with the irreligious disregard of the personality of God and man.A fundamental sanctification of the sexual relations can arise only from the vital knowledge of the dignity of personal life.Sin taking on the form of the devilish nature in wicked maxims.

[Scott: Religion moderates and regulates natural affections, but excess of depravity extinguishes them. It is a proof of more determined impiety for men to take pleasure in the company of the enemies of God, than to commit many crimes whilst the heart and conscience protest against them.Clarke: We see what the world was, and what it would ever have been, had not God sent a divine revelation of His will, and established a public ministry to proclaim it. Were man left to the power and influence of his fallen nature, he would always be what the Apostle here describes as the condition of the Gentile world.Comprehensive Comm.: No wickedness so heinous, but a reprobate mind will comply.

Hodge (condensed): 1. It is the very nature of sin to be inexcusable, and worthy of punishment; 2. as the works of God reveal His eternal power and Godhead, we should accustom ourselves to see in them the manifestations of His perfections; 3. the human intellect is as erring as the human heart; 4. as the light of nature is insufficient to lead the heathen to God and holiness, it is our obvious and urgent duty to send them the light of the Bible; 5. sins of uncleanness are peculiarly debasing and demoralizing; 6. to take pleasure in those who do good, makes us better; as to delight in those who do evil, is the surest way to become even more degraded than they are themselves.Compare two sermons by R. South on The Heinous Guilt of Taking Pleasure in Other Mens Sins; and sermon by C. Girdlestone on Pleasure in the Sight of Sin (Parochial Sermons).J. F. H.]

[Rom 1:32. South (Sermon on the text): That sin (which sympathizes with and patronizes the sinner) is a pitch beyond all other sins, and such an one as must nonplus the devil himself to proceed farther. It is the very extremity, the fulness, and the concluding period of sin; the last line and finishing stroke of the devils image, drawn upon the soul of man.P. S.]

Third Section.Gradual transition from the corruption of the Gentiles to that of the Jews. The universality of the corruption, and, with the universality of guilt, that worst corruption, the judgment of others. This judgment is likewise judged by the continuance of a universal antagonism, within the universal corruption, between pious, earnest men, and obstinate rebels, both among Gentiles and Jews, in view of the righteous, impartial government of God by virtue of the continuance of the universal legislation of God in the conscience. The revelation of the antagonism of loyal Gentiles and disloyal Jews on the day of the proclamation of the gospel.

Footnotes:

[73]Rom 1:18.[Or hinder. So Lange and Meyer: aufhalten. This is the meaning of here, as in 2Th 2:6-7; Luk 4:42. Comp. the Exeg. Notes, as also the note of Alford in loc.P. S.]

[74]Rom 1:19.[, contracted from , means (like ) originally, propter quod, quam ob rem, qua re, on account of which, wherefore, and draws an inference from the preceding sentence; but in the N. T. it is always, and in the classics occasionally, used in the sense of , propterea quod, quia, because that, because, and assigns a reason for a preceding assertion, like , for. It may here give the reason why the wrath of God is revealed (Meyer), or it may explain the words . (De Wette, Tholuck, Alford). See Exeg. Notes. Lachmann, Tischendorf, Meyer, Alford separate from Rom 1:18 simply by a comma; Tholuck, Fritzsche, Theile, Philippi, by a period.P. S.]

[75]Rom 1:19.[ , quod notum est Dei (Vulg.). This is the sense of in the N. T., the Sept., and the Apocrypha (Luk 2:44; Joh 18:15-16; Act 1:19; Act 2:14; Act 4:16, &c.), as means unknown (Act 17:23); while, in the classics, usually signifies knowable, erkennbar, as distinct from , known (which word does not occur in the Greek Testament). The authorized version, therefore, is inconsistent with the biblical (though not with the classical) usage of the term, and conveys a false idea; for the heathen did not know all that may be known of God, but, as clearly appears from what follows, they knew only that which may be learned from the general revelation in the book of nature and reason, as distinct from the special revelation in the Bible and in the person of Christ. To retain the E. V., and to supply (with Robinson, sub ), without revelation, is arbitrary. Lange translates Kenntniss, knowledge; but is objective, is subjective, and does not suit . There is no warrant in the usus loquendi for identifying the two, unless it be Gen 2:9, LXX.: . The Apostle purposely avoided the term or , which is used in the N. T. of the true knowledge of God in Christ (comp. Joh 17:3), and chose the more general and objective term , that which is patent to all men in the work of creation.P. S.]

[76]Rom 1:19.[ , in illis (Vulg.), i.e., , in their hearts; comp. Rom 2:15; Gal 1:16. It refers to the inborn consciousness of God which is inseparable from our reason, and it contains the germ of the ontological argument of Anselm. Dr. Lange, however, renders, with Erasmus and others: unter ihnen, among them. See Exeg. Notes. Luthers version (chnen) ignores the preposition .P. S.]

[77]Rom 1:19.[, the historic aorist, referring to the original creation.P. S.]

[78]Rom 1:20.[ . here means the act of creation, (dativus instrumenti), the things created, or creatures, and hence is here not = , which would be tautological, but, like the Hebrew , from the time of, or since, a condilo mundo.P. S.]

[79]Rom 1:20.[Alford objects to the E. V. and translates are perceived; but this destroys the striking oxymoron, , invisibilia videntur, das Unschaubare wird erschaut, the invisible becomes visible, or the unseen is seen, viz., by the minds eye (). The compound ( in the N. T.) means to look down from a higher place, to take a survey, and hence often intensifies the simple verb = , pervidere, perspicere, to see clearly.P. S.]

[80]Rom 1:20.[, Gttlichkeit, from , divinus, refers to the Divine attributes, such as majesty, power, wisdom, goodness, which are manifest in creation; while , deitas, Deity, Godhead, Gottheit, from , refers to the Divine Being itself, who created the world and dwelt in Christ.P. S.]

[81]Rom 1:20.[ with the infinitive (used by Paul seventeen times in the Romans alone), like the Latin ad with the gerund., indicates properly the intention, in hoc ut, in order that (comp. Rom 1:11; Rom 3:26; Rom 4:11; Rom 4:16; Rom 4:18, &c.); but here it must indicate the (intended) result, = , ita ut, so that (Rom 6:12; Rom 7:4-5; 2Co 1:4; comp. the Exeg. Notes, and Buttmann, N. T. Gr., p. 227).P. S.]

[82]Rom 1:24. is retained by Meyer on account of its adaptation. [It indicates the correspondence, between mens guilt and Gods judgment; but the external authorities, . A. B. C., Vulgate, Orig., &c., are against it.P. S.]

[83]Rom 1:24. [. The reading is sustained by N. A. B. C. D*., against the text. rec., , among themselves, reciprocally. Meyer defends the latter reading (referring it to the persons, ), in view of the frequent neglect of the reflex pronoun by the transcribers; e.g., Rom 1:27. is passive (Beza, De Wette, Meyer, Lange, Alford), and not middle (Erasmus, Luther, E. V.); and hence is preferable to , and to , which may have arisen from imagining that they, instead of , was the subject to .The genitive, ., may be taken simply as gen. appositionis, explaining , which consisted in their bodies being dishonored; or as implying the purpose of God: in order that (= ); or as denoting the consequence: so that. I prefer the last.P. S.]

[84]Rom 1:25.[ is used , quippe qui, seeing that they, such as, indicating the class to which one belongs, and implying the reason of the preceding statement. , umtauschten; the compound is stronger than , tauschlen; Rom 1:22.P. S.]

[85]Rom 1:25.[ , beyond, rather than, so as eventually to exclude the Creator altogether; comp. , Luk 18:14, and , Rom 1:26. The nature of the case here decides for the exclusive rather than the comparative sense of , since idolatry is incompatible with the worship of the true God, who shares His honor with no creature. See the Exeg. Notes.P. S.]

[86]Rom 1:26.[Or shameful lusts, lusts of dishonor, , stronger than , as setting forth the status, to which the belonged (Alford). Luther: schndliche Lste. Lange: Leidenschaften der Schande. Meyer: schandbare Leidenschaften.P. S.]

[87]Rom 1:28.[The paronomasia between and , which strikingly brings out the adjustment of the punishment to the sin, is lost in the E. V. The Vulg. renders it imperfectly: Non probaveruntreprobrum sensum. Lange: Nicht wrdig hieltenunwrdige (nichtsnutzige) Sinnesart. Conybeare and Howson: As they thought fit to cast out the acknowledgment of God, God gave them over to an outcast mind, Alford: Because they reprobated the knowledge of God, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, But both Conybeare and Alford omit the .P. S.]

[88]Rom 1:28.[ , not becoming, or unbecoming, indecent, immoral. The E. V. follows the Vulg.: ea qu non conveniunt. But convenient is one of those words in the E. V. which have changed or modified their meaning, like prevent, lit, &c., and are apt to bewilder the reader, and to mislead him by a false light, Comp. , Eph 5:4; and on the difference between and , Winer, 55, 5, p. 449) (7th ed.).P. S.]

[89]Rom 1:29.As has already been mentioned, it is here probably inserted for completeness sake by Cod. L. and others, or substituted for . See Tischendorf. [It is omitted by N. A. B. C. ., Lachmann, Tischendorf, Alford, Meyer, Lange. It may have arisen from , but may as easily have been overlooked on account of the similarity. Where the unnatural , which was mentioned before, prevails, the ordinary abounds also. Upon the whole, I would retain it.P. S.]

[90]Rom 1:30.[ always used in the passive sense: , hated by God (meaning the highest degree of reckless wickedness), and so taken here by Fritzsche, De Wette, Philippi, Meyer, Alford; while the majority of commentators (Theodoret. cumenius, Luther, Calvin, Grotius, Tholuck, Ewald, Wordsworth, Hodge) and versions (Syriac, Luth., E. V.) incline to the active sense: , Dei osores, enemies of God, Gottesfeinde. So Suidas: , , . The advocates of the active sense refer to and as analogies: but Meyer insists that these, too, have the passive meaning, especially = , the opposite of . Usage is undoubtedly in favor of the passive; but the connection, and the Scripture idea of God, are in favor of the active sense. The Apostle here describes the sins of the heathen, and not their punishment; and God hates sin, but loves the sinner. See the Exeg. Notes.P. S.]

[91]Rom 1:31. [in the text. rec. after ] is not sufficiently sustained by Codd. C. D., al. and sounds rather weak between these strong terms. [Omitted by . A. B. D*. G., and cancelled by Mill, Lachmann, Tischendorf, Meyer. Alford regards it as a gloss in margin to explain ; Meyer as an insertion from the similar catalogue, 2 Tim. in. 3.P. S.]

[92][The wrath of God is an anthropopathic but most truthful expression of the punitive justice and holiness of God over-against sin, and perfectly harmonizes with His love, which is holy, and repels the evil with the same energy with which it attracts the good. No man can love, who cannot hate. Wrath, or hatred, is inverted love. But while the wrath of man is a passion, and destroys the sinner, Gods wrath is a calm and holy energy, and restores the sinner by destroying sin. Meyer in loc.: Der Zorn Gottes ist die Liebe des heiligen Gottes zu allem Guten in ihrer entgegengesetzten Energie gegen alles Bse. He quotes Lactantius, De ira Dei, v. Romans 9 : Si Deus non irascitur impiis et injustis, nec pios justosque diligit; in rebus enim diversis aut in utramque partem moveri necesse est, aut in neutram. Comp. also Tholuck on Mat 5:22, and Harless on Eph 3:3.P. S.]

[93][Wordsworth in loc.: Holding, keeping down, the truth in ungodliness, as in a prison-house. Men have incarcerated the truth, and hold her a captive under restraint and durance, with the bars and bolts of a depraved will and vicious habits, so that she cannot go forth and breathe the air and see the light, and do works suitable to her own nature. The passage implies, however, that man has the remnants of the Divine image in him, and that, though fallen in Adam, he may fall still deeper by obscuring and suppressing the elements of truth in his reason and conscience. The reference to , Joh 1:5, is questionable. But see Lange in loc.,P. S.]

[94][Also Alford, who justly remarks that the pregnant , in and by, implies that their is the status wherein, and the instrument whereby, they hold back the truth lit up in their consciences.P. S.]

[95][Rom 1:19-20, as also Rom 1:20-26, and Rom 1:27 of this chapter, are quoted by Hippolytus, in his recently discovered Philosophumena, or Refut. omnium hres., lib. ix. c. 9, p. 444, and v. 7, p. 140, ed. Duncker and Schneidewin.P. S.]

[96][These two commentators, however, differ in their exposition of . See Textual Note2. The Apostle proves first that men had the (19, 20), and then that they held it back, and perverted it into a lie (2123), and that therefore () Gods wrath came upon them (24 ff.).P. S.]

[97][So Dr. Lange translates , but I cannot agree. See Textual Note3.P. S.]

[98][So Dr. Lange translates , unter ihnen, among them, instead of in them. See Text. Note4.P. S.]

[99][Erasmus and Grotius, with the restriction to the superior knowledge of heathen philosophers, as Pythagoras, Socrates, Plato; others in the sense that the knowledge of God was a common revelation, accessible to all. Dr. Lange takes the latter view, as appears from what follows.P. S.]

[100][Precisely the same remark is made by Alford, who often follows De Wette very closely.P. S.]

[101][Lange: Die Unschaubarkeiten werden als Erkanntes angeschaut. Comp. Textual Note7.P. S.]

[102][Similar passages are quoted from Cicero, De Divin., 2:72: Esse prstantem aliquam ternamque naturam pulchritudo mundi ordoque rerum clestium cogit confiteri; and Qust. Tusc., Rom 1:29 : Deum non vides, tamen Deum agnoscis ex ejus operibus. Comp. also Bengel in loc: Incomparabile oxymoron. Invisibilia Dei, si unquam, certe in creatione fucta essent visibilia: sed tum quoque non nisi per intelligentiam videri cperunt.P. S.]

[103][Alford: Eternal, and Almighty, have always been recognized epithets of the Creator.P. S.]

[104]Rom 1:20.[ with the infinitive (used by Paul seventeen times in the Romans alone), like the Latin ad with the gerund., indicates properly the intention, in hoc ut, in order that (comp. Rom 1:11; Rom 3:26; Rom 4:11; Rom 4:16; Rom 4:18, &c.); but here it must indicate the (intended) result, = , ita ut, so that (Rom 6:12; Rom 7:4-5; 2Co 1:4; comp. the Exeg. Notes, and Buttmann, N. T. Gr., p. 227).P. S.]

[105][Alford: , with the knowledge above stated. This participle testifies plainly that matter of fact, and not of possibility, has been the subject of the foregoing verses. From this point, we take up what they might have done, but did not.P. S.]

[106][Bengel: Gratias agere () debemus ob beneficia: glorificare (.) ob ipsas virtutes divinas.P. S.]

[107][Alford: Their heart ( of the whole inner man, the seat of knowledge and feeling) being foolish (unintelligent, not retaining God in its knowledge) became park (lost the little light it had, and wandered blindly in the mazes of folly).P. S.]

[108][In like manner, Meyer and Alford refer the words not so much to the schools of philosophy, as to the assumption of wisdom by the Greeks in general (1Co 1:21), which is always connected with an alienation from the truth of God. Tholuck, also, in his fifth edition, refers the passage expressly to the whole civilized heathen world which looked down upon the rest of mankind as outside barbarians (Rom 1:14).P. S.]

[109] [Tholuck quotes from Lucan (Phars. viii. 83):

Nos in templa tuam Romana recipimus Isim
Semideosque canes.P. S.]

[110][ = (Chrysostom), or = (Theodoret). This interpretation of the Greek fathers was followed by the rationalists, and is contrary to the meaning of the word (see Meyer). It explains nothing, for if God permits the sinner to sink deeper into vice, He does it, of course, with wise intention as a sovereign and righteous Judge.P. S.]

[111][Calov: Traditi sunt a Deo non effective, nec solum permissive, nec tantum , sed et judicialiter. So Tholuck, Philippi, Alford (not merely permissive, but judicial). Meyer, stronger: expresses the real active abandonment (die wirkliche active Preisgebung) on the part of God. Both the Bible and daily experience teach that sin is punished by sin, as virtue is rewarded by virtue; and this is a Divinely instituted law in perfect harmony with our personal freedom and moral accountability; for mans will is in every act of sin as well as of obedience, and hence what is represented in one passage as the work of God, is in another passage just as properly represented as the work of man, comp. Eph 4:19 : , … God hardened Pharaohs heart, Exo 7:13; Exo 9:12; Exo 10:1; Exo 10:20; Exo 10:27; Exo 11:10; Rom 9:18, but Pharaoh first hardened his own heart, Exo 8:15; Exo 8:32; Exo 9:34-35, so that God punished him by his own sin. Comp. Doctrinal and Ethical No. 8.P. S.]

[112][So also Meyer (Erguss der errcgten Pletat), Alford, and others. The doxology is the natural outburst of a holy indignation which puts the sin of idolatry in a more striking light and holds it up to the abhorrence of all pious minds. Comp. similar doxologies Rom 9:5; 1Ti 1:17; 2Ti 4:18; comp. Gen 9:26; Gen 14:20; Gen 24:27.P. S.]

[113][It is in the Bible only applied to God, while and the corresponding Hebrew , happy, is applied to man,

Very rarely to God (only in two passages of the N. T., 1Ti 1:11; 1Ti 6:15). The E. V. renders (and ) always and properly blessed, but varies in its translation of between happy and blessed; using the latter in those passages where spiritual happiness or the future glory of saints or the blessedness of God is intended, as Psa 1:1; Psa 31:1. Luk 1:48; Mat 5:3-11; 1Ti 1:11; 1Ti 6:15; Tit 2:13.P. S.]

