Dear Church of the Open Bible,
Last week we looked at how humanity suppresses the truth about God as Creator in Romans 1:18-23. This explains much of what we see going on in the world around us. But unfortunately, it gets worse as we see in the following verses.
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. - Romans 1:24-25
Not only do we suppress the truth, but we go further. We exchange the truth. We trade the truth about God for a lie, and give our lives to what has been created rather than to Him. This is a bad trade and the consequences are spelled out in the rest of the chapter. Three times, Paul says, “God gave them up…” to sin. Nothing created can fill the place of the Creator. Any attempts at this will only lead to despair and death. This brings us to the reality that sin not only is unable to come through on its promises, but that sin is its own punishment.
Again, this allows us to make so much sense of the world around us. What we are seeing is the devastating effects of suppressing and exchanging the truth. But it should also cause us to repent of how we might be exchanging the truth about God for a lie. Where we might be tempted to worship what was never meant to be worshipped in the first place. Being without excuse, let us return to the good news that Jesus alone can restore us to a right relationship with God.