“July 12, 2024 - God Gave Them Up”

Thursday, July 11, 2024

God Gave Them Up

Reading:  Romans 1:24-32
    
    Paul describes the Gentiles’ descent into sin as a rejection of God followed by a steady movement away from him (Rom 1:21-23).  He also details several ways that human beings exchange the natural created order for what they wanted (Rom 1:23, 25, 26).  What is surprising is God’s reaction to them:  three times Paul says that “God gave them up”(Rom 1:24, 26, 28).  “Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever!  Amen”(Rom 1:24-25).   Since they were consumed with lust and a desire to glorify themselves, God allowed them to fully dishonor their bodies.  “For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions.  For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error”(Rom 1:26-27).  As they move farther from God, they reject the sexual relationships God created for them and seek “those that are contrary to nature”; God gives them up to this as well.

    But these are only stepping stones to further rejection of God.  “And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done.  They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice”(Rom 1:28-29).  On and on the list goes, detailing their resistance to God’s order and the horrific personal and social consequences that follow.  “Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them”(Rom 1:32).  They continue the pattern of refusing to act on what they know about God (Rom 1:21).  God gives them up to this “debased mind” as well.

    “God gave them up” implies that in ordinary circumstances God holds us back from our worst desires and their disastrous consequences.  Yet it also means that we can reach a state of rejection where he removes this protection.  If we are determined to rebel against him and live in sin, he will “give us up” to it.  The only hope is that we see the wreck we have made of our lives and turn to him for deliverance.

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One Thing to Think About:  How have I rejected God and his will for me?

One Thing to Pray For:  God not to “give me up” to sin, but to help me resist it 
 

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