What Happens When We Don’t Give Glory to God (Part 2) – Romans 1:28–32

PRAY

As we prepare to look at vv. 28-32, let’s review where Paul has been heading with this.

Romans 1:18–32 ESV

¹⁸ For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. ¹⁹ For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. ²⁰ For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. ²¹ For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. ²² Claiming to be wise, they became fools, ²³and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. ²⁴ Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, ²⁵ because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen. ²⁶ For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; ²⁷ and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error. ²⁸ And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. ²⁹ They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, ³⁰ slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, ³¹ foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. ³² Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.

1. 18 is the spring-board for Paul’s flow of thought in these verses, all of which fit into a broader context of what Paul wants to show about the gospel. So here we begin to see our NEED for the gospel of Jesus Christ.

The revelation of God’s righteous wrath against sin is necessary for right response to the gospel. (v. 18)

God is truly and perfectly righteous; he therefore cannot be indifferent about our sin. God revealing his wrath is a good thing because it lets us know that something is drastically wrong that needs fixed.

In Paul’s explanation of the gospel we learn that God is righteous, full stop. But we are unrighteous, full stop. God therefore makes provision through the righteousness of Jesus Christ (through his work by the cross and resurrection), to be received by faith alone, which is the only way that anyone can be justified (declared righteous) to be right with a righteous God.

Paul continues after v. 18 by showing our culpability for willfully ignoring God and being idolatrous people.

In what God has made, he has revealed, and we perceive, his eternal power and divinity. (vv. 19-20a)

Experiencing the reality of God in his world means we are without excuse for not glorifying God and giving thanks to him. (vv. 20b-21a)

Willfully ignoring God leads to futile reasoning & foolish hearts, evidenced by irrational idolatry. (vv. 21b-23)

We continue in vv. 24-31… 

When man rejects God and persists in idolatrous living, God judicially hands him over to the degrading consequence of his idolatry. (vv. 24-31)

God’s final judgment is still to come, but a present judgment from God is giving sinners over to our sin and its degrading consequences.

Last week from vv. 24-27 we emphasized why Paul singles out sexual sin, and homosexuality especially, as an example of the effects of our idolatry.

Sexual sin, and homosexuality in particular, serves as a prominent example. (vv. 24-27)

Because it…

- Homosexuality parallels the idolatrous exchange of God’s good design for what is contrary to it.

- Homosexuality demonstrates the degrading effect of God judicially handing us over to the sin we desire.

Again, what Paul is saying is that… When man rejects God and persists in idolatrous living, God judicially hands him over to the degrading consequence of his idolatry.

So today we continue…

This is true of not only sexual sin but can also be demonstrated as the cause for moral decline in a whole catalog of depravity. (vv. 28-31)

Here Paul has a third and final parallel of godless idolatry as the cause for God retributively handing idolaters over to their wicked desires, and this time he broadens the scope of human degradation to include a long list of evils that prove the point. At v. 32 Paul circles back to the theme of humanity’s culpability for this idolatrous living and degradation in sin, pointing out that we have an innate sense of God’s disapproval of all such wickedness.

Let’s focus our attention on v. 28 for a few moments, where Paul repeats the theme of idolatry a third time, and of God giving the sinner over to their sin.

Here (at v. 28) Paul deliberately uses a play-on words, that they did not “see fit” to acknowledge God, so he handed them over to “unfit minds,” which leads to all this improper living. Just as they did not “see fit”—“approve of”—having the knowledge of God (to examine and test and judge the knowledge of God as good), God delivered them to “unfit minds” (that are bad, worthless) in order that their degradation in further unfit behavior might be a present retribution for their idolatry.

Notice the importance of the mind as the central hub and fountain from which our decisions and behaviors flow and filter.

… the important place that the mind (the thinking center of us) holds because it shapes our desires and behaviors…

This is therefore true both negatively in sin and positively in desiring God and pursuing Christlikeness. Here God gives them up to “unfit minds” to do what ought not to be done. By contrast, in Romans 12:2 Paul will therefore say to Christians, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” The battle over our behaviors (and even feelings) is first a battle for our minds, over what we worship.

Furthermore, Paul continues to speak about these people with this pagan mindset in the plural (“they did not see fit”), because we don’t do theology or living in isolation. God has made us social beings in his image, so we are always responding in relationship to God and one another. Humans do not live idolatrously in isolation. Neither has God saved us to worship him in isolation. We are a family of those who worship in spirit in and in truth.

Therefore, our worship of God and obedience to him always has an effect on our community, and our willfully ignoring God and decline in evil always has a mutual impact on those around us. (As Proverbs teaches us, consider carefully who your closest allegiances are with. Consider carefully who your best mates are, because we are hugely influential on one another. - Here are just a couple notable examples of Scripture telling us this very thing: Prov 13:20 Whoever walks with the wise becomes wise, but the companion of fools will suffer harm. AND Prov 12:26 A righteous man is cautious in friendship, but the ways of the wicked lead them astray.)

