ROMANS 1: 24-28 (32)
EXCHANGED FOR TRUTH / THE TRUTH EXCHANGE
As God put a homing device in migratory birds so that they know to fly to warmer weather when the temperature gets too cold, so He has put within man the homing device so that they should fly to Him away from evil. But God also put within mankind a free will so that he could stop himself from traveling God's implanted route. And man has used his free will and chosen to follow his own way instead of God's way.
When man's rebellion against God grows strong, he determines to go his own way. Man's freedom though is not without responsibility. We are held responsible by God for choosing to follow our own way. God will allow man to have his own way but turns him over to the results of following his own way (CIT). When man antagonistically abandons God, God eventually will abandon man to his fallen nature and the resulting consequences.
This passage repeatedly states [three more times] that "God gave them over." So let's use them for our outline. "God gave them over:"
I. 1:24-25 - TO DISHONORING THEIR BODIES.
II. 1:26-27 - TO DEGRADING THEIR PASSIONS.
III. 1:28-32 - TO DEPRAVING THEIR MINDS.
The result leaving the One True God and following false gods or making your own gods is shown starting in verse 24. "For this reason [therefore] God gave them over in the lusts [cravings] of their hearts to impurity [refuse] that their bodies be dishonored [degraded] among them."
"Therefore" refers back to the preceding reason given in verses 18-23. Men choose to ignore or suppress the knowledge of God within themselves and within creation. Since men refuse to worship the Creator God they worship the creature. Since they willfully rebelled against the clear knowledge of God, He gave them over to their desires. "God gave them over" to be controlled by the things they preferred to serve in place of serving Him.
Mankind had already defiantly deserted God so now God stops hindering them and lets them have their own self-determination which leads to self-destruction, which is the price man pays for demanding moral freedom. Because man abandoned God, God abandoned man to the consequences of rejecting God. The punishment for sin is simply letting you have or go your own way. Sin carries is its own recompense.
Like an UNTENDED GARDEN, when man is left to himself the bad always chokes out the good, because that is the inclination of his fallen nature. Man has no capacity in himself to restrain the weeds of his sinfulness or to cultivate the good produce of righteousness. Man's natural development is not upward but downward. He does not evolve but devolve. Mankind is not ascending to God but descending from God. Humanity has continued a downward spiral of depravity throughout history, getting worse and worse, and when the restraints of the Holy Spirit are removed during the final Tribulation period, all hell will break loose on earth as evil reaches its ultimate stage (see 2 Thess. 2: 3-9; Rev. 9:1-11).
When man stubbornly continues in his rebellion against the knowledge of God, God let's go of man. But even God's divine relinquishment is of a merciful nature. He allows the effects of sin to smite people that they might turn to Him and be healed. Alcoholics Anonymous is governed by a similar teaching. They teach that an alcoholic will recover from addiction only by being allowed to experience the unmitigated consequences of it.
["God gave them over to their lusts," in their desires, their cravings. Aristotle defined µ as a reaching out after pleasure. Stoics defined it as a reaching out after pleasure which defies all reason. Clement of Alexandria called it an unreasonable reaching for that which will gratify itself. µ is the passionate desire for forbidden pleasure.]
These cravings for forbidden pleasure are of the heart (mind, will, and emotions) for inside the heart is where dishonoring first takes place. What is allowed freedom in the heart will eventually control the mind and body. Aren't you glad God has not given you over to your lustful cravings?
"That (a completed result) their bodies be dishonored among them." They put an incorrect evaluation of the sacredness, dignity, and purity of the physical body and thus used it in a way which degraded it. Christianity came not only to redeem man's soul from sin but also their physical bodies. You can not separate spiritual morality from physical morality. A false image of God leads to a false understanding of sex. Illicit sex degrades people. Sex in marriage, as God intended, ennobles them.
We move now to the fate of forsaking God, [from the glorious opportunity God gave man to the consequences of pursuing man's fallen moral reasonings.] Humanity exchanged the authentic for the counterfeit and as a consequence God gave them over to what they so perversely desired as we see in verse 25. "For they exchanged the truth of God for (with) a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever (into the ages) Amen. "
This means they exchanged the right conceptions about God for falsehoods or false views of God and/or they exchanged the true God for false god's [Charles Hodge, Romans, Banner of Truth. Edenburgh. p40]. The worse of all possible bargains is to trade God's truth for a lie because lies do not lead one to God. Exchanging truth for lies causes one to be self-deceived.
