Romans 1:21-23 "The Glory of the Immortal God"

Introduction:

The Apostle Paul is giving us a description of the perception of godless humanity.

This is helpful for us to know because those who we engage in conversation about Spiritual matters already are aware of certain truths. They just attempt to suppress that truth.

Jonathan recently told me of a beach ball illustration.

Truth about God is the inflated beach ball and the godless are attempting to hold it down and suppress it under the water.

From a human standpoint, apologetics attempts to pry at their arms to allow the truth to come back to the surface.

Most of what we do in apologetics is doing this very thing and then to describe and defend the character and nature of God once the reality of His existence is embraced by our hearers.

Until this happens they are simply in denial of God and His glory. Even though Natural revelation has made it clear to them they suppress the truth about God and attempt to rob Him of His glory. Look back at verse 21 at Paul’s description of their denial:

I. The Denial of the Glory of God (21).

Paul declares that the godless actually know God. And the context tells us that they know Him through natural revelation.

Dustin quoted from Psalm 19 earlier in our worship service which informs us that the heavens declare the glory of God and the sky declares His handiwork.

The Sun and all the heavenly bodies that can be viewed from earth reflect the cosmic order of their Creator as the world turns and God’s designed order is undeniable.

We set our watches by it and create our calendar system based upon it.

And there are other Psalms that declare aspects of God’s creation that give Him praise and glory in their natural order.

But the one Creature that was fashioned from the dirt and made in God’s own image is defiant in declaring His glory.

He denies the obvious and refuses to give his Creator the worship and thanksgiving that He deserves.

They didn’t honor God as God. This means that they did not live according to their identity and purpose. In other words in the language of the Westminster Catechism, they refused to live to their chief end of glorifying God and enjoying Him forever. They went in the alternative direction.

The end of verse 21 tells us they became futile in their thinking. This term “futile” in the original language denotes the idea of being empty and worthless (BAGD).

This is because their worldview is vacant of the implications of the glory of God. They have disconnected from their purpose and meaning in this life. They assert their own purpose and meaning in the place of God’s.

Their life is ultimately about themselves and their own sinful appetites. And the already dark heart descends even deeper into darkness.

This is the downward spiral that a depraved nature will take someone on. The truth of God’s existence and the glory associated with it is something many in our world are in denial about.

Christian take note that they do not arrive at this conclusion from a standpoint of intellectual neutrality. As we saw last Sunday they had to willfully suppress the truth to arrive at this conclusion.

The existence of God automatically warrants man to be obligated to his Creator when it comes to meaning, purpose and moral truth.

If our Creator is a moral being then moral obligation to Him is built in to our understanding of the nature of His being.

It is amazing to me that so-called atheist and agnostics impose this moral principle in their parenting but are in denial about such things as a universal truth about the nature of God.

They also have no issue with civil authorities exercising moral obligation but have an issue with moral obligation when it comes to their Creator.

When it comes to parenting or civil government they believe it makes perfect sense because without it chaos and rebellion would just run rampant.

Like with many such actions they show themselves guilty of actually being just truth suppressors because they reflect the very order of the One who made them.

They actually borrow from God’s system in order to erect their own. But they are in rebellion towards the God who made them. But why? Because without God there is no meaning or ultimate purpose in the world.

Aldous Huxley in his work Ends and Means lets the proverbial cat out of the bag when it comes to the motive behind such truth suppression: “I had motives for not wanting the world to have a meaning; and consequently assumed that it had none, and was able without any difficulty to find satisfying reasons for this assumption. The philosopher who finds no meaning in the world is not concerned exclusively with a problem in pure metaphysics. He is also concerned to prove that there is no valid reason why he personally should not do as he wants to do. For myself, as no doubt for most of my friends, the philosophy of meaninglessness was essentially an instrument of liberation from a certain system of morality. We objected to the morality because it interfered with our sexual freedom. The supporters of this system claimed that it embodied the meaning - the Christian meaning, they insisted - of the world. There was one admirably simple method of confuting these people and justifying ourselves in our erotic revolt: we would deny that the world had any meaning whatever.” (Aldous Huxley, Ends and Means)

I would go so far as to argue that if there is no meaning then people or societies are “free” to create their own meaning and purpose in and of themselves. They can even craft new identities for themselves in an attempt to help shape their sense of purpose and meaning.

