God s Wrath Manifested in the Consequences of Sin (Rom 1.24-32) WestminsterReformedChurch.org Pastor Ostella January 15, 2017 Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, 25 because they exchanged the truth about God for a 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 dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; 27 and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error. 28 And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. 29 They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, 31 foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. 32 Though they know God's righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them. Introduction The manifestation of wrath is the subject under consideration in 1.18-32. This subject has an unusual structure to it. God s righteous wrath is manifested on earth from the holy of holies of heaven in sin as the consequence of sin (24-31) and in death as the consequence of sin (32). So our title is God s wrath manifested in the consequences of sin and the outline has two parts: the consequence of sin is sin (24-31), and the consequence of sin is death (32). I. The consequence of sin is sin This is a hard saying that the righteous wrath of God comes to manifestation on earth from heaven (1.18). That is, it comes to realization on earth in human affairs throughout history through God s action of giving up the nations to sin: therefore (v. 24) God gave them up (stated in 24, 26, 28). Giving them up is not simply a passive statement of non-interference. It is not that God took a passive role and left them to themselves. The language is active. God handed them over to sin more fully by handing them over to impurity and dishonoring conduct. As Murray puts it: God s displeasure [His wrath] is expressed in his abandonment of the persons concerned to more intensified and aggravated cultivation of the lusts of their own hearts with the result that they reap for themselves a correspondingly greater toll of retributive vengeance (Romans I, 44-45). Remember the sins that surfaced in God s judgment on Israel and Jerusalem. The consequence of sin came in the sins of Israel s enemies (for which they were eventually judged). The consequence of sin also surfaced in Israel s own growth in sin. When the Lord gave them over to their rebellion and idolatry, when He let them go down that road, they advanced from sin to more sin; they hurt themselves and one another by their growth in sin on the path of departure from God. To be sure, He let them have what they wanted, but the action of God as sovereign judge, is neither deistic nor impersonal. He decides to hand people over to specific sins at specific times and places according to His purpose and will. The sins are of our own choosing at every point, however perverse, but which sins God decides to allow us to choose and which He prevents us from choosing is His decision. He governs the evil actions of all people just as He governs all things and works them after the counsel of His will for the praise of the glory of His grace. There is nothing arbitrary or capricious about God s decisions nor about His anger. The sin to which they were given up is discussed in two ways, specifically and generally. Specifically, they were given up to sexual immorality (to deeper sexual degradation) and generally, they were given up to all kinds of sins (which Paul summarizes in a litany of unrighteousness). A. On one hand, God gave them up to sexual immorality Paul s treatment has a pattern of justification and exemplification (reasons, examples). 1. Justification (1.18-26a, reasons for the handing over)
!2 Paul gives two reasons for the manifestation of God s wrath in handing people over to sexual immorality. He states them with repetition and overlap for force and clarity. The first is from 1.18-23 to which the therefore of verse 24 refers: because they suppressed the truth they know, and because they lived contrary to the truth they know, therefore, God handed them over to impurity and the dishonoring their bodies among themselves (24c). Thus, in 1.25, the exchange cited in 23 is reiterated: the giving up is because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen. Thus, in the suppression and contradiction of what they know, they exchange truth for error, worship the creature, and serve the creature instead of the Creator. Accordingly, they do not glorify God who is blessed forever! Amen. This blessing of God is a mini-doxology in an outburst of adoring praise in which Paul reacts to the dishonor to God that prevails among fallen people. The amen voices Paul s own assent to the fact that God is blessed (bless-ed) as the eternal God to whom belongs all glory. That is, He is wondrous King all-glorious (as we sang earlier). So, amen to that ultimate and comprehensive fact. He is what the creation is instrumental in showing Him to be, the Creator of all with eternal power and immutable attributes. Suppressing this huge fact is one reason that grounds the giving of people over to sexual degradation in all its forms. The second reason for wrath in handing people over to sexual immorality is in the phrase in the lusts of their hearts (24b). It is important to note that this does not describe what they are given up to (not directly). Instead, the lustful heart refers to the moral condition of the heart that God judges. It is lust, strong inordinate desire for sexual experience, that stirs up God s angry wrath. The relation of heart to action is no doubt presupposed, so, the sins to which they are handed over in judgment are already present. It is important to know that God s judgment is not the origin of these sexual sins; these sins are already present and it is to them that people are consigned by the manifestation of His wrath. 