Romans 1:18, commentary and pictures

God's anger is made known from heaven against every form of impiety and wrongdoing in those who hold down the truth by unrighteous living, suppressing and holding it back rather than obeying it. It stands side by side with the good news as God's power to save every believer, in which His righteousness is revealed from faith to faith so that the just live by faith. To hold the truth in this way is to profess to believe and follow while denying it in works, keeping only a sound theory with an unsanctified heart and a life that misrepresents Christ and works against the truth. That anger rests not only on wrong acts done but on choosing to continue in resistance after light and knowledge have come, refusing to repent and yield when pardon was offered. In the end not one trace of impurity will escape in judgment, for mere possession of truth without righteous living brings only cursing, while truth received as it is in Jesus becomes life unto life.

Words and Context

To hold the truth in unrighteousness is to hold it down and suppress it and hold it back by unrighteousness.
The verse stands together with the gospel of Christ as the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes, to Jew and Greek, in which the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith so that the just shall live by faith.
It belongs to Paul's declaration that he is debtor to Greeks and barbarians, to wise and unwise, and ready to preach at Rome, which is the obligation accepted in accepting Christ to labor for all classes, high and low, learned and unlearned, Jew and Gentile.

What may be known of God is manifest in men because God has showed it unto them.
His invisible things, even His eternal power and Godhead, are clearly seen from the creation of the world and understood by the things that are made, so that they are without excuse.
Though they knew God by the witness of His Spirit and by light and testimonies sent to them, they glorified Him not as God and were not thankful, but became vain in imaginations with darkened foolish hearts, and professing themselves to be wise they became fools and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man and birds and four-footed beasts and creeping things.

The whole first chapter of Romans is to be weighed and read until its particular meaning is grasped and given in its full force.
Each person must individually know Christ as Saviour before studying Him as pattern and example and seeing Him in the living oracles in order to represent Him to the world.
Christ is to be seen in the living oracles and represented to the world not in words merely, with all who claim to follow Him under obligation to walk in His footsteps and be imbued with His Spirit and thus present Him who came to represent the Father, and placing the righteousness of Christ in the law reveals God in His true character and reveals the law as holy and just and good, glorious when seen in its true character.

Professing Truth Without Obedience

To hold the truth in unrighteousness is to claim belief in the truth and to claim to follow Jesus while denying it by works, choosing one's own way instead of obeying. It is to have only a theory of truth that can be proved sound while the course of action denies it, with the heart unsanctified and the spirit and power of the truth missing, remaining unholy in heart and unchristlike in deportment. Mere knowledge of the truth does not cleanse from iniquity, and those who are not daily converted heart and soul lack purity of heart to rightly discern sin, righteousness, and coming judgment and cannot commune with the true God. As the light of the world and repositories of Bible truth, God's people must have spirit, words, and deportment correspond to the principles claimed, and those in this condition need cleansing from every kind of iniquity through sanctifying grace working in the home to sanctify the heart.

This especially marks ministers who preach the Word while unconverted and unsanctified. They accept a spurious light in place of truth and speak enthusiastically of redemption, the law of God, conversion, the love of Christ, repentance, and faith, yet without applying Scripture to heart and character, without experimental knowledge, without Christ brought into the life, knowing the Saviour only by rumor. They mingle extravagance, dishonesty, fraud, and licentiousness with sacred things until no difference is made between sacred and common. They learn to tamper with truth without trembling of heart or rebuke of conscience, and all seems peaceful to them because the palsy of death is upon them, as self-deceived men not far from destruction. Falling under temptation into sin, they disgrace the cause they advocate, produce apostasies, misrepresent the truth, and expose those they teach to deception. So fearful is the responsibility of being in daily connection with eternal truth and telling it to others while unsanctified through it that the Word must be enthroned in the heart and every thought, word, and action brought into subjection to Christ.

It is to claim belief and take the name Seventh-day Adventist while not standing as high in morality and practical godliness as many who never saw the truth. The heart remains uncleansed of moral defilement, the truth is kept far from the center of being, and the life is destitute of the first principles of Christianity exemplified in conduct. Hearts are buried in worldliness and saturated with what is earthly and sensual, and by one's own course one is cut off from communion with God and dead to holiness, twice dead and plucked up by the roots.

Such a life works against the truth, misrepresents Christ and the truth, encourages the world in unbelief and ungodly deeds, and keeps other churches from examining the evidences of doctrine and faith. The example of men in holy places who profess truth while cherishing an unconverted heart chains the church to ungodly ways, gives the world supremacy among God's people, and shuts out the deep movings of the Spirit. What is required instead in every relation, as superiors, inferiors, or equals, is a pure clean heart wherein righteousness dwells through the creating power of the Holy Spirit, so that the whole building fitly framed together grows into a holy temple.

Mere possession of truth without righteous living brings cursing instead of blessing and is the greatest curse that can come to the world. By contrast, truth received as it is in Jesus is a savor of life unto life and is worth possessing, worth living, and worth defending.

