No God. No righteousness.

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. They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. 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. – Romans 1:28-32 ESV This is the third time Paul uses the phrase, “God gave them up.” By this time, we should be able to see the seriousness of Paul's point. If God releases men to live as they wish to live, separated from Him by rejecting His very existence or re-imagining their own version of Him, the outcome is less-than-ideal. Without God, the one true God, man is left to his own devices, and their foolish hearts become increasingly darkened. Despite their self-proclaimed wisdom, they become fools, incapable of discerning right from wrong, righteousness from unrighteousness. The prophet Isaiah wrote about these kinds of people in his day.

What sorrow for those who drag their sins behind them with ropes made of lies, who drag wickedness behind them like a cart! (Isaiah 5:18 NLT).

What sorrow for those who say that evil is good and good is evil, that dark is light and light is dark, that bitter is sweet and sweet is bitter. What sorrow for those who are wise in their own eyes and think themselves so clever. (Isaiah 5:20-21 NLT).

When a man decides he has no need of God, he loses far more than his awareness of the Creator. The rejection or reinvention of God is a dangerous game to play. The NIV translates verse 28 this way: “since they did not think it worth while to retain the knowledge of God.” They basically said, “We don't need God.” So God allowed them to experience life without Him. He “gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done.” Without God in their lives, they lose the capacity to think wisely. As Isaiah said, they end up calling evil good and good evil. Their minds become twisted and their logic becomes skewed. And Paul states that they become “filled” with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, and malice. They become, literally, “filled to the brim.” Unrighteousness describes anything that is contrary to what God has deemed right or just. Evil has to do with man living out his godless purposes and desires in depraved ways. Covetousness is simply greed or the insatiable need for more. It is the opposite of contentment. Malice is a shameless desire to do harm to others. These characteristics fill those who reject God, and they end up manifesting themselves in a variety of ways. Paul provides us with a fairly sobering list: “envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness, gossiping, slander, hate for God, insolence, haughtiness or pride, boasting, invention of evil, disobedience to parents, foolishness, faithlessness, heartlessness, and ruthlessness.”

And here's the worst part. Not only do they do these things. They give their full consent and approval to anyone else who does them too. Even though they know “that those who practice such things deserve to die,” they do them anyway. They become driven by unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, and malice. It ends up filling them and overflowing out of them. It was Chrystostom who said, “the one who praises the sin of others if far worse than the one who sins himself” (Chrystostom, Homilies on Romans). Paul warned Timothy that a day was coming when people would not want to hear the truth anymore. They would look for teachers who would approve or their actions and tell them that their lifestyles were perfectly acceptable. “For a time is coming when people will no longer listen to sound and wholesome teaching. They will follow their own desires and will look for teachers who will tell them whatever their itching ears want to hear. They will reject the truth and chase after myths” (2 Timothy 4:3-4 ESV). The Greek word Paul used for myths is mythos and it refers to something that is invented, a fiction or falsehood. Without God, men will invent their own form of righteousness. They will determine their own ethical and moral standards. And then they will seek out those who will tell them their unrighteous actions are acceptable. That is the world in which we live today. Sadly, there are pastors all across the country who are more than willing to tickle the ears of their congregations, telling them what they want to hear, approving of their lifestyle choices and, as a result, denying the truth of God.

We live in a day when the cry for tolerance has drowned out God's call for righteousness. We have become accepting and accommodating of all kinds of attitudes and actions that God has deemed unrighteous and unacceptable. It is not loving to allow someone to live according to a lie. It is not merciful to hide the truth from someone who is deceived. It was Jesus who said, “You are truly my disciples if you remain faithful to my teachings. And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:21-32 NLT). The gospel of God is about the righteousness of God made available to men through the gift of His Son. Left to his own devices, man will never achieve or accomplish the degree of righteousness that God demands. Even those who claim to believe in God, the religious, will fail in their efforts to live up to God's righteous standards. That is why Paul says that all men are without excuse. All stand before God as guilty. But the good news is that Jesus came to die for sinners. He came to pay the price for our guilt and to free us from condemnation. But for a man to be free, he must accept the truth of his own sin and the gift of God's Son. He must understand the reality of his guilt and the just outcome of his sin: death. Then he must accept the free gift of God's grace and believe that Jesus Christ has paid his debt and replaced his unrighteousness with righteousness. That is the good news. That is the gospel of God.

Left To Our Own Devices.

