Tag: Romans

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. Romans 1:28-32

I am waaayyyy behind on the posts of my quiet times. Sorry for the delay but you will see a post coming per day but will not send emails on the others I am catching up on. You can just hit up the Home Page to look down at what you have missed if you are interested.

Today we are on the 3rd “God gave them up…” statements Paul makes about these people who, although they know in their hearts there is a God, have turned away and forsaken Him for the things of this world and their own prideful desires.

The first 2 were based off an exchanging of the glory of the immortal God for idols…here in the third one it is because “they did not see fit to acknowledge God”. God gave them up to do all the things that are against His plan, His creation order, and His best for them. Paul is exhaustive in the list of things they become full of. In my MacArthur Study Bible this whole section is titled “God’s wrath on the unrighteous”. God’s wrath in this sense is to let these people incur all of the consequences of ungodly behavior and things they fill their minds with. They have become FULL of all the horrible definitions of an evil debased mind.

These people’s allegiance moves away from God’s righteous pronouncement that their sin and guilt are deserving of death and instead not only do all of these things, but they also seek to promote and approve others who practice them. It is a cult making mindset that almost literally has them living hell on earth.

APPLICATION:

Once again, I am pained to see the despair and absolute hopelessness of the situation of these poor souls. I literally recoil from the behavior and platforms these people operate from. I all honesty, my response to these people and their behave can drive me to unbiblical anger which can lead to detesting the person over abhorrence of the sin. I struggle sometimes to separate the two…but then I only have to look at myself and where I was before the Lord got ahold of my life. I too lived a life of sin against my God. Being raised in a Christian home, I made deliberate decisions to follow my fleshly heart rather than submit a Savior being graciously and mercifully offered to me. Lord God help me to cleave onto You and give me a heart like yours to love the person and hate the sin.

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. Romans 1:26-27

After reading yesterday’s post, look where it leads -> “For this reason”. So, there is a building effect at play here. Starting with a rejection of God as the One True God to be revered and worshiped, God give them over to their impure hearts that are filled with lusts…where they worship themselves and the sexuality of the body instead of the LORD God.

Where does that lead, well, it leads to the walking away from what God designed in His perfect plan for ‘male’ and ‘female’ and the incredible relationship that produces children through a sacred marital covenant. Paul calls these “dishonorable passions”: passions birthed out of a debased, lust filled, and impure mind.

Our world today lives this out and we can see, in our culture, the absolute depravity that happens when this exchange of God for worldly pleasure takes hold.

Paul ends this 2nd “gave up” with “receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error”. This is the ‘sowing’ and ‘reaping’ nature of dishonorable passions. There are many health issues and diseases that arise from this embraced behavior and lifestyle.

APPLICATION

Lord God, you know the situations and environments I work in. I pray Father that you would guide me in how to love those who have been ‘given up to’ dishonorable passions. I was (and am) in the same desperate need of your grace and mercy of every one of these people mentioned above. I love you LORD and ask for your discernment and wisdom as I walk these spaces in my life.

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. Romans 1:24-25

In the remaining verses of this chapter, we have 3 “God gave them up” statements and clarifications. Today I am focusing on the first of these.

God gave them up to impurity…but Paul preferences this “to impurity” with “in the lusts of their hearts”. Notice Paul does not say “minds”. This is a deep sinful embrace of their lustful desires that in consumption of that lust, God gives them up to impurity and the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves.

I missed an important piece. The verses before this talk about exchanging the glory of an immortal God for creation, idols, and other things of this earth that are placed by men above God. The next word in the very front of the passage today is – “THEREFORE”. Because of this exchange, God gives them over to these three “God gave them up” decrees.

In my thinking about this passage, it represents the person who gratifies themselves, probably graduating to more and more yucky stuff like pornography, then potentially prostitution, and seeking out the whacky fetish stuff that seeks to gratify that “lust of their hearts”. The debased mind that has been given over loses control and perception of right and wrong. They become calloused and uninhibited. Scary…

Finally, Paul says that they exchanged the truth about God, for a lie, and then worship themselves and their lust filled impurity rather than One Who created them.

APPLICATION

I am so grateful for the Holy Spirit, the Helper I received when I accepted Jesus Christ as my personal LORD and Savior. His voice, His warnings, His prompting, and His care have given me the chance to choose HIM when I am presented with lustful or impure thoughts. Sometimes an impure thought will fly into my mind or I will see a barely clothed woman on the street, and it is in these times that the LORD in His grace and mercy has set the knowledge of Himself in me and I have the strength to immediately pray (if there is an impure thought) or turn my gaze away as soon as I recognize the situation. LORD God, would you continue to protect me as I follow Your Son?

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. Romans 1:22-23

Isn’t this “The World” today? This is exactly the thinking the world peddles.

