#4. Romans 1:18-23 - Indignation

 Part II: The Conduct of Humanity

For God’s indignation is being revealed from heaven on all the irreverence and injustice of men who are retaining the truth in injustice…

Take a moment, and consider it: God’s indignation is revealed from heaven! This is God, and for His first teaching, He’s going to share anger with humanity – not that the concept of “anger” itself is righteous, but that God’s anger is righteous. This is so fascinating because, well, God does not make mistakes (1 Tim. 4:4), and He is love (1 John 4:8). Interesting that anger itself does not equate to imperfection – it’s merely our imperfect vessels that are usually unable to tame it. The same goes for love, I imagine.

This is the moment that Romans will contextualize itself for a few short chapters. Paul is putting humanity on trial; not from his perspective, but from God. The Bible says this indignation is being revealed. This is a present tense term, as in, something God is constantly doing. He’s been doing it since Adam and Eve’s disregard for His one rule in the Garden of Eden – He abhors sin, and He has zero interest in keeping it around. Thus, there is indignation against the unrighteous (wonder why you’re having a bad day?) Paul starts in verse 18 by making this claim, and he’s going to write about man’s various failures and transgressions before getting into the “righteousness” aspect.

No, God’s indignation and God’s righteousness are not the same thing. One is being revealed to the world, the other to believers of His power. That being said, it must be made clear at the start that you and I are 100% stuck in a good number of these sinful acts that Paul is about to lay out, and God hates the corruption of sin, even in you and me (wonder why you’re having a bad day?) God’s anger at our misdeeds is being used to temper us, but again, this is something I must show you through the course of the study, for I imagine right now you wouldn’t believe me if I just “said” it, you know?

There is no “unless you do this” clause in there, no. Man has already proven they are incapable of performing for God (Acts 17:25.) God’s indignation is being revealed no matter what, and He purposed you to contribute in just the way He wants you to. The reality is that, through sin, there are those out there that perceive the truth in their own (unjustified) way, for their own purposes. These folk will face God’s indignation (which, by the way, is laid out in its entirety in the Book of Revelation, also called The Unveiling of Jesus Christ.)

The simple truth is that men are irreverent, or disrespectful, toward God’s perspective. This is how He views the world by the end of the Old Testament (in which He knows that only faithful Israel have any sort of respect for him, and even still, they are at His mercy.) The injustice stems from this irreverence, as the disrespect leads to ignorance. This is how God views humanity apart from the aforementioned faith – disrespectful, and ignorant.

Now, not all hope is lost! I want to talk with you about the subject of a sentence, now, because this is so important for both any English class (4^th grade and above,) and Scriptural precedent. The subject of a sentence is its object, usually a noun (but not always,) and the rest of the sentence generally surrounds or pertains to that object. So, for example: “Timmy is going to play with knives in the foyer.” You wouldn’t, in this sentence, assume that the knives are doing the ‘playing,’ would you? Of course, the subject is “Timmy.” The object of Timmy’s focus may be the knives, but this does not change the objective fact that, in this sentence, Timmy is the source that propels the rest of the sentence.

Let’s apply this to Scripture: “For God’s indignation is being revealed” would show us that not God, but His indignation is the subject of the sentence. What is the object of His indignation’s focus? Irreverence and injustice. Not “men” ourselves, but the sin which traps us. This is an important distinction, and it plays heavily into Paul’s subjects of discussion later. God, as I said before, loves us (1 John 4:8, but more notably, John 3:16.) We are the fly, the flypaper is sin. You get me? Now, the question is, how does God get away with this trick? Hating the sin and loving the sinner? Paul will answer this as the letter progresses.

More notable, I think, than the object of irreverence and injustice, is how men react to it. They don’t like it, sure – this is evident in churches today that talk all about “purging sin” and constantly atoning and confessing sins in order to “cleanse” themselves. Yet God’s statement rings true: men retain the truth in injustice. Jesus even says, in John 3:19-21, that men come to prefer unrighteousness! Again, this statement is purely speculative unless we understand the contrast between “righteousness” and “unrighteousness,” so Paul will discuss the “unrighteousness” first.

This is all very black and white, by the way – there is a very clear line drawn here between righteousness and unrighteousness, and they are separate from each other: man is unrighteous, God is righteous. Now, let’s prove it.

because that which is known of God is apparent among them, for God manifests it to them.

