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Paul’s letter to the Romans is a powder keg for the modern reader. Fundamentalism has not only wielded it as a bludgeoning tool against homosexuality, but has manipulated the square pegs of God’s wrath and judgment into the round holes of religion’s threatening rhetoric for outsiders. When the Sam Harris’s of the world justify a claim that the Bible is antiquated, irrelevant, and that those who uphold it, are engaging in hate speech, Romans is where they turn. I’ve addressed homosexuality at length in a series back in 2015, and I invite any who seek a broader biblical perspective to consider it, lest any say I’m glossing over this subject. I’m not, it’s simply not Paul’s main point, and thus not mine either. As a bible scholar, my goal is to hold fidelity to Paul’s message, while making a clear and contemporary application for all comers. I can promise you that I have not taken this work lightly.

Like some of you, I’ve read the commentaries, listened to the top voices on the subject, and honestly I’m shocked at how Bible interpreters (who clearly know better) deliberately alter the text so that it fits the cultural narrative. I am striving to offer you the most integral interpretation of this letter as possible, in the hopes that we can regain its power to heal our broken world. The tribal versions we’ve been given, have only divided and confused us further and that is the opposite of what Paul work in Rome. We’ll be covering 1:18-32.

 “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.” (1:18)

Be self aware of the gravitational pull of “otherness” interpretations. The English translations use a lot of “they, them, their,” whereas the Greek uses less of such qualifiers. In Greek they read more like “the ones, or those” and contextually we can prove that Paul is not actually singling out any particular group, even as he highlights homosexual behavior v.26-27. In these verses, he is using the landscape of diverse forms of “unrighteousness” to reveal how our world has lost its way. Throughout the text, Paul’s thesis is that every person has “been given over” and no one escapes this illusionary state of being. While Paul doesn’t use the term “we“, he does use the term “O man” (2:3) which connotes a similar contextual anthropology.

Paul’s terms: “Wrath of God, Unrighteousness and Suppression of the Truth” all need definition. The Greek word “horgè” (anger, punishment, fury) conjures up notions of Jonathan Edwards famous sermon: “Sinners in the hands of an angry God.”…but it didn’t for Paul. Paul’s theology is not a vindictive, retributive super-parent, watching humanity with a stink-eye. Wrath is not a future event and thus a threat, it is God’s presence as an ongoing state of opposition toward all that is ultimately false. God is perfect Truth and when we ignore, reject, or suppress this deeper and ultimate reality of God, we do so under an illusion of agency…”as if” we can ignore the truth. This suppression (katéxo), “prevents or controls” reality to make it what we want. This redefining reality is called (hadikian) meaning unjust, or unrighteous, or wickedness. The key is to understand these terms NOT as specific behaviors, but as ontological (essential “being” or “existence”) rebellion. Wrath is the ongoing state of opposition toward our illusion of agency apart from God. In simpler terms, we reject our true identity in God.

“…therefore, God gave them up…” (v.24, 26, 28) The Greek word (paradidomi) means to give authority over to, or grant. To those who exchange the Truth of God for a (pseudo) (v.25), God grants us the experience of being in a state of opposition. This wrath is not as the Puritans understood it as God hating us… but God (in love) actually allowing us to experience the cascading effects of living increasing conformity to our own illusions. Think of a parent whose child insist they are Spider Man. Over time wearing our costumes, our delusions correspond to everything that is wrong in the world (18-31). His point is that we trade our true self for the Pseudo (false self) (hasunétos kardia) (v.21, 25), we exchange our Creator for created things (v.20, 23, 25)

We are punished by our sins, not for them. Wrath is not God getting mad at bad behavior. Wrath is revealed as our “make believe” identities, and out of our fictional characters spring every form of evil.

Paul’s most important point:

Paul’s major thrust from 1:18-2:12 is to take a diverse group of people who feel superior to each other and reveal that we have all “been given over” and are all equal in our unrighteousness culminating in the junk drawer of everything that is wrong in the world in 1:29-32. This is proven textually in 2:11 where he says: “God shows no partiality.” This idiom means “to accept a face“. God accepts each face…God sees each true identity… God shows no favoritism…God see through our costumes and doesn’t put the religious costume above the worst among them. Paul’s starting point is: “All have sinned…” (2:12). Even today, the fundamentalist cannot see themselves within those they despise.

In our “Super Bowl” audience metaphor, we would (and still do) divide into opposing tribes, each believing in our (worthless reasoning, foolish minds, lust of inner selves 1:21) that we are not as bad as “those people.” Paul’s point, which remains true today is that everyone exchanges or trades the Glory of God for an image (1:23), the “Truth” for a “Pseudo” (1:25), the Creator for created things (1:25), what is natural for what is unnatural (1:26), and all of this is “repayment” or wages (recompense) we undergo within “éautois” (themselves, ourselves).

While he makes an example of homosexual behavior, contextually, (for the sake of foolish superiority) this is not a biblical justification for a position on this subject. Since this is taught completely in the “indicative,” which means; Paul is describing the state of reality, NOT prescribing a doctrine or a belief that would harm others. Preachers need to teach indicatives as indicatives, and imperatives as imperatives…full stop. In fact, the opposite comes to the surface as I am illuminating. The grave sin is not any act of unrighteousness to be singled out (there are many here), but the ontological state of unrighteousness (ádikia(n)) due to our willful rejection of God, in favor of our own fictional agency.

It’s not just that we turn loose of God, it’s that by doing so, we turn loose of ourselves. Now we have a world that doesn’t know ourself, nor each other, nor God. This is increasingly true.

We’ve been given over to our containers at the cost of our contents.

Religion got this wrong when it says: “If a person does a sin…he or she gets the wrath.”

Paul is flipping the script. “Wrath is revealed by the suppression of the Truth (v.18)” Wrath is revealed (epi) (by, against, upon) the behavior not the person. Back to the child insisting they are Spider Man who won’t give up the charade. The parent loves the child but gets annoyed at the make believe after a while. Wrath is not placed on the beloved child, it’s revealed as the behavior. The “recompense” is that everyone suffers from the behaviors behind these charades. The religious framework of wrath sending people to Hell is not found here. All are given over to a pseudonym.

Everything wrong in the world stems from the illusion that we are something we’re not. I challenge any listener to provide me an example where this is not the case. Thus the correction to this problem, is the Good News of the Gospel (v.16-17), it’s the regaining of ourselves and the world.

Next, Paul is gong to reveal why this solution is the only one that works.