2. Exemplification (1.24, 26-27) When Paul states in verse 24 that God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts, he adds a distinctively new thought to the reasons for this judgment. So, he narrows the focus of his concern to parallel expressions of lust: impurity (24b), the dishonoring of the body among themselves (24c), and the wrong of homosexuality committed by both sexes (26b-27). These sins are inseparable even if they give nuances regarding sexual sin. Lust manifests itself in sexual impurity of thought and deed. In turn, impurity involves conduct that dishonors the body. More specifically, dishonor to the body takes the particularly perverse and degraded form of homosexuality. Thus, these people have been handed over by the Lord to the impure dishonoring of the body in homosexuality, a prime example being handed over to sexual sin in which sin is the consequence of sin. Accordingly, the apostle goes on to speak of homosexual sin as a wrong that both sexes commit (26b, 27). a. The women are mentioned in 26b 1 Now in 26b, Paul defines the impurity and bodily dishonor that he has in mind as it pertains to women: For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature. Notably, women is literally females accenting their sexuality in its design for filling the earth. The word translated relations is literally use or function in clear reference to the purpose of their female sexual functions. Together these thoughts accent the woman s sexuality in its design from the beginning for fruitful filling of the earth (Gen 1.27-28; Mat 19.4). Hence, the accuracy of the translation natural relations that implies the purpose of female and male in God s ordering of things regarding natural sexual relations of women and men. The language of exchange attaches itself to the thought of the Creator and the sinful exchanges, both mentioned earlier. It also attaches itself to the suppression of the truth of the Creator in His creation 1 Paul has moved from the reasons for God s judgment beginning with the suppression and contradiction of the truth (1.18-23) to a narrower focus on outworking of sexual lusts of the heart (v. 24). Context (24-27) indicates the sexual sins in view.
!3 (1.18-20) that extends back to the beginning of the world. Therefore, this is an exchange of natural God-ordered sexual function for a use that violates that design for females that was put in place when life on earth began. b. The men are cited in 27 and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error. Whereas explicitness regarding how women exchanged natural sexual relations for the unnatural is lacking in the case of women (v. 26), verse 27 is quite explicit about how men made this exchange: they gave up the natural God ordered function of sexual relations of male with female (as the LXX of male and female in Gen 1.27) for an unnatural function of men [males] with one another, of men [males] with men [males]. This conduct is further characterized as being consumed with passion, that is, they burned in desire for other men. It is also characterized as committing shameless acts, which means that their sexual actions with other men is particularly shameful and disgraceful. We should note that Paul is not as muted as the simple with men may seem for he says that men with men (males with males) commit shameful acts. What makes this conduct inordinate desire and shameful is the fact that it is men with men. Thus, in considering the teaching here that the consequence of sin is sin, on one hand, God in wrath gave them up to sexual immorality, distinctively epitomized in the sin of homosexuality, and that of both sexes. Now, on the other hand, righteous retribution comes to manifestation more widely. B. On the other hand, God gave them up to all manner of unrighteousness (28-31) Again, in this giving up, we can detect a pattern of justification and exemplification (of reason and example). 1. Justification (28a, reason for the judgment) since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up. It is easy to see how this corresponds to the fundamental theme of suppressing the truth they know and living contrary to it (of 1.18f). The judicial action of God derives from the refusal of the people in view to have God in their knowledge. He is not being acknowledged in truth, hence, the whole complex emerging from truth suppression stirs up God s righteous wrath. The result of their sins and God s wrath upon them is more sin in various exchanges by which they turn the world upside down with religious and moral inversions. Here, the giving up that Paul stresses is to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. The apostle indicates that the sins that stir up His anger, are the sins of the mind and heart (suppressing of the truth and becoming darkened in mind with futility in their thinking, 1.18-21) have the judicial consequence of more sin. They are given up to a debased mind in judgment on the seat of thought and action (Murray I, 49). Hence, they consider God not fit to think about, so, God handed them over to do things not fit to think about, as well as shameful to practice. 2. Exemplification in a litany of unrighteousness (29-31) They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, 31 foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. There is no way to categorize the list by some system. His list is a selection of sins among the nations in disobedience to God (cf. 1.5-6). The list no doubt reflects the moral condition of Paul's generation and preceding generations. Selection is clear from other lists that document different vices (Gal 5.19-21). The vices are introduced by an indication of the extensive nature of human depravity in the words: being filled with all unrighteousness. The bucket of their sins is full to the brim. Not that every nation (like Rome) or every city (like Sodom) manifested every sin on the list and did so to the fullest extent. Because of the selectivity of the list, the point is that among the nations these sins came to expression commonly, fully, and intensively among the people in a variety of ways that "picture the utmost degeneracy" on a massive scale. Just as no individual
!4 displays all these sins at once, nor does any nation, but individuals collectively and the nations collectively are marked by these sins, to one degree here and another degree there. Moreover, there is an overlapping quality to these sins that accents the seriousness of the unrighteousness of thought and deed under review. Consider the connection of disobedience to parents with other applicable vices. Dishonoring your father or mother is kin to murder and as such it involves heartless hatred of God; thus, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful (NAS). Harsh words to my mother are sins of insolence, haughtiness, and foolishness. Thinking about the list in this manner and pondering different interconnections is an aid in estimating the guilt we incur. II. The consequence of sin is death Most of our time has been spent on the fact that the consequence of sin is commonly more sin, greater and deeper sin, consignment in this sin or that sin. Now, a few words are in order regarding the other fact here, that the consequence of sin is death (1.32): Though they know God's righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them. Let s consider the death they deserve and the reason they deserve it. A. First, the death they deserve Death is introduced as God s righteous decree that fallen sinners know they deserve. Death must be defined in context of the full wrath of God as not only physical death but eternal separation from God and eternal punishment. The text is grounded in the early chapters of Genesis and Paul s look back in Romans 5.12: just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned. Paul puts death in contrast with eternal life (6.23), and this is in harmony with Jesus on eternal punishment as death. The goats, Jesus says, are the unrighteous in the final judgment who will go away into eternal punishment, while the righteous into eternal life (Mat 25.46). The death fallen sinners know they merit is physical death and what lies beyond it in eternal separation from God (so, Murray, I, 51). B. Second, the reason they deserve it It goes with the earlier facts about fallen people that they suppress the truth they know and they conduct themselves in a way contrary to the truth they know (this contrary conduct includes being praiseless, thankless, idolatrous). Furthermore, they deserve it because a) they know that they do the things deserving of death (32a), and b) they give approval of others, encouraging others to sin and perish along with them. It is folly indeed. Application: on listening to God s word It seems appropriate to emphasize the need to hear Romans with open and submissive hearts regarding human sin and guilt, the guilt of homosexuality, and the good news of cleansing from all sin and guilt. 1. On human sin and guilt The last words of this chapter make us recognize our need to listen carefully to what the Lord tells us about our sin and guilt. On the outside, people may not look so bad and we might wonder about the severity of God s dealings. But the culpability is great and God s actions now in history and yet to come are perfectly just. All are without excuse. God s judgments are just. In 1.32, we have a capstone of all that has gone before in the fact that their sinning involves mutual consent. This adds a lower note of degeneracy to all the previous statements of sinfulness in a culminating indictment. Perhaps, as Murray states, this is the most damning characterization in this section of Romans: namely, the consensus of men in the pursuit of iniquity (I, 52). The most damning condition, Murray goes on to say, is not the practice of iniquity but "it is that together with the practice there is also the support and encouragement of others in the practice of the same. To put it bluntly, we are not only bent on damning ourselves but we congratulate others in
!5 the doing of those things that we know have their issue in damnation..iniquity is more aggravated when it meets with no inhibition from the disapproving of others and when there is collective, undissenting approbation (52-53). Thus, sin is worse when disapproval is like water off a duck s back and is reinforced by the collective approval of consenting sinners. This shows up in various collective forms of religious substitution in false religion and worship in modern mythicizing. The two most powerful modern myths are the theory of evolution (mythicized as a scientific fact) and the presupposition of free will (the notion that people in the fall are free to do right or wrong in what is falsely praised as good human autonomy). These myths are so powerful as modern idols that they affect, infect, the church with many professing Christians proclaiming versions of evolution and freedom for enslaved sinners as truth. Similarly, people claim to be Christians because of past profession while they forsake Christ s church. 2 Professing Christians, philosopher and non-philosophical thinkers process Scripture through the meat grinder of autonomy claiming that the product is Christian steak but the reality is nonchristian hamburger. 