Can Man Live Without God? Part I Romans 1:18-25

Scripture Reading: Romans 1:18-25 (Pew Bible, 757)

Can man live without God? Yes, if you believe what the atheists say. According to the American Atheists, “An Atheist loves himself and his fellowman instead of a god. An Atheist accepts that heaven is something for which we should work now - here on earth - for all men together to enjoy. An Atheist accepts that he can get no help through prayer, but that he must find in himself the inner conviction and strength to meet life, to grapple with it, to subdue it and to enjoy it. An Atheist accepts that only in a knowledge of himself and a knowledge of his fellow man can he find the understanding that will help to a life of fulfillment. (http://www.atheists.org, my emphasis; unless noted, quotations in this article were taken from the official website of the American Atheists Organization.)

Atheists “accept only that which is scientifically verifiable. Since god concepts are unverifiable, we do not accept them.” Furthermore, Atheists gladly concede that the individual alone is the determiner of what is right and wrong. Atheists contend that they are inner-directed “in distinction to being outer-directed as the theist is. We rely on ourselves for the solutions to our problems . . . we cannot rely on supernatural intervention into our problem - solving processes.”

A great number of people today are living lives without God. They may even profess faith in God, but they are living as practical Atheists. They may not be card-carrying members of the American Atheists Organization; but nevertheless, they have subscribed to its basic tenants: that man does not really need a god; that man is the center of the universe; and that humans alone can solve the world’s problems. However, increasingly many people are discovering the moral bankruptcy of this philosophy of living - it simply will not work!

Can man truly live without God? Central Truth: In Romans 1:18-32 the apostle Paul set forth the truth that all people need God and His salvation because all people are left to the consequences of their own freely chosen course of action, and unless this tendency is reversed by divine grace, their situation will go from bad to worse.

Never has the dimension of evil in the world been probed more profoundly than by Paul in this passage. It is a form of open-heart surgery that some people will chose not to undertake. It is bound to offend some people whose analysis concludes that human nature is essentially good and that humans alone must rely upon themselves for the solutions to man’s problems. While the world pledges allegiance to evolution (that man started low and climbed high), this passage teaches devolution: man started high and because of sin, sank into the depths of sin and degradation.

Why does man need God? Romans chapter one provides some relevant answers. First, man needs God because of . . .
1. The Truth about God’s Wrath (1:18)
We need to note that wrath is not anger as in the emotion that we experience. God isn’t sitting in heaven fuming or plotting revenge or throwing down lightning bolts. Wrath is the execution of God’s perfection. Because God is perfect, He must not tolerate sin or He would no longer be perfect.

Because God is God, because He is characteristically holy, God cannot tolerate sin, and the wrath of God is His “annihilating reaction” against sin.” God’s wrath is the display of His perfect justice. God’s disapproval of sin is not an arbitrary matter, for His very nature is one of holiness; it automatically rejects sin. You might say God’s character is such that He is “allergic to sin.”

The prophets in the OT spoke of the wrath of God in connection with the moral order that God had ordained in the world. This moral order is the present wrath of God at work. Wrath is both present, “being revealed” and ultimately future. God’s moral order is the expression of His wrath “being revealed” in the present. In other words, God made this world in such a way that we break God’s laws at our peril. Sin’s consequences are automatic responses to mankind violating God’s moral order. Now if we were left solely at the mercy of God’s unchanging moral order, there could be nothing for us but death and destruction. The world is made in such a way that the soul that sins must die. But Gospel of Jesus means that in this dilemma there comes the love of God, and that love of God by an act of unbelievable free grace, lifts man out of the consequences of sin and saves him from the wrath that he should have incurred.

What is God’s wrath directed against? God’s wrath is directed . . .
(1) Against “Godlessness” – Rejection “Godlessness” has to do with man’s rebellion and rejection of God.
(2) Against “Wickedness” – Injustice “Wickedness” has to do with man’s injustice to other men. Paul uses the two terms to show the failure of mankind in terms of God’s requirements in the original law – the Ten Commandments. Mankind is guilty of breaking both tablets of the Ten Commandments. We rebel against God and reject Him (1st tablet1-4) and we mistreat and murder one another (2nd tablet 5-10). Why do we need God? Because of the truth about God’s wrath. All men are under God’s wrath now. All people are guilty before God and therefore, God is completely just in His judgement of all men. See John 3:18, 36. The Gospel is God’s power to rescue us from wrath!

Man also needs God because of . . .
2. The Testimony of Creation (1:19-20)
Creation points to the creator who is worthy of worship. Creation, the world that we live in bears clear witness to its maker, and the evidence is “plain to them” (v.19). What is it that Paul says is plain? “God’s invisible qualities – his eternal power and divine nature” (v.20). Nature reveals a powerful and wise creator who we are accountable to.

