Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy. Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.
In the last post I spoke a bit about how the nations themselves are guilty of sin. It isn't just that people are wicked, but even entire nations fall prone to this. We are in the midst of a generation that has been given over to this perverse spirit. This doesn't mean that all is lost. I was a part of that perverse generation. It was through God's mercy by His Spirit that I am now able to say that I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.
But what are we to do with this last bit of the first chapter of Romans? I think it speaks for itself. There really isn't a whole lot to comment on.
I think that when we reach a statement like this, the best thing to do is to just take it in. Lets not try to overcoat it with "that's how I used to be..." or "not everyone is that extreme..." I find that many people are willing to accept that "people" can get to such an extreme as Hitler, Pol Pot, or Stalin. We're willing to accept that something like murder or rape is at anyone's grasp. However, to then turn it back toward self is something else entirely.
How many of us have truly read this verse and put self in each line? Take out the "they" and put "I." Just as I did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave me over to a depraved mind... In many ways this isn't true for we who believe. In other aspects it is true. This is why we need to "renew our minds." Our minds can be subtly condemning us.
In many I have noticed how action and word do not line up. Whether it comes from the Calvinist or whether it comes from the Armenian, both seem to say one thing and act another. The one claims God is sovereign, and then their lives seem to say they believe that God really doesn't care what you do. If God is sovereign, then why do so many Calvinists have mixed feelings about subtle issues like the amount of goods is acceptable for a Christian to accumulate, the size of home to buy, the amount of money to tithe, etc? If God is sovereign, then wouldn't He have an opinion on such things? And shouldn't we who believe that God is sovereign treat Him and act like we truly believe that?
Many times my wife and I are flabbergasted at the amount of disbelief many Christians have. They seek after worldly wealth. They live their lives according to the wisdom of the world. Heaven forbid that God would call you out of your job because it supports the wrong kind of system. How am I to make a living? And in the very question it displays that we don't truly believe that God is sovereign. Is God not able to sustain you? What if you don't work at all? Is God not able to support you?
Maybe at this point I should admit that I haven't worked in about 6 months. God has sustained my wife and I in our little apartment. But many times the question isn't about whether God can sustain us. The question that my wife and I find ourselves asking is whether God is willing to sustain us. There is a big difference in the question. If God has not called us out of our jobs as we have believed, and He has not told us to continue in being steadfast and believing that He will provide (don't move until He does provide), then the money will run out. We'll be found begging.
In the story of Elisha, there is a woman who goes to him and tells him that she is suffering from famine. Elisha tells her to go to her neighbors and borrow as many jars as she can. Then take the oil that she has and pour it out into the jars. The oil never stopped pouring. It wasn't until the son said, "There are no more jars" that the oil stopped. I look at the story and wonder if a jar would have popped into existence from somewhere if the son would have simply believed that God was providing. I don't know. We'll never know.
The other side of the spectrum (Armenians) also have their moments. I've heard Armenians who would go as far as saying that it is God who brings suffering. They call it a test. "God is testing you." That isn't what Job says. The book of Job clearly shows that the devil is the accuser and persecutor. God wasn't testing Job. God gave credence to satan to torment him, but that doesn't mean that God brought the devastation.
While I'm here on Job, I want to also point out that the book doesn't have a "happy" ending. I've heard people who would talk about how Job suffered greater than any man. But it all worked out in the end. So it was okay. They turn the story of Job into a cheap cliche because they are unwilling to be taken up by what is happening. The man lost his children. His servants died. His herds died. Don't tell me that Job wouldn't have looked back and remembered his children. Just because God restored Job's wealth doesn't mean that there wasn't still sorrow in his heart when he thought of his sons and daughters.
It is in our inadequate view of God that we find these sins emerging. We have been all too willing to treat God as if He is just "a god." This is the sin of Israel. They received judgment and exile over it. If God judged His people Israel, what makes you so sure He won't judge the Church? If we are only playing games and going through the motions and calling our fun-fest "church," then we will receive the greatest judgment. Because we claim to see, our guilt remains.
It is from these wrong mindsets and attitudes toward God that we find sin emerge. When we want to call Him sovereign and then live in complete control of our lives, our sin will find us out. There will be something somewhere that is lacking. When we want to say that God is so sovereign that He is the one who brings about death, suffering, and devastation in our lives, then we have another problem Scripturally. God is not the god of violence. He isn't in the business of tormenting. If we want to use phrases like, "God is testing you," then we better be sure of what that means and incorporates. If we wrongly depict the work of the Holy Spirit and call something that is satanic as "testing," then we have the same sin as the Pharisees who said, "It is by the power of Beelzebub that Jesus casts out demons."
A wrong foundation brings about cracks and fractures. The building will either break or crumble. A wrong foundation cannot be built upon without some damage in the future. It might hold for a while. But when the moment of extremity comes, will this house stand?
With this I end by quoting Jesus. I believe that these words were marked for all time, but especially for the end times: "Everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash." It isn't a question of whether we'll face adversity. We will face it. It will be extreme enough to cause our lives to crumble. The only hope is building upon a sure foundation and using the gold, silver, and precious stones to build up the Kingdom of God instead of our own lives, futures, families, legacies, and reputations.
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