One particular video comes to my mind each time I read the first chapter of Romans. It begins with a helicopter dropping an extreme skier on the summit of a steep mountain that no rational person would ever attempt to ski. I can only guess his passions and desire for an adrenaline rush drove him to attempt such a foolish leap. Within a few feet of his descent, he fell and never righted himself again. Soon, he began tumbling and rolling. When you think his situation could get no worse, he came to a ledge and dropped a significant distance hitting rocks at the bottom then continued sliding and tumbling, until he finally plummeted off two more ledges dropping up to thirty feet down each time. After what I’m sure felt like an eternity, he finally stopped at the bottom of the mountain, alive but in serious condition. This skier sliding and plummeting off three ledges illustrates a spiritual journey much of humanity is taking. Some have already dropped off the third ledge.
In Romans 1:18-32, Paul addresses the absolute depravity of man. He outlined sin in four levels with each level plunging to a lower level. By the bottom of the first level, sinful humanity had exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures (Rom 1:23). At this point, God in effect said, if that’s what you want, have it your way and He gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, so that their bodies would be dishonored among them (24). Like the skier reaching the first ledge, they plummeted to a second lower level.
Still refusing God’s grace, they continued sliding; this time they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator (v25). For the second time, they reached another ledge and once again God having tolerated enough, released them to have it their way. The Message Bible best expresses the original language in contemporary thought. Worse followed. Refusing to know God, they soon didn’t know how to be human either-women didn’t know how to be women, men didn’t know how to be men. Sexually confused, they abused and defiled one another, women with women, men with men-all lust, no love. And then they paid for it, oh, how they paid for it-emptied of God and love, godless and loveless wretches (v26, 27 MSG).
Their slide continued until they plunged into the last and lowest possible level, which I call ‘the pit of a depraved mind’. Paul names twenty-one sins that fill the hearts of those who fall into this pit. In his introductory sentence, verse 28, Paul makes a play on words missed in English translations. And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper (v28). The words acknowledge and depraved are the same word in two different forms. Acknowledge means to test someone to find if the person meets the specification that the examiner has prescribed. They tested God seeing if He met the standards man had laid down. However, they did not find He met their approval and refused to hold Him in their knowledge. Because of this, God gave them over to a depraved or reprobate mind, which is the same base word meaning rejected, worthless, vain, or a mind that would not meet the test for that which a mind was meant (Wuest). The pit of a depraved mind is not a place where God put them. Rather it is the consequence of man’s own choice of disapproving God and refusing to keep Him in their knowledge. God merely released them to have it their way. As a result, they have become filled . . . (v29). The tense of verb ‘filled’ indicates a completed action with ongoing results and that a person falling into this pit has, not just one of these sins, but they have been filled with all twenty-one.
A professor in graduate school made a comment that has stuck with me. He believed that not only could an individual fall into the pit of a depraved mind, but also that a nation could reach this same lowest level. The last sin mentioned in this list, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them (v32). Increasingly, we watch the leaders of our nation put their stamp of approval on the worst of sins. Some scholars debate if someone that has plunged over this final ledge can even repent. However, Paul writes Romans for the purpose of telling of the infinite reach of salvation. God can rescue anyone from the deepest pit of sin. For us as believers, we should earnestly pray for those whose minds can no longer discharge the functions of discerning right and wrong. They need intervention from those who know Christ and see their dilemma. Our leaders need the prayers of the righteous that are powerful and effective (James 5:16) and that have divine power to demolish strongholds (2 Cor 10:4). Sin is a slippery slope. Note the first step off the summit, For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks (1:31).
Sustaining Word for the Week: If you insist, God will allow you to have it your way. Instead, honor God and give Him thanks, and choose His way.