Wrath of God (Romans 1)

Romans 1:18 - "For the wrath of God is [being] revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of man..."

• interesting that wrath is not aimed at people (per se)
• rather, it's aimed at their manward ways (e.g. all the things we do that are not like God, not like his right-ness)
• remember everything we've learned about sin – it's not (simply, primarily) bad behavior, rather it's self-focus and self-assertion (at the expense of others)
• God's wrath is aimed at these things because of what they do to us (corrupt, distort, enslave, trap, diminish)
• the first thing sin does is lead us to suppress the truth – human beings are truth suppressors... and God will have none of it! He's not ok with it!
• fundamentally, there is a truth that has been revealed (and we deny it)

Seems interesting and helpful to read this passage as directed at humanity / mankind (as opposed to God singling out individual people – this view seems to assume that some people are "good" or "ok" and that it's "the bad ones" that's God is after. But there is no one righteous not even one...

We also have a wrath about humanity – about broken political systems, about tyrants, about oppression, about poverty (which is often caused by humans), about tragedy (even natural disasters upset us).

The point is: we all feel that! We're angry about it too.

• But our wrath doesn't accomplish anything (and to the extent that we seize power and attempt to make things better by force, we actually make them worse)
• Our wrath is almost always directed outside ourselves (we rarely look in the mirror and see there the same darkness that makes us so angry in others)

Q: So what did God do for these people with whom he was so angry (at their behavior, at the effects of their rebellion)?

A: He came and died for them! (John 3:16+)

So you can't read this passage in Romans and see God smithing people in his wrath (that's mis-reading, or reading selectively). Instead, he's actively waging war on evil (and many people have embraced it, which puts them on the enemy side). But make no mistake – God loves people! Not just the "good ones" – all of humanity! (Even his enemies!)

Who among us can say as much?