Introduction
Paul wrote this letter to the Christian
community in Rome. Their beliefs were being challenged by the Jewish community,
who evidently charged them with fundamental inconsistency with the Old Testament.
This is Paul's response, which is also the most systematic presentation of the
gospel--the good news of what God has given us through Jesus Christ--in the entire
New Testament. Every Christian should be thoroughly familiar with the contents
of Romans, especially the first eight chapters.
But Paul begins with God's
bad news. From 1:18-3:20, he argues that everyone--Gentiles and Jews, pagans and
religious, those with the Bible and those without it--is justly under God's judgment.
WARNING:
"This passage is politically incorrect in the extreme. It contains content
that is offensive to current cultural sensibilities." But before you write
it off, consider that maybe we should expect God's Word to surprise and disturb
and even offend us--unless we already know everything important.
Paul begins
by addressing the plight of those peoples who don't have the Bible. "Certainly
they are exempt from God's judgment because they have never had the opportunity
to learn about God." Actually, Paul declares, they also are under God's judgment
(read 1:18). Why? Because there are not in total ignorance. God has given them
much truth about himself ("general revelation"), but they have willfully
suppressed it.
What all people know about God (1:19-23)
Read
1:19,20. Paul speaks broadly of two avenues of knowledge about God through general
revelation. Let's take them in reverse order.
One avenue is
external (1:20 - "God made it evident to them . . . through
what has been made"). And 2000 years of scientific investigation has strengthened,
not weakened Paul's point.
As we look outward to the sheer size
of creation (GALAXIES IN "VACANT" AREA OF HUBBLE'S FIELD),
and as we understand that all this mass began concentrated in a micro-pinhead
that expanded in its first second to 20 light years across,
we know both intuitively and rationally that it requires a Creator who is both
eternal and uniquely powerful ("his eternal power"). This is what led
Johann Kepler to exclaim, "The undevout astronomer is a madman!"
As
we examine the marvelous order and complexity of the universe--both macro ("Why
is it so perfectly balanced gravitationally that it neither flew apart nor crunched
back together . . .? This degree of balance has been likened to
that of a pencil standing upright on its point.")
and micro (SLIDES OF PROTEIN STRUCTURE & CELL SURFACE), we know both intuitively
and rationally that it requires a Creator who is uniquely intelligent. This is
what Sir James Geans means when he says, "The universe begins to look more
like a great thought than a giant machine."
Another avenue
is internal (1:19 - "that which is known about God is evident within
them"). What is he referring to? What is there within all humans that testifies
to the existence of the God of the Bible? Paul doesn't say here, but he does later.
Read
2:14,15. Humans have an incurable sense of morality. Conscience is not a perfect
moral guide, but it does testify to the reality of a moral standard to which we
are personally accountable because it "stabs" us when we violate it.
This in turn is testimony for the existence of a moral Creator, in whose image
we have been made. In 1:32, Paul also says we know instinctively that we will
give an account to God for our sins.
As we look inward, we also know that
we are personal beings rather than mere machines. We instinctively value personal
love relationships. Why do we value this? Where does our personalness come from?
The best explanation is that we have been made in the image of a Creator who is
personal and loving (TRINITY).
So without any
Bible at all, human beings know that there is a God who is personal, moral, intelligent,
eternal and powerful.
And therefore even people who have never
seen a Bible should bow to God and worship him and thank him. But this is not
the normal response (read 1:21-23). Although the memory of this God can be found
in virtually every culture ever researched,
they normally reject the true God and replace him with a corruption. This means
that our primary spiritual problem is not intellectual (or lack of sufficient
evidence), but moral (we want to rebel and be autonomous).
Therefore, polytheism,
pantheism, dualism, animism (not to mention atheism) are not beautiful expressions
of human spirituality. They are not innocent speculations of truly ignorant people.
Although they contain truth, they signify a willful and culpable suppression and
rejection of the true God. Paul repeats this in 1:25,28a (read).
So
can people who have never seen a Bible be saved? Paul is not addressing this issue
directly; he is arguing (in a general way) that such people cannot plead ignorance.
If they live in darkness about the one true God, it is a self-imposed darkness
because they have rejected the light God has given them. Sincere Christians disagree
on this question. I think the Bible implies that they can be saved, and that some
are saved--but with important qualifications:
Not by merely
being devout followers of their native religions. That is Paul's point--their
polytheism (and pantheism and animism, etc.) is without excuse precisely because
they signify a rejection of the knowledge of God. Such people would be odd-balls,
swimming against the religious tide of their cultures.
