Gospel Prayer Ministry

📖 Passage

Romans 1:18–32
Read Romans 1:18–32 (NKJV)

🧠 Context & Background

Paul moves from declaring the gospel’s saving power (vv. 16–17) to exposing the universal human condition apart from Christ. The gospel is good news precisely because it addresses the terrible reality of sin and God’s wrath against it.

The Problem
- Humanity has willfully suppressed the truth about God. Creation clearly reveals His eternal power and divine nature (vv. 19–20), yet people exchange this truth for idolatry.
- Instead of worshiping the Creator, mankind worships created things—images, pleasures, or self (vv. 21–23). This rebellion is not ignorance but active rejection of God’s glory.
- The root problem is not lack of evidence but a sinful heart that refuses to honor and give thanks to God.
The Results
- Because of this rejection, God “gave them up” (repeated in vv. 24, 26, 28) to the consequences of their sin. This judicial handing over is both judgment and exposure of sin’s corruption.
- Moral corruption follows spiritual corruption. Humanity falls deeper into impurity, dishonorable passions, and a debased mind.
- Paul highlights sexual immorality (vv. 26–27) as a vivid expression of the disorder that results when God is rejected. But he also lists envy, murder, deceit, malice, and disobedience to parents (vv. 29–31). The problem is universal and touches every aspect of human life.
The Conclusion
- Though people know God’s righteous decree that sin deserves death (v. 32), they persist in it and even approve of others doing the same.
- The human race is not neutral toward God; it is actively hostile and delights in rebellion.
- This sets the stage for Paul’s larger argument: every person—Jew and Gentile alike—is under God’s wrath and in desperate need of the righteousness revealed in the gospel.

Summary: Romans 1:18–32 shows that the heart of man’s problem is the rejection of God, the results are corruption and divine judgment, and the conclusion is universal guilt. This prepares the way for Paul’s exposition of justification by faith, since only the gospel can rescue mankind from wrath.

🌿 Key Themes

Wrath revealed — God’s judgment is already active against sin.
Knowledge suppressed — Humanity rejects truth that is plainly revealed.
Exchange of glory — Sin is fundamentally idolatry, trading God for idols.
God gives them over — Divine judgment allows sin to spiral unchecked.
Universal guilt — All are without excuse and in need of Christ’s righteousness.

📖 Verse-by-Verse Commentary

Romans 1:18 — God’s Wrath Revealed

“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.”

Paul begins with the problem: God’s wrath is real, present, and holy.
Humanity suppresses the truth not out of ignorance but rebellion.
God’s wrath is not arbitrary rage but righteous opposition to sin.

Romans 1:19 — Knowledge of God Made Plain

“For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them.”

God has made His existence and power evident in creation.
The problem is not lack of revelation but refusal to acknowledge it.

Romans 1:20 — Creation Testifies to God

“For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.”

Creation testifies daily to God’s power and divinity.
Humanity is without excuse—ignorance cannot be claimed.
Rejection of God is moral, not intellectual.

Romans 1:21 — Futility of Thankless Hearts

“For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.”

People know God exists, but refuse to honor Him.
Refusing to give thanks reveals a posture of pride and independence.
The result is darkened understanding and futility of thought.

Romans 1:22 — Claiming Wisdom, Becoming Fools

“Claiming to be wise, they became fools…”

Human wisdom apart from God is self-deception.
Boasting in wisdom while rejecting the Creator leads to true folly.

Romans 1:23 — The Exchange of Idolatry

“And exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.”

Idolatry is the great exchange: the infinite glory of God for finite creation.
Humanity replaces worship of the Creator with worship of images and creation itself.

Romans 1:24 — God Gives Them Up to Impurity

“Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves…”

Because of rebellion, God gave them up—He judicially hands sinners over to their chosen path
Sin leads to dishonor, including the corruption of the body.

Romans 1:25 — Exchanging Truth for a Lie

“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.”

The essence of sin is exchanging the truth about God for a lie.
Instead of worshiping the Creator, humanity worships the created order.
Paul interrupts with a doxology—God remains blessed forever despite man’s rebellion.

Romans 1:26 — Dishonorable Passions

“For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature…”

The second “God gave them up” emphasizes how rejection of God distorts even natural human desires.
Sexual sin illustrates how rebellion against the Creator affects the created order.

