Vision of the Ages: The Message of the Book of Revelation

The Cosmic Christ

Revelation 1.10-20

This book is called the revelation of Jesus Christ. And the first revelation is Jesus Himself, who appears in glory to John on the isle of Patmos. We should be able to immediately understand that Jesus is the central figure in the book of Revelation, though there are interpretations of this book that do not make Him central. This is a revelation of Jesus and it is also a revelation from Jesus. Jesus reveals Himself to bring a message to the churches.

John sees a vision of the glorified Christ. This is the same Jesus John walked beside on the dusty roads of Palestine for three years. This Jesus was crucified and buried. He was raised and was then taken up into heaven. John sees Jesus as He is now. Jesus did not stay on the earth after His resurrection and He made it clear to the disciples that He had to return to the Father and that it was to their advantage that He was going back to Heaven. The book of Revelation will show the Church why Jesus is reigning. In fact, the heavenly reign of Christ is the theme and the central revelation of the book of Revelation. In this vision of Christ, John describes what he saw and what he heard. He saw the glory of Christ in heaven and describes His appearance. Each aspect of His glorious appearance reveals some attribute about His heavenly reign that the churches need to understand.

And John also records what he heard from Jesus. Jesus has something to say about Himself and then He has something to say to the Churches. The church in the world is the primary concern of the glorified Christ, which is why the first thing Jesus does in the book of Revelation is speak to the churches. This vision of Christ and the messages to the Churches go together. You cannot separate Christ from the Church. The aspects of Christ’s glory described in the vision are repeated to the churches. There are specific characteristics of the glorified Christ that the churches need to see and contemplate.

John the Apostle saw this vision while he was exiled. There was a period of tribulation that was coming to the churches, and the last remaining Apostle was already suffering because of his testimony about Christ. This gives us a clue about the purpose for this book: Jesus wants to strengthen the churches to prepare them to endure tribulation. This book has a ministry to suffering saints. What do suffering saints, or those who are about to suffer, need to see and hear? The most important vision is Christ in His glory. He has been exalted to bring His people through a hostile world order so that they can reign with Him in the New Creation that is coming. The people of God can make it through anything in this world if they know that Jesus is reigning in heaven.

The fact that Jesus had to be exalted tells us something of what we are up against. Without an exalted Christ, we simply would not stand a chance in this world. No one is making it into the New Creation without help from the exalted Christ. And even though we must be fully invested in the good fight of faith, we must also understand that more is required than just our best effort. Being followers of Jesus in a world that is opposed to God will require some help from heaven. And Jesus is there to give us the help we need. It remains for us to see what Jesus can do for us and appropriate the grace that only the cosmic Christ can give us as we sojourn to the New Creation.

This vision of Christ that John saw will help us make it, if we will just see and hear. First, we need to see the revelation of Christ’s reign. Then, we need to hear the meaning of His reign.

See the Revelation of Christ’s Reign

 

Revealed in Prophecies

What John saw here is the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecies. Out of the people of Israel would come a man who would rule all the nations. As it says in the second Psalm:

“As for me, I have set my King on Zion, my holy hill. I will tell of the decree: The Lord said to me, ‘You are my Son; today I have begotten you. Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession. You shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel’” (Psalm 2.7-9).

Another Messianic Psalm that is often quoted in the New Testament is Psalm 110:

“The Lord says to my Lord: ‘Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.’ The Lord sends forth from Zion your mighty scepter. Rule in the midst of your enemies” (Psa. 110.1-2)!

Both of those Messianic Psalms are important to understanding the message of the book of Revelation. God has made Jesus the ruler of the world despite the world’s rebellion against God. The world does not submit to God and therefore it will not submit to the rule of God’s Christ. But this does not matter. God has installed His King on Zion, which is a picture of Christ’s ascension into heaven. And there is nothing that the wicked world can do about Christ’s reign, except rage against God in rebellion. The book of Revelation shows us that Christ is indeed reigning in the midst of His enemies. Eventually Christ’s enemies will be utterly humiliated and all their rebellious plans will come to nothing.

Another important Messianic prophecy is found in Isaiah:

“For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this” (Isa. 9.6-7).

But perhaps the most direct link to Revelation is found in the vision of the Son of Man in the book of Daniel:

“I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him. And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed” (Dan. 7.13-14).

Notice that both these prophecies state that the reign of Christ will be universal and eternal. The prophecy in Daniel is a picture of Christ ascending into heaven and being received before the throne of God, which is the very same vision John saw in Revelation 4-5.

Isaiah picks up on another important messianic theme: the Christ would come from David’s line.

 

David’s Throne

God would install a King who would rule the world. This King would come from David’s royal line, in fulfillment of God’s promise to set one of David’s descendants on his throne forever. Here is what God promised King David:

“Moreover, the Lord declares to you that the Lord will make you a house. When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever” (2 Sam 7.11-13).

This prophecy could not have been fulfilled by David’s son Solomon because his kingdom was not established forever. The first time the Gospel was preached on the Day of Pentecost, Peter alluded to this promise to David and the fulfillment in the resurrection and exaltation of Christ:

“Being therefore a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that he would set one of his descendants on his throne, he foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption. This Jesus God raised up, band of that we all are witnesses. Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing” (Acts 2.30-33).

The events on Pentecost and everything that followed was made possible because of Jesus’ heavenly reign. In fact, the Day of Pentecost, with the coming of the Spirit and the birth of the Church, could not have happened without an exalted Christ. The very existence of the Church in the world is evidence that Jesus has been exalted.

The Ascension

The Gospel writers record the fact of Christ’s ascension into Heaven and that there were many who witnessed this event. Here are the accounts of Christ’s ascension:

“So then the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God” (Mk 16.19).

“And he led them out as far as Bethany, and lifting up his hands he blessed them. While he blessed them, he parted from them and was carried up into heaven” (Lk. 24.50-51).

“And when he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight” (Acts 1.9).

The ascension and exaltation of Christ into heaven is a crucial aspect of the Gospel. The work that Jesus had done on earth would not have been complete until He returned bodily into heaven and was received by God the Father. In some sense the work that Jesus is doing now in heaven is the second phase in God’s purpose. Jesus had to descend from heaven to earth and then ascend from earth to heaven for the work of redemption to be complete. Jesus’ words from the Cross were “it is finished.” And that meant His sacrifice was complete. The primary reason for His incarnation was to become the sacrifice for our sins. But after making this sacrifice, He had to return to heaven and the presence of God before the power and effectiveness of that sacrifice could be fully realized. That is why Jesus made it clear that He would not remain with the disciples physically. He had to go back to heaven so that the full power of what He had done on earth could be appropriated by believers. Jesus can do more in heaven than He could do on earth. The book of Revelation is showing us what Jesus is doing now that He has ascended.

