Romans: The Corrupted Heart of Men

This month’s article will finish Chapter 1 of Romans and Paul’s arguments regarding the corrupted heart of mankind. Last month we looked at verses 18 through 25, and this month we will look at verses 25 through 32, the end of the chapter.

Before we do, a reminder of the backdrop for these verses as seen in verses 18 and 19:

Romans 1:18-19: “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness; Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath showed it unto them.”

Just a reminder as we dig into verses 25-32 that:

God has revealed truth to all men
His truth specifically reveals His wrath against the wickedness of mankind
Mankind does know about God’s truth. (Ever had to convince a child that lying is bad? They intuitively know that lying is wrong and will vehemently deny doing so even when caught in a lie . . .)
But mankind chooses to hold that truth in unrighteousness. (There are clearly only two biological sexes as evidenced by billions of births – always babies are born male or female, yet today we “cisgender” people, we identify as something else, etc. One state had up to twenty-three different options on their birth certifications . . . Really?)
But God has manifested His truth in mankind (such as two sexes at birth) and, yet, man rejects what God has clearly shown mankind.

Like last month, we will examine this section of Scripture verse by verse.

Verse 18 Notes: “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness;”

Who hold the truth in unrighteousness: hold: (have, hold (fast), keep (in memory), possess, retain, seize (Strong’s G2722). Greek word is katecho and is found in the New Testament nineteen times and is translated hold, hold fast, keep, make, have, take – all tightly related to owning and handling and holding something.

Unfortunately, some scholars don’t like Paul’s choice of Greek word and, in subsequent English translations, have changed it to try and provide and excuse for those millions and billions who have not heard the gospel. So, for example, the NIV, CBL, ESV, NAS and others render this Greek word in this location as “suppress”, thus implying a slightly different meaning than what Paul was conveying.

Whether “hold” or “suppress”, it means that mankind has rejected God’s truth and is either trying to hide it from others (and they are doing that today with their “misinformation” campaigns), or they possess the truth but twist it and interpret it wrong willfully. Both are bad.

Definition of suppress – a verb transitive . . . (American Dictionary of the English Language)
1. To overpower and crush ; to subdue ; to destroy ; as, to suppress a rebellion ; to suppress a mutiny or riot ; to suppress opposition. . . .
2. To keep in ; to restrain from utterance or vent ; as, to suppress the voice ; to suppress sighs.
3. To retain without disclosure ; to conceal ; not to tell or reveal ; as, to suppress evidence. . . .
4. To retain without communication or making public ; as, to suppress a letter ; to suppress a manuscript.
5. To stifle ; to stop ; to hinder form circulation ; as, to suppress a report.
6. To stop ; to restrain ; to obstruct from discharges ; as, to suppress a diarrhea, a hemorrhage and the like.

Romans 7:16: “If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good.”

Truth is truth. Not just God’s biblical truth, but His creative truth, His laws of physics, mathematics, engineering, biology, chemistry, etc. So these people have access to and may even understand the truth but have rejected it for false realities. But, even worse, they wickedly regard God’s truth and unjustly and wrongfully malign it. The lost have many avenues or venues of truth to examine and ultimately reject it for their own prefabricated truth. Examples:

- Evolutionists who examine the same data creationists do but reject a God-created universe and earth.

- DNA and other systems within the body are simply too complicated to have evolved. Scientists know that DNA has at least three levels of “software codes” but are baffled by how the code (and what level) dictates that at stem cell (has not yet decided to be any particular cell type) will become a nerve, heart, kidney, bone, cartridge, skin (and what type of skin!), blood, etc. cell. Yet despite the complexity and impossibility of evolution being able to “code” these error corrections and regenerative systems, they still reject God as the author. Even evolutionists recognize that all things left to themselves devolve not evolve, yet they will not release their stranglehold on the evolution theory for the ascent of man.

- Psychologists who create all manner of psychosis but reject that the heart of man’s problems is his sin.

- God created male and female. But man has decided that there needs to be lots more genders. Now, even worse, there are those who claim to identify as something they are not, thus rejecting how God made them.

- Man has separated the human race into many races and pits them against each other when it is clear that there is only one race, the human race.

- God says life is precious – man kills babies in the womb and now is pushing euthanasia for not only the elderly and infirm, but for those who no longer enjoy the quality of life they feel they deserve.

- God has given us meat to eat, and some reject that and try to give animals equal rights, as well as, only eat vegetables, etc.

- God is the creator, but man has substituted Gaya as our mother earth – thus making a different god to worship.

- Man spins truth (twists it to fit his purposes to hide what is really happening). Torture the facts long enough, and they will confess to anything.

