They exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator. Romans 1:25
How does God reveal His wrath when sinners do these things? God gives them up. “Therefore, God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity” (Rom. 1:24). “For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions” (Rom.1:26). “God gave them up to a debased mind” (Rom. 1:28).
Donald MacLeod says, “Paul is not teaching that one day God will punish Roman civilization for its vice and decadence. On the contrary, the vice and decadence are themselves God’s punishment… Their punishment was their greed, envy, strife, deceit, violence and faithlessness.” So when the moral fabric of our culture is being torn, we should cry to God for mercy, “Lord, what we see around us is a sign of your wrath. In judgment, remember mercy and do not give us up completely.”
The whole Bible story leads up to a day when God will deal with evil fully, finally, and forever.
So while God gives sinners up now, God’s wrath is also stored up for later. “Because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed” (Rom. 2:5).
The day of wrath will be the day when God will recompense every evil and bring to judgment every sin. No one will be charged for something that they did not do. The punishment for every sin will match the crime. God will do this in perfect justice, and when He is done, He will usher in a new heaven and a new earth—the home of righteousness.
What word would you use to describe God’s wrath revealed and stored up? Surprising? Comforting? Disturbing? Clarifying? Other?
