A Living Sacrifice: Studies in Romans (2:17-24)

Romans 2:17-24

But if you call yourself a Jew and rely on the law and boast in God and know his will and approve what is excellent, because you are instructed from the law; and if you are sure that you yourself are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of children, having in the law the embodiment of knowledge and truth—you then who teach others, do you not teach yourself? While you preach against stealing, do you steal? You who say that one must not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? You who boast in the law dishonor God by breaking the law. For, as it is written, "The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you."

Now Paul pulls out his trusty sharpened stick of sarcasm to puncture the pride of the Judaizers. You call yourself a Jew. You rely on the law. You boast in God and claim to know His will. You, the judge of all that is right and wrong, approve what is excellent and claim you are qualified to disqualify others because you are instructed from the law. You are quite sure that you are a benevolent guide to those poor, poor blind folks, "a light to those who are in darkness, an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of children, having in the law the embodiment of knowledge and truth." This is strong stuff! Paul knows this sort of pride so well because he once lived it to its fullest. He was the epitome of this proud persona. And now, he is using his familiarity with it to ridicule its rank hypocrisy.

Paul goes on: "You then who teach others, do you not teach yourself? While you preach against stealing, do you steal? You who say that one must not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples?" One wonders if Paul had specific names and instances in mind. Inquiring minds would like to know! Regardless, he seems to know very well that those who preach the law the hardest are usually trying desperately to conceal the fact that they measure up to it the least. Remember, Paul himself was "blameless" in law-keeping—at least, he thought so until he found out on the road to Damascus that he was the chiefest of sinners. He knows this self-righteous crew very well, and he will not tolerate for a moment their blatant attempt to sequester the gospel and shut the Gentiles out. No, not for a moment!

Furthermore, Paul does not merely use his own personal experience to drive home the point. He quotes Scripture: "The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you." It is not enough to remind the Judaizers that he personally knows of their perfidy, but Paul is careful to show that their condemnation is from the Judge of all living and dead. Paul quotes loosely from the Septuagint's rendering of Isaiah 52:5 (and possibly with Ezekiel 36:20-23 in mind), but he also seems to have in mind the story of David's sin with Bathsheba and his murder of Uriah the Hittite. This will come into clearer focus in Romans 3 when Paul quotes directly from Psalm 51, David's famous prayer of repentance. But even now we can hear echoes of Nathan's rebuke to David: "Howbeit, because by this deed thou hast given great occasion to the enemies of the LORD to blaspheme, the child also that is born unto thee shall surely die" (II Samuel 12:14 KJV). Moreover, we cannot escape the comparison of Paul to Nathan, the Judaizers to David, and Paul's Gentile converts standing in a direct line with righteous Uriah, the Hittite, a Gentile, who was more righteous than the Jew who had him killed. What a powerful parallel!

A Living Sacrifice: Studies in Romans (2:12-16)

Romans 2:12-16

For all who have sinned without the law will also perish without the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law. For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified. For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them on that day when, according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus.

God is impartial in His judgment. He holds everyone to the same standard: if you keep the law, you will be justified; if you break the law, you will be condemned. Simple as that. Except it is not that simple. If it was that simple, Romans would be a very short book. But Paul goes on to show that everyone, Jew and Gentile, breaks the law, and that the only way to keep the law is by grace through faith in the perfect obedience of Jesus Christ. This is fulfilling the law by the Spirit and not by the works of the flesh. Of course, this anticipates Paul's argument a bit, but it is certainly where the argument is going.

Those who sin without the law are the Gentiles. The Gentiles were not given the written code of the law, so they are "without law." Those who sin "under the law" are the Jews. They were given the law written upon tables of stone. The law was to be read in its entirety every seven years and portions read by Levites each Sabbath in the villages and cities of Israel at their local holy convocation, which was the forerunner of the synagogue. Israel was given many opportunities to hear the law. However, Paul reminds his audience that simply hearing the law was never enough. Israel was commanded to do the law. James addresses this same idea in his epistle: "But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves" (James 1:22). Both Paul and James are alluding to Moses' warning to Israel that they must keep the law by doing what is commanded (Deuteronomy 4:1; 5:1; 6:3; 30:12-14; cf. also Ezekiel 20:11). And both Paul and James quote Moses' warning that if a man breaks one point of the law he is guilty of the entire law (Galatians 3:10; James 2:10; alluding to Deuteronomy 27:26).

