For Reading: Romans 1:8-25
"The wrath of God is being revealed... against all the godlessness and wickedness of men." (1:18)
For many of us, "wrath" conjures up the idea of being out of control, an outburst of "seeing red," a sense of wounded pride or just downright petulance. But it is quite wrong to take these ideas or feelings and impose them on God. God's wrath is never out of control, never capricious, never self-indulgent, never irritable, and never ignoble. These may be indicative of human anger but never of the divine. God is angry only when anger is called for.
Even among men and women, there is such a thing as righteous indignation, though (in my opinion) it is more rare than we think.
I used to believe the difference between righteous indignation and carnal hostility was this: when someone was angry with me, that was carnal hostility; when I was angry with someone else, that was righteous indignation! I have "grown out" of that opinion now, I hasten to add.
All God's indignation is righteous. It is grief at what is happening to others, not a grudge because of what is happening to Him. Would a God who took as much pleasure in evil as He did in good be a God we could love? Would a God who did not react adversely to evil be morally perfect? Of course not. It is precisely this adverse reaction to evil that the Bible has in mind when it talks about God's wrath. God cannot treat good and evil alike. He can look over it - look over it to the cross where it can be forgiven - but he cannot overlook it.
Prayer:
O God, the more I see the reason behind Your wrath and the more I consider the purity of its motive, the more praise and adoration I want to give. What a great and wonderful God You are. And how glad I am You looked over my sin. Amen.
Further Study:
How does the psalmist describe God's wrath?
How did Isaiah depict God's anger toward Babylon?
I'll take this one first. :) Romans is an excellent letter yet it is one constantly taken out of context and from which many erroneous doctrines have been established.
ReplyDeleteVerse 18, which this devotional is started from, actually starts in vs 16. The focus is on two contrasting revealings of Elohim. The first is the revealing of His righteousness. The second is the revealing of His wrath.
His righteousness is revealed to everyone who BELIEVES by faith. He is talking about redemption that proceeds from justification and eventually leads to salvation. Its the person who, like Abraham, believes Yahweh and then begins following through by obeying what he believes in.
His wrath, however, is revealed on those who do not believe by faith; the ones who need to see it first. Shaul actually then makes clear that everything that needs to be known can actually be clearly seen in the creation yet they suppress it. These people, whether or not they obey, will incur His wrath because they are not doing it by faith.
The just, you see, will live by faith. I have to consider in light of this scripture that if I want Elohim's righteousness (right-ness) revealed in my life, I must believe what He says and obey ALL that He says. Its the only way I can become righteous leading to eternal life.
Hughes, GET OUT OF MY HEAD!!!
ReplyDeleteI have to admit that the whole wrath topic was getting to me - especially since I missed out on the other studies of God's character. I jumped into the middle of this and thought,"Wrath, again? This is slanted a bit on the negative."
I have to say, "wrath" in our language carries with it a number of subtle connotations. I immediately think from the stance of humanity and picture unbridled rage. This has been good for developing a healthy, biblical view.
In fact, this morning, I wondered to myself if I had the same disdain for sin that Christ does. Do I abhor sin (keep going on in Romans 1 for a litany of ideas!) the way Christ does? The WWJD marketing poo is annoying, but there is powerful truth in asking ourselves that question with our conversations, parenting/"childing" (yeah, i think i made up a new word since we have parents to honor), work ethic, financial stewardship, thought life, etc.
I love the thought that God is enraged on our behalf and it drives the perfect parent parallel home even further. He's protective of His creation. And by "protective", I'm not thinking of a "bubble", I'm thinking of a waring posture against an enemy whose goal is to devour our lives!
As you continue in Romans (6-8, you'll see that even Paul wrestled with this process of sanctification in knowing what he should do, but choosing not to do it. Believing (faith) is just the beginning as we work out our salvation. It's not a one-time deal. We must continue exercising our faith in the form of obedience and right-ness!
The sad part of our humanity is that we often minimize or turn a blind eye to the things we don't want to see. Part of this is psychological (ever "tune out" someone or something" and part of it is spiritual (ever tune out the Spirit's leading or conviction?). God NEVER turns a blind eye.
If we were to approach sin with the same righteous indignation that God does, what would be the result? How would God respond? How would Satan respond?
Study Helps:
ReplyDeleteGary's right in that Scripture can and has often been taken out of context. Those subheadings often included by the publishers were never a part of the original text; nor were the chapters. Every modern translation carries with it a level of subjectivity and bias by the consortium of scholars devoted to developing the translation.
Here is a link showing the relationship of various translations with respect to the original manuscripts:
<>
Two exercises that some may find helpful in their studies are to: 1) ignore chapter/headings (letters like Romans were meant to be read/spoken in one setting); 2) compare translations (biblegateway.com let's you) and hone in on the differences asking yourself "why?". The translation chart may help, but an in-depth word study would be best.
Hope it helps.
Apparently I don't know how to link something on this blog!
ReplyDeletehttp://www.zondervan.com/m/bibles/translation_chart_poster.pdf