Have you ever
been on an airline when the pilot comes over the system and say please put on
your seatbelts because we are going to have severe turbulence? Going through the letter of Romans is like
flying in a plane with severe turbulence- its rough. Here is why God reveals to us the truth about
our sin: For God’s wrath is revealed from heaven against all godlessness and
unrighteousness of people who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth,
since what can be known about God is evident among them, because God has shown
it to them. For His invisible
attributes, that is, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly
seen since the creation of the world, being understood through what He has
made. As a result, people are without excuse.
For though
they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God or show gratitude. Instead,
their thinking became nonsense, and their senseless minds were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools and
exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man,
birds, four-footed animals, and reptiles. Therefore God delivered them over in the
cravings of their hearts to sexual impurity, so that their bodies were degraded
among themselves. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and
served something created instead of the Creator, who is praised forever. • Amen
. This is why God delivered them over to degrading passions. For even
their females exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. The males in the same way also left natural
relations with females and were inflamed in their lust for one another. Males
committed shameless acts with males and received in their own persons the
appropriate penalty of their error. And
because they did not think it worthwhile to acknowledge God, God delivered them
over to a worthless mind to do what is morally wrong. They are filled with all unrighteousness,
evil, greed, and wickedness. They are full of envy, murder, quarrels, deceit, and
malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, arrogant, proud, boastful,
inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, undiscerning, untrustworthy,
unloving, and unmerciful. Although they know full well God’s just
sentence —that those who practice such things deserve to die—they not only do
them, but even applaud others who practice them. (Romans 1:18-32)
Humanity
turned away from God, so he gave them over to their sinful cravings because they
exchanged the truth about him for a lie.
Idolatry is a heart issue. We as humans tend to dismiss the idols of our
day; we make excuses for having them.
The only problem is we don’t call them idols. Three times we read that God gave them over
to their sinful desires, has God given you over to your sinful desires? If you don't know if God has given you over to your sinful desires ask the Lord to search your heart and show you. He wants you to be free from the sin that is holding you back. If you are a Christian and think that you can
live in willful known sin and get away with it because you prayed a prayer and
were baptized read this passage again.
God will discipline the Christian because you are his property and not
your own. If you are not a Christian,
God still created you, paid for your sin debt in full, and if you continue to
say no to him then at some point he will turn you over to your sin. This is the reason I invite you to examine
your life today and seek the Lord Jesus with all of your heart, to turn from
all known sin in your life and submit to him as the Lord of your life.
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