When God Lets Go

Have you ever watched someone make a series of bad choices, one after another, and thought, “At some point, you’re going to reap what you sow”?

Maybe it was a friend, a family member, or a co-worker. You can almost see the path unfolding before them: bad decisions, obstinate, and consequences that start to pile up.

That’s exactly what Paul is describing in Romans 1:24–32. In this section, Paul shows us what happens when people continually reject God’s truth. When humanity pushes God out, He eventually lets them have what they want, and the results are not pretty.

The key phrase Paul uses three times is: “God gave them up.” The word Paul uses means to hand over, to release, to abandon. The word was used of a judge handing a prisoner over for sentencing.

So here’s the big idea of this passage: When people persist in rejecting God, He lets them go, and that’s possibly the worst judgment of all.

Let’s start with verse 24,

Romans 1:24–25 NKJV

24 Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves, 25 who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.

1. God Gave Them Up to Impurity (vv. 24–25)

Gave who up?

The ones Paul was talking about in the previous verses. The ones who saw the handiwork of God in nature and refused to worship or follow Him. Who instead of worshiping God, worshiped the creation instead.

That phrase “God gave them up” doesn’t mean God stopped caring. It means He allowed them to experience the consequences of their choices.

The word translated “uncleanness” means moral impurity, specifically sexual sin. When people worship creation instead of the Creator, morality collapses. People begin to act like animals. In most cases, worse than animals.

Notice how Paul says they “exchanged the truth of God for the lie.” The Greek text says literally “the lie.”

The lie” is that man is his own god, and he should worship and serve himself and not the Creator.

And “the lie” is the same one from the Garden of Eden: “You will be like God.” It’s the lie that says, “I don’t need God. I’ll define truth, identity, and morality on my own.”

Sound familiar? That’s our world today. We’ve exchanged absolute truth for the lie.

From idolatry to immorality is just one short step.

So, please don’t buy the lie that you can define truth for yourself. Submit your life to the truth of God’s Word.

The downward spiral continues. Let’s look at the next two verses.

Romans 1:26–27 NKJV

26 For this reason God gave them up to vile passions. For even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature. 27 Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful, and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due.

2. God Gave Them Up to Dishonor (vv. 26–27)

The phrase “vile passions” literally means disgraceful desires. Paul is describing the moral inversion that happens when God’s order is rejected.

He highlights homosexual behavior not because it’s the only sin, or the worst sin, but because it’s the clearest example of what happens when creation rebels against design. The Greek word physis means “nature” or “natural order.” Paul says when people reject God, they start to reject even what is obvious and natural.

The New American Standard translation says they received “in their own persons the due penalty of their error” (Rom. 1:27, nasb). This is the meaning of Romans 1:18, “The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven” (literal translation). God revealed His wrath, not by sending fire from heaven, but by abandoning sinful men to their lustful ways.

Those who choose to abandon the natural order of creation begin experiencing the natural consequences of going against nature. The penalty of their sin doesn’t come from without, but from within themselves. Sound familiar? That’s not my opinion. It’s God’s Word.

Now, Paul isn’t writing this to attack; he’s writing to warn. He’s describing a world that’s turned upside down, a world that celebrates what God calls destructive.

And it’s not hard to see this today. The more we remove God’s boundaries, the more we confuse what’s natural with what’s harmful.

But listen, Paul isn’t singling anyone out. Every one of us is capable of perversion when we replace worship of God with worship of self.

That’s right. None of us are immune. We take what God has provided as good pleasure and become obsessed with it and turn it into sin.

Examples? Hunting, fishing, shopping, running, golf, work, and the list goes on. When does it become sin? When it takes over our life and it begins to crowd God out and it becomes our God.

Don’t confuse freedom with self-destruction. Because freedom without God ends in slavery. Slavery to sin, and its consequences. Real freedom is found in submitting to God’s design.

