The Immoral Pagan: Romans 1:18-32

The Doctor's Diagnosis

Nobody would voluntarily undergo twelve weeks of gruelling chemotherapy just to prevent a cold. But tell someone they have Stage 3 cancer and that this treatment will cure them, and they will be begging the hospital to start immediately. The difference is the diagnosis. Once you understand the severity of the bad news, you are ready — even desperate — for the good news.

This is precisely what Paul is doing in the opening three chapters of Romans. He is not trying to make us despair or curl up in a ball of guilt. He is acting as a faithful physician, laying out the full diagnosis of humanity's spiritual condition so that we will be ready to receive the glorious treatment of the gospel. He has already declared in Romans 1:16-17 that the gospel is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes. Now he must show that everyone without exception needs it.

Paul does this by dividing the human race into three categories and demonstrating that none of them is righteous. First, the immoral pagan in our passage today. Then the moral man in Romans 2:1-16 — the decent, good-living neighbour who isn't religious but lives a respectable life. And then the religious man in Romans 2:17-29 — the person who worships, reads the Bible, and says prayers. His devastating conclusion, reached in Romans 3:10, is that "there is no one righteous, not even one." The net is spread wider and wider until the whole human race is caught inside it.

The Reason for God's Wrath (verses 18–23)

Paul's language in verse 18 is stark and unmistakable: "The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people who suppress the truth by their wickedness." Two words carry the weight of God's indictment. Godlessness describes our posture toward God on the vertical — no worship, no respect, no interest, no prayer, no thought of Him whatsoever. Wickedness describes the horizontal consequence — how we treat one another when we have abandoned the Creator.

This is the very essence of sin: living as though God doesn't matter. And surely this describes a great many people in Galway and throughout Western society. God's holy name is used as verbal filler, a kind of punctuation mark in casual conversation. The suggestion of spending an hour or two in worship on a Sunday would be met with laughter. God is treated with absolute and utter contempt.

And the wickedness follows naturally. As Western civilisation throws off what it considers the "shackles" of Christian values, it does not become a kinder, safer, more compassionate place. Instead we see a society where babies are killed in the womb because they are inconvenient, where there are increasing moves to do the same for the elderly and the chronically ill, and where people are treated with the same contempt they show toward their Creator.

Suppressing What They Know

But someone might object: "That's not fair. These people don't know any better. They haven't been to church. They don't read the Bible. How can God be angry with people who are ignorant?" Paul deals with this objection immediately. Look carefully at verse 18 — they are people "who suppress the truth by their wickedness." Deep down, they know the truth about God, and they are choosing to stifle it, to bury it. They may not admit it even to themselves, but that is what they are doing.

What exactly do they know, and how do they know it? Verse 20 answers: "Since the creation of the world, God's invisible qualities — his eternal power and divine nature — have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse." Every person knows that there is an eternal, powerful, wise Creator. This knowledge doesn't require a telescope or a microscope — it has been on display since the very beginning of creation.

The Glory of God in Creation

No matter where you look in the universe, you see God's fingerprints plainly. Consider something as ordinary as rain. Job marvels at this in Job 5:9-10: "He performs wonders that cannot be fathomed, miracles that cannot be counted. He provides rain for the earth; he sends water on the countryside." One inch of rain falling on a single square mile requires 1.65 billion pounds of water. Think of the countless trillions of gallons needed to water all the earth's fields. God picks the water up out of the sea, extracts the salt on the way (because salt water would poison the crops), carries it hundreds of miles through the sky, and then sprinkles it down in drops — not too large, or they would crush the tender shoots; not too small, or they would evaporate before reaching the ground.

Or consider the human body. As Bill Bryson observes, our bodies are a universe of 37.2 trillion cells operating in more or less perfect harmony, more or less all the time. An ache, a twinge of indigestion, the odd bruise or pimple is about all that announces our imperfect ability. Think about the human hand — those same fingers can perform the most intricate surgery on an eye or brain, and yet grip a sledgehammer and smash through a brick wall. A non-Christian biology teacher once marvelled at the structure of a flower, saying no one could possibly design anything that could surpass the perfection of a flower. A consultant surgeon confessed he was filled with awe and humility contemplating what goes on in a single cell, as much as when contemplating the sky on a clear night.

We could spend all eternity examining every part of creation from the largest scale to the smallest, and again and again it would make Paul's point: God has made it plain. Therefore, verse 21, they are without excuse. The problem is not that we don't know the truth — the problem is that we don't want the truth. Paul stresses this repeatedly, at least seven times in this chapter: in verses 18, 19, 20, 21, 25, 28, and 32. They know God exists. They know they ought to worship Him. But they will not.

