Romans 1: 18-32 When God Gives Up

Evolution says that we all started from one-celled organisms and evolved into the highest form of intelligence on the planet.  God says it’s exactly the opposite – that we have devolved because of sin.

 

We started with intelligence – knowing God as our Creator – not just the human race, but every one of us began life instinctively knowing this.  Sin creeps in and we don’t allow this truth to work IN our lives.  As sin grows, we suppress this truth so that we won’t feel convicted by it and experience unhappiness.  Finally, we choose to abandon the truth altogether and we become as unintelligent as the beast themselves.

 

We start out knowing God, but then sin causes us to not want to know Him.  We certainly don’t want to honor Him if we don’t want to know Him.  We’ll even use the good things He gives us and never thank Him for them.  That causes our minds to grow empty and our hearts dark.

 

If we continue along this path, after holding down God’s truth for so long and refusing to acknowledge Him, we’re left without a god.  But since we are created to worship, we end up inventing our own gods.  Glory turns to shame, we become corrupted, and we are willing to believe lies rather than truth.  Paul’s list of earthly idols starts with “earthly people”.  We begin to worship others.  We also hope they worship us.

 

My commentary said that it’s just one short step from idolatry to immorality.  If we become our own god (New Age theology), then we’ll not worry about judgment and do whatever we want.  It’s about then that our depraved thinking tells us there’s no such thing as Satan (which is exactly what he wants, because then we don’t see him as a threat and he has us) and then it’s just another short step to believing there’s no such being as God.

 

That’s when God gives us up to what we want.  Every alarm bell ought to be going off in our heads when that happens, but sin has deafened us as well as blinded us to what we’re doing.  That depraved mind means we can’t form right judgments, my commentary said.  Up becomes down and vice versa.

 

The next step is horrible.  We lose our shame and begin to commit the sins in open defiance of God, and we encourage others to do so as well.  There is so much of this in our country right now.  So many have lost all sense of shame and no longer care what God or people think.  At this point, God says we are “without excuse.”

 

Father, I’ve been down the path of defying You.  I listened to the wrong-headed thinking and began believing the lie of New Age stuff, thinking that I was enlightened.  It’s a place I don’t ever want to be again.  I cannot understand the love You showed for me in not giving up on me  and bringing me back to You, but I treasure it.  I was stupid and prideful and rebellious, and yet You loved me anyway.  Thanks for not giving up on me!

 

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford