Today’s Reading
Context
What is wrong with this world? Why do people make such foolish choices and do such self-destructive things?
The only reason we are confused about this is that we haven't taken seriously the clear testimony of scripture, which tells us that the "god of his age has blinded the minds of unbelievers" and that the "heart is deceitful above all things." We live in a world dominated by the lies of Satan and enslaved to them.
The painful path of sin is marked out in Romans 1. This world is not as God created or intended, but our sin interfered. We humans "suppressed the truth" (verse 18) and embraced unrighteous living. Adam and Eve decided to reject the ways of God to turn to their own ways. It all began because human beings refused to worship God and instead exchanged the glory of God for the worship of idols made by human hands. In our supposed wisdom, we became a race of fools, abandoning God to follow our own paths of destruction.
There is a course of judgment that follows this sin. God's first act of judgment is not Sodom and Gomorrah-style fire and brimstone, but he simply gives us over to our sinful ways. Every sin carries its own punishment, its own curse, its own consequences. You cannot play with the serpent without feeling its venomous bite.
First, verse 24 says that God gave humanity over to sexual lust, to dishonor our bodies which were created to glorify God. Then, verse 26 describes the second step, when God gave humanity over to the perversion of homosexuality, to exchange what is normal for what is contrary to God's created order. Finally, verse 28 tells us that God gave society over to absolute depravity - giving a list of sins that looks like tomorrow's newspaper!
Paul concludes with the solemn and sad statement that these men and women know that the judgment of God is coming on such sin, but they do it anyway.
What is wrong with this world? Simple. Sin. Rebellion against God. A world at war with its creator and rightful Lord.
The only reason we are confused about this is that we haven't taken seriously the clear testimony of scripture, which tells us that the "god of his age has blinded the minds of unbelievers" and that the "heart is deceitful above all things." We live in a world dominated by the lies of Satan and enslaved to them.
The painful path of sin is marked out in Romans 1. This world is not as God created or intended, but our sin interfered. We humans "suppressed the truth" (verse 18) and embraced unrighteous living. Adam and Eve decided to reject the ways of God to turn to their own ways. It all began because human beings refused to worship God and instead exchanged the glory of God for the worship of idols made by human hands. In our supposed wisdom, we became a race of fools, abandoning God to follow our own paths of destruction.
There is a course of judgment that follows this sin. God's first act of judgment is not Sodom and Gomorrah-style fire and brimstone, but he simply gives us over to our sinful ways. Every sin carries its own punishment, its own curse, its own consequences. You cannot play with the serpent without feeling its venomous bite.
First, verse 24 says that God gave humanity over to sexual lust, to dishonor our bodies which were created to glorify God. Then, verse 26 describes the second step, when God gave humanity over to the perversion of homosexuality, to exchange what is normal for what is contrary to God's created order. Finally, verse 28 tells us that God gave society over to absolute depravity - giving a list of sins that looks like tomorrow's newspaper!
Paul concludes with the solemn and sad statement that these men and women know that the judgment of God is coming on such sin, but they do it anyway.
What is wrong with this world? Simple. Sin. Rebellion against God. A world at war with its creator and rightful Lord.
Devotional
Do you believe the Bible? Really believe it?
If you do then there are some things that you know when you speak to someone that they might not even know and certainly will not admit, based on Romans 1. The person you are talking to may be a new age hippie, an angry atheist, a shrugging postmodernist, or a secularist unconcerned with spiritual things, but Paul says that there are several things about every person that are true. They may deny it, but on the authority of God's word, it is so. There are two truths that every person knows instinctively whether they admit it or not. They may suppress that truth, but deep down in the recesses of their hearts and minds, they know these things to be right.
First, according to Romans 1:20, every person knows that there is a Creator of this world, a God over all. People instinctively know that there is a God. Ever notice that the atheists are the ones having to convince people that there is no God? That is because people seeing a world like ours instinctively realize there is an intelligence, powerful force behind it. We try to convince ourselves that evolution can explain all the mysteries of the universe, but it falls dramatically short.
Of course, this truth is suppressed and people make the foolish, self-destructive choices laid out in Romans 1, but that does not change the fact that deep in the human heart there is a sense of God. It is not a saving knowledge of God that people have, but it is a knowledge of his existence and his sovereign power.
Second, according to verse 32, people have a sense of guilt. Psychologists act as if this is just a neuroses that we need to move beyond, a relic our religious upbringing, or some kind of personal hangup that needs to be overcome. But Paul says it is more simple. We feel guilty because...well...we are guilty. Our spirit inside knows that we deserve death because of our unrighteousness. There is some part of us that knows, as sinful as we are, that what we are is not what we are meant to be and how we are living is not how we are meant to live.
There is a God and we all have sinned against him. When you speak with someone, you can know that deep inside they know these truths. They may have suppressed them and will deny it, but that knowledge is there and the Spirit of God can use it to bring conviction and repentance as you proclaim Christ.
Our duty is to complete that knowledge with the saving truth that the God who exists sent his Son to die for the sins that cause our guilt.
Father, your Son took the sting from sin and death by his sacrifice. May we share that love with a world that need him and knows deep down that you ARE!
Do you see the evidence of the suppression of truth and the stages of God's "giving them over" in the world around you?
Remember that though everyone deep down knows that there is a God and that they have sinned against him, they will only know of his saving grace if we share the gospel of Jesus Christ.
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