“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness” (Romans 1:18).
Because we are made in God’s image, we are capable of being incredible problem solvers. Inventing an incandescent light bulb, landing humans on the moon, carving a forty-mile-long canal in the heart of Panama’s jungle, erecting a miles-long bridge or a 100+ story skyscraper are all enduring proofs of humanity’s problem-solving capacity.
Humanity’s greatest, most deadly problem—sin—cannot be solved by human brilliance and creativity. From its initial introduction to this very hour, God’s righteous wrath is being revealed from heaven against all human ungodliness and unrighteousness (Romans 1:18). Neither sin’s guilt nor its earthly and eternal consequences can be solved by human ingenuity.
Many have tried. Every attempt has failed miserably. Fig leaves do not work. Neither does redefining sin or playing make-believe with the existence of God. Even the blood of bulls and goats over hundreds of years does not give any long term, permanent solution (Hebrews 10:4).
To better comprehend the incredible power and manifold grace contained in the gospel the apostle Paul’s first lengthy consideration in Romans (1:18-3:20) is on the problem solved by the gospel—the problem of sin and the wrath of God against it.
Because God’s ways are not man’s ways and God’s thoughts are higher than man’s thoughts as the heavens are higher than the earth (Isaiah 55:8-9), humanity’s only hope for a solution to the problem of sin and the wrath of God is in God’s manifold wisdom and grace.
Without God’s solution we are all doomed “for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men” (Romans 1:18) and “there is none righteous, no, not one…all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:10, 23).
