Romans 1:16-20

Paul’s statement, “as much as in me is I am ready to preach the gospel to you at Rome”, is followed by four other statements that begin with the word “for” f-o-r.

Verse 16. FOR I am not ashamed of the power of God to Salvation.

Then in verse 17, FOR in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “THE JUST SHALL LIVE BY FAITH.”

Then, verse 18: “FOR the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness.”

Verse 19 is the rest of the sentence from verse 18: ” because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them.”

Then verse 20:”FOR the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen.”

 

That word “for” (F-O-R) means “for this reason” or “because of this,” so it’s giving a reason for Paul’s readiness, to his “preach the gospel to you who are in Rome” They also show what God’s revealed.

 

So, let’s see what God’s revealed and how He revealed it.

In Romans 1: 16, the first of the four statements, Paul’s saying, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ.

We dealt with this verse in detail last episode where we saw the gospel of Christ to salvation.  We saw that that’s something that up till then wasn’t known the way Paul preaches it.

We saw how the gospel of Christ is the power of God to salvation and Pauls been given the apostleship directly by Jesus Christ to present that power of God and the gospel of Christ.

 

The other three F-O-R statements speak of the righteousness of God, the wrath of God, the visible things of God.

So God reveals His power, and He reveals it in this gospel of Christ to salvation primarily to the apostles, specifically to the Apostle Paul.

It’s through the apostles that God’s revealed things.

Now remember, in Paul’s writing of the Book of Romans, he’s writing the Bible.

They didn’t have the bible as we have it today.

Neither did the Twelve Apostles say, “Open up your Bible,” and read about Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. They didn’t have that. They wrote them later. That wasn’t the source of God’s revelation.

They were the source of revelation from Jesus Christ.

 

Jesus Christ chose men to preach His revelation.

He chose twelve, the Apostles of Israel, and then later chose Paul to go to the Gentiles with the revelation of the mystery.

In 1 Corinthians 15:8 we see he was last of all of the Apostles to see Jesus Christ after His resurrection. And it was to him that was given the dispensation of the grace of God.

in 1 Timothy 1, he says,

However, for this reason I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might show all longsuffering, as a pattern to those who are going to believe on Him for everlasting life. 

 

In Romans chapters 5, 6, 7, and 8 Paul elaborates on Romans 1:16, the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believes, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.

 

Romans chapter 5 talks about God committing His love towards us while we’re still sinners and much more, The power of God to salvation.

Romans 6 says, We’re dead with Christ, baptised into His death, and we’re risen with Him. The power of God to salvation.

 

In Romans 7, we’re dead to the law through the body of Christ in the gospel of Christ, and so again, the power of God to salvation.

Romans chapter 8 says, “There is no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh.” So there’s the power of God again. Then Romans 8 ends with the great statement that we’re more than conquerors, and nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus.

 

So, remember, each one of these reasons, these statements, speak to why Paul’s ready to preach to those that are at Rome.

 

We saw last time the in Romans 1:16, Paul’s not ashamed to go to these Romans with something that God first entrusted to Israel through the covenants to Israel? He’s a highly educated, dedicated, almost fanatical Jewish Pharisee and yet he’s turning from that knowledge of God working salvation through Israel and he’s not ashamed of that. He’s not ashamed that he’s doing an about turn on all he’s learnt and taught, because of the gospel of Christ, the power of God to salvation to everyone that believes was given to him to preach.

 

And so, Romans 1:16-20 talks about what’s been revealed to Paul, and it’s a lot: the power of God to salvation, the fullness of God, the manifold wisdom of God, the hidden wisdom, the thing that was ordained before the world began.  That’s the reason why he’s ready to preach the gospel to those in Rome and what does he have to be ashamed of?

 

In Romans 1:17 we have the second reason that Paul says, “I’m ready to preach the gospel to those that are at Rome”,

For in it (the gospel) the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “THE JUST SHALL LIVE BY FAITH.” 

What’s been revealed here? The righteousness of God. In the previous verse it was the gospel of Christ, the power of God. Now it’s the righteousness of God.

What does, the righteousness of God mean?

Well, the very beginning of the Christian life begins with us knowing that “God’s right.”

