Gospel Prism

I preached this sermon this past Sunday on God’s anger and His grace. As I have been responding to David Park on the book Wild at Heart (you can read our conversation HERE), it has stirred my heart again to think of my own sinfulness. But in thinking about sin, I am confounded by God’s amazing grace. And that is so precious to me, more than words can describe. So here is the message from Romans 1:16-25:

16For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. 17For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.”

Romans 1:16-25

Introduction

Earlier this week, I was in a courtroom with a friend. And as I was watching different cases come and go before the judge, it was quite interesting to see the types of people who stood before him. Most of the cases dealt with DUI’s or users of methamphetamines. Some of the people who stood there “looked like� they were drug addicts or alcoholics. And then there were some who looked “normal� just like the rest of us. It could have been so easy to sit there thinking, “Wow, I am glad I’m not like those sinners.� But I couldn’t help feel both compassion and a bit of empathy with them. I am not a drug user nor am I addicted to alcohol. I have never been arrested. But as I sat there and watched them, I began to see that the root of my heart is exactly like theirs. I too longed and long to be somebody. My heart is inclined, like theirs, to turn away from God because of the guilt I feel about my sin. Like them, I am sometimes too proud to admit that I made a mistake. I fail to love others in the way God expects me to love. I can become easily angered. And I am at the core self-centered, giving into personal ambitions and lusts so readily, trading in my God for mere trinkets. Sure those trinkets might not be drugs and alcohol, but they are trinkets nonetheless.

The reality is that if we do not see at the core that we are able to sin as deeply and as horribly as anyone else, we will never see the Gospel in the way it should be viewed, experienced, and believed in our lives, as the power of God. And when we do not have this view of the Gospel as God’s power, we will not live the joyous and transformed life, but rather the defeated and dreary life. This is Paul’s message for us in Romans 1:16-25. I’d like to begin at verses 18-25 and then close with a look at verses 16-17.

Why Is God Angry?

First, verse 18 begins with a premise: God is angry. I know that most of you listen to that and can only think of someone you know or have heard of who has a rage or anger problem. We think of perhaps our dads whose rage is out of control, unreasonable, and unjustifiable. We might think that the anger leads to an abuse of justice and authority. So when we think of God’s anger, God’s wrath, we have this picture of God in mind. But I think we need to ask the question, “Why is God angry?� Does He have a right to be angry? Is His anger out-of-control? And Paul tells us in verses 18-23 exactly why God is angry.

First, God is angry because of our ungodliness and unrighteousness as he says in verse 18: “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.� In other words, we live and act as though God were non-existent, a non-entity in our lives. When we had no desire to believe in the Gospel, we lived as though God was a mere figment of people’s imagination. Even when we claimed that God might exist (the agnostic), we lived as though God did not exist. He did not influence our patterns of thinking. We did not withhold our self-centeredness, our anger, our pride. So we not only think that God does not exist, but we act and live as though He does not exist. This acting out of ungodliness is unrighteousness. And the primary way we see this happening in our lives is when “unrighteousness suppress[es] the truth.� But what does that mean?

The word “suppress� in the Greek means to press down with force against something that is exercising a counterforce.� Theologian R. C. Sproul likens it to a giant steel spring which would take the weight of a human being to press the spring down. The truth of God and about God is suppressed in this way by every human being who walks this earth. We force down God’s truth, even though the truth is continuously forcing us to feel the pangs of that suppression.(1) So St. Augustine commented, “Our hearts are restless until we find our rest in Thee.� And yet, people are walking around with this restlessness, suppressing the truth about God, and instead filling their hearts with anything that would distract them or numb from the reality that there is a God. People do not want to believe that God is everything He promises He is, their Creator, their all-sufficiency, the only One who can deeply satisfy every person. In our longings to be someone, to be respected, to be loved and cherished, God says that He is the only One who can provide this. And yet, we humans push God aside and suppress this truth about Him.

