There is a pattern in Romans 1 that has repeated itself throughout history in every empire, nation, government and even in God’s chosen people, whether it be Israel or the church, the body of Christ. It has a beginning that is very important, and that we are going to look at in some detail, but first we want to look at the pattern and how it works.
You won’t even have to look that closely to see where the United States fits in this pattern today. Sadly this nation is toward the end of the pattern, and that’s a really bad thing.
Romans 1:18-20, “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness; Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them. For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:”
In these three verses God summarizes what he is about to lay out in detail. To begin with, the wrath of God is revealed from heaven – it is not being revealed on the earth at this time, but it will be. Now that future wrath has been revealed from heaven upon both unbelieving Jews and Gentiles through Paul’s epistles. It is probable that the Romans already had I & II Thessalonians, but if not, Paul is revealing the reality of God’s coming wrath to them here.
Notice that the problem is that they hold the truth of God in unrighteousness. What is the truth of God?
Genesis 14:18-20 And Melchizedek king of Salem brought forth bread and wine: and he was the priest of the most high God. And he blessed him, and said, Blessed be Abram of the most high God, possessor of heaven and earth: And blessed be the most high God, which hath delivered thine enemies into thy hand. And he gave him tithes of all.
The truth of God is that he is the creator and possessor of heaven and earth.
How is that truth held in unrighteousness? By believing that there is a creator or creators and a possessor or possessors of heaven and earth, but it’s just not God. Or sometimes – many times, in fact – that God created it but that he doesn’t really possess it, but mankind or other gods are really the true owners.
Now in verses 21 to 32 God lays out the pattern that is repeated over and over by mankind in their societies, their governments, their churches, and sometimes in individuals. It is the fate of the body of Christ, which we will see.
Romans 1:21-22, “Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,”
Why didn’t the people who knew God glorify Him as God? “Professing themselves to be wise” is just another way of saying that they were proud. Pride in their own abilities and righteousness diminished the glory that God had revealed to them and started placing that glory in themselves.
Pride leads to:
Romans 1:23, “And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things.”
Pride leads to elevating the creature – the created thing – to the level of God. Whether it is elevating oneself, a person, an animal, the sun, moon and stars, or the earth, anything that is elevated to godhood comes as a result of pride. Pride mandates that we choose the god that we will worship rather than worshiping the One who created all things. Today their are many professing atheists that worship the earth, money, fame, intellect or any number of things. Their still exists religions that worship cattle, a man, an ideal, or often in Christendom, another Jesus (II Corinthians 11:4).
When the creature is elevated to god status, this leads to:
Romans 1:24, “Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves:”
We often talk about the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life as being precursors to sin, but here we see a different lust – the lust of the heart. How would one define the lust of the heart?
Psalms 81:12, “So I gave them up unto their own hearts’ lust: and they walked in their own counsels.”
The lust of the heart is doing what is right in your own eyes (Num. 15:39; Judges 17:6, 21:25; I Kings 12:33; Ps. 36:2; Prov. 3:7, 14:12,14, 16:2, 21:2, 28:26; Jer. 9:14, 18:12 & etc.) Doing what is right in your own eyes and following after your own heart always leads to destruction.
Following your own heart and doing what is right in your own eyes leads to:
Romans 1:25, “Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.”
The creature has already been elevated, but now God is debased and the very concept of Him is changed into a lie. Not just any old lie, like telling someone they look good when they don’t, but a specific lie.
John 8:44, “Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.”
Isaiah 14:12-14, “How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.”
2 Thessalonians 2:3-4, “Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.”
1 Corinthians 10:19-20, “What say I then? that the idol is any thing, or that which is offered in sacrifice to idols is any thing? But I say, that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils, and not to God: and I would not that ye should have fellowship with devils.”
The lie that the truth of God is changed into is that Satan and the fallen angelic hosts are gods. Those that worship them don’t for a second believe that is who they are worshiping, but that is exactly who they are worshiping. When a cow is considered to be sacred, compare Ezekiel 28:12-19 with Ez.1:9-10 and 10:14. When Mary is declared to be the mother of God and the queen of heaven, check out Jer. 7:18, 44:17-25. If one is worshiping something other than the resurrected Jesus Christ, he/she is worshiping a lie, and whether that lie is Satan, devils, the anti-Christ, Mary, a cow, oneself, or any other created thing – it is Satanic in origin. Many even worship “another Jesus” (II Cor. 11:4-15) but are actually worshiping Satan.
