Context No. 655 of 4322 · Romans

Romans 1:18-25: in context

18For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, 19because that which is known of God is revealed in them, for God revealed it to them. 20For the invisible things of him since the creation of the world are clearly seen, being perceived through the things that are made, even his everlasting power and divinity, that they may be without excuse. 21Because knowing God, they didn’t glorify him as God, and didn’t give thanks, but became vain in their reasoning, and their senseless heart was darkened. 22Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, 23and traded the glory of the incorruptible God for the likeness of an image of corruptible man, and of birds, four-footed animals, and creeping things. 24Therefore God also gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to uncleanness, that their bodies should be dishonored among themselves; 25who exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.

Romans is Paul's fullest statement of his gospel, written to a church he had not yet visited. After the greeting he begins the argument, and it opens not with good news but with a diagnosis. The wrath of God is revealed, he says, against people who suppress the truth. And the truth is not hidden: what can be known of God is plain from the things he made, his power and divinity visible in creation, so that no one has an excuse.

The charge is not ignorance but exchange. Knowing God, they would not honor him, and traded his glory for images of mortals, birds, and animals. They swapped the truth of God for a lie and served the creature rather than the Creator. Paul echoes an older Jewish argument, from the book of Wisdom, that the maker can be known from what is made (Wisdom 13:1-9), and a line from the psalms about a people who exchanged their glory for the image of an ox (Psalm 106:20). And the judgment, when it comes, is quiet. Three times Paul says God gave them up, handed them over to the very things they wanted.

Paul's picture of wrath is being left to have what I insisted on. What am I asking to be handed over to, and calling it freedom?

Sources

Romans 3:23: where this argument is going, that all have sinned and fall short of God's glory
Wisdom 13:1-9: the older Jewish argument Paul echoes, that the Creator is known from created things
Psalm 106:20: they exchanged their glory for the image of an ox, the phrase behind Paul's charge