Wherefore God gave them up [also] in the lusts of their hearts to uncleanness, to dishonour their bodies between themselves
Paul has just described a race that knew God, refused to honour Him, and swapped His glory for images. Verse 24 is the turning point. It is the first of three moments when God steps back and lets people have what they insisted on wanting.
The verse opens by pointing back. Every horror that follows is an answer to something people did first.
Their plight has been reached under the government of God. Three times over we get the phrase, with slight variations: "God gave them up to…". If men object to thinking of God and give Him up, they have no ground of complaint when He gives them up. And if they give up God, and so give up good, they find themselves given up to everything evil and degrading. There is an ironic justice about God's government.
The phrase does not mean God pushed anyone into sin.
So God gave them up to reap as they had sown. It is not that He made them sin (God forbid the thought!). He simply dropped the reins on man's neck, so that what was in sinful man's heart might come out — in my heart, reader, and yours. So we find that sin ruined men's bodies (v. 24), their affections (v. 26), and their minds (v. 28).
Was this coldness on God's part? What came before it gives the answer.
"Therefore God gave them up" — not that He was indifferent. His appeals through their intelligence and conscience had no effect on their determined course of evil… Man will reap the bitter fruits of refusing the place of dependence on God. His evil shows itself more and more in ways he once would have found horrible and detestable. Then he will say, "I can't help myself." In this he speaks the truth. But why does he not also confess the truth about how this shameful state began?… For only God can protect a soul against evil. If a man ignores Him, there is no predicting the depths of man's wickedness.
The punishment fits the crime. Men designed gods to their own taste.
Their lusts had turned them away from the true God; now the false gods they had set up to suit their own tastes approved and encouraged their lusts. God gave them up to their lusts, and they at once went on to dishonour their own bodies, just as they had already dishonoured God.
Behind the physical ruin lies a lie about who the creature is.
If the soul abandons the truth of God, everything is wrong, whatever appearances may say for the moment. This was the great falsehood. Not to be in dependence and obedience is to be false to the relationship of a creature. Yet there is a step still further down in evil — giving to the creature the honour that belongs to God alone.
The wreckage here is not only a warning of a reckoning to come. It is a sentence God is carrying out now.
Verses 24 and 25 display the punishment, even now, of God the Holy One on His debased image. Filth and dishonour are the unchecked and ripened fruit of the lusts of nature. Man had chosen those lusts as his guide, in preference to the will of God… The creature is utterly debased, and that through the working out of its own will. This is the sentence of divine wisdom on the self-dishonoured work of His hands.
Some read this verse as a defence: if God abandoned them, how are they to blame?
It is true that God has given men over to the vices they love. In His governmental dealings He does this because they have turned away from Him and have chosen to indulge their lusts. But despite this, they still have by nature a sense of the justice of God in sentencing them to death… So no one can excuse himself or his sins in the court of God by pleading that God has given him over to judicial blindness.
Nothing in this decline fixes itself. Only one way out is left.
Savagery was the result of man's departure from God. God did not create man in that condition… So man's condition is degraded, whether as a savage or as an idolater. Nothing can bring him out of it but the converting power of the grace of God.
- Given up, given up. Men gave God up first; God then gave them up. The whole verse is one word answering another.
- Reins dropped. God did not make anyone sin. He let go of the restraint, and what came out was already in the heart.
- Gods to taste. They built gods that approved their desires — so their religion approved their ruin.
- Sentence now. The filth is not just leading to judgment; it is judgment falling now, in this life.
- One exit. Being given up excuses nobody. Nothing lifts a man out of it except the converting power of God's grace.
who changed the truth of God into falsehood, and honoured and served the creature more than him who had created [it], who is blessed for ever. Amen.
This verse names the swap at the heart of idolatry: God's truth traded for a lie, His honour handed to the things He made. Paul cannot describe it without stopping to bless the God who was robbed.
The fall happens in two steps. One writer traces both, and names who took them first:
If the soul abandons the truth of God, all is wrong, whatever appearances may say for the present. This was the great falsehood. Not to be in dependence and obedience is to be false to the relationship of a creature. Yet there is a step still further down in evil — giving to the creature the honour that belongs to God only. This is exactly what Satan did, and in this same order. He was a liar from the beginning. He did not stand in the truth, for there was no truth in him. Fallen man does his own will and so is the slave of Satan. It may be in lusts, or in a religion of his own imagining. The one plainly degrades him; the other promises to lift him up.
Most people would say they worship nothing at all. This verse leaves no middle ground.
Man may dare to think he is neutral, with no interest in God either way. But that very attitude accuses God of lying. If God's testimony is true, neutrality is impossible. It is a deliberate rejection of the truth of God, even when it is silent — treating that truth as a lie. A man may speak of his neutrality with great pride and self-satisfaction. But if he does not worship the Creator, he worships the creature in some way — even if that creature is himself.
