Romans 1:18-32
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This week we are looking at one of the most relevant passages in scripture, a passage that explicitly talks about sin in view of culture, and what it looks like when a people reject God. Should we think that America in 2023 is worse than anything before it, take heart! As Solomon reminds us in Ecclesiastes 1:9
9 What has been is what will be,
and what has been done is what will be done,
and there is nothing new under the sun.
Paul, writing here to the church in Rome in the mid- to late-first century, is describing a culture that sounds a lot like the one we find ourselves in. Let’s look at the passage together and dive into it and understand what Paul is saying, and how we can make application.
18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. 19 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20 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. 21 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. 22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.
24 Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, 25 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.
26 For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; 27 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.
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. 29 They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, 31 foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. 32 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.
Now, there is a lot here, and I want to unpack this as much as I can, but we have to understand a few major points here.
There is an “implicit proposition” that occurs between vs 17 and 18
God’s wrath is real and just.
God has not hidden himself, so we are without excuse.
Our rejection of God brings about His divine judgment.
We are not “good people.” No one is good.
Now that we have that out of the way, let’s dive into the text itself.
18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.
I mentioned before an “implicit proposition” from vs 17 to vs 18. Thomas Schreiner states this:
“God’s saving righteousness is being revealed in the gospel by faith (17)
and we really need God’s saving righteousness (implicit proposition)
because God’s wrath is being revealed against all people who have sinned against His glory (18)”
This implicit proposition ties verse 17 directly into verse 18.
No one likes to talk about God’s wrath. Everyone wants to talk about how “God is love” - which is true; but no one wants to talk about God as the judge of mankind. And I think the main reason for this is that we don’t rightly understand wrath or justice.
When we think about wrath, we think about our own wrath. Or maybe our dad’s wrath. Maybe you had a family member that had a temper. Maybe you do.
I hate my temper. I get it honestly. My dad has a temper, although he has mellowed with age. My mom had a bit of a temper as well, but mostly it is from my dad’s side. And I know this, because my grandmother, my dad’s mom…well, this little 5’ 2”, 98 lb lady was a flat-out fireball. She punched a bus driver in the nose because he called my dad a liar when my dad was a kid (he’s 74 now). My dad’s dad died when he was two, so she was single-handedly raising 3 small kids under the age of 5 in the early 1950’s in rural north GA. She didn’t suffer fools. Even right before she died several years ago, she still had that fiery temper.
And unfortunately, I do too. And I hate it. I fight against it. Because, if I’m really honest, my temper is based on inconveniences and fear and pettiness.
God’s wrath isn’t at all like our temper. God is just. God is holy. Holy means set apart. God is wholly other. He is not swayed by the whims of culture or this world. He is the final authority on creation, the order of things, truth, righteousness, and sin. God alone is worthy to judge mankind. When God stands as judge, He judges by His holy standard. This means that He is the one who decides to bring mercy or wrath.
And God will not be involved with, swayed by, or surrounded by sin. God is perfect. And therefore His justice is perfect. And if His justice is perfect, His wrath is perfect.
God is not an angry old man ready to zap anyone who messes up. God is a just judge who weighs our merits based on His law. And scripture is clear about how we measure up to that. Romans 3:10
10 as it is written:
“None is righteous, no, not one;
That is cited from two Psalms:
1 The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.”
They are corrupt, they do abominable deeds;
there is none who does good.
2 The Lord looks down from heaven on the children of man,
to see if there are any who understand,
who seek after God.
3 They have all turned aside; together they have become corrupt;
there is none who does good,
not even one.
and Psalm 53:1-3
1 The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.”
They are corrupt, doing abominable iniquity;
there is none who does good.
2 God looks down from heaven
on the children of man
to see if there are any who understand,
who seek after God.
3 They have all fallen away;
together they have become corrupt;
there is none who does good,
not even one.
We are fools, we are unrighteous. We are sinners. And we deserve God’s wrath.
The Rabbi Harold Kushner, who recently passed away, wrote a book that was a best seller, and it was called, “When Bad Things Happen To Good People.” Now, from what I understand about this book, because I haven’t read it, we would not agree with it’s theological premise; that is that God set up the world, the laws of science and nature, and is powerless to move against them. And so bad things happen not because God causes them too, but because He can’t stop them. He’s like to, He just can’t.
That’s one way people look at life. Bad stuff happens to good people because God isn’t real, or isn’t powerful.
Others look at why bad stuff happens to good people and say that God is the angry old man bent on punishing people because He’s petty.
The problem with both arguments doesn’t actually have to do with God. I would argue that their issue on both counts is not one of theology, but anthropology.
There I go with the seminary words again. Theology is what: the study of God and all of His attributes.
Anthropology is the study of man.
The failure here is that people start with an assumption that there is such a thing as “good people.” Scripture plainly tells us in multiple places that no one is good.
Well, I’ve never killed anyone or stolen anything, or… great! I’m glad you meet the very basic requirements for not being a criminal according to our legal system. But you or I don’t get to decide our goodness. God, the judge gets to decide that. And we see here that we don’t measure up.
And we have to understand that this is how Paul is leading us up the Roman Road toward the necessity for and the power of Christ’s atoning work on the cross.