The truth about God is that God, not us, is at the center of our existence. Verses 19-20 teaches us this about God: “For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.� All of creation exists simply because God allows it to exist and it reflects a bit of who He is. When we are out on a camping trip at Yosemite gazing at Half Dome or if we are at Carmel beach staring into the foamy waves, we are looking at a world that is embedded with God’s fingerprints. Every baby born and every person who dies reflects more about the fact that God is central in all of life. And so human beings were created to reflect this magnificent beauty and glory about God. And in doing so, since we were created to do so, we will find nothing more pleasing and satisfying to our souls than to do this. So because God created all things, because our every breath flows from Him, and because any joy we experience on this earth is because of Him, we must give Him praise and acknowledge Him as our God.

But sadly, there is not a person alive who did not suppress the truth in this way. We all live as though we were our own god. Perhaps some of you live this way even now. Paul tells us in Romans 3:23 that ALL have sinned. To the Christians in this room, before we jeeringly look at the person hooked on meth or the murderer or the person who cheated on his wide or the person whose rage got the better of her, we must remember how deep and wide and far our own sins are. You might not wear tattoos and body piercings. You might not be part of a gang or high on crack. But according to this text, all of us were absolutely in the same condition with the same heart. Jesus says in Matthew 5 that to look at a woman lustfully is the same eyes and heart as the adulterer. Jesus also says that the person angry has the same heart and motives as the murderer and before God. I have wondered, “Lord, really, is my anger the same heart as those who killed my cousin Brian, who stabbed him so viciously?� I have seen my anger and what it looks like. And I can unequivocally say, yes, that anger is the same heart as those of those fiendish murderers of Brian. From God’s perspective, sins we think are small are still a terrible mark of your suppression of the truth and hatred of God.

Which leads to the second reason why God is angry: Because we are dishonoring and ungrateful according to verse 21, “For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.� Instead of giving thanks and worshipping God for our live, for our very breath, and for the fact that we are able to enjoy the life we live at all, we dishonor God by our continual ungratefulness. I have shared this before but Shua and I are committed to teach our children to say ‘thank you’ even though they continually forget to do so. Why do you think they forget so readily, so easily, despite the fact that we must have told them to say ‘thank you’ hundreds of times? Because they are so quick to receive blessings and gifts to enjoy them selfishlessly, that they can care less about the giver of the gift. They simply want the gift. But to say thank you is simply one way that as the receiver, I not only say I am so thankful for that gift, but I am thankful for you as the giver of the gift. It is a pause to honor that person. But we are natural-born takers. And towards God, we are takers without a desire to praise Him as the Giver.

Finally, God is angry because we want another God. Verses 22-23 says: “Claiming to be wise, they became fools, 23and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.� We always think we are wise when we want another God. We think that God cannot do the job of satisfying us, not really. We think someone of the opposite sex will be better than God. We think if we get a particular job we will be happy. We think if our children get into the right schools or are well-educated, then we will be happy. Our wisdom always seems wise, but Paul makes it clear that this is fool’s gold. How quick we are to exchange God for anything else. In the Garden, this is exactly what Satan tempted Eve with. He said to Eve, “God knows that when you eat from the Tree, you will be like God.� In other words, you will be wise in your own eyes. And so she took and ate exchanging God for her own wisdom, which ended up being nothing but foolishness in the end.

The truth is, we think this way because as verse 25 says: “…because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator.� All of us at one time believed that anything or anyone else but God was better to worship than God. And when we were or are in such a state, to want God more than anything else seems like foolishness. Last week, I shared how my aunt, my murdered cousin Brian’s mom gave $400 to our church as a thanksgiving offering for God’s sovereign care for Brian for all eternity. I also talked about how poor she was and could have used the money. Well, someone noted to me that they couldn’t understand why the church wouldn’t give back the money. After all, if she was so poor, didn’t she need the money? Wouldn’t it be the right thing to do, to give back the money? But I would say for my aunt, the $400 might seem like a lot to her, but relative to God’s grace and presence in her life, she felt as though giving the money was a greater benefit to her then spending the money on other things. How could this be? Because in her view, she is worshipping the Creator and not the creature, that is her worldly possessions. To anyone who does not see God in this way, this act of my aunt’s seems foolish and wisdom would be keeping the money and budgeting it accordingly, especially as a poor woman. But according to Paul, if there truly is a God, then she acted in the wisest of ways and foolishness is actually the suppression of the truth that there is a just, faithful, and yes angry God.