 

It doesn’t begin with “I think I won’t kill anyone, and I won’t lie, cheat, and steal,” which is how most people treat it. “I think I’ll live a good life, and if it happens to agree with what God wants, then good, we’re on the same page.” We can’t be saved unless you first say, “I’m wrong, God’s right. He saved me by His grace through Jesus Christ.”

And so the righteousness of God is revealed in the gospel here. The righteousness of God comes into why Paul’s ready to preach to those who are in Rome and he’s not ashamed.

 

God doesn’t need to be proven right, but He is, over and over again. Now, when he says “the righteousness of God” here, this is in contrast to the righteousness of man.

 

If we look at Deuteronomy 6:25, in the Mosaic law we read,

Then it will be righteousness for us, if we are careful to observe all these commandments before the LORD our God, as He has commanded us.

 

Here, God gives Israel an opportunity to earn righteousness with Him that He didn’t give to other people.

If you keep these laws. Even today the Jews consider it a privilege to keep the Law.

We Christians, who for so long have been taught we’re not under it, really need to understand or appreciate and respect that we’re not under it. But there’s a reason for that. It’s not simply that the Law was a mistake. That God messed up and the law’s not good or helpful.”

The Law’s very helpful; it’s just not helpful to sinners because they constantly break it. And this is the problem.

But God gave the privilege of this law to Israel and if they kept it, God said, by Covenant, it would be their righteousness.

Now, that’s important because it’s not the Law itself, and how anyone tries to keep it.

It’s the standard of God’s righteousness and it was given to Israel under their Covenant.

 

Now, there are laws that we can keep.

They’re rules of God that stand throughout time. “Thou shalt not kill,” for example, is a pretty good one. “Thou shalt not bear false witness,” “Thou shalt not steal,” “There is one God; the Lord our God is one God” (the Shema).

That’s still true and still good, right? There’re lots of laws though, 613 of them according to the count of some later Hebrews, and a lot of those laws concern the land of Israel, the rituals of Israel, the Sabbaths of Israel, the Holy Days of Israel, and things that simply don’t relate to anyone else at any other time than under the Covenant of God to Israel.

 

Meanwhile, under the Covenant, in Deuteronomy 6:24 we see,

And the LORD commanded us to observe all these statutes, to fear the LORD our God, for our good always, that He might preserve us alive, as it is this day. So God commanded them, and He in the Covenant said, “If you do them, I’ll count it for your righteousness.”

 

Now, men, humans, aren’t righteous!

They weren’t then and they’re not now. We know that as we’ve seen through history, but also the Scripture itself proves it. The Garden of Eden proves it. So when God gives you an opportunity by saying, “Well, if you do that, I’ll count you righteous,” we’d consider it.

We can’t put shame Israel for saying yes to the agreement.

 

Now, Deuteronomy 32: 46-47 we see things that God revealed a long, long time before Paul.

and he (Moses) said to them (Israel): “Set your hearts on all the words which I testify among you today, which you shall command your children to be careful to observe—all the words of this law. 

For it is not a futile thing for you, because it is your life, and by this word you shall prolong your days in the land which you cross over the Jordan to possess.” 

 

This’s a life-and-death issue. Moses has just finished, reading the Law, which included the curses: if you don’t do them, there’s a curse and death waiting for you.

 

Then we have the Prayer of Jabez in 1 Chronicles 4:19, which is about expanding his territories and his outreach and things like that. This comes directly from the Law of Moses, where if they kept the commands and statutes, God would keep them in the land and prolong their days in the land.

 

You and I simply don’t have such a covenant. We don’t have a promise like that. It’s a silly prayer for us.

People praying a prayer under Moses’ covenant aren’t praying with the knowledge of what God’s doing today.

And so you have Deuteronomy 32:47, where Moses is again speaking of the law,

For it is not a futile thing for you, because it is your life, and by this word you shall prolong your days in the land which you cross over the Jordan to possess.”

 

So in Deuteronomy the covenant said, “It’ll be your righteousness if you do these laws, and you have to do all of them. And it’s not an option; it’s not a suggestion; it’s your life.”

 

Jumping forward in the future thousands of years, Paul writes In 1 Timothy 1:5-7, Paul says,

Now the purpose of the commandment is love from a pure heart, from a good conscience, and from sincere faith, from which some, having strayed, have turned aside to idle talk, desiring to be teachers of the law, understanding neither what they say nor the things which they affirm.