But here in Rom 1:28…

Notice that we do not sin in isolation, and its effects are collective and compounding.

Just so, the idolatrous heart does not remain isolated, but finds common friends, and together they lead one another further and further into the degenerative consequences of their sin. Paul’s list of many sins is meant to have the overwhelming force of inundating the reader with just how collectively and compoundingly harmful are the sinful consequences of God giving us over to our idolatrous hearts.

Verses 29-31 then flow from v. 28 as the unfit practices that mark the people and society that have been handed over to their sin as present retribution because they refuse to acknowledge God. This is what happens when we don’t give glory to God.

So at v. 29 Paul begins a list of numerous sins, but he also initiates this vice list by saying that they were “filled to the top” with “every kind of” or “all manner of” these things. Picture one of those rectangular glass viewing tanks (you know, that’s for your pet gecko), but this one just full of multiple disgusting varieties of the basest bugs you can imagine. What is Paul up to?

Paul gives a huge list of vices to illustrate the depths of humanity’s harmful, idolatrous depravity.

In these verses there appear to be three groupings of vices, so we’ll explore them in that way. The first two of these groupings are in v. 29.

Romans 1:29 “They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. …”

The first four words are all general descriptions of human sin: adikia, unrighteousness or injustice; ponēria, wickedness or evil; pleonexia, covetousness or greed; and kakia, also meaning malice or wickedness or evil. We need not make great effort to distinguish one from another here, as Paul’s purpose is to create the effect of demonstrating the comprehensive wickedness of human beings.

Paul begins a new wave, repeating that they “are full of” (this time with a different word)… they are “constantly engaged in” the following more specific forms of evil: envy (the lust for what you do not have… which is something that is never satisfied), murder (unlawfully killing another human being), strife (quarreling, bitter conflict and dissension), deceit (deliberate cunning & treachery), and malice (malicious intent to make others suffer pain and loss).

Some suggest, and this may be quite right, that this section of the list all flows from envy, the first item in the section. Lust for what we do not have leads to murder, bitter conflict, deceptive treachery, and malicious intent to cause suffering in others. - Similarly, James 3:16 says, “For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice.”

Before continuing further, I want you to know that Paul’s point is obviously not that one person necessarily commits all of these sins in every way, but that a godless society is indeed characterized by these sins, and he intends the cumulative effect of our degradation in sin.

Wave upon wave, Paul emphasizes the cumulative weight of our degradation in sin.

The final wave of vices begins at the end of v. 29 and goes through v. 31, with 12 consecutive vices. [Romans 1:29c–31] “They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless.” These 12 seem to be in a pattern of 2 together, 4 interrelated, 2 more, then 4 more that are parallel. 2,4,2,4… for a total of 12.

The first two, gossips and slanderers, both refer to speech behind someone’s back that is harmful to their reputation. This is done to tear others down and build oneself up.

The next four spring from the first, which is God-hating (one word in Gk), with the remaining three all relating in some way to an arrogant, self-important rudeness. The first after hating God relates to the Gk word hubris (which we use in English to mean excessive pride). This plural noun hybristas refers to persons who are insolent, characterized by offensive and disrespectful words and actions. They are therefore also “arrogant” or haughty or proud (adjective), which pairs with another plural noun after it: braggarts. A braggart (a boaster) is someone who is self-exalting and self-absorbed in conceit of their own superiority, believing their achievements are all their own doing. - The point is that they are God-hating insolent people, who are haughty boasters. 

The next two are each two-word phrases in Gk: they invent (they contrive) ways to be evil, they are disobedient to parents. Both Biblically and in ancient cultures, disrespecting and disobeying parental authority was considered extremely serious as compared to the way our western society has practically reversed this and made rebellious self-expression a virtue.

After evil-contrivers and parent-disobeyers comes a final four grouping with rhetorical force. In Gk they mirror one another both in starting with “a,” which is the alpha privative negation of something positive, and they all end in a similar sound. The ESV translation matches this nicely with foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless… or we could translate with other words of similar meaning: “senseless, faithless, loveless, merciless.” Those who reject God decline into living as people who are without sense/wisdom, without covenant (or faith), without love and natural affection, and without mercy.

I say again in different words…

The rhetorical force of Paul’s list impresses upon us the gravity of human depravity and how far it removes us from virtue and God’s good intent for us.

And remember, this is because of our idolatry and God releasing us into the clutches of our waywardness.

Perhaps when we think human sin can’t lead us into worse places than we’ve already been, we find that our capacity and creativity for evil to be still further degrading than we imagined possible. Even in the great moral aberrations of past pagan societies, who would have imagined that a post-Christian west could stoop to the degradation of killing defenseless humans who need protection, not sacrificing human lives for religious worship, but possibly even more debased, of killing inconvenient humans for our self-freedom and self-actualization.