Man is many things, but “unable to perceive God” is not on the list. Even the intelligent run into a major issue, here. Many deny God’s very existence, which is a logical fallacy in and of itself, as you cannot deny the existence of a Being without acknowledging that the Being exists. No, this isn’t fifth grade philosophy; I can deny the multiverse, for example, as the “multiverse” is a man-made concept with tons of logical fallacies, but I cannot deny that the “multiverse” is a philosophy that exists on the planet today. I could deny flat earth, but I cannot deny that the idea of a “flat earth” did at one point exist. But many that seek to “disprove” Scripture either a) have not read it, especially the original text, and choose not to in favor of the discord today, or b) have read it, and refuse to apprehend its words in favor (as Jesus said) of their irreverence and injustice. These people (of which there are many) do not seek Truth, but seek to be correct.

Ultimately, man is made in the image of God (Gen. 1:27.) The fabric of our spirit revolves around a subjector-subjected dynamic. Man, in ignorance, plays superiority games with each other with superficial cultures. Yet the notion that God exists is apparent in everyone’s conscience, and lost over time, whether it be from too much comfort, too much pain, emotional volatility or plain indifference.

For His invisible attributes are descried from the creation of the world, being apprehended by His achievements, besides His imperceptible power and divinity, for them to be defenseless…

The final three verses of this section will bring this verse more clarification, but I’d still like to take a moment and simplify this complicated wordplay. To “descry” means to “catch sight of.” Thus, we “see” His invisible fingerprints on creation! Nature is a clear indication of this idea, the constant, vibrant rhythm of the natural world buzzing daily on a macro and microscopic level. Everything that could be described in the world today is described at the start of the Old Testament, with the creation of this earth (day 2, for example, draws a clear delineation between waters in the atmosphere and waters on the earth. How, pray tell, would Moses, when writing Genesis, know that the atmosphere is primarily structured with water apart from a Divine Creator? Yet man would not believe it until their own studies proved it in the 17^th century, over 2,000 years later!)

Even scientists must admit, at some point, that there’s a fine, critical balance in weather patterns, tectonic plates, climates, habitats that sustain all types of animals, the taxonomic rank of the animals themselves (kingdom, phylum, class, etc.) and the fact that even single bacterium can hold entire ecosystems within themselves, of smaller classifications which we can only partially classify, and more. His fingerprints are all over creation, displaying His power – His sheer scope, and grandeur, giving us such an intimately crafted world within this tiny dot in the vast expanse of space – and His divinity, being summarized as anything pertaining to God – righteousness, wisdom, personality, transcendence, and so on, all contextualize God’s achievements.

Note: imperceptible here is defined as “eternal” in the Greek-English Keyword Concordance for the New Testament, and it’s one of the few times I find myself in slight disagreement with A.E. Knoch’s choice of words, as though the term “eternal” cannot be used to describe God. The original word is aidios, which even Strong’s Concordance concedes is defined as “eternal.” However, the Greek root of the term is “UN-PERCEIVED,” which is, simply, ‘imperceptible,’ so it should be carefully noted that his translation doesn’t add or interpret the word’s meaning, but gives you the literal word itself. I can’t say I fully disagree, then, but I do want to point out that the definition of aidios is, indeed, ‘eternal.’ This word is only used one other time, in Jude v. 6.

We are, in all accounts, completely defenseless at the will and attributes of God. Many take this as an excuse to immediately damn most of humanity, but that’s not what’s happening here – all of humanity is being put on trial for its ignorance, and God has every right to do so. Imagine not being heard by the very people you created (many parents likely have a better understanding of this concept.) This isn’t “man didn’t know any better,” but the intuitive understanding of God is willingly stamped out of man’s conscience in favor of the world’s works and understanding.

…because, knowing God, not as God do they glorify or thank Him, but vain were they made in their reasonings, and darkened is their unintelligent heart.

Paul is talking about the pride of humanity right now – this self-righteous bunch that believe they are pardoned for eternity based off their personal declarations of faith. These are the very people that will face His (relative) indignation, for seeing God as an omnipotent ally in their war against sin, as opposed to a Loving force that has defeated sin with Christ. We’ve simply not seen a single thing in Romans so far that points to your faith pardoning you for eternity.

This creates a vain reasoning, or a hollow (not holy) reasoning that, ironically, keeps these people from understanding God’s Son, as they fail to recognize His purpose. As such, their heart is darkened with the weight of sin dominating over them. Notice that God has not said that any man is “free,” as of now. Paul is willful slave of God, and these men are willful slaves of this vain reasoning.

Gosh, and then to call the heart unintelligent, straight up! Unintelligence is the natural result of this kind of reasoning. Paul is pulling no punches here, amazingly. What would he have to say of religious groups today, that have millions of different reasonings on God and men apart from what’s written here??