[114][Comp. the fearful and yet truthful description of the horrible vice of among the highly civilized Greeks, in Dllingers learned work: Heidenthum und Judenthum, 1857, p. 684 ff. Bei den Griechen, he says, trill das Laster der Pderastie mit allen Symptomen einer grossen nationalen Krankheit, gleichsam eines ethischen Miasma auf; es zeigt sich als ein Gefhl, das strker und heftiger wirkte, als die Weiberliebe bei anderen Vlkern, massloser, leidenschaftticher in seinen Ausbrchen war. Rasende Eifersucht, unbedingte Hingebung, sinnliche Gluth, zrtiche Tndelei, nchtliches Weilen vor der Thre des Geliebten, Alles, was zur Carricatur der natrlichen Geschlechlsliebe gehrt, findet sich dabei. Auch die ernstesten Moralisten waren in der Beurtheilung des Verhllnisses hchst nachsichtig, mitunter. mehr als nachsichtig, sie behandelten die Sache hufig mehr mit leichtfertigem Scherze, und duldeten die Schuldigen in ihrer Gesellschaft. In der ganzen Literatur der vorchristlichen Periode ist kaum ein Schriftsteller zu finden, der sich enschieden dagegen erklrt htte. Vielmehr war die ganze Gesellschaft davon angesteckt, und man athmete das Miasma, so zu sagen, mit der Luft ein.P. S.]

[115][Meyer: is used in the good as well as the bad sense, but in distinction from it always expresses the idea of carrying out, or completing.P. S.]

[116][The classification, of Dr. Lange is certainly original and ingenious, and decidedly preferable to any other, although perhaps somewhat artificial. The next best classification is that of Bengel in Rom 1:29 : Tota enumeratio ordinem habet sapientem. per membra novem, in affectibus: duo, in sermone: tria, repectu Dei, et sui, et proximi; et duo, in rebus gerendis: sex, respectu necessitudinum. He also remarks that , the opposite of justitia, is put first, immisericordia last; justice has life, injustice death; Rom 1:32. But it seems to me that the Apostle, in this catalogue of vices, had regard not so much to systematic order, as to rhetorical effect, with the view to bring out more strikingly the absolute necessity of redemption. It is a rapid accumulation and rising climax to the crisis of the disease, which was the turning-point of the cure. Mans extremity was Gods opportunity. Christ appeared in the fulness of time, just when He was most needed, and when the way for His coming was fully prepared, both negatively by the hopeless corruption of society, and positively by the mission of the law and the promise in Israel, and the aspirations of the better class of heathen.P. S.]

[117]Rom 1:29.As has already been mentioned, it is here probably inserted for completeness sake by Cod. L. and others, or substituted for . See Tischendorf. [It is omitted by N. A. B. C. ., Lachmann, Tischendorf, Alford, Meyer, Lange. It may have arisen from , but may as easily have been overlooked on account of the similarity. Where the unnatural , which was mentioned before, prevails, the ordinary abounds also. Upon the whole, I would retain it.P. S.]

[118][Philippi likewise refers to the heathen myth of Hades with its punishments, and quotes from schylus, Eumenid. 1:259265.P. S.]

Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness; (19) Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath showed unto them. (20) For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse: (21) Because that, when they knew God, they glorified not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. (22) Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, (23) And changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things. (24) Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonor their own bodies between themselves: (25) Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshiped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. (26) For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: (27) And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompense of their error which was meet. (28) And even as they did not like to retain God in knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient; (29) Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, (30) Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, (31) Without understanding, covenant breakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful: (32) Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness; (19) Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath showed it unto them. (20) For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse: (21) Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. (22) Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, (23) And changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things. (24) Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonor their own bodies between themselves: (25) Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshiped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. (26) For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: (27) And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompense of their error which was meet. (28) And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient; (29) Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, (30) Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, (31) Without understanding, covenant breakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful: (32) Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.

I must beg the Reader to spare me from entering into any further account than what is here given of the awful state of human nature by the fall. While I admire the chastity of language in the sacred writers, upon every occasion of this sort, when called upon to sketch the horrid features of man’s portrait, since the apostacy of Adam, in which all his posterity are equally drawn, I behold enough in the picture to be humbled to the dust before God, and desire to gather from the whole, without enlarging on the several parts of the representation, yet fuller views of the infinite preciousness of the Lord Jesus Christ, by whose vast redemption alone, his Church is brought up from such an awful state of depravity. Here, Reader! if we look at what the Apostle hath drawn, and stand convinced under divine teaching, that what one of Adam’s fallen sinful race hath done, all are equally capable of, and, but for the restraints of grace, would fail into; thus beheld, humbling as the view is, yet blessedly profitable will it become. And, oh! that the Lord may in this manner sanctify the Apostle’s account here given to the souls of his people!

Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

X

THE UNIVERSAL NECESSITY OF SALVATION

Rom 1:18-32 .

Having considered in the latter part of the preceding chapter the meaning of salvation, we now follow the apostle’s argument in showing

THE UNIVERSAL NECESSITY OF SALVATION The argument applies to the whole human race, to man as man, both Jew and Gentile. In this discussion we have the case of the Gentiles. They are guilty of ungodliness. They are unlike God in their nature. Originally man was made in Gods’ image and likeness:

And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the heavens, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. And God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. And God blessed them: and God said unto them. Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the heavens, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb yielding seed, . . . to you it shall be for food: and to every beast of the earth, and to every bird of the heavens, and to everything that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for food: and it was so. And God saw everything that he made, and, behold it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning, the sixth day. Gen 1:26-31 .

This original state of man shows his likeness, his dominion, and his commission. This image and likeness being lost through sin, they are out of harmony with the Creator.

They are guilty of unrighteousness. Their deeds are evil, proceeding from an evil nature. Their sin of deeds consists of both omission and commission. They have not only failed by way of omission to exercise their dominion and execute their commission, but they have actively done contrary to both. The wrath of God has been revealed from heaven against both their sin of nature and deed. This wrath is the assessed penalty of violated law. Here we need to understand the law. What is law? In its last analysis law is the intent, or purpose, of the Creator in bringing a being into existence. That intent is set forth in the passage cited (Gen 1:26-31 ). This law inheres in the very constitution of our being, and hence as a principle antedates any particular formal statute. Indeed, all statutes are but expressions of antecedent, inherent, constitutional law, as the multitude of statutes are but expressions of the law principles in the constitution of nations and states.

Or, varying the definition, we may say that all law arises from and inheres in relations. Where there is no relation there is no obligation, as the relation of parent and child measures the reciprocal obligations binding parent and child. So the relation between husband and wife, citizen and the state, the creature and the Creator, the redeemed and the redeemer. With each new relation there arises a new obligation measured by the relation. Law, then, inheres in the intent of the Creator, and is antecedent to all statutes and independent of them, except only their fountain, or source. When he brings a being into existence, the law of that being inheres in the Creator, and in the relations of that being. This is law in its last analysis as set forth by the apostle, but in this very context (Rom 2:12 ) and many times elsewhere, he speaks of law, as that given on Mount Sinai to the Jew, which will be noticed more particularly later.

Sin therefore is lawlessness, or any lack of conformity with law, whether in nature or in omission or commission of deed. An omission of duty and commission of sin are but symptoms or expressions of a sinful nature. As our Lord said: “But the things which proceed out of the mouth come forth out of the heart; and they defile the man. For out of the heart come forth evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, railings” (Mat 15:18-19 ). As he again said: “By their fruits ye shall know them. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but the corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit” (Mat 7:16-18 ). “Either make the tree good, and its fruit good; or make the tree corrupt, and its fruit corrupt; for the tree is known by its fruit” (Mat 12:33 ). That preacher therefore had no adequate conception of sin who defined it as, “The wilful transgression of a known law.” The greatest of all sin is a sin of nature. It is not dependent in obligation on our knowledge. Paul says, “Though I know nothing against myself, I am not thereby justified.” Both natural and spiritual laws bind and have penalty notwithstanding our ignorance. The ignorance itself is sin, or may be a result of sin. And transgression is only one overt act of sin. It is equally sin to fall short of law or go beyond it, or to deflect from it. Righteousness is exact conformity with law. With this conception of law, and of sin, the apostle speaks of its penalty, the wrath of God a wrath that is antecedent to its revelation. And yet this wrath is revealed. So now we consider

THE REVELATION OF WRATH

God has not left them ignorant of sin’s penalty. The knowledge of God, and their relation to him, is manifest both in them and to them. There are two books of this revelation the book of nature in them and the book of nature outside of them. He has planted knowledge in them. “The spirit of man is the lamp of Jehovah, searching all his innermost parts” (Pro 20:27 ). As the natural eye is the lamp of the body, so the spirit is Jehovah’s lamp. “If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is the darkness!” (Mat 6:22-23 ). Or the apostle, in the context, further describes the revelation in us: “For when Gentiles that have not the law do by nature the things of the law, these, not having the law, are the law unto themselves; in that they show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness therewith, and their thoughts one with another accusing or else excusing them.” Man, therefore, by the very constitution of his being, has a knowledge of God, law, sin, and penalty. Therefore by nature he is a worshiping being. When through sin the light in him is darkened he may and does worship false gods, yet everywhere he is a worshiper. This internal light is not a faint spark, but a great light. With every man in the world there is an internal sense of right and wrong. Men may differ among themselves as to what particular thing is right or wrong, but all have the sense of right and wrong. They are keenly alive to their rights and keenly sensitive to their wrongs. But there can be no right and wrong without some law to prescribe the right and proscribe the wrong. And there can be no law without a lawmaker. And there can be no law without penal sanctions, otherwise it would be no more than advice. And there can be no penalty without a judgment to declare it and a power to execute it. But every man knows that even and exact justice is not meted out in this world that many times the innocent suffer and the guilty triumph. Therefore the conclusion comes like a conqueror, that there must be

A JUDGMENT TO COME AND A WRATH TO COME

There never was a man who has not at some time, under a keen sense of wrong done him, appealed to this future judgment and invoked upon the wrongdoer the wrath to come. It is this knowledge or consciousness of future judgment and wrath that makes death frightful to the evildoer. And it is this consciousness of amenability to God’s future infallible Judgment and inexorable wrath that restrains crime more than the dread of all human law and judgment. So it is demonstrated that there is in us a revelation of wrath against sin.

But the apostle argues a revelation of wrath outside of us and in the broad book of Nature. He says, “For the invisible things of him since the creation of the world are clearly seen, being perceived through the things that are made, even his everlasting power and divinity; that they may be without excuse” (Rom 1:20 ). His deity and his everlasting power are “clearly seen” in the universe which is the work of his hands. To the same effect speaks the psalmist: The heavens declare the glory of God; And the firmament showeth his handiwork, Day unto day uttereth speech, And night unto night showeth knowledge. There is no speech nor language; Their voice is not heard. Their line is gone out through all the earth, And their words to the end of the world. In them hath he set a tabernacle for the sun, Which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, And rejoiceth as a strong man to run his course. His going forth is from the end of the heavens, And his circuit unto the ends of it; And there is nothing hid from the heat thereof. Psa 19:1-6 .

And this apostle to the Athenians: The God that made the world and all things therein, he, being Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands; neither is he served by men’s hands, as though he needed anything, seeing he himself giveth to all life, and breath, and all things; and he made of one every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed seasons, and the bounds of their habitation that they should seek God, if haply they might feel after him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us; for in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain even of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring. Being then the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and device of man. The times of ignorance therefore God overlooked; but now he commandeth men that they should all everywhere repent: inasmuch as he hath appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness by the man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead. Act 17:24-31 .

Yea, not only Nature, but providence in Nature, as was said to Noah: “While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease” (Gen 8:22 ). And reaffirmed by this apostle: “And yet he left not himself without witness, in that he did good and gave you from heaven rains and fruitful seasons, filling your hearts with food and gladness” (Act 14:17 ). Thus all nature in us or external to us, and God’s marvelous providence proclaim the knowledge of him. Tom Paine, the deist, admitted all this, and expressed his admiration for Addison’s paraphrase of Psa 19 : The spacious firmament on high, With all the blue ethereal sky, And spangled heav’ns (a shining frame), Their great Original proclaim: The unwearied sun, from day to day, Doth his Creator’s power display, And publishes to every land The work of an Almighty hand. Soon as the evening shades prevail, The moon takes up the wondrous tale, And nightly to the list’ning earth Repeats the story of her birth: While all the stars that round her burn, And all the planets, in their turn, Confirm the tidings as they roll, And spread the truth from pole to pole. What though in solemn silence all Move round the dark terrestrial ball; What though no real voice nor sound Amid their radiant orbs be found; In reason’s ear they all rejoice, And utter forth a glorious voice, Forever singing as they shine, The hand that made us is divine.

The stoic philosopher might magnify inexorable and pitiless fate, the epicurean philosopher, or his descendants, the modern evolutionists, might glorify chance in attributing this great universe and its people to “the fortuitous concourse of atoms,” thereby proclaiming themselves brother to the fool that said in his heart, “no God.” They need to read the lesson of Nebuchadnezzar, to whom God announced this sentence: “Let his heart be changed from man’s, and let a beast’s heart be given unto him; and let seven times pass over him. . . . The same hour was the thing fulfilled upon Nebuchadnezzar: and he was driven from men, and did eat grass as oxen, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven, till his hair was grown like eagles’ feathers, and his nails like birds’ claws.” Dan 4:16 ; Dan 4:33 .

The evolutionist indeed classifies himself with beasts by acknowledging a brute ancestry.

This revelation was sufficient to leave them without excuse because when they thus knew him as God they were guilty of these sins:

1. They glorified him not as God

2. Neither were thankful

3. Became vain in their reasonings

4. Darkened their senseless hearts

5. Professing to be wise, they became fools

6. Become idolaters, changing the glory of the incorruptible God for the likeness of an image of corruptible man, birds, beasts, and creeping things. This brought on them judicial blindness.

God gave them up to the reign of their passions. Both women and men became shameless. As they refused to retain the knowledge, God being put out, with what were they filled? And even as they refused to have God in their knowledge, God gave them up to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not fitting; being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malignity; whisperers, backbiters, hateful to God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, without understanding, covenant-breakers, without natural affection, unmerciful. Rom 1:28-31 .

THE RESULT

“Who, knowing the ordinance of God, that they that practice such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but also consent with them that practice them. Rom 1:32 .

QUESTIONS

1. How does the argument for the universal necessity of salvation apply to the whole human race?

2. What are the four arguments applied to the Gentiles?

3. What is ungodliness?

4. What is unrighteousness?

5. What is the consequent wrath of God?

6. What is law?

7. What is its relation to formal statutes?

8. From what does all law arise?

9. What is the principal relations from which all law arises?

10. What other use of the term “law” in this letter?

11. What then is sin?

12. What is its penalty?

13. How is the wrath of God revealed?

14. What must follow the fact of right and wrong?

15. When and why a judgment of wrath?

16. What was Paul’s argument for a revelation of wrath from the book of nature, and what the logical conclusion with reference to the position of the Stoic and Epicurean, or the modern evolutionist?

17. Why were the Gentiles left without excuse, and of what sins were they guilty?

18. What are the consequences?

19. Since they refused to retain, the knowledge of God, with what were they filled?

20. What is the result?

Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible

18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness;

Ver. 18. Who hold the truth ] Hold the light of their conscience (which is as a prophet from God) prisoner. The natural man, that he may sin the more securely, imprisons the truth which he acknowledgeth, and lays hold on all the principles in his head that might any way disturb his course in sin, locking them up in restraint. Hence it appears that no man is righteous in himself, or by his own righteousness, which was the . Those of the philosophers that knew most, as Socrates, Aristotle, Plato, &c., are belied if they were not vicious in their practice, et de virtute locuti, Clunem agitant. (Juvenal.) Plato had the knowledge of one God; but dared not say so publicly. It is neither easy (saith he) to find out the Creator of all, nor safe to communicate the knowledge of him to the common people. So Seneca wrote a book (now lost) against superstitions; but saith Austin, Libertas affuit scribenti, non viventi: colebat quod reprehendebat, agebat quod arguebat, quod culpabat adorabat: He lived not after his own writings, but worshipped what he reproved; he did what he decried, he bowed before that he blamed; saying (as Domitius Calderinus when he went to mass) Eamus ad eommunem errorem, Let us go to that which we cannot but condemn for a common error. (Bucholcer.)

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

18. ] He first states the general fact, of all mankind ; but immediately passes off to the consideration of the majority of mankind, the Gentiles; reserving the Jews for exceptional consideration afterwards.

. ] The statement of Rom 1:17 was, that the RIGHTEOUSNESS of God is revealed. The necessary condition of this revelation is, the DESTRUCTION of the righteousness of MAN by the revelation of God’s anger against sin.

, not in the Gospel (as Grot.): not in men’s consciences (as Tholuck, Exo 1 , Reiche): ‘not in the miserable state of the then world (as Kllner): but (as implied indeed by the adjunct , that it is a providential, universally-to-be-seen revelation) in the PUNISHMENTS which, Rom 1:24 , God has made to follow upon sin, see also ch. Rom 2:2 (so De W., Meyer, Tholuck, Exo 5 , &c.). So that . is of an objective reality here , not of an evangelic internal and subjective unfolding.

is anthropopathically, but with the deepest truth, put for the righteousness of God in punishment (see ch. Rom 2:8 ; Rom 5:9 ; Eph 2:3 ; Mat 3:7 ; Joh 3:36 ). It is the opposite, in the divine attributes, to Love (De W.).

. (see above) belongs to , not to , nor to ( .).

, godlessness; , iniquity : but neither term is exclusive of the other, nor to be formally pressed to its limits. They overlap and include each other by a large margin: the specific difference being, that . is more the fountain (but at the same time partially the result) of , which . is more the result (but at the same time partially the fountain) of . . is the state of the thoughts and feelings and habits, induced originally by forgetfulness of God, and in its turn inducing impieties of all kinds. We may notice by the way, that the word forms an interesting link to the Pastoral Epistles [where it, and its opposite are the ordinary terms for an unholy and a holy life].

