“The Righteousness of
God is Revealed”
Today we are starting a new series, which will seek to give
you a panoramic view of redemptive history. We will deal with major events and
personalities that are important in the development and unfolding of God’s plan
of redemption in history. My hope is that, by the end of this series, you will
have a clear outline of redemptive history, which will enable you to read the
Bible with the whole picture in mind. This, I believe, will add to your enjoyment
of God’s Word and help deepening your understanding and your faith. But in the
coming few weeks, before we actually start our survey, we will deal with some
foundational issues. Today, we will deal with the nature, necessity and
function of God’s revelation.
Revelation is God’s self-revealing activity. It can come in
the form of words or acts. They often come together. He says what He will do.
He does it. Then He speaks again to explain and interpret what He has done.
This is important. God does not just give us some abstract ideas or truths. He
acts in history. He is intimately involved in the affairs of the world as its
sovereign Lord and King.
When systematic theologians speak of revelation, they divide
it into two categories (and systematic theology is a topical study of the
Bible): the general revelation and the special revelation. The general
revelation refers to God’s revelation of Himself through nature, which He
created. The special revelation refers to that which is revealed in extraordinary
modes. The special revelation pertains particularly to God’s words and acts, by
which He accomplishes our redemption. We know that these categories are not
something that systematic theologians concocted. In our passage for today, we
see both. The general revelation in v. 20: “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.” The special revelation in v.
17: “in it [i.e., the gospel
of Jesus Christ] the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for
faith….” There is another revealing activity of God mentioned in v. 18: “the
wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and
unrighteousness of men….” This can be placed under both general and special
revelation.
You can see how both categories complement each other. Without
the general revelation we cannot see the “specialness”
of the special revelation. It is like how magic would make no impression on
small children, who do not yet have a sense of what is normal. The
extraordinariness of the special revelation shines against the background of
the ordinariness of the general revelation. In the same way, it is through the
special revelation that the true meaning of the general revelation is made
unmistakably clear.
You can also see that our redemption is not in the realm of
nature and natural events; it is an extraordinary, supernatural event, which
God accomplishes. The general revelation cannot give us the wisdom unto
salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. But the general revelation certainly
shows our need for salvation, especially as the wrath of God is revealed in it.
What is
clear is that God is a self-revealing God. The entire Bible testifies to the
self-revealing activity and proclivity of God. We point this out only because it
is theoretically possible that, for some mysterious reason, God did not want to
let anyone know who was behind all that He did. That is certainly God’s
prerogative. It is certainly possible to have a world where people live and die
without knowing that there is a God, who made them. They may wonder where they
came from and where they are going and what their life is all about. They may
examine their world to find the answer but to no avail because God hid it from
them. Then there would be nothing wrong with their being born and going on living,
eating and drinking and marrying and having children and growing old, and all
the while wondering what their life is about and coming up with their own answers.
And eventually dying in the end after having lived that way would not make their
life any less meaningful. After all, God made the animals and plants that way! God
could have designed our life to be the same--with higher intelligence and greater
mental, emotional capacities but, in the end, no different from animals and
insects in terms of the meaning and purpose of their existence! And this is how
many people in our days see their life.
But the
Word of God says “No!” to such a notion. God has revealed Himself to man, the
masterpiece of His creation. God did not smudge His work of creation so that
man could never see the fingerprint of the divine Creator, no matter how hard
he tried! No, God created the whole world, this vast universe of ours, in order
to reveal Himself to us. For man, confined to Time and Space, could never on his own come to know God, whose infinite being transcends
Time and Space. And the Word of God testifies that God has written His name all
over everything He has made. “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky
above proclaims his handiwork. Day to day pours out speech,
and night to night reveals knowledge” (Ps. 19:1-2). The picture we get here is
the whole creation of God brimming with the evidence of God’s handiwork,
shouting out, as it were, “God is the Creator! It is He who made us! We did not
come into being on our own! Look at the beauty and intricacy of our design, the
interdependence of the ecosystem, the vastness of the universe and its
orderliness!” This is God’s general revelation we talked about, God making
known His invisible attributes through all that He has made (v. 20).
But the
extent of God’s general revelation did not stop there. Paul also says in v. 19
and 21 that “what can be known about God is plain to [men], because God has
shown it to them…. [T]hey knew God….” The general revelation exists not only on
the outside of man, in the things that God created, but also on the inside of
man, in his heart and soul, and as Paul goes on to say in ch.