Debasing God and worshiping a lie leads to:
Romans 1:26-27, “For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet.”
Worshiping a lie leads to immorality. I believe that the sin of homosexuality is highlighted here is simply because by the time that it is openly accepted in society, government or a church, adultery and fornication have already become the norm and is acceptable. It’s not really that God hates it any more than any other sexual sin – adultery and fornication are condemned dozens of times throughout the Bible – but that when you’ve reached the point of lais·sez-faire about homosexuality you’ve already given yourself over to complete immorality.
Immorality leads to:
Romans 1:28, “And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient;”
A complete rejection of God and any final authority. This is different and more final than debasing God and worshiping a lie. You can still believe in God (or believe that God exists) without giving Him any honor and glory. You can even believe that you are worshiping God and be worshiping a lie. A quick look at the doctrines of many “Christian” churches today will prove that. But now we have reached a point where God is completely denied, or at best, ignored. To openly accept vile affections this is necessary – they can’t be openly accepted while still retaining God in your knowledge because one can’t justify vile affections as righteous morality while still accepting any Godly authority.
Complete rejection of God and any final authority leads to:
Romans 1:29-31, “Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful:”
This is total decadence. When God is denied or ignored, anyone who still proclaims the truth will be hated. Evil is called good and good is called evil. Writing to Israel when they had reached this state, Isaiah wrote:
Isaiah 5:18-25, “Woe unto them that draw iniquity with cords of vanity, and sin as it were with a cart rope: That say, Let him make speed, and hasten his work, that we may see it: and let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel draw nigh and come, that we may know it! Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight! Woe unto them that are mighty to drink wine, and men of strength to mingle strong drink: Which justify the wicked for reward, and take away the righteousness of the righteous from him! Therefore as the fire devoureth the stubble, and the flame consumeth the chaff, so their root shall be as rottenness, and their blossom shall go up as dust: because they have cast away the law of the LORD of hosts, and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel. Therefore is the anger of the LORD kindled against his people, and he hath stretched forth his hand against them, and hath smitten them: and the hills did tremble, and their carcases were torn in the midst of the streets. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.”
Sadly this is the sate that America and many of the nations of the Western world are entering into now. Our nation was in rapid decline already, but in 2003 the federal government put its’ seal of approval on homosexuality when it struck down a Texas law against sodomy. In 2015 the government endorsed homosexuality by striking down all state laws that forbade homosexual marriage. Today more and more evil is called good and good evil. Rejection of God is commonplace and the worship of the earth is being codified into law. Laws are regularly being broken and are ignored by authorities if the law-breakers are in the right group. In some states it is now commonplace for folks to go in and openly steal from establishments if the value is under $1000.00 because the states will no longer prosecute “petty crimes.” Nonetheless, there is still a bit more to fall.
Total decadence leads to:
Romans 1:32, “Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.”
Having totally rejected God and hating Him and His followers, now the anti-God is fully embraced. All that is contrary to God’s righteousness is fully embraced.
This cycle has repeated itself throughout history. One only needs to read Judges through II Chronicles to see it repeated again and again in the history of Israel. It happened in Rome, Greece and all the other great empires of the world. None has ever embraced God to begin with, but the cycle is still there.
Pride leads to elevating the creature leads to doing what is right in the hearts of men leads to debasing the true God and worshiping a lie leads to total immorality leads to a total rejection of the true God leads to decadence and haters of righteousness and God leads to completely embracing Satanic rule.
Notice what it begins with: Pride. Pride is one of the most insidious of sins because it always leads to evil yet often it isn’t even recognized. The lust of the flesh can be felt. The lust of the eyes can be seen. But often when one acts out of pride, the pride isn’t even recognized. If someone is told that they are wrong about something and they lash out – they are exercising their pride and probably don’t even realize it. If one is told to “Hurry up” and it makes them angry – pride is showing its’ face because “that person isn’t being considerate enough of ME.” And on and on it goes.
Almost everyone has a serious issue with pride. Pride causes more calamity than any other sin. If you do a search in the Bible for pride and proud, again and again it is condemned.
Proverbs 8:12-13, “I wisdom dwell with prudence, and find out knowledge of witty inventions. The fear of the LORD is to hate evil: pride, and arrogancy, and the evil way, and the froward mouth, do I hate.”
Pride is the cause of arrogance and the froward mouth and it is called the evil way – and God hates it.
Proverbs 6:16-17, “These six things doth the LORD hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto him: A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood,”
Number one on the things that God hates is a proud look.
