We now come to the meat of the argument that Paul presents, and the beginning isn’t pretty. Most of the first three chapters are a depiction and demonstration of the sinfulness of all men, ie he is setting out our need for a saviour. Paul had Roman citizenship and was fully aware of the world, he had been trained in a top “Jewish seminary” and was steeped in Judaism (Phil 3:4-6). So he his thinking and use of terms is heavily based on the Old Testament, Genesis 1 and 2 in particular. There are verses in this section which are of particular poignancy today with regard to sexual morality, homosexuality in particular, and we will discuss these fully when we reach them. However, we must not let current controversies deflect us from seeing the main thrust of Paul’s argument.
If we look at the first verse in this section (v18) we see that the focus is not actually man’s sin, but the wrath of God. “The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of man”. I have spoken about the wrath of God in other posts but it is worth repeating it here as wrath is central to Paul’s argument. There are two key aspects to the wrath of God. On the one hand it is a passionate hatred of sin, of the effects our sin has on us, and the effects it has on others. On the other hand it is completely rational, reasonable and just, this is where it differs from the common conception which sees wrath as an uncontrollable rage. This it is not.
The wrath of God is being revealed. Indeed this has been happening since the fall in Genesis 3. The judgement will be brought to culmination at the return of Christ, but it is ongoing, it is happening today. And it is being revealed against all the godlessness and wickedness of men. We then also see one of the effects of sin, we try to suppress the truth. At the time of writing (3rd Sept 2015) there are the various Planned Parenthood videos being released, with its exposure of the abortion industry in the US. The common presentation of abortion is a total lie, it seeks to suppress and hide the horror of what abortion actually is. Sin always leads to us trying to hide the truth.
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