People like Huxley are far too honest when it comes to their worldview. He is probably most famous for his dark work of satire, Brave New World in 1931. If you want to know what it is about just watch the news and prime time television in 2021.

For people like Huxley, true freedom is to be free from any supreme moral accountability. Eternity will show the futility of such ideas because eternity will be a celebration of the Sovereign rule of King Jesus as the Messiah of God.

This truth informs the Christian worldview and sets it in stark contrast with the secular world. It is also foundational to informing our worship, evangelism and the necessity for gospel centered truth claims in a culture like ancient Rome in Paul’s day or a culture like our own in our day.

Truth suppressors just fashion for themselves new allegiances of another kind to take God’s place. Look at verse 22-23:

II. The Exchange of the Glory of God (22-23).

Their claims don’t really match the true reality of God’s established order in creation. Scripture tells us in Psalm 14:1- The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.”

This is because it is foolish to deny what God has made obvious but then to live and think in such a way that actually reflects God’s design would be hypocritical for them it would seem.

They have no problem pointing out the hypocrisy in Christians when they affirm God’s existence but they live like He doesn’t exist. Atheist and agnostics are quick to apply moral absolutes in such cases.

They will even use absolute moral truth claims as a basis to level moral judgments upon God. I usually tell them to use their own system don’t borrow from mine unless you are ready to apply the whole of divine revelation.

They claim to be wise but they become fools because of their truth suppression.

In doing so they exchange the glory of the immortal God, the One who is infinite, eternal, and unchangable, in His being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness and truth; for images reflecting His creation.

“Immortal” denotes the idea of being incorruptible and incapable of perishing. In short, they preferred a god that was manageable and accommodating to their own impulsive desires. A god resembling something of the creation is so much easier to identify with.

Remember the golden calf that was fashioned by the Israelites at Mount Sinai. They built it and attributed the glory of their deliverance from Egypt to it.

Isaiah 44: 9-20 tells us of the futility of such gods. Mans melts steel and hammers out an idol out of metal. He has to take breaks to eat because his strength fails and he needs to eat. Another man carves an idol out of wood bows before it in worship then takes some of the wood that is left over to make a fire to cook his bread for his food.

Any god that derives its power from the imaginations and creativity of fallen man is not real. Such a god is derived out of the make believe fantasy. The true God does not derive His existence and power from the creatures that He has created.

Actually it is the other way around. Man derives His existence, identity, purpose and meaning from the God of the Bible.

Natural revelation reveals the glory of God and what we see in natural revelation is supported by the Bible. And it is in the Holy Scriptures that we find the special revelation of God that goes beyond anything that man could imagine on his own.

You may not like the God of the Bible and you may reject many of the truth claims of Scripture. But in such cases it is not Scripture you believe it is yourself. You have become the arbiter of what is true. But nature and Scripture alone gives us the truth about God and as revelation declares the truth has only One arbiter. All truth is given and established by God.

Conclusion: There are many religions in the world and they proclaim may gods. They can’t all be right because they have many inherent contradictions. (“All can be wrong but they can’t all be right.” Dr. Tom Netland)

We don’t get such an idea from creation or from out of the Bible. It comes from the world from the arbitration of fallen man.

It was true in Paul’s day as well. This is nothing new. If there were many valid religions, why would God send His disciples to all nations? Why would evangelism even be necessary?

Before Covid, I had repeated conversations with a man in our parking lot who practices a religion based on the ancient religious system of Egypt.

The very system that God judged in the book of Exodus. Does such a man need the gospel? Not if all religions are valid. We get such notions from our secular culture and the church buys into the falsehood in an attempt to accommodate truth suppressors.

Is a man or a woman’s eternal soul worthy of our efforts to preach the gospel to them?

Is the death of Christ as a ransom for sinners worth telling over and over again to people who do not know Him as Lord and savior? Even if they are a truth suppressor?

It is because the gospel is the power of God for salvation for in it the righteousness of God is revealed. And that is what a lost world needs.

Unbeliever this includes you. Believe the gospel!

Christian I never get tired of preaching it. It is the basis of our security and our growth in Christ. Confess and receive. Let’s pray!