The Downward Spiral

I like to call Romans 1 the Downward Spiral. It shows how man goes his own way. Men suppress the truth by their wickedness even though what they know about God is plain to them they head down a path (the spiral) until God gives them what they want.

They knew God -> they did not glorify God.
They did not give thanks to God -> their thinking became futile and foolish.
They claim to be wise -> they became fools.
The glory of the immortal God -> exchanged for images to look like mortal man and birds, animals, and reptiles.

In verse 24 God gives them over to their sinful desires (of their hearts):

• Sexual impurity
• Exchange the truth of God for a lie
• Worship the created rather than the Creator
• Men and Women trade natural relations for unnatural ones

So what was the ultimate result? Its actually scary because it sounds just like our culture today:

They have become filled with every type of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Although they know God's righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these things but also approve of those who practice them.

Its interesting how accurate this is today yet it was written thousands of years ago. (Who's kidding - that's all of us!) Why would God just tell us we stink without telling us how to get right again? The good news is the book of Romans will take us through God's plan to reconnect with us.