⁵ But if our unrighteousness demonstrates the righteousness of God, what shall we say? The God who inflicts wrath is not unrighteous, is He? (I am speaking in human terms.) ⁶ May it never be! For otherwise, how will God judge the world?

Paul’s argument assumes that the reader acknowledges there is no unrighteousness in the Lord, so he is not calling God’s character into question. Seeing the patent falsity of the conclusion to thinking “in human terms,” the seeming logical sequence therefore must be illogical. We cannot conclude that God is unrighteous for judging the world, simply because the unrighteousness of the Jews is somehow a good thing. What this reasoning does seem to reveal is the Jewish way of thinking: “We are a special people, and God will certainly not judge us as harshly as the rest of the world, because after all, though we are indeed unrighteous compared to God, we nonetheless are in a privileged position of being the caretakers of the Law.”

We humans are inexorably prone to extracting out some shred of justification for thinking we are not as unrighteous as others. This brings to mind the prophet Habakkuk, who struggled with God’s using the evil Chaldeans to wreak His judgment on sinning Israel. Habakkuk asserted what he believed to be a foundational, non-contradictory truth about God: “Your eyes are too pure to approve evil, and You can not look on wickedness with favor.” We would agree and say, “Amen!” Yet the prophet’s confusion rings out: “Why do You look with favor on those who deal treacherously? Why are You silent when the wicked swallow up those more righteous than they?” (Hab 1:13). To be sure, Habakkuk wanted God to do something about Israel’s wickedness (read Habakkuk chapter 1). But the Lord using the Chaldeans seemed to violate His own holiness and righteousness.

Habakkuk made the faulty assumption that the Israelites (like the Jews about whom Paul wrote in our passage today), whom Habakkuk knew to be unrighteous, were not as unrighteous as the more wicked Chaldeans. Possibly Paul had this in mind, for he had already quoted from the book of Habakkuk in Romans 1:17: “The righteous man shall live by faith” (Hab 2:4).

Arguing a point of logic is not the goal; the stakes are quite serious. “The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness.” This applies to Jews (and religionists of all sort), who feel they have a special inside with God. Righteousness is not relative; it respects no person. It is absolute. And God is perfectly righteous when He brings His wrath on those who are unrighteous.

Lord, I shudder to think of Your wrath, but praise You for saving me from it.