We are Guilty When We Leave God Out and Live as Though He Does Not Exist...

Last week, we looked at the opening section of this letter that was written to a church that was located at the center of the most powerful empire in the world and saw the Apostle Paul provide a timeless answer to the question is God right. And that timeless answer is that the message of the gospel reveals the reality that God is right. In Romans 1:1-17, Paul proclaimed that God is right. God always has been right; God always will be right. And the extent that we are right when it comes to our relationship with God is directly related to the extent that our heads, hearts, and hands line up with what God believes is right, because God is right.

Paul then stated that the fact that God is right is revealed to all humanity through the message of the gospel. However, many people question and push back against the idea that the message of the gospel reveals the reality that God is right. You may be reading this, and may be thinking “well how does the gospel prove that God is right? You seem to be telling me that I have a problem that requires me to be rescued or saved and that only faith in Jesus can do that. Well I don’t know if that is true. I’m not sure that I buy the idea that I have a problem when it comes to God that can only be resolved through faith in Jesus”.

So for the next five weeks, we will look at a section of a letter in the Bible that gives us a glimpse into a trial that occurred 2,000 years ago. This trial involved a case that was brought against humanity by the Apostle Paul on behalf of God. And in the next five weeks we will have the opportunity to evaluate the evidence and come to a conclusion as to whether or not we are guilty or innocent when it comes to whether or not we have a problem when it comes to God. And as we will see, the evidence that will see will remove any ambiguity that we may feel when it comes to whether or not we have a problem with God. So let’s begin to look at the evidence together, beginning in Romans 1:18:

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness,

In these verses we see Paul, acting like a prosecuting attorney on “Law and Order”, make his opening statement when it comes to whether or not humanity is guilty of having a problem when it comes to God. But to fully understand the charges here, we first need to wrap our minds around some of the 50 cent church words that Paul uses here. When Paul uses the word wrath, this word refers to God’s just and right response to selfish rebellion and sin. This is God’s holy attitude in action to address the actions of selfishness and rebellion that hurt Him and others. Now it is important to understand that God’s wrath is not a selfish passionate emotional response. It is not God blowing a head gasket, so to speak. Instead, it is God’s perfect justice resulting in a rightful response to the wrongdoing and injustice of others.

When Paul uses the word revealed, he is revealing for us the reality that the message of the gospel makes fully known God’s just and right response to selfish rebellion and sin. For God to allow selfish rebellion and injustice to go unpunished would make Him unjust. God’s very nature dictates a response to rebellion and injustice. And God’s justice is revealed in the gospel against all ungodliness and unrighteousness.

Ungodliness, simply put, is leaving God out. Ungodliness is a failure to acknowledge God and thus dishonoring God by leaving God out. Ungodliness is not just horrible acts of rebellion and sin; it is ignoring God. The word unrighteous, simply put, is not being right with God or the truth about God. Unrighteousness involves being at odds with God and the truth about God that results in acts of selfish rebellion and sin. When Paul uses the word suppress here, this word, in the language this letter was originally written in, means to hold down or ignore something.

Paul is charging humanity of being guilty of holding back, pushing back, and ignoring God and the truth of God that results in humanity having the problem of not being right with God. And it is in this verse that we see Paul provide for us a timeless and true charge as to whether or not we are guilty of having a problem when it comes to our relationship with God. And that timeless and true charge is that we are guilty when we leave God out and live as though He does not exist. We are guilty of having a problem when it comes to our relationship with God when we leave God out of our lives and live as though He does not exist. Paul’s point here is that God justly and rightly responds to humanities failure to acknowledge God and being at odds with God by living our lives as though He does not exist.

Now a natural question that may arise here is “well Dave, how do I suppress the truth about God? I mean to suppress or ignore something requires evidence of that something. So what evidence is there that there is a God that I am ignoring and living like He does not exist?

Tomorrow, we will look at the first piece of evidence that Paul provides to prove that humanity is guilty of leaving God out and living as though He does not exist.