For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; 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. – Romans 1:26-27 ESV What happens when man abandon the truth of God for “the lie?” The lie is, in essence, that God does not exist at all or that He exists according to man's invention. And if the one true God does not exist at all or exist as He truly is, then man is left to create his own order of things and his own laws for life. Three times in this section of Romans 1, Paul uses the phrase, “God gave them up.” Paul is attempting to demonstrate what life looks like when God releases men to pursue and believe “the lie.” Thinking themselves to be wise, their foolish hearts become darkened, and they lose any ability to make decisions based on the wisdom and righteousness of God. In this condition, they find themselves believing and practicing practically anything. “Those who turned against God turned everything on its head. For those who forsook the author of nature could not keep to the order of nature” (Pelagius, Commentary on Romans). Paul refers to women who “exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature” and he mentions men who “gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another” (Romans 1:26-27 ESV). There are those today who would like to write this off as simply the opinion of Paul. There are others who attempt to explain away what Paul says by insinuating that he is only speaking against “improper” homosexual acts, not the act itself. Still others want to believe that Paul is only referring to homosexual acts that were taking place in the context of pagan worship. But these are not the words of Paul. They are the words of God. They are part of the powerful explanation Paul has provided in this letter regarding the gospel of God. Men are without excuse. They have abandoned the truth about God and His will for mankind. They have ignored God's clear revelation of His invisible attributes and divine nature in His creation. Rather than worship God, they have ended up worshiping anything and everything but God. And Paul makes it painfully clear that what sinful man always ends up doing is distorting the truth of God. They exchange the natural for the unnatural, what is right for what is wrong, the holy for the unholy, the will of God for the will of self. They become consumed with passions – all kinds of passions, both good and bad. But the time comes when they can no longer tell the difference. The lines become blurred. Their consciences become seared. They lose the ability to discern right from wrong, and even become rabid defenders of their actions and attitudes.

It doesn't take a biblical scholar to read the words of God recorded in Genesis 1 and to reach a conclusion. “So God created human beings in his own image. In the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. Then God blessed them and said, ‘Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and govern it’” (Genesis 1:27-28 NLT). They were to bear fruit, to multiply their kind. That is why God created them as a male and female. It was together, as man and woman, that they were to fulfill the command of God. Adam could not do it alone. Eve was incapable of multiplying by herself. God built into nature and into their physiology, the ability to live within His will. But man, in his sin, has determined a “better way,” a preferred way. Natural passions end up being replaced by unnatural, ungodly passions. Paul calls them “dishonorable passions.” The Greek word he uses is atimia and it is very graphic in nature. It was “used of the unseemliness and offensiveness of a dead body” (Thayer's Greek Lexicon). It was also used to refer to the dishonorable use of a vessel or container. Bodies are meant to have life. A dead body is unnatural and offensive to our senses. It is lifeless and no longer operating as it was intended to. The same thing is true of those who are consumed with passion for those of the same sex. They are no longer operating as God intended them to. Their acts are unnatural and against the ordained will of God.

But in our day and age, any attempt to make this claim is met with disdain, hatred, cries of bigotry and intolerance, and a violent defense of individual rights and freedoms. But, according to Paul, we should not be surprised. Their foolish hearts are darkened. The claim to be wise, boasting in their enlightened understanding and progressive comprehension of all things moral and ethical. But they are fools. They have “exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man” (Romans 1:23 ESV). Of course, Paul was referring to idol worship here, but the real issue is that of man-worship. When the best expression we can come up with for God's revealed power and divine nature is the image of man, we are in trouble. When we make a god out of man, we end up worshiping ourselves. And we sacrifice truth at the altar of our own corrupt passions and desires. Self-satisfaction and self-gratification consume us. God releases us to pursue our increasingly perverse passions.

We must not lose sight of the fact that Paul is attempting to explain and expound upon the gospel of God. The good news of Jesus Christ must be displayed against the backdrop of man's darkened state of sin. Paul is going to show that man is in trouble. Apart from God, things will always for from bad to worse. In Paul's estimation, it doesn't matter if you're pagan or pious, immoral or a moral icon of virtue. Without God's glorious gospel, all men will ultimately receive “the due penalty for their error” (Romans 1:27 ESV). Man without God is hopeless. Man, left to his own devices, will always gravitate toward ungodliness and unrighteousness. But the gospel is “the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed” (Romans 1:16-17 ESV).