Romans 1:16-32: For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. 17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, "BUT THE RIGHTEOUS man SHALL LIVE BY FAITH." 18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, 19 because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. 20 For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. 21 For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. 22 Professing to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures. 24 Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, so that their bodies would be dishonored among them. 25 For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. 26 For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural, 27 and in the same way also the men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their desire toward one another, men with men committing indecent acts and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error. 28 And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper, 29 being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice; they are gossips, 30 slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, 31 without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful; 32 and although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them.
Starting with the special revelation of the gospel, Paul shows how it is this revelation of God, from faith to faith, by which believers are saved; he then goes onto the general revelation of God, and devastatingly shows how, with this general revelation alone, the end of these people is a perverse knowledge of God which they pervert all the further, according to their natural depraved manner of thought, and shows the final outcome: they not only do the things worthy of death, with an inherent knowledge that those who practice such things being worthy of death, but give hearty approval to others who practice them - in other words, they encourage them to practice that which they know will end in death; in fact, starting with vs. 28-31, we see what could easily be called a "list of death" which ends in the death knoll of v. 32. There is absolutely no hope for those limited to general revelation, as this section of Romans 1 shows.
Yet the course of church history, for centuries, has been set on fire of hell by those who insist on the limited portions of this discourse which speaks of the knowledge of God and His attributes from nature, and innately, which is no saving knowledge at all, followed through to the conclusion of the apostle's argument.
Such is the method of the natural man's mind seeking justification for false doctrine to allow for his irrational understanding of the Scriptures of God: The Creator has, indeed, been made over in the image of men - the men who suppose that this passage holds any hope at all for those who have not received faith to believe from God in the new heart and spirit (nature) He alone gives, and the communion with His Spirit necessary to holding to that intimate knowledge of Himself (fellowship [union] in the light - 1 John 1:5-7) that is apprehended by the faith He gifts us with, if we are truly His (Ezekiel 36:26; Ephesians 2:1-10; 1 John 4:13).
Thanks be to God for His free gift of grace in the eternal life which comes to us by His Spirit regenerating us, His drawing us to His Son, and His Son showing the Father to us (John 3:3-8: 6:37-44; Matthew 11:27).
To the glory of God and for the building up of His body - Bill Hier
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