Thursday, March 12, 2015

God Gave Them Over...

I have been asked if there ever comes a time when God gives up on redeeming people that He allegedly loves. My answer is yes. There comes a point where rebellion against God becomes self destructive activity. The pursuit of pleasure, gratification of the physical senses and unbridled desire for wealth and possessions can all become replacements for God in our lives. When we begin to worship created things or even ourselves, this does not sit well with God.

And that is what Romans 1:18-32 is all about. In ancient times, people knew...they were aware of...they had knowledge of the One True God. They knew that He is a Holy God, intolerant of sin. They knew what He expects in this regard. Even so, the flesh was willing, but the human spirit was weak (as it is today). People of that time wanted what they wanted (as they do today). If God would not bend to their wills, they would replace Him. And this is exactly what happened. The ancient peoples of the earth replaced their Creator God with gods of their own making, created in their own images. These were gods that they could control coupled with religions they could control, independent of any actual divine interference. They successfully decoupled morality from faith in their invented gods so they could do as they pleased. And since they abandoned the One True God, He abandoned them...He gave them over to their own desires and a depraved mind to sin until the sins destroyed them....their physical bodies. One of the features of this 'giving over' was sexual perversion. And it is a fact that in the worship of these ancient, invented gods, prostitution was practiced. There were both male and female temple prostitutes and they would practice their trade with worshipers of the same sex and the opposite sex. This even happened in the temple in Jerusalem and it did not sit well with Yahweh. So, as Romans 1:24, 26 and 28, Paul says that God gave them over to their desires.

Does this mean that God has any particular hatred of sexual sin over other sins? Well, yes and no. All sin is sin because it is against the will of God. However, sins committed with the body are particularly odious to Him, especially if the offender is a believer. But since we are not talking about believers here, the answer is no. Paul is just saying that this is many times the way the road to Perdition starts. People abandon God to pursue their our own self interests, whatever those might be. As they set themselves up more and more as their own God, they begin to create their own reality and morality and so do as they please. This process leads to every kind of sin and sexual sin is a major part of that equation as well as selfishness, greed and the list goes on. The result is usually destruction of the body and desensitizing of the human spirit. The spirit becomes less and less able to respond to the divine call and then finally it is too late. 

Believers, both then and now, look at these depraved people in the world and we tend to condemn them out of hand; we judge them. Paul warned us about that too. In chapter 2 of Romans, Paul says,

You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge another, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things. Now we know that God’s judgment against those who do such things is based on truth. So when you, a mere human being, pass judgment on them and yet do the same things, do you think you will escape God’s judgment? Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, forbearance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repentance?
But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God’s wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed. God “will repay each person according to what they have done.”[a] To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor and immortality, he will give eternal life. But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger. There will be trouble and distress for every human being who does evil: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile; 10 but glory, honor and peace for everyone who does good: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. 11 For God does not show favoritism.

Yes, we who call ourselves Christians, sin too. Even in our saved state, we will always stand in the need of God's grace, love and forgiveness, so we should not judge others too harshly. The same process of replacing God with our own desires can happen to those of us that believe. We modify our Christian faith to fit our own mold of what we think is moral and right, and to our eternal condemnation, we become like the unbelievers.

God gave us believers His Spirit to dwell within us. We need to listen to His Spirit's encouragement to do the right things and stand firm. And we also need to help rather than condemn those that are stumbling in their walk with Jesus without inviting sin into our own lives.

This is what we were called to. God has given us over to His Righteousness. We must NOT exchange that for the cultural lies of our time.