The ascension of Christ is always connected to the preaching of the Gospel. In other words, the Apostles were sent to preach the Gospel because Jesus has been exalted as Lord. The effectiveness of the preaching can also be traced back to the fact that Jesus is exalted. The Gospel and the existence of the Church cannot be explained by human energy or ingenuity.

The Apostles continued to teach about the importance of Christ’s exaltation and reign. Perhaps the most powerful expression of this doctrine is in Paul’s affirmation in Philippians:

“Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Phil. 2.9-11).

Another doctrinal exposition of Christ’s exaltation is in the letter of Paul to the Corinthians. Paul is speaking about the hope of the resurrection of the dead and connects this future event to Christ’s exaltation into heaven:

Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death. For ‘God has put all things in subjection under his feet.’ But when it says, ‘all things are put in subjection,’ it is plain that he is excepted who put all things in subjection under him. When all things are subjected to him, then the Son himself will also be subjected to him who put all things in subjection under him, that God may be all in all” (1 Cor 15.24-28).

Until the time of the End, God has given Christ all rule and authority. (The only personality in the universe who is not in subjection to Christ is God the Father.) God has put everything into the hands of Christ until the time comes when all enemies, including death itself, will be destroyed and the Kingdom of God will be all that remains. At this present time, the enemies of God and Christ are still “at large” in the world. But the book of Revelation shows us that Christ has indeed been exalted and that eventually every personality in the universe must acknowledge this reality. We must understand that even though Jesus is reigning in heaven, not every personality on the earth, and certainly not the Powers of Darkness, are in willing subjection to Christ’s reign. Eventually Christ will consummate His reign and all the enemies will be permanently removed and will not trouble the New Creation.

Hear the Meaning of His Reign

 

Glorious Attributes

Every detail of John’s vision is meant to show us the different aspects or attributes of Christ’s glory:

• John sees a son of man, that is, a human being. Jesus is a glorified man.
• He is standing among the seven lampstands, which represent the seven churches of Asia. The exalted Christ is omnipresent. He can be among all the churches at the same time because He is in heaven.
• He is dressed as a king and a priest.
• His bright, shining appearance depicts absolute purity and holiness.
• He is omniscience, seeing everything on earth.
• He is omnipotent, possessing all power. His word is powerful, like a two-edged sword or a mighty cataract. He is holding seven stars in His hand.
• To get to His exalted position, He had to pass through many fiery trials on the earth and His feet are glowing like bronze in a furnace. These feet will eventually trample all those who oppose His rule.

This vision of Christ was given to John while he was still upon the earth. This is a personal vision of Christ and is meant to show Christ’s heavenly glory in relation to the Church on the earth.

Later, in chapters 4-5, John will be taken up into the heavenly realm and will again see Christ exalted. But in those later chapters the vision there is meant to show Christ’s exaltation in relation to the world and what will transpire in the world because Christ is reigning in heaven. In those later visions, we see that Jesus is exalted to judge the wicked world. But in this first vision of Christ we see that He is exalted for the sake of the Church in the world.

Reassuring Words

John fell before Jesus in a faint. But Jesus comforts and strengthens His disciple, just as He had done many times before during the days of His flesh. To encourage His disciple Jesus reminds John of two truths: first, He is preeminent in all things. John might have felt lonely and forgotten there on Patmos. We often feel as if we are insignificant in the world, as if our lives don’t really matter. But our Lord is the most significant person in the universe. And He has not forsaken or forgotten about us.

Secondly, Jesus reminds John that He has defeated Death itself, the greatest enemy mankind has ever faced. If Jesus has defeated death then there is really nothing for us to fear. The worst thing that could happen to us while in this world is death, but physical death only brings us into the presence of the Lord. The person who can defeat death is Lord of the universe. What person is there who has done what Jesus has done?

Jesus is without equal, on earth or in heaven. Just as Jesus was there to strengthen His Apostle, Jesus is there for all His people all the time. There is no place we can go where Jesus is not with us. There is no situation in which we find ourselves where Jesus is not able to help us overcome the adversity.  The Church must always think of Jesus as a living presence, not a dead hero or martyr. He is with us always, even until the end of the Age.

 

The Implications of this Vision

A Glorified Man. We should remember that what John saw on Patmos was a glorified man. Jesus did not cease to be a man when He rose from the dead and returned to heaven. The fact that Jesus is a man qualifies Him to serve in heaven as our great high priest, interceding for us in the presence of God. Revelation’s visions depict what the book of Hebrews teaches doctrinally:

Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need (Heb. 4.14-16).

Jesus is the first of a new kind of man. He is the beginning of the New Creation and the New Humanity. This vision was given to John to allow him and the rest of the Church a glimpse of the future. As Jesus is now is what all those in Christ shall be. We will share His glory and reign with Him in the New Creation. There are hints and whispers of this all through the New Testament, especially in the writings of Paul:

“The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven. As was the man of dust, so also are those who are of the dust, and as is the man of heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven” (1 Cor. 15.47-49).

The hope of every believer in Christ is to be like Christ in our character. But this spiritual likeness will even spill over into the glory of the resurrection body.

The people of God are in a lowly position now. This world is not under our dominion. This is not our Age, it is an evil Age. But our time is coming when we will reign and we know that because of where Jesus is now. Jesus had to pass through a time of suffering to enter His glory and if we suffer with  Him we will also reign with Him.

He has Overcome. This vision of Christ shows us that Jesus has already overcome and this makes it possible for us to overcome as well. Our Captain has gone before us and has won the decisive victory. The Gospel is the declaration of that victory.

In the book of Revelation, we get to see the Victor in His glory. Christ has won and everyone who is with Christ will also overcome. Those who oppose Christ will not prosper. It is now our chance to choose sides. The future is not in doubt.

Of course, if we look around us we see the enemies of God and His Christ everywhere. We are living in between the Ages. The victory of Christ is not apparent but must be received by faith. This vision of the exalted Christ is meant to strengthen our faith. We walk by faith not by sight. Someday Christ will appear to the whole world as He appeared to John on Patmos. Every eye will see His glory and every knee will bow to Him. But as the saints make their journey through the world, it is our faith in Christ’s victory that enables us to overcome the present world order. “And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith.” 

No Limit to His Power. Jesus is at the zenith of His power. He cannot rise any higher. There is no place on earth where He does not reign. He is Lord of every nation. The fact that some nations do not know this does not change the fact. The fact that the nations do not acknowledge His Lordship does not change the truth.

The Lord has commanded His Church to declare to all the nations that Jesus is reigning. Being a Christian means confessing, or acknowledging, that Jesus is the Lord. We do not make Him our Lord, God has already made Him our Lord. (It is a false dichotomy to separate Jesus as Savior from Jesus as Lord. We cannot take Him as our Savior without also submitting to Him as Lord.)