Why is God angry? Because we deny His existence, because we live as though He doesn’t exist, because we spurn all that He gives us graciously, because we mock Him by dishonoring Him, because we tell Him we want something else, anything else to make us happy and satisfied. And we do this continuously throughout our lives. For example, imagine a bully when you were a child attacking you and mocking you daily. It is taxing to say the least. Imagine he is continuously laughing at you, mocking you, denying that you even exist. He mocks not just you, but your family, your friends. He is physically abusive to you day in and day out. He is ruthless and cold. When you try to show him an act of kindness to allay his anger towards you, he spits in your face. Your gifts are tossed aside as junk. He is telling his friends about you, stirring up a mob to surround you so they too can add to the scorn. This analogy does not do justice to how we treat God. The taunts and treatment of God is far worse. But also, God is no pitiful and weak kid to be mocked. Surely, for God to be angry in these circumstances is not unjust. In fact, if He were not angry and had no wrath against this defamation of His character and glory, God would be a pitiable God not worthy of worship. He would be no better than if we worshipped an ant!

Why Is God So Gracious?

Then why is God so gracious? As you can see from Paul’s argument, He really shouldn’t be since no one loves Him on his or her own. There is no such thing as a small sinner. We can say we are not murderers, drug addicts, alcoholics, adulterers. But our sins are so vast and foul, that we gain no favor from God by our works and merit. Imagine that we are standing on one side of the universe and God is on the other side. The gap that separates us is our sin. When I claim that my good works (I’m not a drug abuser, a drunkard, a porn addict, I am a pastor, a good father, a generally nice person, I did not kill anyone, commit incest, I am generally truthful, I boast once in a while, I struggle with pride, I read the Bible, I pray, I go to church, I care for people, I want to feed the poor, etc.) gets me closer to God then the meth addict I saw at court, it would be like me trying to leap across the universe on that basis. I might get 10 feet further than the meth addict by my works, but the chasm between me and God is so great, that the distance between me and the meth addict is negligible in God’s eyes. I would fall helpless to the ground. John Owen notes that there is nothing more dangerous and a spiritual wound so difficult to cure than the person who thinks his or her heart could feel better about their sin, simply by reflecting on his good works.

Everything that Paul said about sin is about me, Sam the Pastor, the generally nice person. And this is why I treasure verses 16 and 17 so much! And this is why God is so gracious: “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. 17For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.â€? I cannot do these 2 verses justice in this last few moments of this message. So I’d like to zero in on 1 statement, “The Gospel is the power of God for the salvation to everyone who believes.â€? God is so gracious He loves us despite our sin and lack of love for Him. Paul tells us in Romans 5:8 that while we were still sinners Christ died for us. As horrible as sin is, as much as we have rejected God and continue to do so, the Gospel, the fact that Jesus lived and died on the cross to be the substitute for our sins, is so powerful that it dwarfs our sins. God’s Almighty, eternal power of grace shown in the Gospel of Jesus Christ floods sin greater than any tsunami that covers a straw hut.

We focus so much on this feeling that God is angry with sin and sinners, and He certainly is and should be or He would not be a just God. But do you see that grace is so freeing, so powerful, and so real because of this perfect justice? When Jesus died and rose again, He bridged the chasm of the universe between us and God. We now walk on Jesus’ broken body and He swoops us up to carry us to the Father. Mere leaps on our part can’t do the work. Only by the blood of Jesus can we meet the Father and enter into His presence. This is great news for anyone who would believe in Christ regardless of how terrible you might view your sin to be. Jesus Christ’s death washes you clean, as white as snow. So how can we respond to such grace?

How must we respond to this grace?

First, you must readily ADMIT before God that you are not just a sinner, but a wretched one who needs His grace. You cannot think of yourself as a small sinner or you are then claiming your own righteousness as meriting your salvation.