2. On the guilt of homosexual sin Many twist the Scriptures, Peter says, to their own destruction (2 Pet 3.16). There is a great danger of that practice regarding the sin of homosexuality in a fog of darkness. It used to be hidden in the closet with much lying and deceit. Rationalizing tendencies are profuse. Now the attempt is to turn homosexual sin upside down morally in another form of darkness within our culture and affecting the church. There is a huge effort in the world to justify homosexuality and a substantial effort within the professing church of Christ to do the same. As Calvin put it, people show themselves blind at noonday in the warmth of a blazing sun. For example, the claim is made that in view in Romans are idolaters who are therefore turned over to become homosexuals of a perverse type. On this view, so called Christian homosexuals do not fit into Paul s indictment. They claim that he is not talking about them. They infer that in view are bad forms of homosexuality not good forms. Bad forms are the unnatural kinds of homosexuality that occur when heterosexuals act contrary to their heterosexual natures, or when homosexuals go against natural bonds of love as in homosexual rape and pederasty (the unnatural, unloving abuse of children, especially boys by men). The good form, according to gay interpretation, is the practice of same-sex sex in loving monogamous relationships. Similar arguments are made for homosexual practice by those outside the church for gay marriage and even for a recreational use of any form of sexual expression in our culture. As long as it is consensual (not 1.32) homosexual sins and the whole list of sins are encouraged. However, such argumentation finds no support in Paul s development of idolatrous unbelief. He does not teach that the judgment for unbelief is homosexuality in various perverse forms (supposedly without mentioning a loving form and without denying its legitimacy). Instead, he teaches that homosexual sins and all the sins listed are already present when God s judgment falls. Therefore, the consequence of homosexual sin is intensified homosexual sin. Recall how the lusts of the heart (that are acted out already in bodily dishonor) grow deeper under God s judicial action to an abandonment to impurity (24a) and to an abandonment to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves (24b). Homosexual sin expressed as lust in the heart is part of a complex of conduct that includes suppressing the truth one knows in unrighteousness and living contrary to the truth known as this unfolds in idolatrous unbelief. So, instead of finding justification for some form of same-sex sex in the text, we actually are given insight into the justifications and rationalizations that those who commit these things present in order to suppress the truth they know about God and about their conduct sexually that contradicts the truth. They are dangerously drifting away from the faith, if they have not already drifted away; whatever is in their hearts, they can 2 make no credible claim to being Christians. But they have substitute forms of worship guided by a warped standard based on human autonomy instead of the word of God.
!6 Moreover, the notion of loving forms of homosexuality finds no support in Paul s language of against nature because the context refers us back to the creation and what has been known about God and sexual conduct since the world began. In the beginning, God established the natural order of things for human sexuality between a man and a woman in marriage. Homosexuality in all its forms sins against that natural order; monogamous loving sexual relations belong exclusively within a marriage of a man and a woman. Finally, it is clear in Romans 1 that homosexuality is treated as a single category without differentiation of types; the category of same-sex sex is sinful and this applies to all subset forms of conduct within the category, whether practiced by women or men. 3. On the good news of cleansing from all sin and guilt Granted, homosexuality is marked out in the text, but there are many other sins listed and the listing is selective. Homosexual sin is not the only sin called an abomination in Scripture (as the six sins of Prov 6.16-17). It is marked out here for the distinctive exchange it involves by embracing a lie for truth in specific contradiction to God s design for male and female established by creation by creative fiat (He made them male and female, and He commanded them to fill the earth). However, homosexuals are not beyond hope for Paul includes homosexuals when he says, but such were some of you (1 Cor 6.11). We should make the emphatic point that it is wrong and contrary to the spirit of the gospel to call oneself a gay Christian if one has turned away from the practice of that sin by being washed by the blood of Christ. Instead of the self-designation, I am a gay Christian, one s identity should be a once gay person who is now a Christian: I am a Christian. Of course, we must recognize that for many Christians tendencies may remain, even lifelong. Struggle with past habits of sin may be difficult, but that is not the same as being a person to be named by that conduct, whether it is an adulterer, fornicator, homosexual, liar, or drunkard. In all these ways, such were some of you, but now you are washed. That is the good news to be cherished. Of great importance is the promise in these sober verses (1 Cor 6.9-11): Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, 10 nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. 11 And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. No matter what the sin, those who submit themselves to Christ as their prophet, priest, and king are washed in the blood of the Lamb. Their sanctification is guaranteed just as their justification is sure. It is all in the name, person, and attributes of Jesus Christ; it is all by the power of the Holy Spirit who effectually applies the salvation accomplished by the risen Lord Jesus. May we fall down before the majesty of God most high; may the Holy Spirit enable us to see the sinfulness of sin, of our sin, clearly; may He humble us and help us grow more and more in the truth that He has put at our fingertips; thus, let us pray: wondrous King all-glorious, sovereign Lord victorious, O receive our praise to the glory of the triune God, now in His church and forever, amen.