Verse 19 Notes: “Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath showed it unto them.”

Because: “on the very account that, or inasmuch as” (Strong’s G1360). So why is the wrath of God abiding on these kinds of men – those who hold God’s truth wickedly? Because . . .

That which may be known of God is manifest in them: These people have knowledge (a gnosis) of God that is manifest (apparent, public knowledge, open for all to see – Strong’s G5318) and even refer to that knowledge but still reject it or hold it wickedly. Examples:

- “I’m going to hell and will be there with all my buddies.”
- “Why would such a loving God allow so much suffering?”
- “Yeah, I tell lies, and cheat, and steal little things, but, hey, I’m not a murderer!”
- “Oh, Jesus was a great prophet, but surely He can’t save people from their sins . . .”
- “I’m a good person. I am sure my good deeds outweigh anything bad I have done.”

All of these examples reveal that these statements are made by those who accept that there is a God, but they believe that they have a better way than what God has provided.

For God hath showed it unto them: Their conscience, the heavens, tribal and governmental laws, moral codes, obviously the Bible and the Ten Commandments, the cosmological problems that don’t fit any of the cosmology models like the Big Bang (dark matter, dark energy, the universe heating up as it expands instead of cooling down as expected), DNA, and all of the complex systems in the body (twenty-six steps needed to coagulate blood), and so many other evidences, all disregarded for what they point to in favor of theories that reject God.

Let’s now dig into the rest of Chapter 1 of Romans . . .

Romans 1:25-23:

Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshiped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompense of their error which was meet. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient; Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, Backbiters, haters of God, dispiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, Without understanding, covenant breakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful: Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.

Again, we will examine this section of Scripture verse by verse.

Verse 25 Notes: “Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshiped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.”

Who changed the truth of God into a lie:

“Hath God said?”-

- It’s my body, my choice”, not denying that the unborn is a human, simply unwanted
- Music is amoral; I can listen to anything I want
- Steamy romance books help me in my marriage
- I can wear anything I want – immodesty
- Multiple marriages: we treat marriage as a contract, but God sees marriage as a covenant
- Unequally yoked marriages
- Rejection of God’s design for male and female
- Ignoring God’s pattern for child rearing
- Evolution, relativism
- Rejection of parental authority
- Exposure to evil won’t hurt you: horror movies, perverse sex scenes, demonic scenes, glorifying evil and condemning good
- Love vs. lust: self-gratification rather than esteeming others above ourselves
- Winds of doctrines that have blown through the church and the public
- Don’t like what the Bible says about something, have a new revelation that reinterprets it
- Life is in the blood – so for years doctors bled people to heal them
- Earth is flat (some still believe this . . .)
- Humanism is setting up man as his own god

And worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator:

- Instead of walking by faith, the world and carnal Christians walk by sight and, therefore, respond and interpret things by their limited and darkened understanding.
- Not just the creation of false gods of wood and stone, or power and money, but also perversion of their bodies being given over to the worship of the flesh (the human creature) rather than obey God’s design

Who is blessed forever. Amen: Doesn’t matter what man tries to do – God is still blessed and blessing those who love Him. So let it be!

Verse 26 Notes: “For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature:”

Vile: atimia: (Strong’s G819): vile, reproachful, disgraceful, dishonoring, shameful, morally despicable, abhorrent, intellectual dishonesty, physically repulsive, foul, degrading, disgustingly, utterly bad, obnoxious, contemptible . . .

Affections: pathos: (Strong’s G3806): suffering, passion, lust, inordinate affection, concupiscence. Negative affections not healthy affections.

Women who reject God’s design: lesbians, feminists (I am not referring to the wrong idea of women having a lesser value than a man), etc. Reject procreation.

Against nature gives us a clue – in this case Paul is referring to God’s design and intent. Women who reject God’s design and intent for them.

Abortion is another way mankind has rejected God’s design. By refusing to properly deal with their sin, they claim “my body, my choice”, and do several things: (1) They reject that they are God’s creation and subject to God’s standards – thou shall not kill; (2) They reject a most important part of their physical design as mothers and bearers of children; (3) They commit murder for the sake of convenience or to avoid the stigma of unwed motherhood: (4) They suppress the natural desire to bear, give birth to, and nurture a child for the sake of their own selfish intents.

Verse 27 Notes: “And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned [were inflamed with a fire they could not put out] in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompense of their error which was meet.”

Homosexuality is clearly against God’s design. Man was designed to procreate with woman. Even the engineering disciplines acknowledge this by designing plugs and sockets as “male” and “female”.

Recompense includes various diseases like AIDS and HIV, other sexual diseases, early death, destruction of the family unit: numerous partners creating a fluid family dynamic that destroys the family unit, and various psychological disorders that often lead to suicide.

