On The Sixth Day #9

Romans 1.28 – 32 Darkened Mind, Darkened Behavior

And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what should not be done. They are filled with every kind of injustice, wickedness, greed and evil [unrighteousness, wickedness, covetousness, malice]. They are rife with envy, murder, strife, deceit, hostility. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, contrivers of all sorts of evil, disobedient to parents, senseless, covenant-breakers, heartless, ruthless. Although they fully know God's righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but also approve of those who practice them.

• people can no longer use their minds as God intended
  
• and after or with the twisting of our image-bearing creational roles, our evil thinking, our selfish motivations [the unfit mind] and use of freedom have these consequences in actual behavior:
  
  • injustice [unrighteousness]
    
  • wickedness
    
  • greed [ covetousness]
    
  • evil [malice]
    
  • rife with
    
    • envy,
      
    • murder,
      
    • strife,
      
    • deceit,
      
    • hostility.
      
  • gossips,
    
  • slanderers,
    
  • haters of God,
    
  • insolent,
    
  • arrogant,
    
  • boastful,
    
  • contrivers of all sorts of evil,
    
  • disobedient to parents,
    
  • senseless,
    
  • covenant-breakers,
    
  • heartless,
    
  • ruthless.
    
• this list of sins follows a popular Hellenistic literary form called a vice list. While not exhaustive, it reminds readers of various forms that evil might take.
  
• people do not generally sin in innocent ignorance,
  
  • for they know God's decree (at least in an instinctive way)
    
  • they know God has decreed death for such people
    
• they not only do these things, the evil goes further
  
  • when people give approval and
    
  • applaud others for their sin,
    
  • probably because having others join in their sin makes them feel better about the evil course they have chosen
    
  • encouraging others to sin is worse than sinning oneself (Jas 3:1;)
    
  • also see Testament of Asher 6:2: "The two-faced are doubly punished because they both practice evil and approve of others who practice it; they imitate the spirits of error and join in the struggle against mankind".
    

This is a picture of what human life, human society, human organizations look like, how they behave and what they approve when humans insist on doing things "MY WAY" and God says, "Okay, have at it. Do it your way." -- Again "God gave them up ..." v. 28

(Source material from N T Wright, John Wesley, Martin Luther, ESV Study Bible, Orthodox Study Bible, NLT Study Bible, et. al.)

On The Sixth Day #8

Romans 1.24 – 27 Unclean Desires, Dishonored Bodies

Therefore God gave them over in the desires of their hearts to impurity, to dishonor their bodies among themselves. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshiped and served the creation rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen. For this reason God gave them over to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged the natural sexual relations for unnatural ones, and likewise the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed in their passions for one another. Men committed shameless acts with men and received in themselves the due penalty for their error.

• The violin & the bow
  
  • separate them & a lot is not understood by one who is not already familiar w/them
    
  • what is each one for – how is it used rightly?
    
  • they were made for each other
    
• Paul has Genesis chapters 1 through 3 in mind throughout this passage
  
• even though a male and a female can be complete in a sense, they were in fact made for each other by God
  
• but human beings have vv. 24-25
  
  • not only broken a law of God
    
  • but they have distorted, twisted & corrupted the created order itself v. 25
    
    • the very first example of this that Paul gives is homosexual relations v. 26-27
      
    • why?
      
      • not simply because he or Jews or God were offended
        
      • not simply because it was/is exploitive of youth
        
      • no, for Paul - and God – it is that:
        
        • this is not why God created human beings
          
        • it is not iconic of a Creator-God
          
        • it violates the very notions of imaging God and being in creational relationship with God
          
        • this is the first sign that the human world is not "set right" with God
          
• "he gave them up to ..." -- when God gives freedom He also gives responsibility vv. 24 & 26
  
  • our choices have consequences
    
  • the consequences are what we as human beings must deal with
    
  • if we chose the idolatry of self – then our true self [God's image] will dissolve
    
  • all individual sins are a consequence of that idolatry where the creature is exalted over the Creator
    
• this [and other places in the New Testament] is not a polemic against homosexuality
  
• it is an identification [by a mirror-like opposite reflection] of what it means to be truly a human being, an image of God
  

(Source material from N T Wright, John Wesley, Martin Luther, ESV Study Bible, Orthodox Study Bible, et al)

On The Sixth Day #7

Romans 1.18 – 23 Humans Reject God and Embrace Corruption

For the anger [wrath] of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of people who suppress the truth by their unrighteousness, because what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world his invisible attributes — his eternal power and divine nature — have been clearly seen, because they are understood through what has been made. So people are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not glorify him as God or give him thanks, but they became futile in their thoughts and their senseless hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for an image resembling mortal human beings or birds or four-footed animals or reptiles.

