Sermon Tone Analysis

Wednesday June 20, 2007

Romans: Romans 1:23-The Self-Deification and Idolatry of Mankind

Lesson # 28

Please turn in your Bibles to Romans 1:18.

This evening we will continue with our study of Romans 1:18-32, which is divided into two sections: (1) The basis for Gentile guilt (1:18-23).

(2) The results of Gentile guilt (1:24-32).

This evening we will complete our study of the first section that appears in Romans 1:18-23, which deals with the basis for Gentile guilt before a holy God.

In this passage, Paul states three reasons why the entire Gentile world is unrighteous and condemned before God and thus in need of salvation and God’s righteousness: (1) They suppress the truth (1:18).

(2) They ignore God’s revelation in creation (1:19-20).

(3) They pervert God’s glory (1:21-23).

In Romans 1:18, Paul writes that the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth of God by means of their unrighteousness.

Then, in Romans 1:19, Paul writes that the reason why God has revealed His wrath against the heathen Gentile world is that they have rejected knowledge of Him that He has made available by observing creation.

Then, in Romans 1:20, Paul writes that knowledge of God is acquired by observing creation and so therefore, all of humanity is held accountable by God who rejected this revelation since He has provided sufficient evidence of Himself.

On Sunday morning we noted Romans 1:21 and studied the four-fold result of the human race rejecting God’s revelation of Himself in creation: (1) They never worshipped God.

(2) They never thanked God.

(3) They became ignorant.

(4) They were unable to comprehend spiritual matters.

Last evening we studied Romans 1:22 in which Paul presents the fifth result of the human race rejecting God’s revelation of Himself in creation, namely, they became arrogant.

This evening we will note Romans 1:23, in which Paul presents the sixth and seventh results of the human race rejecting God’s revelation of Himself in creation, namely, self-deification and idolatry.

Romans 1:18-19, “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them.”

Romans 1:20, “For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.”

Romans 1:21, “For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened.”

Romans 1:22-23, “Professing to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures.”

Corrected translation of Romans 1:22-23, “It is an eternal spiritual truth that although they profess to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory originating with God, which is immortal for a likeness, which is an image of man, which is characterized by corruption as well as birds and four footed creatures and creeping things.”

“Exchanged” is the 3rd person plural aorist active indicative form of the verb allasso (a)llavssw) (al-las-so), which means, “to exchange one thing for another” and is the substitution of one thing for another.

The arrogance of the human race led them to exchange or substitute the worship of the Creator for the worship of the creature.

The “culminative” aorist views this exchange of the worship of God for the creature in its entirety but regards it from the viewpoint of its existing results, which is that the human race became involved in the worship of the creature.

The active voice means that the human race produces this exchange and is volitionally responsible for this action and the indicative mood is “declarative” presenting this assertion as a non-contingent or unqualified statement.

“The glory” refers to the visible manifestation of the attributes of God by means of creation or in other words, God’s revelation of Himself in creation.

The definite article preceding the noun doxa, “glory” emphasizes the uniqueness of this glory in that it is of the immortal God.

“Incorruptible” is the adjective aphthartos (a*fqarto$) (af-thar-tos), which means, “indestructible, not liable to death, pertaining to being not subject to decay and death, immortal.”

In Romans 1:23, the word is used of God describing Him as “immortal” and is a reference to the fact that God is “eternal” meaning that He has no beginning or end and that He is an “ever present now.”

“God” is the genitive masculine singular form of the noun theos (qeov$), which refers to the Trinity who are God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit.

The Scriptures teach that God is three co-equal, co-infinite and co-eternal Persons with the same identical invisible essence or attributes: (1) God the Father (1 Cor.

8:6; Eph.

1:3) (2) God the Son (John 10:30; 14:9; Col. 2:9) (3) God the Holy Spirit (Isa.

11:2; Ex. 31:3; Isa.

6:8, 9; cf.

Acts 28:25-26; Jer.

31:31-34 cf.

Heb.

10:15-17).

Romans 1:22-23, “Professing to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures.”

In Romans 1:23, the apostle Paul writes that the rejection of the worship of God led to idolatry in the human race and present their idolatry as taking place in four stages, in a descending scale: (1) Worship of man (2) Worship of birds (3) Worship of beasts (4) Worship of snakes.

Therefore, Paul contradicts humanistic viewpoint and the evolutionist who contends that man is evolving from animals and is moving upward toward God and improving physically, morally, intellectually and spiritually.

Paul teaches that man is moving downward and away from God after rejecting God’s revelation of Himself in creation and refusing to worship and thank Him as the Creator.

The Bible teaches that man was created in the image of God, having a relationship and fellowship with Him and ruling over the works of God’s hands (See Genesis 1:26-28; Psalm 8).

