Romans 1:19 - Meaning and Application

In this last part of the chapter, the apostle turns what he has said especially toward the Gentile world. We can see, first, what means and help they had for coming to know God. They did not have the knowledge of his law that Jacob and Israel had (Psalm 147:20), yet God did not leave himself without witness among them (Acts 14:17). Paul says that what can be known of God was made plain to them.

They had some real knowledge of God. Even among the Gentiles, some knew there was one highest divine being. The writings of philosophers such as Pythagoras, Plato, and the Stoics show this in many places. But Paul says only that which may be known of God was made known, which means there is much we cannot know. We may understand that God exists, but we cannot fully understand him. No one can find him out by searching (Job 11:7-9). Human minds are limited, but blessed be God, there is enough revealed to lead us to our main purpose, which is to glorify God and enjoy him. The secret things belong to God, but the things he reveals belong to us and our children (Deuteronomy 29:29).

Where did these discoveries come from? God himself showed them to people. Those common thoughts about God were planted in the human heart by the God of nature, the Father of lights. A sense that there is a God, and a duty to honor him, seem so natural to human beings that some have said these mark us off from animals even more than reason does.

These truths were confirmed and strengthened by creation. Paul says the invisible things of God, especially his eternal power and Godhead, are clearly seen in the things he has made (Romans 1:20). God cannot be seen by the eye, but he makes himself known through visible things. His power and divine nature are invisible, yet they are clearly displayed in their results. He works in secret (Job 23:8-9; Psalm 139:15; Ecclesiastes 11:5), but what he has made shows his power and Godhead, and also other qualities natural light can understand from the idea of God.

They could not learn by nature that God is three persons in one being, though some imagine they find hints of that in Plato’s writings. But they did learn enough about God to keep them from idolatry. This was the truth they held down in unrighteousness. They had the truth, but they suppressed it by their sin.

They knew this by the things that are made, because created things could not make themselves. They also could not come into such order and harmony by chance. Therefore there must be a first cause, an intelligent maker, and that first cause could be no one except an eternal and powerful God. As Scripture says, the heavens declare the glory of God (Psalm 19:1), and God’s works reveal him (Isaiah 40:26; Acts 17:24). The workman is known by his work. The variety, number, order, beauty, harmony, different kinds, and wise design of created things, along with how each part serves a purpose and fits the good of the whole, all prove a Creator and his eternal power and Godhead.

This light has shone in the darkness from the creation of the world. We can understand this in two ways. First, creation is the source from which this knowledge is drawn. To prove this truth, we point to the great work of creation. Some think the phrase may even refer especially to man, the most remarkable creature in the lower world. The structure of the human body, and especially the higher powers and abilities of the human soul, clearly prove that there is a Creator and that he is God. Second, it can mean that this knowledge has existed since the creation of the world. In Scripture, that is the common meaning of this phrase. These truths about God are not new discoveries. They are old truths, known from the beginning. The right way of acknowledging God is the old way, and it came first. Truth existed before error.

Second, Paul shows their gross idolatry, even though God had made himself known to them in these ways (Romans 1:21-23, 25). We should not be surprised that natural knowledge did not keep the Gentiles from idolatry when even the Jews, who had the light of Scripture, were so prone to it. Fallen human beings sink easily into the mud of the senses.

The inward cause of their idolatry was this, they are without excuse. They knew God, and from what they knew they could easily have seen that they ought to worship him and him alone. Even if some people have more light and more help than others, all have enough to leave them without excuse. The problem was that they did not glorify him as God. Their love, fear, and reverence did not match their knowledge. To glorify God as God means to honor him alone, because there can only be one infinite being. But they did not do that, since they set up many other gods. To glorify God as God also means to worship him in a spiritual way, but they made images of him. If we do not glorify God as God, then in effect we do not glorify him at all. To treat him as if he were only a creature is to dishonor him.

They were not thankful either. They were not thankful for the blessings they received from God in general, because forgetfulness of God’s mercies lies behind our sinful turning away from him. They were also not thankful for the knowledge God gave them of himself in particular. Those who do not make good use of the light and grace they receive are rightly called unthankful for them.