• NT Wright's story of the felling of a rotting/en tree
  
  • looked okay on the outside – a little fungus near the ground
    
  • inside it was rotten to the core
    
    • 4 ft in diameter
      
    • 3 – 5 inches nearest the bark was strong/sturdy
      
    • the rest was just rotten
      
  • is just like the human race
    
    • outside MAY look okay
      
    • inside there is only rot
      
    • needs God's justice & salvation v. 18
      
• from here through 2:16 Paul lays out the case against humanity
  
  • rotten at its heart
    
  • it will result in the crash of humanity
    
    • 1:32
      
    • 2:5
      
    • 2:16
      
  • vv. 18 – 23 deal with the decay corruption & rot in the roots
    
  • vv. 24 – 31 deal with the decay corruption & rot in the upper branches
    
• humans already have a knowledge of God from what He has created vv. 19 - 20
  
  • invisible power
    
  • divine [beneficent] nature
    
• there is no excuse
  
• the disease/rot progresses like this: v. 21
  
  • the root sin is the failure to value God above all things [v. 23 also]
    
  • deny/suppress the truth
    
  • then what happens is distorted thinking
    
    • loss of intellectual integrity
      
    • use of the intellect to create evil plans
      
    • to promote only self
      
  • a darkened heart
    
    • brilliant people who do not honor God miss the whole purpose of life
      
    • the center of motivation and purpose pursues selfishness and evil
      
    • call foolishness wisdom and prudence v. 22
      
    • while demeaning and ignoring true wisdom and prudence
      
• the primary signs of this disease v. 23
  
  • Idolatry is the fundamental sin, using temple gods as well as 'house gods'
    
  • turning from the worship of the Creator-God
    
  • turning to the worship of the dying decaying creature

(Source material from N T Wright, John Wesley, Martin Luther, ESV Study Bible, Orthodox Study Bible, et al)

On The Sixth Day #6

Romans 1.18 – 23 Humans Reject God and Embrace Corruption

For the anger [wrath] of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of people who suppress the truth by their unrighteousness, because what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world his invisible attributes — his eternal power and divine nature — have been clearly seen, because they are understood through what has been made. So people are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not glorify him as God or give him thanks, but they became futile in their thoughts and their senseless hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for an image resembling mortal human beings or birds or four-footed animals or reptiles.

• NT Wright's story of the felling of a rotting/en tree
  
  • looked okay on the outside – a little fungus near the ground
    
  • inside it was rotten to the core
    
    • 4 ft in diameter
      
    • 3 – 5 inches nearest the bark was strong/sturdy
      
    • the rest was just rotten
      
  • is just like the human race
    
    • outside MAY look okay
      
    • inside there is only rot
      
    • needs God's justice & salvation v. 18
      
• from here through 2:16 Paul lays out the case against humanity
  
  • rotten at its heart
    
  • it will result in the crash of humanity
    
    • 1:32
      
    • 2:5
      
    • 2:16
      
  • vv. 18 – 23 deal with the decay corruption & rot in the roots
    
  • vv. 24 – 31 deal with the decay corruption & rot in the upper branches
    
• humans already have a knowledge of God from what He has created vv. 19 - 20
  
  • invisible power
    
  • divine [beneficent] nature
    
• there is no excuse
  
• the disease/rot progresses like this: v. 21
  
  • the root sin is the failure to value God above all things [v. 23 also]
    
  • deny/suppress the truth
    
  • then what happens is distorted thinking
    
    • loss of intellectual integrity
      
    • use of the intellect to create evil plans
      
    • to promote only self
      
  • a darkened heart
    
    • brilliant people who do not honor God miss the whole purpose of life
      
    • the center of motivation and purpose pursues selfishness and evil
      
    • call foolishness wisdom and prudence v. 22
      
    • while demeaning and ignoring true wisdom and prudence
      
• the primary signs of this disease v. 23
  
  • Idolatry is the fundamental sin, using temple gods as well as 'house gods'
    
  • turning from the worship of the Creator-God
    
  • turning to the worship of the dying decaying creature

(Source material from N T Wright, John Wesley, Martin Luther, ESV Study Bible, Orthodox Study Bible, et al)