By Romans 1:18-25
For God’s wrath is revealed from heaven against all godlessness and unrighteousness of people who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth, since what can be known about God is evident among them, because God has shown it to them. For His invisible attributes, that is, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen since the creation of the world, being understood through what He has made. As a result, people are without excuse. For though they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God or show gratitude. Instead, their thinking became nonsense, and their senseless minds were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man, birds, four- footed animals, and reptiles.
Therefore God delivered them over in the cravings of their hearts to sexual impurity, so that their bodies were degraded among themselves. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served something created instead of the Creator, who is praised forever. Amen.
There are two main ways that God reveals himself: Natural Revelation and Special Revelation. Special Revelation is the revealing of God through the Bible. The Scriptures contain all that we need to know about God in order to be saved. Scripture reveals to us God’s plan of salvation; namely Scripture reveals Jesus Christ! Natural Revelation is the revealing of God through creation; through what we see of the world. This portion we have just read in Romans 1 is talking of Natural Revelation; and what it has to say to us is pretty scary!
Just like a building declares to us that there was a builder; creation declares to us that there was a Creator. We have enough information around us in what we see of the world to give sufficient evidence that God exists. We not only have sufficient evidence of the existence of God, but of specific attributes and character qualities of God. Like for instance that he is powerful, and orderly, and wise. God has made it clear to all peoples in all places of the world. So much so that no person will ever be able to stand before God at the judgement and declare that “they never knew him”.
Let’s get to the scary part…
The human heart is a dungeon where we hold the truth of God captive. The truth that God has made plain to us in natural revelation, we suppress in our hearts by our unrighteousness. We then manifest out a lie out of the darkness of our heart and masquerade it as truth. We do this because we crave to believe that unrighteousness is good, right, and true. We don’t glorify God as the Creator, nor are we thankful to Him for all things. We instead claim to be the one who is wise, and begin to give approval to sexual impurity and sensuality.
This is of course very scary, but it is not yet the worst thing possible. The truly scary part is when we do this long enough; when we hold the truth of God captive in our hearts and believe lies as truth; God gives up on us! This is the worst and most scary thing that could ever happen. God refuses any longer to restrain your desires for unrighteousness. He gives up on you and lets you go…And when this happens to you, you will never know it until the day of judgement. You have convinced yourself to believe your lies as truth. Your mind has become non-sensical and blind to that which is truly true. God has given up on you and you have no idea.
If this truth has awakened your mind to see that you have become hardened to truth and have desired to believe lies…praise God! God has not given up on you yet!
- Are there areas in your life where you know you are holding truth captive?
- Do you need to take out the key and unlock the chamber so that truth can be set free in your mind once again?
Leading Family Devotions 