Hypocrites and Backsliders-033

1. Hypocrites and Backsliders-033 How Spiritual Death Thinks, Speaks and Acts from Romans 1

2. Spiritual Death from Eph 4:17-19 • 17 "This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind, 18 being darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardness of their hearts, 19 because they have become insensitive and have abandoned themselves to unrestraint for the greedy practice of every type of impurity." LWBC

3. Eph 4 Spiritual Death - Mechanics • 1. Futility of the Mind • 2. Understanding (Appraisal Process) Darkened • 3. Alienated from the Life from God • 4. Ignorance in them • 5. Heart Hardened - Stubbornness • 6. Past Feeling - Insensitive • 7. Gave themselves over • 8. Lascivious - Unrestrained • 9. Unclean - Impurity • 10. Greedy - Insatiable LWBC

4. The Futility Experience LWBC

5. Romans 1:21-23 • Because, knowing God, not as God did they glorify Him, nor were they grateful, but they became futile in their reasonings, and there was darkened their stupid heart. • Asserting themselves to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the uncorruptible God for a likeness of an image of corruptible man and of birds and of quadrupeds and of snakes. LWBC

6. Romans 1:24 • On which account God delivered them over in the passionate cravings of their hearts to bestial profligacy which had for its purpose the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves. LWBC

7. Romans 1:25 • Who were of such a character that they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshipped and rendered religious service to the creation rather than to the Creator who is to be eulogized forever. Amen. LWBC

8. Romans 1:26 • Because of which God gave them over to dishonorable passions, for even their females exchanged their natural use for that which is against nature. LWBC

9. Romans 1:26 • The notion that all sin stems from idolatry was not new with Paul. • The author of the Wisdom of Solomon saw idolatry as the source of sexual sin as well: “For the intention to make idols is the beginning of sexual immorality, and their invention is the corruption of life” (Wis. 14:12). • Later in the same chapter, just after he listed sexual sins that include homosexuality and adultery (Wis. 14:26), the author concluded, “For the worship of idols not to be named is the source and cause and end of every evil” (Wis. 14:27). LWBC

10. Romans 1:27 • (1:27) “Burned” is ekkaiō (ἐκκαιω), “to burn out.” • Vincent comments. “The terms are terrible in their intensity. • Literally, ‘burned out.’ • The preposition indicates the rage of lust.” • Robertson defines, “to inflame with lust.” • The word ek (ἐκ) prefixed to the verb, intensifies its meaning. • Their lust was satiated. • It was an all-out endeavor to satisfy their totally-depraved natures. LWBC

11. Romans 1:27 • “Lust” here is not the usual word used, epithumia (ἐπιθυμια), “a passionate craving,” but orexis (ὀρεξις), “eager desire, lust, appetite.” • “Working” is katergazomai (κατεργαζομαι), “to perform, accomplish, achieve, working it's way out from the inside, to carry to its ultimate conclusion.” • “Unseemly” is aschēmosunē (ἀσχημοσυνη), “want of form, disfigurement, deformed, one’s nakedness, shame.” • The word refers here to that which is unseemly in that it is immodest, shameful. LWBC

12. Romans 1:27 • “Recompence” is antimisthian (ἀντιμισθιαν) “a reward given in compensation, requital, recompense.” • The word here refers to that natural result of their sin which pays them back for what they have done, as a person says who contemplates doing something wrong, “I suppose I shall pay for this.” LWBC

13. Romans 1:27 • The word “received” is an emphatic form of a common word and often means, as here, “to receive back, to receive in return,” i.e., to receive as the fitting result of their actions. • Cranfield says it “emphasizes the deservedness of the punishment” (I:127). • This verb’s object, “the due penalty,” also clearly refers to deserved punishment. • Gays deservedly receive the recompense due to them as specified by the Creator’s law. LWBC

14. Romans 1:27 • How may we understand this “due penalty” or recompense? • Some think the sexual perversion itself is its own penalty, or at least is the just penalty for their rejection of God (Cranfield, I:126–127; Morris, 93). • It seems more likely, though, that Paul is referring to some punitive consequences distinct from the homosexual acts as such, consequences they experience “in themselves” or “in their own persons” (NASB) as a form of the very wrath of God (v. 18). LWBC

15. Romans 1:27 • There is scarcely any sin that subjects its perpetrators to more severe “deserved penalties” than male homosexuality. • Is AIDS an example of this? • Assuredly so. MacArthur is correct (I:107): “The appalling physical consequences of homosexuality are visible evidence of God’s righteous condemnation. • Unnatural vice brings its own perverted reward. • AIDS is frightening evidence of that fatal promise.” • This is not to say that God created the HIV virus as a penalty for male homosexuals. LWBC

