Romans 1:26-32
For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.
And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.
Just as the single choice of Adam and Eve to eat the fruit set the precedent and direction for their descendants, the decent into depravity for every individual begins with the single choice to reject the knowledge of God. At the end of the first chapter Paul describes in gory detail the decent of a soul in its rejection of the Creator.
At the Tower of Babel mankind was united in its effort to reach God by human means. To prevent them God withdrew the grace of communication from them. Similarly, for the souls that reject the knowledge of God, God removes from them His moral compass that prevents their slipping into depravity. Many things we take for granted are really products of grace that are in God’s control.
We are born with a God shaped hole in our beings that can only rightly be filled by God. By rejecting God people find a hole in their life that needs filled. Paul uses the example of wrongly used sexual expression but we could substitute any number of things that people use to plug up the emptiness. Possibly, Paul uses this example because his larger point is to convince the hearer that everyone, without exception, is sold under sin. He begins with two broad categories, women and men.
Paul describes engaging in physical depravity as an exchange. It’s a trade of the image of God for the images of created things. It’s the trade of truth for lies.
The truth will cost you your self-image because it will require you to put on the image of Christ.
Galatians 3:27, “For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.”
Romans 13:14, “But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.”
But lies will cost you yourself. As every attempt to fill the hole fails, the self-image is alternately blown out of proportion and then deflated leaving a series of wrecks in its wake. Ultimately, the self-image becomes void and is lost in the void. This is hell.
To women is given the gift of childbearing. This participation in the human chain of life is only given to women. When women reject this truth they lose this most precious reflection of God.
Proverbs 31:10-11
An excellent wife who can find? She is far more precious than jewels. The heart of her husband trusts in her, and he will have no lack of gain.
The strength of men, meant to be used in competition of building up and in protection and provision of women and children, is turned towards combining the two fires of lust and competition into one inferno of sexual destruction. Instead of selfless giving, with its natural result of earned respect, men engage in an unwinnable zero-sum game of dominance by performance. They cast aside decency as a hindrance and get on the fast track of the race to the bottom.
The result of rejecting the image of God is loss of purpose. People can set out to find purpose in many things but none will satisfy, none will fill the hole. This result of permanent emptiness is unavoidable. It cannot be shifted by placing blame or drowning out. Push it away and it will return tenfold to the despair of the sinner. This is the fitting natural result of rejecting the knowledge of God. Having separated themselves from the truth they set out on an impossible search.
Paul turns to the second way God’s judgment appears in the sinner’s life. God gives them over to a depraved mind. Paul describes the decent of mental depravity as a process of being filled up with evil until evil overflows and becomes the dominating characteristic of the sinner. This is the opposite of Philippians 1:9-11, “And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.”
Everyone who rejected the knowledge of God and sought many other ways to fill the God shaped hole in their lives begins to be filled up with wickedness, greed and evil. Wickedness is the willful rejection of God’s ways. It is searching out ways to do things opposite of how God intended. Greed is want mixed with envy and resentment of anyone who has whatever is wanted. It is covetousness. Evil is ill-will against God and others. It goes beyond spiting God and resenting others, it becomes the desire to cause harm.
When this filling up is complete every thought is now captive to sin. Instead of being empowered to take every thought captive they are taken captive and lose self-control.
2 Corinthians 10:5-6, “We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ, being ready to punish every disobedience, when your obedience is complete.”
This captivity in sin is characterized by envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. No one wakes up in the morning and decides that this looks like a good way to live. This is the unavoidable result of a life that rejects the knowledge of God.
Matthew 12:34-37, “You brood of vipers! How can you speak good, when you are evil? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. The good person out of his good treasure brings forth good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure brings forth evil. I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak, for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.”
A heart filled with evil will spillover in evil speech. Proverbs 18:21, “Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat of its fruits.” Gossip, slander, hatred of God, insolence, arrogance and boasting are words that lead to death.
Evil speech leads to evil actions. Paul says they are inventors of evil. Thomas Edison, a famous inventor, once said that genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration. He meant that inventing things was hard work. Paul means that they work hard at being evil. Those who would free themselves from the shackles of Christ’s love find themselves bound by sin and driven by hard taskmasters.
Paul also says that they are disobedient to parents. This indicates that this slide into depravity is not necessarily a long one. It is possible to go as wrong as can be and still be young in years. Again, the larger point is that everyone is guilty, old and young alike.
Actions produce character. Their lives become characterized as untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful and without understanding.
The key to all of this is that this decent is undertaken knowingly. If you asked anyone if they would like their lives to be this way they would deny it but they knowingly continue and join with and approve of others who are doing the same. Ever seen a pride parade?
Getting out of this way takes miraculous divine intervention.
1Corinthians 6:9-11,” Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.”
brotherpayne 