When truth and the lie are placed side by side they choose to serve the creature-or man's reasonings- rather that the Creator. They passed by the Creator and chose to be man centered, to place man first and thus worshiped, adored, revered what was not the true God. The order of God's magnificence creation is turned into man's chaos. Heathenism plain and simple. [Heathenism is lack of God in the life of man.]
If people persist in believing lies about God and life the truth becomes harder and harder to recognize until it no longer can be. "At first a lie is simply more important than the truth, but it ends up becoming the truth." [James Edwards. New Inter. Bibl. Com. Romans. Henderson. 2002. p 54.]
To Paul this is such a revolting thought for the God to Whom he owes everything to be so treated that he must bless Him. ["Blessed" is from to speak and is well or good ... of a person. Our word eulogy comes from this word.] When we concentrate our speech on the goodness of God we are blessing Him.
[It was an age of unparalleled immorality. There had not been one single case of divorce in the first 520 years of the history of the Roman republic. The first Roman recorded as having divorced his wife was Spurius Carvilius Ruga in 234 B.C. But now, as Seneca said, "women were married to be divorced and divorced to be married." Roman high-born matrons dated the years by the names of their husbands, and not by the names of the consuls [leaders]. Juvenal could not believe that it was possible to have the rare good fortune to find a matron with unsullied chastity. Clement of Alexandria speaks of the typical Roman society lady as "girt like Venus with a golden girdle of vice," Juvenal writes: "Is one husband enough for Iberina? Sooner you prevail upon her to be content with one eye." He cites the case of a woman who had eight husbands in five years. He cites the incredible case of Agrippina, the empress herself, the wife of Claudius, who at night used to leave the royal palace and go down to serve in a brothel for the sake of sheer lust. "They show a dauntless spirit in those things they basely dare." There is nothing that Paul said about the heathen world that the heathen moralists had not themselves already said. And vice did not stop with the crude and natural vices. Society from top to bottom was riddled with unnatural vice. Fourteen out of the first fifteen Roman Emperors were homosexuals.
So far from exaggeration the picture Paul drew it with restraint and it was there that he was eager to preach the gospel, and it was there that he was not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. The world needed the power that would work salvation, and Paul knew that nowhere else than in Christ did that power exist. (Barclay)]
II. TO DEGRADING THEIR PASSION, 26 & 27.
Denying the truth about God explains mankind's horrific slide into sin and more and more vile sin as verse 26 sets forth. "For this reason (therefore) God gave them over to degrading (vile) passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is against nature."
The exchange of God for a lie continues with another God gave them over. First it was to evil, and now it is to unnatural evil, from promiscuity to lesbianism. Thus it appears that the giving them over is more severe.
"For this reason," that is because of man's rejecting the true God for false gods of his own making, for worshiping the creation rather than the Creator - God gave them over to degrading passions. The word "passions," from pathos, in the New Testament it is always used in a bad sense. Vile, repulsive, or degrading is the description of these passions.
It is one of the grim facts of life that the more one sins the easier it is to sin. One may begin with a kind of shuddering awareness of what they are doing and end up grossly sinning without a second thought.
They "exchanged the natural function," the way nature is, the natural order of things, male and female. Here in reference to the natural sexual drive, the laws and order of nature are called into view. No where in the animal kingdom do species of the same gender mate.
Once you have begun the dishonoring of the sacredness, dignity, and purity of your body, the vile flood gates of unnatural physical sin can burst open. Perversion is the evil and twisted expression of that which is God-given and natural.
The aberration of homosexuality is addressed in verse 27. "And in the same way also the men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their desire toward one another, men with men committing shameless deeds and receiving in themselves the due penalty of their error."
"Burned" is , literally "to burn out." Their lust burns out any natural control, any natural repulsion and blazed out of control. In the United States and many other countries it is not uncommon for homosexual males to have 300 partners a year. Unimaginable bizarre acts are committed and even mutilation can occur. What does this passage teach about homosexuality?