We must acknowledge this reality, which means that we obey Christ. We can either confess Him as Lord willingly now, and be saved, or we will be forced to bow to Him as His enemies.

Not only does Jesus reign over men and nations, He also reigns over the spiritual Powers. There are principalities and powers who rule over the nations. And Jesus reigns over these spiritual powers. Jesus reigns over all our enemies, including Satan. This book of Revelation will reveal what we are up against in the world. The only safety is in Christ, who is ruling over all these lofty, hostile Powers. Jesus can save us because He is the Lord. He has been exalted into heaven to save us. This means that there is nothing that comes against the Saints that does not have to submit to Jesus. Stay with Jesus and you will win!

We live in a world where there are two competing Powers. The book of Revelation makes this clear to us. We tend to overestimate ourselves and underestimate the power of the Enemy who is against us. The Devil still has power on the earth. He is still the god of this world who is working his will in those who are alienated from God.

No one can be neutral or remove themselves from Satan’s influence. We must choose sides. If we are not with Christ then we are under Satan’s dominion. But with Christ we are invincible.

“We are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 8.37-39).

Vision of the Ages: The Message of the Book of Revelation (Revelation 1.1-11)

Introduction

The title of the book of Revelation comes from the opening line of the book itself, which in the original language literally says “the apocalypse.” This is the apocalypse or revelation of Jesus Christ. It could be taken to mean that it came from Jesus or that it contains revelation about Jesus, both of which are true about the book. The Revelation made its way to us all the way down the heavenly chain of command: it came from God to Jesus who gave it to an angel who then gave it to John. This is the same apostle John who wrote the Gospel and the New Testament epistles and who had been an eyewitness of Jesus’ earthly ministry, death, and resurrection. But by this time John was an old man and the last living apostle. John has been exiled by an increasingly hostile Roman government to a tiny island in the Aegean Sea called Patmos. It was there that this incredible revelation, the very last book of the Bible, was given to him.

The book was originally addressed to the seven churches of Asia. This region was the Roman province of Asia also called Asia Minor, which is the modern nation of Turkey. Each church is addressed specifically and quite personally by Jesus Himself. And so, the book of Revelation begins more like an epistle. Jesus wants to prepare these churches for something that is coming that John is already experiencing. Suffering opposition and persecution is a central theme of the book of Revelation. The 7 churches of Asia need to be ready for what is coming so they can be overcomers just as Jesus Himself overcame the world and was exalted by the Father.

After this introduction, John sees the exalted, glorified Jesus who gives his messages to the 7 churches of Asia. After the letters to the churches have been recorded, John is taken up into the heavenly realm where he sees a series of visions which comprise the bulk of the book of Revelation. These visions have continued to both amaze and confound all those who read this book. The Revelation has been one of the most mysterious, difficult, and controversial books in the Bible.

Our first task when reading a book of the Bible is to try to understand the central focus or subject that is being addressed. In other words, what is the book of Revelation about? What is the theme of the book? This seems to be a rather obvious question to ask when reading a book of the Bible, but many Christians skip this step and immediately move to some detail in the book without first understanding the central theme. But this is always a bad idea, especially in a difficult book like Revelation. Details are meaningless and confusing without a context.

Worse yet, details that are taken out of context may become a pretext for someone’s own ideas and agenda. This has certainly been true of Revelation. Before we attempt to understand the mysterious visions in this book we need to try to get the main theme.

Fortunately, the main theme of this book is not difficult to understand and is developed almost from the very first pages of the book. While on the isle of Patmos John sees the glorified Christ. This is the same Jesus John had walked with along the shores of the sea of Galilee, but now Jesus has been glorified. The Gospels record how Jesus ascended into heaven and John recorded in his own Gospel how Jesus had to return to the Father to complete the work of redemption. The exaltation of the Christ had also been predicted in the Old Testament and when the Church began on the Day of Pentecost Peter had preached about Christ’s enthronement as God’s chosen ruler. But on the Isle of Patmos the veil that separated heaven from earth is pulled back and John sees Jesus as He now is in heavenly glory. And that reality of Christ reigning in heaven with God the Father is the central revelation of the book of Revelation. John sees a personal vision of the glorified Christ who gives his messages to the seven churches. But then John is taken up to heaven and sees Jesus in the Throne of God.

But we already knew from other places in the New Testament that Jesus went back into heaven and was received into glory by God the Father. The central revelation of Revelation is not a new revelation or a new doctrine at all. So why do we even need this book? We must remember that Christ’s heavenly reign does not appear to have made any difference in the world that we experience. In fact, the world does not even acknowledge that Jesus is Lord. Christians have declared their allegiance to a King the world cannot see. In the world of the 7 churches of Asia, Caesar was Lord. And this brought Christians into a collision course with the world around them. How do Christians live in a world that does not acknowledge or even welcome the Lordship and supremacy of Jesus? The book of Revelation was written to address that very issue. And it is still a relevant issue for every church and every individual Christian. The book of Revelation is not just for the seven churches of the Roman province of Asia Minor. This revelation addresses issues faced by every generation of the church from the time when Jesus ascended into heaven until the time He comes out of heaven and returns to the earth in all His glory. Revelation is showing how God’s people are to overcome a world order that does not acknowledge the reign of Christ.

The Major Revelations in Revelation

One of the first revelations in the book of Revelation is the fact that there are two realms: earth and heaven. The Bible is constantly showing us these two realms. The earth is the home of mankind and is the lower, inferior, temporal region. The earth is also where the Devil and his legions have power and influence. Heaven is the realm of God and His servants the angels. Heaven is always where all the real decisions are made. Heaven rules the earth. The earth and most of her inhabitants are really in a state of rebellion against heaven. We are living in the middle of a war! There is now a separation between these two realms, just as there was a veil in the Tabernacle separating the Holy of Holies from the Holy Place.

If you could go beyond the veil the first thing you would see is the throne of God. There were other prophets before John who saw into heaven and saw a throne. Isaiah saw the Lord seated on His throne, as did the prophet Daniel. It is interesting to notice that the throne is usually seen when times are difficult for God’s people on the earth. This throne is the control room for the earth. And the throne is never empty, there is always someone seated on the throne. John himself gets this vision in chapter 4 of Revelation. After he has delivered Christ’s message to the churches of Asia upon the earth, he is taken into heaven and sees the eternal throne of God. Things may look chaotic on the earth, but in heaven nothing has changed. God is still on His throne. That throne is the central fact of all Biblical revelation.