“Hey, you can be your own god. Come on, think about it; it logically makes sense. You are only as good as you treat yourself. Teach others how to treat you. Your own life is your right to have and control, from your mind to your emotions, your mental state, and your body. Just be good to yourself.”

‘Treating ourselves good’ is to understand that God knows what is best for us. To get what God knows to be best for us, we must surrender our own control over it. When it comes to having a right…I don’t want the right to what I deserve…because I deserve to die and pay for the sins I have committed against a Holy and Pure God. What I want is what He wants for me, and I want to serve the One Who gave Himself for me…paying for everything I deserve.

So, in this so-called wisdom to only seek god-like control over ourselves is actually the most foolish decision we can make. As Paul says, we trade the glory the One True God gives, for a futile life lived out here on earth where the only good you might receive what the world has to offer, but the length of that perceived goodness is only a nano-second in the grand scheme of eternity.

APPLICATION

My application today is just an overwhelming thankfulness of the graciousness and mercifulness character of my LORD and Savior Jesus Christ. I deserve the punishment He already endured on the cross and in separation from the Father and Holy Spirit. My entire existence in the here and now under the sun, AND the eternal hope that lays beyond this world…is owed to Him.

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. Romans 1:21

This is the start of a very sobering passage of scripture. “…although they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks to Him” – Here is the scary part…can’t this be those of us who claim to follow Jesus too? This is where the “Fear of the LORD” comes in. I do think Paul is talking about something more deliberate in the heart of those he is talking about, but it still gives me pause in terms of how the LORD sees this type of behavior and thinking that can come about in my life with distractions and life as an idol.

The LORD is so gracious and merciful that even when I find that an entire 8 hours has gone by, and all I have thought about is work, I still long for the fellowship and closeness of my Creator and Savior. I kick myself for not seeing and embracing how the LORD can be at my side and make me my best in honoring and glorifying Him, if I were to just include Him all along the way. It is during these times that I am embarrassed and humble in my prayer of confession and admitting that neglected the Spiritual Life the LORD has for me.

APPLICATION

LORD God, please help me to establish routines that never neglect to include You, to turn to You first, and to be that much more aware of the opportunities to share You with the world around me.

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. Romans 1:20

Shorter write up today as it is really just a continuation of the final portion of verse 19 from yesterday.

The existence of God is clear. What I have heard from most of the scientist-like people I know is strangely 2 two statements – 1) “I only believe what I can find in the rocks” and 2) “I see intelligent design in nature, but I am unwilling to attribute that to the God of the bible.” This is a very scary place to be. It is really hard to see the complexity of the human eye, the birth of a child, the beauty in the things God has made, and not understand that there is a God. Then you look at all of the prophesy that has been fulfilled, the evidence in historical record, and the lack of conflicting historical accounts, to see that the God of the bible is the ‘Only God’.

APPLICATION

In my ministry and testimony, I need to speak to those areas in a person’s life that they have been imbued with a knowledge of the divine God. However, as I left off yesterday, I also need to have my own reverence and acknowledgement of God’s power and leading in my own life. This has me remembering what I wrote on my rock (on left in pic below) in Mexico this year for what I felt the Lord was laying on my heart to take home from there…an inclination to respond when the Lord was leading me to share His good news with people around me with boldness and courage.

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. Romans 1:18-19

We now enter into a very descriptive passage about the unrighteous. This whole set of verses taking us to the end of the chapter have helped me develop several bases of thought about the world we live in. 1) This is eerily descriptive of the world and culture we live in today and 2) it has positioned my heart in a posture of concern and a desire to see a revival in the hearts of those that are lost.

For today, Paul starts this passage with a declaration. The wrath that is revealed is not an impulsive outburst or anger aimed people God does not like. It is the settled, determined response of a righteous God against sin. When looking more closely at the word “revealed” it is more accurately translated -> ‘is constantly revealed’, meaning to uncover, make visible, or make known. Reading through John MacArthur’s commentary on this topic, there are 2 ways that God’s wrath is revealed; Indirectly (natural consequences) & Directly (intervention demonstrated in His response to Adam and Eve). Below are the various kinds of God’s wrath:

1. Eternal Wrath -> Hell
2. Eschatological Wrath -> Final days
3. Cataclysmic Wrath -> Like the flood
4. Consequential Wrath -> Principal of sowing and reaping
5. Wrath of Abandonment -> Removing restraint and letting people go to their sins

What we see here in Romans 1 is the 5th kind, Wrath of Abandonment – God’s abandoning the wicked continually through history to pursue their sin and its consequences.

Finally, we see the actual target of God’s wrath: ungodliness and unrighteousness, which lead to suppressing the truth. Ungodliness leads to unrighteousness – Although the presence of God is clear and irrefutable through His creation and His word, people choose to resist and oppose God’s truth by holding fast to their sin.