Homosexuality is an abandonment to "vile passions." When the difference between honoring God above all the created order is obscured confusion between natural & unnatural becomes confused also. Homosexuality is "unnatural." Lesbianism and homosexuality are contrary to God's creation. Homosexuality involves shameless acts. The capacity for shame is an index of moral sensitivity. Heeded it performs a valuable function in moral guidance. But scandalized by repeated violations the capacity for shame burns until it completely burns out outraged by repeated violations the capacity for shame burns until it dies completely. Then people will do publically without remorse that which formerly cause them distress privately. They call this moral death "liberation." (Jack MacGorman. Layman's Bible Book Com. Vol 20. Broadman. p30).
Homosexuality is sexual perversion and results in a serious breakdown for those involved. They receive the due penalty (recompense, retribution) for their error or better perversion. The natural result of their sin which pays them back for what they have done. The evil consequences occur because they are ordained by divine law. When one violates the laws of nature one must pay the price.
[Error, , wandering, roving, thus a deviation. Is Aids this natural consequence? It is estimated 20 million people had Aids in the U.S.A. by 2000. Entire communities are threaten in Africa. The human tragedy and suffering Aids causes is catastrophic. ]
In the beginning the Creator "made them male and female," and said, "For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh." So they are no longer two, but one. Then Jesus added His personal endorsement and deduction: "Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate." In other words, God created humankind male and female; God instituted marriage as a heterosexual union; and what God has thus united, we have no liberty to separate. This threefold action of God established that the only context which He intends for the "one flesh" experience is heterosexual monogamy, and that a homosexual partnership (however loving and committed it may claim to be) is "against nature" and can never be regarded as a legitimate alternative to marriage.
[ III. TO DEPRAVING THEIR MINDS, 1:28-32.]
This plain speaking text is no longer politically correct. Our society now views homosexuals as victims of nature instead of a personal choice of fallen man. Therefore society has become desensitized to behaviors that just a few short years ago were deviate. Now we are pushed hard to accept such behavior as normal and proper. God says it is not. Yet as we state its wickedness, we must acknowledge that God hates all sin. He hates my pet sins and your pet sins also.
Biblical love does persecute nor does it sanction homosexual behavior. God calls us to focus on the soul of the person trapped in sin. Christians can an should minister to sinners including homosexuals in a kind, yet firm manner. The church should not turn its back on homosexuals who are searching and seeking to heal the hurt within their lives. Homosexual is a descriptive adjective and not an unchanging noun. God's grace can change whosoever will come to Him in repentance. God hates sin yet calls us to love the sinner while despising the sin. Since God has allow them the right to chose a lifestyle contrary to His good will for their lives we should grant them the dignity that our Bill of Rights grants them, even while adamantly opposing their lifestyle of confusion and darkness. [1 Tim. 1:10; 2 Pet. 2:6; Jude 7; Rev. 22:15]
CONCLUSION
People tend to believe lies that reinforce their own selfish personal beliefs. Today, more than ever, we need to be careful about the input we allow to form our beliefs. With TV, music, movies, and the rest of the media often presenting sinful life-styles and unwholesome values, we find ourselves constantly bombarded by attitudes and beliefs that are totally opposed to the Bible. Be careful about what you allow to form your opinions. The Bible is the only standard of truth. Evaluate all other opinions in light of its teachings.
God's plan for natural sexual relationships of one man and one women within marriage is His ideal for His creation. Unfortunately, sin distorts the natural use of God's good and powerful gifts. Sin often means not only denying God, but also denying the way we are made. When people believe that any sex act is acceptable as long as nobody gets "hurt," they are fooling themselves. In the long run (and often in the short run), sin hurts people - individuals, families, whole societies. How sad it is that people who worship the things God made instead of the Creator so often distort and destroy the very things they claim to value!
People choose to reject God, and God allows them to do it. God usually does not stop us from making choices that are against His will. He lets us declare our supposed independence from Him, even though He knows that in time we will become slaves to our own rebellious choices - we will lose our freedom not to sin (Jn 8: 32). Does life without God look like freedom to you? Look more closely. There is no worse slavery than slavery to sin.
God is willing to receive anyone who comes to Him in faith, and Christians should love and accept others no matter what their background. Yet, homosexuality is strictly forbidden in Scripture (Lev. 18:22). Homosexuality is considered an acceptable practice by many in our world today - even by some churches. But society does not set the standard for God's law. Many homosexuals believe that their desires are normal and that they have a right to express them. But God does not obligate nor encourage us to fulfill all our desires (even normal ones). Those desires that violate His laws must be controlled.
Will you come to your Creator and allow Him to heal your hurts and recreate you through a personal relationship with Christ Jesus?
