It is not the wrath of gods in general to which the ancients often ascribed all kinds of negative disasters. Rather, it is about the wrath of the one God. He lives in heaven and his wrath will therefore also be revealed from heaven (Romans 1:18). That is, it will be direct and without the use of means. That should be distinguished from the gospel. In it, God’s righteousness is revealed from faith for faith (Romans 1:17). Through the horizontal path of apostles and preachers (Romans 1:5), God now reaches people with the heavenly power of the gospel. Paul distinguishes this remedy from the wrath from which people have to be delivered, for it is revealed directly from heaven. It is impossible to escape it. You cannot hide from heaven. The wrath from above touches all godlessness and injustice. Because of this ineluctable and universal nature of God’s wrath, Paul is not ashamed of the gospel. People need it in order to be saved.

Romans 1:18 indicates the direction from which humanity is threatened. This direction is connected to the nature of sin. Humanity assaults the heavenly revelation of God’s majesty. It is precisely because human beings try to shut heaven that they are subject to God’s wrath. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. You could interpret this sentence as meaning that Paul is denouncing moral and juridical decline. In that case, the reality of God would be supplanted by all evil and immoral deeds of human beings. But it is remarkable that in what follows Paul regards the ethical and social decline as a punishment of sin and not as the cloak behind which knowledge of God disappears. Hence, the passage which follows, Romans 1:18–23, places the emphasis entirely on the repudiation of the Creator and the veneration of created things. Moral decline is only addressed in Romans 1:24–32, and here it is addressed as punishment. However, in Romans 1:18 godlessness (asebeia) and unrighteousness (adikia) itself are not presented as the punishment, but as the reason for God’s wrath.¹