However, when Adam and the woman fell in the garden of Eden by disobeying the Lord’s command to not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, mankind has descended away from God, worshipping the creation, which God designed for them to rule over!

Deuteronomy 32:17 and 1 Corinthians 10:20 teach that the worship of idols is connected to the worship of demons since the sacrificing to idols is in reality sacrificing to demons who promote the worship of idols.

Deuteronomy 32:17, “They sacrificed to demons who were not God, to gods whom they have not known, new gods who came lately, whom your fathers did not dread.”

1 Corinthians 10:20, “No, but I say that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons and not to God; and I do not want you to become sharers in demons.”

The Lord prohibited idolatry in Israel.

Exodus 20:3, “You shall have no other gods before Me.”

Idolatry originally meant the worship of idols, or the worship of false gods by means of idols, but came to mean among the Old Testament Hebrews any worship of false gods, whether by images or otherwise or the worship of the Lord through visible symbols (Hos 8:5-6; 10:5).

Idolatry is not only the giving to any creature or human creation the honor or devotion, which belongs to God alone, but also is putting anything ahead of your relationship with God and which would prevent you from doing His will (1 Cor 10:14; Gal 5:20; Col 3:5; 1 Peter 4:3).

Ultimately in the New Testament idolatry came to mean, not only the giving to any creature or human creation the honor or devotion which belonged to God alone, but the giving to any human desire a precedence over God's will (1 Cor 10:14; Gal 5:20; Col 3:5; 1 Peter 4:3).

1 John 5:21, “Little children, guard yourselves from idols.”

Romans 1:22-23, “Professing to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures.”

The first stage in man’s idolatry was the worship of himself, self-deification.

“Form” is the dative neuter singular form of the noun homoioma (o(moivwma) (hom-oy-o-ma), which is used to indicate something that resembles or is similar, though not necessarily identical, with something else, that which is made after the likeness of something.

In Romans 1:23, the word is used of something that resembles a human being.

“Image” is the genitive feminine singular form of the noun eikon (ei)kwvn) (i-kone), which is an object (not necessarily three dimensional) that has been formed to resemble a person.

“Corruptible” is the genitive masculine singular form of the adjective phthartos (fqartov$) (fthar-tos), which means, “mortal” is used of mankind.

The word refers to that which is perishable or subject to decay, disintegration, destruction or death and is used in contrast with aphthartos, “incorruptible, immortal” which is used in this verse of God.

“Man” is the genitive masculine singular form of the noun anthropos (a*nqrwpo$) (anth-ro-pos), which is used in a generic sense for the entire human race, which was created on the sixth day of restoration (See Genesis 1:24-31).

Romans 1:22-23, “Professing to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures.”

The second stage of man’s idolatry was the worship of “birds,” which is the (possessive) genitive neuter plural form of the noun peteinon (peteinovn) (pet-ay-non), which is a generic term for an unspecified genus of birds.

The bird kingdom was created on the fifth day of restoration (Genesis 1:20-23) and were taken aboard the Ark according to Genesis 7:8 and they were eaten (Ps.

78:27) and sacrificed (Gen.

8:20; Lev.

1:14) and were also classified as “clean” and “unclean.”

The third stage of man’s idolatry is that of worshipping “four-footed animals,” which is the (possessive) genitive neuter plural form of the adjective tetrapous (tetravpou$) (tet-rap-ooce).

Four footed animals were created on the sixth day of restoration (Genesis 1:24-31) and would include “domestic animals” (behemah) (hm*h@B+), which refers to all types of “domestic animals” according to the Hebrew text of Genesis 1:24-31.

This particular category of living creature is four footed whose habitat is on land as opposed to the other two classes of living creatures that exist either in the air, the birds (Gen.

1:20-23; 6:7) or in the sea (marine life in Gen. 1:20-23).

The four footed animals mentioned by Paul in Romans 1:23 would also include the “wild or undomesticated animals” (chay) (hY*j^\\) (khah-ee) according to the Hebrew text of Genesis 1:24-31.

The fourth and final stage of man’s idolatry is that of worshipping “crawling creatures,” which is the (possessive) genitive neuter plural form of the noun herpeton (e(rpetovn) (her-pet-on).

The “crawling creatures” (remes) (Cm#r#) (reh-mes) were created on the sixty day (Genesis 1:24-31) and would be small insects, small reptiles, most amphibians and small mammals according to the Hebrew text of Genesis 1:24-31.

Mankind, the bird kingdom, the animal kingdom and reptile kingdom were all created by the Lord Jesus Christ on the fifth and sixth days of restoration, which are recorded in Genesis 1:20-31.

A comparison of Genesis 1:24-31 and Psalm 8 teach that God designed mankind to rule over the works of His hands and rule over each of these three categories of creatures but instead because of his rejection of God, he worshipped these very creatures, which God designed for him to rule over.