“19 For what can be known about God is plain…”
Romans 1:19
We are pondering how Paul, in his opening in the letter to the Romans puts “the wrath of God” as the opposite of his experience of the power of God for salvation and his experience of the righteousness of God through faith. He’s “not ashamed of the gospel.” God’s wrath, on the other hand, he presents as God’s anger for the sins we willfully do to destroy God’s creation and God’s creatures. God is not upset with ignorance but moral rebellion. Our problem is not intellectual but moral.
“Natural revelation” is Paul’s argument that God has revealed himself clearly to all people through nature. No one can say after watching a sunrise or sunset or seeing the birth of a baby something that life is accidental. Nature itself cannot be explained without considering the possibility of a god. Paul is not saying Christianity is obvious to all but he is saying nature reveals the existence of God and to deny that takes willful rebellion and denies God the glory he is due.
So let’s sit with that idea for a minute this morning. Choose a natural event that you enjoy like a sunrise or a favorite piece of music or a special person who has blessed your life. Enjoy that memory for a moment. What does that memory reveal to you about God? Try to list perhaps three characteristics and then thank God for revealing those aspects of his character to you. Let us not harden our hearts to God’s presence in our lives today. Blessings.
On the Way to Wonder 