It includes professing belief while wounding the truth every day by an inconsistent life, surrendering to the service of Satan, practicing iniquity, and leading souls to ruin. It covers the sin of licentiousness with the cloak of Christianity and seduces others into sin by precept or example, filling listeners with fanciful ideas that unfit them for holy truth and turning secret licentiousness into a supposed virtue. Such persons are those Jesus is ashamed to call brother, holding intercourse with fallen angels who aid cruel power over minds, deserving righteous indignation and becoming the subject of God's wrath.

It includes professing and embracing even unpopular doctrine such as that the seventh day is the Sabbath and gaining a semblance of honesty from it, yet remaining permeated with defilement and pollution in mind, thoughts, and life, which leaves a person not one jot more acceptable to God. It includes professing and even zealously advocating the truth when it serves self-interest while living for selfishness, covetousness, bribery, and self-glorification instead of glorifying God. Such a course lacks conscientiousness, honor, integrity, and fidelity, refuses the place of best service to God for the place of best self-pleasing, and shrinks when trial comes under God's measuring line.

It includes knowing the truth but keeping it while living unrighteously by indulging fleshly appetites and eating food injurious to soul and body. That indulgence clogs the living powers, corrupts the service offered to God, and turns profession into perversion of truth bringing divine disgust.

Wrath Judgment and Application

The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men and women, describing the disobedient and the work of a class who will arise, and unfaithfulness will be met with displeasure in the judgment. That wrath is revealed not merely because of sins committed but because people choose to continue in resistance, having light and knowledge and seeing guilt in refusing evidence sent, yet able to yield but refusing to repent and becoming more obstinate each day. They take up rebellion afresh, repeat past sins, defy God, arm themselves with Satan's attributes in opposition, give themselves to Satan to be controlled by his will, prepare to reap what they sowed, and work ruin of their own souls, though if they would submit they would be pardoned.

The passage through verse 32 gives a true description of the world just before the second coming, showing people under God's wrath against all ungodliness and unrighteousness and given over to vile, corrupt habits. The only hope for those in such habits, if they value health here and salvation hereafter, is to leave them forever, resisting temptation with determined effort because long indulgence destroys self-control and subjects body and mind to Satan until a person can be left of God to work his own ruin and death as a self-murderer. God does not hear prayers and fasts for victory from those who return to old habits, ask God to do what is in their power to do, and repeatedly vow and break their vows to give themselves to corrupt lust. Those who destroy themselves by their own acts will never have eternal life, heaven's purity will never be marred by their society, and those who abuse God-given health and life here would not rightly use health and immortal life in God's everlasting kingdom.

The verse lays down a rule for church membership and fellowship requiring that those who pursue transgression and, after being visited and labored with, refuse to repent must be separated from fellowship and not retained on the books, lest the saints be held accountable for evil deeds and the church insult the God of heaven. It describes stewards who know God and truth yet do not glorify Him nor give thanks, withholding means from His cause while spending freely on self-pleasure, like the servant who hid his Lord's treasure instead of using it to His glory, so that entrusted gifts and spiritual light must be used for God's glory. They are without excuse because what may be known of God is manifest in them and His invisible things, even His eternal power and Godhead, are clearly seen from creation, while they became vain in imaginations with darkened foolish hearts.

The verse describes those who claim to be sons and daughters of God with names on the church record yet are not laborers together with God and fail in accountability as faithful examples, especially fathers and mothers who neglect their solemn home work and leave obedience out of family religion. Ministers who preach the Word must be sanctified through belief of the truth, churches need a thorough work, every family needs conversion, and those in this condition need cleansing from every species of iniquity through sanctifying grace working in the home to sanctify the heart, with the whole first chapter weighed until its particular meaning is grasped and given in its full force. It applies to all who regard God as represented in Living Temple, and those who continue to accept the sophistry in that book will be led on in delusion just as were many after the passing of the time in 1844.

It describes the authors of infidel books such as Voltaire, Hume, Rousseau, and Byron, who were under Satan's training as leader of principalities, powers, and rulers of darkness and sowed infidelity broadcast. Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them and God showed it to them, and because His invisible things from creation, even His eternal power and Godhead, are clearly seen and understood by the things made, they are without excuse, yet when they knew God they glorified Him not as God nor were thankful but became vain in imaginations with darkened foolish hearts. Their works must not be accepted as authority in educating children and youth while the Word that makes wise unto salvation is set aside as unessential, for nature and the Word are the books furnished for education and the Word must be honored above every other book. That wrath means not one particle of impurity will escape at the execution of judgment, those who do not repent and forsake all uncleanness will fall with the wicked, punishment in every case is proportionate to the great light disregarded and the dishonor brought on God by self-indulgence, and only those made saints and not sinners will form God's kingdom in the earth made new. In the time of testing such professors are weighed in the balances of the sanctuary and found wanting and need to be cleansed, refined, and purified as silver.