This post’s primary emphasis is Romans 1.
Let’s address the ways that present day man “falls away” from God. We aren’t discussing at length the original sin that brought mankind from the Garden of Eden into our present state. Original sin is what brought humanity & the entire creation into this new and dysfunctional state. I may reference creation and original sin to more fully understand what’s happening today, but that “Fall” is not what I write about.
Ever since creation, there has been an illuminating force that draws man to witness God’s glory. In 2 Peter 1:3, we learned that this is the way that God calls us. (by witnessing his Glory and Goodness). “through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.”
So what’s this illuminating force that draws us? Romans 1:20
For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.
God has many different attributes to his nature. (Righteousness, Goodness, Holiness, Justice, Providence, Steadfastness, etc.) These are invisible qualities, but we’re able to “see” them. Now when I say we are able to see them, I mean not just Christians, or God’s elect, but everybody.
God gives grace to everybody on earth. (Grace is an unmerited or unearned gift. Christians understand that they deserve nothing good based on their behavior, so anything good that we receive is by Grace). The fact that there are gifts that God gives to everyone is a concept known to theologians as “Common Grace”. There’s an example of common grace in Matthew 5:44-45
But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.
Along with a very hard command to love enemies and pray for persecutors, Jesus tells his followers something about God’s character and how the world works. In this example, God gives the gift of weather to everyone, good and evil. This is common grace.
Another example of common grace is basic Knowledge. God gives knowledge to all humans. Humankind is created in His image, and even people who are not his “elect” are productive members of society, contributing to society’s growth and advancement. When God inspires a thinker to come up with a scientific breakthrough or medical advancements, believers understand that this knowledge is God’s knowledge and it’s a gift from above. As we understand His intelligence and the “rules” of His Creation, breakthroughs are made in science, technology, etc. And a believer or an atheist’s brain both have this ability to comprehend and figure things out. On top of that, once these new technologies or ideas are discovered they benefit all humans, not just the elect. It makes logical sense; an atheist can and does benefit from a triple bypass surgery that is performed or perfected by a God fearing Christian. And vice versa. So going back to Romans 1:20:
For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.
Right here we see that Everybody (the whole world) can understand and see God’s divine nature and eternal power from what has been made. Ever since creation. God’s creation is a wonderful, awesome, and glorious thing, and it reveals his majesty. If this universe is so wonderful and awesome and glorious and so vast, how much more so is the Creator of that Universe? God enables ALL of us to see His invisible qualities. And a major way to see them is His creation. His Creation puts those invisible qualities on display. If the grace to see God’s creation reflecting God’s glory was only given to certain people, like God’s elect, in this case, then men would have an excuse for not obeying and submitting to God’s authority and rule. But this scripture tells us that God gave the creation, and He gave all humankind enough grace to see these invisible things about Him, and we have no excuse not to see them. Let’s focus on the two invisible qualities mentioned here:
1) eternal power – remember from the first half of 2 Peter 1:3, God’s power gives us everything we need for a life of Godliness and
2) divine nature- this quality is something that in 2 Peter we’re told we can and should participate in and experience as believers.
Christians need a special type of Grace , saving Grace, from God to participate in Salvation. But here in Romans 1:20, this passage indicates that Everybody has the grace required to, at minimum, look at “what has been made”, or parts of the creation, and see these two qualities of God (His power and divine nature) and correctly attribute them to God.
When we don’t attribute God’s attributes to God, this is the definition of “godlessness.” To where do humans incorrectly attribute God’s qualities? To an extent it doesn’t matter, because it denies God His correct Glory. Anything we attribute God’s glory to that isn’t God turns into an Idol. To repeat, when we take qualities, characteristics, concepts, and other things that uniquely belong to God, and attribute those things to something else, it’s Idolatry. Here are a few examples: If we attribute these Godly qualities to the universe itself, we are giving the creation the glory, not the Creator. We make an idol of the creation. If we attribute these qualities to humans, we take an image (God created man in his image) and exchange God’s glory for that. Romans 1:21-25
For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles. Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.
This passage describes what you get when you have Godlessness. Godless people don’t glorify God, or give thanks to Him. Godlessness takes what’s True and falsifies it – Idolatry.
Now, I want to jump back to the book of Genesis and touch on original sin, because it describes this Godlessness, this exchange of the truth of God for a lie. God warned that ” when you eat of tree of the knowledge of good and evil you will surely die.” When the Serpent tempted Eve, he first accused God of being a liar by saying, “You will not surely die.” Then he told her, “you will be like God.” So Eve wanted to take qualities belonging to God alone and make herself “like God.” Either it was the desire for God’s knowledge that she made an idol out of (the result of eating), or it was the desire for His authority over her actions (the eating itself). First, the truth of God was exchanged for a lie, and then the proper object of worship, God, was no longer being served. The fall in Isaiah thought to be attributed to Satan’s fall looked very similar. In Isaiah 14:13-14,
You said in your heart, “I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God; I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly, on the utmost heights of the sacred mountain, 14 I will ascend above the tops of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.”