But John sees something in heaven that had not been seen before. He sees a lamb, looking like a freshly sacrificed lamb, sharing the throne of God. And all the inhabitants of heaven are worshiping the slain lamb just as they were worshiping the one seated on the throne. John sees the lamb with a kind of double vision: first as a lion who has conquered his enemies, and then as a sacrificial lamb. This lamb is sharing the throne of God. The lamb even takes a sealed scroll from the hand of God. Some have said this scroll represents the purpose of God for the final chapters of world history. Others have said this scroll represents the title deed to the earth. Perhaps both perspectives are true and right. This slain lamb is ruling the world and administering the purpose of God. Everything that happens in the rest of the book of Revelation will happen under the authority of the slain lamb who shares the throne of God. Absolutely everything that happens on the earth is under the control of Heaven.

Chapters 4 and 5 of Revelation contain the vision of the heavenly throne room. These chapters are the theological anchor for the entire book of Revelation. Everything that follows comes as a directive from the throne room in heaven.

What happens on the earth was first decided in heaven. A cosmic drama is about to unfold. The rest of the book of Revelation is really a cyclical series of visions. It is divided into 3 cycles that each have 7 elements. These visions are cyclical because they cover the same period from different perspectives. Here we have 3 different perspectives on the history of the world from the time Jesus went back into heaven at His ascension until the time when He comes again.

The first cycle is the 7 seals. The lamb seated on the throne begins to break the seals and open the scroll that he received from the hand of God. This is a picture of Christ’s heavenly reign over all events upon the earth and all the various forces of history. Jesus is running the world from heaven, administering the Kingdom of God, and fulfilling God’s eternal purpose. Jesus really does have the whole world in His hands. Christ’s heavenly reign is for the salvation of believers in the world. We could not be saved unless Jesus were really reigning over all. All the forces that are opposed to God’s people in the world must submit to Christ. If God is for us, who can be against us?

The second cycle is the 7 trumpets. A trumpet is a signal or a warning. In this cycle the enemies of Christ are revealed and there is a series of Divine judgments on the world. These judgments are only partial and should be taken as warnings to the inhabitants of the earth, none of whom ever repent of their wicked rebellion against God. These partial judgments are the signs of the final judgment that is coming. God has not passively ignored the fact that the world has followed in the rebellion of Satan and declared war on the people of God.

The third cycle is the 7 bowls. This cycle depicts the final judgment of the world, the defeat of all Christ’s enemies, and the beginning of the New Creation. The judgments of the 7 trumpets are partial. The judgments of the 7 bowls are complete and final. All evil is purged from the world and the final Day of Judgment arrives. The present world passes away and a new world appears in which heaven and earth are merged into one and the dwelling of God is with men.

Much of the imagery in these visions comes from the story of the Exodus. God’s people are strangers in the world just like Israel was in Egypt. Just as the children of Israel were mistreated in Egypt, the world persecutes the followers of Jesus. And just as God punished the Egyptians with plagues the Lord will punish the wicked world and then bring His people out in a final, cosmic exodus. Our Promised Land is the New Creation. This great deliverance of His people from a wicked world that is going to be judged and pass away is the central theme of history.

We have all probably heard that poetic line from Robert Browning: “God’s in His heaven, all’s right with the world.” But the book of Revelation tells us that all is not right with the world. An important part of Revelation is the revelation of the enemies of Christ.

The first enemy revealed is the greatest enemy of them all, the Dragon, who is Satan himself. In chapter 12 the whole drama of Redemption is replayed for us. As the Son of God is being born into the world the Dragon waits to devour Him. Unable to do so, the Dragon then makes war on the people of God who remain in the world. The Dragon cannot directly assault the Throne of God in heaven because the Dragon has been cast out of heaven. So, he focuses his attacks on the people of God upon the earth. To wage his war the Dragon calls up some helpers.

Out of the raging sea, which is a picture of the world’s wickedness, Satan calls forth a beast. We know from the book of Daniel that a beast is used to represent kingdoms or earthly government. This beast in Revelation is a combination of Daniel’s 4 beasts that he saw in a vision. This beast is arrogant, blasphemous, and begins to feed on the blood of the saints. In the time immediately following the writing of Revelation the church went through an intense period of persecution at the hands of the Roman government. Satan has continued to use governments to attack the Church.

There is a second beast. This beast uses deception. It looks like a lamb, but when it speaks it sounds like a dragon. This beast is a religious beast and represents all false religion that tries to deceive the Church. If Satan cannot overcome the Church through violent persecution, he may then use religious deception. This may have been a reference to the paganism of Rome which tried to force Christians to worship the Caesar. After the period of violent persecution at the hands of the Roman government came Constantine’s Edict of Milan in which Christianity was made the official religion of the Roman Empire and eventually created Roman Catholicism and the Papacy.

There is one more enemy. She is the most shocking image of the three enemies that are revealed. She is a beautiful woman, richly and seductively attired, riding on the back of the beast. Like the first two beasts she is also bloodthirsty for the lives of the people of God. But her way is to woo and to seduce the people of God with her pleasures and vices. She is a prostitute and her name is Babylon. She is a prostitute in contrast to the holy Bride of Christ, the Church. And she is Babylon, the secular, idolatrous City of Man in contrast to the holy City of God, the New Jerusalem. At the time of John’s writing the Prostitute was most vividly seen in the corruption of the city of Rome. But Rome was only the beginning.

This woman represents the efforts of Satan to attack the Church with worldliness. If Satan cannot succeed by persecuting the Church or by deceiving the Church, he will try to seduce the Church with the pleasures of the world. And this attack has perhaps proven to be the most effective of the three and is certainly the attack the Church faces in our society. And when the Church gives in to the seduction, “Babylon” becomes the Church’s name too. (Our Protestant forefathers often referred to the Roman Catholic Church and especially the Papacy as Babylon.) God’s people are commanded to come out of the world and to be separate and holy, not even touching anything unclean. We are not to join our affections to the world with its lusts and prideful rebellion against God.

The Interpretive Keys to Revelation

When our eyesight is not quite clear, we can go to a doctor who can make some lenses through which our vision will be corrected and sharpened. Sometimes our ability to see or understand Scripture is clouded, especially with a difficult book like Revelation. Many people choose to utilize interpretive lenses for understanding the Bible. And there is probably no other book that has more of these interpretive lenses than the book of Revelation.

There is the view of Revelation that says everything that is in this book has already happened, either right at the end of the first century or immediately following the end of the Apostolic era. So, the book was prophetic but only for the immediate future and does not speak of the entire history of the Church in the world. We can learn from the book but only as much as we might learn from the history of Israel or other events recorded in Scripture.

Another view of Revelation says that almost everything in the book of Revelation is still in the future and will only happen at the very tail end of world history. Those who take this view say that everything after the letters to the churches is still to come. So, we can learn from Revelation, but only as it pertains to some future time at the very end of the world.

