Romans 1:18-32 God Revealed and Rejected

“For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him…” “They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator…” Rom. 1:21, 25

Romans 1: 18-32 is one of my favorite passages in Romans. It makes me think…it gives me some answers…it explains some things and prompts more questions. The passage is about a group of people, unlike the Jews, who do not have a written revelation of God; however, they are not ignorant about God. God has told them plenty about Himself through His creation.

“For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities-his eternal power and divine nature-have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.” Rom. 1:20

How did people receive this gracious act of God revealing Himself? It’s really…. very strange!!! Rather than worshipping Him, adoring Him and bowing to Him, they rounded up some of the artsy people around them and said “make us another god.”

“…they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.” Rom. 1:23

This is so strange, it’s laughable. Rather than embrace the true and living God who created the galaxies, the supernovas, quasars, gamma bursts, red giants, black holes etc. …they preferred in some cases….to sculpt a cow and say “this is God”. Now, I’m perfectly aware that they had no concept of supernovas, black holes etc. but they had a breath-taking night sky, beautiful daytime vistas, observations of an assortment of creatures, each with a unique and wonderful design. What’s wrong with these people? Why reject the truth when it is far superior to any conjured up imagination?

Mankind has something in its very nature that rejects God at the most basic level. Since the fall of man at the beginning of human history, this has been his nature. It’s a dog’s nature to bark, a pig’s nature to oink and a person’s nature to reject the truth of God. How does God respond to this?

Be patient…we’ll get there in the next email!