 

Some people aren’t keeping a sincere faith and have strayed into idle talk desiring to be teachers of the Law.”

 

Big contrast here. Two thousand years earlier Moses said,

The law’s not a futile thing for you, because it is your life. Then Paul says, “Stop idle talk trying to teach the Law.”

Something’s changed.

In 1 Timothy 4:1-5 Paul talks about some departing from the faith and giving heed to doctrines of demons and commanding to abstain from meats, which is precisely what the Law does to Israel, commands them to abstain from certain meats. Something’s changed.

 

Either Paul’s a heretic, or God’s revealed something to him, like He revealed something to Moses.

Today, we should follow the instructions of God given through Christ to the Apostle Paul just as adamantly as God told Moses to Israel to keep their commandments.

Paul tells us It would be futile if we allowed teachers of the law who don’t understand what they’re talking about to put us back under the Law, and the commandments. Why? Because it denies what God’s now revealed through grace.

 

See, so you have that contrast there. Paul says, “I want to go preach the gospel of Christ, the prophesied Messiah to Israel. He’s not ashamed to preach Christ to them, because in the gospel he has now, the righteousness of God is revealed, not the righteousness of men.”

See, keeping the Law wasn’t the righteousness of God, they were earning, it was their own righteousness they were earning, which is why it’s futile for us.

Today we can only receive the righteousness of God through faith, not by Law-keeping, and that’s what’s revealed in Romans 1:17.

 

The verse says,

For in it (“it” being the gospel believed, the gospel of God, the power of God to salvation to everyone that believes). For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “THE JUST SHALL LIVE BY FAITH.” He’s quoting Habakkuk 2:4. Remember Romans hadn’t been written yet but Habakkuk 2:4 had been.

 

Paul says it’s not works, it’s not heritage, it’s not flesh, it’s not the Commandments, it’s faith that justifies and declares you righteous.

Even the Prophets taught that, but Paul, by the gospel and the revelation given to him, is simply making it much clearer now. He’s revealing the righteousness of God.

 

We need to look closer this phrase “from faith to faith,” here in Romans 1:17.

“For in it (the gospel) the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith.” What’s Paul talking about?

Well, there are different ways we can read this.

One way to read this is that “from faith to faith” means throughout the history of faith, and Paul mentions in other places like Galatians 3 and also in Romans 1, Romans 2, and Romans 3.

He’ll go through a history of how God has spoken and dealt with humanity from the creation of the world. And when God speaks to humanity and men hear what He says, that’s what faith is. Faith comes from hearing the word of God.

So we can find faith back in the Old Testament, people who believed God. Abraham, in Genesis chapter 12, believed God. In Genesis 15, he believed God. And every other man of faith in the Old Testament believed God. And so from faith to faith.

There’re times in the bible where God spoke things from heaven. And when God speaks His words, man has an opportunity to believe and benefit from them, and the Bible’s the record of God’s revelations to humanity, and the people He revealed them to, and their reactions to that.

 

Look at Galatians 3:5-6

Therefore He who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you, does He do it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? just as Abraham “BELIEVED GOD, AND IT WAS ACCOUNTED TO HIM FOR RIGHTEOUSNESS.

 

He’s quoting Genesis 15 here where God makes promises to Abraham and he believed Him, and God counted his faith, his belief, for righteousness.

Galatians 3:7

Therefore know that only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham.

 

Paul’s quoting Scripture again.

Why is Paul not ashamed to preach at Rome? He’s got the Scripture on his side. People are trying to stop him from preaching to whom he’s preaching.

That’s why Paul has to justify why he does that in every one of his epistles.

He says because Christ told me to and revealed it to me, and that’s why I’m going there. Then he lays out every evidence and justification.

First, I’m an apostle of Jesus Christ. I was given the gospel, the power of God to salvation. Secondly, the Scriptures speak this, like of faith and righteousness of God by faith.

He says here that Abraham believed unto righteousness, he’s the father of that.

Galatians 3:8

And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel to Abraham beforehand, saying, “In you all the nations shall be blessed.” 

 

So God speaks to Abraham, and Abraham hears.

