Defining Deviancy Down
TCF Sermon
March 18, 2012
In 1993, a Democratic senator from New York wrote an essay for a educational journal. In this article, Daniel Moynihan argued that:
“the amount of deviant behavior in American society has increased beyond levels the community can afford…and that society has been redefining deviancy to exempt much conduct previously stigmatized, and accepting as normal behavior that was considered abnormal by earlier standards.”
The phrase that he used to describe this phenomena is “defining deviancy down.” I don’t think it’s very often we can legitimately call a statement by any politician prophetic, but this one was, in a very biblical sense, or at the very least it was a clear observation of human nature.
Let’s be thinking of this phrase coined by Senator Moynihan as we read from Romans 1:18-32, our text for this morning.
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, 23 and 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 decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.
You might be thinking, gee, didn’t Jim preach on God’s wrath last week? Well, that’s only part of what we’ll be looking at today, but consider this more of a continuation of a similar thread, following up on some themes Jim touched on in last week’s excellent message.
Here we see the Apostle Paul writing to the church in Rome. If we think our culture is the worst ever, in terms of moral decay, we don’t know much history. The kinds of things we could use as illustrations today are the same kinds of things Paul described happening in Roman society here. The people of 2000 years ago that Paul was writing to had the same propensities, the same sin nature, that we do.
What Paul is describing here is a downward spiral into sin. What Paul is describing here is our natural state as sinful humans apart from God. Paul is telling us that this is the inevitable result in our lives if we reject God.
It’s important to remember the context of this passage. The better part of Paul’s first three chapters in Romans is laying the groundwork for why we need Christ. Why we need grace. So Paul leads with the wrath of God. Paul leads with a detailed look at our sin nature. Because, as Jim noted last week, how can we possibly understand the grace of God, and why we need it, without first seeing the stark contrast between our natural state without God’s grace …without understanding how hopelessly lost and sinful and broken we are apart from the blood of Christ. Our problem is that we’re all sinful and guilty.
After introducing God’s good news to save people, Paul shocks us by switching to the topic of God’s wrath against all sin and evil. The good news actually begins with some “bad news” —God absolutely hates evil, He hates sin. For us to acknowledge our need for a Savior, we need to admit we have a sin problem, and this is Paul’s focus in this passage and what follows right on into chapter 2 & 3.
So, Paul begins with God’s wrath, and begins to tell us why God’s wrath is being revealed. The word “revealed” is the Greek apocalupto. It means,
Literally, to remove a veil or covering exposing to open view what was before hidden. To make manifest or reveal a thing previously secret or unknown. The Complete Word Study Dictionary – New Testament.
So, God’s wrath toward sin has always been there. It’s not as if He wasn’t angry about our sin before, and just now blows up, and loses His cool, because He’s had enough. And we begin to see why His wrath is now being revealed. It’s because men, by their unrighteousness, suppress the truth.
The idea of “holding down, suppressing”, holding back, restraining the truth illustrates not only our human propensity toward willfulness, but also implies that, if we did not suppress, or hold back, or resist the truth, it would have an effect on our behavior. It would help restrain us from sin.
Man in his wickedness restrains the truth he knows. Almost all men know more truth than they obey. William Newell
So, we see in the following verses that people instinctively know some of the truths, they know about God, in a general sense. But here in verse 18, we see that they hold this truth captive, they resist it. Why? Is it because they’re not sure they believe it? I don’t think that’s the case.
If you have a sense of what’s true and right, and if you don’t hold it back, if you don’t suppress it, it will likely influence your choices, your attitudes, your behavior. You may have to start living by this truth.
They held the truth as a captive or prisoner, that it should not influence them, as otherwise it would. An unrighteous wicked heart is the dungeon in which many a good truth is detained and buried. Matthew Henry
When we were studying Romans 1 in house church a few weeks ago, Mike Brose had an interesting observation. We were earlier in the chapter, talking about why we struggle to share the gospel, and noting that though none of us are ashamed of the gospel, we do sometimes seem to think that those we’re talking to are offended or embarrassed by our attempts to share Christ with them, and that’s the reason they seem to not want to hear us. Sensing this, we struggle to get the courage to share with them.
But Mike said he thinks that, just as often as that may be true, it’s probably at least as often the case that people are convicted by the truth. Rather than admit it, and submit to that conviction, they act offended, or resist in some other way. The idea is: Who are you to tell me how to live? That’s what’s at work here in this passage, where it says that people suppress the truth by their wickedness, or unrighteousness.
