Observations:
Paul begins, explaining his previous statement, that the righteous shall live by faith. Why, because God is revealed against all ungodliness and unrighteousness.
I'm just going to break Paul's writing up into consecutive argument points
- God is revealed against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of man (Why?)
- Man, through their unrighteousness suppresses the truth (What truth? Suppressing how?)
- God has made available certain truths about himself since the beginning of time to be easily and clearly perceived
- Seeing God, man chose not to honour or thank God and instead attributed the evidences of God to idols in the image of man and beast.
- Because man chose to worship created beings instead of God, God gave man over to its sinful desires.
Now, from that last statement, Paul breaks down what giving man over to their sinful desires looks like
- Homosexuality (described in detail as men and women trading natural passions for ones contrary to nature)
- Unrighteousness & evil (described below)
- Covetousness
- Malice
- Envy
- Murder
- Strife
- Deceit
- Maliciousness
- Gossip
- Slander
- Hating God
- Insolence
- Haughtiness
- Boastfulness
- Invention of evil
- Disobedience to parents
- Foolishness
- Faithlessness
- Heartlessness
- Ruthlessness
After describing this idea, Paul concludes his argument here with one last statement
- Though man knows God's decree that those engaging in such behaviour deserve death, man continues in its sinfulness and encourages its members to conduct itself accordingly.
Application:
Here, Paul is addressing the depravity of man and, in doing so touches on the idea of a good God and evil.
You'll notice that God did not create evil. Evil sprang from the disobedience of man. As partial punishment, God gave man over to the evil it had indulged in, but God did not consign man to evil and death as an act of malice.
Here comes time for a good dwelling on the nature of God.
To ask why a perfect, holy God would permit evil to exist, we must first ask why God did not end it earlier and, in pondering why God did not end it earlier, we must wonder why God even allowed the possibility for its existence in the first place, let alone what the Dickens evil actually is to begin with.
So, lets begin with the last and work our way back.
- If we posit that God is good, and perfectly so, then evil must be the opposite, the lack of righteousness, perfection, goodness, etc.
- Following that, if we agree that God, being a good, perfect, righteous creator would not make an imperfect, flawed, evil creature, then we must agree that evil came from the agency of the created, which begs the second question.
- In the Genesis account, we see God giving Adam a specific command - an opportunity for obedience. If man has the choice to obey, then man must have the choice to disobey, else it is not a choice.
- Why would God give man a measure of free will if it could be abused to do evil? If man could only do good, then there is no acknowledgement of God as the one to be obeyed. In an analogy, it is the difference between a robot programmed to make tea upon command and a wife making tea when asked. The former has no ability to refuse. The latter, having the choice to refuse, is acknowledging that the one requesting tea is worth making tea for. So, then, God allowed man the free will to disobey in order that man could acknowledge God as worthy of obedience.
- Before we can answer the third question, we must ask why God would want such an acknowledgement. Some might say that God has worked throughout history such that He would receive the most glory possible. Hence, he gave man free will, as willful obedience gives greater glory than mere programming.
- That reasoning then follows to the third and fourth questions. If God works to His greatest glory, then there must come a greater return on letting evil persist until now. After all, if we accept that man at this point is inherently sinful, ending evil earlier would have meant destroying and punishing man before now, and ending evil now would mean destroying and punishing all who persist in evil.
So, when you think about it, God's being very gracious in allowing us to exist, enduring the stench of our sin for the sake of redeeming as many as possible back to Him.
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