Ro 1:18 – A Short Commentary
The specific context of this verse, found in the one following it, is the existence of God. I believe, however, that there can also be seen a wider application.
The unsaved deny the truth that they are unrighteous, i.e. guilty because they cannot handle, or refuse to admit their guilt before God and the resulting punishment. They do not know the ‘antidote’ to guilt before God which is the forgiveness of sins through faith in the Gospel of Christ.
The concept of righteousness stems from the root word in Greek which is ‘dike‘. Dike evokes the picture of a man standing before a judge and being told he is guilty(unrighteous). The consequence of guilt is either pardon or punishment; there is no other option. They know they deserve punishment and have no access to its relief.
As depression hides the true source of a person’s emotional pain, this suppression hides all sorts of truths, the big and the small alike and God is the source of all truth(s). This is one implication of His goodness: He always tells the truth and is the source of all things that are true.
One place you can see this in action is in the current cultural and political climate. The left will not indeed cannot, see the real truths. They deny God and thereby deny reality. They deny Christ Jesus and in so doing deny the Truth. Therefore they must, of necessity, believe a lie. Couple this with the fact that the evil one influences them and you can see the source of the chaos and discord in the world today.
© Dennis Doolittle
[i] See particularly verse 28 of this chapter.
Recent Comments