Paul wrote this letter to the Christian community in Rome. Their beliefs were being challenged by the Jewish community, who evidently charged them with fundamental inconsistency with the Old Testament. This passage is Paul's response, which is also the most systematic presentation of the gospel — the good news of what God has given us through Jesus Christ — in the entire New Testament. Every Christian should be thoroughly familiar with the contents of Romans, especially the first eight chapters.
But Paul begins with God's bad news. From Romans 1:18-3:20, he argues that everyone — Gentiles and Jews, pagans and religious, those with the Bible and those without it — is justly under God's judgment.
This passage is politically incorrect in the extreme. It contains content that is offensive to current cultural sensibilities. But before you give up on trying to read and understand it, consider that maybe we should expect God's Word to surprise and disturb, and even offend us.
Paul begins by addressing the unfortunate reality of those who do not have the Bible. It is tempting to think they are exempt from God's judgment because they have never had the opportunity to learn about God. However, Paul declares, they also are under God's judgment (see Romans 1:18). Why? Because they are not in total ignorance. God has given them much truth about Himself through general revelation, but they have willfully suppressed it.
Read Romans 1:19-20. Paul speaks broadly of two forms of knowledge about God through general revelation. Let us review them in reverse order.
The first is external. Reading Romans 1:20, we see how "God made it evident to them… through what has been made," and 2,000 years of scientific investigation has strengthened Paul's point rather than weakened it.
As we look outward to the magnificent size of creation, and as we understand that all this mass began concentrated in a micro-pinhead that expanded in its first second to 20 light years across, we know both intuitively and rationally that it requires a Creator who is both eternal and uniquely powerful, which is why Paul mentions "His eternal power".
As we examine the marvelous order and complexity of the universe — both macro and micro — we know both intuitively and rationally that it requires a Creator who is uniquely intelligent. This is what British physicist and astronomer Sir James Jeans means when he says, "The universe begins to look more like a great thought than a giant machine."
The second form of knowledge about God is internal. Paul writes in 1:19, “that which is known about God is evident within them"; He is referring to what is there within all humans that testifies to the existence of the God of the Bible. Paul does not say that here, but he does later.
Read Romans 2:14-15. Humans have an incurable sense of morality. Conscience is not a perfect moral guide, but it does testify to the reality of a moral standard to which we are personally accountable because it hurts us when we violate it. This in turn is a testimony for the existence of a moral Creator, in whose image we have been made. In Hebrews 1:32, Paul also says we know instinctively that we will give an account to God for our sins.
As we look inward, we also know that we are personal beings rather than mere machines. We instinctively value personal love relationships. Why do we value this? Where does this desire for personal connection and relationship come from? The best explanation is that we have been made in the image of a Creator who is personal and loving.
So without any Bible at all, human beings know that there is a God who is personal, moral, intelligent, eternal and powerful.
And therefore even people who have never seen a Bible should bow to God, worshiping and thanking Him for who He is. But this is not the normal response (see Romans 1:21-23). Although the memory of this God can be found in virtually every culture ever researched, they normally reject the true God and replace Him with something lesser and corrupt. This means that our primary spiritual problem is not intellectual and due to a lack of sufficient evidence, but moral, as we tend to want to rebel and be autonomous.
Therefore, polytheism, pantheism, dualism, animism, and not to mention atheism, are not beautiful expressions of human spirituality. They are not innocent speculations of truly ignorant people. Although they contain truth, they signify a willful and culpable suppression and rejection of the true God. Paul repeats this in Romans 1:25-28a.
So can people who have never seen a Bible be saved? Paul is not addressing this issue directly; he is arguing in a general way that such people cannot plead ignorance. If they live in darkness about the one true God, it is a self-imposed darkness, because they have rejected the light God has given them. Sincere Christians disagree on this question. I think the Bible implies that they can be saved, and that some are saved — but with important qualifications:
Not by merely being devout followers of their native religions. That is Paul's point – their polytheism, pantheism, animism, etc.— is without excuse, precisely because they signify a rejection of the knowledge of God. Such people would be considered outcasts, swimming against the religious tide of their cultures.
Realizing and acknowledging the existence of God, whether by mere awareness or through reading the Bible, is also not sufficient for salvation. There must be the choice to personally humble yourself before God and cast yourself on His mercy.
