Therefore God delivered them over to the cravings of their hearts to sexual impurity, so that their bodies were degraded among themselves. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served something created instead of the Creator, who is praised forever. Amen.
Romans 1:24-25 HCSB
In Romans 1, beginning in verse 18 Paul explains that God’s wrath is revealed from heaven against all godlessness and unrighteousness of people who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. When we lead ungodly lives, we are suppressing the truth of God. When we lead godly lives, we are witnesses for Him. We can hopefully lead others to the truth.
Paul tells us in verse 19 that what can be known about God is evident because God has shown it to them. In verse 20 he says God’s invisible attributes such as his eternal power and divine nature have been seen since the beginning of the world and for this reason there is no excuse for those who reject Him and refuse to glorify Him.
Paul goes on to say in verse 21 that though they knew God, they did not glorify God or show gratitude and their thinking became nonsense. He says their senseless minds were darkened. If you have ever spent much time around a non-believer or someone who lives their life on their own terms without giving a care about God, you will see that they often times don’t make a lot of sense. And in all honesty, they often leave you thinking, “What on earth are they talking about?” because what they have said makes no sense whatsoever.
Now the one thing these nonbelievers all have in common is they believe they are extremely wise. We are cautioned against considering ourselves wise in Proverbs 3:5-7. These verses tell us to trust in God with all our hearts and not rely on our own understanding. We are told to acknowledge Him in all we do, and He will guide us on the right path. Then we are warned not to consider ourselves to be wise, but to fear the LORD and turn away from evil.
When people reject God, they embrace evil. We are either for God or we are against God, there is no middle ground. When we are against God, we subject ourselves to evil.
Paul also says in verse 23 they exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man, birds, four-footed animals, and reptiles. This is idolatry. The Israelites often suffered the wrath of God for their idolatry. We serve a jealous God and He commands us in the Ten Commandments not to have any other gods before Him.
When it says in our Scripture passage God delivered them over to their heart’s desires, this is one of the saddest verses in the Bible to me. It tells us there will come a time if we continue to reject God, He will be done with us. It will be too late.
Are you rejecting God? Sadly, I think there are people who are rejecting God without even understanding what they are doing. There was a time in my life when I didn’t put God first. I put me first. I put what I wanted to do first. I thank God that He was patient with me.
We must understand, however, we can all get to a point where it is too late. When we draw our last breath, it’s too late. None of us know when that will happen. When the rapture occurs, we will have to endure the horrors of the tribulation to be saved, but even during the tribulation God will destroy people with His wrath. For them, it is too late.
But even as we are alive, I believe our Scripture passage is telling us our continual rejection of Jesus Christ as our Savior, will enrage God to a point where He simply washes His hands of us. Where it will be too late, even as we live, to be saved.
I beg of you, please don’t wait until it’s too late.
Have a great day!