The main exposition now begins. "For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth". There is an awful lot can be said about this.
First we need to look at the word wrath. We have a tendency to associate wrath with uncontrolled anger, or with malice. This is not what we are talking about here. It is the considered, rational, response of God to man's sin. It is based on evidence, and the consequences of what we have done.
It is directed against all our unrighteousness and ungodliness. At this point many will get angry, objecting about why they should have to do what God says. But that is the root of sin, the root of rebellion, the root of our problem. We need to make God our foundation stone. This is what Jesus taught in the parable of building upon the rock. It is what Proverbs says when it tells us that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.
We do not need to apologise to the world for any of this. At the final judgement the justice of all that God does will be evident to all.
And godlessness and unrighteousness suppress the truth. See what happens when sin abounds. Lies and deception always abound as well. Even within ourselves, have you noticed that when your motives or thoughts are not godly how difficult it is to see the truth, to work out what is right?
There is good news, and that is that God's wrath was revealed against Jesus on the cross. The cross says that this is the judgement that we deserve, but more of that later. For the time being Paul will be painting a picture of our sin. Unless a man comes to terms with his sin, he will never find the road to salvation.
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