Romans 1.26b-God Gave Women Over to Lesbianism for Rejecting Him
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Thursday June 28, 2007
Romans: Romans 1:26b-God Gave Women Over to Lesbianism for Rejecting Him
Lesson # 33
Please turn in your Bibles to Romans 1:18.
We are currently engaged in a 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).
Last Wednesday, we completed 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 and on Thursday we began a study of Romans 1:24-32, in which Paul presents the results of Gentile guilt.
Last Thursday, we studied Romans 1:24 in which Paul writes that God gave the human race over to immoral degeneracy as a result of rejecting His revelation of Himself in creation.
On Sunday morning we studied Romans 1:25a, in which Paul writes that God gave the human race over to immoral degeneracy who were of such evil character that they exchanged the truth of God for the lie.
Tuesday, we noted Romans 1:25b, in which Paul writes that the human race was of such evil character that not only did they exchange the truth of God for the lie but they also worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator.
Last evening we noted Romans 1:26a, in which Paul writes that because the human race exchanged the truth of God for the lie and worshipped and served the creature rather than Him as their Creator, God gave the human race over to disgraceful perversities, which he identifies in Romans 1:26b and 27 as lesbianism and homosexuality.
This evening we will study Romans 1:26b, in which Paul explains or identifies that one of the “disgraceful perversities” he mentions in Romans 1:26a is lesbianism.
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.”
Romans 1:24, “Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, so that their bodies would be dishonored among them.”
Romans 1:25, “For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.”
Romans 1:26, “For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural.”
In Romans 1:26, the apostle Paul mentions the women first before the men since lesbianism is a rejection of God’s purpose in creating the woman, which was to be a partner for the man, not only intellectually, emotionally, spiritually but also sexually!
“For” is the “explanatory” use of the post-positive conjunction gar (gavr), which introduces a clause that “explains” or “identifies” for the reader one of the “disgraceful perversities” and should be translated “namely.”
“Their women” is composed of the genitive (of possession) masculine plural form of personal pronoun autos (au)tov$), “their” and the nominative feminine plural form of the adjective thelus (qhlu$), “women.”
The personal pronoun autos refers to the human race and is “possessive” and a “genitive of possession” modifying the noun thelus, “women” and expresses the contrast between the Gentiles and the covenant people of God, Israel who did not practice lesbianism but rather put to death those who did.
It also serves to express the distance between the conduct of the human race in relation to their Creator who is holy and that they are not children of God.
The noun thelus means, “female, of the female sex” and is used rather than the usual term for “woman,” which is the noun gune (gunhv) since Paul wishes to emphasize that these woman have degraded themselves.
They have degraded themselves by their homosexual behavior in the sense that these lesbians have rejected God’s original design for the woman, which was to be a helpmate for the man and to have sex with a man for recreational and procreation purposes in the context of marriage.
Genesis 2:18, “Then the LORD God said, ‘It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make him a helper suitable for him.’”
“I will make” is the verb `asah (hCu), which means, “to produce out of existing material,” thus the Lord produced the physical body of the woman from a portion of Adam’s side.
“Helper” is the noun `ezer (rz#u@) (pronounced ay-zer), which indicates that the woman was designed to be Adam’s “partner” in accomplishing the task that he was given by the Lord to populate the earth with human beings and to rule over each and every creature and the earth itself (cf. Gen. 1:26, 28).
Genesis 2:19, “Out of the ground the LORD God formed (yatsar, “to produce from existing material”) every beast of the field and every bird of the sky, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them; and whatever the man called a living creature, that was its name.”
Genesis 2:20, “The man gave names to all the cattle (behemah, “domestic animals”), and to the birds of the sky, and to every beast (chayyath, “wild animals”) of the field, but for Adam there was not found a helper suitable for him.”
Genesis 2:21, “So the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then He took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh at that place.”
“One of his ribs”: (1) Number `echadh (dja#), “portion” (2) Preposition min (im!), “from” (3) Feminine plural form of the noun tsela` (ulx@), “side” (4) 3rd person masculine singular pronominal suffix, which functions as a possessive pronoun meaning, “his.”
In Genesis 2:21, the noun tsela refers to the side of Adam’s torso indicating that the Lord did not simply take out a rib but rather He removed a portion of Adam’s side, which would include skin, flesh, blood, nerves and of course bone.
In Genesis 2:21, the number `echadh is used as an indefinite article meaning “a portion of something,” thus the Lord built the physical body of the woman from a “portion” of the side of Adam’s torso.
Genesis 2:22, “The LORD God fashioned into a woman the rib which He had taken from the man, and brought her to the man.”
“Fashioned” is the verb banah (hnB), which means, “to build” indicating that the Lord “constructed” the physical body of the woman from the biological life of Adam.
Like Adam, the woman’s soul was modeled after the image of God, which is indicated by the use of the verb `asah in Genesis 1:26.
Genesis 1:26, “Next, God decreed let Us model man in Our image, according to Our likeness. Consequently, they will rule over the fish in the various bodies of water and over the birds in the earth’s atmosphere and over the animal kingdom and over the entire earth and over each and every creeper-crawler, those which crawl upon the earth.”
Like Adam, the woman’s soul was created out of nothing, which is indicated by the use of the Hebrew verb bara in Genesis 1:27.
Genesis 1:27, “Consequently, God created out of nothing the essence of man in His own image. In the image of God, He created him out of nothing. Male and female, He created them out of nothing.”
