Unbelief and Its Consequences

(Romans 1:18-32 NASB)
Unbelief and Its Consequences

18 For ?a?the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all
ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who ?b?suppress the truth
?1?in unrighteousness,

19 because ?a?that which is known about God is evident ?1?within
them; for God made it evident to them.

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

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

22 ?a?Professing to be wise, they became fools,

23 and ?a?exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an
image
in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals
and
?1?crawling creatures.

24 Therefore ?a?God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to
impurity, so that their bodies would be ?b?dishonored among them.

25 For they exchanged the truth of God for ?1?a ?a?lie, and
worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, ?b?who is
blessed ?2?forever. Amen.

26 For this reason ?a?God gave them over to ?b?degrading
passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that
which
is ?1?unnatural,

27 and in the same way also the men abandoned the natural function
of the woman and burned in their desire toward one another, ?a?men
with men committing ?1?indecent acts and receiving in ?2?their own
persons the due penalty of their error.

28 And just as they did not see fit ?1?to acknowledge God any
longer, ?a?God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things
which are not proper,

29 being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil;
full
of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice; they are ?a?gossips,

30 slanderers, ?1??a?haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful,
inventors of evil, ?b?disobedient to parents,

31 without understanding, untrustworthy, ?a?unloving, unmerciful;

32 and although they know the ordinance of God, that those who
practice such things are worthy of ?a?death, they not only do the
same,
but also ?b?give hearty approval to those who practice them.

[1]

1:20

1:20 invisible attributes. This refers specifically to the two mentioned
in this
verse. by the things that are made. The creation delivers a clear,
unmistakable message about God's person (cf. Pss. 19:1-8; 94:9; Acts
14:15-17; 17:23-28). His eternal power. The Creator, who made all that
we see around us and constantly sustains it, must be a being of awesome
power. Godhead. That is, His divine nature, particularly His faithfulness
(Gen. 8:21, 22), kindness, and graciousness (Acts 14:17). they are without
excuse. God holds all men responsible for their refusal to acknowledge
what He has shown them of Himself in His creation. Even those who have
never had an opportunity to hear the gospel have received a clear witness
about the existence and character of God-and have suppressed it. If a
person will respond to the revelation he has, even if it is solely natural
revelation, God will provide some means for that person to hear the gospel
(cf. Acts 8:26-39; 10:1-48; 17:27).[2]


1:21-1:23

Every man knows there's a God, but men choose to suppress the truth and
deny God exists because they don't want to give glory to Him as God.
You see, if there is a God, then I am required to submit to Him. But my
flesh doesn't want to do that, so I'll suppress the truth I see all around
me.
I'll say God doesn't exist-even though the heavens and stars scream at
me, "Yes He does!"

We can fall into this same error as believers. Knowing God, we can fail to
glorify Him as God. How? By insisting on our own way, by saying, "God, I
believe in You, and now I'm telling You what I want You to do. You
better solve this situation, take care of this problem, grant this
request, or
heal this sickness. I'm naming it. I'm claiming it."

He's God. We're not. He knows things we can't know and sees things we
can't see. Therefore, for me to rub the lamp of faith and expect God to
become my genie is, in a sense, blasphemous. Father knows best.
Therefore, my part is to talk things over with Him, cast my cares upon
Him, and have faith that He will do what's right-even though I might not
initially agree or understand.[3]

There is no such thing as man moving upward. These verses contradict the
hypothesis of evolution. Man is not improving physically, morally,
intellectually, or spiritually. The pull is downward. Of course this
contradicts all the anthologies of religion that start with man in a very
primitive condition as a caveman with very little intellectual qualities
and
move him up intellectually and begin moving him toward God. This is
absolute error. Man is moving away from God, and right now the world is
probably farther from God than at any time in its history. The fact of the
matter is that every primitive tribe has a tradition that way back in the
beginning their ancestors knew God. Dr. Vincent in Word Studies in the
New Testament says, "I think it may be proved from facts that any given
people, down to the lowest savages, has at any period of its life known
far
more than it has done: known quite enough to have enabled it to have got
on comfortably, thriven and developed, if it had only done what no man
does, all that it knew it ought to do and could do." No people have ever
lived up to the light that they have had. Although they had a knowledge of
God, they moved away from Him.

