Knowing God through His Word … Day by Day

What About People Who Haven’t Been Reached With the Gospel?

John Piper asks and then answers from Romans 1, in a message titled, “Displays of God Remove the Excuse for Failed Worship”:

Now today we see the apostle Paul answering an objection. The objection is this: “You say, Paul, that the wrath of God is being revealed in history against humankind because the truth of God is suppressed by the human heart. Well, what about those who don’t have the truth of God? Don’t they have a legitimate excuse to protest God’s anger? How can it be right for God to be angry at people, and punish people for suppressing a truth that they never had?” That’s the objection that Paul is answering here, in verses 19-21.

It’s a question that many of you have asked. What about people who have not yet been reached by the gospel of Christ? How are they held accountable before God? Paul will deal with this question again in chapter two (verses 11-16). For example, in Romans 2:11-12 he says, “There is no partiality with God. For all who have sinned without the Law will also perish without the Law, and all who have sinned under the Law will be judged by the Law.” You see that this is the same question he is answering in chapter one. How does God deal with people who have different levels of exposure to divine truth?

In Romans 1:19-21, there are four steps in Paul’s argument. We can either start at his conclusion and work our way backward to his reasoning, or we can start with his reasoning and work our way forward to his conclusion. I think it would be good to do it both ways to make sure that we see the argument clearly. So let me start first with his conclusion and work backward with you through the other three steps, and then we will turn around and move the other direction with a very special, relevant application.

Conclusion: They Are Without Excuse . . .

Paul’s conclusion is found at the end of verse 20: “. . . so that they are without excuse.” In other words, his final answer to the objection is that it is not valid. To those who say, “God is wrong to reveal his wrath against all people for suppressing the truth,” Paul answers, “No they are without excuse.” That’s the issue: Are there people in the world who have an excuse or a warrant to protest the wrath of God against them? And here is Paul’s answer: No. No one has an excuse. Everyone is guilty and deserves the wrath of God.

. . . For They Did Not Honor God . . .

Now how does he argue for that conclusion? There are three steps leading to this conclusion. We keep moving backward from the conclusion. So if Paul’s conclusion is step four in the argument, step three is found at the end of verse 21: “For . . . they did not honor Him as God or give thanks.” They are without excuse and do, in fact, deserve the wrath of God, because they do not glorify God or give him thanks. Nowhere in the world does God receive the glory or the gratitude that truly righteous hearts would render to him. The fullness of his divine glory and the extent of our dependence on his power are suppressed everywhere. So all men everywhere are guilty and without excuse.

. . . Although They Did Know Him . . .

But this assumes another step in the argument. Did they have this truth about God? Were they responsible for owning up to what they didn’t know? Still working backward from the conclusion, the next step is that all people everywhere know the truth of God. You see this step in the argument expressed at the beginning of verse 19 and at the beginning of verses 20 and 21. Verse 19a: “That which is known about God is evident within them [or better: “among them.” See the similar Greek wording in 1 Corinthians 11:9]. Verse 20a: “Since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen.” Verse 21a: “For even though they knew God . . .”

So, Paul says, they do know God. What can be known is evident among them. Specifically, God’s eternal power and God’s divine nature are known by everyone. So now we have three steps:

· Step four: The conclusion – All men are without excuse and deserve the wrath of God.
· Step three: This is because they do not glorify God as God or give him thanks.
· Step two: This failure of fitting worship is not because of innocent ignorance of God, but in spite of sufficient knowledge about God.

. . . Because God Had Made Himself Evident

Now that leaves one last step in the argument at the bottom of it all -namely, the profound statement at the end of verse 19 and the explanation of it in the middle of verse 20. At the end of verse 19, Paul says that the reason God’s power and deity are evident among them is that “God made it evident to them.” “That which is known about God is evident among them; for God made it evident to them.”

How did he do that? This is explained in the middle of verse 20 in the words, “being understood through what has been made.” God’s eternal power and divine nature – what can be known of God – have always, from the beginning of the creation of man, been “understood through what has been made.” When verse 19b says “God made [his power and deity] evident to mankind,” it means that God did something to make himself known. Knowledge of God did not just happen coincidentally. God makes provision for it.

To read the rest of the message, click here: