Paul’s description of Rome is a mirror for every culture, including ours. It’s a reminder that when we suppress the truth about God, we don’t become neutral. We become idolaters. And idolatry always leads to futility, darkness, and ultimately, judgment. Our greatest problem is not external; it’s internal. It’s not ignorance, systems, or circumstances, but our rebellion against God and the wrath that rebellion rightly incurs.

Big Idea: Humanity’s ultimate problem is God’s righteous wrath against our suppression of truth, but Jesus Christ provides the only solution through the gospel.

What’s wrong with the world? That may be one of the most important questions you ever answer, because how you answer will determine the solutions you pursue.

People often answer the question, “What’s wrong with the world?” in ways that reflect their worldview, experiences, and assumptions about human nature. Here are some common responses:

• Systems: Many point to systemic issues like political corruption, economic inequality, or flawed institutions. They see the problem as structural, requiring reform or revolution to fix.
• Ignorance or Lack of Progress: Some believe the issue is a lack of knowledge, education, or technological advancement. They see progress as the solution to humanity’s problems.
• Cultural or Religious Differences: People sometimes blame divisions between cultures, ideologies, or religions, suggesting that intolerance or tribalism fuels conflict and suffering.
• The Environmental Crisis: With growing awareness of climate change and ecological crises, many point to humanity’s exploitation of the planet as the root problem.
• Fatalism: In some worldviews, the problem is seen as inevitable—whether due to fate, karma, or the natural order of things. Life’s just hard; we can’t do anything about it. This perspective often leads to resignation rather than action.
• Human Nature: Others argue that the problem lies within us: greed, selfishness, or a tendency toward violence. This view gets closer to the truth, but it’s still not enough. This view often leads to calls for moral improvement or education.

What’s really wrong with the world? The passage we just read tells us. It gives us God’s diagnosis of what’s wrong with our world, and it’s going to point us to the solution.

Our Biggest Problem (1:18a)

Our biggest problem is found in verse 18: “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.”

Our biggest problem is one that’s hard to accept: it’s the wrath of God. This may be one of the most unpalatable doctrines that we will ever encounter. Many people wrestle deeply with the concept of God’s wrath. They can’t reconcile a loving God with a God of wrath. It feels too harsh and unfair. The idea of a God of wrath and judgment and judgment is offensive to our ears.

But in Romans 1:16-17, Paul spoke of the power of the gospel to save anyone who believes. It implies a question: saved from what? Verse 18 provides the answer: the gospel saves us from God’s wrath. In other words, it’s not so much about what we’re saved from; it’s who we’re saved from. We need to be saved from God himself, because God’s righteous wrath is already being revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men.

Our biggest problem, the one that the gospel must solve, is not unjust systems, ignorance, the environment, or any other problem, as serious as those may be. Our greatest problem is the wrath of God.

I understand that we struggle with this, but that doesn’t mean it’s not true. Wrath does not mean temper tantrum. It’s not like God loses his cool. It’s not impulsive. As Becky Pippert puts it, “God’s wrath is not a cranky explosion, but his settled opposition to the cancer of sin which is eating out the insides of the human race he loves with his whole being.”

Let me give you an example. I had lunch with a friend a couple of weeks ago. My friend works for International Justice Mission Canada. That organization works to combat human trafficking, slavery, violence against women and children, and police abuse of power. Over lunch, he was telling me stories of human trafficking and slavery, and I found myself getting angry. In fact, I love that part of their work is to not only rescue victims but to bring criminals to justice. You can’t hear about that kind of evil and not feel wrath.

That’s me as a fallen, sinful person. God is holy, and his wrath is judicial. God in his justice administers wrath to those who deserve it. He would not be a just God if he was not filled with wrath at the sin, the cancer, that is destroying us and the world. It is right for him to be angry at sin. To paraphrase A.W. Pink, we are prone to regard sin lightly, to gloss over its hideousness, to make excuses for sin. But the more we study and ponder God’s abhorrence of sin and his frightful vengeance upon it, the more we realize sin’s seriousness and that God is right to be angry at sin.

Notice that this passage isn’t just talking about God’s future wrath. It’s speaking about his present wrath. “The wrath of God is revealed…” Ever since we were expelled from Eden, we’ve been experiencing the consequences of sin. We experience pain, conflict, frustration, death, and separation from God into every part of life. God’s wrath is a present-day reality. We experience it every day. And it’s just a foretaste of the wrath that’s coming (1 Thessalonians 1:10).

From the beginning to the end of the Bible, both in the Old and New Testaments, God shows his just anger towards sin. This is not due to being cranky, but rather a reflection of his righteous character in response to the sin we choose. As John Murray says, “Wrath is the holy revulsion of God’s being against that which is the contradiction of his holiness.” This is our biggest problem.

The Reason for God’s Wrath (1:18b)

We’ve already hinted at this, but what is the reason behind God’s wrath? Paul tells us. Verse 18 gives us the core issue, and then he unpacks it.

What’s the core issue?

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