None of us likes anyone else telling him or her how to live. But if we truly know the truth about God, it must have an impact on how we live our lives.
So, how do we get around that? We suppress the truth. We see that fleshed out in other ways in this passage, which we’ll look at momentarily.
Failure to give God His due inevitably results in failure to treat people, created by God in His image, the right way. Conversely, people (in their unrighteousness toward others) continue to suppress (katechontōn, lit., “holding down”) the truth (cf. 1:25; 2:8) concerning both God and man. People had God’s truth but suppressed it, refusing to heed it.
Bible Knowledge Commentary
A little over a week ago, I attended the 25th anniversary banquet of Mend Pregnancy Resource Center. Several years ago, Mend began including as an element at its annual event a live ultrasound, and this year continued that tradition.
Ultrasound has become one of the greatest tools pregnancy centers have in the battle for life. That’s because it’s undeniable evidence, undeniable truth, of the humanity of the unborn. You can see fingers, toes, even a beating heart. I almost cried as I watched this year’s ultrasound at the Mend event, because I thought of how many people suppress this easily accessible truth and understanding of the humanity of the unborn for the purpose of snuffing out these lives.
There’s a strong negative reaction among pro-aborts to the idea of ultrasounds for pregnant women considering abortion. Why is that? Why such a strongly negative reaction? Because they’re suppressing the truth in their unrighteous support of abortion. And if the truth is known, if you can see the truth of the humanity of the unborn, it becomes much much harder to abort a baby in the womb. And as long as that truth is suppressed, it’s easier for people to justify abortion.
So, that’s just an example of how, when we suppress the truth in our wickedness, we justify sin. People resist Christ, in part, because they know that to accept His claims on them, they’d have to abandon their sins. They don’t want to abandon their sins. So they suppress the truth.
Next, I want to focus on another theme we see addressed twice in this passage.
Romans 1:21 (ESV) 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.
Then, in verse
Romans 1:28 (ESV) 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.
Both times, we understand from the context that these people Paul is writing of knew God. They didn’t know Him fully, probably didn’t know Him in a saving way, but they knew of Him, and thus instinctively understood some of God’s claims on their lives.
So we see the key phrase in verse 21: “they did not honor Him as God.” And then in verse 28: “they did not see fit to acknowledge God.” This, too, is central to understanding this passage in Romans. It makes me think of Pharaoh’s response to Moses, when he speaks God’s Words to Pharaoh and says “let my people go.”
Exodus 5:1-2 (ESV) 1 Afterward Moses and Aaron went and said to Pharaoh, “Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, ‘Let my people go, that they may hold a feast to me in the wilderness.’” 2 But Pharaoh said, “Who is the LORD, that I should obey his voice and let Israel go? I do not know the LORD, and moreover, I will not let Israel go.”
Could it be that Pharaoh actually never heard of God? Didn’t have a clue who God was? He says “Who is the Lord?” He says, “I do not know the Lord.”
Clearly, that cannot be the case, because of what Paul says in Romans 1:
Romans 1:20 (ESV) 20 For his (God’s) 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.
Pharaoh had no excuse. We have no excuse. But Pharaoh wouldn’t bow to the Lord, and honor God as God. He wouldn’t acknowledge the Lord.
To acknowledge God, to truly honor God as God, almost by definition must include the accompanying response – obedience. It must include a recognition of His claims on your life. If there is a God, then we have to decide how we respond to that God. If there is no God, we don’t need to worry about what He thinks about our behavior or our attitudes.
But to acknowledge God as God necessarily means we have to consider what He’s said about right and wrong. If He’s the creator of all that we see, which is what this passage says about how we know of God, then He must be pretty powerful and wise.
If that’s the case, we are forced to make a choice. Do we obey what He says about right and wrong, do we acknowledge what He says about our human condition, or do we create and acknowledge our own gods?
When we acknowledge God as God, we grant Him the authority He really already has in our lives. When we treat other things as gods – idols – we’re granting those things authority in our lives.