2, in man’s conscience. After all, man himself is God’s creation, the greatest and
noblest of all creatures! As such, man is not only made by God but also made
conscious of his creatureliness in relation to God
the Creator. If we have superior intelligence than other creatures, it is so
that we may come to know God and to appreciate the glory and wisdom of His
ways! If we have been given superior capacities to feel, it is so that we may
experience and enjoy the love and joy and peace of God! If we have been given
superior capacity of volition (the ability to will), it is so that we can
exercise our will to be conformed to the character of God in goodness,
kindness, love and self-control! Oh, how we waste all the wonderful gifts of
God when we live without the knowledge of God, without being in communion with
Him! And no one can excuse himself, saying, “I don’t know God!” because God
made Himself known through His creation and placed this knowledge in the heart
of every man.
Of course,
not everything about God can be known. He is infinite and we are finite. But
one thing is clear: God reveals Himself and He has revealed Himself in a way
that we can come to know Him. And we can say that God delights in
revealing Himself. For He does nothing half-heartedly.
Whatever He decides to do, He gets fully behind it, as it were. Therefore, we
can confidently say that everything He does, He does with the greatest of
delight. Why does God delight in revealing Himself? Because in revealing
Himself God offers to man the best gift that man can ever hope to have, far
beyond what he can ask or think! As the supreme Good, God, of course, has all
the right to reveal Himself for His own satisfaction. But God, in His goodness,
did not create us just to be His admirers from a distance. He created us in His
image. In doing so, He made us capable of not only recognizing and admiring His
glory but also experiencing and enjoying all the benefits of having Him as our
God. It is like the difference between enjoying the amazing performance of a
virtuoso and enjoying it when the virtuoso is your own son. There is in this
relationship such an intimate sense of identification that, even as you sit in
the audience, you are able to share vicariously the glory of your son on the
stage. You delight in the magnificence of the performance in a far more intense
way than others’, saying to yourself, “I can’t believe that’s my son! I can’t
believe that’s my son!” And you clap more loudly and enthusiastically than
anyone, shouting to yourself, “That’s my son! That’s my son!” As you do so, the
thunderous applause, though directed to the virtuoso, brings a joy
inexpressible also to you. You can declare, “That is my God! This is my
Father’s world!”
That is the
kind of relationship God established between Himself and us when He made us in
His own image. He made us capable of knowing Him--to know Him not as we know a
trivial fact for a game show but to know Him as a wife knows her husband, deep
in love; to know Him by heart and soul, not just with our mind. Oh, what a
privilege He bestowed on us! What greater privilege and blessing can we have
than to know God in such a way!
·
So
then, when we know God truly, we delight in honoring God and seeing God honored
(v. 21). We want to see God honored above all things because He is exalted
above the heavens and His glory is over all the earth (Ps. 57:11)! We want God to
be honored in our life and in all things because He is the supreme Good! And we
are so amazed that, when we humble ourselves and honor God, He is pleased to exalt
us, whom He made in His own image!
·
When
we know God truly, we give Him thanks (v. 21) for the privilege of sharing in
His glory and joy. When we acknowledge His goodness and give Him thanks, which
is our duty, our hearts are knit together with His great and mighty love. When
our hearts are knit like that with God’s loving heart, we experience a deepest
sense of security and satisfaction.
·
When
we know Him truly, we dare not exchange the glory of God for anything else, not
even for our own glory (v. 23). For we have no glory apart from God’s. That is
what it means to be created in the image of God. We are like a mirror, made to
reflect the supreme glory of our Creator. When we reflect anything else, our
own worth and glory are downgraded, infinitely so!
·
When
we know God truly, we delight in the truth of God and despise all that
contradicts and distorts and deviates from it (v. 25)! For all that are not of
the truth of God are lies and deceptions, which darken our eyes and dim our
understanding. Without the truth of God, we can only fumble and lose our way in
this world. For the world is ordered and arranged by the truth of God. When we
have the truth of God, we can see the inner workings of this world as well as
its meaning and purpose and its ultimate end. It is only by the truth of God
that we can be free from all lies and deceptions, confusion and chaos, and stay
on the path of life.
