Sin has become so deeply woven into the fabric of our society that it receives little notice today, and even less opposition. Outrage over lying, cheating, or stealing is essentially nonexistent. Sexual sins like adultery and homosexuality are commonplace. Even violent crimes and murders will find defenders in certain circumstances. Only a few particularly heinous sins are still seen as unacceptable, like pedophilia (you may recall the scandals that erupted some years back regarding the Roman Catholic Church).
Yet today even that wicked perversion has some proponents who want us to believe it is natural and acceptable.
It is undeniable that we are a people quite comfortable with sin. So, unsurprisingly, our world rarely thinks there should be consequences for people's misdeeds and evil. And when people grow up in a world where sin has been dismissed and redefined, and wickedness has no consequences, immorality abounds.
But not only is sin tolerated it is also celebrated. For example, when a child announces that he is homosexual or transsexual, suddenly his parents become the strongest advocates for his preferred sexual perversion. This is what Paul described in Romans 1:32, "Although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them."
Merely tolerating sin is not enough today. It must be celebrated.
The result is that our culture is characterized by a warped sense of good and evil, and a distorted understanding of justice. People do not know what sin is and they certainly don't think anything they do qualifies. And because the culture imposes no consequences on sin and no stigma on people for it, the idea that sin carries an eternal cost is completely alien to their worldview.
As a result, verses like Romans 2:5 make no sense to the world. Paul writes, "You are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God."
The apostle makes it clear that sinners are not getting away with anything. No act of fornication or adultery will be overlooked. No sin of the mind, lips, or any other kind will be ignored. The rebellious heart mistakes the absence of immediate punishment as a kind of license to keep sinning. It can't perceive, much less appreciate, the deferral of punishment as a mercy rather than as approval, so it just keeps accumulating iniquities all of which will be confronted and judged. As Paul says, they are "storing up wrath." And one day, those immense storehouses of divine wrath will break upon their heads, and they will understand the crushing weight of their sin.
But in a world where sin has no consequences, that is virtually impossible for people to comprehend.
And today that's not just a problem in the world sadly, it's also rife within so-called churches which never confront sin. Too many preachers never speak of sin or repentance, and too many churches resist the divine prescription for biblical church discipline. Just as in the world, sin goes unaddressed and unpunished, and the truth about hell and God's wrath has been forfeited and forgotten.
[John MacArthur]
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