Romans 1:24-25
24 Therefore God handed them over in the passionate desires of their hearts unto impurity resulting in the dishonoring of their bodies among them; 25 who exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creation rather than the Creator who is blessed for ever, Amen.
Paul describes the way the wrath of God is revealed against the unrighteous in three parts, each starting with a phrase containing a form of the verb “to hand over” (Greek: paradidômi). God’s punishment is to give them over to their sin leading to their own destruction. I think these passages are enlightening, since they imply that God’s love for the righteous is sometimes shown by his restraint of their sin (on occasion by chastisement). Conversely, His judgment against the godless is often to let their godlessness run its course. I will deal with each part in a separate article.
There is a popular misconception that the Reformed view of God’s sovereignty paints a picture of a God who ordains people to sin against their will. It is true that Reformed doctrine teaches that God is sovereign over all things, even the sin men commit. However, God is not morally responsible for their sin, and I think verse 24 tells us why. The corrupt hearts of men don’t desire the things of God. Their passions, their lusts, the things that please them most are the things that bring satisfaction to themselves without regard for God’s glory and honor. God doesn’t need to persuade them to sin–their natural desire is to sin. God simply uses the sinful acts of sinful men to fulfill His purposes (e.g., Genesis 50:20; Acts 4:27-28).
I have translated the Greek word epithumia “passionate desire,” though it is usually translated “desire,” “passion,” or “lust” because I think in this context either “desire” or “passion” doesn’t quite get across the full force of what Paul is communicating. The unrighteous are sold out to the desires of their hearts, which are, as we shall see, corrupt and in rebellion against God. And this results in the dishonoring of their bodies (for Greek geeks, the phrase is tou atimazesthai, an articular infinitive, which has a range of meanings but usually conveys either purpose or result–I’ve gone with result here, since that seems to make the most sense in the context).
The true sin of these people, already indicated previously, is spelled out again by Paul in verse 25: they have exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and they worshiped the creation, not the Creator. However their rebellion may manifest itself, this is ultimately the cause of their problems. Some translations even begin verse 25 with “for they exchanged the truth of God…” or “because the exchanged the truth about God…” which isn’t strictly what the Greek says, but helps to get across what the Greek means.
What is the “lie” (interestingly, the Greek is literally “the lie”–but the definite article is not always expressed even when present… the Greek definite article could be the subject of a very lengthy aside, so we’ll leave it for now)? Perhaps the most natural way to read 25a is to see 25b as the explanation: the truth is that God is the Creator, and the lie is that they should worship the creation instead. The verb “served” is a liturgical word in the Greek; it refers to service done as part of worship.
A thought from the passage: Consider the way people act, the things they say–especially non-Christians–even those who seem to be “good.” How is what Paul says here relevant to them? With some people it’s obvious how they are worshiping and serving the creation, either in terms of self-obsession, or they literally worship the earth and all that’s on it rather than God. With others, it may not be so obvious, especially because we can’t see the intentions of their hearts. Before we get too self-righteous, however, can we see how even Christians can be tempted to put worldly desire and the passions of our hearts above serving and worshiping God?
Next time, we’ll look at the next “handed over” section in verses 26-27.