Why does dropping the true God not end worship? The need to lean on something stays, and man fills it to his own taste.
However, man is not enough for himself. He must have someone to lean on, someone to look to in his misery and weakness. So having rejected the true God, and become a fool, he goes on to fashion false gods according to his own tastes. First they thought of God as like corruptible men. Then their thoughts of God sank lower, and they imagined Him to be like birds or four-footed beasts. At last they reached the lowest depth of degradation, when they thought of God as like the creeping things — the serpents. So the worship of the serpent proved how thoroughly man had fallen from God to the devil.
Verse 24 says God gave these men up. Writers read that as justice, not cruelty.
Three times we get the phrase, with slight variations: "God gave them up to…" If men refuse to think about God and give Him up, they have no ground of complaint when He gives them up. And if they give up God, and so give up good, they find themselves given up to everything that is evil and degrading. There is an ironic justice about God's government.
Man does not rise to the level of what he bows to. He drops beneath it:
They changed the truth of God into a lie. In place of the Creator they set up the creature as an object of worship. So God lets them fall beneath the creatures they worshipped. Men sank below the beasts. A beast is not a moral creature. But a man degraded to the level of a beast becomes immoral. His affections become corrupted and turned from their natural course into what is contrary to nature.
Paul's closing words — "who is blessed forever! Amen" — answer the whole charge. What men refuse Him on earth He receives anyway:
It is very blessed to know that heaven will acknowledge and worship God as the Creator of the universe, however much men blaspheme and deny Him on earth. The day is not far away when men will do more than worship and serve the creature above the Creator. They will openly deny the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ.
The same principle works where no carved image is in sight. (The writer quotes an older translation: "changed the truth of God into a lie.")
The world we are passing through is marked more and more by uncleanness and materialism. The hideous features named in Romans 1 are showing themselves everywhere. Men are busy turning "the truth of God into a lie." The principle of worshipping and serving "the creature more than the Creator" shows itself in the materialistic cult that is gaining such headway.
- Exchange. Truth swapped for a lie. First man refuses to depend on God. Then he hands God's honour to something made.
- Imitation. The order of that fall copies Satan, who did not stand in the truth and was a liar from the beginning.
- Substitute. Man cannot live without a god. Reject the true One and he makes gods to fit his own tastes — down to the serpent.
- Recompense. Because men gave God up, God gave them up — and they fell below the creatures they had worshipped.
- Unshaken. Denied on earth, the Creator is still "blessed forever," and heaven will worship Him as such.
For this reason God gave them up to vile lusts; for both their females changed the natural use into that contrary to nature;
Verse 26 does not start a new subject. It draws a line from what people worshipped to what they became, and the connection is treated as a fixed rule rather than an accident of history.
Under the moral judgment of God, idolatry always ends in complete uncleanness among its followers. It shows itself in every variety. Perhaps it is clearest, as a divine retribution, among those who set up the human form — "corruptible man." But it was certainly not absent where they worshipped what is beneath man: birds, four-footed animals, and reptiles, alone or in combination.
The phrase raises the sharpest question in the verse: did God push people into sin? One writer answers it head on.
So God gave them up to reap what they had sown. He did not make them sin (God forbid the thought!). He threw the reins on man's neck, so that what was in sinful man's heart might come out — in my heart, reader, and in yours. So we find that sin ruined men's bodies (v. 24), their affections (v. 26), and their minds (v. 28). Three times it says that God gave them up, and three times the solemn result is stated.
The order matters, and one writer finds a rough justice in it.
Their condition has been reached under the government of God. Three times over we get the phrase, with slight variations: "God gave them up to…" Do men object to thinking about God and give Him up? Then they have no ground for complaint when He gives them up. And if they give up God, they give up good along with Him. Naturally they find themselves given up to everything evil and degrading. There is an ironic justice about God's government.
One writer traces the change against nature back to what these people had chosen to worship.
They changed the truth of God into a lie. In place of the Creator they set up the creature as an object of worship. So they are allowed to fall beneath the very creatures they worshipped. Men sank below the beasts. It has been truly said that a beast is not a moral creature. But a man degraded to the level of a beast becomes immoral. His affections grow corrupt and turn from their natural course into what is contrary to nature.
Paul's choice of words is deliberate, and one commentator draws attention to it in his own rendering of verses 26 and 27.
This is a vivid but very grave sketch of a humiliating picture. The classical writers fill in that picture in a very different tone, for "the unjust knows no shame." The women come first, since the shamelessness was most apparent there, and human depravity proved most complete and hopeless. The apostle does not even dignify them with the names men and women. He calls them "females" and "males" — though they were the greatest and highest: the sages of the earth, monarchs, conquerors, poets, philosophers and the rest. Their ways were below the animals. God gave them up, and even now they bear the fitting reward of their deeds.
The three surrenders touch the whole person, and they reach far beyond the ancient world.
