Leeds Vineyard

Romans 1:17-20 - God reveals himself in the gospel 

ScreamWhen we look at a painting we can tell something about the painter. What can you tell about Edvard Munch from looking at this famous picture of his?

When we listen to a song we can tell something about the song-writer What can we tell about the songwriter, Kimberley Rew of Katrina & the Waves, when we listen to "I'm Walking on Sunshine?"

When we look at creation we can tell something about the creator.





Romans 1:20 When we look at creation we are looking at the invisible God making himself visible. What can we tell about God from looking at creation?

God is not silent, he never has been. God wasn’t silent for millennia and then spoke for a while in the bible and then shut up again. By his very nature God must be expressing himself. He can’t not do it. God can’t be restrained into silence, he can’t be boxed into invisibility. He is just everywhere, there, obvious, overt, creating, being. He is speaking all the time, all the time, all the time.

Margaret Thatcher recognised this, even if she overstated her own opinion, “As God once said, and I think, rightly”.

In Genesis 1 the bible explains how God spoke and his words created everything. It says, “God said, let there be light.” And then it says, “And it was so.”

A W Tozer, “His “said” becomes the “so” and the “so” is explained by the “said”.”
The creator creates the created. The created is explained by the creator.


In John 1 the gospel writer starts by saying “In the beginning was the word” and then goes on to explain about Jesus “he was in the world, and though the world was made through him, we did not recognise him.”

So it is clear that the revelation problem isn’t with God, the problem is with us. Our willingness to see, hear, understand. Romans 1:20, God has been clearly seen, being understood from what is made.

But mankind has chosen not to understand and this passage in Romans 1 goes on to describe what follows when we choose not to understand but rather to explain away, to suppress, to exchange the truth for a lie.

Our tendency, when God speaks, is to rationalise it away with natural explanations – “it was thunder” (John 12:29). We are well trained in a scientific mind-set to seek an explanation. Now I am not saying that there is anything wrong with an enquiring, scientific mind, but what I am saying is that when God speaks our first reaction should not be to fall on our knees and search for the cause and how of things in the earth - but it should be to fall on our knees, whisper “God” and worship.

AW Tozer
Our thought habits are those of the scientist not those of the worshipper. We are more likely to explain than adore.

Romans 1:18 describes mankind suppressing the truth – concealing it, trying to press it down and hide it.
A very interesting example of this has emerged in recent days as a result of David Cameron saying that Christians should be more evangelistic because this is a Christian country. Last Monday a group of leading atheists wrote to the Times complaining that this isn’t a Christian country and that to say it is will foster alienation & division in our society. Here are a group of people trying to deny the obvious, to suppress the truth. In fact they are so much in the habit of doing so that they don’t realise how ridiculous they appear to everyone else.

The Revelation of God

So we have a God who reveals himself and mankind which can see, hear and understand but sometimes chooses not to.
Let’s look at how God reveals himself. In theology we identify two forms of revelation. General and Special.

General

Special

For everyone For particular people at particular times and in particular places

Natural

Supernatural

Through the natural order, mainly through creation
Conscience
Outside the natural order, primarily through three things: the direct revelation of the Holy Spirit in guidance and prophecy; through the inspiration of the law for the Jews and of the scriptures for us; and primarily through the incarnation of Jesus Christ (God becoming man)

Continuous

Final, completed

Creation has gone on revealing the hand of God (verse 20, since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities have been clearly seen) The revelation in Christ is complete, not that we don’t dive deeper and deeper into relationship with him but that his time on earth as man is complete. Scripture is complete and final too but God is still speaking to us through the bible, day by day

Leads to understanding

Leads to salvation

God’s glory is revealed in creation – we discover what he is like, we get to know of him
This is natural revelation, we see something of who God is, not natural theology, we don’t get to know him through nature
God’s grace is revealed in Jesus and we enter into a redeemed relationship with him, we get to know him and experience his love for us
 

Righteousness and Wrath

This passage in Romans refers to two other things that are revealed about God although they are, actually, the same thing. In verse 17 we are told that “a righteousness from God is revealed” and in verse 18 we learn that the “wrath of God is being revealed.” Righteousness (a special revelation through Jesus) and wrath (a general revelation revealed through creation, through the natural order).

When I was a teenager I wasn’t very lovely. It’ a long time ago but I think I remember once taking one of my younger brother’s new and favourite T Shirt and cutting holes in it with a pair of scissors. In our family this was a serious crime, not least because we didn’t have much money and my brother probably had no other T shirt to wear. I am the eldest of five and it was a “wait till your father gets home” moment.

Now, my parents were not into corporal punishment, they are not like that and anyway I was the only one that warranted it – I probably warranted capital punishment but they restrained themselves, thankfully. Anyway, there we all are waiting at the end of the day for Dad to come home. What are they all thinking? We want justice! And sure enough, I got a beating (not a meaningful one, my Dad’s heart was never in it, just a smack really) and my parents bought my brother a new T shirt. The point is, when a child does wrong, the rest of the family looks to the parents for justice.

