Text: Romans 1:18-32 (NKJV)
18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, 19 because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. 20 For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, 21 because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Professing to be wise, they became fools, 23 and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man—and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things.
24 Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves, 25 who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.
26 For this reason God gave them up to vile passions. For even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature. 27 Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful, and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due.
28 And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting; 29 being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness; they are whisperers, 30 backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, 31 undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful; 32 who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only do the same but also approve of those who practice them.
Devotional Thoughts and Commentary:
There is a whole bunch in this passage, and I hope that you spend some time of your own meditating on it (spending time thinking it over). What I want to focus on is the guilt of all people before God for ignoring Him.
Almost since Eden, mankind has looked at nature and seen god in it. Well, there was a sun god, a moon god, a tree god, etc. There was some level of truth to that, because the one true God is everywhere. He is in the rock, but the rock is not God. Anyway, Paul tells us here that God's wrath is turned against mankind because He has revealed Himself to humans and they have ignored Him. We see God in the beauty of His creation. Certainly not His fullness, but he can be seen there. Beauty, order, and design- three things present in creation. Neither evolution nor Big Bangs are able to account for the latter two. Francis Collins, the leader of the human genome project that only a few years back successfully decoded the human genome, wrote an outstanding book on the topic. While I don't necessarily endorse him or this book without reservation (questionable theology, if it is even worthy of that term, for example), the work is important as it shows the equality of intelligent design with the evolutionary hypothesis under the microscope of science and because it provides fascinating insight into the details of God's handiwork.
In the face of the general revealing of God through His creation, one can respond two ways- A) Reject Him completely, or B) Accept the divinity present. Underneath Option B, one can ascribe divinity to nature itself as discussed earlier and in verses 22-23 or one can believe in divine design.
The latter half of the passage helps us answer a fundamental question once someone accepts the logical proposition that there is an all-powerful God- Why are there bad things (evil) on earth? I will not answer that in entirety, if it can be completely answered, but I do think this passage provides us with a basic, correct answer. Bad things happen in the world because mankind sinned by rejecting God. Almost all bad things we experience on Earth are the direct result of human sin. You say, are natural disasters the result of sin? Yes. While not quite as directly caused as, say, murder, man lived without sin in Eden and without death. As we will explore in chapter 5 of Romans, it was there that sin entered the world and death came with that sin.
Applications:
Take some time to consider God as Creator. Yes, study some science. The human eye, cells, astronomy, Alaskan mountains- think of the order, design, and beauty inherent in them. It is too easy to just walk along in our lives as if we were blind. What good is sight if we don't take the time to enjoy what we can see? Take a few minutes to praise God for His amazing creation!
Working on letting go of any bitterness that you harbor against God for bad things you have experienced in life. That statement makes it sound like that is easy to do, but we need to understand that such anger is misplaced. Bad things happen because of our sin. Goodness comes from following Jesus Christ.
Look Back:
1/26/2011 Devotional Thoughts... Romans 1:16-17
1/25/2011 Devotional Thoughts... Romans 1:8-15
1/24/2011 Devotional Thoughts... Romans 1:1-7
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