18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness;
19 Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them.
What do you think of when you think of “the wrath of God?” Here are three definitions of “wrath” from Noah Webster’s 1828 dictionary. See which definition comes closest to your current understanding.
1. Violent anger; vehement exasperation; indignation.
2. The effects of anger.
3. The just punishment of an offense or crime.
Satan will use anything he can to try to convince us to believe that God is untrustworthy and that we shouldn’t obey him in all things. One tactic he uses to accomplish this is he gets us to assign the bad behavior we see in others to God. Because we don’t know what God is like, we see what others are like and we ascribe those things to God—whether they are correctly ascribed to him or not. For example, if we know people who impulsively and violently discipline their children when they do something wrong, it would be that much easier to believe that “the wrath of God” is violent and angry, as in definitions 1 and 2 above, because that is what we would be most familiar with. But if we knew people that dealt justly with their children—who meted out punishment to their children in kindness to teach them the consequences of their own bad behavior, we would more easily believe that “the wrath of God” is not impulsive or arbitrary, but loving, fair, unfailing, and completely worthy of our trust.
We can read verse 18 and believe that God is an angry God who is just looking to take out his anger on anyone who doesn’t do what he says, or we can believe that God is completely fair and loving and that his “wrath” consists of the just consequences of our own actions which should give us every reason to obey him.
His “wrath” is “revealed from heaven.” How is this done? Well, to begin with, it is revealed directly to our spirits. Heaven deals in things of the spirit. To whom is his wrath revealed? It is to those “who hold the truth in unrighteousness.” It is to those who know the truth, but have not acted according to what they know. All of us know some measure of truth. When we act against what we know, God communicates to us, in various, plentiful, and increasingly obvious ways, to try to alert us to the fact that we have gone against what we know and that we need to seek out the additional truth he desires to give us.
20 For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:
When we sin, God speaks to us. He just has to speak to us differently because we are naturally resistant to what he wants to tell us. But “the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen.” What are those things? They are his “eternal power and Godhead.” They are him. They are everything that he is comprised of. They are his character, perfections, and attributes. They are his knowledge, wisdom, glory, honor, power, riches, and strength, which flow to him because he is worthy of them. While it is true that these things, in their fullness, are withheld from us, we are all given a portion to begin with that is clearly seen. He has given us a basic understanding and, to the degree of our understanding, we are left without excuse.
21 Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.
Once we have been given a certain degree of understanding, if we do not acknowledge God as its source and glorify him by acting according to that understanding, we lose that understanding. We are left to “vain imaginations” and our foolish hearts are darkened. Our desires become misplaced. What was once clear to us, we become blind to. It’s no wonder that what follows is what we find in verses 22-32.