Abraham had faith in what God promised.

Paul’s making the point God knew all this from the beginning, and He spoke to Abraham, and gave a promise, and He knew that He’d justify the heathen through faith, which is what Paul’s preaching.

That is that God preached to Abraham, and he believed, and God said to him, ” And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

All families, Gentiles too.

Abraham wasn’t a Jew. He wasn’t Israel. His grandson was Israel. But he wasn’t. He wasn’t a Jew. He wasn’t even circumcised when he received this promise. He got circumcised after this promise, which means he was justified by faith before circumcision, before Israel and before the law.

This is pretty good evidence to Paul’s teaching, how these Gentiles who are not Israel and Jews could be justified by faith without the law and without Israel’s covenants.

 

Then we have Galatians 3:11-12

But that no one is justified by the law in the sight of God is evident, for “THE JUST SHALL LIVE BY FAITH.” 

Yet the law is not of faith, but “THE MAN WHO DOES THEM SHALL LIVE BY THEM.” 

 

The law was given 430 years after the promise given to Abraham, so it can’t wipe out the promise given to Abraham and make it of no effect.

And so 400 years after God made this promise to Abraham, He gave the law to Moses.

That’s what Pauls explaining in Galatians 3:18.

For if the inheritance is of the law, it is no longer of promise; but God gave it to Abraham by promise. 

 

See, God already promised it before He added the conditions of the law.

Why was the law added? Why serve the law then? Why do that? It was added because of transgressions.

Galatians 3:19

What purpose then does the law serve? It was added because of transgressions…

 

Now, how do we read that? Is it because they were sinning God had to put a law to end their sinning? Or was it as Paul says in Romans 3, that you can’t be justified by the law anyway? The law brings the knowledge of sin.

He added it so they would know their sin. Without the law, there’s no transgression. So He added it because of the ignorance of their transgressions—they didn’t know they’d transgressed. So He gave the law to make their transgressions very clear, like a spotlight on man’s behaviour.

 

The law requires conditions be met to get righteousness, man’s righteousness by his own performance. You have to do in order to get; if you don’t, you’re cursed.

 

And so the law shows us our sin.

Galatians 3:22-23.

But the Scripture has confined all under sin, that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. But before faith came, we were kept under guard by the law, kept for the faith which would afterward be revealed.

 

So here’s faith revealed.

Paul says the righteousness of God was revealed from faith to faith. Before that was the law, but no one could keep the law.

The seed (Christ) came.

What did He preach?

Matthew 5:17 tells us,

Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill.

Did Jesus teach the law? He sure did.

Matthew 23:2-3 Jesus Himself speaking,

The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat. Therefore whatever they tell you to observe, that observe and do, but do not do according to their works; for they say, and do not do. 

In Matthew 8:4, He told the man He healed to go offer sacrifices as Moses said. Jesus is teaching the law.

Galatians 4:4 tells us He came “born of a woman, born under the law.”

The law was the way it was until Christ’s revelation to Paul when He said, “I’m going to send you to all these sinners, with the message of righteousness by faith in Me, because they’re all sinners —Jews and Gentiles.”

And that’s what He did.

He showed us the need for salvation through Jesus Christ, because we can’t get it any other way.

 

So, from faith to faith.

Faith is the key throughout.

So, Paul says the righteousness of God is revealed, now it’s known, from faith to faith.

In Romans 1, 2, and 3, Paul will go back through the history of humanity from the creation of the world and show how man rejected God.

And then He’ll go to Israel and show how they rejected God, and God counted them all in unbelief.

In everything man is required to respond by faith in doing what God said to do. This is from faith to faith.

The difference between Abraham and us is just that we, by faith, are trusting how God saves sinners.

 

Another way to read is that It’s from faith we begin our Christian life when we get saved by the gospel, and its faith every day from then on. It’s not starting out with faith and then we’ve got to do some works.

Paul says this in Galatians 3: “Were you made perfect by the Spirit after hearing it by faith, or were you made perfect by works?”

As we received Christ Jesus, so we walk in Him.

Galatians 2:20:

I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. 

 

He’s not talking there about his salvation, which was by grace through faith, but his living each day in the flesh is by the faith of Christ.

 

All these meanings of “from faith to faith” are taught in the Book of Romans.