The heart is prescribed this unintelligence, and the internal matter of the heart dictates your external actions, here (Matt. 5:8, 9:4, 11:29, 12:34, 15:19.) This is an individual matter, not a national one (like, Paul isn’t saying, “Israel’s heart,” but a single person’s heart.) Here another layer is peeled back: anyone has the ability to understand that God is One, or God is righteous, or God is good, from recognizing His handiwork. Paul’s not concerned with this understanding, which is why it’s being laid out here as preparatory information for what’s to come. Paul is concerned with this very stubbornness, the matter of the heart, as is God.                                      

Alleging themselves to be wise, they are made stupid, and they change the glory of the incorruptible God into the likeness of an image of a corruptible human being and flying creatures and quadrupeds and reptiles.

Oof. Can you feel the anger emanating off the page? I have to admit something big here, something that breaks my heart to say: I myself have been the person Paul is talking about… knowing God and using His blessing for personal gain is something I am wholly guilty of, and thus I am a sinner myself… it’s frustrating, I guess, knowing I’m a sinner, knowingly sinning, in spite of the truth I’ve been given. There is a reason that Paul goes off about this, and I can’t stress enough how beautiful it will be, but for now we must watch as the entirety of humanity, including ourselves, are condemned. When you find yourself in these words, or anywhere during this roast, don’t fear or guilt yourself; we’ve all been here.

The extent of humanity’s knowledge has just been summarized. Let that sink in – a sentence and a half in length. Yup, this entire section is all God has to say on our intelligence. We don’t even realize that our intelligence is directly affected by how He chooses we perceive anything. We call ourselves wise, and God calls us stupid. Stupid! This isn’t a mistranslation; the original Greek word used here is moron. Did you ever think God would throw such an insult our way? Philosophers haven’t changed, either. All still follow their own reasoning. But now, at the same time the Concordant Literal was put together and released, which gives Greek its suitable English equivalent, there formed in the public mind a 'modernist' idea among philosophers that “absolute truth does not exist,” otherwise known as “existentialism.” I like to call it a “plague that’s degraded society’s understanding to such a degree that the future can only end in destruction.” It’s a long title, but I’m sure you see why I see it this way.

This is humanity’s pride, swell-heads deciding who is saved, how much control they have over their destiny, so on and so forth. I don’t know if anyone else has ever pointed this out before, but check out the last sentence Paul writes up there: they say God is made in man’s image, in the eyes of those that use God for personal gratification. It is a complete reversal from the beautiful Genesis revelation that God created man in His own image. Man thinks highly of himself and proposes the opposite (and, we can infer, this was particularly bad among the Israelites, who fancied themselves superior to the rest of the world, being God’s chosen people.)

It’s stupid. Stupid, plain and simple! Do not take me (or Paul, for that matter) as an angry religious zealot, proclaiming the world stupid. This is God, stating fact. Pride is stupid. To consider yourself better than anyone is stupid. This is why, at the start of the letter, Paul referred to himself as a “debtor.” It is stupid to consider the idea that you “have a right” or “deserve this” or “that.” You are given what you are given for God’s delight – not because God is a tyrant, but because it is wise to understand that we are prone to the above sentence! What we “deserve” is God’s indignation, stupid!

One more thing, and then we’ll move on. I want to note that he also is compared to flying creatures and quadrupeds and reptiles (ever read “Chronicles of Narnia?”) This dives into the concept of idolatry, where objects are worshipped as opposed to God Himself. Statues, other gods, even something as simple as a job that pays the bills – all have an easy ability to take priority in the human mind, forgetting the Source, instead enjoying personal gratification as opposed to thanking God. Remember: the subject so far is still those that have the truth readily available, but “retain it in injustice.” This is the natural effect of pride messing with reasoning against God, and Psalms 115:4-8 and 135:17-18 reveals that the things you worship are the things you become. You worship an idol, you’re reflected in that idol. You worship money, and you’re as lifeless as the paper/gold you seek. It’s all hard on the ears, but necessary, and all but forgotten in today’s freedom-driven world.

The world is fooling itself, as God points out, and they allow their perception of Him to be corrupted in the process. They gratify God for their personal glorification; this is another reason I can’t do church today, for their doctrine of ‘salvation’ rings hollow. They can say what they would like all day long, but the implication that your free will must accept some form of salvation would take the power from God’s evangel (1:16,) as we’ve studied so far. Their mouths move, but their hearts are not in Christ. They are vain in their reasonings, and Paul calls this, in layman’s terms, stupid.

-      GerudoKing