Episode 8 in Essays in Romans -1:18a - The Wrath of God is being revealed

Romans 1:18a "The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven…" Paul’s “present revealing” of God’s wrath in Romans 1:18 is partial, progressive, and indirect, not the full, catastrophic outpouring we see in the book of Revelation. Let me lay it out clearly. A Hurricane The key to the sentence are the words “is being“. Another way of saying it might be to say the wrath of God is in the process of being revealed. It is not fully revealed… yet. If the wrath of God were a character in a play, this would be describing the character as he slowly makes his way onto the stage. However, I think a more accurate picture would be the outer bands of a hurricane making its way onshore. Long before the eye of a storm reaches land, the world around you begins to change. The wind picks up in sharp, unpredictable gusts. The sky darkens. The barometric pressure drops, and you can feel the atmosphere itself turning heavy. You’re not yet inside the full violence of the storm, but you’re getting a clear taste of what’s coming. The edges of the hurricane announce the seriousness of what is on the horizon. They are a warning—and an opportunity to respond—long before the storm makes landfall.