What's Wrong With the World?(Romans 1:18-23)

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? “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.” The single sin that provokes God’s wrath is this: that we suppress the truth about God.

To suppress means to hinder, stifle, obscure, or repress. R.C. Sproul suggests that we think of a gigantic spring or coil that requires all the strength in our body to push down and compress. I think of a beach ball that you try to stuff under water and prevent from resurfacing. It takes a lot of energy to hold that spring down or to hold that beach ball underwater. Despite our best efforts, it keeps bobbing to the surface.

Paul says that’s what we do with God. We take the truth about God and suppress it. We can never get rid of it no matter how hard we try. We do everything to shove it away so we don’t have to deal with it, but we can’t escape. That’s the reason behind God’s wrath: because we know what’s true, but choose to suppress it instead. We know better, but we choose to stifle what we know because it doesn’t serve our interests.

Objection (1:19-20)

I can imagine an objection. Somebody might say, "What do you mean? I've been suppressing the truth. I didn't know the truth. I wasn’t raised in a Christian home. Nobody ever told me anything about God.” To which Paul says, "You still know.” Read verses 19-20:

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.

This is one of the key theological statements in Scripture. I’m sure you have wondered at one point or another, “What about those who’ve never heard about Jesus? How could God hold them responsible for their sins?” Here’s what Paul says. Creation reveals God so clearly that, even without the special revelation we have in Scripture, every person has an innate awareness of his existence and their obligation to worship him. God’s eternal power and divine nature are plainly seen in what he has made, leaving humanity without excuse. While this general revelation isn’t enough to save, it is enough to hold us accountable. It shows us enough of God’s character to prompt us to seek him, and failing to do so is a rejection of the truth that creation so powerfully declares.

Look at the two things God reveals to every person through nature:

• His eternal power — When Paul speaks of God’s "eternal power," he’s pointing to the reality that creation itself testifies to a Creator who is infinite, unchanging, and sovereign. The sheer scale of the universe, the complexity of life, and the laws that govern nature all point to a power far beyond human comprehension. It’s a power that has no beginning or end, a power that sustains all things. We intuitively get a sense of God’s power as we see what’ he’s made.
• His divine nature — We also get a sense of God’s character: his goodness, wisdom, and majesty. Creation reflects his beauty and order, giving us glimpses of his perfection. Psalm 19:1 echoes this truth: “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork” (Psalm 19:1). Every sunrise, every star, every living thing is like a signpost pointing to the Creator.

Paul’s point in Romans 1 is that this revelation is so clear, so undeniable, that no one has an excuse for ignoring God. Even without Scripture, people can see enough of God’s power and nature in creation to know that he exists and deserves worship. But instead of responding with gratitude and reverence, humanity often suppresses this truth.

Paul teaches that every person has been given enough evidence to recognize that God exists and is real. The created world unmistakably displays God’s power and divine nature, leaving humanity without excuse. There are no alibis, no justifications, no explanations that can shield us from accountability before God. He has woven a testimony of his existence into creation itself, making our sinful actions fully our responsibility. At the deepest level, every human being knows that God is there, even if they suppress that truth.

Every single person is “without excuse” under the wrath of God. Nobody can bring any legitimate protest against God’s justice in this matter. What’s wrong with this world is ultimately this: that people are perishing under the wrath of God with no appeal and no hope. They are without excuse.

The Result (1:21-23)

Our biggest problem is God’s wrath. The reason for God’s wrath is that we suppress the truth about God even though every single person intuitively knows enough truth about God. The final couple of verses describe the result of God’s wrath:

For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. (Romans 1:21-23)

Romans 1:21-23 paints a vivid picture of life in Rome, but it’s not just about Rome. It’s a description of humanity’s spiritual condition when we turn away from God.

In Rome, this would have been strikingly visible. The city was filled with temples, statues, and idols, symbols of human creativity and devotion, but also of spiritual blindness. The Romans prided themselves on their wisdom, their philosophy, and their achievements, yet Paul saw through it all. Beneath the surface of their sophistication was a rejection of the true God. They had traded the worship of the Creator for the worship of creation.

This wasn’t just about physical idols, though. It was about the human heart. The Romans, like all of us, were designed to worship God, but when they rejected him, they turned to substitutes. Idolatry isn’t just bowing to statues, it’s giving ultimate worth to anything other than God. For the Romans, it might have been their gods, their empire, or their achievements. For us, it could be success, relationships, or comfort. The result is the same: a life disconnected from the source of truth and light.

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. Romans 1:18-23 confronts us with this sobering truth: we have suppressed the knowledge of God, exchanged his glory for idols, and are left in darkness. This is the root of all that’s wrong with the world.

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 does this mean? Two things.

If you are not a believer, you need to know grasp what Paul describes here as our greatest problem. And then you need to embrace the solution: that although we deserve God’s wrath, he has made a way for us to be saved from it. Jesus bore the penalty for our sin, taking the wrath we deserved, so that we could be reconciled to God. This is the good news: we don’t have to remain under God’s judgment. By faith in Christ, you can be forgiven, restored, and delivered from the wrath you deserve.

If you are a believer, this should lead you to gratitude for the gospel. It should also lead you to realize: you don’t need to convince people that God exists. They know. The gospel is a message to be preached, not an opinion to be debated. Wisdom is needed to avoid pointless debates that are merely attempts to suppress truth. But it should also lead us to a holy urgency. As Charles Spurgeon said:

Oh, my brothers and sisters in Christ, if sinners will be damned, at least let them leap to hell over our bodies; and if they will perish, let them perish with our arms about their knees, imploring them to stay, and not madly to destroy themselves. If hell must be filled, at least let it be filled in the teeth of our exertions, and let no one go there unwarned and unprayed for.

The world’s greatest problem is God’s just wrath against our suppression of the truth, but the gospel offers the only solution through Jesus Christ, who saves us from that wrath.