Instead, they became empty in their reasonings, in their practical conclusions. They had much knowledge of general truths (Romans 1:19), but they did not have wisdom to apply those truths to specific cases. Or this may mean their ideas about God, creation, the origin of mankind, and the chief good, the highest happiness. Once they left the plain truth, they quickly argued themselves into many empty and foolish ideas. The many views of the different schools of philosophers were all examples of such empty reasoning. When truth is abandoned, error multiplies without limit.

Their foolish heart was darkened. The foolishness and sinful choices of the heart cloud and darken the mind. Nothing blinds and twists understanding more than a corrupt will and corrupt desires. Claiming to be wise, they became fools (Romans 1:22).

This reflects badly on philosophers, those who pretended to wisdom and claimed to teach it. The more their imaginations ran wild as they tried to picture God, the more they fell into crude and absurd ideas. That was a fitting punishment for their pride and self-importance. People have often noticed that the nations with the finest culture and the loudest claims to wisdom were often the worst fools in religion.

The barbarians worshiped the sun and moon, which were among the most impressive idols. The learned Egyptians worshiped an ox and even an onion. The Greeks, who were considered wiser, worshiped diseases and human passions. The Romans, said to be the wisest of all, worshiped the Furies, the spirits of vengeance. So the world, by its own wisdom, did not know God (1 Corinthians 1:21). A claim to wisdom makes folly even worse, and a proud confidence in wisdom causes much error. That is why few philosophers were converted to Christianity, and why Paul’s preaching was mocked nowhere more than among the learned Athenians (Acts 17:18-32).

They were thinking of themselves as wise, but the plain truth about God did not satisfy them. They thought they were above that, and so they fell into the deepest errors.

The next thing to notice is the outward shape of their idolatry (Romans 1:23-25). First, they made images of God (Romans 1:23). In doing so, they changed the glory of the incorruptible God as far as they could. Compare Psalm 106:20 and Jeremiah 2:11. They gave divine honor to the most contemptible creatures and used them to represent God. It was a great honor to man that God made him in God’s image, but it is a great insult to God that man made God in man’s image. God had strictly warned the Jews against this (Deuteronomy 4:15 and following), and Paul later showed its foolishness in his sermon at Athens (Acts 17:29). See also Isaiah 40:18 and following, and Isaiah 44:10 and following.

This is called changing the truth of God into a lie (Romans 1:25). It dishonored God’s glory, and it also gave a false picture of his nature. Idols are called lies because they falsely represent God, as if he had a body, when he is Spirit (Jeremiah 23:14; Hosea 7:1). They are teachers of lies (Habakkuk 2:18).

Second, they gave divine honor to creation instead of the Creator. They worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator. They did admit, in words, that there was a supreme God, but in practice they denied him by the worship they gave to created things. God will have all the honor, or none. Or, if you take it another way, they honored the creature above the Creator by giving more devoted respect to lesser gods, stars, heroes, and demons. They thought the highest God was too far away, or too lofty, to be worshiped by them.

Their sin was worshiping the creature at all, but Paul adds this to show how serious it was, they worshiped the creature more than the Creator. This was the common wickedness of the Gentile world, and it was woven into their laws and government. Because of that, even some of the wiser among them, who knew there was one supreme God and saw how foolish their many gods were, still did what everyone around them did.

Seneca, in his book On Superstition, as quoted by Augustine, said after describing the great foolishness and sin of popular religion, “A wise man will keep all this as a matter required by law, not because he thinks the gods are pleased by it.” He also said, “We will worship this lowly crowd of gods that ancient superstition has gathered over many years, remembering that this worship is more a matter of custom than of real importance.” Augustine rightly commented on him, saying that he worshiped what he condemned, did what he had proved wrong, and adored what he blamed. I mention this at length because it fully explains the apostle’s words here, “who hold the truth in unrighteousness” (Romans 1:18).