16. Romans 1:27 • As it exists under the curse (8:18–22), the world is full of all sorts of bacteria, viruses, and ailments that are a threat to all of us under certain conditions. • The fact is, though, that certain practices, especially sinful practices, openly invite these maladies to strike us down, and the Bible says that all sexual sins are against the body. • Licentious, promiscuous sex has always reaped the deserved harvest of sexually transmitted diseases; AIDS is just the latest version of this and male homosexuals are especially vulnerable to it. LWBC

17. Romans 1:27 • We should understand, then, that AIDS is just one—albeit a fatal one—of many serious health consequences homosexuals have always received back as a due penalty for their perversion. • Long before AIDS entered the picture, homosexual practices focusing on the anus have kept gay men in a constant state of health crisis. • Lenski correctly comments (116–117) that the homosexuals’ “recompense is the vicious effect of the unnatural sexual vices upon men’s own bodies and their minds, corrupting, destroying, disintegrating …. LWBC

18. Romans 1:27 • It is noteworthy that in the Scriptures as in human experience sexual sins, and not only the worst form of these, carry a special curse; they not only disgrace, they wreck; their punishment is direct, wretched, severe.” • This is why Paul treats this sin separately and does not just include it in the listing in vv. 29–31. LWBC

19. Romans 1:27 • Paul speaks of the due penalty for their “perversion.” • The word used here is sometimes translated “error” (NASB, NRSV), but this is “too weak a noun” for what Paul has in mind. • The word refers to wandering or roaming; figuratively it refers to wandering from the path of truth and morality. • “Perversion” or “deviancy” captures the meaning very well in this context. LWBC

20. Romans 1:27 • Except for his use of “error,” Dunn’s paraphrase of 27b is clearly on target: “receiving in return in themselves the penalty which matches the deed and which is proper to their error”. • He also well sums up the thrust of this whole section: “The divinely ordered punishment for sin is to be handed over to the power of that sin, to be left to its consequences” LWBC

21. Romans 1:27 • “Was meet” is edei (ἐδει), “a necessity in the nature of the case.” • The evil consequences were necessary as ordained by divine law. • When one violates the laws of nature, one must pay the price. • “Error”, as we have seen, is planē (πλανη), “a wandering, roving,” thus, “a deviation.” LWBC

22. Romans 1:27 • Translation. And likewise also the males, having put aside the natural use of the females, burned themselves out in their lustful appetite toward one another, males with males carrying to its ultimate conclusion that which is shameful, receiving in themselves that retribution which was a necessity in the nature of the case because of their deviation from the norm. LWBC

23. Romans 1:28-32 • 28And just as they did not think God was fit to be kept in mind, God handed them over to an unfit mind, so that they did things that are not fitting. 29Thereby being filled with all kinds of unrighteousness, wickedness, covetousness, and malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, and ill will. 30They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, braggarts, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, LWBC

24. Romans 1:28-32 • 31senseless, faithless, loveless, and merciless. 32They know God’s ordinance that those who practice such things deserve death. Nonetheless, they not only do these things but also give their encouragement to those who live this way. LWBC

25. Romans 1:28-32 • Wordplays in this text communicate that human sin is rooted in a rejection of the glory of God. • Human beings failed to glorify God (v. 21) and exchanged his glory (v. 23) for idolatry. • Because people did not honor God by glorifying him, he gave their bodies over to be “dishonored” (v. 24), and they had “dishonorable passions” (v. 26). LWBC

26. Romans 1:28-32 • The disgrace that has invaded human sexual relations is a consequence of rejecting God. • The same connection is forged with another word linkage. • Those who “exchanged” (v. 23) God’s glory and “exchanged” (v. 25) his truth “exchanged” (v. 26) natural sexual relations for that which is unnatural. • Once again sexual immorality is obviously a consequence of human idolatry. LWBC

27. Romans 1:28-32 • Finally, those who did not see fit (ouk edokimasan) to keep God in their knowledge have been handed over to an unfit mind (adokimon noun, v. 28). • An unfit mind is the fruit of seeing God as unfit. • Paul is not referring to Adam in these verses, but he is saying that human beings have gone the way of Adam, and that they have lost glory in trying to retain it. LWBC

