Thanks for checking out my blog! I just posted a video delving into some rigorous Bible study, specifically in my favorite book of the Bible: Romans! I have just started co-leading a Bible study going through Romans verse by verse with a group in person and want to share some of the crumbs of that feast with you.
In the video we look at Romans 1:18-32. You can also check out the study below. I think by the end you will share my surprise at just how much the apostle Paul says in just these few verses! They are brimming with rich teachings on Christian anthropology (the study of man) and epistemology (the study of knowledge).
Let’s start by reading the passage and then we’ll sift through it more slowly verse by verse. For reference, the following is from the ESV, but I encourage you to read a number of different translations as you study any passage of Scripture.
Romans 1:18-32
18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. 19 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. 21 For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.
24 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.
Audience
Who is being described in this passage? The answer is in the first verse of the passage: “men”. The “them” in the next verse and the “they”, etc. in the following verses refer back to the “men” in verse 18. So if you’re a “man” as in human, this passage applies to you.
Verse Breakdown
(For more commentary and reflections verse-by-verse, check out the video.)
Commentary and Conclusion
To summarize my reflections after concluding this study: God’s wrath is righteous and justly deserved by all. He has heaped the sweet nectar of his grace out on us and we’ve spat it out as urine to us. There is not one who on judgment day will be able to say their sentence is not fair or that they didn’t have a chance.
Down to the tribesmen on the remotest islands, all are without excuse. All have had their opportunity and thrown it away.
One may say, “all well and good I admit the epistemology (I do indeed know of God and his divinity), but I can’t acknowledge the anthropology—never have I ever been such a beast as described here!”
But immediately after this passage we just considered in Romans 1, Paul begins his 2nd chapter with: “Therefore you have no excuse, O man, every one of you who judges. For in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, practice the very same things.”
You haven’t realized the high standard of the heart—he who hates is a murderer, as the apostle John says in 1 John 3:15
You haven’t examined yourself in the light of the earlier part of John’s first epistle where he cautions: “If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.
And if you say sure you’ve sinned but just in small matters, you don’t understand the severity of your sin for in Proverbs 8:13 God says: “The fear of the Lord is hatred of evil. Pride and arrogance and the way of evil and perverted speech I hate.”
And
Romans 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death” Our sin warrants the death penalty!
“But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear.” (Isaiah 59:2)
If you read this thinking you’ll do OK without the forgiveness of Christ, I beg you to reconsider with a sincere examination of yourself in the light of God’s standards, in the light of all He has given you, and in the light of the ways you have squandered what he’s given. We’ve all received abundant grace from God and have responded with foolish thanklessness. We all have earned our consequences, but we don’t all have to suffer those consequences. Christ has suffered to take away our well-deserved penalty. Turn from your sin, leave your ungrateful heart at the cross. Put your faith in Him and he will make you a new man, a new woman—you will be made pure in his sight for all eternity and free from his just anger against our wrongdoings.
If you have already put your faith in Christ, let Romans 1 be God’s reminder of how great his gift to you is. I hope you are given fresh joy in your new life, remembering how near to destruction you were. What a turn around God is able to make in the lives of his people!
I encourage you to pick up the book of Romans and read it through, at the very least through chapters 8 or 9 to get a more full picture of God’s work in the lives of believers. It is such a great epistle, I’m looking forward to getting into it more! If you’re an Omaha local, shoot me an email to dustin@nametheunknown.com to join our study in person.
I hope this post has been a benefit to you. God bless!
Name the Unknown 
every cult makes much the same claims as romans 1, and unsurprisngly, not a single theist can show that their god exists at all or that reality is “evidence” for their particular imaginary friend. happily, your sadistic little fantasies will never come true.
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