Yet another view of Revelation is that this book is not about any actual events at all, past or future, but is simply a book of spiritual principles written in symbolic form. Therefore, we should not be concerned about identifying specific events depicted in the book but should try to decode the message that could apply to Christians in any period. So, everyone can learn something relevant from Revelation if we see the spiritual principles behind the strange visions.

Of course, you want to know the correct view. You will find good Christian people who take different positions on the interpretation of Revelation. Let’s not make this a test of fellowship. We don’t have to wear any interpretive lenses when we read Revelation. Why can’t the book of Revelation contain elements of all three positions: historical, futurist, and spiritual? If we use these lenses we might have to bend the text to fit our position instead of listening honestly to the Word of God as we should.

Unfortunately, many people simply avoid the book completely because of all the potential controversies the different views create. Hopefully we can fall between the extremes of condemning everyone who does not agree with us or ignoring this book altogether. We may not have a perfect understanding of the book of Revelation, but we can get within hearing distance of the message Jesus wants His people to know before He comes again.

But I am not saying that every interpretation of Revelation is equally valid. There are two serious mistakes that are made with the book of Revelation. Sometimes these errors are made by ignorant teachers who may not know any better way to understand the book. But sometimes the book of Revelation is used by religious hucksters to manipulate people and prey upon them.

First, there are interpretations of Revelation that produce fear in good, Christian people. There are some scary images in Revelation and it is part of human nature to fear the unknown. Doom and gloom is easy to sell because the future is dark and we tend to assume the worst. So, people are afraid of the Antichrist, the mark of the beast, or a future world government. So-called prophecy experts mix this fear with a little conspiracy theory and political intrigue and sell it to people who are ready to believe that something bad is just around the corner for the late, great planet earth. Never mind the fact that the book of Revelation clearly shows that Jesus is more powerful than all the forces of evil and all opposition to Christ’s reign amounts to nothing in the end.

A person with faith in Jesus cannot read the book of Revelation and then be afraid of the future. If the book scares you then you have not heard the message that was intended for God’s people.

Secondly, there are interpretations of Revelation that take the focus away from Christ and the Gospel. The message of all Scripture is the Gospel of Christ. So, if we come away from the book of Revelation with something that does not relate to the Gospel we have missed the point. It is the book of Revelation that tells us “the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.” Jesus is the star of this show and it is always wrong to upstage Him with some other issue.

Unfortunately, when it comes to the book of Revelation many people are more concerned with the mark of the beast, the rise of the Antichrist, the tribulation, the rapture, Armageddon, and the meaning of the millennium than with Christ and the Gospel. But the same Gospel that is taught all through the Bible is also revealed in Revelation. It would make no sense for God to suddenly introduce some new doctrine in the final book of the Bible.

But many people have an infatuation with the new and the novel. The book of Revelation is often viewed as entertainment, like a comic book or graphic novel, that we can enjoy in our spare time or ignore if we choose. But Revelation deserves the same kind of serious and careful consideration that the rest of inspired Scripture demands from those who want to know the whole truth of God. Those who twist, ignore, or flippantly use the Scriptures are not serious about understanding the Truth but are only interested in novelty, sensationalism or personal gain.

But we do have to admit that Revelation poses a special challenge. Humility is the first required attitude when reading this book. We may never have all the answers. Interpreting this book is sort of like playing golf: you are not going to get a perfect score, but you should try to get as close as possible. To get as close to the meaning of Revelation as we can I suggest the following guidelines:

First, we should always allow Scripture to interpret Scripture. This is true no matter what book of the Bible we are reading. But one of the reasons many people miss the meaning of Revelation is because they are not familiar with the Old Testament, particularly the Prophets.

Much of the imagery in Revelation is borrowed and recast from the Old Testament Prophets, especially Daniel and Zechariah. In fact, scholars have noticed that Revelation contains more Old Testament allusions than any other New Testament book.

Second, we must become familiar and comfortable with symbolic language. Much of the language in Revelation is meant symbolically, not literally. All the numbers in Revelation should probably be taken figuratively, for instance. These symbols cannot simply be assigned a meaning as we see fit and this is where many modern interpreters go wrong. People often want to read all kinds of modern associations into the meaning of Revelation, like one interpretation I heard that took the locusts to be attacking helicopters! The text can’t mean today what it never meant.

Third, it is wise to keep the big picture in view and not get caught up in understanding every detail. Revelation is a book of visions or pictures. In every picture, there is a focus or something that we are supposed to see. It is not wise to try to strain at every detail and miss the focus of the vision. Imagine a person who looks at a photograph of a glorious sunset, only to focus on a large rock in the foreground! However, if we do look first at the big picture we will often find the details coming into focus as well. The details are always meaningless things without this larger view. But I tend to think the book of Revelation takes the macro rather than the micro view of things. It is like looking at the lay of the land from an airplane at 30,000 feet.

The Spiritual Outcomes of Revelation

Even if we do not understand every detail of this book, the intended effect that Revelation should have on believers is to encourage hope and produce reflective sobriety. Revelation is both a word of hope and a word of warning for Christian people.

This book shows us that the world is under the control of Heaven. God has not vacated His throne and His eternal purpose marches on under the capable administration of Jesus. The world may be raging against God and His Christ now, but a new world order is coming and all opposition to the Kingdom of God will be utterly swept away. All evil will be defeated.

The message of Revelation comes to believers like good news to a besieged city that on the battlefield their King has won a decisive victory and the war is over. Very soon the enemies that God’s people see encircling them will be gone for good. Until that time, we must keep the faith. Everything that we are waiting for will eventually come into view and faithfulness will be rewarded.

On the other hand, we must be warned that the danger is not over. We are still in enemy occupied territory. The Church must not fall asleep. It seems the letters to the Seven Churches are put first for a good reason. Suffering comes before glory, as was also true of our Lord, and before we wear a crown we must take up our cross. When the New Creation finally comes, there will be people excluded. A great separation is coming and now is the time for us to choose sides. The time is coming when all choices will be finalized and locked in for eternity.

Conclusion

If we see nothing else in Revelation that is clear, let us at least see Jesus in this book. Revelation shows us that Jesus is alive and is reigning in heaven with God the Father. The main vision of Christ in Revelation is as a freshly slain lamb in the presence of God. Revelation shows us in a vision what the book of Hebrews teaches us: Christ has entered heaven with His own blood to appear for us in the presence of God.

While He was on earth Jesus won a decisive victory over the Devil, the world, and even death itself. Believers can overcome because Jesus has overcome. His victory can be our victory. And no matter how great the forces seem to be that are arrayed against us we know that “greater is He who is in us than he that is in the world.” If we will stay with Jesus there is no way that we can lose. We are more than conquerors through Him who loves us!