Nor is simply realizing
and acknowledging that this God exists sufficient to be saved, any more than realizing
and acknowledging this after reading the Bible sufficient to be saved. There must
be the choice to personally humble yourself God and cast yourself on his mercy.
Nor
does this negate the need for Christian missions (LAST WEEK). God has given humanity
a great gift through his Son, and he wants all of humanity to hear about it! Furthermore,
scripture implies that although all people have sufficient light to turn to God,
more people will respond when given more light. It also indicates that those who
have responded to general revelation will be much more blessed in this life if
they hear the gospel (e.g., understanding and assurance of salvation; indwelling
of Holy Spirit, etc.).
But let us return to Paul's argument.
People without the Bible are justly under God's judgment because they have suppressed
the truth God has revealed to them. How does God express this judgment?
God's
present judgment (1:24,26,27,28b-32)
Notice the verb tense in 1:18--"the
wrath of God is revealed . . ." Although they also
will face God's future, final judgment unless they repent (1:32), they are experiencing
some aspect of God's judgment right now. Paul repeats the same phrase three times
to describe God's present judgment (read 1:24,26,28)--"God gave them over."
When
Paul speaks of God "giving them over," he doesn't mean that God actively
pushes people further away from himself, or that initiates temporal judgments
(AIDS). He is echoing Ps. 81:11,12 (read). God "lets us go," he
allows us to experience the natural consequences of rebelling against the structure
of reality. Regardless of what we say we believe, we still are made in God's image
and must live in God's universe. And when we suppress the truth and rebel against
reality, this does not change reality; it just damages us. "We cannot ultimately
break God's laws; we break ourselves upon them."
This principle
applies not only to individuals and cultures that have rejected general revelation;
it also applies (maybe even more so) to individuals and cultures which have rejected
special revelation (OLD TESTAMENT ISRAEL; WESTERN CULTURE).
Paul
speaks of three general manifestations of God's present judgment. They are not
the only manifestations, but they are the most obvious. Many of us have experienced
them in our own lives and families, and we are presently experiencing them in
our culture.
Read 1:24. When people who are created for a relationship
with the invisible God turn away from him, they usually look to visible, tangible
experiences to fill up the void left by God. This creates a vacuum of insatiable
desires--what Paul calls here "the lusts of their hearts to impurity."
"Impurity" here does not refer only to sexual immorality (NIV), but
encompasses all inordinate lusts, including other sensual sins (e.g., ALCOHOL;
DRUGS; GLUTTONY; SLOTH) and materialistic greed. Do these experiences satisfy
and fulfill the human heart? No, they produce enslaving addictions (law of diminishing
returns), broken health from those addictions, and increasing emptiness and loneliness,
damage to families, etc.
When people who are created for healthy personal
intimacy with God (and other people) turn away from him, they usually turn to
sexual immorality. Read 1:26,27. I think Paul mentions homosexual sin here as
the most obvious violation of God's design for sexuality.
But this violation also includes heterosexual promiscuity, adultery, pornography,
etc. Do these practices satisfy and fulfill the human heart? No, but those who
practice them "receive in their own persons the due penalty of their error."
This refers not only (or even primarily) to STD's, but the personal fragmentation,
guilt, gnawing hunger from false intimacy, damage to families, etc.
When
people turn away from the truth about God, this creates tremendous cognitive dissonance--tension
between what we know and how we live. There are ultimately only two ways to resolve
this dissonance--either bow to God and adjust your behavior, or twist your thinking
more and more from reality (and sanity). This is what Paul calls a depraved mind
(read 1:28). A depraved mind is a mind that is no longer used not to learn about
God and his will so we can follow him, but to rationalize rebellion against God
and his will. Damage from a depraved mind includes an increasingly seared conscience,
increasing moral confusion, attraction to philosophies that justify autonomy,
etc. And as this spreads into a life, a family, a culture, the horrors of 1:29-32
become more and more commonplace and acceptable (read). This is the tragic state
of our own culture.
But the Bible doesn’t end with this
dark picture. There is also good news from God . . .
Good
news from God
Why does God "give you over?" Not because he is
disgusted with you--but in the hope that we will come to your senses and turn
to him (summarize PRODIGAL SON).
God wants you to turn to him and say what
this son said. And when you do that, you will discover that that's all he ever
wanted you to do. He knows your dilemma better than you do, and he has already
made provision for you through Jesus Christ. Read 1:16,17. The gospel has answers
for every person, no matter how much truth you have suppressed, no matter how
much you have broken yourself on God's law.
The moment you receive Jesus'
provision by faith, God permanently forgives you and begins to heal your broken
life. It's your move!
Footnotes
Copyright 1999 Gary DeLashmutt