…in Greek thought to know God is to perceive God as he really is. In Hebrew thought there was a strong sense of knowledge as an acknowledging, a motivational recognition which expressed itself in the appropriate worship and obedience. Word Biblical Commentary
To glorify him as God is to glorify him only; for there can be but one infinite: but they did not so glorify him, for they set up a multitude of other deities. Matthew Henry
The part following this recognition that people did not honor God as God, in verse 21, is really disturbing and quite frightening. It starts with the statement at the end of 21:
“they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.”
Futile in the original language means vain, worthless, destitute of real wisdom. This is where the idea defining deviancy down begins to become clear. Then we see foolishness begin to take over. Foolish here means: Without insight or understanding
Not only were their hearts foolish, they were darkened. This means they were deprived of light. We see the Word of God described as a lamp to our feet and a light to our path in Ps 119. Yet, if you don’t acknowledge God as God, clearly you’re unlikely to take the time to read the Word of God, let alone allow it to light your path, penetrate your spirit and transform you.
So your heart, already foolish, becomes darkened. More and more. How do we know it becomes more and more darkened? Because we see in the following verses, as thinking becomes futile, as already foolish hearts are darkened, the sinner in his natural state responds by worshipping.
But that worship is not for God and God alone. That worship is for things of our own creation. Paul says they traded in the God-worship for thing-worship. Idols. What’s worse, “they professed to be wise.”
Don’t we see that in our culture today? Of all those who are most hostile to the things of God, isn’t it the intellectuals? Isn’t it the learned – the scientists, the educators? Clearly not all of them, and there’s certainly nothing wrong with being an intellectual, a scientist, an educator. But doesn’t that seem to be a primary source of hostility toward God? If not hostility, then apathy?
Then we see perhaps the most profoundly disturbing phrase in the passage. And what’s more, we see it repeated three different times. God gave them up. As part of His righteous judgment, as a characteristic of His wrath, God gave them up. As the just punishment for their idolatry, God gave them up. God took off the restraints of His grace. He left them to themselves. Three times Paul tells us that God gave them up.
In verse 24, He gives them up to their lusts and impurity. In verse 26, God gives them up to dishonorable or degrading passions – in this context homosexual relations. Then in verse 28, God gives them up to a debased, depraved mind.
Three times Paul says God gave them up (vv. 24, 26, 28). In every instance the giving up to sin is a result of idolatry, the refusal to make God the center and circumference of all existence, so that in practice the creature is exalted over the Creator. Hence, all individual sins are a consequence of the failure to prize and praise God as the giver of every good thing.
ESV Study Bible
Here we see practical, biblical examples of defining deviancy down, by the willfulness and sinfulness of people.
The withdrawal of God's restraint sent men deeper down. The words sound to us like clods on the coffin as God leaves men to work their own wicked will. Robertsons Word Pictures
One of the attributes, and indeed benefits, of God’s grace in the life of a believer is often overlooked. We see here when we don’t acknowledge God as God, He eventually gives people over, gives them up, to their sin, and I don’t claim to know how far you have to drift before this giving over happens. However, for the follower of Christ who has acknowledged the right of God to not just inform, but invade and mold and shape his or her life, the grace of God is a restraining influence against sin.
That’s why this phrase is so scary. Without God’s Holy Spirit, we are slaves to sin. We can’t help ourselves, even as much as we might really try. Without the blood of Jesus to cover those sins, we’re dead in our sins. Of course, even as believers indwelt by the Holy Spirit, we still sin –
1 John 1:8 (ESV) 8 If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
But God’s Holy Spirit convicts us of sin, and in repentance, we are forgiven. So when Paul tells us here that God gave them up, it means He ceased to restrain them from sin.
Two more things I want to focus on:
As I mentioned earlier, we’ve been studying Romans in house church. We had several weeks between regular meetings due to the missions conference, so I read through Romans 1 many times. It was in a season of the news when I’d been hearing about more states legalizing gay marriage, and people celebrating this fact.
It was also around that time I read an article from a peer reviewed medical journal. This article was arguing that killing newly born infants is no different than abortion. That, of course, is essentially true. It’s a slippery slope argument pro-lifers have been making for years – that is, if it’s OK to kill an unborn baby a week before delivery, how is that any different than killing a baby a week after it’s born?
But this article was not written from the perspective of that pro-life argument. It was written as a proposal that it should be OK to do what they called “after birth abortions.” They didn’t want to call it infanticide, which is clearly what these writers were advocating. But whatever they want to call it, it’s killing babies, born or unborn.