And very soon our beloved Bridegroom will come for His Bride. Someday the veil separating heaven and earth will be torn asunder and He will appear. The book of Revelation ends with the greatest celebration in the history of the universe: the wedding supper of the Lamb! Every great story has a happy ending, and we know how the story of all stories is going to end. God’s people will truly live happily ever after. 

What Happens When People Reject God? Romans 1.18-32

Romans: An Exposition of the Gospel

Time spent in the book of Romans is never wasted! This epistle is the clearest exposition of the Gospel in the Bible. For that reason, it has always been regarded as one of the most important books in the Bible. From one perspective, Paul is giving an exposition in Romans of the message of the entire Bible. So, this epistle is crucial if we want to understand what God is saying to us in Scripture.

But Romans is not a light-weight book! Paul is reasoning in this book and it is important for us to follow his layers of logic as he develops his thoughts. It is crucial that we understand Paul’s flow of thought and not take any verse or phrase out of the context of the entire argument.

Our text is the beginning of the first major section of Romans, which ends in 3.20. In other words, 1.18-3.20 is a single argument and thought. The thesis of the book is stated in 1.16-17. Paul then immediately writes “for” or “therefore” and we need to understand what the therefore is there for! Paul is setting the stage for his exposition of the Gospel. And this means that he must first prove man’s need for what God offers in Christ. Unless we understand the need, we will not be ready to accept the provision in the Gospel. 

So, Paul states his thesis (1.16-17), proves the universal need of mankind for the Gospel (1.18-3.20) and then returns to expound his major theme in 3.21 and following. These whole theme of Romans is the good news of God’s imputed righteousness which is available to all men through faith in Jesus Christ. But before we can accept that all men can be made righteous we must first understand that all men are not righteous in and of themselves.

Our Need for the Gospel

In this section, Paul begins to build an argument about the sinfulness of mankind and the wrath of God against sin. Paul addresses two groups of people: Gentiles and Jews. First Paul deals with the Gentile world. He then turns and addresses the sin of the Jewish people.

Jew and Gentile are the only two groups of people in the world from a purely human or fleshly perspective. Paul anticipates that both groups might try to wiggle out from under his indictments. In other words, each group might want to point out the sins of the other group while finding reasons to justify themselves. This is a favorite activity of human beings when confronted with their faults. But there is no escape from the guilt of sin and the righteous wrath of God. There is nowhere to hide. Not only are human beings sinful, we are also dishonest about our sin and we avoid the truth. But it is necessary for us to face the truth about our true condition or we will never be prepared to receive God’s remedy in the Gospel.

One of the key ideas in this section is that men are without excuse for their sin. Now this indictment even includes Gentiles who unlike the Jews had never received any direct or special revelation from God. How can God hold the Gentiles responsible for their sins if He never spoke anything like the 10 commandments to them? Paul will answer that question here. The fact is that God HAS revealed something to the Gentiles about Himself, and yet they have rejected Him anyway. The interesting thing is that included in Paul’s indictment of the Gentile world is all the great, ancient civilizations that we still admire and study today: Babylon, Persia, Egypt, Greece, and Rome. With all the great philosophy, literature, art, and architecture, these ancient people rejected the knowledge of the one, true God and suffered the consequences of their sin. Perhaps we can also see principles here that apply to our own culture.

The Wrath of God Revealed

The wrath of God is a consistent Biblical doctrine and revelation. We cannot prove the wrath of God scientifically any more than we can prove the existence of God. We come to know about God’s wrath through the revelation of Scripture. And God’s wrath is something that is taught in almost every chapter of the Bible: from His expulsion of Adam and Eve from Eden, to the Flood, the plagues on Egypt at the Exodus, the Babylonian Captivity of Israel, and then all the way through the New Testament to the apocalyptic judgments depicted at the end of the world in the book of Revelation. There is no need to prove this point. Anyone who reads the Bible is confronted with the reality of God’s wrath. There can be no disputing this truth.

But what caused some confusion in the minds of people is equating the wrath of God with the anger of men. Some people think of God as a man who gets angry and loses his temper. Perhaps we remember our earthly fathers getting angry with us for something rather petty and we carry this idea forward and transfer it to God’s wrath. But God is not a man. Men get angry because they are selfish and sinful. The anger of man does not work the righteousness of God. We must not see God’s wrath as that of a man.

We are talking here about the nature of God. God is perfectly righteous and holy. Wrath is an expression of His nature. If God is good, then He must be opposed to what is evil. If God were not opposed to evil, then He would not be good and that is unthinkable!

We read in Scripture about a final Day of Wrath when God will judge the world and every person who has ever lived. But Paul is not talking about that here in Romans. Paul says here that God’s wrath is a present, active reality in the world of men. God is revealing or expressing His wrath in the world even now. This has been the very thing shaping the history of mankind. God is not absent from the world but is actively involved, though men do not see it that way. The wrath of God that is being revealed in the world is not a fiery cataclysm like Sodom and Gomorrah, though God is certainly capable of that. Paul is writing here of God’s judicial wrath.

Remember that in the preceding verses Paul said that the righteousness of God is being revealed. Then he says that the wrath of God is being revealed. And both revelations are true. The good news of God’s imputed righteousness that comes through faith in Christ must be seen against the dark backdrop of God’s wrath against sin. In fact, this is what makes the Gospel good news! We cannot accept the first revelation of God’s imputed righteous and then reject the second revelation about His wrath. It is the revelation of God’s wrath that makes the revelation of His righteousness necessary. One of the reasons the Gospel is often not understood or accepted today is because this revelation of the righteousness of God has not been clearly communicated by the Church. People do not feel the need for the imputed righteousness because they do not know about the wrath of God.

The Gospel declares that God has provided a way for us to be saved from His wrath. The Gospel offers salvation. But from what are we being saved? Perhaps some people think we are being saved from the Devil. But ultimately it is God who is our judge, not the Devil. The Gospel provides a way for us to be righteous in God’s sight so that He is pleased and satisfied with us. God is both savior and judge. He is saving us from Himself! Someday each of us will face God either as our judge or our justifier.

In Romans Paul speaks of two revelations of God’s righteousness: there is the revelation of God’s imputed righteousness and there is the revelation of God’s righteous wrath. We will experience one or the other. In some sense, we get to choose which aspect of God’s nature we will experience. If we are not right with God we will experience His wrath. But the Gospel promises a way for us to be made right with God and escape His wrath. The very God who is our judge has also provided the only way for us to be saved. Instead of running away from God in fear we are to run to God for His gracious provision in the Gospel.

The Reason for God’s Wrath

As I have said, God is not a man. His wrath is not capricious or arbitrary. There is always a just cause for God’s wrath. In the broadest possible definition, God is opposed to all sin and that is wrath. But Paul has in mind a very particular sin and God’s response to it. What has mankind done that has brought down the wrath of God? Paul’s whole point in this section is that the Gentile world has rejected the knowledge of God. But since God never spoke directly to the Gentiles as He did to the Jews, what knowledge of God did they reject?