And who would have imagined that we would become so confused about male and female sexuality—no, so rebellious—about God’s design for human sexuality, that we would engage in transitional medical procedures and even try to foist such moral insanity on young people… whom we should actually shield from adult wickedness to the best of our ability.

I want to admit to you that although I know such things are a consequence of a people running full steam away from God, I still pray fervently (and want to pray still more diligently) for God to break the teeth of such wickedness, to shatter its bones. And I absolutely pray for God to expose and bring to nothing leaders and religious movements that promote or pander to or allow such wickedness perpetrated against a God who lovingly created us in his own image… to glorify him. And thus we also praying for these same people to repent and turn to God, as we ourselves have done, by his grace.

And I want to pray desperately for God’s people to be marked by the exact opposite of these things, that the character of Christ and the fruit of the Spirit in us should grow to be the filling up of all manner of righteousness. I challenge you to go back through this list, either on your own or with others, and determine what the opposite of all these vices is (whether each specific one or at least the groupings). What are contrasting qualities of God’s character, and of following Christ’s example, that Christians should continually be growing in?

Now at v. 32, here at the end of this section, Paul returns to the theme begun all the way back at v. 21, about knowing God but not glorifying him or giving him thanks, adding here that people who practice such things (the list just described) are culpable for sinning and approving of sin because God has made us to know better (at least with a general sense of morality).

Romans 1:32 “Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.” 

Paul once again confronts human culpability for ignoring God, which leads to idolatrous hearts and evil practices. (v. 32)

God’s righteous decree (or requirement or commandment) might sound like something relating to the law God gave the Jews through Moses, but elsewhere Paul refers specifically to “the righteous requirement of the law” (Rom 8:4), and here any reference to the law is significantly missing. So with the direct tie to the previous list, and the idolatry it is rooted in, it becomes almost certain that Paul does not have in mind a verbal command from God but an innate, general moral knowledge humans have as the beings created in God’s image… an innate knowledge that such behavior is a rejection of God’s righteous requirement and deserves death. 

This makes sense with what Paul said earlier about creation as evidence of God’s power and divinity. So too, ever since our first parents Adam and Eve sinned, humanity has been aware of moral evil contrary to God, for which we deserve death as judgment.

But in both cases, a knowledge of God through natural revelation in what can be seen, and natural revelation in an innate sense of morality, both have negative force in proving our culpability, leaving us without excuse. Paul does not suggest in any way that this same limited knowledge of God’s existence and righteousness would be sufficient to know God intimately, which would save us from our intractable wickedness. Instead, Paul continues this theme of culpability and deserving judgment in the next section as well (2:1).

It’s also noteworthy that Paul highlights not just doing these sins but also giving approval to others practicing them. The way Paul says this gives the sense that the second part is almost worse than the first, which makes sense when you consider that approving of sin sets up a public opinion that is favorable to such things and therefore leads a multitude of others into these sinful paths. So the collective conscience is seared concerning what is truly good, and begins to call evil good, which we see prominently in our own society. Abortion isn’t just allowed; it is celebrated. Gender irrationality isn’t just permitted; it is promoted.

We step back with Paul and consider the situation overall, and it seems truly hopeless. But is it? Remember, Paul is setting us up to be asking…

Conclusion:

What can be done about this problem?

The historical and present expression of God’s judgment for our idolatry is giving us over to it, to the disastrous degradation of the seemingly limitless depths of our godless sinfulness.

And Paul isn’t even done yet. Before presenting the solution to this problem, he will go on to show that those who think themselves more moral (who are religious) are still doing the same things in their hearts, and even the Jews specifically, who have the law, are guilty of the same. We are all, therefore, unrighteous and without excuse.

Who can possibly resolve this impossible situation? Only God. And what solution does God provide?

Enter Jesus. God the Son, creator of the universe, born in human flesh… to live a life of perfect righteousness and obedience to the Father, to give his righteous life as payment for the death our sin deserves, and to rise again in victory over sin and death (and all the forces of evil). And he reigns triumphantly as eternal King, and he will judge everyone either according to their sinful deeds, or according to his righteous payment for their life.

Do you see your sin for what it is, and have you responded by repenting (by agreeing with God about your sin and turning from it), and confessing that Jesus is Lord, believing in your heart that God raised him from the dead? What better opportunity do you have than today?

And Christians, let us gratefully worship God through Jesus, not belittling our sins as some small thing, but recognizing them as treason against a God who is worthy of worship and lives that accord with his righteousness, and the reason for which our Savior died for us. Let us seek to live by the Spirit in accordance with the character of Christ in us, in ways that are the reverse of all these evils that are the cause of God’s just condemnation and judgment.

PRAY

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