Woe to the one who is guilty of these sins. Oh wait, that’s me:(
24 So God abandoned them to do whatever shameful things their hearts desired. As a result, they did vile and degrading things with each other’s bodies. 25 They traded the truth about God for a lie. So they worshiped and served the things God created instead of the Creator himself, who is worthy of eternal praise! Amen. 26 That is why God abandoned them to their shameful desires. Even the women turned against the natural way to have sex and instead indulged in sex with each other. 27 And the men, instead of having normal sexual relations with women, burned with lust for each other. Men did shameful things with other men, and as a result of this sin, they suffered within themselves the penalty they deserved.
28 Since they thought it foolish to acknowledge God, he abandoned them to their foolish thinking and let them do things that should never be done. 29 Their lives became full of every kind of wickedness, sin, greed, hate, envy, murder, quarreling, deception, malicious behavior, and gossip. 30 They are backstabbers, haters of God, insolent, proud, and boastful. They invent new ways of sinning, and they disobey their parents. 31 They refuse to understand, break their promises, are heartless, and have no mercy. 32 They know God’s justice requires that those who do these things deserve to die, yet they do them anyway. Worse yet, they encourage others to do them, too.
Romans 1:24-32 (NLT)
This list of sinful activity seems to go on and on.
We all fall within one or more of the sin categories. Yes, each one of us. You and me. We must be very careful not to elevate ourselves above others. We must be very careful not to judge others from up high on our golden pedestal. If we do this, let’s just pray that God has mercy on us and brings quick conviction to our hearts.
Pride (v. 30) is a chief reason for our downfall. Just as pride is what got Satan kicked out of Heaven. We see the his fall in Isaiah 14.
12 “How you are fallen from heaven,
O shining star, son of the morning!
You have been thrown down to the earth,
you who destroyed the nations of the world.
13 For you said to yourself,
‘I will ascend to heaven and set my throne above God’s stars.
I will preside on the mountain of the gods
far away in the north.
14 I will climb to the highest heavens
and be like the Most High.’
15 Instead, you will be brought down to the place of the dead,
down to its lowest depths.”
Isaiah 14:12-15 (NLT)
Do you see how Satan’s downfall was pride?
He lusted to ascend above God’s throne in Heaven. He wanted to be higher than the Most High. Instead, we see that he is brought down to the lowest depths. Pride will do this to us as well if we allow it to dominate our hearts. Humble yourself today. Jump down off your pedestal and don’t think more highly of yourself than you ought. We are no better than anyone else in this great big world. We are all equal. One sin does not outweigh another sin. In God’s eyes, we are all equal and sin is all equal.
It is only by the Grace of God that we can come out of this darkness.
Without Him, we would be right in the middle of what is described in these final verses in Romans 1, and that’s sobering. These final verses do not need a whole lot of explanation. Without God, humankind sinks low. But by the Grace of God, we are raised up high with Him.
As I mentioned in our last study, we have a choice. God will not force us to choose the life He desires for us to have. He values our free will too much to do that. If we insist on doing harmful, self-destructive acts, then we have to pay the consequences which breaks God’s heart.
Stay with me in this study. The book of Romans does turn around and is a very instructive, Spirit-filled book for each of us. We’ll start Chapter 2 in our next lession.
Stay in the Light and the Love Always,
Eva
Leave a Reply