However, the elements used to construct the body of the woman were taken out of body of the man.
The fact that the soul of Adam and the woman were both created out of nothing indicates that the woman was not intellectually inferior to Adam but rather she was his equal and a perfect complement to him.
The woman was not merely an extension of the man but possessed her own individuality since her soul was also created out of nothing in the image of God.
She was unique like Adam and unlike the animals, and had the capacity to be a companion to Adam and provide fellowship for him that was not only beneficial to him but also to her.
Together, the man and the woman were unique in God’s creation and were a dynamic couple superior to all of God’s creatures on planet earth and were designed to rule together over the earth.
Notice also, that Adam was created first and then Eve thus constituting a divine order between the sexes meaning that the man was designed to be the authority over the woman even though she was his equal.
1 Corinthians 11:3, “But I want you to understand that Christ is the head of every man, and the man is the head of a woman, and God is the head of Christ.”
Genesis 2:23, “The man said, ‘This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh; She shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.’”
“Woman” is the noun `ishshah (hv*a!), which denotes the woman as the physical counterpart of man and is used in the sense of a wife to whom the man is to be completely committed.
Genesis 2:24, “For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh.”
“Joined” is the verb davaq (qb^D*), which expresses the concept of clinging to someone with affection and loyalty, which finds its expression in sexual intercourse.
The phrase “become one flesh” refers to the fact that there was a complete identification of personality between Adam and the woman in interests, pursuits, which was consummated in sexual intercourse.
Therefore, we can see that lesbianism is a rejection of the divine design for the female’s body and soul.
Romans 1:26, “For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural.”
Then we have “correlative” use of the conjunction te (tev), “not only…but also” which is employed not only in Romans 1:26 in a clause that identifies unregenerate Gentile women being involved in lesbianism but it also appears in Romans 1:27 in a clause that identifies unregenerate Gentile men involved in homosexuality.
Therefore, the conjunction te is used in Romans 1:26-27 to show the “correlation” between the conduct of men and women, which was in total rebellion against God’s original design for men and women.
Then, in the emphatic position of this explanatory clause is the nominative feminine plural form of the qualitative relative pronoun hostis (o^sti$) (hos-tis), which emphasizes the evil character of women who had sex with each other and should be translated “who indeed by virtue of their evil character.”
“They exchanged” is the 3rd person plural aorist active indicative form of the verb metallasso (metallavssw) (met-al-las-so), which is composed of the preposition meta (metav), “with” and the verb allasso (a)llavssw), “to change, alter.”
The verb metallasso is an intensive compound and means, “to exchange” one thing for another and so in Romans 1:26, the verb indicates that the heathen women “exchanged” sex with men for sex with women.
The active voice means that the subject performs the action of the verb, thus clearly indicating that lesbianism is a “choice” and that women are “not” born lesbians since the active voice indicates that they made a volitional decision to reject God’s original design for their bodies and “chose” to have sex with women.
“The natural function” is composed of the articular accusative feminine singular form of the adjective phusikos (fusikov$) (foo-see-kos), “the natural” and the accusative (direct object) feminine singular form of the noun chresis (xrhsi$), “function.”
The noun chresis refers to the “sexual function” of the woman and the adjective phusikos pertains to that which is in accordance with the nature or character of something.
“Unnatural” is composed of the preposition para (paraV), “un” and the accusative feminine singular form of the noun phusis (fuvsi$), “natural.”
The basis idea of phusis “denoted the growing of the cosmos and of all things contained in it from their own laws” according to Burkert (Greek Religion, page 312; Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1985).
To the Greek philosopher, the created order came to be regarded as ordered by laws called phusis, which governed its behavior and made it predictable, which is how the apostle Paul is employing the word in Romans 1:26.
Kenneth S. Wuest commenting on this word, writes that phusis is “the nature of things, the force, laws, order of nature, as opposed to that which is monstrous, abnormal, perverse” (Word Studies in the Greek New Testament volume 1, Romans, pages 35-36; Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company; Grand Rapids, Michigan)
Therefore, in Romans 1:26, the noun phusis refers to the laws established by the Lord Jesus Christ upon creating the woman for Adam and which laws govern the behavior of the woman in her physical body.
The preposition para is used with the accusative case of the noun phusis and is a marker of that which is contrary to what should be or to expectation and means, “contrary to.”
Therefore, the preposition para with the noun phusis means that unregenerate Gentile women of the cosmic system of Satan exchanged their normal or natural sexual function for that which was “contrary to” the laws of nature or the order of nature, which was established by the Lord according to Genesis 2:22-24.
Our corrected translation of Romans 1:26:
Romans 1:26, “Because of this (the exchange of the truth of God for the lie, worshipping and serving the creature rather than the Creator) God gave them over to disgraceful perversities, namely, their females, who indeed by virtue of their evil character, not only exchanged the natural sexual function for that which is contrary to the laws of nature.”
So can see from a comparison of Romans 1:26 with Genesis 2:22-24 that the Lord Jesus Christ designed the woman to have sex with a man and emphatically not with a woman.
To do so, is an act of rebellion against the laws of nature, which the Lord Jesus Christ established as the Creator.
Also, we have seen the Lord Jesus Christ instilled in both the man and the woman the sex drive for both recreation and procreation.
However, when directed toward a person of the same sex, it abandons the purpose the Lord had designed for it and becomes a sexual perversion!