·
Therefore,
when we truly know God, we delight in worshipping Him and Him alone (v. 25). For
when we know His glory--a glory that is so supreme and
absolute as to allow no rival or competition--we dare not bow down to anything
else in worship. Many have bowed down before the sun and the moon and the
mountains and even giant trees. There is something imposing about them. But
they are not gods. They are but faint shadows of God’s glory. And we realize to
our wonder and amazement that God has given us dominion over all things to rule
over them, not to worship them! We will judge even angels (1 Cor. 6:3)! God has, therefore, forbidden us from bowing
down to anything other than Himself in worship. Nothing
is worthy of our worship except the all-glorious God Himself.
This is what
is behind the wrath of God being revealed against all ungodliness and
unrighteousness! What is the nature of this ungodliness and unrighteousness? A
betrayal of a greatest degree and worst kind! God has bestowed on man a highest
possible honor--to truly know the all-glorious God and to share in His joy by
worshipping Him, who alone is worthy of our worship. But what did we do? Paul
says,
“[A]lthough 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. Claiming to be
wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal
God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles….
[T]hey exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the
creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen” (vv. 21-23, 25).
Here we see
how Paul goes all the way back to the Garden of Eden and the fall of Adam and
Eve. For it was with them that this universal apostasy of man began when they
exchanged the truth of God’s word for the lie of Satan; when they worshipped
Satan by obeying his word and worshipped the forbidden fruit by lusting after
it against God’s stern warning. In doing so, they robbed God of His glory and
they abdicated their dominion and placed themselves in subjection under their
subjects. How atrocious and despicable! You see, the wrath of God stems from
the deep love out of which God bestowed a highest possible honor possible on
man, the love which was rejected and scorned and thrown down and spat on. Paul
goes on to declare that the whole human race, as Adam’s posterity, was
guilty--not only the Gentiles but also the Jews--the Gentiles sinning without
the law against the general revelation of God in their conscience and the Jews
sinning under the law against the special revelation of God.
How is the
wrath of God revealed? There are some well-known redemptive historical
instances: the Flood in Noah’s time, the destruction of
But when
Paul speaks of the wrath of God being revealed from heaven against all
ungodliness and unrighteousness of man, he doesn’t seem to have in mind those
obvious, cataclysmic events. First of all, he doesn’t mention any of them. He
doesn’t even seem to allude to them. Second of all, they are instances of God’s
special revelation. But Paul seems to have the general revelation in mind. And
what he does mention, however, may surprise us. “God gave them up in the
lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among
themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped
and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.
For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions…. And since
they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased
mind to do what ought not to be done” (Vv. 24-26, 28).
Do you see
the significance of what Paul is saying and how important it is to understand
it? We usually associate the wrath of God with obvious catastrophes. But not so
according to Paul. Yes, there are such catastrophic events and they will
culminate in the final judgment. But we would be gravely and detrimentally
mistaken if we think that God’s wrath comes only in earth-shattering tragedies.
No, the wrath of God is at work even when sinners are allowed to continue in
their sins without terrible consequences. This manner of God’s wrath is even
more devastating. Any great tragedy in life short of the final judgment can
awaken our conscience and jolt us out of our sinful ways. But if our sinful
ways are not met with terrible consequences but instead give us some measure of
pleasure, what would happen? Would we know when to stop? Would we turn around? No,
we would put off any change as long as possible, at least until our sins catch
up with us. We read in Heb. 12:7-8, “For what son is there whom his father does
not discipline? If you are left without discipline, in which all have
participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons.” The fact that
our lives are free of troubles is not a proof that we are in favor with God. Are
you putting off your repentance and commitment because your life seems to be
going OK? Oh, do not wait! Do not put it off!
Consider
also what the true essence of divine punishment is. It is not just limited to
the “punishment”, is it? The very act of sin is itself a punishment, isn’t it?
What happens when we sin? We are engaging in an act, whether mental or verbal
or behavioral, which separates us from the holy God. When we engage in sin, we
are turning away from the most satisfying joy that is available only in God; we
are severing ourselves from the purest, noblest and most excellent and enduring
delight and pleasure! And for what? To
wreathe and writhe in the degrading passions of the flesh. To smear ourselves in the dunghill of shame and to drink from the
sewage of disgrace. How tragic! And can we not see the wrath of God at
work when the people made in the image of God are left to degrade themselves in
shameful acts and glorying in their shame?