"They glorified him not as God." They did not give Him His rightful place,
and man became self-sufficient. In our day man has made the
announcement that God is dead. In the beginning the human family did not
suggest that God was dead, they simply turned their backs upon Him and
made man their god.

"Neither were thankful." Ingratitude is one of the worst sins there is.
You
recall that the Lord Jesus healed ten lepers, but only one returned to
thank
Him. Only ten percent were thankful, and I believe it is less than that
today.

"Became vain in their imaginations"-they even concocted a theory of
evolution.

"Their foolish heart was darkened." They moved into the darkness of
paganism. You see living proof of this as you walk down the streets of
Cairo in Egypt or of Istanbul in Turkey. In fact, all you have to do is
walk
down the streets of Los Angeles to know that man's foolish heart is
darkened.

"Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools." The wisdom of
man is foolishness with God. Man searches for truth through logical
reasoning but arrives at a philosophy that is foolish in God's sight.[4]









1:19-1:27

The ungodliness of mankind 1:19-27

1:19-20 These verses begin a discussion of "natural revelation." Natural
revelation describes what everyone knows about God because of what
God has revealed concerning Himself in nature. What He has revealed
about Himself in Scripture is "special revelation." The creation bears
testimony to its Maker, and every human being "hears" this witness (cf.
Ps.
19).43

"Napoleon, on a warship in the Mediterranean on a star-lit night, passed a
group of his officers who were mocking at the idea of a God. He stopped,
and sweeping his hand toward the stars, said, 'Gentlemen, you must get rid
of those first!'"44

Four things characterize this revelation. First, it is a clear testimony;
everyone is aware of it ("it is evident [plain]"). Second, everyone can
understand it. We can draw conclusions about the Creator from His
creation.45 Third, it has gone out since the creation of the world in
every
generation. Fourth, it is a limited revelation in that it does not reveal
everything about God (e.g., His love and grace) but only some things
(i.e.,
His power and deity). Natural revelation makes man responsible to
respond to his Creator in worship and submission. However it does not
give sufficient information for him to experience salvation. That is why
everyone needs to hear the gospel.

"Utter uncompromising, abandonment of hope in man is the first
preliminary to understanding or preaching the gospel."46

1:20 Ever since the creation of the world, two invisible characteristics
of
God have been on display for all to see: His eternal power and His
divinity
or Godhead. The word Paul uses here means divinity or godhood. It
suggests the character of God rather than His essential being, His
glorious
attributes rather than His inherent deity. His deity is assumed.

The argument here is clear: Creation demands a Creator. Design demands
a Designer. By looking up at the sun, moon, and stars, anyone can know
there is a God.

The answer to the question "What about the heathen?" is this: they are
without excuse. God has revealed Himself to them in creation, but they
have not responded to this revelation. So people are not condemned for
rejecting a Savior they have never heard of, but for being unfaithful to
what
they could know about God. [5]

1:21-23 Honoring God as God and giving Him thanks (v. 21) are our
primary duties to God in view of who He is. Mythology and idolatry
have resulted from man's need to identify some power greater than
himself and his refusal to acknowledge God as that power. Men and
women have elevated themselves to God's position (cf. Dan. 2:38; 3:1;
5:23). In our day, humanism has replaced the worship of individual
human leaders in most western countries. Man has descended to the
worship of animals as well (cf. Ps. 106:20). This is perhaps more
characteristic of third world countries.

"This tragic process of human 'god-making' continues apace in our own
day, and Paul's words have as much relevance for people who have made
money or sex or fame their gods as for those who carved idols out of
wood and stone."47

Note the allusions to the creation story in the threefold division of the
animal kingdom in verse 23.

1:24-25 The false religions that man has devised and to which Paul just
referred constitute some of God's judgment on mankind for turning from
Him. False religion is not in any sense good for mankind. It is a judgment
from God, and it tends to keep people so distracted that they rarely deal
with the true God.