Then…

3. God Gave Them Up to Depravity (vv. 28–31)

Then Paul says:

Romans 1:28–31 NKJV

28 And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting; 29 being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness; they are whisperers, 30 backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, 31 undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful;

When man began to feel the tragic consequences of his sins, you would think he would repent and want to get back to God; but just the opposite was true. Because he was abandoned by God, he could only become worse.

So now they abandoned themselves to sin.

That word “debased” or “depraved” comes from Greek word that means “disqualified” or “corrupt.” It’s a mind that can’t make right judgments anymore.

And then Paul gives us a long list, twenty-some odd sins that describe a society in total moral freefall: envy, murder, deceit, arrogance, disobedience, ruthlessness, gossip, slander, and on and on.

If you read that list slowly, it sounds less like ancient Rome and more like the evening news. Because when people abandon God, the result isn’t enlightenment, it’s moral collapse.

Here’s how one commentator put it: “The punishment of sin is sin.” In other words, the deeper you go into sin, the harder it is to find your way back.

Their main problem is their heart. Our men heard this last night. The Psalmist says to “Guard your heart.” Because we can become our own worst enemy.

Jesus Christ had this discussion with his disciples after talking to the religious leaders in his day. The Pharisees thought if they kept the exterior of their lives “clean” through religious ritual that the inner condition of their heart would be hidden. But Jesus said that it was their heart (the inner man) that actually determined what would appear on the outside, and that it was impossible to stop it. The heart, he said, is the source of all evil thoughts and actions (Mark 7:20–23).

Paul is saying essentially the same thing here. The inner motivations of humanity are depraved and result in outward behavior.

So what can we do?: Guard your heart and your mind. What you choose to tolerate today can control you tomorrow.

Now let’s look at the tragic ending of this downward spiral.

4. The Tragic Ending (v. 32)

Finally, Paul ends with this sobering statement:

Romans 1:32 NKJV

32 who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only do the same but also approve of those who practice them.

Paul says it’s one thing to sin, and another to celebrate sin. That word approve (suneudokousin) means “to take pleasure in” or “to applaud.”

Men not only committed these sins in open defiance of God, but encouraged others and applauded them when they sinned. How far man fell!

He began glorifying God but ended exchanging that glory for idols.

He began knowing God but ended refusing to keep the knowledge of God in his mind and heart.

He began as the highest of God’s creatures, made in the image of God; but he ended lower than the beasts and insects, because he worshiped them as his gods. The verdict? “They are without excuse!” (Rom. 1:20)

That’s where humanity ends up when God lets go: not just doing evil, but cheering it on. And we see this all around us. What used to bring shame now brings applause. What used to be whispered in the dark is now paraded in the light.

And Paul says that’s the final stage of rebellion, when a culture not only tolerates sin but celebrates it.

Action Step: Don’t applaud what God condemns. Stand for truth with grace, compassion, and courage.

Conclusion:

So let’s summarize what Paul is teaching:

God gave them up to impurity – when people reject God, sexual confusion follows.

God gave them up to dishonor – when people defy God’s design, shame replaces honor.

God gave them up to depravity – when people remove God from their thoughts, darkness fills their minds.

This is what happens when truth is traded away, when a culture says, “We don’t need God.”

And yet, here’s the hope: even when humanity lets go of God, God hasn’t let go of us. The very next chapters of Romans will tell us that Christ came into that same world, to redeem it, restore it, and rescue us from ourselves.

So here’s the takeaway: When people persist in rejecting God, He lets them go, but His grace still calls them back.

Closing Challenge

Maybe you’re listening to this message and you’ve been drifting from God. Maybe you’ve been trying to push down His truth. Maybe you’ve been believing “the lie.”

Hear this: God hasn’t given up on you.

The moment you turn toward Him, He’s there. Ready to forgive. Ready to restore. Ready to lift you out of the downward spiral and give you new life in Christ.

Because that’s what the gospel does, it rescues us when we’ve gone too far.