Proverbs 11:2, “When pride cometh, then cometh shame: but with the lowly is wisdom.”
Have you ever noticed that when you act out of pride you are later ashamed of what you did. I could give you dozens of examples in my life.
Proverbs 13:10, “Only by pride cometh contention: but with the well advised is wisdom.”
Did you know that you can have an argument or disagreement with someone and not get angry? It’s really hard to do. We don’t get angry because we know we’re right and the other person is wrong, we get angry because our pride is wounded that someone disagreed with us.
We could do this all night because there are so many verses. Satan sinned because of pride. The first sin of man was committed because of pride.
Genesis 3:4-6, “And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.”
The second and third recorded sin were due to pride:
Genesis 4:5-8, “But unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect. And Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell. And the LORD said unto Cain, Why art thou wroth? and why is thy countenance fallen? If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him. And Cain talked with Abel his brother: and it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother, and slew him.”
Do you know why the Apostle Paul had a thorn in the flesh? To keep him humble:
2 Corinthians 12:7, “And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure.”
If we were to do a thorough study of the destructive power of pride in the Bible we would be talking about it for the next two years.
Yet today in our society pride is held up as a good thing. Everywhere you go you see it. Penn State pride. Proud to be an American. Gay pride. Transgender pride. Proud of my body shape. Every sporting event you watch an announcer will say: “He/she puts a lot of pride in their work.” And on and on.
But God puts a premium on humility and meekness. But for many if not most, including myself, genuine humility seems almost impossible. If we could have an honest humility and meekness, a majority of sin that plagues our lives would be eliminated – at least in my case.
So how does a person get rid of pride? For years and years I’ve listened to Tracy and many other preachers talk about living the life of Christ in our mortal body. That has always sounded wonderful to me, but the question was always “HOW?”
It always seemed to come back to putting myself back under the law in some manner. I just couldn’t get it. Maybe I’m really dense – I know I am about some things.
A few years back I thought about Psalms 119:11, “Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee,” and how that must be the answer. I thought if I just read enough and studied enough that God’s Word would be present with me and tamper down my pride and keep me from sin. That’s what the verse says, right?
It took me a while – like I said, I’m dense – but I finally realized that that verse was putting me back under the law. Putting God’s Word into your heart and your mind is a wonderful and admirable thing. Everyone should do it. But doing it for the express purpose of keeping you from sin causes you to focus on the sin, and every time you focus on the sin you get defeated.
Very recently I had an epiphany that I should have had thirty years ago. If one were to take Psalms 119:11 and apply it to the dispensation of grace, it could be stated:
“Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might GLORIFY thee.”
That is the answer to pride, and every other sin we have problems with. And it has been right there in Paul’s epistles all along, but I never quite got it until recently.
Colossians 3:15-17, “And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him.”
David said ‘thy word have I hid in my heart,’ Paul said ‘let the word of Christ dwell in you richly.’ Both require that the word of God dwells in you,* but what that Word does must be different if we are to achieve the victory. David used it to try to keep the law, and he failed. We are to use it to glorify God.
Can you imagine if you were to live every minute of every day with the express intent of giving glory to God? Would pride really be a problem if your whole motivation was to praise Him with every word and deed? Would any sin be a problem?
I’ve heard preachers say that our eternal blessings and rewards should be our motivation. Others have said that what Christ did for us on the cross should be our motivation. Others have said that our motivation should be to let Christ shine out from us to be a witness to other people. They are all wonderful things and should all be part of what motivates us because the Creator of heaven and earth has taken us from the slimy garbage dump that we were born into and placed us as co-inheritors with His Son, and the only thing we did to get that was believe that the blood of Christ paid for our sins. That in itself should be a powerful motivator.
For me personally, though – maybe not for you – giving glory to God is going to be the way that pride can be defeated in my life, along with what Christ did for me on the cross. The other ways, for me, have the danger of allowing pride to creep back in. “Wow! Look what I’m doing for God!”
If I could begin to give God all the glory in just a fraction of my actions, beginning with my interactions with other people, I believe I may see some victory in my life. Because victory in my life or any believer’s life must be God’s victory and based on what He did, does and will do for us in in eternity.
Of course, no matter what our motivator is, we are going to mess up. Hopefully less and less, but it is inevitable. When we do, it is important to remember these two verses:
Philippians 3:13-14, “Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.”
When pride gets hold of us and causes us shame or contention or division, don’t dwell on it. Forget about it and press toward the mark (of course pressing toward the mark may require some apologies to others).