Sunday, April 21, 2019

Romans 1:32 “Resurrection”

As always, here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

32Such ones, knowing the decree of God, that ones practicing such things are worthy of death, not only practice them but also approve those practicing.

I have pondered on this verse for a while. It is curious to me that the persons in view it says, “know the decree of God, that those practicing such things deserve death…” That makes me wonder exactly who the Lord has in mind. It is definitely true today that wicked people openly approve of and encourage wickedness in others. But I wonder, do the same people “know the decree of God?” Do they “know that those practicing such things are worthy of death?” I guess my first inclination is to say no. I rather suspect that wicked people today are plodding blindly to their own awful judgments.

That leads me to believe that the Lord specifically has in mind the antediluvian people who would have rejected the preaching of Adam and Enoch and Noah and literally carried the human race to such a pit that the Lord destroyed it all with the Flood. I’ve noted before how in different verses from 18 on, there have been a couple of places where the sins were expressed in the singular – leading me to wonder if He didn’t have the entire human race in view as a singular entity.

But that said, it sort of doesn’t matter, since even the collective sins of the entire race are but an expression of every heart individually. Either way, the Lord is describing us – or rather, the us we are each capable of becoming. The same rotten heart beats in every human breast. Here in America, grace has be-knighted us with birth in a basically Christian land, given us parents and teachers of at least noble intentions, and allowed us to begin the journey of life somewhere above ignorant savages eating each other.

What Romans 1 has been showing us is how badly we need God. It has been showing us the awful, awful consequence of rejecting Him – the only force in all the universe which can save us from ourselves. But I want to record that, I think, in a way, verse 32 really does sum up the final end of man’s devolution.

What do I mean? What I mean is that, having turned our backs on God, we will not only devolve – more than that, we turn into demons ourselves. It is bad enough to sin and bring judgment on ourselves, but what is a demon? It is a being created with intelligence and dignity and no doubt beauty, created in the very presence of God, with the power to choose whether to acknowledge that God or not – and who knowingly, willfully rejected Him to follow instead their evil leader Satan. And having plunged themselves full length into all of that sin and judgment, and who know (literally) that God’s judgment will mean death, now spend every minute trying to deceive human beings into the same judgment.

Stop and ponder how utterly evil that is. It’s always a wonder to me how one generation after another of movie stars and entertainers fall hopelessly into addictions and ultimately early deaths, only to see another generation rise up, run headlong into the same drunkenness, drug abuse, and immorality, and end up in the same addictions and self-destruction. How can people be so blind? How awful to think there are actually demons who, seeing all that self-destruction and misery, yet actually enjoy all day every day leading more young people down the same path! They know they’re leading people to their deaths and do it anyway!

Then add to that picture that the fallen people themselves join the invisible demons to openly encourage other people’s destruction. The party life – that’s the life to live, yes? Drive fast. Be immoral. Drink yourself into a stupor. Try it, you’ll like it. Human beings trumpet those old ideas, knowing full well it has utterly destroyed people around them, and knowing too the misery it has brought into their own lives. They do it, knowing they’re leading other people to their deaths. When a person does that, what has he become? A demon – one “knowing the decree of God, that ones practicing such things are worthy of death, [yet who] not only practice[s] them but also approve[s] those practicing...”

And, as the old saying goes, “There but for the grace of God, go I.”

The only reason I am not a demon ultimately is God Himself. He very kindly has placed all through my life forces and restraints of all different kinds to keep me from being as bad as I could be. And He took upon Himself the robe of flesh to come here and die in my place so that even my very heart could be redeemed! Coincidentally, as I type these words it is Easter morning of 2019. Resurrection Sunday! And what is resurrection all about? It’s about Jesus conquering (our) death and rising again. It’s about Him winning the war with Satan for the souls of men and women and boys and girls! And think about it – though I am literally (or at least have the potential in me) to be a demon deserving the Lake of Fire, yet He would pay the price of my sin, and carry this willfully wicked (redeemed) sinner once again into the loving embrace of my heavenly Father. He gives to each of us literally life from the dead.

Amazing.

I don’t want to be a demon. I don’t want other people around me to become demons. I don’t want them taken captive by the devil to do his evil will and kill themselves.

May you and I so draw near to our Father’s heart that others might see there is available to them a world of life and light and peace and joy – a world where they don’t have to live in hate and fear and confusion. May they see the resurrected Jesus in you and me!

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