Romans 1:27 — Shameless Acts and Due Penalty

“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.”

Paul highlights homosexual practice as an expression of disorder from rejecting God’s design.
“Receiving in themselves the due penalty” suggests sin carries its own destructive consequences.

Romans 1:28 — A Debased Mind

“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.”

The third “God gave them up” shows the downward spiral: rejection of God results in distorted thinking.
A debased mind calls evil good and good evil.

Romans 1:29–31 — A Catalogue of Sin

“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.”

Sin manifests in a vast spectrum of attitudes and behaviors.
This list proves that rebellion against God is not limited to idolatry or sexual sin but spreads into every relational sphere.
Even seemingly “small” sins like gossip or pride reflect deep corruption.

Romans 1:32 — Approval of Sin

“Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.”

Humanity knows God’s moral law at some level.
The tragedy is not only doing what deserves judgment but giving approval to sin.
Rebellion becomes communal—society celebrates what God condemns.
The conclusion: mankind is fully guilty, deserving God’s righteous wrath, and utterly dependent on the gospel for salvation.

🔍 Trusted Insight

“When men choose to live without God, God gives them what they desire, and their lives become a proof of His wrath. The worst judgment is not fire from heaven, but God letting man reap what he has sown.”
— Charles Spurgeon

🧩 Review Questions

🌎 Worldviews

Biblical worldview (Romans 1:18–32) — Humanity’s rejection of God’s truth leads to idolatry, moral corruption, and divine judgment. God’s wrath is revealed not only in future punishment but in allowing people to be “given over” to their sinful desires. True wisdom is found in worshiping the Creator, not created things.
Ancient worldviews
- Greco-Roman culture — Worship of many gods and idols was normal, tied to civic identity and prosperity. Sexual immorality, including homosexual practices, was accepted in many social settings. Paul’s declaration that such behaviors are the result of God’s wrath, not signs of blessing, was deeply countercultural.
- Philosophical worldview — Some Stoics condemned passions but still embraced reason as supreme. Paul instead exposes the futility of human reasoning apart from God, showing that rejecting revelation leads to darkened minds (Romans 1:21–22).
- Jewish worldview — Jews condemned Gentile idolatry and immorality, but Paul is preparing to show in chapter 2 that Jews, too, are under sin.
Today’s worldviews
- Secular materialism — Denies divine judgment and attributes moral categories to evolving social norms. Paul insists that unrighteousness suppresses truth, not enlightens it.
- Sexual revolution — Modern culture celebrates the very practices Paul calls evidence of rebellion (Romans 1:26–27). Where society sees “freedom,” Paul sees bondage to sin.
- Religious pluralism — Today’s idea that “all gods lead to the same truth” mirrors ancient idolatry. Paul declares that exchanging the glory of the Creator for images (Romans 1:23) is the essence of sin.
- Moral relativism — Many reject absolute right and wrong, but Paul affirms that God’s invisible attributes, eternal power, and divine nature are clearly revealed in creation, leaving people without excuse (Romans 1:20).

🙋 Application Questions

In what ways does modern culture “suppress the truth” about God?
How do you see idolatry leading to moral corruption in society today?
Where do you personally need to resist the temptation to exchange God’s glory for lesser things?
How does this passage deepen your gratitude for the righteousness given in Christ?

🔤 Greek Keywords

Orgē (ὀργή) — Wrath; God’s settled, righteous anger against sin.
Alētheia (ἀλήθεια) — Truth; God’s reality revealed and resisted.
Adokimos (ἀδόκιμος) — Debased, unfit, reprobate mind.
Epithymia (ἐπιθυμία) — Lust; strong desire turned toward sin.

📚 Cross References

Psalm 19:1 — Creation declares the glory of God.
Jeremiah 2:11 — God’s people exchanged His glory for what does not profit.
Ephesians 4:18–19 — Darkened minds and hardened hearts lead to impurity.
2 Thessalonians 2:11–12 — God sends strong delusion, giving men over to their desires.
Romans 3:23 — All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

📦 Next Study

Next Study → Romans 2:1–16

Romans 1:18–32 – God’s Wrath Against Ungodliness