. . ] of men who hold back the truth in iniquity : who, possessing enough of the germs of religious and moral verity to preserve them from abandonment, have checked the development of this truth in their lives, in the love and practice of sin. That this is the meaning of here is plain from this circumstance: that wherever in the N. T. signifies ‘to hold,’ it is emphatic , ‘to hold fast ,’ or ‘to keep to ,’ or ‘to take or have complete possession of :’ see for the first, Luk 8:15 ; 1Co 11:2 ; 1Co 15:2 ; 1Th 5:21 ; Heb 3:6 ; Heb 3:14 ; Heb 10:23 ; for the second, Luk 14:9 (every other place except the lowest being excluded): for the third, Mat 21:38 ; 1Co 7:30 . Now no such emphatic sense will apply here. If the word is to mean ‘holding,’ it must be only in the loosest and least emphatic sense: ‘having a half and indistinct consciousness of,’ which does not at all correspond to the , indicating vehemence of purpose, as in , &c. But the meaning ‘ keeping back,’ ‘hindering the development of ,’ while it has a direct example in Paul’s own usage in reff., and in Luk 4:42 , and indirect ones in (the spurious Joh 5:4 ) Act 27:40 ; ch. Rom 7:6 ; Phm 1:13 , admirably suits the sense, that men had (see Rom 1:19 ff.) knowledge of God sufficient, if its legitimate work had been allowed, to have kept them from such excesses of enormity as they have committed, but that this they , i.e. crushed, quenched , in (as the element, conditional medium in which) their state and practice of unrighteousness. It is plain that to take for (as Theophyl. and Reiche) is to miss the force of the expression altogether the pregnant , ‘ in and by ,’ implying that it is their , the very absence of for which the argument contends, which is the status wherein , and the instrument whereby , they hold back the truth lit up in their consciences.

Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament

Rom 1:18 to Rom 11:36 . ] THE DOCTRINAL EXPOSITION OF THE ABOVE TRUTH: THAT THE GOSPEL IS THE POWER OF GOD UNTO SALVATION TO EVERY ONE THAT BELIEVETH. And herein, ch. Rom 1:18 to Rom 3:20 , inasmuch as this power of God consists in the revelation of God’s righteousness in man by faith, and in order to faith the first requisite is the recognition of man’s unworthiness, and incapability to work a righteousness for himself, the Apostle begins by proving that all, Gentiles and Jews, are GUILTY before God, as holding back the truth in unrighteousness. And FIRST, ch. Rom 1:18-32 , OF THE GENTILES.

Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament

Rom 1:18 f. The revelation of the righteousness of God (Rom 1:17 ) is needed in view of the revelation of His wrath, from which only . (whether it be His justifying sentence or the righteousness which He bestows on man) can deliver. in the N.T. is usually eschatological, but in 1Th 2:16 it refers to some historical judgment, and in Joh 3:36 it is the condemnation of the sinner by God, with all that it involves, present and to come. The revelation of wrath here probably refers mainly to the final judgment: the primary character of Jesus in Paul’s Gospel being , 1Th 1:10 , Rom 5:9 ; but it is not forcing it here to make it include God’s condemnation uttered in conscience, and attested (Rom 1:24 ) in the judicial abandonment of the world. The revelation of the righteousness of God has to match this situation, and reverse it. is “positive and active irreligion”: see Trench, Syn , lxvi. may mean (1) who possess the truth, yet live in unrighteousness; or (2) who suppress the truth by, or in, an unrighteous life. In the N.T. is moral rather than speculative; it is truth of a sort which is held only as it is acted on: cf. the Johannine expression . Hence the latter sense is to be preferred (see Wendt, Lehre Jesu , II., . 203 Anm.). . . . There is no indisputable way of deciding whether here means “known” (the usual N.T. sense) or “knowable” (the usual classic sense). Cremer (who compares Phi 3:8 , Heb 6:17 , Rom 2:4 , and makes in the passage before us also gen poss.) favours the latter. What is meant in either case is the knowledge of God which is independent of such a special revelation as had been given to the Jews. Under this come (Rom 1:20 ) His eternal power, and in a word His (eternal) divinity, things inaccessible indeed to sense ( ), but clear to intelligence ( ), ever since creation ( : for thus used, see Winer, 463), by the things that are made. God’s power, and the totality of the Divine attributes constituting the Divine nature, are inevitably impressed on the mind by nature (or, to use the scripture word, by creation). There is that within man which so catches the meaning of all that is without as to issue in an instinctive knowledge of God. (See the magnificent illustration of this in Illingworth’s Divine Immanence , chap. 2, on The religious influence of the material world.) This knowledge involves duties, and men are without excuse because, when in possession of it, they did not perform these duties; that is, did not glorify as God the God whom they thus knew.

Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson

NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Rom 1:18-23

18For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, 19because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. 20For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. 21For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. 22Professing to be wise, they became fools, 23and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures.

Rom 1:18 “for” Notice the number of times gar is used in the theme statement of Rom 1:16-17 -three times, and now it introduces Paul’s first point of the gospel (Rom 1:18 to Rom 3:31), which is contrasted with the power of God unto salvation (Rom 1:16-17).

“the wrath of God” Rom 1:18-23 depict the pagan world of Paul’s day. Paul’s characterization of the pagan world is also found in Jewish literature (cf. Wisdom of Solomon Rom 13:1 ff. and Letter of Aristeas, 134-38) and even in Greek and Roman ethical writings. The same Bible that tells us of God’s love also reveals His wrath (cf. Rom 1:23-32; Rom 2:5; Rom 2:8; Rom 3:5; Rom 4:15; Rom 5:9; Rom 9:22; Rom 12:19; Rom 13:4-5).

Both wrath and love are human terms which are applied to God. They express the truth that God has a way He wants believers to respond to and live. One’s willful rejection of God’s will (the gospel of Christ) results in consequences both temporal, as in this verse, and eschatological (cf. Rom 2:5). However, God must not be viewed as vindictive. Judgment is His “strange work” (cf. Isa 28:21 ff). Love is His character, compare Deu 5:9-10; Deu 7:9. In Him justice and mercy predominate. Yet all will give an account to God (cf. Ecc 12:13-14; Gal 6:7), even Christians (cf. Rom 14:10-12; 2Co 5:10).

SPECIAL TOPIC: GOD DESCRIBED AS HUMAN (ANTHROPOMORPHISM)

“is revealed” As the gospel is a revealed truth (Rom 1:17), so too, the wrath of God! Neither is an act of human discovery or logic.

“who suppress the truth” This referred to human willful rejection, not ignorance (cf. Rom 1:21; Rom 1:32; Joh 3:17-21). This phrase can mean

1. they know the truth but reject it

2. their lifestyle shows they reject the truth

3. their lives and/or words cause others not to know and receive the truth

SPECIAL TOPIC: “TRUTH” IN PAUL’S WRITINGS

Rom 1:19 “that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them” All humans know something of God from creation (cf. Rom 1:20; Job 12:7-10 and Psa 19:1-6 through nature). In theology this is called “natural revelation.” It is not complete, but it is the basis of God’s holding responsible those who have never been exposed to God’s “special revelation” in Scripture (cf. Psa 19:7-14) or, ultimately, in Jesus (cf. Col 1:15; Col 2:9).

The term “know” was used in two senses in the NT: (1) its OT sense of intimate personal relationship (cf. Gen 4:1; Jer 1:5) and (2) its Greek sense of facts about a subject (cf. Rom 1:21). The gospel is both a Person to be welcomed and a message about that Person to be received and believed! In this verse it was used only in the sense of #2.

SPECIAL TOPIC: KNOW (USING MOSTLY DEUTERONOMY AS A PARADIGM)

Rom 1:20 This verse mentions three aspects of God.

1. His invisible attributes (His character, cf. Col 1:15; 1Ti 1:17; Heb 11:27)

2. His eternal power (seen in natural creation, cf. Psa 19:1-6)

3. His divine nature (seen in His acts and motives of creation, cf. Genesis 1-2)

“for since the creation of the world” The preposition apo is used in a temporal sense. A similar phrase is found in Mar 10:6; Mar 13:19; 2Pe 3:4. The invisible God is now seen in

1. physical creation (this verse)

2. Scripture (Psalms 19, 119)

3. ultimately in Jesus (cf. Joh 14:9)

“divine nature” From Greek literature theiots could be translated “divine majesty.” This is seen supremely in Jesus. He uniquely bears the divine image (cf. 2Co 4:4; Heb 1:3). He is God’s full revelation in human form (Col 1:19; Col 2:9). The wonderful truth of the gospel is that fallen mankind, through faith in Christ, will share Christlikeness (cf. Heb 12:10; 1Jn 3:2). The image of God in humanity (cf. Gen 1:26-27) has been restored (theios, cf. 2Pe 1:3-4)!

NASB”have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made”

NKJV”are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made”

NRSV”have been understood and seen through the things he has made”

TEV”have been clearly seen; they are perceived in the things that God has made”

NJB”have been clearly seen by the mind’s understanding of created things”

The combination of noe (cf. Mat 15:17) and kathora (both present passive) implies a true perception. God has written two books: (1) nature (cf. Psa 19:1-6) and (2) Scripture (cf. Psa 19:7-14). They are both capable of human understanding and demand a response (cf. Wis 13:1-9).

“so that they are without excuse” This is literally “no legal defense.” This Greek term (a plus apologeomai) is used only here and in Rom 2:1 in the NT. Remember the theological purpose of Rom 1:18 to Rom 3:20 is to show the spiritual lostness of all mankind. Humans are responsible for the knowledge they do have. God holds humans responsible only for that which they know or could know (cf. Rom 4:15; Rom 5:13).

Rom 1:21 “for even though they knew God” Humans are not progressing religiously-they are progressively evil. Since Genesis 3 humanity has been going downhill. The darkness is increasing!

“they did not honor Him as God, or give thanks” This is the tragedy of pagan idolatry in Rom 1:23-24 (cf. Jer 2:9-13). Believers “glorify” God by Christlike living (cf. Mat 5:16; Rom 12:1-2; 1Co 6:20; 1Co 10:31; Php 1:20; 1Pe 4:11). YHWH wants a people who reflect/reveal His character to a fallen, blind world!

“but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened.” The New Testament: A New Translation by Olaf M. Morlie has “rather they busied themselves with silly speculations about Him, and their stupid minds groped about in the dark.” Human religious systems are monuments to spiritual rebellion and pride (cf. Rom 1:22; Col 2:16-23).

The word translated “futile” was used in the LXX to refer to the “vain,” “non-existent” idols of Israel’s neighbors. Paul was a Hebrew thinker who knew the Septuagint. The use of Greek words in the LXX is a better guide to the NT authors’ thoughts than Greek lexicons.

The two verbs are aorist passive indicatives. Does the passive voice imply that their lack of understanding and proper response was because God veiled their hearts or that their rejection of the light had hardened their hearts (cf. Rom 10:12-16; 2Ki 17:15; Jer 2:5; Eph 4:17-19)? This is the same theological question related to Pharaoh in the exodus.

God hardened his heart Pharaoh hardened his own heart

Exo 4:21 Exo 9:12 Exo 10:20 Exo 11:10 Exo 14:4 Exo 14:8 Exo 14:17Exo 8:15 Exo 8:32 Exo 9:34

In Exo 9:35 the hardening could refer to God or Pharaoh. This is the mystery of divine sovereignty and human free will!

“heart” This was used in the OT sense of the entire person. However, it was often a way of referring to the thinking and feeling process. See Special Topic at Rom 1:24.

Rom 1:22

NASB, NKJV”Professing to be wise, they became fools”

NRSV”Claiming to be wise, they became fools”

TEV”They say they are wise, but they are fools”

NJB”The more they called themselves philosophers, the more stupid they grew”

From the Greek word “fool” we get the English “moron.” The problem is in mankind’s pride and confidence in their own knowledge (cf. 1Co 1:18-31; Col 2:8-23). This goes back to Genesis 3. Knowledge brought separation and judgment. It is not that human knowledge is always wrong, it is just not ultimate!

Rom 1:23 Willfully ignorant humans who were made in God’s image (cf. Gen 1:26-27; Gen 5:1; Gen 5:3; Gen 9:6) turned God into earthly images such as

1. animals (Egypt)

2. forces of nature (Persia)

3. human forms (Greece/Rome)-idols! Even God’s own people did this (cf. Deu 4:15-24)

Some new forms of this old sin are

1. environmentalism (mother earth)

2. New Age eastern thought (mysticism, spiritualism, and the occult)

3. atheistic humanism (Marxism, utopianism, progressive idealism, and ultimate faith in politics or education)

4. holistic medicine (health and longevity)

5. education.

“glory” See Special Topic at Rom 3:23

“corruptible man” See Special Topic following.

SPECIAL TOPIC: DESTROY, RUIN, CORRUPT (PHTHEIR)

Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley

For. In the gospel not only is God’s salvation revealed, but God’s wrath also, and both are the revelation of God’s righteousness.

the wrath of God. This expression Occurs only here, Joh 3:36. Eph 5:6. Col 3:6. Compare Rev 19:15. Referred to many times in N.T., e.g. Rom 2:5; Rom 5:9; Rom 9:22. Mat 3:7. Eph 2:3; Eph 5:6. Rev 6:16, Rev 6:17.

heaven. Singular. No article. See Mat 6:10.

against. Greek. epi, App-104.

ungodliness. Greek. asebeia. App-128.

unrighteousness. Greek. adikia. App-128.

men. Greek. anthropos. App-123.

hold = hold down, suppress. Compare 2Th 2:6.

the truth. Greek. alethieia, p. 1511. Compare App-175and App-2.

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

Rom 1:18 to Rom 11:36.] THE DOCTRINAL EXPOSITION OF THE ABOVE TRUTH: THAT THE GOSPEL IS THE POWER OF GOD UNTO SALVATION TO EVERY ONE THAT BELIEVETH. And herein, ch. Rom 1:18 to Rom 3:20,-inasmuch as this power of God consists in the revelation of Gods righteousness in man by faith, and in order to faith the first requisite is the recognition of mans unworthiness, and incapability to work a righteousness for himself,-the Apostle begins by proving that all, Gentiles and Jews, are GUILTY before God, as holding back the truth in unrighteousness. And FIRST, ch. Rom 1:18-32, OF THE GENTILES.

Fuente: The Greek Testament

Rom 1:18. , is revealed) See verse 17, note.-, for) The particle begins the discussion; the Statement of Subject [Proposition] being now concluded, ch. Rom 6:19; Mat 1:18; Act 2:15; 1Co 15:3. The Latins generally omit it.[11] This is Pauls first argument: All are under sin; and that the law shows; therefore, no one is justified by the works of the law. The discussion of this point continues to the third chapter, Rom 1:20. From this he draws the inference, therefore [justification must be] by faith, ch. Rom 3:21, etc.- , wrath of God) [not as Engl. Vers. the wrath] without the article, in this passage [is denounced against all unrighteousness]; but is denounced against those [the persons; not as , against the sin], who disregard righteousness. Wrath is, as it were, different, when directed against the Gentiles, and when against the Jews. The righteousness and the wrath of God form, in some measure, an antithesis. The righteousness of the world crushes the guilty individual; the righteousness of God crushes beneath it the sin, and restores the sinner. Hence there is frequent mention of wrath, especially in this epistle, ch. Rom 2:5; Rom 2:8, Rom 3:5, Rom 4:15, Rom 5:9, Rom 9:22, and besides, ch. Rom 12:19, Rom 13:4-5.- , from heaven) This significantly implies the majesty of an angry God, and His all-seeing eye, and the wide extent of His wrath: whatever is under heaven, and yet not under the Gospel, is under this wrath,-Psa 14:2.- , upon all) Paul, in vividly presenting to view the wrath of God, speaks in the abstract, concerning sin: in presenting to view salvation [Rom 1:16, he speaks] in the concrete, concerning believers; he now, therefore, intimates enigmatically [by implication], that grace has been procured for sinners.- , ungodliness and unrighteousness) These two points are discussed at the twenty-third and following verses. [Paul often mentions unrighteousness, Rom 1:29, as directly opposed to righteousness.-V. g.]- ) A periphrasis for the Gentiles.- , the truth) to which belongs, whatever of really sound morality the heathen writings possess.- , in unrighteousness) The term is taken now in a larger sense, than just before, where it formed an antithesis to , viz., in the sense of , ch. Rom 6:19.-, holding back) [holding, Engl. Vers. less correctly] Truth in the understanding, makes great efforts, and is urgent; but man impedes its effect.

[11] But the Vulg. has it Revelatur enim.-ED.

Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament

Rom 1:18

Rom 1:18

For the wrath of God-The impossibility of God’s justifying unrighteousness and tolerating it is manifested in his giving his only begotten Son to take away sin. Sin is the violation of the laws and principles that grow out of his own being that must pervade and control the whole universe. His will must prevail, and every being and all spirits and all matter in the universe must conform to his will and be imbued with his spirit. He forbears with those who are led into sin long and patiently that they may repent and conform to his will; but he must reign, and sooner or later all must conform to his will or be crushed into eternal ruin by the almighty power and rule of God.

is revealed from heaven-These sinners against God and against nature are described as realizing in their experience the terrific results of their gross infraction of the divine law. Paul is beginning, in their case, to show the universal need, on the part of mankind, to seek the remedy for sin which he has said was revealed in the gospel as the righteousness of God by faith.

against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men,-The impossibility of Gods justifying unrighteousness and tolerating sin is manifested in his giving his only begotten Son to take away sin. He cannot tolerate sin. Sin is the violation of the laws and principles that grow out of his own being that must pervade and control the whole universe. His wrath is against every form of irreligiousness and immorality. The two words distinguishing sin with respect to God and the law of right he has established. God will reign throughout the universe. His will must prevail, and every being and all spirit and all matter in the universe must conform to his will and be imbued with his spirit. He forbears patiently that they may repent and conform to his will; but he must reign, and sooner or later all must render obedience to him or be crushed into eternal ruin by his almighty power.

who hinder the truth in unrighteousness;-To hinder or hold down the truth in unrighteousness is to know the truth, but live in unrighteousness. [All who do not live up to the knowledge they possess, who do worse than they know, hinder the truth in unrighteousness. They obstruct the truth rather than let it have free scope.]

Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary

Lecture 3 – Romans 1:18-3:20

The Need of the Gospel

Chapters 1:18-3:20.

We have seen that the gospel reveals the righteousness of God. The apostle now proceeds to show the need of such a revelation, and piles proof upon proof, evidence upon evidence, and scripture upon scripture to demonstrate the solemn fact that man has no righteousness of his own, but is both by nature and practice utterly unsuited to a God of infinite holiness whose throne is established on righteousness. This he does in the next section of the epistle, chap 1:18-3:20. In a masterly way he brings the whole world into court and shows that condemnation rests upon all because all have sinned. Man is guilty, hopelessly so, and can do nothing to retrieve his condition. If God has not a righteousness for him his case is ended.

In verses Rom 1:18-32 of the first chapter the case of the barbarian is considered. The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness. The first class is the pagan world. The second, those to whom a divine revelation had come. The barbarians and heathen generally are ungodly. They know not the true God and so are without God in the world. Therefore their behavior is described as ungodliness.

On the other hand, to the Jew had been committed the knowledge of God and a divine code of righteousness. He gloried in this while walking in unrighteousness. He held the truth (as something on which he had a corner) in unrighteousness. Against both classes the wrath of God is revealed.

The heathen are without excuse. Paganism and idolatry are not steps in human evolution as man advances from slime to divinity. Heathenism is a declension, not an upward reach. The great pagan nations once knew more than they do now. The knowledge of God brought through the flood was disseminated throughout the ancient world. Back of all the great idolatrous systems is pure monotheism. But men could not stand this intimate knowledge of God for it made them uncomfortable in their sins; so a host of lesser deities and divinities were invented as go-betweens, and eventually the knowledge of the true God was entirely lost. But even to-day creation is His constant witness: That which may be known of God is manifest to them; for God hath showed it to them. This orderly universe with its succession of the seasons and the mathematical accuracy of the movements of the heavenly bodies bears testimony to the Divine Mind. The stars in their courses proclaim the great Creators power:

Forever singing as they shine, The Hand that made us is divine.

So, the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead. One word in the original is rendered by four words in English: Things-that-are-made is Poima, and from this we get our word poem. Creation is Gods great epic poem, every part fitted together like the lines and verses of a majestic hymn. In Eph 2:10 we find the same word again. We are His workmanship -His poem-created in Christ Jesus unto good works which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. This is Gods greatest poem: the epic of Redemption.

Twas great to call a world from naught; Twas greater to redeem.

These two wondrous poems are celebrated in Revelation Chapters 4 and 5. In chapter 4 the enthroned and crowned saints worship Christ as Creator. In chapter 5 they adore Him as Redeemer.

Pursuing Pauls argument we note in vers. Rom 1:21-23 that the barbarous nations are without excuse for their present ignorance and bestial condition, Because that when they knew God they glorified Him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed beasts and creeping things. Observe the downward steps on the toboggan-slide of idolatry-God first thought of as an idealized man, then likened to the birds that soar into the heavens, next to the beasts that prowl over the earth, and finally to serpents and other detestable creeping things, whether reptilian or insectivorous. Even the Egyptian worshipped the serpent and the scara-beus, and yet back of all Egyptian mythology is hidden the original revelation of one true and living God! What degradation does this imply on the part of one of the most enlightened nations of antiquity! And others bear similar marks of declension and deterioration.

Because men gave God up He gave them up. Twice in the verses that follow we read, God gave them up, first to uncleanness and then to vile affections. Once we are told, God gave them over to a reprobate mind. The vile immoralities depicted here are the natural result of turning from the Holy One. The picture of heathenism in its unspeakable obscenities is not over-drawn, as any one acquainted with the lives of idolatrous people will testify. The awful thing is that all this vileness and filthiness is being reproduced in modern high society where men and women repudiate God. If people change the truth of God into a lie and worship and serve the creature rather than the Creator, the whole order of nature is violated; for apart from the fear of God there is no power known that will hold the evil desires of the natural heart in check. It is part of the very nature of things that flesh will be manifested in its worst aspects when God gives men up to follow the bent of their unholy lusts.

What a picture of mankind away from Him do we get in the closing verses. Sin and corruption are everywhere triumphant. Righteousness is not to be found when the back is turned on God. Nor are men sensitive about their sins or ashamed of their evil ways, but knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.

That the apostles picture of heathenism is still true the following clipping bears witness: A Chinese Teacher once told a missionary that the Bible could not be so ancient a book after all, because the first chapter of Romans gave an account of Chinese conduct, such as the missionary could only have written after full acquaintance with the people. The mistake was not an unnatural one, but it is a heathens testimony to the truth of the Bible.

Fuente: Commentaries on the New Testament and Prophets

2. The Need of Salvation Demonstrated.

The Whole World Guilty and Lost.

Chapter 1:18-3:20.

CHAPTER 1:18-32.

1. Wrath Revealed from Heaven. 18.

2. Gentile Knowledge of God. 19-20.

3. Turning from God to Idolatry. 21-23.

4. God Gave Them Up to Corruption. 24-32.

Rom 1:18

God now demonstrates that the whole world is destitute of righteousness and needs salvation. Rom 1:18-32; Rom 2:1-29; Rom 3:1-20 is parenthetical, showing the moral condition of the whole race, away from God and lost and therefore under wrath. In this verse we read that wrath is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness. It is a solemn declaration. All who are ungodly and unrighteous, who oppose the truth by living in sin are under wrath. And this is now shown to be the actual condition of the entire race, Gentiles and Jews. All are by nature the children of wrath (Eph 2:3). A holy God must forever exclude from His Presence those who are His enemies by wicked works.

Rom 1:19-20

The heathen world in its moral history is first described. The heathen darkness which prevails now in idolatry and its attending degradations was preceded by the knowledge of God and produced by turning from God. Man can know God, in and through creation; His eternal power and Godhead are clearly seen in the things that are made. The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament showeth His handiwork. Day unto day uttereth speech and night unto night showeth knowledge. There is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard (Psa 19:1-3). And there was no doubt also a primeval revelation, though unwritten, so that the Gentiles could know God.

Rom 1:21-23

They knew God and glorified Him not. They turned away from the light. Here is the true law of evolution, not an evolution upward as taught so much at the present time, but an evolution downward. The ascent of man is a delusion; the descent of man is the truth. The only possible way of lifting man, who has fallen so low, yea beneath the beast, is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. They became vain in their imaginations. The word imagination means, perverse, self-willed reasonings revealing the evil heart beneath from which they spring. Then their foolish heart was darkened. The next step down is that they professed themselves wise and became fools. Rejecting the light and turning away from God, they became philosophers and thought to find out things by searching. Idolatry was the next step. A god, in some shape, is a natural necessity of man. His natural desire, in his first apostasy from truth, is a god after his own heart. A brief history of idolatry is given. First they changed the glory of the incorruptible God into a likeness of an image of corruptible man. But they did not stop with this, but they worshipped birds, four-footed beasts and creeping things. Birds, flying through the air, therefore considered nearer heaven, are put above the quadrupeds, which walk on the earth and the creeping things, which cannot rise out of the dust and mire of the earth are the lowest form. They worshipped the serpent, as it is still done by the Indians in Arizona. And idolatry is not confined to the heathen nations, it is practised in that great apostate system Romanism. A piece of bread, under an elaborate ritual, is lifted up and claimed to be changed by a few words of a sinful man, into the body and soul of the Son of god; then they fall down and worship. The mass is a blasphemous idolatry.

Rom 1:24-32

Then moral corruption of the worst kind follows. They had given Him up and now He gives them up. Three times we read that God gave them up. But why should there be a threefold repetition of the fact that He gave them up? Man is composed- of body, soul and spirit. The first giving up is as to the body; this is found in Rom 1:24-25. Then He gave them up to vile passions; this concerns the soul and the horrible things stated in Rom 1:26-27 are the results. These were practised openly in the Greek and Roman world in the days of the Apostle Paul. Ancient literature bears abundant witness to that effect. These vile things are still going on in heathen India, China, Africa and elsewhere. They are found likewise in the midst of Christendom. Whenever and wherever the Truth of God is abandoned, degradation in every way follows, for the Truth of God alone can restrain evil. The third giving up is found in Rom 1:29. Given up to a reprobate mind, which involves the spirit of man. All these things spoken of here are clearly regarded as the recompense even now, of the error of the creature, in departing from the Creator. The world is thus regarded as under a judicial bondage of sin and dishonor. Men eat the fruit of their own ways, sometimes pleasant to the taste of corrupted nature, but with prospect of Divine and eternal judgment at the end. The very lusts which govern and torment the slaves of sin are, as it were, the earnest and token of that wrath of God, which, now revealed from heaven, will yet deal with ungodliness and unrighteousness of unrepentant sinners after death (Heb 9:27). (Pridham on Romans)

Then follows a description of the sins, the fruits of a corrupt human nature, sins which were the characteristic features of heathendom when this Epistle was written. If we turn to 2Ti 3:1-5 we find a similar list, which corresponds in a striking way with the list at the close of the first chapter of Romans. There is, however, an important difference. As already stated Rom 1:29-31 describes the moral condition of the heathen world in Pauls day, but 2Ti 3:1-5 describes the moral condition of the professing Christian masses of the last times, church members who have the form of godliness and who deny the power thereof. They make an empty profession, their hearts are away from God and the last days of this age revert to the moral conditions in which the heathen world was in the days of the Apostle. And these characteristics prevail everywhere in Christendom. The last verse of our chapter tells us, that they know that they are worthy of death, yet they keep on in their evil ways.

Fuente: Gaebelein’s Annotated Bible (Commentary)

the wrath: Rom 4:15

ungodliness: Rom 5:6

unrighteousness: Rom 6:13

who hold: Rom 1:19, Rom 1:28, Rom 1:32, Rom 2:3, Rom 2:15-23, Luk 12:46, Luk 12:47, Joh 3:19-21, Act 24:24, Act 24:25, 2Th 2:10, 1Ti 4:1, 1Ti 4:2

Reciprocal: Gen 49:1 – Gather Exo 23:7 – for I will not 2Ch 19:2 – is wrath 2Ch 34:21 – great Job 36:18 – Because Isa 34:2 – the indignation Isa 53:1 – revealed Mat 3:7 – who Mat 21:27 – We cannot tell Mar 11:33 – We Joh 3:36 – but Rom 1:25 – the truth Rom 2:5 – revelation Rom 2:8 – and do not Rom 2:12 – For Rom 4:5 – ungodly Rom 5:9 – we shall Rom 9:22 – willing Rom 9:30 – the Gentiles 1Co 6:9 – unrighteous 2Co 3:9 – the ministration of condemnation Eph 5:6 – cometh Col 3:6 – which 1Th 4:6 – the Lord Heb 5:13 – the word 1Pe 4:18 – where

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

:18

Rom 1:18. The Gospel not only reveals God’s system of righteousness, but it also tells of the divine wrath against all ungodliness. Hold means to hold back or restrain. The unright-eousness of men is a hindrance to the spread and reception of the truth.

Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary

Rom 1:18. For. Direct proof of Rom 1:17 : the righteousness from God is revealed by faith, for other revelations are of Gods wrath. (See note above.)

Gods wrath. (The article is wanting here, as in Rom 1:16-17; but the translation a wrath of God, is altogether unnecessary.) This phrase is anthropopathic (i. e, borrowed from human feelings), but it expresses a reality, namely, the punitive justice and holiness of God over against sin. Yet, this wrath of God, so frequently spoken of, must not be confounded with its result, the punishment of sin; it is rather an affection of the personal God, having a necessary connection with His love. The wrath of God, the reality of which is indisputable as the very presupposition of the work of atonement, is the love of the holy God (who is neither neutral nor one-sided in His affection) for all that is good in its energy as antagonistic to all that is evil (Meyer).

Is revealed. The continuous revelation is indicated. It is not necessary to assume that such a revelation is exclusively supernatural, especially here where historical facts exemplify the made of the revelation. Hence the revelation is an outward one, not that accomplished through the gospel.

From heaven; to be joined with revealed. Heaven, as the dwelling-place or throne of God, is designated as the place from which this revelation of wrath proceeds.

Against all ungodliness and unrighteousness. Gods wrath is against every form of irreligiousness and immorality; the two words distinguishing sin with respect to God and the law of right He has established. Ungodliness is more the fountain (but at the same time partially the result) of unrighteousness,which unrighteousness is more the result (but at the same time partially the fountain) of ungodliness (Alford). Hence the terms are not to be applied respectively to sins against God and against men.

Of men. The reference is not now to all men, but to those who hinder, etc. Since the Apostle does not charge the Jews with this in chap. 2, the Gentiles are meant here.

Hinder, restrain, or hold back, rather than hold (see references); those who hinder the truth from producing its proper results.

Unrighteousness is that wherein they hold the truth back, hindering it thereby.

Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament

Section 1. (Rom 1:18-32; Rom 2:1-16.)

The Gentile, left to himself, in lawless independence.

The case of the Gentile is that which Paul first reviews. The witness of creation to the glory of God is sufficient to condemn him for the gross idolatry to which he has turned from the actual knowledge of the true God, with which he started. The story of heathenism is that of men who with their back to the light walk necessarily in their own shadow. The moral obliquity which manifests itself in their ways is but the sure result of this departure. The fine pictures which men could draw of virtue were competent enough to show only the wilfulness of the evil which disgraced their lives, and for which their own conscience threatened them with judgment to come, -a judgment which the gospel did not ignore, but declared plainly; where the Jew would be first, as he was in privilege, but all would receive the exact award of righteousness.

1. The apostle does not overlook the difference as to light therefore; his argument is, that the light man has he is not true to. The knowledge of the heathen is ample to test which way his heart inclines. He is not judged by the darkness which he cannot help, but by the light which he refuses. How can he plead his lack of that from which he turns wherever he finds it? Man’s course has not been, as he would vainly have it, the evolution of a creature whom God has burdened with difficulties, yet who struggles upward under the burden, but of one whose struggles are with the God who made him, and against the Hand that would even now relieve him of a burden self-imposed.

(1) Thus the wrath of God is revealed from heaven upon all impiety and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness. If one can find a person then who has no truth to hold, he cannot come under this wrath revealed. “Impiety” is the characteristic of that for which men are condemned: a heart away from God, and which on that account deals perversely with whatever truth it has. That is the indictment; and it is broad enough to cover the whole race of fallen man. There are not two classes in this statement, as some have thought: for the express argument of the apostle here is that Gentiles who have not revelation have truth sufficient to make them without excuse. Wrath is thus upon all; though love may seek and act at the same time: “we,” says the apostle, speaking of himself and believers in general,” were . . . children of wrath, even as others” (Eph 2:3). Thus he immediately goes on now to say of the Gentiles outside of revelation that they have nevertheless a constant manifestation of God before their eyes. Thus they “hold the truth in unrighteousness; because what may be known of God is manifest among them: for God has manifested it unto them.” And he proceeds at once to speak of creation. It is a testimony that we think too little about, even as Christians, and naturally do not credit it with much power of appeal to heathen minds. The very glory of the Christian revelation makes all else seem dull indeed. We argue back also from the condition of the heathen into which, whatever the testimony of nature, they yet lapsed, to depreciate that which could not keep them from lapsing. But this, forcible as it may appear, is no real argument. It is exactly the same as that which the heathen might and do urge against Christianity itself from the condition of numbers under the light of it. In this way what bears witness of the evil in man is made to discredit the wisdom and goodness of God. The apostle would say, “Let God be true and every man a liar.” Surely that is the proper view, which nature itself confirms: the clouds are from the earth which conceal the brightness of the heavens. Allow that there is sin in man which could make him reject and crucify the Son of God Himself, you cannot accept an argument which would equally deny the glory of God in Him because men “saw no beauty in Him, that they should desire Him.”

Yet “the heavens display the glory of God, and the firmament showeth His handiwork.” So said the psalmist; and the apostle is not a whit behind him here: “For the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are perceived, being understood by the things made, even His everlasting power and divinity, so as to make them inexcusable.”

And indeed there are testimonies enough of what the natural effect of these things is upon men brought face to face with them, before yet they have hardened themselves by long opposition. In the infancy of the nations, though we cannot reach back by tradition to their true beginnings, we know enough to know (what the infidel man of science often enough reminds us of) that the tendency was rather to see God in everything than to see Him nowhere. Even idolatrous Greece peopled the fountain and stream, the mountain and forest, with its multitudinous gods; and the common nature worship which so infected the nations testifies at once to the power of nature to preach of the divine, and the perversion by men of that which they could not ignore.

The apostle’s words by no means intimate that this witness of nature could ever do the work of the gospel: that is not the point. Nature does indeed bear witness to the gospel; but in that parabolic form for which is needed an interpreter outside itself. And the traditions of the nations show, spite of all their corruptions, that God had not left them without the knowledge of Himself, which might have in the main interpreted nature to them, if they had cared to go on with the Divine Teacher; but they cared not. The knowledge of the everlasting power and divinity of their Creator should have made them at least turn to Him; but they turned away.

(2) And thus the idolatry which had overspread the nations was explained, and could only be explained, by this insane desire to forget God; which hid Him in His works, instead of discovering Him in them. Rejecting the true God, they pictured one according to their tastes, likening Him to corruptible man himself, and even to the animals below man. In which their folly, they yet imagined themselves wise; all their reasonings being made vain by a senseless and unthankful heart. They had an “occult” wisdom, as men style it now, upon which they prided themselves, and which was confessedly a groping in the dark, ignoring the plainest facts. Such is heathenism: a worship of bestial and degraded forms, the imaginations and manufacture of their worshipers. Reason and conscience unite in the condemnation of that which nevertheless under the light of Christianity is ever coming in afresh in winking Madonnas and the virtue of dead men’s bones, and wafer-gods, transformed by a few magical words into soul, body, and divinity of Him whom they call their Saviour!