28. Romans 1:28-32 • The connection between rejecting God and human sin is forged again with the vice list appearing in verses 29–31. • Vice lists are common in Paul (1 Cor. 5:10–11; 6:9–10; 2 Cor. 12:20; Gal. 5:19–21; Eph. 4:31; 5:3–5; Col. 3:5, 8; 1 Tim. 1:9–10; 6:4–5; 2 Tim. 3:2–4; Titus 3:3), and some of the vices are occasionally included because of problems in the church addressed. • The list here, though, does not reflect ethical problems in the church in Rome, it is a general and wide-ranging depiction of relevant human sin. LWBC

29. Romans 1:28 • 1:28 Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done. • “Furthermore” translates the simple word καί (kai), “and.” • This verse does not add anything new but reiterates what has been said thus far in vv. 18–27. • It repeats the cause-and-effect principle resulting in God’s giving the Gentiles over to unrestrained sin. • As vv. 18, 21, 23 and 25 have already stressed, they have dismissed the true God from their worldview. LWBC

30. Romans 1:28 • This is portrayed as a deliberate decision to the effect that the whole idea of a transcendent Creator-God is not “worthwhile,” or is worthless. • The word is δοκιμάζω (dokimazō), which means “to test, to examine, to judge, to approve, to deem worthy, to see fit.” • This is stated as a negative: they did not approve of the truth about God; they did not think it worthy or fit to hold on to; they weighed the idea of God in the balances and found it wanting. • Remember back in v. 22, “They became fools” LWBC

31. Romans 1:28 • God’s response to such presumptuous folly is that he gave them over “to a depraved mind” in return. • The word for “depraved” is ἀδόκιμος (adokimos), which means “useless, failing the test, disqualified, worthless” (see 1 Cor 9:27; 2 Cor 13:5–7). • This is a play on words and a matter of extreme irony (comparing dokimazō and adokimos). • They judged God to be a worthless idea, so God gave them over to their own worthless judgements. • The mind that judges God to be worthless is itself worthless. LWBC

32. Romans 1:28 • The last part of the verse, “to do what ought not to be done,” again shows that faulty speculations about God directly affect moral theory and behavior. • As Cranfield says, “The adokimos nous is a mind so debilitated and corrupted as to be a quite untrustworthy guide in moral decisions.” • And, we might add, in other decisions, as well. LWBC

33. Romans 1:28 • The fact is that the reality of the transcendent Creator-God is the starting point of all valid ethics and morality. • Without him, there is no basis either for absolute ethical obligation or for absolute ethical norms. • Without God, the only consistent ethic is some version of “might makes right.” • Without Him, subjective standards of ethics and morals take precedence and we have an array, from Monastics to Headhunters, all claiming their way to be 'morality'. LWBC

34. Romans 1:28 • (1:28) dokimazō (δοκιμαζω), “to put to the test for the purpose of approving, and finding that the person tested meets the specifications prescribed, to put one’s approval upon him.” • The human race put God to the test for the purpose of approving Him should He meet the specifications which it laid down for a God who would be to its liking, and finding that He did not meet those specifications, it refused to approve Him as the God to be worshipped, or have Him in its knowledge. LWBC

35. Romans 1:28 • Denney says; “As they did not think it fit, after trial made to keep God in their knowledge, God gave them up to a mind which cannot stand trial. The one thing answers to the other. • Virtually, they pronounced the true God adokimos (ἀδοκιμος) (disapproved), and would have none of Him, and He in turn gave them up to a nous adokimos (νους ἀδοκιμος) (a disapproved mind), a mind which is no mind and cannot discharge the functions of one, a mind in which the divine distinctions of right and wrong are confused and lost, so that God’s condemnation must fall on it. LWBC

36. Romans 1:28 • Nous (Νους) is not only reason, but conscience; when this is perverted, as in the people of whom Paul speaks, or in the Canaanites, who did their abominations unto their gods, the last deep of evil has been reached.” • “Convenient” is kathēkō (καθηκω), “it is becoming, it is fitting.” • Robertson says, “Like an old abandoned building, the home of bats and snakes, left ‘to do those things which are not fitting,’ like the night clubs of modern cities, the dives and dens of the underworld, without God and in the darkness of unrestrained animal impulses." LWBC

37. Romans 1:28 • Translation. And even as after putting God to the test for the purpose of approving Him should He meet the specifications, and finding that He did not, they disapproved of holding Him in their full and precise knowledge, God gave them up to a mind that would not meet the test for that which a mind was meant, to practice those things which were not becoming nor fitting. LWBC