Lucifer wanted to make himself like the Most High. He took the truth of God, his position, his throne, his most high status, then he exchanged it for a lie. Lucifer made idol out of God’s status. He worshiped and served his own aspirations, and tried to usurp, or take qualities of God and attribute them to himself.
The passage in Romans describes the consequences of Godlessness and Idolatry. Thinking becomes futile, pointless, or leading nowhere. Foolish Hearts are darkened. Having a darkened heart is a big deal. I can be cynical, but a dark heart is a very bad thing. We know God is Light and in Him, there is no darkness. We know that in Revelation 21 it says His glory gives light. Sometimes the light is used to expose the deeds of the darkness and the motives of man’s heart (in this case it’s used as a tool of Judgement, according to 1 corinthians) , other times it is used to draw people into forgiveness and fellowship. 1 John says “But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.” I want to refer to a corollary to this idea of darkened hearts in 2 Corinthians 4:4-6,
The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For we do not preach ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.
When people’s hearts get darkened, God no longer makes his light shine in our hearts. Who’s at fault? There are a few answers that we can see.
1) the god of this age (Satan) makes the minds of unbelievers blinded.
2) God, because He’s the one who makes His light shine on our hearts. If His light is not shining on our hearts, He’s the one not shining it!
3) We are. Mankind. Remember, man is without excuse if he doesn’t see God’s invisible qualities from the creation.
The truth is that all three answers have a Biblical grounding as being correct. In a way all three are at “Fault”. Let’s re-read Romans 1:21-25
For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.
According to Romans, mankind is without an excuse when we don’t obey God’s commands. We knew God, but didn’t glorify him or give thanks. Therefore, if God responds to disobedience with Wrath and Judgement, He is NOT acting in a way that is contrary to his Goodness and Love. In 2 Thessalonians 1:6 we learn that God is just. what’s that mean? It means He is fair and right in His judgements and His will for us. Since we’re talking about God’s wrath and judgement, what is his punishment? He gives us over in sinful desires to sexual impurity. The language here is interesting. “God gave them over.” You can’t give something that isn’t yours. So when God gives people over, it reinforces that God is sovereign and owns everything. Let’s look at a few different places that things are “given over” in scripture. Psalm 81:11-15:
11 “But my people would not listen to me; Israel would not submit to me. 12 So I gave them over to their stubborn hearts to follow their own devices. 13 “If my people would but listen to me, if Israel would follow my ways, 14 how quickly would I subdue their enemies and turn my hand against their foes! 15 Those who hate the LORD would cringe before him, and their punishment would last forever.
And Ezekiel 20:24-26:
24 because they had not obeyed my laws but had rejected my decrees and desecrated my Sabbaths, and their eyes lusted after their fathers’ idols. 25 I also gave them over to statutes that were not good and laws they could not live by; 26 I let them become defiled through their gifts—the sacrifice of every firstborn —that I might fill them with horror so they would know that I am the LORD.’
Here’s Acts 7:42
But God turned away and gave them over to the worship of the heavenly bodies.
Let’s continue where we left off in Romans. Romans 1:25-28
25They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.26Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. 27In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion. 28Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done.
So one form of God’s wrath, or punishment, is to give people over to wickedness. The weird thing is when God gives us over, what does he give us over to? Our own depraved mind, our own stubborn hearts. We follow our own devices, sexual impurity, shameful lusts. These types of perversion are in our own minds and hearts. If we’re left alone, these lusts and sins come out. Left to our own devices, we follow our stubborn hearts. God allows us to experience the fruits of Godlessness found in Romans 1:29-33
29They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, 30slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; 31they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless.32Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.
That is a big list of different kinds of wickedness. In the various wickednesses God gives us over to on this list we see that we are left to our own devices, following our own stubborn hearts, and verse 30 says we “Invent ways of doing evil.” These things are not part of God’s original creation. God’s creation was described as “good” and when he was done on day 6, He even said “very Good.” All this wickedness and sin are things that WE invent. God created a very good creation, and we invent the new ways of doing evil. Godlessness brought this original sin into fruition, and when we are given over, we are given over to our own stubborn hearts, and wickedness is the result. BUT. For God’s elect, we have a different promise. Listen to the voice of our shepherd, Jesus from John 10:27-30
27My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. 28I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand. 29My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. 30 I and the Father are one.”
As children of God, we understand that we won’t be given over. At least not to eternal punishment or to our own invented evil. To be given over means to be let go of, but Jesus states in this passage that he won’t let us go. No one can snatch us from his hand. Why? because God, has already given us over, but it’s a different “given over”. We’ve been given over to Jesus, our prince of peace.