(3) In this dishonor done to God they must necessarily degrade themselves also. The worshipers must become assimilated to what they worship. As their lusts had turned them away from the Holy One, so their new gods were made to sanction the lusts which had created them, and to which He whom they had forsaken gave them up. Man without God, whom it is his distinctive glory to recognize, becomes as the beast which has none. But the beast is therefore not a moral creature; man degraded to the beast becomes immoral. It is a necessary, but righteous retribution, in which man inflicts the punishment upon himself. His service of the creature is but his own gratification; which is but of the lusts which war against the soul. He feeds but the serpent-brood, which sting and torture him; and the world becomes thus a dreadful scene of suicidal warfare, the secret heart of which is blacker than its deeds declare.

(4) The ways of men in this condition the apostle* pictures: disgraceful violations of nature, and crimes that walked openly in the heathen darkness; while men who realized the judgment of God upon their abominations, not only walked defiantly in them but had sympathetic pleasure in those who did so.

{*The apostle gives in the plainest language the moral corruptions resulting from this turning away from God. He gives the extreme results of moral degradation, not as exceptional, but as showing the legitimate consequences of idolatry. There were abundant examples of it in ancient times in the unspeakable vices of Sodom and Gomorrah and those made familiar to us by the historians and satirists. Such crimes were well known to those to whom Paul wrote. Nor must we suppose that the light of Christianity has changed the heart of the natural man. Vice may hide itself in the dark when the light shines, but it is there, and the marks of the apostasy are similar in many ways to this picture of the natural man (2Ti 3:1-6). -S.R.}

2.(1) Such then was the condition of the Gentile world: one to which the Gentiles themselves bore witness in strong decisive words; but to witness against it was one thing, to escape or deliver from it quite another. In the day of judgment, says the apostle, the ability to judge another will be of no avail in behalf of him whose own deeds will be in question, when conscience, kept down by self-interest in the present time, will as in a moment resume its sway over the terrified and convicted soul, and it will be searched out under the light of absolute holiness.

It is a strange and startling fact, the ability we have to see and condemn the evil in another, while yet in ourselves, where we should know it best and recognize it most readily, we can ignore it as we do. But this self-ignorance is a voluntary one; and when the conscience is allowed to act, we at once discern it to have been so, and our guilt in this voluntariness.

The ability to judge is only a testimony to the responsibility which attaches to us. The inexcusability of judging proceeds from our own inability to stand before God in judgment. It is our Lord’s reproof of those who brought to Him the adulteress, that he who was without sin should cast the first stone at her. To judge sin is, of course, always right, and we should not be in a right condition if we did not do it. Nor is the apostle here touching the question of the magistrate’s duty as such, any more than that of the Christian assembly to “judge them that are within” (1Co 5:12). He is not dealing with the relation of Christians to the world, but with that of men as men everywhere under the eye of God, where none can stand in the judgment -to strip every one of the vain thought of establishing his own righteousness by some fancied superiority over his neighbor. It is one of the strangest, and yet one of the commonest of excuses. Evens the comparative estimate is sure to be wrong, -for without the knowledge of the secrets of the heart we have not the means of making it, while in his own cause no human law could allow a man to be his own judge. If the comparative estimate also could be truly made, it would avail nothing before Him whose standard of right is not a relative but an absolute one. The soul also who was honestly seeking to get into God’s Presence as to its own condition could never think of another than itself. The occupation with another’s evil is therefore one of the surest signs of being oneself away from God.

Judging another and judging sin are in the way the apostle is speaking here incompatible things. The judgment of God is against every one who practises evil; and there is no remedy but in turning to God, whose goodness is continually inviting to repentance; while yet His forbearance how often causes men to despise the riches of that goodness; so that if judgment against an evil work is not speedily executed, the heart of the sons of men is thoroughly set in them to do evil (Ecc 8:11). With Pharaoh that which hardened his heart was just God’s forbearing mercy (Exo 8:15; Exo 9:34); and so that which should be for good is turned again and again to evil through the revolt of man’s will against his Maker; treasures of mercy are stored up for futurity as treasures of wrath, and a day of wrath must come for those upon whom all His goodness has been ineffectual for good.

That wrath will be a revelation of righteous judgment -a measurement of good and evil divinely perfect, according to the principle upon which men insist, of works. Those who in a path of righteousness persistently seek for glory, honor, and incorruption, shall obtain eternal life; those who in contentious controversy with God disobey the truth, upon them shall be wrath and indignation, tribulation, and anguish. To the workers of good, it is emphatically repeated, shall be glory, honor, and peace. In all this the Jew comes in along with the Greek (or Gentile); and his especial privileges may even give him a first place; but the same exact award will be to each. There can be no favoritism with the righteous Judge.

What a day to test all the pretension of man, and show the consistent, equal ways of God with him, which now he so bitterly arraigns! Who could face it steadfastly without terror, if that were all? These then are the principles of the judgment; nothing is said as yet of results, nor has the gospel been as yet brought in: God’s way is not to mix together things so different. The day spoken of is a day of wrath and judgment, the reward of righteousness being introduced without any intimation whether righteous there shall be found in the way indicated. We shall have directly all possible assurance with regard to this.

(2) Notice then that while we have not as yet come formally to the case of the Jew, the mention of God’s equal dealing with all has brought him in. Nay, he appears in a prominent place, though with a solemn reminder for the self-confident. If first in privilege, he will be first in judgment too: can he face the responsibility entailed by the wonderful things which God has done for him? He will be judged by that law which it is his privilege to possess. Not only so, but the law has actually pronounced sentence, though that is not referred to here. But the Gentile without law shall be judged apart from law: he will not be held responsible for a knowledge he has not possessed. Is that therefore a kind of gospel as to him? Will he be considered as in a sort of irresponsible child-state and be let off easily? The case of the heathen, as the apostle has presented it to us does not encourage any such expectation, and he now adds a word which positively forbids it. He does not simply say that as many as have sinned without law shall be judged apart from law. People are prone to imagine that even the judgment of God can acquit a certain class of sinners, and that to be judged is by no means necessarily to be condemned; -a view which the psalmist has long ago repudiated. “Enter not into judgment with Thy servant, O Lord,” is his cry; “for in Thy sight shall no man living be justified” (Psa 143:2). And here the apostle puts in a word which as to the outcome of judgment cuts off hope: “For as many as have sinned without law shall also perish without law.” Just there where one might expect a less rigorous dealing, and where, in fact, the responsibility of the Jew who has the law is not to be supposed, just there he yet inserts a word which with regard to the Jew he does not use: the Jew, he says, shall be judged by the law; but the Gentile who sins apart from law shall perish.

Does this then justify the Jew in his thought of a different issue as to himself from the condemnation which he readily accords to the Gentile? The apostle’s purpose in all this is one quite opposite: it is to bring in all men guilty before God. And here he goes on to show that a Gentile may be comparatively in a better position than the Jew. The law does not justify hearers (in which case a Jew might indeed congratulate himself) but doers: “the doers of the law shall be justified.” By and by we shall hear the sweeping sentence of the law as to all, and that “by works of law shall no flesh be justified in [God’s] sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.” Here he does not as yet say this; but he appeals to the conscience of the Jew, priding himself upon the mere knowledge and possession of that which he had no care to keep, against any comparison of himself with the lawless Gentile such as he was prone to make. “For when the Gentiles who have no law practise by nature the things of the law, these, having no law, are a law unto themselves, being such as show the law’s work written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness therewith, and their thoughts one with another accusing or else excusing.”

We must distinguish carefully in these words “the law’s work written in the heart” of a Gentile, from the law written in the heart of a converted Israelite, according to the new covenant (Heb 8:10). The confusion here is only part of a system widely held, which would, in direct contradiction to the words of the apostle here, put the whole of mankind from the beginning, with Adam their first father also, under the law of Moses, writing up, “This do, and thou shalt live” over the gate of heaven, and bringing in Christ as also under law, to do that which Adam failed to do, and justify us by His obedience in life, rather than solely “by His blood,” as this epistle teaches. It would take us far out of our way to examine this at the present time, and anticipate that which will come in the scriptural order before us, as we proceed with our subject. As to the point now, the Greek shows conclusively, as our common English version does not, that it is the “work” that is said to be written, not the law itself. The Gentile here is said to have -that is, to be under -no law. It is only put in another form when it is said that he is a law to himself: he defines for himself what his duty is; (it does not mean, of course, that he has none, or has no thought of any, but) he has to gather the intimations of it from his own moral instincts or from his observations of others about him, perhaps also learns by more direct teaching; but precisely the thing which is lacking to him is that code of authoritative precepts which the Jew had in the law.

As a law to himself, he recognized himself as under authority, as the Jew did, and under divine authority, for that is all that the apostle has in view, as is plain, just now; but he is under no yoke imposed by God as the Jew was; whatever be the cause of it (which we have seen in part, but which we are not investigating here,) he is a man left to himself. Yet there is that in him which does the work which the law was designed to do in giving the knowledge of sin (Rom 3:20); not indeed in the perfect manner of the law, yet so that he who listens to the inward monitor may well condemn the Jew with his higher privilege and his lower practice.

The conscience also of the Gentile bears witness with his works, which are not fortuitous and arbitrary in character, but such that his thoughts argue against or for him, as he violates or follows the injunctions of his guide, just as with the Jew his conscience. Thus while as to the whole neither of them can plead righteousness, the Gentile may stand comparatively higher than the Jew.

In neither case is the law written on the heart naturally, as the promise of the new covenant conclusively shows: if it were true of all men naturally, it could not be a special promise to a certain class. The law written on the heart by God implies that those of whom He speaks will have hearts that forbid their forgetting what He has commanded any more; and this surely is not the natural condition of any: it belongs to those only of whom He can further say, “Their sins and iniquities I will remember no more.” The hundred and nineteenth psalm is the fervent expression of a heart so blessed.

The three verses closing with the fifteenth are a parenthesis, the apostle returning in the sixteenth verse to announce a day when God shall judge, according to the principles he has stated, the secrets of men. “God,” says the Preacher, “shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil” (Ecc 12:14). Darkness suits men now, and clouds and darkness compass often the throne of God; His ways are a mystery that we cannot fathom; but while He looks for faith now, He will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and make all manifest in the day that is at hand. This is as true with regard to saint as sinner, and sinner as saint; although the common thought of the two being judged together, as well as that of the saint coming personally into judgment, confounds what God has separated, and can find no scripture-justification. In what is before us here we must remember that, except in the brief glance in the introduction, the gospel has not yet been considered, nor the place therefore which it accords the believer. The day of judgment of which the apostle speaks is indeed “according to the gospel;” but is the dark background of wrath upon the sinner against which the glory of the gospel shines so wonderfully out. We must accept this judgment, to know what grace is; for God’s only salvation is by judgment borne for us; and we cannot know the mystery of the Cross, until we know the penalty which the Cross has met.

It is the consideration of the principles of the coming judgment which has made it necessary to anticipate in some measure the case of the Jew, while it is that of the Gentile which is in fact before us. But it is in that which follows that the Jew comes fully up. He cannot be judged like the Gentile, upon natural grounds simply: we must take into account also his relation to the law, and finally to the promises of God; although this last comes in in a supplementary way, and after the doctrine of the gospel itself, and the position of the believer before God, have been fully established.

Fuente: Grant’s Numerical Bible Notes and Commentary

MAN LOST BY NATURE

We saw in the last lesson that man if he would be saved must become righteous before God, and the righteousness which alone satisfies Him is that which he Himself supplies. We now learn what mans condition is which makes this a necessity. In other words this lesson, constituting the second general division of the epistle, (1) gives us a Divine declaration about sin (Rom 1:18-21); (2) shows it to be punitive and degenerative in its effects (Rom 1:22-23); and (3) teaches the universality of its extent (2:1-3:20).

As to the Divine declaration about sin, we perceive that not only is there a righteousness from God revealed from heaven, but a wrath of God as well. The first gives the remedy, the second the penalty if the remedy is not applied. Who hold the truth, might be rendered who hold down the truth. That is, the truth of God, whose saving power might be known to men, is held down, does not get a chance to be known, because of mans unrighteousness (Rom 1:18). This truth might be known by the facts of creation. Not that the Gospel of redemption is revealed in nature, but sufficient of God is thus revealed, i.e., His eternal power and Godhead, to have kept men true to Him essentially, so that they are without excuse (Rom 1:20). This is seen in what follows: Man once knew God, the story of Eden shows this; but he is now fallen from God, through his own ingratitude and conceited reasonings. The fall is moral, rather than intellectual, for his foolish [senseless] heart is darkened (Rom 1:18-21).

Sin at once becomes punitive and degenerative. Observe the downgrade: failure to glorify God; ingratitude; vain reasonings; darkened moral nature; turned into fools; worshipping natural objects, men, birds, beasts, reptiles; given over to uncleanness in the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves (Rom 1:22-25 ff.). The horrible details of this indictment against the Gentile world is established by the classics of Greek and Latin literature, showing that these things were true not merely of the low and ignorant, but the high and cultured of Pauls day.

This thought is now elaborated, which shows the philosophers and moralizers of Greece and Rome to be no better than the others (Rom 2:1-3). They were incapable of judging others; only God could do that, Who is no respecter of persons (Rom 2:6-11). His judgment would be just both as against the Gentiles and .Jews. The former had not the revealed law as did the latter, i.e., they did not have the Old Testament scriptures, but would be judged by the law written in their hearts (Rom 2:12-16).

Special attention is now given the Jews because they had the Old Testament scriptures, and while equally sinful with the pagan Gentiles, were yet trusting in their knowledge of the letter of the law as making them better than they (Rom 2:17-20). The answer assumed in the case of each question in Rom 2:21-23 is affirmative, proven by the concluding verses of the chapter.

Did this mean then, that the Jew had no advantage whatever over the pagan Gentile? No, for the reason in Rom 3:1-2. It was an advantage for the Jew to have the Scriptures even though some did not believe them (Rom 3:3-4). Rom 3:5-8 are parenthetical, with the main question taken up again at 9. The Jews are morally no better as a class than the pagans, proven by the facts of history just alluded to (Rom 3:21-24), and by their own Scriptures (Rom 3:10-18 with Psa 14:1-3; Psa 53:1; Psa 5:9; Psa 10:7; Psa 36:1). These were the things which their own law said, and said to them as Jews, because the Gentiles did not know the law. Therefore the mouth, i.e., the boasting of the Jew was stopped as well as that of the Gentiles, and all the world. Jew and Gentile, was guilty before God (Rom 3:19). This proved that as the result of the works of the law no man could be accounted righteous before God, for the clearer one apprehended the law the more condemned as a sinner he became (Rom 3:20).

QUESTIONS

1. What did the previous lesson teach us?

2. What are we to learn from this lesson?

3. Divide this lesson into three general parts.

4. What two great things are revealed from heaven?

5. Why are men without excuse for their ignorance of God?

6. Name some of the steps in the downgrade of sin.

7. What is the bearing of contemporaneous literature on Pauls indictment of the pagan world?

8. By what two lines of proof are the Jews proven as guilty as the Gentiles?

9. How would you interpret Rom 3:20?

Fuente: James Gray’s Concise Bible Commentary

Our apostle having asserted and laid down a general proposition, that the justification of a sinner is only to be expected by the righteousness of the Mediator in a way of faith; he now undertakes the proof and demonstration of it thus; distributes the whole world into Gentiles and Jews; the former seeking righteousness by the dim light of nature; or the law written in their hearts; the latter by the works of the law, that is, by their external conformity to what the law of Moses exacted and required of them.

Now his present business is to prove distinctly and fully, that neither Gentile nor Jew could ever find what they thus sought. He begins here with the Gentiles, and shews that indeed they had inbred notions of a God imprinted in their minds by nature, and also had the book of the creature before their eyes, in which much, very much of God, might be seen: yet these common notices of God, and of good and evil, they did not obey and put in practice but rebelled against the light and dictates of their natural consciences: for which cause, the wrath of God was revealed from heaven against them.

Here observe, 1. A dreadful manifestation of divine wrath: The wrath of God is revealed from heaven. The wrath of God; that is, the indignation or vengeance of God: This the sinner shall feel who doth not fear it; for the fears of an incensed Deity are no bug-bears, nor the effects of ignorance and superstition, as the Atheists fancy. This wrath is said to be revealed from heaven; that is, discovered and made manifest by the God of heaven, partly by the light of nature, their own consciences giving them notice and warning of it; and partly by the examples of others, in the lashes of a divine severity on the back of sinners, by the hand of an incensed God: Thus the wrath of God was revealed to the Gentiles from heaven.

Observe, 2. The object or impulsive cause of his revealed and inflicted wrath; namely, All ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. Ungodliness compriseth all sins against God, or neglect of the duties of the first table: Unrighteousness comprehends all sins against our neighbour, or the breaches of the second table.

Note here, That the abstract is put for the concrete, the sins for the sinners that commit them; the wrath of God is revealed against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men; that is, against all ungodly and unrighteous persons; the meaning is, that God will certainly punish these sins upon the persons of the sinners.

Observe, 3. The special aggravation of these their sins, or that which made them so very provoking to Almighty God; namely, that they held the truth in unrighteousness; that is, their natural convictions were kept down under the dominion and power of their corruptions. Lust in their wills and affections was too hard for the light in their understandings; they entertained the light of truth in their minds, but did not suffer it to have its proper effect and influence upon their hearts and lives; thus making that a prisoner which would have made them free.

Learn, 1. That it is a very great aggravation of sin, for men to offend against the light of their own minds, and to rebel against the convictions of their own consciences.

2. That the wrath of God is dreadfully incensed against all those that live in any course of sin, rebelling against the dictates and convictions of their own enlightened consciences.

Dread it then, as thou dreadest hell itself, to sin against knowledge, to rebel against the light of thy own mind, to slight the whispers, to stifle the voice of thy own conscience; but reverence and obey its dictates as the commands of God.

Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament

Rom 1:18. For, &c. There is no other way of obtaining righteousness, life, and salvation. Having laid down this proposition, the apostle now enters upon the proof it. His first argument is, the law, whether of nature or of supernatural revelation, condemns all men as having violated it, and as being under sin. No one, therefore, is justified by the works of the law. This is treated of to Rom 3:20. And hence he infers, therefore, justification is by faith. The wrath of God is revealed Here and in the preceding verse mention is made of a two-fold revelation, of wrath and of righteousness: the former, little known to nature, is revealed by the law; the latter, wholly unknown to nature, by the gospel. The wrath of God, due to the sins of men, is also revealed by frequent and signal interpositions of divine providence; in all parts of the Sacred Oracles; by Gods inspired messengers, whether under the Jewish or Christian dispensations; and by the consciences of sinners, clearly teaching that God will severely punish all sin, whether committed against God or man; from heaven This speaks the majesty of Him whose wrath is revealed, his all-seeing eye, his strict and impartial justice, and the extent of his wrath: whatever is under heaven, is under the effects of his wrath, believers in Christ excepted; against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men He speaks chiefly of the heathen; and the term ungodliness seems especially to refer to their atheism, polytheism, and idolatry, comprehending, however, every kind and degree of impiety and profaneness; and unrighteousness includes their other miscarriages and vices, their offences against truth, justice, mercy, charity toward one another, with their various acts of intemperance and lewdness. According to which sense of the words, they are distinctly treated of by the apostle in the following verses. Who hold the truth in unrighteousness Which word here includes ungodliness also; that is, who, in some measure at least, know the truth, but do not obey it, acting in opposition to their knowledge, and the conviction of their own consciences. Or, as the word properly signifies, who detain, or imprison, as it were, the truth in unrighteousness. He thus expresses himself, because the truth made known, in some degree, struggles against mens wickedness, reproves them for it, dissuades them from it, and warns them of punishment impending over it. All mankind, even the heathen, have been and are acquainted with many truths concerning moral duties, due to God, their fellow-creatures, and themselves. But, not hearkening to the voice of these truths, but resisting their influence, and disregarding their warnings, they have been and still are more or less involved in guilt, and exposed to condemnation and wrath. Dr. Macknight, who translates this clause, who confine the truth by unrighteousness, thinks the apostle speaks chiefly with a reference to the philosophers, legislators, and magistrates among the Greeks and Romans, who concealed the truth concerning God from the vulgar, by their unrighteous institutions. The meaning, says he, is, that the knowledge of the one true God, the Maker and Governor of the universe, which the persons here spoken of had attained by contemplating the works of creation, they did not discover to the rest of mankind; but confined it in their own breasts as in a prison, by the most flagrant unrighteousness. For they presented, as objects of worship, beings which are not by their nature God; nay, beings of the most immoral characters; and by so doing, as well as by the infamous rites with which they appointed these false gods to be worshipped, they led mankind into the grossest errors, concerning the nature and attributes of the proper object of their worship. This corrupt form of religion, though extremely acceptable to the common people, was not contrived and established by them. In all countries they were grossly ignorant of God, and of the worship which he required. They therefore could not be charged with the crime of concealing the truth concerning God. The persons guilty of that crime were the legislators, who first formed mankind into cities and states, and who, as the apostle observes, Rom 1:21, though they knew God, did not glorify him as God, by making him the object of the peoples worship, but unrighteously established polytheism and idolatry as the public religion. Of the same crime the magistrates and philosophers were likewise guilty, who, in after times, by their precepts and examples, upheld the established religion. Of this number were Pythagoras, Socrates, and Plato, whom, therefore, we may suppose the apostle had here in his eye. For although these men had attained [in some degree] the knowledge of the true God, none of them worshipped him publicly, neither did they declare him to the people, that they might worship him. Plato himself held that the knowledge of the one God was not to be divulged. See Euseb., Prpar. Evang., lib. 10. cap. 9. And in his Timus, he says expressly, It is neither easy to find the Parent of the universe, nor safe to discover him to the vulgar, when found. The same conduct was observed by Seneca, as Augustine hath proved from his writings, De Civit. Dei., lib. 6. cap. 10. The same Augustine, in his book, De Vera Relig., cap. 5, blames the philosophers in general, because they practised the most abominable idolatries with the vulgar, although, in their schools, they delivered doctrines concerning the nature of the gods, inconsistent with the established worship.

Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Fourth Passage (1:18-32). The Wrath of God on the Gentiles.

According to Paul’s usual style, the first verse contains summarily all the ideas developed in the following piece. The study of the verse will thus be an analysis by anticipation of the whole passage.

Fuente: Godet Commentary (Luke, John, Romans and 1 Corinthians)

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hinder the truth in unrighteousness [“For” is intended to introduce a direct proof as to the statement in Rom 1:17; thus: The righteousness of God of which the apostle has been speaking is revealed to a man by his faith; i. e., it is seen only by the believing, for all that others see revealed towards man’s unrighteousness is wrath. In other words, only God’s gospel reveals this righteousness, and it is addressed to and received by faith. God’s other revelations seen in nature reveal no pardoning, justifying grace; but show, in the visitations of terrible judgments, retributions, punitive corrections, deaths, etc., that God pours out the fruits of his displeasure on the wickedness of men, whether it be sin against himself (ungodliness), or sin against the laws and precepts which he has given (unrighteousness), either sin being a stifling of the truth which they knew about God, by willful indulgences in unrighteousness. The apostle is here speaking of the Gentiles; he discusses the case of the Jews separately later on. The precepts, truth, etc., to which he refers are, therefore, not those found in the Old Testament Scriptures, which were known to the Jews; but those which were traditionally handed down by and among the heathen from the patriarchal days. “All the light,” as Poole says, “which was left in man since the fall”];

Fuente: McGarvey and Pendleton Commentaries (New Testament)

ATTITUDE OF THE HEATHENS

18. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men holding down the truth in unrighteousness,

Fuente: William Godbey’s Commentary on the New Testament

Rom 1:18-32. Mankind is in a ruinous plight: Gods Anger, which is His righteousness reacting against wrong, rests upon the race.

Rom 1:18 a. The Divine wrath is being revealed from heaven in action against all impiety and unrighteousness of men. The revelation is apparent in the moral outcome of irreligion described in Rom 1:21-32an apocalypse more appalling than earthquake or famine.

Rom 1:18 b Rom 1:20. Man is responsible for his perdition: in committing unrighteousness men hold down the truth; they ignore the knowledge of God lodged in conscience (cf. Rom 2:14 f.) and shining from the face of nature, so leaving themselves without excuse (Rom 1:21-23, cf. Rom 1:28). Ingratitude lies at the root of this disregard of God; its fruit is mental impotence and confusion, evidenced by the monstrous follies of idolatry. The nemesis of religious apostasy delineated in Rom 1:24-31 has two outstanding features: the horrible uncleanness notorious in the Grco-Roman world, much of it associated with idolatry (Rom 1:24-27); and the malignity and inhumanity in manifold forms pervading society (Rom 1:28-31).

Rom 1:32. The climax of depravity is seen in those who, while they sin themselves in defiance of judgment, applaud the sins of others. Thrice (Rom 1:24; Rom 1:26; Rom 1:28) the expression recurs, God gave them over . . . to uncleanness, etc.: Gods will operates in the inflexible laws by which sin breeds its punishment (Jas 1:15); men deny their Maker, then degrade themselves. First (Rom 1:19-21) and last (Rom 1:28), the charge is that men did not think God worth while keeping in mind.This indictment is confirmed by contemporary literature; Corinth, from which Paul wrotethe metropolis of Greek vicecolours the lurid picture.

Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible

Verse 18

The wrath of God; the displeasure of God.–Who hold the truth; that is, hold it back, make it of none effect.

Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament

DIVISION I. ALL ARE GUILTY CHS. 1:18-3:20

SECTION 4 FOR GOD IS ANGRY WITH ALL SIN

CH. 1:18-32

For there is revealed Gods anger from heaven upon all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, of those who hold down the truth in unrighteousness: because that which is known of God is manifest among them: for God manifested it to them. For the invisible things of Him, from the foundation of the world, being perceived through the things made, are clearly seen, viz. His eternal power and divinity; that they may be without excuse, because, having come to know God, not as God did they glorify Him or gave thanks; but they became vain in their reasonings, and their heart without understanding was darkened. Professing to be wise, they became foolish; and they changed the glory of the incorruptible God for a likeness of an image of corruptible man and birds and quadrupeds and creeping things.

For which cause God gave them up, in the desires of their hearts, to uncleanness, that their bodies be dishonoured among themselves, men who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and revered and served the creature rather than Him that created, who is blessed for ever. Amen.

Because of this, God gave them up to passions of dishonour. For both their females exchanged the natural use for that against nature; and in like manner the males, having left the natural use of the female, burned in their lust one for another, males with males working out unseemliness, and receiving in themselves the necessary recompense of their error.

And, according as they did not approve to have God in their understanding, God gave them up to a disapproved mind, to do the things not fitting; being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, covetousness, evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, an evil disposition; whisperers, evil speakers, hateful to God, wanton, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil things, without obedience to parents, without understanding, without fidelity to covenants, without affection, without mercy; men who, knowing the decree of God that they who practise such things are worthy of death, not only do they but are pleased with those that practise them.

This section confirms Rom 1:17 by proving something without which it would not be true, viz. that all men are under the anger of God. Rom 1:17 explained how the Gospel is a power to save all that believe, by saying that in it is revealed a divinely-given conformity to the Law. This explanation rests on an assumption that all men capable of believing the good news are, apart from it, destitute of Gods favour. Otherwise, a revelation of his favour will not save them, but will bring to light only what they already possess. Therefore, in order to give force to Rom 1:17, this assumption must be proved. Otherwise, the force of Rom 1:16, which gave a reason for Pauls readiness to preach at Rome, will not be felt: for unless the Romans need salvation, the Gospels power to save will not prompt Paul to bring it to them. Consequently, the entire weight of Rom 1:16-17, which contain a summary of the epistle, rests upon the assumption that all men are, apart from the Gospel, under the anger of God. Pauls earnest efforts to preach to all men the good news of salvation were prompted by his deep conviction of the lost state of all.

In DIV. I. Paul asserts, and then proves, Gods anger against all sin. In 4, he proves it in reference to the Gentiles; in 5-7, in reference to the Jews. He shows ( 8) that this is consistent with the privileges conferred on the Jews; and ( 9) with the Jewish Scriptures. He assumes in Rom 2:1; Rom 3:9; Rom 3:19 that all men are sinners; and therefore draws, in Rom 3:19-20, the inference that all men are guilty before God.

The argument of this section presents peculiar difficulties. Its proofs are taken from the life and thought of the heathen in Pauls day, well known to him and his readers but not to us. We may in part reproduce it from ancient writers and from the analogy of modern heathenism. But we are not sure of the extent to which the statements of the old writers were true of the mass of the population, and of the degree to which modern heathens resembles that which surrounded Paul. Consequently, we have no firm hold of the facts on which his reasoning rests; and therefore we cannot feel its full force.

A study of it will however be of great profit. We shall understand the writers conclusions, and the principles on which he argues. These we shall compare with what we see in ourselves and in the world around and with what we read in ancient literature; and we shall find that they shed light on some of the most mysterious problems of human nature.

Rom 1:18. Not only is righteousness of God revealed in the Gospel but elsewhere anger of God is revealed, or unveiled, i.e. brought to the knowledge of men.

Anger, or wrath: an emotion or disposition which prompts us to punish, the opposite of grace. It is common to God and men: cp. Eph 4:26. For the most part, it is now hidden in the breast of God; but it will burst forth upon the wicked in the day of anger and revelation of the righteous judgment of God: Rom 2:5. Paul here says that this anger is already being revealed or made known; but in what way he does not, in Rom 1:18, tell us. The Jews read the anger of God in the pages of the Old Testament. But of this there is no hint here.

Consequently, we must wait for, and in Rom 1:24-32 we shall find, another revelation of the anger of God. It is revealed, not like the Gospel by a voice which speaks on earth, but directly from heaven, whence God from His throne looks down upon all ungodliness. Notice two aspects of sin: ungodliness or want of respect for God, and unrighteousness or want of conformity to the law laid down for mans conduct. Every sin deserves both names. But in some, as in Rom 1:21-23, the ungodliness, in others, as in Rom 1:24-32, the unrighteousness is more conspicuous.

All unrighteousness of men: rather than all unrighteous men, making prominent the exact object of Gods anger, viz. the sin rather than the sinner. Many and various forms of sin alike call forth the anger of God.

Of those who etc.: further description of those with whom God is angry, giving the special aspect of sin which provokes Gods anger. All sinners hold down or hold back, i.e. resist, the truth: they prevent it from attaining its purpose. Sin is therefore positive resistance to God.

Truth: correspondence between a reality and a declaration which professes to set it forth. Words are true when they correspond with objective reality: persons and things are true when they correspond with their profession. Hence a truth is a declaration which has corresponding reality, or a reality which is correctly set forth. Since God is Himself the great reality, that which correctly sets forth His nature is pre-eminently the Truth. Paul will prove that the heathen have the truth. It was designed to mould and raise their thought and life; but they prefer unrighteousness, and thus hold down the truth.

The rest of 4 explains, accounts for, and proves, the assertion of Rom 1:18. It falls naturally into the following divisions: God is angry with all sin (a) because He made Himself known to men, Rom 1:19-20; (b) but they refused to honour Him and fell into the folly of idolatry, Rom 1:21-23; (c) therefore God gave them up to dishonour, Rom 1:24; (d) men who put the folly of idolatry in place of the truth of God, Rom 1:25; (e) therefore God gave them up to dishonour and shame, Rom 1:26-27; (f) they refused to know God, and God gave them up to all kinds of sin, Rom 1:28-32. Thus (d) and (e) are parallel to, and develop, (b) and (c).

Rom 1:19. Because they know better, God is angry with these ungodly and unrighteous men.

That which is known of God: His nature so far as it was known to the heathen. For to them Paul evidently refers: see Rom 1:23.

Manifest: set conspicuously before mens eyes, whether they see it or not. Same word in Rom 2:28; 1Co 3:13; 1Co 11:19; 1Co 14:25 : cognate verb below, made-manifest, and in Rom 3:21; Rom 16:26; 2Co 5:10-11, etc.: another cognate verb in Rom 7:13; Joh 1:5; Joh 5:35, translated to shine. The word revealed denotes that which is actually known: see under Rom 1:17.

For God etc.; explains the foregoing by an historical fact. God wrote His own name before the eyes of men that all might read it. The statement in Rom 1:18 true of all men. But Rom 1:19, which begins the proof that all men have the truth, suggests the Gentiles, about whom alone there could be any doubt. This reference is the more natural because the Gentiles were the mass of mankind.

Rom 1:20. Proof of the foregoing. From the fact that the Gentiles actually knew God, Paul infers that He manifested Himself to them.

The invisible things of Him: the existence and nature of the unseen God, equivalent to that which is known of God, and including His eternal power and all that is involved in His divinity.

From the creation of the world: a note of time, as in Mar 13:19; Mar 10:6. This measurement of time is chosen because by the works of creation God reveals His otherwise unseen nature. Notice here a revelation of God more widely spread, and earlier, than that of the Old Covenant. Gods works sprang from, and correspond with, His nature; and therefore they reveal it.

Through the things made the unseen Worker is clearly-seen; being-perceived by the eye of the mind, which looks through the visible to that which is beyond and above it.

Divinity: the whole of that which goes to make up our idea of God, all that in which God differs from us, including His eternal power. In Nature, this eternal God, so mighty and so different from us, is actually seen and known by men. Pauls readers would judge of the truth of this assertion. And, if true, Rom 1:19 also is true. That men read in Nature the name of God, proves that it was written there by God. Therefore, since whatever God does He does with design, we infer that God wrote His name on the page of Creation in order that men might read it and thus know God. Just as God revealed Himself to the Jews through the lips of inspired men, so He also revealed Himself to the Gentiles in the thousand voices of the material world.

That they might be without excuse: purpose of God in thus revealing His nature, viz. in order to leave men without excuse for dishonouring Him. This statement is evidently true. For all that comes from God must have a purpose. And the purpose of Gods revelation of Himself in Nature could not be mere communication of knowledge: for knowledge is useless unless it lead to something beyond itself. Nor could its immediate purpose be to lead men to glorify God. For, as we shall see, man was fast bound in sin, and therefore unable to glorify God: and this revelation could not break his fetters. Its only possible result was a consciousness of guilt for dishonouring God. And, if so, this must have been its designed result.

Therefore, apart from the authority of Paul, we are compelled by the facts of the case to accept his assertion that God revealed Himself in Nature in order to leave man without excuse for forgetting God. For the same purpose, the Law was given to the Jews: Rom 3:19. These revelations had, however, a further purpose of mercy and salvation. By evoking consciousness of guilt, they prepared a way for (Rom 1:17) a revelation of righteousness. But consciousness of guilt was all that they were able directly to produce; and is therefore spoken of as the end for which they were given.

Summary of Rom 1:18-20. The heathen knew Gods nature from His works. From this Paul infers that God made it known to them; and that He did so in order to remove from them all excuse for ungodliness and ingratitude. This proves that God desires mans reverence and thanks; and proves that they who refuse to honour God resist the truth which God has revealed.

The assertion that through His works God was known to the heathen is abundantly confirmed by the literature of the ancient world. Of writers known to Pauls readers, we notice that both Plato and Cicero appeal to the material world as manifestly a work of an intelligent Creator. See especially Platos Timus pp. 28-30 and bk. ii. of Ciceros Nature of the Gods, quoted on pp. 16-19 of my Through Christ to God.

Rom 1:21-23. Reason why they were without excuse, or the conduct which God made inexcusable by this revelation of Himself. The word know is so indefinite, especially with a personal object, that Paul could correctly say that the heathen knew God, and, as in Gal 4:8; 1Th 4:5, that they did not know God. To what extent they knew God, he has already stated in Rom 1:20.

