They Know Not What They Do

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness; Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them. For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse: Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things. Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves: Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen. For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient; Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful: who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.
Romans 1:18-32

Photo: From My Utmost For His Highest

I thoroughly enjoy reading through Romans. It starts with the fact that we are sinners and why we are sinners. Then it goes into how our sins result in death and ultimately Hell. But the good news comes when it shows how Christ came and died for us and is now our way into Heaven and it tells us how to be saved. After that, it shows who we are as Christians (our new identity) and how we grow as Christians. When someone accepts Christ and is new to Christianity or is not well educated, I recommend starting with Romans because it is, in poor man's terms, a summation of Christianity. I love reading through this book and as I read each book, I seem to always come back and read through this book.

One of the last times I read through Romans, the above passage really stood out to me. Not that I hadn't understood it before. I've even used this passage prior in speaking with people about these issues, but it wasn't until recently that I was led to really study it, and it's amazing how well it sums up our world today. I know it's a long passage, especially to use in a blog, but it is by no means dry and it all comes together to bring a powerful message. I want to, as short as I can, break this passage down and really evaluate it with you.

The chapter starts with Paul's introduction. He tells the Romans that he is not ashamed of Christ and how the Christians are separate from the Gentiles (unbelievers), then goes right into this passage. This first chapter starts off with how man is a sinful race. Verses 18-20 talk about how God has revealed himself both through creation and by placing awareness of himself in the human heart.

Nowadays, this is evidently disregarded. With the school systems and science trying to use evidence, that is not there, to back evolution to avoid admitting that there is an ultimate creator of the universe. But these verses show us that God has shown himself to us through the "invisible things" that scientists try to explain without a supernatural creator. They try to deny that there is a God, yet every nation, village, and group of people have the knowledge of God ingrained into them. Even the most remote village has some form of a god with the desire to worship.

We see this also in verse 21 where it says the people knew God but didn't acknowledge him. I am led to believe that the anti-God agenda today is nothing new and that they had a similar issue when this was written. More amazingly, we go into verses 22 and 23 where man proclaimed himself to be wise without God's wisdom and changed God's creation and revelation into something of their own interpretation. Man took God's creation and began to worship it. Is this not happening today? No, we don't bow to carved out idols (at least mostly, in America), but do we worship "science" as being the last say and ultimate decision of what is truth? We have taken the natural laws and amazing phenomena that God created and designed and "worship" it as the ultimate creator through evolution and Mother Earth. They have to go as far as to say we were created from the creation, but deny that the creation was created. This is the definition of the perversion of Gods image. 

Verses 22 and 23 dive into what I really took from this passage. After we saw that the people rejected God, started worshipping the creation rather than the Creator, and refused to acknowledge him, God let them live as they wanted. When God allows a person to live as he wants, that's a very dangerous place to be. God essentially says "you want it your way, have it your way". But when that happens, God removes his protection and perverts their minds. We are shown that God gave them over to unclean minds. It doesn't say that he gave them unclean minds but that he let them take their minds where they wanted to and in this case, to do with their bodies that God did not intend.

I love how in the middle of those verses, explaining that God gave them over to uncleanness, he magnifies God by recognizing him as creator. But he does this right before going into the heavy stuff. When he starts out the next verse, he says that because the people turned from God and wanted things their way, God let their minds draw to the most vile things, and in this verse, we see is referring to homosexuality. When people say that they are gay, it is one of 2 things: either they turned from God and God gave them over to it as we see here. Or two, his family or himself has a curse of "vile affections" that he is born with (but that will be covered in another post).

In addition to turning them over to their own affections, God gave them over to a reprobate mind. Reprobate comes from the Greek word adokimos which literally translates into unapproved, rejected, or worthless. Christians have the holy spirit guiding us and guiding our minds and even non-Christians have a sense of right and wrong. But when God gives them over to a reprobate mind, they no longer have a sense of right or wrong, what is morally right or perverted. We know this because it says that they were given to reprobate mind to do those things which were not convenient. It follows by saying they are filled with all unrighteousness and lists the sins and type of people that are the fruit of that curse.

This passage, and chapter, ends with saying that people have the knowledge of God ingrained in them and even having the knowledge of God, chose to follow this path, they are condemned to death. They are condemned to death by two reasons. One, because we are told in Romans 6:23 that "The wages of sin is death". But in this case, there is something else. Each of us is born with sin, but also a conviction and opportunity to accept Christ. However, when someone is given over to their own ways as described in this passage they can no longer see right from wrong, they can no longer understand that they require a savior, and ultimately won't understand that they need to accept Christ which we know, results in eternity in Hell.

But it gets even worse. When you have someone who is deep into their sin, turns from God, and their mind turned over to them, they take pleasure in their vile ways. They no longer care if they hurt people, they don't see anything wrong with homosexuality or abortion. Unwed sex is just something you do.

I am convinced that the problems we have in our world today are not new. As Solomon said, "there is nothing new under the sun". Our country started as a godly nation and has degraded. I think that is why so many people think that our country is the worst off spiritually and believe Christ will come soon. I don't doubt that Christ's return is imminent, but just because our country has now fallen to sin, doesn't mean we are the only nation, nor that other nations have been in sin much longer than us.

So why are we to be surprised that our country is where it is? Why should we be surprised when people live blatantly in sin without any recollection? It is heartbreaking, but we should not be shocked when people follow a path that leads to a destination that Paul already described. When you encounter someone that has no problem with sin, remember this passage. There's a chance that no matter what you say to them, they will never be able to understand the truth. Take heart, though! I do not want to discourage you from spreading God's word and witnessing to people. But I also don't want you to become frustrated when you pour your heart out to someone and try your hardest to show them they need Christ and they don't see it. It is unsettling, but God reveals this to us and give encouragement to those who follow him.