38. Romans 1:29-32 • Being filled with every unrighteousness, pernicious evil, avarice, malice, full of envy, murder, wrangling, guile, malicious craftiness, secret slanderers, backbiters, hateful to God, insolent, haughty, swaggerers, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, stupid, faithless, without natural affection, merciless; such are those who knowing the judgment of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, not only habitually do the same things, but also take pleasure in those who practice them. LWBC

39. Romans 1:29-32 • Being filled” is a perfect participle. • The perfect tense in Greek speaks of a past completed action having present results. • These who had disapproved of holding God in their knowledge were completely filled as a consequence with the first 4 on the list - "every unrighteousness, pernicious evil, avarice, and malice" with the result that they remained in a full condition with the subsequent overflow of the 17 remaining sins mentioned in verses 29–32. LWBC

40. Romans 1:29 • Paul launches into a detailed list of the representative sins relevant to his audience. • He first speaks of the sinners as filled with wickedness, showing that they are not half-hearted about their sin. • They were wholly given over to it. • Their exclusion of God left room for nothing else. LWBC

41. Romans 1:29 • The vice list is organized into three main parts. • First, the participle "being filled" introduces four words that all conclude with (-ia). These words are all general descriptions of human sin: (adikia, unrighteousness), (ponחia, wickedness), (pleonexia, covetousness), and (kakia, malice). LWBC

42. Romans 1:29-32 • Second, five words modify "full" (mestous): (phthonou, envy), • (phonou, murder), • (eridos, strife), • (dolou, deceit), and • (kakoחheias, malice). • Envy, murder, strife, deceit, and ill will LWBC

43. Romans 1:29-32 • Finally, twelve words or phrases all in the accusative, appositional to (autous, them) in verse 28, conclude the list. • The first two sins describe those who destroy others’ reputations psithyristas, gossips; katalalous, slanderers). • The next six expressions seem to be allied in terms of the shocking depth of evil; (theostygeis, haters of God). LWBC

44. Romans 1:29-32 • The words (hybristas, insolent), (hyperחhanous, arrogant), and (alazonas, braggarts) are thematically related insofar as they point to the self-importance and rudeness of those who are convinced of their superiority. • The next two vices are linked in that they are both two-word phrases: (epheuretas kakפ, inventors of evil) and (goneusin apeitheis, disobedient to parents). • Both signify the depth of evil. • The former highlights their creativity in performing evil, while the latter reveals that sin ruptures relationships in the home. LWBC

45. Romans 1:29-32 • The list concludes with some rhetorical force by four terms that are joined together: (asynetous, foolish), (asynthetous, treacherous), (astorgous, without natural affection), (aneleחonas, without mercy). • Dunn (1988) nicely catches the sense and partially reproduces the effect in translating the four terms “senseless, faithless, loveless, merciless,” LWBC

46. Romans 1:29-32 • The depth and full weight of human sin is communicated with verse 32, which concludes this section. • The people in view are those who practice the evil described in the previous verses, they do them (auta poiousin); those who practice such things (hoi ta toiauta prassontes). • It is remarkable, despite their rejection of the true God and the darkening of their understanding (vv. 21–23), that they are still keenly aware of God’s disapproval of their behavior. LWBC

47. Romans 1:29-32 • In fact, their awareness is even greater than this. • They know “the ordinance of God” (to dikaiפa tou theou), which is specified in the subsequent (hoti, that) clause. • God’s ordinance is that those who indulge in such behavior are “worthy of death”. • It follows, then, that Gentiles, without specifically having the Mosaic law, are aware of the moral requirements contained in that law. • They not only know that God disapproves of their behavior but they also know that it deserves the punishment of death. LWBC

48. Romans 1:29-32 • The depth of their evil is even greater; alla kai, not only …but also). • Not only do they continue to practice evil that they know deserves God’s sentence of death, but they also “give commendation to those who practice these things”. • Cranfield (1975: 135) says: “But there is also the fact that those who condone and applaud the vicious actions of others are actually making a deliberate contribution to the setting up of public opinion favourable to vice, and so to the corruption of an indefinite number of other people.” LWBC

49. Romans 1:29-32 • The full extent of the rejection of God becomes evident in such an attitude. • His judgment is known, yet people are encouraged to pursue evil anyway. • Those who encourage others to pursue evil commit a greater evil in that they foment the spread of evil and are complicit in the destruction of others. LWBC

50. Romans 1:29 • The hatred of God is so entrenched that people are willing to risk future judgment in order to carry out their evil desires. • Once again the text hints that the fundamental sin that informs all others is a refusal to delight in or submit to God’s lordship. • God’s wrath is rightly inflicted on those who not only practice evil but find their greatest delight in it. LWBC