God has revealed Himself to every man in what He has made. The creation itself reveals a little of the glory of God. This natural or general revelation of God is available to every man, even the most primitive tribes in the deepest, darkest jungles can still see this revelation of God. Nature does not reveal everything about God. But it does reveal that God exists, that He is powerful, and that He is certainly not a part of the natural order but is separate from it and over it.

Deep down every man knows there is a God. But instead of worshiping and acknowledging God, man instead worships the creation. This is the great sin of idolatry: worshiping creation rather than Creator. In the ancient world, they did this quite literally, and we have all seen the various images of pagan deities. Mankind wanted to create his own gods rather than worship the true God. In so doing, man wanted to be his own god rather than submitting to the true God. Idolatry, in whatever form it takes, is nothing more than an attempt to escape our responsibility to our Creator.

This rejection of the Creator was not at all an innocent thing. It is not that man did not know about God. They knew and they intentionally suppressed that knowledge. They exchanged the glory, or the knowledge of God, for something else. In other words, they did not think the glory of God was worth retaining. They did not see the value in thinking about God! This is like a prospector who throws away a gold nugget and picks up a piece of quartz instead! Foolish! But think of how common this sin really is. Every day men choose to think of and pursue other things instead of the glory of God. And they consider the glory of God to be a waste of their time and effort. That is surely the great sin of humanity.

Objections to this Doctrine of the Wrath of God

As you might have known, there are many objections to the doctrine of the wrath of God. And we should be aware of what people today are thinking and how we might answer these arguments. We do not simply want to win arguments, we want to be good witnesses to the truth of the Gospel and we also want to care about people’s souls.

Secular Objections to the Wrath of God

First, there are secular objections to the wrath of God. If there is a God, they will say, we reject the idea of a judgmental, angry God. That is too exclusive, narrow, and intolerant. Furthermore, they say, in teaching people that God is angry you are manipulating their fears. We must point out to people who say that Christians are intolerant that they themselves are also being narrow and intolerant. They are saying that there is no absolute except for their belief that there are no absolutes.

The idea that we are manipulating people’s fears is based on the presupposition that what we are saying about God is not true. Otherwise, if it is true, the wrath of God is something to be feared and we are doing people a great service in warning them about it so they can avoid it, just as a good physician warns the patient about a serious disease.

Religious Objections to the Wrath of God

Secondly, there are religious objections to the wrath of God. Some people say that the idea of an angry God is just a primitive, pagan view of God. The pagan deities were always angry and had to be feared and placated. But we have more advanced, sophisticated views of God today. An angry God is an Old Testament, tribal deity, not the loving God of Jesus in the New Testament. Well, here is Paul in the New Testament saying the same thing about the wrath of God that the Old Testament prophets said about God’s wrath! And Jesus Himself warned people about Hell and the wrath of God more than any other New Testament preacher. But some Christians will say that they believe in the wrath of God, but that we must win people with love. So, they simply do not talk about it. But when we present the Gospel we must present the whole message, or we are not really presenting the truth of Gospel. In fact, we cannot really understand the love of God fully without understanding the doctrine of God’s wrath. The Gospel tells us that Jesus died to deliver us from the wrath of God and the Cross makes no sense unless we understand this doctrine of wrath.

God’s Wrath Revealed in His Abandonment of the Wicked

What Paul is really talking about here in this text in connection to the wrath of God is God’s judicial wrath. Paul is not talking about the final wrath of God on the Day of Judgment and he is not referring to come kind of cataclysmic wrath. God’s judicial wrath is expressed in the fact that God abandoned these people. This may be a new thought for some people. In fact, the very idea that God would abandon people does not fit with the popular conception of God. The popular idea about God is that He never abandons anyone but is infinitely patient and always gives everyone another chance to make things right. But that popular notion that God is infinitely patient is not taught in Scripture. God is long-suffering. God does not have a short fuse. But neither is God always tolerant of people’s sin and rebellion. God’s grace and patience should never be interpreted as tolerance or used as a license.

Consider the fact that the people Paul is speaking about were abandoned by God because they had abandoned God! These were not people seeking God, as if God were pushing them away. They had pushed God away and so God let them alone. God let them go their own way, which is an expression of His wrath. C.S. Lewis said that there are two kinds of people: those who say to God “Thy will be done” and those to whom God says “thy will be done.” In the end, Hell is God giving people what they want and leaving them alone forever. Everyone will get what they want in the end. Paul says as much right here in the next chapter of Romans: “He will render to each one according to his works: to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life; but for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury” (Romans 2.6-8). Whoever seeks finds. But to him who does not seek God, there comes a time when God will turn away and let him go his own way.

Paul’s words in this text seem to have been written only yesterday. People who say that the Bible is irrelevant to modern man are simply shallow in their views of man. The reason why these words seem so modern is because the moral and spiritual condition of man has not changed. The Bible operates on a deeper level than the shifting sands of culture. Cultures shift and change. Each generation looks back with disdain on the views of the previous generation and how they saw the world and lived their lives. In 50 years, the views of the most progressive people today will be laughed at as absurd by the next generation. But the problem in every generation is the same. Modern man has not progressed beyond the paganism and idolatry of his ancient ancestors. We are pagan once more, though we do not see it that way. But idolatry is a modern problem, not an ancient one. Sure, you will probably not see the old, graven images and people bowing down to them, not in Western civilization at least. But the idols are everywhere, if you know how to see them. Idolatry is just worshiping a created thing rather than the Creator. And everyone worships; even the most secular persons have something that gets them out of bed each morning. Idolatry is making anything the absolute thing, other than God. For some people this is money and everything that can be obtained with money. For some it is their career. Some worship art and all aesthetic pleasures. For others, their adoration is for other people and relationships.

Idolatry takes many forms and is still the main issue with mankind. Behind all idolatry is the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life (1 John 2.15-17). We recognize the idolatry of various illicit lusts or desires for worldly things. But the thing that really drives the world and all its idolatry is the sin of pride. Paul says that mankind rejected God while at the same time professing to be wise. People think that they are too smart to need God. Pride is a wicked, rebellious self-sufficiency and is the greatest sin of all.

The True Nature and Consequences of Sin

Many Christians have a simple understanding of the nature of sin. We think of sin only as transgressions, or breaking the commandments of God. And sin is certainly that. But it is much more than that and goes much deeper than the things we do. The sinful behavior is only the tip of the iceberg. Paul hints at this when he uses two, not one word, to describe sin in this text: ungodliness and unrighteousness. There you have this two-fold distinction of sin. The root and true nature of sin is ungodliness. This is our attitude toward God or our relationship to Him. Ungodliness is the root of sin and unrighteousness is the fruit of sin. Unrighteousness are those things people do BECAUSE they are ungodly.

