Truth: How Do You Know When You Hear It? Series

Romans 1:19-21. 19 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20 For 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. 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. (ESV)

The problem with humanity is not so much a lack of knowledge of God, as it is a refusal to acknowledge God, which at the bottom line is a question of moral honesty and integrity. Paul is saying that people begin their intellectual quest by refusing to acknowledge what they know to be true. That’s what provokes God to anger. This is the primordial sin of humanity, from which no human being is exempt. No matter how brilliant the intellect, no matter how cogent the argumentation, before redemption we all are thinking and reasoning and investigating within the context of our fallen nature. That is to say, we think from a perspective of moral bias. It is not that people refuse to know what God has made plain, but rather that they refuse to acknowledge what they already know to be true. It should not surprise us that brilliant thinkers compose very intricate, complex systems of philosophical thought that rise up in opposition against the character of God. In fact, if a person is logically consistent, there is a certain sense in which the more brilliant one is, the further they will remove himself from the conclusion of the existence of God. Theologians have a concept which they call the ‘noetic’ effects of sin. It comes from the biblical word nous and in its adjectival form comes across into English as ‘noetic’, which simply means ‘mental’, or ‘pertaining to the mind’. So, when we speak about the noetic effects of sin, we are speaking about the impact and influence that the unredeemed sinful nature has upon our minds, upon our thinking. (Sproul, R. C. (1994). The Gospel of God: An Exposition of Romans (pp. 33–34). Christian Focus Publications.)

To have our understanding changed to acknowledge what is ultimately true, we need to hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ which the Holy Spirit uses to open our eyes, change our hearts, repent and believe. The biblical order in any gospel presentation is always first the warning of danger and then the way of escape, first the judgment on sin and then the means of pardon, first the message of condemnation and then the offer of forgiveness, first the bad news of guilt and then the good news of grace. The whole message and purpose of the loving, redeeming grace of God offering eternal life through Jesus Christ rests upon the reality of humanity’s universal guilt of abandoning God and thereby being under His sentence of eternal condemnation and death. Not only is God’s wrath expressed in future judgment; it is also manifested in God’s allowing sin to take its natural, destructive course in this life (Polhill, J. B. (1999). Paul and his letters (p. 285). Broadman & Holman.)

Consistent with that approach, the main body of Romans begins with 1:18, a clear affirmation of God’s wrath “against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men.” As the apostle points out in his Ephesian letter, all unbelievers are “by nature children of wrath” (Eph. 2:3), born unto God’s wrath as their natural inheritance in fallen humanity. Moses rhetorically asked God, “Who understands the power of your anger, and your fury, according to the fear that is due you?” (Ps. 90:11). Paul is determined for us to know that before we can understand the grace of God we must first understand His wrath, that before we can understand the meaning of the death of Christ we must first understand why human sin made that death necessary, that before we can begin to comprehend how loving, merciful, and gracious God is we must first see how rebellious, sinful, and guilty unbelieving humanity is.

The truth of human depravity should be evidently realized every day. It takes great effort to ignore or excuse evil. Unrepentant evil has eternal consequences of being subject to God’s wrath. The most loving thing believers in Christ can do is tell people the truth about evil and its consequences thereby presenting the need for redemption. The question becomes how one can know this truth when it is heard? In Romans 1:19-21, it can be understood through three things: 1) The Gift of Revelation (Romans 1:19), they understand 2) The Content of Revelation (Romans 1:20), yet there is 3) The Rejection of God’s Revelation (Romans 1:21).