It is also worth noticing that when Paul speaks of the dishonor done to God by Gentile idolatry, he pauses in the middle of his argument to praise God: “Who is blessed forever. Amen.” When we see or hear God’s name insulted, we should use that as a reason to think and speak well of him. In this, as in other matters, the worse others are, the more careful we should be. He is blessed forever, even though people dishonor him. Some do not glorify him, yet he is glorified, and he will be glorified forever.

Third, consider God’s judgments on them for this idolatry. These were not many outward punishments, since the idol-worshiping nations often became the conquering powers of the world. Rather, they were spiritual judgments, as God gave them over to their own filthy and unnatural desires. “He gave them up” is repeated three times here, in Romans 1:24, Romans 1:26, and Romans 1:28. Spiritual judgments are the worst kind and should be feared most.

Notice, first, who gave them up. God gave them up in righteous judgment, as the just punishment for their idolatry. He removed the restraint of his grace, left them to themselves, and let them go their own way. His grace is his own gift, and he owes it to no one. He may give it or withhold it as he chooses. Whether this giving up is a direct act of God or only a withholding of grace is something for the schools to debate, but one thing is certain. It is no new thing for God to give people over to their own sinful desires, to send them strong lies, to let Satan loose on them, and even to place stumbling blocks before them.

Yet God is not the author of sin. He is completely just and holy in this. Even if great wickedness follows, that guilt belongs to the sinner’s evil heart. If a patient is stubborn, refuses the treatment he has been given, and keeps doing what harms him, the doctor is not to blame if he gives him up as hopeless. The bad results that follow are not the doctor’s fault, but come from the disease and from the patient’s own stubbornness.

Second, notice what they were given up to. They were given up to uncleanness and shameful passions (Romans 1:24, Romans 1:26, Romans 1:27). Those who would not receive the purer light of natural reason, which should have helped them honor God, justly lost even the more obvious truths that preserve human dignity. When a person has honor but refuses to understand the God who made him, he sinks lower than the animals that die and are gone (Psalm 49:20).

So one person, by God’s permission, becomes the means of punishment for another. But the real fault lies, as this passage says, in the cravings of their own hearts. Those who dishonored God were handed over to dishonor themselves. No one is more enslaved than the person given over to his own sinful desires.

People like this are handed over, like the Egyptians (Isaiah 19:4), into the power of a cruel master. Their uncleanness and shameful passions include unnatural lusts. Many Gentiles, even those seen as wise, such as Solon and Zeno, were known for these sins, even though plain reason should have taught them better. The same evil that brought Sodom and Gomorrah under God’s judgment became common, and even openly defended, among the pagan nations.

The apostle may especially be thinking of the filthy practices tied to idol worship. In those religions, the worst acts of uncleanness were often demanded as part of honoring false gods. It was a filthy kind of worship for filthy gods, and evil spirits delight in such service. In the church of Rome, where pagan idol worship was revived and saints were put in the place of demons, these same abominations were said to appear openly, with pope’s approval, and even defended by some cardinals. The same spiritual diseases fit the same spiritual sins.

This should make us see the evil in human nature. How hateful and dirty man is when left to himself. David asked, “What is man?” and truly, what a miserable creature he becomes apart from God’s help. We owe much to God’s restraining grace for preserving anything of human honor and decency. Without that restraint, man, though made a little lower than the angels, would bring himself much lower than the devils.

This is called the fitting penalty for their error. The Judge of all the earth does right, and he matches the punishment to the sin.

They were also given over to a reprobate mind, that is, a mind that is worthless and unable to judge rightly in spiritual matters (Romans 1:28). They did not like to keep God in their knowledge. Their minds became dark because their wills and desires had already turned away. They did not want to know God, because knowing him would interfere with their sinful desires. That is the common pattern of fleshly hearts, which make pleasing themselves their highest goal.

Many people still have some knowledge of God, because the truth presses on them so clearly. But they do not keep him there. They say to the Almighty, “Leave us alone” (Job 21:14). The pagans knew God in some sense, but they would not acknowledge him. There is a difference between knowing God and owning him as God.

