Some may claim ignorance about the existence of God, but according to Romans, the reality is another matter.
For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.(Ro 1:19-20)."
The problem isn’t that people don’t know about God. Rather, the problem is that they do know, yet suppress that knowledge of the truth.
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I continue with the Romans series tomorrow (D.V.). Having covered the introduction (Romans 1:1-17), we now move into the beginning of Paul’s argument. In this section, Paul asserts that all people know something of God whether they admit it or not. Hence, God is justified in revealing his wrath.
Here are a few quotes to think about before the sermon.
Schreiner:
God has stitched into the fabric of the human mind his existence and power, so that they are instinctively recognized when one views the created world.
Calvin:
That there exists in the human minds and indeed by natural instinct, some sense of Deity, we hold to be beyond dispute, since God himself, to prevent any man from pretending ignorance, has endued all men with some idea of his Godhead, the memory of which he constantly renews and occasionally enlarges, that all to a man being aware that there is a God, and that he is their Maker, may be condemned by their own conscience when they neither worship him nor consecrate their lives to his service. Certainly, if there is any quarter where it may be supposed that God is unknown, the most likely for such an instance to exist is among the dullest tribes farthest removed from civilisation. But, as a heathen tells us, there is no nation so barbarous, no race so brutish, as not to be imbued with the conviction that there is a God. Even those who, in other respects, seem to differ least from the lower animals, constantly retain some sense of religion; so thoroughly has this common conviction possessed the mind, so firmly is it stamped on the breasts of all men. Since, then, there never has been, from the very first, any quarter of the globe, any city, any household even, without religion, this amounts to a tacit confession, that a sense of Deity is inscribed on every heart.”
Or, as I recall hearing Mike Wittmer summarize, “All people know that God is almighty and ‘al-righty.’”
