Bible Study: Romans 1:18-25

Romans 1:18-25 The Wrath of God Revealed Against Unrighteousness: 

Beginning With Idolatry

1. Wrath Revealed Against Unrighteousness (1:18)

• The Wrath of God is His Furious Anger poured out in Righteousness (1:18a).
  
• His Wrath is Revealed from Heaven because it is from Heaven that He reigns over all. It is already being revealed in the present and not just in the future (1:18b).
  
• He opposes all Ungodliness and Unrighteousness of Men and brings recompense with unbiased and unwavering justice (1:18c).

             A. Men Suppress the Truth in the doing of Unrighteousness because the Truth is the opposite of that.  To be in the Truth is to be living a Righteous life (1:18d).

2. God is Made Known in Creation, so Man is without excuse (1:19-20)

• Through General Revelation God has made Himself Known (1:19)
  

             A. His Invisible Attributes have been Revealed since Creation (1:20a-b)
                  i. Eternal Power--Omnipotence (1:20a)
                  ii. Divine Nature--He is Distinct from Creation; He displays incredible design and complexity through what He has made (1:20b).
                  iii. Man cannot claim ignorance, for He has made Himself known through Creation to be able to condemn the unrighteous man (1:20c).  Man is not saved through General Revelation, but he can be condemned by it.

3. Knowing but Dishonoring (1:21)

• God has set knowledge of Himself within man, but man did not exalt or honor Him as God Almighty (1:21a)
  
• Instead, man’s thinking became futile and his heart was darkened to then do all sorts of evil against a Holy God (1:21b).  The initial part of God’s wrath was letting the sin of man darken his heart.
  

4. Wisdom For Folly (1:22-23)

• In man’s attempt to elevate Himself in wisdom, He has made Himself a fool (1:22)
  
• He exchanged the great and awesome glory of the Immortal God (1:22a)
  
• In His place, Man set up vain images of man and beast--a horrific contrast between great glory and a mere image mortal flesh.
  

5. Given up to Impurity to be dishonored because of idolatry(1:24-25)

• God continues to unleash wrath by then giving men up to their lusts which results in dishonoring their bodies (1:24).
  
• Man gave up the Truth of God for a lie in a vain attempt to usurp the power of God and gain glory and satisfaction apart from God.
  
• All of this occurs because man worships the creature and not the Creator (1:25).
  
• Jonathan Edwards explains that all men have something which takes their hearts, whether the True God or an idol (Edwards Vol II, Misc Dicourses, p 132-133). John Calvin describes the heart as ‘a factory of idols’ (Calvin, Institutes, Bk I, Ch 11.8)