01.5.6. Punishment On Exchangers Of God's Glory

Chapter 5vi - Punishment On Exchangers Of God’s Glory

God’s punishment is being revealed against those who exchange the glory of the incorruptible God for a likeness of His creatures (Romans 1:22-23). God made man in His image; but man sought to make God in his image; and he sank lower by bowing to creatures lower than himself. Man seeks to satisfy his depraved instincts on his own humanistic level; and when that level does not satisfy, he becomes animalistic in his thinking. God’s description of man forever nailed shut the coffin of the theory of evolution. Evolution is a dead issue to every Christian; therefore, believers who are continually discussing the subject are in no way redeeming the time (Ephesians 5:16). The connection between the rejecters of general revelation (Romans 1:18-21) and their exchanging God’s glory for a likeness of His creatures is another step lower in man’s degradation. Although they were “asserting (present active participle of phasko) themselves to be wise, they were made foolish” (Romans 1:22). The verbs mataioo-“made worthless” (Romans 1:21), skotidzo-“was darkened” (Romans 1:21), and moraino-“made foolish” (Romans 1:21), are aorist passive indicative verbs. The passive voice is used to indicate that the subjects were acted on; therefore, they were neither acting (active voice) nor participating in the action (middle voice). Since men have become darkened in their understanding, they are anxious to exchange (ellaxan, aorist active indicative of allasso, can be either change or exchange-the context determines) (Romans 1:23) God’s glory on their depraved level. Does this mean that God made them worthless in their reasoning, darkened their understanding, and made them foolish? No! But in Romans 1:24, Romans 1:26, and Romans 1:28, we are told that God “gave them over” (aorist active indicative of paradidomi, which means to give over, abandon, or deliver up), signifying that He removed all restraints thus allowing Satan, to whom they had been obedient, to make them more worthless, give them greater darkness of understanding, and influence them to commit greater foolish acts of sin.

There are people who pride themselves in their culture and pay slavish tribute to decorum and diplomatic formality, but they utterly fail to acknowledge God for who He is and all that He is doing in providence. Such failure is prevalent in the intellectual, social, and religious realms. This kind of degradation describes men who put light not “under a bushel” but under a “dunghill.” Although men who abuse the light of nature will experience a great punishment in their own sins, those who are exposed to God’s special revelation but reject it will experience a much heavier punishment. No image can ever be made of the invisible God; therefore, God said, “Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth” (Exodus 20:3-4). Jesus Christ alone is the exact image of the invisible God, and only by a God-given faith can He be seen and understood (Hebrews 1:3; John 1:18). The transition from theology to anthropology is natural. Scripture does not present an abstract revelation of God but a disclosure of God in relation to man. Therefore, the knowledge of man in relation to God is essential to properly understand anthropology. In the consideration of anthropology, the Biblical principle of going from God to man (Genesis 1:1-2; Genesis 1:6; Genesis 1:27) and not from man to God must not be ignored, because it supposes God to account for man and not man for God. It never leaves us with the task of proving God’s existence from man’s existence. Understanding this basic principle eliminates the idea that God can be found by physical analysis. Since love finds love, the “pure in heart...shall see [opsontai, future middle indicative of horao, to see, understand, or experience] God” (Matthew 5:8). As love cannot be found by the use of a microscope or music be collected with a magnet, scientists cannot find God with their incorrect instruments for the search.

Man did not come into existence by his own initiative. If he had, he would have been both the cause and the effect. Moreover, if man first made himself, why did he limit himself? If the first man made himself, he would have been able to support himself; and it could not be said, “For in Him [God] we are living [present active indicative of dzao, to live or remain alive] and being moved [present passive indicative of kineo, to move], and are having our existence [present active indicative of eimi, to be]” (Acts 17:28 -translation). Some say the verb kinoumetha is middle voice (we move ourselves) and others say it is passive voice (we are being moved). Surely those who oppose the use of the passive voice have overlooked some passages of Scripture, such as Psalms 119:116-117, Proverbs 16:1-33 :l, Proverbs 20:24, and Jeremiah 10:23-24. The idea of man’s being either above God or equal with Him is excluded by the terms “image” and “likeness” in which man was created (Genesis 1:26-27). A theological fact is that man in his original state was the most excellent of all God’s earthly creatures; but man in his fallen and depraved state is most miserable and despicable. In the study of man created in God’s image, distinction must be made between the wonderful organism called human nature and the direction in which that nature moved in original uprightness. Adam’s original uprightness was finite; therefore, apart from redemptive grace he moved in the power of finite uprightness; and he sinned by the freedom of his will. Hence, Adam lost his original uprightness in the fall, and this loss resulted in the reversal of his nature. His nature remained an instrument of being which now worked against rather than for God. Having fallen in Adam, every person outside of Jesus Christ works against God.