Men want to be independent and to feel that they are the masters of their own fates. People want to call the shots and make their own decisions without any interference from God. We often hear people say “this is my life.” They want to not only decide what they will do, they also want to be able to make their own moral decisions as well. Rather than obeying God they want to be able to make their own rules and decide for themselves what is right and what is wrong for them. There is always a moral element in man’s rejection of God, not simply an intellectual problem. Men become atheists to maintain their moral freedom, not because they have heard some crushing argument against God’s existence.

The problem of sin is not just that we do sinful things but that we are by nature rebels who hate God. There is enmity between God and man. Men have made themselves enemies of God. Most people would never admit this. Most people say they believe in God. But when it comes to the true God they are hostile toward Him. For example, everyone wants to believe in a God of love. But if you mention the wrath of God, which is the Biblical revelation of the true God, they reject that and become hostile. They hate the true God and have invented idols in their minds.

Sin means that we fail to acknowledge or glorify God. People simply ignore God. This can be seen in a simple thing, as Paul mentions, like failing to give thanks to God. Now all of us are guilty of this. God gives us many good things, but we fail to acknowledge that these things come from God. We complain about our difficulties and we fail to thank God for His goodness and mercy toward us. That is surely the essence of sin yet it often escapes our notice completely, even with Christian people. Ingratitude is latent hostility to God. And nothing is more pagan than failing to be thankful to God for His good gifts.

When people reject God, He will let them go and allow them to suffer the inevitable consequences of their sin. We live in a moral universe. We cannot reject God and escape the consequences, any more than we can escape the consequences of the natural laws of the universe. Paul describes here the downward, degenerative spiral that happened because of the wrath of God. Increasing wickedness in society is a sign of the wrath of God as He pulls away and lets people go. We are seeing this everywhere in Western culture. We are in a more serious situation than the people Paul was describing. They pagan Gentiles sinned against natural revelation. The Jews sinned against the revelation given under the Law. Our civilization has sinned in the full, blazing light of Gospel truth.

The darkness of the mind

When people reject the truth of God, they become spiritual fools who will believe all manner of falsehoods, errors, and outright lies. People refuse to believe in a sovereign, creator God, yet they will believe in astrology and that their fates are governed by the movement of the planets and stars. People will refuse to believe in a creator God, yet they will believe that the whole universe, with all its wonders, came about by a chance explosion. They will not believe the Scripture, but they will believe in black magic, ghosts, UFOs, and elaborate conspiracy theories. They refuse to listen to the preaching of the Gospel, but will listen to the ignorant ramblings of entertainers, academics, politicians, and talk-show hosts. In this state of darkness men will tolerate nearly anything except for the truth.

The loss of conscience

They no longer feel ashamed of their sin but are proud and boastful. They don’t try to hide it but take great pleasure in putting their sin on parade. They congratulate themselves and each other on their ability to be wicked.

The loss of moral discernment

They can no longer tell right from wrong. There is complete moral confusion. The ultimate example of this inability to tell what is right is the example Paul gives of the sin of homosexuality. Even a fool should be able to see that a man goes with a woman. But in this state, they cannot even recognize this perversion.

The loss of community

But to be fair, sexual sin is not the only thing Paul mentions in this litany of wickedness. What this long list of sin illustrates is the fact that when we are alienated from God we also become alienated from each other. Human community breaks down and we can no longer live together without hurting one another and making each other miserable. The word “civilization” comes from the word “civil.” But men in this state of wickedness are anything but civil toward each other. One of the greatest miscalculations of modern thinking is that we can learn to live together in peace without being at peace with our Creator.

Are you any better?

It is very easy for Christians to read a list of sins like this and then immediately make the application to our own culture. We see these things everywhere. And so, we are quick to identify and then sit in judgment of all the dirty pagans around us. Before we go there, let’s remember what Paul is doing this this section of Romans. Paul is addressing both Jews and Gentiles. He is addressing the pagans AND the religious people of his time. And Paul’s main point is that the pagan Gentiles and the religious Jews are all in the same state! Everyone is equally guilty before God. In the next chapter, Paul will then turn to the Jews, whom he imagines are probably saying “Amen!” to everything he has been saying about the pagan Gentiles, and then writes:

“Therefore you have no excuse, O man, every one of you who judges. For in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, practice the very same things.We know that the judgment of God rightly falls on those who practice such things. Do you suppose, O man—you who judge those who practice such things and yet do them yourself—that you will escape the judgment of God” (Rom. 2.1-3)?

And then at the end of this argument Paul concludes by writing:

“Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God” (Rom. 3.19).

The pagan Gentiles ignored natural revelation. The religious Jews disobeyed special revelation. And that means everyone is guilty. No one is righteous, no, not even you! In our natural state, we are all under the wrath of God. Of course, one of our favorite pastimes is to condemn others and justify ourselves. But that is exactly what Paul says we cannot do. Religious people are especially prone to being self-righteous. We believe we are safe from God’s wrath because we are religious. We are like the Jews in Jeremiah’s day who said “The Temple of the Lord! The Temple of the Lord!” while firmly believing they were safe from God’s wrath because they had the Temple. We feel that we can safely cloister ourselves behind the walls of our Temple and lob grenades out at the wicked world around us. There are many ways to hide from God, and some of those ways involve religion. But it won’t work. God sees us as we are and we cannot hide from His righteous gaze. No amount of self-righteous moralism or religious activity can make up for our lack of righteousness before God.

Conclusion

If the religious person can’t be saved by his morality, is there any hope for the immoral pagan described in this passage? The only thing that can save an immoral, irreligious person is the power of the Gospel. And the only thing that can save a self-righteous religious person is the power of the Gospel. There is no one righteous. And that means that everyone needs the righteousness that is offered through faith in the Gospel of Christ.

In the next section of his letter Paul returns to his original thesis, having established that no one is righteous:

“But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus” (Rom. 3.21-26).

How could a righteous God justify the guilty sinners who deserve His wrath? That would make God unrighteous and the very foundations of the universe would be shaken. But the Gospel is good news about God’s righteous way of making the unrighteous righteous (John Stott). Christ’s death on the cross was an act of Divine propitiation. Propitiation means that when Jesus died He became a lightning rod for the wrath of God.

Jesus took the wrath that we deserved and made it possible for God to be righteous while justifying the unrighteous. The God from whose wrath we cannot hide is the only safe place where we can hide.

“Rock of Ages, cleft for me,

let me hide myself in thee;

let the water and the blood,

from thy wounded side which flowed,

be of sin the double cure,

save from wrath and make me pure.”