Vol. 3, Issue 4

Autumn 2009

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Sin

from Commentary on Hosea
by John Calvin

Given Over to Sin
by Paul Lytle

The Doctrine of Sin

The Profound Mystery
by Paul Lytle

The Gospel According to Proverbs, Chapter 3
by Paul Lytle

Names, Part III
by Paul Lytle

Primum Mobile is a quarterly web magazine. This issue and all its contents are © Copyright 2004-2009 by the editors. All rights reserved.

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers.

Given Over to Sin

by Paul Lytle

Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.

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.

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.

-Romans 1:22-27

First, a quiz:

POP QUIZ!

I took this quiz with a Bible study group of mine not long ago. The results were rather telling. In the “all-time” column, no one in the group failed to mark all 18 questions with a “yes.” We each did a little better on the “this week” column. Scores ranged from thirteen to seventeen “yes” answers. (We’re all adults now, and so obeying our parents isn’t as big of a problem as it once was. That was a big help to our scores.)

It was interesting to see all of these little sins that we so often entertain on paper like that. Itemized as they are, there’s not much hope in scoring well.

When we come to the last verses on Romans 1, Paul seems to have bigger things in mind. The sort of lifestyle he is talking about is the kind that flaunts sin. It’s the sort of lifestyle that marches in the street for gay rights or for abortion rights — the lifestyle that doesn’t even pretend to strive for a moral standard.

But it’s interesting that Paul does not list this sort of behavior as the cause of their sin, but a result. The root cause, he tells us, is idolatry.

Idolatry, as described in verse 25, is defined as follows: “they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever!” It’s worshipping something that God made rather than God Himself.

Which, if you think about it, isn’t really what we think of as idolatry. We think of idolatry as having little statues of gods around and bowing before them, sometimes with incense or a chant.

And that’s true. That is idolatry. But that is not the whole of the definition. Idolatry is worshiping the creation rather than the Creator. And so if you’re worshipping the television, you have an idol.

The female form is created, and if that is your god, then you have an idol. Sex can be an idol. Money or power can be idols. Football can be an idol. Video games can be idols. What are you spending your time and money on? Chances are that will tell you what your idol is. If you spend more time restoring that classic car than you spend in prayer or with your family, that’s a good indication that the car has become something to you that it shouldn’t be.

And what we are ultimately doing is trying to find a religion that fits us better. We really like classic cars, so the garage becomes our sanctuary, the car our idol. We buy it offerings — new tires, a replacement dash, or an updated sound system.

Or television becomes the most important part about your home (above even family), so all your chairs are turned to face it. You have a really nice one in the kitchen too, just so you won’t miss anything.

If sex is your idol, you’ll spend countless hours at bars, searching for loose women. You’ll have offerings too – drinks and meals. Or you’ll spend your evenings online, looking at pictures and videos of naked women.

And soon enough, our whole world is wrapped up in ourselves. Whatever was within our hearts that turned into an idol, that has become the sum total of who we are. We start defending our behavior in any way we can, to try to make it sound like we’re not doing something wrong. When God gives us over to these “lusts of the heart,” He has given us over utterly to that which we idolize.

In extreme cases, we even start demanding that everyone else accept what we have become as well. Paul gives the concrete example of homosexuality in this passage. When you forsake God for your own lusts, those lusts will end up leading you into places once considered very shameful. It used to be that any sort of extramarital sex, straight or gay, was considered shameful. Now, we are perfectly willing to murder unborn children for the right to seek sex whenever and wherever we want it. You think we’re not in an idolatrous nation? Tell that to the countless children sacrificed on the alter of sex.

Homosexuality is proclaimed in the streets gleefully. It’s not enough that you are given over to the lusts of your heart, but you want to take everyone there with you. You don’t want anyone reminding you that what you are doing is wrong, so you fight and demand that society bless what you are doing.

Homosexuality is not the starting point here, but is the result of idolatry. It is the result of living your life for your pleasure rather than for God’s.

It is so often that the end of that road be sexual sin. Fornication, homosexuality, adultery, pornography, rape, incest, and pedophilia are all results of people seeking their own pleasures rather than God’s. To one degree or another, they have decided to step outside of His revealed Law for their own gratification.

And because of their rejection of this revealed Law, God has given them over to dishonorable passions.

Look upon this nation, O Church of Christ, and weep for those who have placed their own desires above the worship of the true God. Weep for them! Whenever you see this sort of behavior paraded on the streets, weep. Find compassion for them, my brothers and sisters. Pray for them, plead for them! Do not point and mock. Do not sneer and scoff!

I ask you to find compassion for a world given over to sin.