This whole point is faith. How do you get righteous? It’s the righteousness of God by faith revealed from faith to faith.

 

Now we come to Romans 1:18-19 and the third reason why Pauls not ashamed and he’s ready:

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. 

 

What’s revealed in this verse? The wrath of God.

We’ve seen the gospel of Christ, the power of God, the righteousness of God, which concerns faith. And now, the wrath of God.

So Paul says, “I am not ashamed. I am ready. As much as in me is, I’m ready because the wrath of God’s been revealed.”

 

Notice the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness.

It doesn’t matter if you’re Jew or Gentile; God’s wrath’s coming on all, which is why we need to be saved from it.

That’s what Romans 1:18 reveals. How did God reveal this?

It’s revealed from heaven.”

We get an image of fire coming down from heaven or something, but this obviously isn’t what Paul’s talking about.

because Paul’s not calling fire down from heaven upon the Romans or something, or even Israel, because that hadn’t happened yet in Israel. But he does say it’s revealed from heaven.

In Robert Anderson’s book “The Silence of God,” his beginning statement is incredible, ” A SILENT Heaven is the greatest mystery of our existence.” He says it’s not remarkable that heaven is silent, and God is silent from heaven, which is to say that everyone agrees to it.

 

It’s only the 20th century Christian that denies reality and says, “No, God’s not silent from heaven today; He’s intervening everywhere. He’s healing lots of people.” But, If that were true it wouldn’t have to be yelled so loudly. People would see it, kind of like back in the Old Testament when God did intervene like parting the waters and turning the Nile into blood.

They didn’t have to go around preaching this; everyone knew it.

 

When Jesus healed the masses, not all of them knew what Jesus was saying, but He fed them, and He healed them anyway.

Those who rejected Jesus couldn’t deny the miracles He did. That’s what it looks like when God actually does intervene. It doesn’t matter who believes or not. Today, we simply don’t see such things. We hear plenty of claims of it, but they’re never verified or duplicated.

God’s simply not doing what He used to do, and, by the way will do again in the future.

God is dispensing grace today.

The whole world deserves wrath. No one has a spiritual standing with God today. No one can claim God’s intervention in miracles and power, not even Israel, God’s special nation.

He’s offering grace. And so the silence is God saying, “Be saved by faith.” That’s the silence. And the next time He does intervene it’ll be in way that everyone’ll see. It’ll be based on His judgment because all the world deserves wrath.

The silence of heaven is a testimony to God’s grace being upon all because all deserve God’s wrath.

 

But people don’t see it that way.

When you and I know what God did before, we’re thanking Him that He’s not intervening today like He should against sinners.

We ask, “Why does God take so long to do things in the bible?”

There’s lots of reasons, and one of them is that people are dense. It takes a while for the light to shine, and even then, people reject it.

If God had just snapped a finger and the bible appeared fully completed book, it’d have the same problems Islam has today, or Joseph Smith or Charles Taze Russel.

They can’t be believed because they’re not credible. The credibility of God working through centuries actually allows the Bible to validate itself through the record of history and the perfect integration of the message throughout the 66 books written over 1500 years by 40 different authors.

We can see where things happened and didn’t happen, over the course of history. Not some secret place, nobody’s ever seen. And the fact that nobody sees things today as the Bible describes is an evidence of God giving grace and salvation to all through faith.

 

So the wrath of God’s revealed from heaven, but where else is it revealed from?

Look at verse 19. Romans 1:19.

The reason he’s giving in verse 18 starts with “for.” F-o-r whereas Verse 19 begins with the word “because.”

Why is God revealing wrath against all ungodliness, unrighteousness of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness?

Because what may be known of God is manifest (or plainly recognised or known) in them, for God has shown it to them.

 

Paul will talk in Romans chapter 2 about the conscience that God’s given all men and that’s what he’s saying here. God reveals this through conscience.

We all know when we’ve done something wrong.

 

Unbelievers will say, “We don’t need the Scripture. We don’t need God. We all have a general standard of morality.”

Well, that claim is actually evidence of a common Creator that puts a moral conscience in us otherwise, there’d be 8.2 billion different standards among people. But there is a common conscience.

Romans 2:15,

…who show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and between themselves their thoughts accusing or else excusing them.