This is actually deeply encouraging for us as Christians when we go out to witness. No matter who you are talking to — no matter how hostile, indifferent, or messed up their lives may be — you are speaking to someone who knows the truth about God. The 21st-century Irish pagan has swapped the glory of the immortal God for the pleasure of a night on the town, for binge-watching Netflix, for sport and music and entertainment. It is a bad swap — the worst swap ever.

The Result of God's Wrath (verses 24–32)

Verse 24 begins with "therefore" — Paul is now spelling out the consequence of humanity's rejection. So what form does God's wrath take? Does He send a flood? Does He rain down fire from heaven? Does He strike the wicked dead? Sometimes in Scripture God's wrath takes that form, but not here. Instead, three times Paul uses the same devastating phrase: God gave them over (verses 24, 26, and 28).

In verse 24, God gives them over to sexual impurity. In verse 26, He gives them over to shameful lusts. In verse 28, He gives them over to a depraved mind. In other words, God expresses His wrath by handing people over to their own sinful hearts — by letting them do what they want to do. And that is the most terrible judgement a human being can receive.

The Horror of Being Left to Ourselves

One of the worst things a parent can do for their children is to let them do whatever they want. Parents who never say no, who never set boundaries, turn their children into monsters — or rather, they let their children become the monsters they already are by nature, following the natural trajectory they are already on. A child with no restraint whatsoever would be dead within a day.

We are all like that by nature. Our fallen nature, left to itself without any interference from God, is selfish, proud, and hateful. In kindness and grace, God restrains every human being so that no one is ever as bad as they could possibly be. If God gave us over completely to our sinful nature, we would all make Adolf Hitler look like a boy scout. Society would fall apart in seconds.

On a train back from Belfast recently, a young man without a ticket was challenged by the conductor — a young woman he had obviously clashed with before. She reprimanded him firmly, warning she would ban him from the train. He was hostile and obviously felt rage toward her. He was bigger and stronger. But he didn't take out a knife and stab her. Something was holding him back. God was restraining him. But if God handed him over completely to do what his sinful heart was naturally inclined to do, it would have been a very different story.

Imagine a film where a virus is released that changes people's behaviour, turning decent people into monsters. Now imagine a virus that doesn't change people into something different — it simply makes people more of what they really are. That is what Paul is describing. The worst thing God could ever do to you is to let you be exactly who you are by nature, to remove all His grace.

Ultimately, this judgement is completed in hell. Nobody is ever completely given over to their sinful heart in this life. But in hell, God removes every last trace of His goodness in people and hands the sinner over to himself completely. As C.S. Lewis observed, unbelievers in this life say to God, "I don't want You. I don't want anything to do with You." And in hell, God says, "Very well — you can have your wish. I will leave you completely to yourself." If you have any self-knowledge, any awareness of the kind of person you really are, that thought should terrify you. It should drive you to cry out for mercy: "Please, God — whatever You do, don't give me over to myself. Change me by Your grace. Save me."

The Downward Spiral

Each of the three "giving overs" marks a further step down a terrible spiral. In verse 24, there is sexual impurity — degrading the body through sex outside God's design. Having sex outside of marriage does not bring freedom; it destroys sex and brings desperate unhappiness. In verses 26–27, the spiral deepens into homosexual impurity, which Paul calls shameful because it is unnatural. And in verse 28, the depravity spills beyond the bedroom into every area of life: greed, envy, murder, deceit, malice, gossip, arrogance, boasting, disobeying parents — twenty-one horrible fruits of a depraved mind.

It is worth noting that Paul does not stop at homosexuality as though it were the lowest point of human depravity. The Old Testament calls homosexuality an abomination, but it also calls gossip, idolatry, and pride abominations. Christians should be careful about speaking as though homosexuality were the only or worst kind of sin. The third level Paul describes — a depraved mind producing every kind of wickedness — is the broadest and most devastating of all.

Bad News That Points to Good News

This is the grimest passage Paul ever wrote. But remember where we started. The wrath of God is being revealed — yes. But the righteousness of God is also being revealed. The power of God for salvation, for everyone who believes — even for the most depraved, immoral, idolatrous people in our city today. We should never despair. Wherever sin abounds, grace abounds all the more. Yes, our culture is dying. God is handing many people over to a depraved mind. But in the gospel, we have the answer. We have the cure. The news is bad, but we have the good news of salvation in Jesus Christ.

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This article is part of our Romans sermon series. Listen to the previous sermon: Not Ashamed of the Gospel (Romans 1:16-17), or continue to the next: The Moral Man (Romans 2:1-16).