1:16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is God’s power for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. 34 1:17 For the righteousness 35 of God is revealed in the gospel 36 from faith to faith, 37 just as it is written, “The righteous by faith will live.”38 1:18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of people 39 who suppress the truth by their 40 unrighteousness, 41 1:19 because what can be known about God is plain to them, 42 because God has made it plain to them. 1:20 For since the creation of the world his invisible attributes – his eternal power and divine nature – have been clearly seen, because they are understood through what has been made. So people 43 are without excuse.
“And this is one of the most crucial definitions for the whole of Christianity; that the opposite of sin is not
virtue but faith.” ― Søren Kierkegaard, The Sickness Unto Death
Gospel is the power of God to justify sinners. God does not justify sin. He has punished sin in Christ.
If anyone believes with a repentant and penitent heart that Christ as his substitute, has suffered
humanity's penalty for sin and the individual's particular sins in this context and if he believes Christ
rose again from the dead as a victor over death and was vindicated in his resurrection to be 'Son of
God' in power, then God justifies him i.e declares him as righteous and acquits him of all his sins. He
is in return to love God with all his heart, soul, mind and strength and love his neighbour as himself.
He is to freely forgive those who offend him because he has been forgiven by God freely. Thus faith
leads to new birth and new life. He new identity as 'child of God'. This new man has a new hunger;
he hungers and pants for righteousness and justice. So God after giving him the hunger for
righteousness also satisfies him by making him righteous. This is a process, sanctification. In this
process, the new man's new life take shape from inside out, as he is transformed into the image of
Christ by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit transforms and starts using the new man for building and
extension of his kingdom. He gives him Spiritual gifts: special abilities to excel is particular tasks
like evangelism, preaching, teaching, healing, prophesying, knowledge etc. God trains the new man
in these Spiritual gifts and commissions him to do his will. God thus moves the believers from one
degree of faith to another, many steps higher in his journey of faith. In this process of sanctification,
the New man is delivered from particular sins, habitual sins, sins of weakness and even many
inadvertent sins. He learns to love the enemy and forgive him. He learns to hate evil, as the bible
teaches because he believes that evil is really bad. "Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling
to what is good." (Romans 12:9)
Thus it is faith, justifying and sanctifying faith, which includes overcoming faith, that is the opposite
of sin and vice and evil. It is in the gospel that the righteousness of God is revealed and made
available to man and the man who receives the Gospel message is made righteous and he in his new
nature opposes unrighteousness.
Paul is not ashamed of this Gospel, which is the power of God. Neither am I ashamed nor should you
be ashamed of it too. This Gospel first came to the Jews and through our Lord Jesus Christ, who
became a human and a Jewish Carpenter. Then it spread to the gentile world. Thus the Jews first and
then the Greek. Gospel is the power of God because, it is only through the Gospel that sinful man is
declared(justification) and made righteous (sanctification).
The righteousness of God is revealed in the Gospel. The Wrath of God is revealed on the unrighteous
and ungodly people. They suppress the truth about God and glorify images made in the image of
animals and other abominable things. They exchange the truth of God for a lie. They suppress the
truth about God that has been made plain in the creation. That he is wise and powerful is obvious
from the creation. That he is loving and providential is obvious from his proving them with food and
health to enjoy it. This shows that he is not like the created things, the animals and humans figures
that they have substituted for God.
The Gospel has reached Rome, there were Christians even in Ceaser's household. Christianity was a
new growing movement among them. It stood against their Emperor worship and the worship of
finite Gods who were themselves immoral. The same can be seen today in India. Hinduism as a
religion, has it's immoral gods and animal like gods. Then the Romans and Greeks and now the
Hindus are without excuse. They have a prejudiced mindset. They don't want to investigate and seek
the truth. Their false religion leads them into sin - unrighteousness and self righteousness. Only the
Gospel can lead to Christ- righteousness and deliverance from sin. It is through the Gospel alone that
man is regenerated from his spiritually dead default status. That is why the wrath of God abides on
the unbelieving for they have rejected God's provision for them. There is no other way they can be
regenerated outside of the Gospel. They have rejected God's love and therefore chosen to remain
under his wrath.
Now God's wrath is revealed in that he punishes sin with more sin. Greed with more greed; hate with
more hate; lust with more lust that the unrepentant sinner gets deeper and deeper into that particular
sin. He can still call out. But he chooses to suppress his struggle and starts justifying and
rationalizing sins. He even goes to the extent of concluding that there is no right and wrong and that
everything is permissible. In that practically unlivable state his life disintegrates. Family relations
become unsustainable. He is unable to remain faithful to his wife or partner. She has the same
problem. He is unfulfilled and empty. He has deceived himself. Thus Claiming to be wise and liberal
he becomes a fool. Unwilling to accept truth and justice, right and wrong, he practices unethical
things at the work place. He bribes and receives bribes. His victims scheme to avenge him and he
becomes more and more insecure. He now wants to eliminate them because he thinks everything is
justified if the motive is to save oneself. He destroys others and others destroy him. Thus sinners in
their sinful system destroy one another and if not the get caught by the law enforcement and they
receive the just punishment for their sins. Their inside is decayed. They are full of greed and lust.
They even do good things to gain people's approval. The high stress of life affects their physical and
mental health. Their relationships are broken. In order to cope with the high stress they get addicted
to alcohol and drugs so as to numb the pain of their broken relationships and to forget the guilt that
haunts them. Sin if sustained and unrepented and justified and rationalized invites God's wrath.
God's wrath pushes them deeper into sin, which want to hold on to, as they wished and pain and
guilt increases. Some commit suicide. Some get into addictions. Some get into pleasures
heterosexual and homosexual and debases themselves and punish themselves. Unable to bear the
consequences of sin some try self-righteousness. They create a false self image that they are 'good'.
They don't love good. They just use good to build up a false self image or to feel good about
themselves. They help orphans and donate to charities. But that does not deliver them from the sinful
nature and their habitual sins. They become hypocrites. Even though they do some good actions,
their inability to deal with their bad actions or the consequences of their sins, leads to a guilt build
up. In order to deal with this they suppress the truth and harden their hearts. Their consciences
become seared. They become unable to differentiate between right an wrong. God still waits and
keeps interveing at regular intervals. Each time they reject him, they harden themselves more in their
own sins and dig their other graves in their sins and self-righteousness.
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