So many who claim to be Christians will not do this. They shake their heads and say that the wrath of God is upon those sinners, those fornicators, adulterers, and homosexuals. Let them be damned as they deserve.

And they’re right. The wrath of God is upon those people. And it is upon you too. And it is upon me.

I have read so many commentaries and so many sermons that stop right here and go no further. Or, a commentator will give some definitions on the next couple of verses, but nothing else. They spend so much time ranting about the sins of the nations and how they have been given over to shameful lusts (which is true). They spend so much time telling us about the evils that are out there on the street, and how they deserve what they are going to get (which is true too). They point, and they mock, and they proclaim the evil of the outside world. And then they get to the next verse, and they do not want to admit that they fell into Paul’s carefully laid trap, and so they ignore it.

Let’s look at the rest of the chapter:

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. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Though they know God's decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.

-Romans 1:28-32

I hope you recognize this list of sins from the quiz I gave at the beginning of this article. They are all here. All of those that you will have, if you were honest, admitted to committing. At my Bible study, we laughed at first at how poorly we scored. But if you read this carefully, I do not think you will laugh much longer.

God gave them over to the lusts of their hearts. God gave them over to a debased mind. God gave them over to dishonorable passions. God gave them over to homosexuality and sexual sins. God gave them over.

God gave them over to gossip. God gave them over to lying. God gave them over to envy. The same sinful nature that produces the homosexual also produces the proud.

We so often want to look out of the windows of the church and shake our heads at the sinners out there. Those people who deserve death. Did you lie this week? Maybe God has given you over to that same lustful heart as the homosexual.

If we pass over this section as all the problems with them, then we’ve missed Paul’s whole point. You are one of them. That is what Paul is trying to get at in this section. Not that it’s okay to be an unrepentant homosexual, because it’s not, but that it’s just as wrong to be like you.

So often, especially when we grow up in the church, we never get a real sense of our own sin. I was exactly like this growing up. I didn’t swear, I didn’t have sex, I didn’t lie, so I was doing good, and there were a bunch of people out there who weren’t doing so good. While we may know intellectually that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” (Romans 3:23), the weight of sin is not felt so much on our hearts, because we are surrounded by people who are supposedly worse than us.

Well, God doesn’t care if you give to the poor every day, are at the church twice a week, read your Bible every night, and tithe faithfully. Your little gossip from last week puts you in the same category as those who blatantly reject God for an idol. Your good deeds won’t make up for that. They are as filthy rags to Him (Isaiah 64:6).

What God is looking for is not good deeds. He doesn’t need our help. He doesn’t want us inside the church, looking out at all those sinners out there. And it startles me how many sermons I hear and articles I read that tell us to do this or do that and we’ll make God happy.

Sinner cannot make God happy.

David had it right when he wrote, “They have all turned aside; together they have become corrupt; there is none who does good, not even one” (Psalm 14:3). Not even one. Not one is without sin. Not one can claim righteousness.

Salvation isn’t something we achieve. It is not something we can possibly earn.

But we don’t have to. The good news of the Bible is not that we can earn heaven, but that it has been earned for us. It is not that we can hope to avoid death by our actions, but that Jesus took death upon Himself on our behalf, so that we may live. It is not that we deserve our station in Him, but that it has been given freely in love.

In love, Jesus came to earth, lived a perfect life, and died in our stead. In that death, He took His sins upon Himself, whether of homosexuality, murder, or gossip and slander. It is He who has paid for our sins, not us. In love, He offers freely that sacrifice of Himself to those who are convicted by the Spirit of their sins, confess, and believe in Him. In love, He does not expect us to repay Him, but He continues to stand for us before the Father when we sin. In love, He clothes us in His righteousness so that we will be judged blameless on the Day of Judgment.

In love, He has earned life, and He has given it to us, even while we were yet sinners.

Maybe you, like me, grew up in a Christian church, doing all the “right” things, and relying on these things to save you. Be warned of the wrath that is upon you, but be also comforted by the Blood of Christ, that covers up your sins in the mercy of love. Fall upon your knees before Him and find the hope that is not based upon your own performance, but on the actions of Him who has already lived a perfect life for you.

The joy of the Gospel is in this – that Heaven has already been earned on your behalf. Such good news is this, for it is not reliant on my whim or teetering upon the shaky foundation of my ability to live rightly, but rather upon Jesus.

It is by Grace that we stand, and it is Grace that is offered to homosexuals, murderers, gossips, liars, adulterers, and the proud alike. Celebrate in that Grace, if it is yours in His mercy, for His righteousness is all you will need for all eternity.

If that Grace is not yours, then stand not behind the church walls as though that will save you. Your thoughts, words, and actions will convict you. Look instead to Jesus, who alone can save you.