"God's wrath mentioned in Romans 1 is not an active outpouring of divine
displeasure but the removal of restraint that allows sinners to reap the
just
fruits of their rebellion."48

It is active in another sense, however. God gave man over (v. 24; cf. vv.
26, 28) by turning him over to the punishment his crime earned, as a judge
does a prisoner. The third characteristic of man in rebellion against God
that Paul identified after ignorance (v. 21) and idolatry (v. 23) is
impurity
(v. 24). Here Paul evidently had natural forms of moral uncleanness in
view
such as adultery and harlotry. He went on in verses 26-27 to describe
even worse immorality, namely unnatural acts such as homosexuality.49

Mankind exchanged the truth of God (v. 25; cf. v. 18) for "the lie"
(literally). The lie in view is the contention that we should venerate
someone
or something in place of the true God (cf. Gen. 3:1-5; Matt. 4:3-10).
Paul's concluding doxology underlined this folly.

1:26-27 Because mankind "exchanged" the truth for the lie God allowed
him to degrade himself through his passions. The result was that he
"exchanged" natural human functions for what is unnatural. In the Greek
text the words translated "women" (thelus; v. 26) and "men" (arsen, v. 27)
mean "females" and "males." Ironically the homosexuality described in
these verses does not characterize females and males of other animal
species, only human beings. Homosexuality is a perversion because it uses
sex for a purpose contrary to those for which God created and intended it
(Gen. 1:28).

"This need not demand the conclusion that every homosexual follows the
practice in deliberate rebellion against God's prescribed order. What is
true historically and theologically is in measure true, however,
experientially."50

AIDS, for example, is probably the consequence of man's rebellion against
God rather than a special judgment from God. The "due penalty" is what
man experiences as a result of God giving him over and letting him indulge
his sinful desires (cf. 6:23).51

"Sin comes from the mind, which perverts the judgment. The effect of
retribution is to abandon the mind to that depravity."52

"A contextual and exegetical examination of Romans 1:26-27 reveals that
attempts by some contemporary writers to do away with Paul's
prohibitions against present-day same-sex relations are false Paul did not
impose Jewish customs and rules on his readers; instead he addressed
same-sex relations from the trans-cultural perspective of God's created
order. God's punishment for sin is rooted in a sinful reversal of the
created
order. Nor was homosexuality simply a sin practiced by idolaters in Paul's
day; it was a distorting consequence of the fall of the human race in the
Garden of Eden. Neither did Paul describe homosexual acts by
heterosexuals. Instead he wrote that homosexual activity was an exchange
of the created order (heterosexuality) for a talionic perversion
(homosexuality), which is never presented in Scripture as an acceptable
norm for sexuality. Also Hellenistic pederasty does not fully account for
the
terms and logic of Romans 1:26-27 which refers to adult-adult mutuality.
Therefore it is clear that in Romans 1:26-27 Paul condemned
homosexuality as a perversion of God's design for human sexual
relations."53 [6]

The God of the Bible, in contrast to some pagan religions, is in sovereign
control of everything, including evil, which he uses to accomplish his
good
purposes (cf. Job 1-3).

Third, the Bible sometimes speaks of God "hardening" people's hearts
(see Rom. 9:17-18) or even sending them strong delusions (2 Thess.
2:11). However, on closer examination, we discover that God did this to
those who had hardened their own hearts (Exod. 8:15) and who "did not
believe the truth" (2 Thess. 2:12). God uses even their depravity to
accomplish his purposes. God permits lying as a judgment on evil.

God, for his own purposes of justice, allowed Ahab to be deceived by evil
spirits to accomplish his sovereign and good will.

