Romans 1
18 The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, 19 since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 20 For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.
It is with trembling hands that I type this. Once you see that God has his wrath on His people, you cannot imagine the implications. Seeing so many people denying the Lordship of Christ and embracing wickedness even if we are exposed to Scripture and that freedom to worship is available – the Scripture tells us that we are WITHOUT EXCUSE when we meet God face to face.
21 For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles.
I think we all know, but we choose to deny the obvious. To acknowledge Jesus kingship means clashing with our standard of morality and pleasure. It is inconvenient to worship Jesus who cannot be manipulated this we exchange the glory of God for some lesser gods that could fancy and tickle us. And the result of that is:
24 Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. 25 They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.
God gave them over. God gives up and surrenders the people to their evil desires. This is what we call as passive wrath. It is far more devastating than the active wrath of God. When someone gives up on you – it means there is no more hope. Once again Paul tells us – that when we exchange the TRUTH about God for a LIE and worship created things rather than the Creator – we then live a life based on a lie.
26 Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. 27 In the same way, the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men and received in themselves the due penalty for their error.
We can lie to ourselves and sugar coat sin which is what our culture has done well. We can say same-sex marriage is not a sin, pornography is natural, celebrate adultery by calling it an affair and making movies out of it. Two thousand years ago, God has already prophesied that this will happen. Men exchanging the glory of God for a lie.
28 Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done. 29 They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; 31 they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy. 32 Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.
Scary thing to read because we live in an age and time where this is happening right before our eyes even on primetime TV. I believe it is about time Christians start living out the gospel and show their friends and family that life in Christ is something we won’t exchange for momentary pleasure and sin.
The things of this world cannot satisfy us. Only Christ can do that. Are we willing to give up our idols and get our satisfaction in Christ alone?