Because they rejected the truth with stubborn hearts, God gave them over to stubbornness in the worst sins. This is what is meant by a reprobate mind, a mind with no sound judgment, unable to tell right from wrong in spiritual things. See where a sinful path leads, and what deep pit it finally drops a sinner into. Fleshly lusts lead directly there. “Eyes full of adultery” cannot stop sinning (2 Peter 2:14). A reprobate mind is like a conscience that has gone blind and numb, past feeling (Ephesians 4:19). Once a person’s judgment agrees with sin, he is already near the edge of hell.

At first Pharaoh hardened his own heart, but later God hardened Pharaoh’s heart. So willful hardness is rightly punished by God with judicial hardness, that is, with a hardening he sends in judgment. “To do those things which are not convenient” means to do things that are not fitting, things against common decency, nature’s light, and nature’s law. Paul then gives a dark list of the shameful acts the Gentiles were guilty of when God gave them over to a reprobate mind.

No wickedness is so great, so against nature, so against the law of nations, or so harmful to human life, that such a mind will not accept it. History shows that these sins were reigning sins in that time, especially among the Romans, whose old civic virtue had badly decayed. Paul names no fewer than twenty-three kinds of sins and sinners in Romans 1:29-31. Here was the devil’s seat. His name is Legion, for they are many. It was high time for the gospel to be preached among them, because the world needed reform.

First come sins against the first table, meaning sins against God: “haters of God.” Here sin shows its true face. Could it be imagined that reasonable creatures would hate the highest good, or that dependent creatures would despise the source of their life? Yet that is what happens. Every sin contains hatred of God in it, though some sinners are more open enemies to him than others (Zechariah 11:8). Proud people and boasters set themselves against God and put crowns on their own heads that should be cast before his throne.

Then come sins against the second table, meaning sins against our neighbors. Paul names these especially because people had clearer light about them. In general, he charges them with unrighteousness. That word comes first because every sin is unrighteousness. It means withholding what is due and twisting what is right. It especially covers sins against our neighbor, doing to others what we would not want done to us.

Against the fifth commandment he names disobedient children and those without natural affection, meaning parents who are cruel and unkind to their children. When duty breaks down on one side, it often breaks down on the other. Disobedient children are often punished with unnatural parents, and unnatural parents with disobedient children.

Against the sixth commandment he lists wickedness, maliciousness, envy, murder, strife, envy-driven rivalry, hateful behavior, being implacable, and being unmerciful. These are all forms of hatred toward our brother, which is heart-murder. Against the seventh commandment he names fornication. He mentions no more there, because he has already spoken of other sexual sins.

Against the eighth commandment he names unrighteousness and covetousness. Against the ninth he names deceit, whispering, backbiting, covenant-breaking, lying, and slander. He also adds two broad charges not mentioned before: inventors of evil things, and without understanding. They were clever in planning evil, yet foolish about what pleases God. The more carefully sinners scheme evil, the greater their guilt. They can be quick-minded in sin and yet utterly senseless in the things of God.

This should humble all of us, because it shows the depth of our natural corruption. By nature, every human heart contains the seed and beginning of all these sins. Paul then closes by pointing to the worst part of their guilt in Romans 1:32.

First, they knew God’s judgment. That means they knew what God’s justice requires, what his right judgment calls for. It also means they knew the penalty, as Paul explains here: they knew that people who do such things deserve death, even eternal death. Their own consciences could not help warning them of this, yet they still went ahead.

Sin is much worse when people commit it with clear knowledge, especially when they know God’s judgment. James 4:17 says it is sin to know the right thing and not do it. It is bold, reckless pride to run straight into the sharp point of a sword. Such sin shows a heart that has become hard and strongly set on evil.

Second, they not only did these things themselves, but they also took pleasure in others who did them. Sometimes a strong temptation can drag a person into sin, and a corrupted desire may even find some enjoyment in it. But to be pleased with other people’s sins is to love sin itself. It is to join the devil’s cause and help his kingdom grow.

The Greek word here means they approve together, so they do more than commit sin. They defend it, excuse it, and encourage others to do the same. Our own sins become even worse when we agree with the sins of other people and take pleasure in them. Put all this together, and ask whether the Gentile world, so full of guilt and corruption, could ever be made right with God by any works of its own.