But it
pleased God to reveal not only His wrath but also His righteousness in the
gospel of His Son! “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of
God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the
Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith”
(vv. 16-17)! But why should we rejoice that the righteousness of God is
revealed! When you think about it, shouldn’t God’s righteousness be the very
reason for His wrath? To be righteous is to uphold the law. And the law
promises blessings for obedience and curses for disobedience. If so, shouldn’t
the righteousness of God unleash punishment and curses against us sinners?
But Paul
tells us that the righteousness of God is revealed in the gospel. That means, the revelation of God’s righteousness is good news! How is
that possible? Because God entered into covenant of grace
with His people. He swore by His name that He would redeem His sinful
people and make them into a holy nation of royal priesthood. In order for God
to be righteous, then, He must fulfill this promise of His. And yet, He must
still uphold the very basic principle of righteousness perfectly: He must not
let any sin go unpunished and bless only those that are righteous. Talk about
being stuck between a rock and a hard place! How can God fulfill both His
righteousness and His gracious promise?
Paul
describes the gospel in vv. 2-4 as that which God “promised beforehand through
his prophets in the holy Scriptures, concerning his Son, who was descended from
David according to the flesh and was declared to be the Son of God in power
according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus
Christ our Lord….” As you can see, His gracious promise was concerning His Son,
Jesus Christ. There is the key! He would take the place of His people and bear
their punishment. He would take all the wrath of God, reserved for their final
judgment. In His substitutionary death for the sins of His people, He would
uphold both God’s grace and His righteousness--His righteous grace and His
gracious righteousness! And that is exactly what the Son of God did! Through
Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the righteousness of God was revealed in a most
wonderful and marvelous way--not for the condemnation of sinners but for their
salvation! “Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and
knowledge of God!”
As we
conclude, I hope we all understand why Paul was not ashamed of the gospel. How
could he be when he saw the wrath of God revealed from heaven against all
ungodliness and unrighteousness? For the gospel of Jesus
Christ is the only thing that will deliver men and women and children from the holy
and just wrath of God. And in proclaiming the gospel he was not ashamed
to speak of the wrath of God. For the wrath of God presupposes the high calling
and inestimable privilege, which God bestowed on man and man rejected to his
greatest misery and to the dishonoring of God! People may find it their highest
happiness when they get the job they want, the award they’ve been eyeing for,
the house or the car they have been dreaming about, or meet the woman or the
man of their dreams, or have a loving, healthy family, or gain celebrity among
men or have enough money saved up for a plush retirement. If we can have all
these, what more could we want, right? Well, what about growing old in body and
mind and dying in the end? The very fact that we had it so good would make our
dying so much more unbearable, wouldn’t it?
Besides,
God has placed eternity into man’s heart (Eccl.
God has
surrounded us with His self-revelation. From the vast universe to the intricate
designs of microscopic organisms, they all preach and shout at us about the
great power of God and His infinite wisdom. In unrighteousness we all have suppressed
the truth and refused to acknowledge God. But through the gospel of Jesus
Christ, God has given us the eyes to see and the ears to hear. We no longer see
a world rolling along aimlessly according to the cold, mechanical laws of nature.
We see a world, which is preserved and governed by the sovereign Lord of heaven
and earth in every aspect. And we hear the whole universe declaring the glory
of God, on the one hand, joyfully singing to His power and majesty and on the
other groaning for the day of redemption. But in all this, we see a
self-revealing God, who delights in revealing Himself to us because, in revealing
Himself to us, He offers what is best and utmost as our portion and heritage.
And God has most gloriously and fully revealed Himself in the gospel of His
Son, of which we read in the Bible! Let us heed to the revelation of Himself, both general and special! And let us not be ashamed
of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the pinnacle of God’s self-revelation! And let
us delight in this gospel! Let us treasure this gospel! Let us breathe, eat and
drink this gospel! Let us live out of this gospel! And let us proclaim this
gospel to one another and to the world. This gospel cannot be shut up in our
hearts. Jesus said, “I tell you, if these [disciples] were silent, the very
stones would cry out” (Luke
© Copyright
2008 by Jeong Woo "James" Lee
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Reserved.