John 7:3-10. Bible critics have sometimes appealed to this text to show
that Jesus lied. This is a serious charge, since it would not only be a
divinely
approved lie, but one told by God himself in the person of his Son. Jesus'
unbelieving brothers challenged him to go up to Jerusalem and show
himself openly to be the Messiah (7:3-4). Jesus refused, saying, "I am not
yet going up to this feast, because for me the right time has not yet
come"
(vs. 8). But later Jesus did go (vs. 10). Jesus did not go openly, as the
brothers had suggested, nor at the immediate time they suggested. Further,
John 7:8 relates that Jesus said he was not yet going. "He remained in
Galilee" before he went up. [7]

Man has a revelation from God, but he flagrantly flaunts it by defying the
judgment of God against such sins. He continues to practice them and
applauds and approves those who do the same. [8]





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a Rom 5:9; Eph 5:6; Col 3:6
b 2 Thess 2:6f
1 Or by
a Acts 14:17; 17:24ff
1 Or among
a Mark 10:6
b Job 12:7-9; Ps 19:1-6; Jer 5:21f
1 Lit glorify
a 2 Kin 17:15; Jer 2:5; Eph 4:17f
a Jer 10:14; 1 Cor 1:20
a Deut 4:16-18; Ps 106:20; Jer 2:11; Acts 17:29
1 Or reptiles
a Rom 1:26, 28; Eph 4:19
b Eph 2:3
1 Lit the lie
a Is 44:20; Jer 10:14; 13:25; 16:19
b Rom 9:5; 2 Cor 11:31
2 Lit unto the ages
a Rom 1:24
b 1 Thess 4:5
1 Lit against nature
a Lev 18:22; 20:13; 1 Cor 6:9
1 Lit the shameless deed
2 Lit themselves
1 Lit to have God in knowledge
a Rom 1:24
a 2 Cor 12:20
1 Or hateful to God
a Ps 5:5
b 2 Tim 3:2
a 2 Tim 3:3
a Rom 6:21
b Luke 11:48; Acts 8:1; 22:20

[1]New American Standard Bible : 1995 update. 1995 (Ro 1:18).
LaHabra, CA: The Lockman Foundation.

[2]MacArthur, J. J. (1997, c1997). The MacArthur Study Bible
(electronic ed.) (Ro 1:20). Nashville: Word Pub.

[3]Courson, J. (2003). Jon Courson's Application Commentary (870).
Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson.

[4]McGee, J. V. (1997, c1981). Thru the Bible commentary. Based on
the Thru the Bible radio program. (electronic ed.) (4:653). Nashville:
Thomas Nelson.
43 43. See Bruce A. Baker, "Romans 1:18-21 and Presuppositional
Apologetics," Bibliotheca Sacra 155:619 (July-September 1998):280-98.
44 44. Newell, p. 29.
45 45. "His invisible attributes . . . have been clearly seen" is an
oxymoron.
46 46. Newell, p. 27.

[5]MacDonald, W., & Farstad, A. (1997, c1995). Believer's Bible
Commentary : Old and New Testaments (Ro 1:20). Nashville: Thomas
Nelson.

47 47. Moo, p. 110. For a relevant exposition of verses 21-22, see
Francis A. Schaeffer, Death in the City, pp. 79-123.
48 48. Mounce, p. 80.
49 49. Natural here means in keeping with how God has designed people,
and unnatural refers to behavior that is contrary to how God has made us.
50 50. Harrison, p. 25.
51 51. See P. Michael Ukleja, "Homosexuality in the New Testament,"
Bibliotheca Sacra 140:560 (October-December 1983):350-58.
52 52. Henri Maurier, The Other Covenant, p. 185.
53 53. David E. Malick, "The Condemnation of Homosexuality in Romans
1:26-27, " Bibliotheca Sacra 150:599 (July-September 1993):340.
Pederasty is a form of sodomy between males, especially as practiced by a
man with a boy. See also Sherwood A. Cole, "Biology, Homosexuality,
and Moral Culpability," Bibliotheca Sacra 154:615 (July-September
1997):355-66.

[6]Tom Constable. (2003; 2003). Tom Constable's Expository Notes on
the Bible (Ro 1:18). Galaxie Software.

[7]Geisler, N. L. (1999). Baker encyclopedia of Christian apologetics.
Baker reference library (434). Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Books.

[8]McGee, J. V. (1997, c1981). Thru the Bible commentary. Based on
the Thru the Bible radio program. (electronic ed.) (4:655). Nashville:
Thomas Nelson.


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