Romans 1:18-32
18 But God shows his anger from heaven against all sinful, wicked people who suppress the truth by their wickedness.*19 They know the truth about God because he has made it obvious to them.20 For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God.
21 Yes, they knew God, but they wouldn't worship him as God or even give him thanks. And they began to think up foolish ideas of what God was like. As a result, their minds became dark and confused.22 Claiming to be wise, they instead became utter fools.23 And instead of worshiping the glorious, ever-living God, they worshiped idols made to look like mere people and birds and animals and reptiles.
24 So God abandoned them to do whatever shameful things their hearts desired. As a result, they did vile and degrading things with each other's bodies.25 They traded the truth about God for a lie. So they worshiped and served the things God created instead of the Creator himself, who is worthy of eternal praise! Amen.26 That is why God abandoned them to their shameful desires. Even the women turned against the natural way to have sex and instead indulged in sex with each other.27 And the men, instead of having normal sexual relations with women, burned with lust for each other. Men did shameful things with other men, and as a result of this sin, they suffered within themselves the penalty they deserved.
28 Since they thought it foolish to acknowledge God, he abandoned them to their foolish thinking and let them do things that should never be done.29 Their lives became full of every kind of wickedness, sin, greed, hate, envy, murder, quarreling, deception, malicious behavior, and gossip.30 They are backstabbers, haters of God, insolent, proud, and boastful. They invent new ways of sinning, and they disobey their parents.31 They refuse to understand, break their promises, are heartless, and have no mercy.32 They know God's justice requires that those who do these things deserve to die, yet they do them anyway. Worse yet, they encourage others to do them, too.
God is the opposite of sin, and anything different than God is wrong and hopeless. Here, Paul begins talking about people who are wrong and hopeless.
If we whore ourselves to this world, as we all have, we put on ourselves on the opposing team. When we sell out to things other than God, we are against Him. Paul writes that the truth of God is obvious, but it is also obvious that not all believe in His truth. This is the definition of sin. We have this issue and it happens to be dangerous.
How serious is our sin to God?
Very serious! This passage talks an awful lot about the coming wrath of God, and the coming of that wrath is due to sin. I call that serious. He says that those who sin deserve to die... We deserve to die (v.32)
Why?
1. Our Purpose-
God takes our sin seriously because we were made seriously. We were made with a purpose (Jeremiah 29:11) and that purpose was to do one thing. WORSHIP GOD. We were created for the simple purpose of walking with God, talking with God, and glorifying God. We were made to spend our time in, on, and with our Father in heaven, but men have done the opposite. When we sin, we basically strike a hiesman pose and reject God. This is not good. God created us for His purpose, not our pleasure.
2. Adultery-
How do you feel when someone is unfaithful to you? Does it make you happy when someone proves to be disloyal? How would you feel if your husband or wife cheated on you?
Imagine how God feels. We were created to be in relationship with God, but we leave Him and seek a relationship with everything else. This is sin. When we sin, we cheat on God. God doesn't like this.
God hates sin.
How seriously do we take our sin?
God takes our sin seriously, but do we? Verse 32 speaks of people who know the truth about God and his wrath, but continue on doing what they please. Are we those people? Are you that person?
Take a moment to look at your life. Examine your fruit (Luke 6:43-45) Do you look like a person who ignores their sin? Do you know the truth, but continue on living a lie? Do you make your decisions based off of what God wants, or what you want? Have you submitted to the will of God and followed Him fully, or are you still living in rebellion? Who are you?
So often we read about sinful people in the bible and think about them as being different than us. We read these passages and think of those worse than us. This is not the way. That is religion. We must first come to the realization that we are not better than anyone, yes, even the drug attics and rapist. Secondly, we must listen to God as he talks TO US, repent, and turn back to Him. Have you? Are you?
We are all the worst, and we all need Jesus.
God takes sin seriously, do you?
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