Now my Dad could have come home and glossed over my behaviour. What would the rest of the family have thought then? That Dad was fair, loving, just? No, they would have known that a wrong had been done and not addressed. It would have revealed my Dad as being weak. He would have revealed neither wrath nor righteousness.

John Stott
The alternative to God’s wrath is not love but neutrality in the moral conflict. And God is not neutral. On the contrary, his wrath is holy hostility to evil.

Our tendency is to take these two words, righteousness and wrath, and lay a certain amount of emotion on them. We can’t help but anthropomorphise them – make them into human behaviours. Righteousness becomes a rather supercilious niceness and wrath becomes bare-teethed anger. That’s not what is meant here.

I spoke at length about righteousness in a previous sermon on verse 17. In summary: righteousness is a legal status, it’s not about being nice. Being righteous is a qualification for being able to stand before God and in relationship with him. It’s not a qualification we can get any other way than by him giving it to us. That’s why it says that the gospel reveals his righteousness for us.

Wrath is not anger. It is not an uncontrollable, irrational, revengeful emotion. It is almost a legal status too – the appropriate response to something very bad. The judge’s position when he is about to hand down a sentence on a man convicted for a crime. He is operating from a position of wrath.

CK Barrett
“Wrath is God’s personal (though never malicious or, in a bad sense, emotional) reaction against sin.

When we are permitted some level of revelation about God we see various attributes. The good news, the gospel, reveals two sides of the same coin. God is faced with sin, with godlessness (verse 18, which is the decision to turn away from God with all the consequences that flow from that, see Romans 1:21ff).

What do we expect to see at that point? We should expect wrath to be revealed. But with Jesus Christ as our intermediary, our Saviour, we see not wrath but righteousness. When God’s reaction to sin is revealed, without Christ we see wrath, with Christ we see righteousness.

Let’s go back to verse 17, “In the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed.“
In verse 18, “Against godlessness, the wrath of God is revealed.”

Paul writes this in the present tense because it is what is going on right now in your life and mine. But he is also making an eschatological statement, he is saying that this is what is to come. One day, when Jesus returns and we see a new heaven and a new earth, all mankind will face the judge. And when we see his glory and holiness and realise just who we have been taking so lightly we will all fall on our knees expecting and presuming that the only appropriate response from God will be his wrath.

God has revealed himself in several ways to us. When we turn away from him and head into the night (Karl Barth), when we choose to deny the truth of his revelation and allow our foolish hearts to be darkened (verse 21), we expect the judge to pass a just sentence, for wrath to be revealed..
But, miracles of miracles, when we turn to him in faith we find that the punishment has been taken by Jesus, that Jesus has stepped into the dock and the sentence has fallen on him. Justice is satisfied and we can walk free, we are considered righteous – through the revelation of God’s righteousness, through Jesus sacrifice. On that final day God will assess us with his righteousness, not his wrath.

So we are no longer “waiting for the father to come home” in fear and trembling. There is no impediment to our relationship with him. Instead, today, through Jesus, we experience his love for us, reaching out to us in acceptance and grace. This transforms our experience of God, our experience of living with ourselves, our experience of life. We are free, forgiven, living without fear.

I would love everyone in this room to experience that. For his righteousness to be yours. I would love you to surrender to the love of God shown in Jesus, just hands up and surrender, unconditionally, completely, to his love.

Let me finish by describing what it feels like when God you find your relationship with God being restored and growing deeper. He speaks through general revelation and you see, hear and understand better and better, but he also speaks to you through special revelation. In many, many ways. One of the main ways is through setting time aside to listen to him. It can go like this (A.W. Tozer).
  • Amidst the rush and bustle and noise we carve out some time of quiet;
  • If possible you have your bible spread out (or switched on) in front of you;
  • Maybe you have a journal in which you write or draw to help express your thoughts;
  • You become aware of a presence, just like Adam and Eve in the garden when God walked around in the cool of the day;
  • And then the hint of a voice, not really intelligible but a sense that God’s Holy Spirit is whispering to you;
  • Then an intelligible word, warm and intimate and clear as the word of a dear friend, speaking of his love for you, of hope and peace;
  • Illumination of some scripture comes, or you have a clear sense of him giving you counsel, encouragement, wisdom, turning your thoughts;
  • Increasingly your life has life and light and, best of all, an ability to rest in and embrace Jesus Christ as Saviour and Lord of all.
 
You see, this is not an academic exercise of believing in the existence of a god. I urge you not to suppress the truth, not to seek always to explain but to worship the living God.
This is the story of a loving, creator God who is speaking to you all the time, all the time, all the time – in many ways. This is the reality of a God who loves you so much that he reveals himself to you over and over again - ultimately in Jesus. He offers you his righteousness, grace, mercy, forgiveness and a welcome home.
I invite you to surrender to his love, wholly, unconditionally and completely.
And this is how.
  • Accept that you have sinned, repent and say you are sorry;
  • Believe that Jesus died for you, trust in Him to redeem you and invite him into your heart;
  • Commit to following him for the rest of your life.
 
David Flowers, 29/04/2014