21 For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him JC as God, nor did they give thanks to Him, but instead, (as result of rejecting Him) they received futile or worthless thinking and their foolish hearts received darkness –so they could not see truth.
The end result of man without God
22. Professing to be wise they become fools
22. Professing to be wise they become fools
1st they know God exist
2 then they suppress the existence of God
3. they come up with foolish speculations
4. they claim to be wise
5. they become fools
Professing to be wise
faskw to affirm, to assert, to claim,
Result of thinking without God…delusional
Present: this delusion is found in every person who starts his/her thinking w/o God, w/o Jesus Christ
They make their speculations, their reasoning & claim they are right
People make lots of claims in life, & just because we claim something, does not make it so…just because someone claims something does not mean what they are claiming is true
James claim to be in Faith & are not
1 John claimed to be in love & were not
1 John claimed not to sin but anger & hate
toward others
John claim to be in light but in darkness
John 14 claim to pray in His name but are not
just because you claim to be praying in His Name does not mean you are praying in His name!
Professing to be wise sofos
Here is delusion of life without God
1. The ability to apply with skill what one knows
implies deep understanding, or discernment & sound judgment.
So first, these wise people, deny God! As creator…then they deny Jesus as the Christ.
then they gather facts & over the years more & more facts, with microscopes—telescopes, colliders etc.
then they skillfully analyses & come up with their skillful deductions & claim to be wise with their answers as to how we got here & where we are going
2. The Biblical concept of wisdom is theocentric rather than anthropocentric.
That is wisdom is God-centered or God based, rather than man centered or man based. This is wisdom…begins all understanding with God.
Job 28:28
Psa. 111:10
Proverbs 1:7 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction.
Romans 1:22
Professing, claiming to be wise
They became fools mwrainw moraino Eng. moron
to cause to lose its taste or the purpose for which it exist; it means to lacking in ability to make judgment or be prudent.
Aor. Is used to state an historical fact, that as one tries to explain all things apart from God, they become dull, & lacking in ability to make sound judgments
Passive: Subject receives action of verb—these people who deny God & then try to explain things apart from God, receive being fools, receive inability to make sound judgments about creation, or origins or even problems of man.
Problems of man are spiritual!
Not economical, not racial but spiritual, yet if one denies the existence of the one true God, or denies Jesus Christ as their savior this person receives becoming fools, in their thinking.
Indicative mood: mood of reality: though they would deny it, this is reality.
Professing to be wise, they became fools,
Eph. 4:17 This I say therefore, and affirm together with the Lord, that you bel.s, not walking by Faith in Holy Spirit walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk, as unbel.s walk in the futility of their mind,
Your mind is battlefield
In the futility of their mind mataioqhs vanity, futility, worthlessness ; this is the noun of verbal form we had in Rom. 1:21-worthless, vain, futile
Greek word for mind—refers to function of mind! –thinking!
Why? Why is their thinking worthless?
The answer is given in vs 18
18 being darkened same darkness as in vs 22, only their it was their heart that was darkened, here it is their mind.
The heart is used to refer to the person, himself, while here, mind, refers to activity of the mind.
Being darkened
when you eclipse the light of God, Jesus Christ you are in darkness
in their understanding, dianoi way of thinking, understanding, intellect, faculty of thought,
gentiles, unbel.s who walk-live in worthless thinking about life, about how we got here, about what happens after death;
Why? Why is their thinking worthless?
Being darkened absence of light of God, being darkened in their understanding—of life, of origin, future, morality, how to handle personal problems, SAD.
They are darkened in their thinking, they do not understand where we came from.
They do not understand the make up of the soul…therefore they do not understand what happens in homosexuality, sexual permissiveness, vss 23ff
Why are they darkened in their understanding?
Because they are excluded from the life of God, therefore Godless!
Perfect Passive Ptc. Apallotriw compround: apo from, away from; + allotriow to alienate; to alienate from; to alienate entirely!
They are entirely alienated from the life of God
Perfect: places emphasis on the present result of past action:
Present result is that they are entirely alienated from the life of God
but the question is: what was the past action?
How does one become entirely alienated from the life of God?
What is the action that would result in being alienated from life of God?
In the past – at the point of God-consciousness, they made a decision that there is no one Omnipotent God,
or they rejected the only way to Him…gospel of faith in Jesus Christ …so as a result—
They are excluded from the life of God---
There is only one way to the life of God—
by faith alone in Jesus Christ alone
Jesus Christ is the only way to eternal LIFE
Life of God is one of some 34 things God graciously imputes at the point of faith in Jesus Christ.
Perfect: in past they made a decision about God or about Jesus Christ that resulted in their present condition of being alienated from the life of God.
Passive: subject receives the action of the verb; they receive being alienated from the life of God by darkening their minds as to /being God!
Excluded from the life of God
because of the ignorance that is in them,
ignorance of God, & His place in universe, in the life of individuals; in the rise & fall of nations.
Ignorant as to what happens in the soul, in the mind, in the heart of a person when they deny God, Jesus Christ.
What happens when you say no to God or to Jesus Christ—
your ability to think becomes ignorant—
People, you just can’t push God out of your life, out of your thinking without this effecting your soul, & thinking, your morals.
So many parents are trying to rear their children without God
Without Jesus Christ
Without Holy Spirit
Without living in bible
Without the grace & love of God
not raising them in Religion!
Because of the ignorance that is in them
agnoia not to know, want of knowledge;
Ignorance of God, of Jesus Christ which leads to inaccurate understanding, about origin, life, after death; conduct, what happens in gross immorality; homosexuality, lesbianism; lack of discipline, absence of God.
Whenever one excludes God, from their thinking, their thinking is without knowledge of truth, & they are in ignorance of truth.
And only the truth will set them free
Why is their ignorance in them?
because of the hardness of their heart;
hardness of heart—continually saying no to God, no to Jesus Christ
hardened to truth!
As Gentiles walk--live
In futility of mind
Being darkened in understanding
Alienated from the life of God
Because of ignorance in them
Because of hardness of their heart
Having become callous
Have given themselves over to sensuality
For the practice of every kind of impurity
With greediness
Romans 1:21-22
For even thought they knew God
They did not honor Him as God
or give thanks
But they became futile in their speculations
And their foolish heart was darkened
Claiming to be wise
They became fools
Psa. 53:
Psa. 14:
Psa. 10:3-4
Isa. 32:6 For a fool speaks nonsense, And his heart inclines toward wickedness, To practice ungodliness and to speak error against the LORD, To keep the hungry person unsatisfied And to withhold drink from the thirsty.