 

The reason why mankind has systems of justice is because of conscience. Guilt. They accuse someone else: “You stole my things.” Or they excuse themselves: “Well, it was right; it used to be mine.” Well, if there’s no sense of moral right or wrong none of that matters. We should never feel guilt. We should just be like a bird or an animal just doing our thing, taking whatever we want from whoever we want. That’s nonsensical.

People live with a conscience, a standard.

 

So, Paul says, “You know it’s manifest in you. God has shown it to you. The wrath of God’s revealed.”

We did something wrong; we know it. Who’s going to hold us accountable for that? Noone unless someone finds out.

Nobody sees the invisible things of your heart. Show me guilt under a microscope. Can’t! It’s not there!

 

The wrath of God’s revealed from heaven, but also in the conscience, which is what Paul says in verse 19.

Romans 2 deals with this in detail and explains the wrath and judgment of God upon all. There is none righteous, Jew or Gentile, he’s counted them all in unbelief, all guilty before God.

 

The preaching of the wrath of God is the only way for people to realise the need for salvation.

It exposes the knowledge of sin and the reality of God’s wrath on all of us.

We could say that the problem is really not Christians acting like the world, but the world acting like Christians, or living the farce of their own perceived “goodness”.

But they don’t regard the wrath of God and God’s justice at all.

But so, when Paul says, “I am ready to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome,” what’s he saying for, f-o-r, or because, the wrath of God is against all, and all these people need to be saved from it.

 

Pauls understands that there’s a consequence of the guilt of all the world before God.

 

That’s why in 2 Thessalonians 1:4, he comforts the Thessalonians because they’re being persecuted by the same people Paul was. He says,

…so that we ourselves boast of you among the churches of God for your patience and faith in all your persecutions and tribulations that you endure, which is manifest evidence of the righteous judgment of God, that you may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you also suffer;

 

What’s he talking about? The Thessalonians were being persecuted primarily by Jewish unbelievers in Thessalonica, the same ones that chased Paul out of town. That’s why Paul writes back and says, “I understand, guys, but I thank God for your patience. You’re hanging in there and your faith to God is manifest evidence of the righteous judgment of God.

He’s saying, “This is justification for God turning His back on Israel in judgment.”

Not only them, all of us, but particularly because they were given salvation, but not anymore. Paul turns to the Gentiles.

 

Paul knew the judgment of God. He knew what conscience taught. He knew the righteous judgment of God against fallen Israel, and he felt that persecution. So for all these reasons, Paul is ready to preach to those in Rome, and he has a lot in him that he understands about human conscience, about the scriptures and about the revelation Christ gave him.

 

On to Romans 1:20 and the last reason Paul says, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ.” We read and we’ll include Romans 1:21,

For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 

 

This verse can be discussed for endless hours.

What’s revealed?

This universe in which you and I live tells two things about God: His person and His power.

The word Paul uses here means divinity or godhood. It’s more relating to the character of God rather than His deity or whether or not He actually exists.

Paul assumes that His deity and His existence are not in question like they are today.

The argument Paul’s making here is clear: Creation demands a Creator. Design demands a Designer. By looking up at the sun, moon, and stars, anyone can know there’s a God.

The Creation is a clear light of revelation, in fact the primary revelation of God. It reveals the unchangeable power and existence of God.

 

Psalm 8:3-4

When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, The moon and the stars, which You have ordained, What is man that You are mindful of him, And the son of man that You visit him? 

Psalm 19:1

The heavens declare the glory of God; And the firmament shows His handiwork.

 

The passage reads, “So that they are without excuse.”

Creation so clearly reveals God that man is without excuse.

Although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful. This section reveals sin. It wasn’t through ignorance. It was wilful rebellion in the presence of clear evidence.

People are not condemned for rejecting a Saviour they’ve never heard of, but for rejecting what they could and should know about God.

Although they knew God by His works, they didn’t glorify Him for who He is or thank Him for all He’s done.

Instead they gave themselves over to futile philosophies and speculations and other gods, and, as a result they lost the capacity to see and think clearly, or in other words, “There’s none so blind as those that will not to see.

 

That’s as much as in Paul. So, he’s not ashamed. He’s ready to preach in Rome, and he has a lot in him.