Nor does this negate the need for Christian missions. God has given humanity a great gift through His Son and He wants all of humanity to hear about it! Furthermore, Scripture implies that although all people have sufficient light to turn to God, more people will respond when given more light. It also indicates that those who have responded to general revelation will be much more blessed in this life if they hear the gospel — they will have understanding and assurance of salvation, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, and many other blessings.
But let us return to Paul's argument. People without the Bible are justly under God's judgment because they have suppressed the truth God has revealed to them. How does God express this judgment?
Notice the verb tense in Romans 1:18 – "the wrath of God is revealed…" Although they also will face God's future and final judgment unless they repent (1:32), they are experiencing some aspect of God's judgment right now. Paul repeats the same phrase three times to describe God's present judgment (see 1:24,26,28) – "God gave them over."
When Paul speaks of God "giving them over," he does not mean that God actively pushes people further away from Himself, or that He initiates temporal judgments. He is echoing Psalm 81:11-12, which refers to Israel not submitting to God and being left to follow their stubborn hearts. God "lets us go” by allowing us to experience the natural consequences of rebelling against His goodness and His will. Regardless of what we say we believe, we are still made in God's image and must live in His universe. And when we suppress the truth and rebel against this reality, this does not change the reality; it just damages us.We cannot ultimately break God's laws; we break ourselves upon them.
This principle applies not only to individuals and cultures that have rejected general revelation; it also applies, maybe even more so, to individuals and cultures which have rejected special revelation, such as Israel throughout the Old Testament or today’s Western cultures. Paul speaks of three general manifestations of God's present judgment. They are not the only manifestations, but they are the most obvious. Many of us have experienced them in our own lives and families, and we are presently experiencing them in our cultures today.
Read Romans 1:24. When people who are created for a relationship with the invisible God turn away from Him, they usually look to visible, tangible experiences to fill up the space where they removed God from. This creates a vacuum of insatiable desires — what Paul calls here "the lusts of their hearts to impurity." "Impurity" here does not refer only to sexual immorality as in the NIV translation, but encompasses all inordinate lusts, including other sensual sins such as alcoholism, drug use, gluttony, sloth, and materialistic greed. Do these experiences satisfy and fulfill the human heart? No, they produce enslaving addictions, broken health from those addictions, increasing emptiness and loneliness, damage to families, and so on.
When people who are created for healthy, personal intimacy with God turn away from Him, they usually turn to sexual immorality. Read 1:26-27. Paul mentions homosexual sin here as the most obvious violation of God's design for sexuality. But this violation also includes heterosexual promiscuity, adultery, pornography, and other sexual sins. Do these practices satisfy and fulfill the human heart? No, but those who practice them receive appropriate consequences for their actions. This refers not primarily to STD's, but the personal fragmentation, guilt, gnawing hunger from false intimacy, damage to families, and other brokenness that occurs as a result of such sins.
When people turn away from the truth about God, this creates tremendous cognitive dissonance — tension between what we know and how we live. There are ultimately only two ways to resolve this dissonance – either bow to God and adjust your behavior, or twist your thinking more and more from reality. This is what Paul calls a depraved mind (see Romans 1:28). A depraved mind is a mind that is no longer used to learn about God and His will for the sake of following Him, but rather, to rationalize rebellion against God and His will. Damage from a depraved mind includes an increasingly seared conscience, increasing moral confusion, attraction to philosophies that justify autonomy, and other dangers. And as this spreads into a life, a family, a culture, the horrors of 1:29-32 become more and more commonplace and acceptable. This is the tragic state of our own culture.
But the Bible does not end with this dark picture. There is also good news from God.
Why does God "give you over?" Not because He is disgusted with you, but in the hope that we will come to your senses and turn to Him, as the younger son did with his own father in the story of the prodigal son (see Luke 15:11-31).
God wants you to turn to Him and say what the prodigal son said. And when you do that, you will discover that it is all He ever wanted you to do. He knows your dilemma better than you do and He has already made provision for you through Jesus Christ. Read Romans 1:16-17. The gospel has answers for every person, no matter how much truth you have suppressed, no matter how much you have broken yourself on God's law.
The moment you receive Jesus' provision by faith, God permanently forgives you and begins to heal your broken life. Now, it is up to you with how you choose to respond to Him.
