By: Curtis Baker
This weekend, as I was scrolling through the news headlines on my iphone, an article caught my eye. For those of you who are not savvy about the use of smart phones, this article may make little sense, but to those of us who have learned to live off of our phones, it is just an increasing reminder of both the good and evil that technology makes possible. The article told of a new app that had been made available for smart phones that people could use on an airplane to find other people who were willing to meet them in the airplane bathroom for sex. No previous knowledge needed; no relationship necessary for the future; just a quick trip in the “mile high club” and everyone could move on with their own business. I admit, when I first read the article I was mildly amused by it. What will people think of next? But as I thought of it further, a phrase came to mind that Paul uses here in this section of Romans: “They invent ways of doing evil” (Rom 1:30).
As Paul pushes on into the first major theme of his writing in Romans, he is now going to present for us the major challenge to God’s intention to be faithful to his purpose of redeeming/blessing the world. The challenge is none other than the rebellion of human begins themselves. Paul makes it clear in verses 18-23 that mankind has never had any shortage of available knowledge about God. While it is true that God has not always provided human beings with a written testament to his desire and will, it is true that there has always been enough evidence from the goodness of creation itself to understand some basic things about God–namely, that he has great power, and that he is abundantly generous (1:20).
But human beings, in mass, have not cared to pay attention to what can be known about God…instead, they would rather worship what is most easily accessible to them. This, of course, would either be the human being itself, or the natural world they inhabit. So rather than worship the God they could not see, they instead deified the things they could see. In the ancient world, this meant building idols that had the appearance of man, or some kind of animal (or often, some combination of the two). The modern world is too sophisticated to build such idols, but the practical effect of what they truly worship is no different–people are most easily drawn to the worship (exaltation) of nature, or of the human body.
With that in mind, it should be no surprise to us that sexuality is one of the primary means of human rebellion. Outside of our most basic desires for food and drink, the sexual appetite is the strongest appetite of the human being. Directed in the right way it is the cause of great good–indeed, the creation of life itself! But when taken out of its intended purposes, it becomes an all consuming god. This is not surprising given the strength of sexual desire. In Romans 1 Paul uses the example of men and women abandoning the natural sexual relationship with one another to pursue what he calls unnatural desires. We could easily add to that recent stories of mass sex trafficking at the Super Bowl or using cell phones apps to “hook up” on airplanes.
But, of course, evil is not limited to the sexual sins. Indeed, the sexual sins are of a lesser, more instinct driven sort and deserve large helpings of mercy. The greater sins Paul goes on to list are the real plagues of mankind: greed, envy, anger, murder, factions, deceit, malice, gossip, slander, arrogance, and the all the different ways of inventing evil that we could go on to mention. People not only practice these things, but approve of those who do them.
So the question becomes, how can God possibly turn all of this evil back and restore, not only the creation itself that suffers under our sin, but most importantly, human beings? The answer begins with the ancient call to Israel, to whom God specially reveals himself. But as we will discover in chapter two next week, even that good purpose gets marred in rebellion of mankind. Until next week….
(Don’t forget to join me for A Message from the Heart radio program Sunday evening at 8:00pm on KJAK 92.7FM, or streaming live at www.kjak.com)
(curtisbaker@hotmail.com)
Write to: P.O. Box 157, Slaton, TX 79364
