Welcome to the Second week of our new series entitled "The Mission." This is a journey through the book of Romans.

For more on the book of Romans, visit:

Bible Study: Romans.
My personal working commentary on Romans: Click Here.

Today's Text:

(Romans 1:18-32) But God shows his anger from heaven against all sinful, wicked people who suppress the truth by their wickedness. They know the truth about God because he has made it obvious to them. For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God.

Yes, they knew God, but they wouldn’t worship him as God or even give him thanks. And they began to think up foolish ideas of what God was like. As a result, their minds became dark and confused. Claiming to be wise, they instead became utter fools. And instead of worshiping the glorious, ever-living God, they worshiped idols made to look like mere people and birds and animals and reptiles.

So God abandoned them to do whatever shameful things their hearts desired. As a result, they did vile and degrading things with each other’s bodies. They traded the truth about God for a lie. So they worshiped and served the things God created instead of the Creator himself, who is worthy of eternal praise! Amen. That is why God abandoned them to their shameful desires. Even the women turned against the natural way to have sex and instead indulged in sex with each other. And the men, instead of having normal sexual relations with women, burned with lust for each other. Men did shameful things with other men, and as a result of this sin, they suffered within themselves the penalty they deserved.

Since they thought it foolish to acknowledge God, he abandoned them to their foolish thinking and let them do things that should never be done. Their lives became full of every kind of wickedness, sin, greed, hate, envy, murder, quarreling, deception, malicious behavior, and gossip. They are backstabbers, haters of God, insolent, proud, and boastful. They invent new ways of sinning, and they disobey their parents. They refuse to understand, break their promises, are heartless, and have no mercy. They know God’s justice requires that those who do these things deserve to die, yet they do them anyway. Worse yet, they encourage others to do them, too.

Commentary.

Verses 18-20. Turning From God.

Paul shows the downward spiral of sin. It begins when we turn our back on God, though we can clearly see His existence in creation. This passage is used to argue against the "What about those who have never heard?" argument. The Bible says that all have enough knowledge of God's existence to reach for Him.

Verse 18.

"Anger"- Other translations say wrath. This is the divine result of sin. This is not a temper tantrum or an emotional response. It is the result of sin, much like jumping off a building. If you jump off a building, the natural outflow is that gravity will take over. If you sin, justice will follow.
"Suppress the truth"- These are people who know the truth of God's existence but deny it.

Verse 19-20.

God has made His existence evident by making creation all around us and giving us the ability to see it as something more. Think about it: God did not have to make creation beautiful. Then, He didn't have to make creation something that we would notice.

Verses 21-23. The Loss of Identity.

Verse 21.

"Give Him Thanks"- The context of this verse does not mean God was looking for praise as much as acknowledging He is the Creator of all. He does command honor and praise, but this is saying they realize God made it all.
"Dark and confused"- The more we turn away from God, the more we have to find ways to cover up His existence. One way is how people will talk about the Universe. I heard someone recently say, "Just as the universe is for it." What does that even mean? "Hey stars! Can you gimmie?"

Verse 22.

"Utter fools"- This is proven from the last point. They become more and more absurd because it is the only way to not acknowledge God.

Verse 23.

"They worship idols"- Humans were made to worship. If we do not worship God, we will worship something else. When we turn our backs on God, our worship becomes more and more bizarre.

Verse 24-32. The Result (Spiral.)

Notice this sins listed in this section are the result of turning our backs on God.

Verse 24-25.

"They traded the truth of God for a lie."- When we turn our backs on God, we believe in something that is a lie. Our idea of what is good becomes skewed. This does not mean someone who believes in God cannot do good things. It means their purpose for God, and their ability to receive good from it, will always be ultimately skewed because the worldview is off.

Verse 26-27.

"women turned against the natural way to have sex"- Paul begins with a controversial topic in his day, the same as ours. He begins with women because, in the culture of the time, women were considered to be more morally pure than men. Therefore, if they begin to do what is shameful, it shows the extent of the depravity. It also says men did as well. Over time, people have tried to say this only refers to the abuse of same sex relationships. However, this passage does not indicate that. The words used in this passage are in a general sense. Therefore, it is intended to cover ALL forms of homosexual activity. Even if someone tried to make that point, Paul is pointing to this as the result of turning their back on God and losing their God-given identity. This leans toward a fuller expression.

Verse 28-31.

Paul continues the spiral, saying that a host of sins follow the downward pull of sin. They all involve placing something other than God as the moral center of our lives.

Verse 32.

Paul concludes that these people know what they are doing is wrong, but they keep doing it. Therefore, Paul is not talking about those who sin in ignorance, but those who sin in willful disobedience. They even work to convince other people to do the same.

Bottom line. We need to hear the bad news so we know what God has rescued us from. Nothing is bigger than His ability to save.

(1 Peter 1:3) It is by his great mercy that we have been born again, because God raised Jesus Christ from the dead. Now we live with GREAT EXPECTATION.