Therefore, God’s wrath is righteous, but we are not. And it is revealed to us all. Look at the verse again:
18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.
This is where we, hopefully, can draw a line between the people we were, and the people we are. Scripture is clear, as we just looked at, that all of us are unrighteous. But we know the rest of the story, and by God’s grace have have the chance to respond to the Gospel and the saving work of Christ.
But not all respond to that work in the positive. And those who continue to suppress the truth see God’s wrath revealed.
19 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20 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.
We see that God has revealed Himself to all. Paul makes it very plain: what can be known about God has been shown by God. If you do not “know anything about God,” it is by your choice, by your own ignorance. We see this here: they are without excuse. 1 John 1:8
8 If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
John says that if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves. Paul says that God has made Himself known to all, and they have been clearly perceived, so there is no excuse for our ignorance. He expounds on this in verse 21:
21 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.
These people knew of God, they knew about Him, but they did not honor Him as God. Their hearts were darkened. They became futile in their thinking.
Interestingly, the connotation of that phrase, “became futile in their thinking,” harkens back to Greek mythology:
Doomed to Tatarus (hell) forever, Sisyphus is given the endless task of trying to roll a huge stone up to the top of a mountain. But just when he gets within sight of the pinnacle, the weight of the stone pushes him and the stone all the way down to the bottom, where he begins again the futile attempt to push the stone to the top. Complete futility!
They, as John put it, deceive themselves. Their thinking is getting them nowhere, because they will not honor God for who He is, choosing to ignore Him and worship instead themselves or the works of their own hands. We see this:
22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.
24 Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, 25 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.
Paul asserts their ignorance and futility here is foolish. And boy, don’t we fit that bill sometimes?
But they exchange God’s glory - immortal, invisible, God only wise! - for the images…facsimiles…something that kinda looks like mere men and animals. Mortal, visible, foolish.
And so God gave them up to their own desires. He literally left them to their own devices. The term here has a connotation of betrayal, when you think about it. Except, God isn’t betraying them. They are choosing to betray themselves.
This is God letting them do what they want to do, and this is us not understanding how we are hurting ourselves because we don’t (or won’t) see the bigger picture.
This is the “sewing of the wild oats” - a dangerous choice, in my opinion. This is “trusting your heart,” even though scripture is clear that the heart of man is deceitfully wicked.
Interestingly, verse 25 serves to compare pointedly how Paul talks about “the lie” of worshiping anything other that God, because God is the only one worthy of worship. This doxological thought “who is blessed forever! Amen” is not some nervous tic or something, like at Easter when someone says, “He is risen!” and you must reply with “He is risen indeed!” It is Paul demonstrating true worship over against the lie of idolatry.
And the specific sins that are listed here, in particular the sexual sins, are not the real issue. The real issue is the failure to worship God. According to Schreiner, “All other sin is a consequence of this one (failure to worship God)…the fundamental truth of the universe is that God exists and that He should be worshiped and served and His name should be praised.” (99)
And we see the disastrous results of exchanging the truth of God for our lying desires.
26 For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; 27 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.
Paul uses the same word again signifying God letting us betray ourselves. And here we have one of the most pointed and explicit declarations against the sexual ethics and identity politics of our day.
The word dishonorable here has a sense of “a state of shame or disgrace.” The passions that God gives them over to are shameful. Again, the context of this verse is not that God orders these people to act in this way, but rather, He allows them to act on the sinful desires of their own hearts and take upon themselves the consequences of their actions.
And what did we, the sinful creation do? Our women chose to have physical attraction (and intimacy) with women, and likewise, our men gave up that attraction/intimacy with women (the natural relations) and instead were consumed or burned with passion for other men. In fact, some have gone so far as to pretend (or identify, if you like) as a gender other than what they truly are, so as to make some of these debaucherous deeds more palatable.
But it isn’t palatable. And they receive in themselves, according to one translation, “the fitting wage of such perversion.” In fact, F. F. Bruce argues that the word “error” isn’t a strong enough word to give the proper context of the idea there.
Further sinful acts, all based on the willful ignorance of God follow.
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. 29 They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, 31 foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. 32 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.
They didn’t even acknowledge God, but just choose to ignore Him. And so God gives them over to their desires. The debased, sinful, wicked desires of their mind. Look at all of the things they partake in. In fact, you get the sense that Paul’s list couldn’t possibly be inclusive, but he wants to just hit the high points because when we fail to acknowledge God, we won’t just do evil stuff. We’ll invent new ways to be evil.
The Journal of the American Medical Association just recently published an article, and the headline reads: “Prostate cancer in transgender women in the Veterans Affairs Healthcare System, 2000 through 2022.”
Let that sink in. Prostate cancer…in women. If you had asked the Journal of the American Medical Association their thoughts on that article headline 20 years ago, they would have looked at you like you were an idiot.
You cannot have prostate cancer if you don’t have a prostate. And no woman has ever have a prostate.
We are inventing evil.
So, when you read this list, don’t put it on a check-off list of things not to do, and don’t categorize them as big or little issues. Sin is sin, and evil is evil. Left to our own devices, we will become so blinded by sin that we can read a headline like “Prostate cancer in transgender women” and not blink. Let us never cease to honor God, let us acknowledge Him in all our ways, so that He can make our paths straight.