Which was meet: it was deserved. No one who engages in sexual sin, financial sin, or other kinds of sin and picks up a disease, loses their wealth, is humiliated from power, etc. can say, “why did this have to happen to me?” To be clear, this is also very true of those who commit adultery or visit prostitutes not just homosexuals.

Leaving the natural use: implies strongly that:

- They know very well what is the natural state (what God intended) and rejected it for more base and degrading acts and perversion
- Created imagined wicked things to do
- Can’t be satisfied and must get worse and worse

Unseemly acts: indecent acts, not to be seen by others. So vile, they should offend everyone when we learn what they do. So bad and evil, we should never describe the details . . .

Ephesians 5:12: “For it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret.”

Verse 28 Notes: “And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient;”

Retain: echo: (Strong’s G1292): different than katecho (hold) in that is means to possess, have a relationship with, build an ability, etc. and, of course, they don’t want to do this.

- They refuse the Bible
- They reject sound preaching
- They seek alternatives to God’s design
- They refuse true cause and effect relationships
- They blame others for their failures
- They “spin” the truth or hide it, twist it, or outright create false truth

God gave them over: This is repeated two more times in Chapter 2. It lets us know that there are lines that God stops people at and gives them chances to repent.

- It is a grievous thing to step over the line, unrepentant, and force God to allow you to go deeper into sin and perversion.

Verse 29-31 Notes: “Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, Backbiters, haters of God, dispiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, Without understanding, covenant breakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful:”

Paul now defines the sins:

- Unrighteousness: all sins against God
- Fornication: all sexual sins
- Wickedness: evil in principle and practice
- Covetousness: tenth commandment
- Maliciousness: causing others injury or harm
- Full of envy
- Murder
- Debate: quarrelsome arguments designed to create contention
- Deceit: misleading with a purpose for malicious intent
- Malignity: to have an evil intent towards others, to malign them verbally or otherwise

Paul now defines the person and their behaviors:

- Whisperers
- Backbiters
- Haters of God
- Despiteful
- Proud
- Boasters
- Inventors of evil things
- Disobedient to parents
- Without understanding
- Covenant breakers
- Without natural affection
- Implacable: cannot be pleased
- Unmerciful

Verse 32 Notes: “Who knowing the judgement of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.”

They know God’s law: Ten Commandments, marriage, unclean vs. clean, covenants, to honor others, etc.

They know the penalty: No excuse when they stand before God – such sins are worthy of death. They testify their total rejection of God and His standards of holiness.

Not only do the same: Knowing God’s standard and the penalty – they still choose to do it. None of this “the devil made me do it”, “it was that woman you gave me.” They make a conscience choice to sin and go deeper into sin.

But have pleasure in them that do them: Misery loves company. People hate to sin alone. Imagine the penalty that God will hand out to those who introduce others into such sins and enjoy watching/partaking in them with these others.

What about Christians?

1. We also have a corrupted heart – the old man, and it wars with the new man. Let the old man die daily and feed, instead, the new man in Christ.

2. We can easily be swept away with the lust of the eyes, the flesh, and pride; that is, become carnal. We must always guard against that slippage.

3. Many Christians do hold God’s truth in error and, as such, postulate a lie when they teach or council accordingly (Well in your situation, miss, go ahead and marry that unsaved man. You are obviously an exception.). Verify truth when you hear it, and reject what can’t be verified in Scripture.

4. Many Christians do not retain God’s truth. They might enjoy a good sermon, read a good passage in Psalms, but instead of meditating and learning from it, quickly forget it. Study, memorize, and meditate on God’s Word.

5. Beware of winds of doctrine – be as those in Berea that were more noble than those in Thessalonica. They went home and checked the Scriptures to see if what Paul (Joe) preaches is true. Check out what we say in God’s Word!

6. Make it a purpose in your life to immediately repent and confess sin ASAP before God, and keep a clean slate and a tight relationship with Him. Keep short accounts with God.

7. Our relationship with God is always in danger of growing cold. Keep an active prayer life, and learn to listen to the promptings of the Holy Spirit.

Maranatha!

Bro. Joe

References

Strong, J. Strong's Hebrew and Greek Dictionaries. Meyers, R. (2005). e-Sword. [computer software] . Franklin, TN: Equipping Ministries Foundation. (Original work published 1539)

Webster, Noah. Noah Webster’s First Edition of an American Dictionary of the English Language Facsimile Fifth Edition. San Francisco, CA now at Chesapeake Bay, VA: The Foundation for American Christian Education. 1987. (Original work published 1828)

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