Glorify: to welcome as an object of admiration, and by word or act to express admiration for the object glorified. See note under Rom 1:23. The heathen did not give to God the admiration and expressions of admiration which from His manifestation of Himself in Nature they knew that He rightfully claimed.

Nor did they give thanks for His kindness to them. Instead of giving to God admiration and gratitude, they reasoned about Him in a way which could lead to no good result, and their useless reasonings reacted upon themselves: they became vain (see under Rom 8:20) in their reasonings, and their heart, which was without understanding, lost the light needful for apprehension of God and became darkened. So always. The eye which refused to see lost to some extent the power of sight.

The heart is the inmost centre of man. Hence the metaphors in Mat 12:40; 2Sa 18:14; Jon 2:3; Exo 15:8. It is the seat of the understanding, and the source of the thoughts, desires, emotions, words, and actions; the motive power of human life, the helm of the human ship, from which the man looks out on the world around and shapes his course. Whatever is in the heart rules the conduct. Cp. Rom 1:24; Rom 10:1; Rom 10:9; Mat 13:15; Eph 1:18; Mat 15:18 f; 1Co 2:9; 1Co 4:5; Heb 4:12. The modern distinction of head and heart is not found in the Bible. The heart, never the head, is the seat of the intelligence.

Their heart, not hearts: so Rom 6:12; 1Co 6:19 f; according to Greek usage. Each has one heart, and each ones heart is looked at singly.

Rom 1:22-23. Proof that their heart was without understanding, and darkened.

Professing to be wise: a ludicrous contrast to their folly and their worship of animals instead of God.

Glory: admiration evoked by grandeur real or apparent, and expressing itself in words or actions. In this subjective sense, it is used in Rom 4:20; Rom 11:36; Rom 15:7; Rom 16:27 : cp. Joh 5:41; Joh 5:44; Joh 12:43. In classical Greek, the word denotes an opinion, the impression an object makes on the mind of a beholder. But in the Greek Bible it denotes frequently the objective quality which evokes admiration, i.e. manifested grandeur.

The glory of God denotes here and Rom 6:4; Rom 9:23; Tit 2:13; Rev 18:1; Rev 21:11; Rev 21:23 the manifested grandeur of God, so calculated to evoke His creatures admiration. In Rom 15:7; 1Co 10:31; Php 1:11, the same phrase denotes admiration for God evoked by His manifested grandeur. Cp. glory of the Lord in Luk 2:9; 2Co 3:18. Men glorify God when they receive Him as an object of their admiration, and when, by words or acts, they make Him known to others to be the object of their admiration. See also under Rom 3:23; Rom 5:2.

To such depth of folly fell the men to whom Paul refers that they put aside the splendour of God, incapable of decay, and put in place of it an image of men and animals doomed to decay. The contrast between incorruptible (see under Rom 2:7) and corruptible puts their folly in clearest light.

Image: a concrete imitation.

Likeness: the generic quality in which one image is like another: cp. Rom 5:14; Rom 6:5; Rom 8:3; Php 2:7. With this abstract quality of an image of a perishing man is contrasted the outshining grandeur of the immortal God.

And of birds and quadrupeds and creeping things: further marks of their folly. The objects of their worship pass before us in slow procession, and increase our wonder at the folly of those who turn from God to worship imitations of these brute creatures. We see the principle of veneration so deeply seated in them that they must worship something: and so foolish are they that these images are fairer in their eyes than the Creator of the universe.

The facts of idolatry here asserted lie before us in the writings and relics of antiquity. Statues of men were worshipped by the Greeks: and the mummies of birds and reptiles, from the temples of Egypt, fill our museums. And, when Paul wrote, scarcely a serious voice had been raised in heathendom against this folly.

The clearness of the reasoning of the Greeks about other matters makes more conspicuous their failure in this all-important matter. That they saw not their folly, reveals their blindness.

Rom 1:21-23 prove that the heathen are without excuse for their idolatry: Rom 1:20 asserts that in order to leave them without excuse God manifested Himself to them in nature. In other words, the only possible result of this manifestation was its designed result. But this was not its ultimate aim. Nature, like the Law, (see Gal 3:24,) was a guardian slave to lead men to Christ.

Rom 1:24. Divinely-ordained result and punishment of their idolatry.

Gave-up: handed over into the power of another; as in Rom 4:25; Rom 6:17; Rom 8:32.

To uncleanness: same word in Rom 6:19; Eph 4:19 : the enemy into whose hands God gave them up. It is further specified as a defilement characterised by having their bodies dishonoured among themselves, i.e. one with another. Still further details in Rom 1:26-27. Notice that sin is here represented as an enemy against whom the sinner is unable to protect himself: so Rom 7:23. Surrender to this awful foe is the divinely-inflicted penalty of turning from God to idols. This surrender took place in the desires (see under Rom 6:12) of their hearts. They longed for things around, often for bad things: and, full of desires they could not control, they were given up to shameful mutual pollution. In this surrender to their enemies the victims acquiesced: Eph 4:19. Fortunately the surrender was not necessarily final. Many of Pauls readers had once been given up to similar sins: but in the land of bondage they had cried for deliverance, and their cry had been heard: so 1Co 6:9-11. We shall find that this verse is the centre, and contains the kernel, of the whole section.

Rom 1:25. Another indignant delineation, parallel to that in Rom 1:21-23, of the sin of idolatry so terribly punished.

The truth (see under Rom 2:18) of God: His eternal power and divinity, viewed as a reality correctly set forth in Nature.

The lie: outward form without any corresponding reality. Notice the awful contrast: the truth of God the Lie. The heathen exchanged their divinely-given knowledge of the supreme reality for the unreality and error and deception of idolatry.

Revered: stronger than glorified in Rom 1:21. They made imitations of animals an object of their lowly adoration.

And served: as in Rom 1:9. It suggests the ritual of idolatry. It is evident that they worshipped the creature only, and Him that created not at all. But Paul uses the milder words rather than in order to make their folly the more evident by comparing the objects chosen and refused. To bless, is to speak good to, or of, a person; the meaning in each case being determined by the relation of the persons concerned. God blesses us by declaring the good He will do us: and His word conveys the good to us. We bless God by declaring how good He is: Luk 1:64; Luk 2:28.

God is blessed: to endless ages an unceasing song will proclaim His goodness.

Amen: a Hebrew word denoting certainly, and adopted into N.T. Greek.

It is translated verily (A.V. and R.V.) in Joh 3:3; Joh 3:5; Joh 3:11, etc. At the end of a prayer, it expresses desire for an answer. Cp. Jer 11:5; Jer 28:6 where its meaning is explained, Num 5:22; Deu 27:15; also 2Co 1:20; Rev 3:14.

Paul has been describing the folly of the heathen, and watching their worship and its degrading and perishing objects. Weary with the sight, he lifts his eyes to heaven. To the eye of faith appears the eternal throne, surrounded by a host of happy and intelligent worshippers. From afar, their hallelujahs fall upon his ear: and he knows that those songs will rise for ever, literally to the ages, the successive periods of the future. The glorious vision reveals to him the madness of the idolaters around. From Him whom angels worship, they turn to their own perishing imitations of perishing men and animals. Paul cannot repress a tribute of honour to the dishonoured Creator. While he listens to the anthem, which he knows will be eternal, he joins the chorus, and cries Amen. Cp. Rom 9:5; Rom 11:36; Rom 16:27; Rev 5:14.

Notice various phrases describing mans conception of God.

That which is known of God describes Him as apprehended by men.

The invisible things of Him: because, though placed by God within reach of the piercing glance of mans mind, the nature of God is beyond the range of his eye.

The glory of God: as calculated to evoke mans admiration, in contrast to the contemptible forms of heathen worship.

The truth of God: a conception corresponding with reality, in contrast to the unreality of everything belonging to idolatry.

Rom 1:26-27. Further exposition of the assertion in Rom 1:24. Notice the stately repetition: because of this, God gave them up to passions of dishonour.

Females males: terms applicable to animals. They were unworthy to be called women and men. The degradation of their females, among whom modesty lingers last, is put first, as the surest mark of national disgrace. That these pictures are true, the pages of ancient writers afford decisive and sad proof. The impurity of the Greeks was a great feature of their national life: and it seems to have been, in Pauls day, equalled at Rome.

And receiving etc.: a comment on the foregoing, explaining God gave them up and indicating the main argument of the section.

In themselves: in their own bodies dishonoured by themselves.

The recompense: the self-inflicted shame which is, by Gods just appointment, the necessary result of turning from God to idols. In other words, the personal degradation which inevitably accompanies idolatry is Gods condemnation and punishment of it, and a revelation (Rom 1:18) of His anger against idolaters.

Rom 1:28-32. Other immoral consequences of idolatry.

According as: Gods conduct to them corresponding with theirs to Him.

They did not approve: they weighed the matter in their mind, and deliberately resolved not to make God an object of their thought. Notice, a third time, God gave them up. The repetition lays solemn emphasis on their punishment.

Disapproved mind: a mind tested and found worthless. They put to the test the question of giving God a place in their mind, and rejected it: and God gave them up to a mind weighed in the balances and found wanting.

To do the things not fitting: Gods purpose in giving them up to a disapproved mind. He resolved that forgetfulness of Himself should be followed by sin, and thus made this sequence, as stated in Rom 1:27, inevitable. It became inevitable by the withdrawal of those divine influences which alone can save men from sin.

Filled with all unrighteousness: state of heart from which spring all kinds of sin.

Wickedness: that which injures others. Satan is the wicked one: 1Jn 2:13.

Coveteousness: desire for more than our share.

An evil-disposition: that which prompts men to look at everything in a bad light, and to turn everything to a bad use.

Hateful-to-God: or hating God. The former accords with Greek use, and gives a good sense. It is a comment on what goes before.

Wanton: those who do what they like, without considering whether they trample under foot the rights, the property, or the lives, of others: such was once Paul: 2Ti 1:13.

Men who, knowing etc.: recalling Rom 1:21, and emphasising a chief thought of this section. The Greeks and Romans knew that the general principles of morality had a superhuman source; and that to sin against these was to resist a higher power. See under Rom 2:15.

Are pleased with etc.: last and darkest count in this catalogue of sins. Many commit sin, carried away by selfishness or passion, who condemn it in others. To take pleasure in the sin of ones neighbour, shows a love of sin, not for some further gain, but for its own sake.

Abundant literature of the ancient world attests the truth of the above picture of those among whom Paul lived.

REVIEW. The argument in Rom 1:16-17 implies that all men are, apart from the Gospel, exposed to the anger of God. As a first step in proof of this, Paul asserts, in Rom 1:18, that God is angry with all sin because all sin is resistance to revealed truth. Of this assertion, the remainder of 4 is explanation and proof. To prove that God is angry with all sin, Paul adduces three facts: 1. That, by means of His works, the Gentiles know something about God; 2. That, instead of giving Him honour and thanks, they bowed down to images; 3. That they are guilty of shameful immorality.

From Fact 1, Paul infers that God made Himself known to the Gentiles in order to leave them without excuse for ungodliness and ingratitude. This inference, we will further examine. We learn from their writings that Plato, Cicero, and others knew something about God, and that in His works they read His name and nature. Therefore, by creating these works, God made Himself known to them. And, since whatever God does He does with design, we inferred under Rom 1:20 that God created the material universe in order through it to reveal Himself to men; and that He did so, not to satisfy curiosity, but with a further moral purpose. We ask now, For whom did God form this moral purpose? For the philosophers only? Did He write His name in letters which only they could understand? God reveals Himself, not to the wise and great, but to those of every degree of culture who sincerely seek Him: Mat 11:25. If He revealed Himself to Plato, He must have done so to thousands of others in all positions of life. We therefore infer that God created the material universe in order that it might be a revelation of Himself to the whole human race, and that this revelation was within reach of all who honestly sought the truth; and that the nature of God thus revealed was in some measure known to all who did not shut their eyes to it. To this knowledge of God, Paul appeals in Act 14:17; Act 17:24 : see also Psa 19:2; Wis 13:1-9. The last quotation and the work quoted are of great value as a record of Jewish thought before the appearance of Christ.

In Rom 1:20 Paul asserts that the moral purpose of Gods revelation of Himself in Nature was to leave men without excuse for ungodliness; and, in Rom 3:19, that with the same purpose the Law was given to Israel. This purpose was to some extent attained. For in the best Gentile writings there breathes a consciousness of God.

That God revealed Himself in Nature in order to take away excuse for ungodliness and ingratitude, indicates that He will punish such forgetfulness of Himself; and is therefore a revelation of His anger (Rom 1:18) against all ungodliness.

Fact 2 is introduced, in Rom 1:21-23, as a description of the actual conduct which God made inexcusable by this revelation of Himself. In the ritual of heathenism, Paul shows the inexplicable folly of idolaters. He does not appeal to their folly as a proof of Gods anger against them-for of this He has more convincing proof-but only as an aggravation of the sin of forgetting God. But so great is the folly of idolatry that we can account for it only as punitive blindness. So Paul explains, quoting O.T., the folly of Israel: Rom 11:8-10. It is therefore a mark of Gods anger and of coming punishment.

Similarly, Fact 3, the deep shame of the heathen, can be accounted for only on the supposition that God in His anger gave them up to a hostile and immoral power. Thus in each of these facts, taken by itself, we have proof of Gods anger against the persons referred to.

But this is not all. In the words God gave them up Paul solemnly and repeatedly asserts that Fact 3 is a result of Fact 2 taken in connection with Fact 1; i.e. that the deep shame of the heathen is a divinely-ordained result of their idolatry. If this be so, the proof afforded by the facts taken singly is immensely increased by their connection: and the immorality of the heathen becomes an unquestionable and fearful proof of the anger of God against those who forget Him.

Of this solemn and repeated assertion, Paul gives no proof. To his readers, proof that idolatry fostered inchastity was needless. And I venture to suggest that he singled out this one sin as in a special sense a manifestation of divine anger because these unnatural crimes were almost universal, and yet were universally known to be wrong. Of each of these statements, we have proof in the literature of his day. Indeed, occasional attempts to excuse current practices, betray a secret misgiving. Now, if the mass of the heathen in Pauls day were guilty of a sin from which nature recoils, this sin was, by its universality and its universal self-condemnation, a special mark of the anger of God. Its universality implies a wide-spread cause: and the cause is not far to seek. Put together these facts: a universal manifestation of God, designed to leave men without excuse for ungodliness; a universal turning from God to the inexplicable folly of idolatry; a universal sin which all condemn. Each of these is a mark of Gods anger against sin. But they are inseparable: where we find one we find the others. Their inseparable connection cannot be accidental. We therefore infer, as Paul here asserts, that the universal rejection of the universal revelation, and the universal shame, are cause and effect. And, just as from the connection of cause and effect in the material world we infer the existence of an intelligent Creator, so from this moral cause and effect we now infer that God is the moral Governor of the universe and is determined to punish those who refuse Him homage.

If the above exposition be correct, the solemn and repeated words God gave them up are Pauls own explanation of the statement in Rom 1:18, Gods anger is revealed. By making known His own greatness and power, and by giving up to folly and shame those who forget Him, God reveals plainly, to all who have eyes to see, His anger against ungodliness and unrighteousness. Since this revelation comes from the Maker and Ruler of the world, it may be said to be from heaven. After mentioning one sin which was so remarkable a proof of Gods anger, Paul mentions others as a further result, and therefore a further proof, of the same.

The above argument disproves the teaching of the Epicureans, that anger is inconsistent with deity, and that the gods care not for mans conduct. See Act 17:18 and Cicero On the Nature of the Gods bk. i. 17. The opposite of this, Paul has proved; not so much by formal argument, as by pointing to a chain of moral sequences involving punishment already being inflicted on the ungodly.

Notice the intense reality of this section. There is no artificial order: but there is that higher order in which living thought finds its own correct expression. The writer turns again and again from the sin to the shame and from the shame to the sin. Before his searching and continued gaze, the sin becomes more sinful and the shame more deeply shameful.

This epistle was probably written from Corinth: see Introd. iv. And nowhere did the shamelessness of idolatry parade itself more openly than at Corinth. The argument is therefore a mark of genuineness. The chief DOCTRINAL RESULTS of this section are:

1. Pauls view of Natural Theology. With him, Gods revelation of Himself in Nature holds a place in the moral training of the Gentiles analogous to that of the Law in the training of Israel. A remarkable coincidence in the only two recorded addresses of Paul to heathens, Act 14:15; Act 17:24; each of which begins by appealing to the creation of the world. To the Jews, he begins by quoting the Old Testament. In each case, he appeals to an earlier revelation given to prepare a way for the Gospel; and thus seeks to call forth that consciousness of guilt without which the need of the Gospel is not felt. The revelation in Nature would probably bear its chief fruit in those Gentiles who heard the Gospel. While listening to it, they would condemn themselves, not for rejecting Christ, of whom they had never heard, but for disregarding a revelation which had been before their eyes from childhood. And, just as the Law retains its value even for those who have accepted the Gospel, so the worth of the revelation in Nature remains to those who behold the glory of God in the face of Christ. That God reveals Himself in Nature, raises Natural Science to a sacred study, and gives to it its noblest aim.

2. We learn that, by the just judgment of God, godlessness, folly, and shame go together. Happily these do not exist in the same forms, or to the same extent, with us as with these old heathens. But the principle remains. Are not they guilty of incredible folly who prefer to direct their highest thought and effort to the perishing objects around, rather than to those which will never pass away? And is not this folly chargeable to all who forget God? Again, just in proportion as the image of God fades from our view do we fall into thoughts, motives, and practices, which for very shame we must hide from our fellows. Human nature is the same. The principles here asserted attest themselves before our eyes and in our hearts. The inevitable connection of godlessness, folly, and sin proclaims in words we cannot misunderstand that God is angry with those who forget Him. Even Socrates, in Xenophons Memoirs bk. iv. 4. 24, says that the fact that certain sins produce their own punishment proves that the law which forbids them is from God.

3. The real nature of sin. It is not a mere act, but an adverse power against which, unaided by God, man is powerless. It has allies in our own hearts. The deep shame of the heathen is with Paul fully accounted for by the fact that God gave them up to sin. Of this, all else is a necessary result: mans own moral strength to resist even gross sin is not reckoned for a moment. Hence Pauls indignation is called forth, not by their lust and wickedness, but by their dishonour to God. Of this, their lust is but the punishment. We shall therefore no longer look with Pharisaic wonder on cases of deep depravity. The enormities of crime are explained. We see in them the fearful nature and power of sin, and Gods anger against forgetfulness of Himself. We shall be slow to condemn, quick to pity. In the depravity of others we shall see what ourselves would become if the strong hand of our God were withdrawn. And, in the presence of foes so tremendous, we shall not venture away from our ark of safety.

Fuente: Beet’s Commentary on Selected Books of the New Testament

1:18 {8} For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against {a} all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the {b} truth in unrighteousness;

(8) Another confirmation of the principal question: all men being considered in themselves, or without Christ, are guilty both of ungodliness and also unrighteousness, and therefore are subject on condemnation: therefore they need to seek righteousness in someone else.

(a) Against all types of ungodliness.

(b) By “truth” Paul means all the light that is left in man since his fall, not as though they being led by this were able to come into favour with God, but that their own reason might condemn them of wickedness both against God and man.

Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes

A. The need of all people 1:18-32

Perhaps Paul began by showing all people’s need for God’s righteousness first because he was the apostle to the Gentiles and his Roman readers were primarily Gentiles. His argument in Rom 1:18 to Rom 3:20 moves inward through a series of concentric circles of humanity.

"God never condemns without just cause. Here three bases are stated for His judgment of the pagan world. For suppressing God’s truth (Rom 1:18) For ignoring God’s revelation (Rom 1:19-20) For perverting God’s glory (Rom 1:21-23)" [Note: Witmer, p. 442.]

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)

II. THE NEED FOR GOD’S RIGHTEOUSNESS 1:18-3:20

Paul began his explanation of the gospel by demonstrating that there is a universal need for it. Every human being needs to trust in Jesus Christ because everyone lacks the righteousness that God requires before He will accept us.

"Paul implicitly acknowledges that Rom 1:18 to Rom 3:20 is an interruption in his exposition of the righteousness of God by reprising Rom 1:17 in Rom 3:21 . . . Some think that the ’revelation of God’s wrath’ is a product of the preaching of the gospel, so that Rom 1:18 to Rom 3:20 is as much ’gospel’ as is Rom 3:21 to Rom 4:25 . . . But, although Paul clearly considers warning about judgment to come to be related to his preaching of the gospel (Rom 2:16), his generally positive use of ’gospel’ language forbids us from considering God’s wrath and judgment to be part of the gospel.

"We must consider Rom 1:18 to Rom 3:20 as a preparation for, rather than as part of, Paul’s exposition of the gospel of God’s righteousness." [Note: Moo, p. 92.]

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)

1. The reason for human guilt 1:18

In this verse Paul began to explain why Gentiles need to hear the gospel and experience salvation. Whereas this verse gives one reason, it also serves as a general statement that summarizes human guilt.

God has revealed His wrath as well as His righteousness (Rom 1:17) from heaven in the gospel. [Note: Cranfield, 1:109-10. See René A. López, "Do Believers Experience the Wrath of God?" Journal of the Grace Evangelical Society 15:29 (Autumn 2002):45-66.] As Paul would explain, the unfolding of history also reveals God’s hatred toward sin and His judgment of sin. The moral devolution of humanity is not just a natural consequence of man’s sinning but also a result of God’s judgment of sinners. The final judgment of sin will occur in the eschaton (end times), but already God is pouring out His wrath against sin to a lesser degree (cf. Eph 5:6; Col 3:6). Paul described wrath as revealed from heaven because it comes from God who is in heaven. [Note: G. Dalman, The Words of Jesus, p. 219. See the excursus on the wrath of God in Romans in Newell, pp. 40-46.]

"God’s wrath is his divine displeasure with sin. We call it ’wrath’ because it shares certain basic characteristics of human wrath. But because it is God’s wrath it can have none of the sinful qualities of its analogical counterpart." [Note: Mounce, pp. 76-77.]

"Ungodliness" means lack of reverence for God. Man’s neglect of God and rebellion against God are evidences of ungodliness. "Unrighteousness" or "wickedness" (NIV) means injustice toward other human beings. We see it in any attitude or action that is not loving. Together these two words show humankind’s failure to love God and other people as we should, which are our two greatest responsibilities (Deu 6:5; Lev 19:18; Mat 22:37-39). Rom 1:19-27 demonstrate man’s ungodliness, and Rom 1:28-32 show his wickedness. The "truth" refers to truth that people know about God (cf. Rom 1:25). They suppress this truth by their wickedness.

". . . whenever the truth starts to exert itself and makes them feel uneasy in their moral nature, they hold it down, suppress it. Some drown its voice by rushing on into their immoralities; others strangle the disturbing voice by argument and by denial." [Note: Richard C. H. Lenski, The Interpretation of St. Paul’s Epistle to the Romans, pp. 92-93.]

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)

Chapter 4

NEED FOR THE GOSPEL: GODS ANGER AND MANS SIN

Rom 1:18-23

WE have as it were touched the heart of the Apostle as he weighs the prospect of his Roman visit, and feels, almost in one sensation, the tender and powerful attraction, the solemn duty, and the strange solicitation to shrink from the deliverance of his message. Now his lifted forehead, just lighted up by the radiant truth of Righteousness by Faith, is shadowed suddenly. He is not ashamed of the Gospel; he will speak it out, if need be, in the Caesars own presence, and in that of his brilliant and cynical court. For there is a pressing, an awful need that he should thus “despise the shame.” The very conditions in human life which occasion an instinctive tendency to be reticent of the Gospel, are facts of dreadful urgency and peril. Man does not like to be exposed to himself, and to be summoned to the faith and surrender claimed by Christ. But man, whatever he likes or dislikes, is a sinner, exposed to the eyes of the All-Pure, and lying helpless, amidst all his dreams of pride, beneath the wrath of God. Such is the logic of this stern sequel to the affirmation, “I am not ashamed.”

For Gods wrath is revealed, from heaven, upon all godlessness and unrighteousness of men who in unrighteousness hold down the truth. “Gods wrath is revealed”; Revealed in “the holy Scriptures,” in every history, by every Prophet, by every Psalmist; this perhaps is the main bearing of his thought. But revealed also antecedently and concurrently in that mysterious, inalienable conscience, which is more truly part of man than his five senses. Conscience sees that there is an eternal difference between right and wrong, and feels in the dark the relation of that difference to a law, a Lawgiver, and a doom. Conscience is aware of a fiery light beyond the veil. Revelation meets its wistful gaze, lifts the veil, and affirms the fact of the wrath of God, and of His judgment coming.

Let us not shun that “revelation.” It is not the Gospel. The Gospel, as we have seen, is in itself one pure warm light of life and love. But then it can never be fully understood until, sooner or later, we have seen something, and believed something, of the truth of the anger of the Holy One. From our idea of that anger let us utterly banish every thought of impatience, of haste, of what is arbitrary, of what is in the faintest degree unjust, inequitable. It is the anger of Him who never for a moment can be untrue to himself; and He is Love, and is Light. But He is also, so also says His Word, consuming Fire; {Heb 10:31; Heb 12:29} and it is “a fearful thing to fall into His hands.” Nowhere and never is God not Love, as the Maker and Preserver of His creatures. But nowhere also and never is He not Fire, as the judicial Adversary of evil, the Antagonist of the will that chooses sin. Is there “nothing in God to fear”? “Yea,” says His Son, {Luk 12:5} “I say unto you, fear Him.”

At the present time there is a deep and almost ubiquitous tendency to ignore the revelation of the wrath of God. No doubt there have been times, and quarters, in the story of Christianity, when that revelation was thrown into disproportionate prominence, and men shrank from Christ (so Luther tells us he did in his youth) as from One who was nothing if not the inexorable Judge. They saw Him habitually as He is seen in the vast Fresco of the Sistine Chapel, a sort of Jupiter Tonans, casting His foes forever from His presence; a Being from whom, not to whom, the guilty soul must fly. But the reaction from such thoughts, at present upon us, has swung to an extreme indeed, until the tendency of the pulpit, and of the exposition, is to say practically that there is nothing in God to be afraid of; that the words hope and love are enough to neutralise the most awful murmurs of conscience, and to cancel the plainest warnings of the loving Lord Himself. Yet that Lord, as we ponder His words in all the four Gospels, so far from speaking such “peace” as this, seems to reserve it to Himself, rather than to His messengers, to utter the most formidable warnings. And the earliest literature which follows the New Testament shows that few of His sayings had sunk deeper into His disciples souls than those which told them of the two Ways and of the two Ends.

Let us go to Him, the all-benignant Friend and Teacher, to learn the true attitude of thought towards Him as “the Judge, Strong and patient,” “but who will in no wise clear the guilty” by unsaying His precepts and putting by His threats. He assuredly will teach us, in this matter, no lessons of hard and narrow denunciation, nor encourage us to sit in judgment on the souls and minds of our brethren. But He will teach us to take deep and awful views for ourselves of both the pollution and also the guilt of sin. He will constrain us to carry those views all through our personal theology, and our personal anthropology too. He will make it both a duty and a possibility for us, in right measure, in right manner, tenderly, humbly, governed by His Word, to let others know what our convictions are about the Ways and the Ends. And thus, as well as otherwise, He will make His Gospel to be to us no mere luxury or ornament of thought and life, as it were a decorous gilding upon essential worldliness and the ways of self. He will unfold it as the souls refuge and its home. From Himself as Judge He will draw us in blessed flight to Himself as Propitiation and Peace. “From Thy wrath, and from everlasting condemnation, Good Lord-Thyself-deliver us.”

This wrath, holy, passionless, yet awfully personal, “is revealed, from heaven.” That is to say, it is revealed as coming from heaven, when the righteous Judge “shall be revealed from heaven, taking vengeance”. {2Th 1:7-8} In that pure upper world He sits whose wrath it is. From that stainless sky of His presence its white lightnings will fall, “upon all godlessness and unrighteousness of men,” upon every kind of violation of conscience, whether done against God or man; upon “godlessness,” which blasphemes, denies, or ignores the Creator; upon “unrighteousness,” which wrests the claims whether of Creator or of creature. Awful opposites to the “two great Commandments of the Law”! The Law must be utterly vindicated upon them at last. Conscience must be eternally verified at last, against all the wretched suppressions of it that man has ever tried.

For the men in question “hold down the truth in unrighteousness.” The rendering “hold down” is certified by both etymology and context; the only possible other rendering, “hold fast,” is negatived by the connection. The thought given us is that man, fallen from the harmony with God in which Manhood was made, but still keeping manhood, and therefore conscience, is never naturally ignorant of the difference between right and wrong, never naturally, innocently, unaware that he is accountable. On the other hand he is never fully willing, of himself, to do all he knows of right, all he knows he ought, all the demand of the righteous law above him. “In unrighteousness,” in a life which at best is not wholly and cordially with the will of God, “he holds down the truth,” silences the haunting fact that there is a claim he will not meet, a will he ought to love, but to which he prefers his own. The majesty of eternal right, always intimating the majesty of an eternal Righteous One, he thrusts below his consciousness, or into a corner of it, and keeps it there, that he may follow his own way. More or less, it wrestles with him for its proper place. And its even half-understood efforts may, and often do, exercise a deterrent force upon the energies of his self-will. But they do not dislodge it; he would rather have his way. With a force sometimes deliberate, sometimes impulsive, sometimes habitual, “he holds down” the unwelcome monitor.

Deep is the moral responsibility incurred by such repression. For man has always, by the very state of the case, within him and around him, evidence for a personal righteous Power “with Whom he has to do.” Because that which is known in God is manifest in them; for God manifested (or rather, perhaps, in our idiom, has manifested) it to them. “That which is known”; that is, practically, “that which is knowable, that which may be known.” There is that about the Eternal which indeed neither is nor can be known, with the knowledge of mental comprehension. “Who can find out the Almighty unto perfection?” All thoughtful Christians are in this respect agnostics that they gaze on the bright Ocean of Deity, and know that they do not know it in its fathomless but radiant depths, nor can explore its expanse which has no shore. They rest before absolute mystery with a repose as simple (if possible more simple) as that with which they contemplate the most familiar and intelligible event. But this is not to know Him. It leaves man quite as free to be sure that He is, to be as certain that He is Personal, and is Holy, as man is certain of his own consciousness, and conscience.

That there is Personality behind phenomena, and that this great Personality is righteous, St. Paul here affirms to be “manifest,” disclosed, visible, “in men.” It is a fact present, however partially apprehended, in human consciousness. And more, this consciousness is itself part of the fact; indeed it is that part without which all others would be as nothing. To man without conscience-really, naturally, innocently without conscience-and without ideas of causation, the whole majesty of the Universe might be unfolded with a fulness beyond all our present experience; but it would say absolutely nothing of either Personality or Judgment. It is by the world within that we are able in the least degree to apprehend the world without. But having, naturally and inalienably, the world of personality and of conscience within us, we are beings to whom God can manifest, and has manifested the knowable about Himself, in His universe.

For His things unseen, ever since the creation of the universe, are full in (mans) view, presented to (mans) mind by His things made-His everlasting power and Godlikeness together-so as to leave them inexcusable. Since the ordered world was, and since man was, as its observer and also as its integral part, there has been present to mans spirit-supposed true to its own creation-adequate testimony around him, taken along with that within him, to evince the reality of a supreme and persistent Will, intending order, and thus intimating Its own correspondence to conscience, and expressing Itself in “things made” of such manifold glory and wonder as to intimate the Makers majesty as well as righteousness. What is That, what is He, to whom the splendours of the day and the night, the wonders of the forest and the sea, bear witness? He is not only righteous Judge but King eternal. He is not only charged with my guidance; He has rights illimitable over me. I am wrong altogether if I am not in submissive harmony with Him; if I do not surrender, and adore.

Thus it has been, according to St. Paul, “ever since the creation of the universe” (and of man in it). And such everywhere is the Theism of Scripture. It maintains, or rather it states as certainty, that mans knowledge of God began with his being as man. To see the Maker in His works is not, according to the Holy Scriptures, only the slow and difficult issue of a long evolution which led through far lower forms of thought, the fetish, the nature power, the tribal god, the national god, to the idea of a Supreme. Scripture presents man as made in the image of the Supreme, and capable from the first of a true however faint apprehension of Him. It assures us that mans lower and distorted views of nature and of personal power behind it are degenerations, perversions, issues of a mysterious primeval dislocation of man from his harmony with God. The believer in the Holy Scriptures, in the sense in which our Lord and the Apostles believed in them, will receive this view of the primeval history of Theism as a true report of Gods account of it. Remembering that it concerns an otherwise unknown moment of human spiritual history, he will not be disturbed by alleged evidence against it from lower down the stream. Meanwhile he will note the fact that among the foremost students of Nature in our time there are those who affirm the rightness of such an attitude. It is not lightly that the Duke of Argyll writes words like these:-

“I doubt (to say the truth, I disbelieve) that we shall ever come to know by science anything more than we now know about the origin of man. I believe we shall always have to rest on that magnificent and sublime outline which has been given us by the great Prophet of the Jews.”

So man, being what he is and seeing what he sees, is “without excuse”: Because, knowing God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor thank Him, but proved futile in their ways of thinking, and their unintelligent heart was darkened. Asserting themselves for wise they turned fools, and transmuted the glory of the immortal God in a semblance of the likeness of mortal man, and of things winged, quadruped, and reptile. Man placed by God in His universe, and himself made in Gods image, naturally and inevitably “knew God.” Not necessarily in that inner sense of spiritual harmony and union which is {Joh 17:3} the life eternal; but in the sense of a perception of His being and His character adequate, at its faintest, to make a moral claim. But somehow-a somehow which has to do with a revolt of mans will from God to self-that claim was, and is, disliked. Out of that dislike has sprung, in mans spiritual history, a reserve towards God, a tendency to question His purpose, His character, His existence; or otherwise, to degrade the conception of Personality behind phenomena into forms from which the multifold monster of idolatry has sprung, as if phenomena were due to personalities no better and no greater than could be imaged by man or by beast, things of limit and of passion; at their greatest terrible, but not holy; not intimate; not One.

Man has spent on these unworthy “ways of thinking” a great deal of weak and dull reasoning and imbecile imagination, but also some of the rarest and most splendid of the riches of his mind, made in the image of God. But all this thinking, because conditioned by a wrong attitude of his being as a whole, has had “futile” issues, and has been in the truest sense “unintelligent,” failing to see inferences aright and as a whole. It has been a struggle “in the dark”; yea, a descent from the light into moral and mental “folly.”

Was it not so, is it not so still? If man is indeed made in the image of the living Creator, a moral personality, and placed in the midst of “the myriad world, His shadow,” then whatever process of thought leads man away from Him has somewhere in it a fallacy unspeakable, and inexcusable. It must mean that something in him which should be awake is dormant; or, yet worse, that something in him which should be in faultless tune, as the Creator tempered it, is all unstrung; something that should be nobly free to love and to adore is being repressed, “held down.” Then only does man fully think aright when he is aright. Then only is he aright when he, made by and for the Eternal Holy One, rests willingly in Him, and lives for Him. “The fear of the Lord is,” in the strictest fact, “the beginning of wisdom”; for it is that attitude of man without which the creature cannot “answer the idea” of the Creator, and therefore cannot truly follow out the law of its own being.

“Let him that glorieth, glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth {Jer 9:24} who necessarily and eternally transcends our cognition and comprehension, yet can be known, can be touched, clasped, adored, as personal, eternal, almighty, holy Love.”

Fuente: Expositors Bible Commentary