For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.
unrighteousness/ungodliness: wicked; sinful; evil...not in accordance with right or justice; unfair or unjust...not accepting God.
This describes the nature of man. Left to our own human desires, we are ungodly and unrighteous - to the point that we actually attempt to hide or suppress any hint of truth or light in pursuit of darkness. It seems that we pile sinfulness on top of sinfulness in order to obtain and justify our desires.
In an attempt to justify our actions as lost souls, we like to think that we aren't actually evil, we definitely aren't as bad as the murderer on the news. In God's eyes, however, anything short of perfect righteousness is by default unrighteous, ungodly - and all ungodliness and unrighteousness is deserving of the wrath of God.
We tend to think of the wrath of God as a disaster that causes human suffering or loss of life. These things affect us in a negative way, and it is easy to "blame" God for them. There is another type of wrath, however, that is much worse and much more subtle to man. This wrath is the result of God pulling back from His creation, allowing man to pursue his sinful desires into utter darkness, where Satan reigns.
This wrath is hard to recognize, because it is God giving sinful man what he wants.
We will see in more detail the way that man suppresses the truth and the lusts cause man to suppress the truth in pursuit of darkness in the verses to come.
From this verse alone, however, we can see that man, in his unrighteousness, chooses to suppress the truth of God - and all ungodliness and unrighteousness is subject to the wrath of God. Thankfully, Jesus, in His perfect righteousness, accepted this horrible wrath of God on our behalf. He took the punishment so that we could be reconciled to God, so that we would not be slaves to the sinful nature and its lusts that attempt to drive us away from God, into the realm of Satan.
Of all the things to be thankful for this season, the gospel message should be first on our list! Without it, we would all be stuck in the mire of sinful pursuits, without any hope of being rescued!
Take a minute and thank God today for His amazing plan of salvation for His rebellious creation
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