Second, as a sinner solely saved by grace alone, you must OFFER God’s grace to others. We are plank-eyed people. Even after this message, you and I will probably leave here quick to stand on our righteousness, refuse to extend grace to someone who has hurt us, and forget about our own sinfulness before God. Fight your heart that loves to criticize and judge others first without even showing a semblance of humility. If you believe Paul in Romans 1, then you will stand completely on the grace of God knowing that what he is speaking about there is about you as a sinner. And all you have is in the end, the great power of God.

Third, ASK God for a tender conscience. If you are bothered by your sins, thank the Lord that you are. If seeing a naked person on the movie screen makes you feel terribly guilty and burns your eyes with a deep sense of shame, thank God that you feel this way. If lying the white lie bothers you, thank Him for His goodness and pray that that grows. If words that take God’s name in vain bothers you to no end, know that you care about His holy name and that to be numb to it is a danger sign to your soul. This keeps you in His care and makes you long for God and long for what your heart craves in sin less. You will find the joys of your heart and longing for Him increase. If you are NOT bothered by sins both small and great, if watching nudity on screen has no effect on your conscience, if you are defensive or boastful or continuously negative and critical and that is excused as your being analytic, if you are a husband failing to lead your family in a passion for the Lord and that seems secondary to you, and all of these things fail to prick your conscience, please be forewarned. This is a spiritual danger sign that the Spirit of God is silent towards you and you need to question whether you truly believe in the Gospel. Then you should wonder whether you would be with the Lord if you died today. Please beg God for a tender conscience today so that your heart would be open to hear what He has to tell you, even if it should cause your heart to feel the pain of guilt.

Fourth, we must BELIEVE that the cross and Jesus’ blood genuinely frees you from this sin. You are not too far gone for the Lord. Your sins, no matter how great or small you might think, are all terrible before God’s sight. But the cross, as I said, destroys even the foulest of sins. This is not a sham but the truth. And you must believe it and say it to yourself every day, 100 times a day, if you must to believe it.

Fifth, THANK God for His great love for you. He has given you everything and withheld nothing. So our worship is not to gain God’s favor at all. It can never do that. Our acts of worship, such as Bible reading, and prayers, and church attendance, and evangelizing, and ministry, and teaching the kids, and trying to hold back from having a foul mouth, or quitting smoking, or keeping ourselves from getting drunk, or acts of kindness, etc., NEVER gain us favor before God as if those things make us holy. No, our acts that flow from this great grace of God, as a response of His love, as a response of genuine sincere gratitude, is what leads to all that I just mentioned.

Fifth, we must FIGHT the fight of faith. We must deliberately decide that on the basis of this truth, that I am saved by the work of Jesus Christ who bridged the gap for me to live with the Father eternally, who have saved me from paying the penalty of my sins for an eternity, that I will believe in Christ and I will live as though I believe in Him. I shared this before, but when Jerry Bridges’ wife learned she had a malignant tumor in her abdomen, and when she was to find out whether that tumor was gone or not through radiation, she said, “Lord, I choose not to be downcast, I choose not to be disturbed, I choose to put my hope in You.� And even though her feelings did not immediately change, they eventually did because she fought to believe the truth. Some of you have given up fighting to believe the truth. But I am here to tell you that the Gospel is your power and it is worth fighting the good fight for. So I ask you, “If you were to die as soon as you leave this building, would you be in heaven with the Father?� If you can say yes, then you must be a fighter for your faith regardless of the circumstances you face.

Let me leave you with this. Octavius Winslow was a pastor in the 19th century, and he summarizes the Gospel well:

It is astonishing that I should so be one with Christ, that all that He is becomes mine; and all that I am becomes His! His glory mine; my humiliation His! His righteousness mine; my guilt His! His joy mine; my sorrow His! His riches mine; my poverty His! His life mine; my death His! His heaven mine; my hell His!…That in traveling to Him empty; I should return from Him full. That in going to Him weak; I should come away from Him strong.

This is the love and grace and mercy of our great God. It is a love for the foulest of sinners. And it is the greatest of graces. I hope you live this for yourself.

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(1) R. C. Sproul, The Gospel of God: Romans, 30.