This is the fourth study in Romans chapter one. The last half of this chapter sets us up for the second chapter, and will finally lead us to a much fuller and richer understanding of the gospel of the grace of God in chapter three. I believe that understanding the nature of our depraved sinful hearts is foundational to helping us grasp the nature of God's love and grace toward all who will come to Jesus and believe. Praise God for His amazing grace!
Romans 1:18-32
by Penn Tomassetti
Text
Romans 1:18-32 ESV:
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.
Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.
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 decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.
Study Notes
Verses 18-23
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.
Why are people without an excuse for suppressing the truth about God? Although they knew God, how did they relate to Him? What did they trade or exchange the glory of God for? Last week, we learned a little about why the wrath of God is revealed against all the ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. We looked at how they suppress the truth in their unrighteousness. Even though God has made it clear throughout all of creation that He exists and is powerful, eternal and glorious, yet they still dishonor Him and are not thankful. They claim they are wise, but they are actually empty headed and their hearts are darkened. They have done a horrible thing - they have exchanged the glory, beauty, magnificence of God for images. This is the nature of our total depravity. We would rather give more honor and praise to created things, images that only resemble what is real, rather than to our Creator and Holy God. It is so sickening, it makes me feel horrible inside. But this is what all of us have done in one way or another.
Verses 24-25
Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.
Because of this great exchange, what did God do? He gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity. What does the word impurity mean, or what does it mean to be impure? Defiled, unclean, given over to filth, no longer pure. God gave them up to impurity by letting them have what their sinful hearts desired. He let them get what they wanted. How did they treat their bodies among themselves? God made our bodies to be clean, pure, holy, but with the lustful desires of sin taking control, it causes them to be dishonored and become defiled. 1 Corinthians 6:13 says that the body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. So the body is intended to be sanctified to the Lord. Sanctified means set apart. However, since they rejected God, they are given over to lust and their bodies are dishonored. What are some ways we see this dishonoring of the body in our culture today? Notice why this happened, what about God did they exchange? What do you think it means to worship and serve something? They gave high honor to creatures, to created things, and they even performed religious services them rather than giving praise, honor and service to God alone. How does Paul speak about God in verse 25? What does it mean to say, "Amen" to something? The word 'amen' comes from Hebrew and is spoken all over the world. It means 'firm,' 'faithful,' 'true,' or in modern speech, 'right on!'
Verses 26-27
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. What is the reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions? What else did people exchange after God gave them up in the desires of their hearts? Remember from Genesis, what were the last of all the things God created in the beginning? Genesis 1:27 says, "So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them." They were created male and female, and their relationship to each other was male and female, but after the fall sin entered and their relationship with God was destroyed, as well as their relationship with each other. And as the ultimate form of depravity and uncleanness, there resulted the perversion of women with women and men with men. This is a result of turning away from God as the source of all life and pleasure and joy. Instead of finding pleasure in God, and in the way He has ordered our relationships to be, people have turned to shameful and unnatural lusts. A lot of people advocate homosexuality as a right to freedom, but is it really freedom? Studies have proven that the homosexual lifestyle is marked by very high percentages of diseases, drug and alcohol abuse and addiction, violence, mental illness, death and suicide. Where is the freedom in that kind of living? It is not that homosexuality is worse than other sinful habits people engage in, but it is the ultimate perversion of the good, beautiful, healthy, productive, pure and holy relationship that God designed for man and woman.
verse 28
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. How is their attitude described toward God in this verse? The word in Greek used in this verse for acknowledge is echo, and it means to have or to hold fast to something. They did not see fit to hold fast to the truth about God in their minds. They did not keep God in mind. Since they did not keep God in mind, what did He give them up to this time? What does it mean to be debased or to have a debased mind? Debased means to be made low or corrupt. The KJV translates this as 'reprobate mind'. Reprobate means to be rejected or unapproved, like in the sense of counterfeit money. God gave them up to an unapproved, debased, rejected mind, to do what ought not to be done. Their minds became so low and degenerate that they began doing all the things we know to be wrong. And without the true knowledge of God, anything evil or vile can seem to become good and accepted to a mind that is rejected, because a debased mind will make up its own rules apart from God's word.
verses 29-32
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 decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them. What happened after God gave them up to a debased mind? They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness. Remember that first God's wrath was revealed against ungodliness in v18, and we saw how they had become ungodly by exchanging the glory of God for other things. The other characteristic wrath is revealed against in v18 is unrighteousness, and here is where that is described. What are some of the words used in this list to describe unrighteousness? Let's look closer at some of these words: What is covetousness? What is malice? What does it mean to be haughty or boastful? How do people invent evil (see the phrase, inventors of evil)? What does it mean to be foolish? What about faithless? What is to be heartless or ruthless? Notice also that many of these words describe how we relate to other people (see words like: malice, gossips, slanderers, envy, murder, strife, deceit, etc.). Notice that disobedience to parents is in the same sentence as haters of God and heartless. Now, what do they know about those who practice such things, and what do they do about it?
Conclusion
These verses describe what is sometimes known as, the doctrine of total depravity. It shows us that since the fall of Adam and Eve in the garden, people have become morally corrupt, literally crooked. We are naturally inclined to do evil. If we all are honest with ourselves, we must admit that we don't love God with all of our hearts. We have traded the glory, the honor, the praise and beauty and adoration of God to seek our satisfaction in created things, not the Creator. Colossians 1:21 describes our condition as alienation from God and hostility toward Him, doing evil deeds. (Remember that Paul was extolling the good news of the gospel before he began describing this kind of depravity). The importance of understanding the nature of our sinful condition has to do with how we will understand the good news of the gospel. See, if we don't have a real problem, then we don't need a real fix. But our condition is much worse than we like to think it is, and so we need a serious solution to it, which has to come from God. Romans chapter five tells us that Christ died for the ungodly and enemies of God, in order to reconcile us and forgive our sins. It also speaks of how Christ rose from the dead to be our hope of eternal life. Don't go away from this study without turning the eyes of your heart to Jesus, who came into the world to save sinners, even the worst kind of them. Amen.
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