Man is made up of body, soul and spirit. The first giving up concerns the body; this is found in verses 24-25. Then He gave them up to vile passions. This concerns the soul, and the horrible things in verses 26-27 are the results. People practised them openly in the Greek and Roman world in the days of the Apostle Paul. Ancient literature bears plenty of witness to that. These vile things are still going on in heathen India, China, Africa and elsewhere. They appear within Christendom too. Whenever and wherever people abandon the truth of God, degradation of every kind follows. Only the truth of God can restrain evil.
- Cause. The verse points backwards. Idolatry is the root, and uncleanness is its certain fruit under God's moral judgment.
- Exchange. People swapped the Creator for the creature, so they sank beneath the creatures they worshipped. A beast is not a moral creature; a man dragged down to that level becomes immoral.
- Surrender. "God gave them up" is not God causing sin; it is God dropping the reins, letting what is already in the human heart come out.
- Justice. Men gave God up first. His giving them up answers theirs, and their shame is already the fitting reward of their deeds.
- Reach. Body, affections, mind — the three surrenders cover the whole person. Wherever people abandon the truth of God, even inside Christendom, the same degradation returns.
and in like manner the males also, leaving the natural use of the female, were inflamed in their lust towards one another; males with males working shame, and receiving in themselves the recompense of their error which was fit.
The chapter traces a world sliding away from the God it once knew, and this verse sits near the bottom of that slide. Why does God step back, and is there a way back for people already receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error?
This verse names the end of a road, not a single wrong turn.
Their descent has been gradual. First came empty thinking. Then darkened understanding. Then gross idolatry. Then outrageous sins, in which they fell below the level of the beasts. Each generation went beyond the follies of the one before it, and so confirmed for themselves the earlier departure.
Three times in this passage God hands men over to what they chose.
Man had given up God; now we have the statement, repeated three times, "God gave them up". In the government of God He lets men reap what they sow. Their lusts had turned them away from the true God. Now the false gods they had set up to suit their own tastes approved and encouraged those lusts. God gave them up to their lusts. At once they went on to dishonour their own bodies, just as they had already dishonoured God.
This handing over is not God making men sin. One writer says what it is instead, and then turns it on his reader.
God gave them up to reap as they had sown. He did not make them sin — God forbid the thought! He dropped the reins on man's neck, just so that what was in sinful man's heart might come out — in my heart, reader, and in yours.
Idolatry had already turned the order of things upside down. This verse shows where that ends.
They had exchanged the truth of God for a lie. They had set up the creature in place of the Creator as an object of worship. So God let them fall beneath the creatures they worshipped. Men sank below the beasts. People have rightly said that a beast is not a moral creature. But a man dragged down to the level of a beast becomes immoral. His affections are corrupted and turned aside from their natural course into what is contrary to nature.
Notice who Paul is describing here, and what he refuses to call them.
The apostle will not call them men and women — though they were the greatest and highest, the wise men of the earth, monarchs, conquerors, poets and philosophers. He calls them "females" and "males", marked by ways below the brute, given up by God, and even now bearing the fitting reward of their deeds.
The penalty is not all in the future. Part of it arrives inside the sinner now.
The things spoken of here are plainly the "recompense", even now, of the creature's error in departing from the Creator. So the world lies under a judicial bondage of sin and dishonour. Men eat the fruit of their own ways. That fruit sometimes pleases the depraved taste of a corrupted nature, but divine and eternal judgment waits at the end. The very lusts that govern and torment the slaves of sin are the first instalment and token of the wrath of God. That wrath is revealed from heaven now, and after death it will deal with the ungodliness and unrighteousness of unrepentant sinners.
The three times God gives men up touch the whole person. And the sins named here did not stay in the ancient world.
Man is made up of body, soul and spirit. The first giving up concerns the body, in verses 24-25. Then He gave them up to vile passions. This concerns the soul, and the horrible things stated in verses 26-27 are the results. People practised these things in the open in the Greek and Roman world in the days of the apostle Paul... These vile things are still going on. They are found in the middle of the Christian world too. Whenever and wherever men abandon the truth of God, degradation of every kind follows, for the truth of God alone can restrain evil.
Romans 1 is not a dead end. Paul wrote to people who had come out of exactly this.
Having given this terrible list of the corruptions of the flesh, he says, "Such were some of you". Wonderful grace, that can take us up from the lowest place of degradation in the far country and join us with Christ in the highest place of glory in the Father's house!
- Cause — Men gave God up first. These sins came at the end of a slow descent, and each generation went further than the last.
- Consequence — "God gave them up" is God's government, not God making men sin. He dropped the reins, and what was already in the heart came out.
- Collapse — Men put the creature above the Creator, and then fell below it. Their affections left their natural course.
- Cost — The penalty arrives now, inside the sinner. The lust that torments him is the first instalment of a wrath still to come.
- Cure — Only the truth of God holds this evil back, and only grace lifts a person out. Grace takes people from the lowest degradation to the highest glory in the Father's house.