Heavenly Wrath

Having summarized the major points of the Gospel, Paul now moves into his detailed exposition of the Christian message. His starting point is the problem for which the Gospel is the solution, but while he is dealing here with the universal human need for righteousness about which he wrote in verses 16 and 17, he now brings in a new element he has not touched on previously. That element is the attitude of God in response to human sin—wrath.

Human beings behave in an ungodly and unrighteous way, Paul says. One of the major ways this ungodliness and unrighteousness manifests itself is in suppression of the truth—a determined attempt to ignore God and the implications of His existence. As Creator of all, God has the right to dictate how human beings should live, but people refuse to submit to Him and go their own ways. In response, Paul tells us, God is filled with wrath. Dr. James M. Boice quotes John Murray’s understanding of the word wrath as denoting “the holy revulsion of God’s being against that which is the contradiction of His holiness.” The specific Greek word translated as “wrath” in Romans is orge, which means “to grow ripe for something.” It tells us that a day of great wrath is coming and that sinners are “treasuring up … wrath” (Rom. 2:5). However, Paul adds that the wrath of God is “being revealed” from heaven. In other words, God is not simply planning some future retribution against His disobedient creatures—He is taking action against them now. Sin has present consequences.

As Boice notes, we often begin discussions of Christian truth by exploring the needs of our listeners (to show that the Gospel is what they truly need), by presenting the promises of God (so as to show what is available to them), or by telling of our personal experience (so they might have the experience, too). But Paul, in a striking contrast, begins with the wrath of God against human sin. “Paul was God-centered, rather than man-centered,” Boice writes. “Paul knew that what matters in the final analysis is not whether we feel good or have our felt needs met or receive a meaningful experience. What matters is whether we come into a right relationship with God. And to have that happen we need to begin with the truth that we are not in a right relationship with Him. On the contrary, we are under God’s wrath.”