The fact that we can see God’s “invisible qualities” manifested in nature is sometimes called general or natural revelation. General revelation is what can be known about God by all people at all times. Since the beginning of time people have been able to know that there is a master designer – a creator behind what we see. Therefore, all people are without excuse. Next week we will look at what man does as a result of suppressing the truth about God. Man ends up worshiping creation instead of the creator.

Man also needs God because of . . .
3. The Testimony of Conscience (1:18, 21, 25)
Our conscience points to a standard of right and wrong and ultimately to the one who created us. Webster’s defines conscience as “the sense or consciousness of the moral goodness or blameworthiness of one’s own conduct, intentions, or character together with a feeling of obligation to do right or be good.” We see evidence of conscience in this text in the following phrases: “suppress the truth” (v.18), “although they knew God . . .” (v.21), “exchanged the truth of God for a lie” (v.25).

What Paul demonstrates here is that all people have a sense of right and what is wrong. We have some inner knowledge of what is right and wrong. We have a sense of justice and injustice. This is universal although in some places among some people, the truth of conscience has been so suppressed that good has become bad and bad has become good. But that only illustrates the truth that when man rejects truth revealed in his conscience he descends ever lower into darkness and error.

R.C.H. Lenski describes this spiritual struggle that is going on in the hearts of men and women, the struggle that Paul is alluding to: “Whenever the truth starts to exert itself and makes them feel uneasy in their moral nature, they hold it down, suppress it. Some drown its voice by rushing into their immoralities; others strangle the disturbing voice by argument and denial.” How true! For most people, belief in God is not an intellectual problem, it’s a moral problem. People do not want to submit to God’s moral authority.

The truth is, we are hard wired for God but we suppress (hold down) the truth (v.18). Today, people are trying to remove God out of every area of life: out of the government, the schools, the workplace, out of all public areas. But they cannot remove God out of their mind – their conscience. Why is that? Because “He has also set eternity in the hearts of men” (Eccl. 3:11). The Bible declares that all people are created “in the image of God” (Gen. 1:26). What does that mean?
Rational – Think
Emotional – Feel
Social – Relate to Each Other
Volitional – Make Choices (this is where we lose the humanists and the atheists)
Spiritual – Relate to God
Moral – Knowledge of Good and Evil
If there is right and wrong, there must be a standard by which we make those judgements and that standard brings us back to our creator.

There are some characteristics about this testimony about God’s creation and human conscience that Paul brings out in this passage.
This testimony about creation and conscience is . . .
1. A Clear Testimony – “plain” (v.19, used 2x)
Look around and look inside.

2. A Conclusive Testimony – “understood” (v.20)
God says that people can perceive what I have created, they are able to reflect on what is created and they have the ability to reason and conclude that there must be a creator behind what is seen. People do have this innate sense of right and wrong.

3. A Constant Testimony – “since the creation of the world” (v.20)
See Acts 14:15-17; Psalm 19:1-6. Note the constancy of God’s testimony in creation with the words, “Declare,” “Proclaim,” “Day after Day,” “Night after Night.” There is no place where they (i.e., the sun and moon) are not heard (19:3). Their voice (testimony) is heard everywhere and at all times (19:4)! The message from nature about the power and glory of God reaches all nations, and is equally intelligible to them all.

4. A Conditional Testimony – “His eternal power and divine nature” (v.20)
This testimony in creation reflects certain aspects of God’s divine nature (v.20). In creation we have evidence of a powerful creator, a creator that sustains His creation (rain, crops grow), but we have to look elsewhere for the revelation (the knowledge) of God’s love, His grace, His mercy, and His salvation. For that knowledge we must look to Scripture, God’s special revelation of God in Christ (Jn. 1:1, 14; Heb. 11:1-3).

General revelation is sufficient to make all people responsible before God, but it is insufficient by itself to accomplish God’s salvation. However, God is just in condemning those who have never heard the Gospel in the full and formal sense. No one is completely without opportunity. All have known God; if they have not perceived him, it is because they have suppressed the truth. Thus all are responsible and are accountable to the knowledge that they do have. They are “without excuse” (v.20).

Recovering Our Sight (Rom. 1:16-17)
This passage then is a powerful motivation to us who are saved. To first see the lost condition of our world, of people without Christ under judgement. And to share the Gospel, the power of God. The Gospel glasses allow people to see clearly their sin and the savior (2 Cor. 3:14; 4:4, 6). This brings us back to the passage that is central to the entire message of Romans, 1:16-17. The Gospel is the power of God because when someone believes the Gospel, he or she is rescued from sin and brought into a right relationship with God. In this new relationship with God we are no longer under the wrath of God. “For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Thess. 5:9).

Prayer: Lord, thank you for not letting us continue without hope in our sinful condition. Thank you that you have provided grace and mercy so that we may be rescued from our sin and made right with you so that we are no longer under Your wrath. Give us a sense of urgency to share the Gospel which is Your power to rescue and make right people who are lost in sin and darkness. Amen.

For His Glory!
Pastor Joe