November 12 – The Downhill Slide
by Audrey Bauman
Romans 1: 24 – 32 (NLT)
24 So God abandoned them to do whatever shameful things their hearts desired. As a result, they did vile and degrading things with each other’s bodies. 25 They traded the truth about God for a lie. So they worshiped and served the things God created instead of the Creator himself, who is worthy of eternal praise! Amen. 26 That is why God abandoned them to their shameful desires. Even the women turned against the natural way to have sex and instead indulged in sex with each other. 27 And the men, instead of having normal sexual relations with women, burned with lust for each other. Men did shameful things with other men, and as a result of this sin, they suffered within themselves the penalty they deserved.
28 Since they thought it foolish to acknowledge God, he abandoned them to their foolish thinking and let them do things that should never be done. 29 Their lives became full of every kind of wickedness, sin, greed, hate, envy, murder, quarreling, deception, malicious behavior, and gossip. 30 They are backstabbers, haters of God, insolent, proud, and boastful. They invent new ways of sinning, and they disobey their parents. 31 They refuse to understand, break their promises, are heartless, and have no mercy. 32 They know God’s justice requires that those who do these things deserve to die, yet they do them anyway. Worse yet, they encourage others to do them, too.
These verses are hard to read, and some of you may be thinking, “I don’t agree with what the Bible says in verses 26 and 27, but I understand the other verses”. When God created the world and placed Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, that was a very different place than the world we know today. It appeared that the animals got along – no predator animals killing other animals, and Adam and Eve seemed to follow a ‘vegan diet’. God came and visited them in person every evening. There was peace and plenty for all. But when Eve and Adam decided to disobey God’s instructions, because they hoped they would become as wise as God, everything changed. Eden was gone and the world we know today began.
These verses in Romans tell us that “God abandoned them to do whatever shameful things their hearts desired” (v. 24) and “Since they thought it foolish to acknowledge God, he abandoned them to their foolish thinking and let them do things that should never be done”. (v. 28) That is a scary thought – that abandonment. But I can also see God deciding that if we thought we could be like Him, then go ahead and see what happens. Yet, even though it says that God abandoned us, in reality God didn’t leave us completely alone. He did appear many times in the Old Testament, and created His own nation, Israel. Then in the New Testament, He came to earth Himself and died for us and rose again, so that we could restore that relationship with Him. He is present and aware in our world today, and his Holy Spirit lives within each believer.
But we do have to agree that sin changed everything from the way God intended it to be. As far as sexuality is concerned, Genesis 1: 26 to 28 says:
“Then God said, “Let us make human beings in our image, to be like us. They will reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, the livestock, all the wild animals on the earth, and the small animals that scurry along the ground.”
27 So God created human beings in his own image.
In the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them.
28 Then God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and govern it. Reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, and all the animals that scurry along the ground.”
That was God’s intention for sexuality – male and female, and the ability to have children. But the human desire to challenge God changed things. I struggle with the verses about homosexuality because I do believe that God loves everyone. But I also believe that there are many, many things we do wrong in all areas of life, and we need to admit that and ask God for help in living the way He wants us to live. I’ve worked closely with LBGTQ co-workers, and taught teens struggling with their sexual identity, and I’ve enjoyed working with them all. In no way would I want anyone to ever treat them with disrespect or hostility. But that doesn’t mean that I think that what they are doing is right in God’s eyes. Just like God loves me with all my faults, I can love them just like God does, but I don’t have to say that what they are doing is what God intended or wants. This whole issue is a tough one for sure.
The other verses are easier for us all to agree on. When we leave God out of the picture, human beings can become quite despicable. We don’t have to look far to see all the things listed in the last group of verses in this chapter. If you go back and read verses 28 to 32 again, and stop at each descriptive word to think about an example you know about, you could easily make up a list of things that illustrate those verses.
So how does this apply to me/you today? I need to recognize that this world is “out of whack”. When we read or listen to the news today, we certainly see a world at war and falling apart in several ways. It doesn’t surprise me when little kids smack each other in the face or snatch toys away. This sinful nature that we have sends us all in directions we regret later. I’m so thankful that Romans doesn’t stop at the end of chapter 1. This book will go on to tell us God’s redemption story. But I think it’s important that I know what is true and what isn’t, and the Bible tells me that. That’s why I think it’s important that we know what the Bible says. Romans tells us if we leave God out of the picture, things will go downhill for sure. Left up to us, we will get it wrong.
Our song for today is Just As I Am by Jason Crabb.