¹ The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.”
They are corrupt, they do abominable deeds;
there is none who does good. Psalms 14:1

APPLICATION

One of the greatest takeaways I had today was that God wrath is constantly being borne out. The types of wrath show that the entirety of wrath is not coming at some point but that some of it is happening right now. This draws me close to the Savior because if you notice, Paul did not separate any one type of person out. My actions and behavior that come out of not ‘fearing God’, are ripe for God’s consequential wrath. I am so thankful that God gave us the elimination of sin and death through the life, death, and resurrection of His Son Jesus Christ. In this life under the sun, I must continually confess and repent.

In true form, I did not mention that it was my birthday yesterday. I don’t like a big deal made of these things. 🙂 That being said, on Sunday, Marianne organized a dinner out for me as a ‘kind of’ surprise with my mom and dad, my brother and his wife, as well as Marianne, Sophie, Prim, and Brooklyn. We ate at Como at Carillon Point in Kirkland if you know what that is. It was super thoughtful, we had a ton of fun, and I felt loved and appreciated.

16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. 17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.” Romans 1:16-17

Today’s snippet of Romans 1 is a well-known one. Paul asserts his unabashed embrace of the gospel. During his day, he came under a lot of adversity and persecution. Even he was one who persecuted Christians before the Lord got ahold of him on the road to Damascus.

The gospel is ‘The Power of God’ in terms of Salvation. It is God’s grace and gift alone that saves us from the pit because of what Jesus did on the cross (the gospel). This is for anyone who [truly] believes; shared first with the Jews and then the Gentiles.

This next phase is a little hard to wrap my puny human brain around, but I get the sense that Paul is continuing his comments on the teaching of the gospel and winning souls for the Kingdom. “For in it [the gospel] is the righteousness of God revealed” – meaning the fact that there needed to be a perfect sacrifice for the sins of all those that would believe, shows how pure, holy, and righteous God is. “…from faith, for faith” – which likely means that the righteous life of a believer lived out through their faith, produces faith in others…which then Paul points to with his reciting of the passage in Habakkuk.

“Behold, his soul is puffed up; it is not upright within him,
    but the righteous shall live by his faith.” Habakkuk 2:4

APPLICATION

I must be in constant review of my lived-out witness and testimony! First, I cannot be ashamed to share the very good news that saved me from what I so deserve. Second, I don’t save anyone, God does. It is only the Lord who can call someone to Himself and transform the heart of man. Finally, I need to be constantly thinking in a multiplication context. How can I share the Gospel with someone today? Who has the Lord put in my path to show them His love?

13 I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that I have often intended to come to you (but thus far have been prevented), in order that I may reap some harvest among you as well as among the rest of the Gentiles. 14 I am under obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish. 15 So I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome. Romans 1:13-15

As a Roman citizen, Paul understood the mentality of the Greeks well. Greeks felt that anyone who did not speak Greek were uneducated, other than to be respected, and even barbarians. I read something funny (not sure if it is true or not) but the word barbarians came from the sense that whenever a Greek speaking person listened to someone who did not speak Greek, it sound to them like “bar, bar, bar-bar, bar-bar-bar, bar”.

Ever since Paul’s life adjustment on the road to Damascus, his charter had been to reach the Gentiles with the gospel. Although he longed to see the Roman church in person, he had to maintain his focus and energy on reach as far and wide as he could to reach as many Gentiles as possible with the Good News.

APPLICATION

As I read this today, my mind went to whether I am putting the right energies and focus on my primary ministry. “What is your primary ministry?”, you might ask. Well, first and foremost, I am chartered to lead my family well, be the husband and father God has called me to be. Secondly (I mentioned this the other day in my post), is to invest in people. That comes in the form of Discipling, Counseling, and Growing/Guarding/Guiding the sheep of Canyon Hills Community Church as an elder. Priority 0 is my relationship with Christ. So, I am compelled to keep the Big Things, the big things and be careful of the potential distractions as honorable as they may sound.

For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you— 12 that is, that we may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith, both yours and mine. Romans 1:11-12

A little shorter one today – I just love this pointer to the importance of the gift God has given us in each other. Just yesterday Paul was talking about his gratefulness of the Roman church and how their faith was renown across the land, undoubtedly an encouragement to him and an admiration he had of them. Now here Paul is talking about the spiritual gift of instruction he is bringing them in this letter to strengthen them. So, the mutual encouragement is so powerful for both.

APPLICATION

I am so grateful for my wife and the men the Lord has placed in my life. My brothers on the church elder board, the pastors I serve alongside, the men I am able to disciple, and the men who have been so instrumental in my life (my dad, my Uncle Rich, and many others).

One of the things my Uncle Rich shared with me before the Lord took him home to glory, was – “Ben, after you have placed all of your hope and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ and love Him with your whole mind, soul, and strength — then do this one thing…INVEST IN PEOPLE.” That, tested by scripture and guided by my walk with Jesus, has been something that has given me the perspective to LOVE others.