WHAT HAPPENS WHEN HUMANITY REJECTS GOD?
Romans 1:18–32 — Paul Begins With the Human Problem
Paul has just made a wonderful announcement:
“The gospel... is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes.”
— Romans 1:16
That's good news.
But it raises an obvious question:
SAVED FROM WHAT?
Why does everybody need this gospel?
Why do we need God's righteousness revealed?
Paul begins answering in the very next verse:
“The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people...”
— Romans 1:18
That's quite a change.
One verse says:
The righteousness of God is revealed.
The next says:
The wrath of God is revealed.
Paul is about to explain why we need the gospel.
And he begins with humanity's most basic problem.
THE PROBLEM ISN'T THAT GOD HID
Paul says people:
“suppress the truth by their wickedness.”
— Romans 1:18
Notice the word:
SUPPRESS.
Paul doesn't begin by saying humanity searched everywhere for God but couldn't find Him.
He says something about God could be known.
Why?
“God has made it plain to them.”
— Romans 1:19
Then Paul points to creation:
“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.”
— Romans 1:20
Look around.
There is a creation.
There is order.
There is power.
Something can be known about the Creator from what He has made.
Paul isn't saying creation tells us everything we need to know about God.
Creation doesn't tell us the story of Jesus' death and resurrection.
That's why the gospel must be preached.
But creation leaves humanity without the excuse:
“There was simply no evidence of God.”
Paul says:
“so that people are without excuse.”
— Romans 1:20
THEN SOMETHING WENT WRONG
Paul tells us:
“For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him.”
— Romans 1:21
Notice what comes first.
Before Paul talks about the sins we usually notice, he talks about:
refusing to glorify God
and
refusing to give thanks to God.
Humanity receives God's creation—
but refuses to honor the Creator.
That's where Paul's diagnosis begins.
And then he uses a word we need to watch.
EXCHANGE.
THE GREAT EXCHANGE
Paul says:
“They exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images...”
— Romans 1:23
Human beings were created to worship God.
Instead, they worship what God made.
The Creator is exchanged for the creation.
And Paul isn't finished with that word.
In verse 25:
“They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator.”
There it is again.
EXCHANGED.
And again in verse 26:
“Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones.”
Paul is showing us a pattern.
Humanity exchanges:
God's glory for images.
God's truth for a lie.
God's created order for something else.
The problem runs much deeper than one particular sin.
Something has gone wrong with humanity's relationship with its Creator.
“CLAIMING TO BE WISE...”
Paul says:
“Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools.”
— Romans 1:22
That sounds remarkably like the old story.
Human beings decide that God's wisdom isn't enough.
We will determine for ourselves what is good.
We will decide what is right.
We will decide what deserves our worship.
And once the Creator is pushed aside, creation itself becomes distorted.
Paul is describing a world that has turned:
FROM THE CREATOR TO THE CREATION.
THEN PAUL SAYS SOMETHING THREE TIMES
Watch for another repeated expression.
Verse 24:
“Therefore God gave them over...”
Verse 26:
“Because of this, God gave them over...”
Verse 28:
“God gave them over...”
Three times.
GOD GAVE THEM OVER.
That is part of God's judgment.
Sometimes we imagine God's wrath only as something that happens at the final judgment.
Paul certainly believes in a coming judgment.
But here God's wrath is also seen in what happens when God allows people to pursue the course they have chosen.
They reject Him.
They exchange His truth.
And:
GOD GIVES THEM OVER.
Sin becomes part of its own judgment.
YES, PAUL TALKS ABOUT SEXUAL SIN
We shouldn't dodge verses 26–27.
Paul doesn't.
He describes women exchanging natural sexual relations for unnatural ones.
Then he says:
“In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another.”
— Romans 1:27
Paul clearly includes same-sex sexual behavior in the disorder he is describing.
We shouldn't erase that because our culture finds it uncomfortable.
But we can make another mistake too.
WE CAN STOP READING THERE.
And Paul doesn't.
If we use Romans 1 merely to point at somebody else's sexual sin, we may miss the trap Paul is setting for the person who feels morally superior.
Keep reading.
LOOK AT PAUL'S LIST
After saying God gave them over to a depraved mind, Paul continues:
“They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity.”
— Romans 1:29
Then come:
envy
murder
strife
deceit
malice
gossip
slander
arrogance
boasting
disobedience to parents
lack of fidelity
lack of love
lack of mercy
That's quite a list.
Some of those sins may not make the evening news.
Some can sit quite comfortably in a church building.
Paul's point isn't:
“LOOK AT THOSE TERRIBLE PEOPLE.”
His argument is much bigger than that.
Humanity has rejected its Creator.
And the disorder shows up everywhere.
In worship.
In thinking.
In sexuality.
In relationships.
In speech.
In pride.
In greed.
In families.
In how we treat one another.
The whole human problem is on display.
BUT DON'T GET COMFORTABLE YET
It would be easy for someone listening to Romans being read in Rome to reach the end of chapter 1 and think:
“Exactly right, Paul!
Those people are terrible.”
And perhaps begin making a mental list of all the people Romans 1 describes.
But remember:
Paul is writing an argument.
And there wasn't originally a big:
CHAPTER 2
printed on the page telling the listener to stop.
The next word out of Paul's mouth is:
“THEREFORE...”
And then:
“You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else...”
— Romans 2:1
Uh-oh.
Paul has been talking about people who are:
“without excuse.”
— Romans 1:20
Now he turns to the person judging them and says:
“YOU... HAVE NO EXCUSE.”
Maybe Paul knew exactly what he was doing.
DON'T STOP AT ROMANS 1:32
Romans 1 is true.
Paul means what he says about humanity's rebellion and sin.
But Romans 1 isn't the end of his argument.
It's the beginning.
Paul has started showing us why humanity needs the gospel.
But before the religious or moral person gets too comfortable, Paul turns around and looks directly at the person who has been agreeing with him.
“You, therefore...”
That's where we're going next.
And it may be one of the most important turns in Romans.
ROMANS 2:1–16
“YOU HAVE NO EXCUSE”—WHO IS PAUL TALKING TO NOW?
Keep your Bible open.
Paul isn't finished.
TEXT B4 TRADITION
Read First. Conclude Later.
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