I’ve said to Barb more than once: our culture is sliding into the sewer morally and spiritually. And verse 32 of this passage we’re looking at makes it even more disturbing.
32 Though they know God’s decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.
That made me think of the Mend pregnancy center banquet I mentioned a moment ago. We had about 400 people there, dressed up, sharing a nice meal, to celebrate life and affirm the work of this pro-life ministry, and encourage one another to give of their time and financial resources to support this work.
I thought of what they might do – probably do - at a Planned Parenthood banquet, or a Reproductive Services abortion clinic banquet, or at a Gay Rights banquet. They celebrate their sin and affirm the work they do. They congratulate one another on killing the unborn. They congratulate one another and encourage advocating for a lifestyle that the Bible declares sinful.
So, as I read through this chapter of Romans, I was ready to rail against the sin in our culture. That’s an easy sermon because these are easy targets. And it’s a legitimate thing to preach. But I hope we’ve gotten more from this sermon this morning than just a reality-check on the sinful state of our culture.
I came across a brief article by RC Sproul, and it was about power in preaching. He wrote:
In days of cultural decline such as our own, it is rather easy for preachers to thunder against the sins of the broader culture. This too, however, is a form of ear-tickling. “Aren’t they awful” as a common message will ultimately translate soon enough into “But we’re okay.” Our calling, however, is to feed our sheep. Which means we must preach to their sins. Which means we must preach to our own. (We need the) courage to look honestly to our own sins. And that is driven by gospel confidence. I can face my sin because it is already dealt with. I can speak to it because God has already declared it to be forgiven. If we will humble ourselves, He will come in both grace and power. And that changes everything. RC Sproul
So, we cannot end a message like this with the idea that all this sin is just “out there” in our society, in our culture. It is out there. And it is sin. And in the proper time, it’s appropriate to call it just that. These sins should grieve us, and cause us to pray, and implant in us a desire to participate as gospel witnesses to the world around us that’s dying.
But even though it’s absolutely true that these things we’ve looked at are sin and they are out there, sin is also in here. Why else would Paul include this long list of sins near the end of this passage? From this book that’s written to Christians in Rome?
And while it’s easy to preach against the things in verses 21-28, Paul didn’t stop there. Right after talking about idolatry, sexual impurity, lust, and men committing indecent acts with other men, Paul gets to seemingly lesser and simpler sins that, if we are honest with ourselves, not a one of us here cannot relate to.
Not a one of us cannot say, yep, been there, done that. Or more to the point, still there, still struggle with that. How about greed, in verse 29? How about deceit or strife in the same verse? How about envy? How about gossip or slander, or arrogant or boastful? Most of us can more easily ignore the sin of abortion or homosexuality, but these other things hit much closer to home.
These things require the blood of Christ to save us, just as much as the other so-called “worse” sins. To make sure you young people aren’t left out, Paul even throws in “disobedient to parents.” Wow. We have disobedient to parents within a few words or verses of a condemnation of murder and homosexual behavior!
Clearly, this is about more than those sins “out there.” There’s certainly nothing wrong with noting what the Bible says about the many things Paul addresses here, but if we stop there, we’re missing Paul’s major point, for which this passage is just the long lead up to:
All have sinned. There is no one righteous, not even one. And yes, God’s wrath is being revealed, and will be revealed in the final judgment. But thanks be to God, we have a Savior.
Therefore let all who have ears to hear give the utmost attention to what God says about our state by nature. Do not apply the threefold “God gave them up” of Romans One to “the heathen,” as most do. Behold, we are those of whom God says: “There is no distinction: all sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” ALL are brought under the judgment of God. O saints, beware of the “select” circles, the “we-are-better” societies of pride! For all human beings are alike sinners: for “The Scripture shut up all things under sin, that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe” (Gal 3:22).
William R Newell
We see in Luke where Jesus
Luke 18:9-14 (ESV) ..... told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt: 10 “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11 The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. 12 I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’ 13 But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ 14 I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”
Rather than a Pharisaical attitude of “thank God I’m not like those sinners,” let’s live our lives by the attitude of the tax collector: “God, be merciful to me, a sinner.”
As we approach Holy Week in just a few weeks, what a wonderful time it is to examine our hearts, and note with gratitude the sacrifice of Christ and mercy extended toward us because, as the song we sing here says, “and on the cross, where Jesus died, the wrath of God was satisfied.”
Pray