Moses emphasized that the man who keeps the law by doing the commandments shall live in it. Of course, this is exactly the point that Paul makes. Only those who keep the law perfectly can live by the law. And here is the catch: no one can keep the law! Thus, no one can live by the law. All who attempt to keep the law in the flesh will die. Paul will show us later that this is why God gave the law to Israel "according to the flesh." God gave them the law to demonstrate that fallen man cannot keep the law without the indwelling power of the Spirit, and no man can be righteous apart from the righteousness of Christ.

Yet, the larger point that Paul is making here is that Gentile Christians are keeping the law, in the sense that they are fulfilling the law by faith through the Spirit. Paul argues that his Gentile converts "who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires" and "they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law." Further, "they show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness." The deep irony of this passage is that Israel, who was given the written code of the law, failed to keep the law, while the Gentiles, who were not given the written code of the law, were now fulfilling it! And they were doing so without circumcision and the ceremonial observance of temple rituals. Paul contrasts the hearers (Israel) with the doers (Gentiles).

Paul turns the argument of the Judaizers on its head. He uses the momentum of their argument against them. The Judaizers seek to disqualify the Gentiles from the New Covenant because they are not circumcised and do not keep the law. But Paul will show that those who are truly circumcised and really keep the law are the Gentiles. He will reverse the argument here and show that the Judaizers are the ones who are disqualified because they are uncircumcised in heart and do not truly fulfill the law by the Spirit. This is theological jujitsu at its best!

A Living Sacrifice: Studies in Romans (2:1-11)

Romans 2:1-11

Therefore you have no excuse, O man, every one of you who judges. For in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, practice the very same things. We know that the judgment of God rightly falls on those who do such things. Do you suppose, O man—you who judge those who do such things and yet do them yourself—that you will escape the judgment of God? Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God's righteous judgment will be revealed.

He will render to each one according to his works: to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life; but for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury. There will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek, but glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good, the Jew first and also the Greek. For God shows no partiality.

The Impartial Judgment of God

It is important as we get started with chapter two to recall the overall message of Romans. This will help us keep our interpretation centered properly as we navigate this difficult terrain. Paul is convinced that God is fulfilling His promises to Israel in the gospel of Jesus Christ. Further, Paul believes that this gospel is now preached to all nations, and the Gentiles are included freely in the new covenant of promise. Paul believes that this one body of Christ—made up of both Jews and Gentiles gathered together by the Holy Spirit through one baptism—is the means of salvation to the whole world, indeed, to all creation. Moreover, Paul insists that Gentiles are included in the church by grace through faith apart from circumcision and keeping the Law of Moses. No one can be saved by what Paul calls "the works of the flesh." Salvation is in Christ alone.

However, there is a certain contingent of the church—the Jewish-Christian contingent—that disagrees vehemently. They believe that the Gentiles should not be allowed full access to the Christian faith unless they become converts to Judaism through circumcision and law-keeping. Otherwise, the Jewish element of the church will be disqualified by Gentile association from worshipping at the Temple in Jerusalem, and this is unacceptable to them. This group believes that Christ came to purify the worship of the Old Covenant, not to end it. Paul knows very well that Jesus did not come to abolish the law but to fulfill it (cf. Romans 3:31; also Matthew 5:17), and yet, Paul sees this fulfillment as qualifying the Gentiles to enjoy full table fellowship with Jews in the New Covenant. There is strident disagreement here.

The heart of the controversy beats with a simple idea: the Jewish members of the church think they are more righteous than the Gentiles because they are circumcised and keep the Law of Moses. And, if the Gentiles want to join in this righteousness, they must submit to circumcision and pledge to keep the law as given to Israel by Moses. However, Paul zeroes in on the fatal flaw in their argument: Israel never kept the law. Furthermore, physical circumcision is not really circumcision at all. It never was! Physical circumcision has always been merely the outward sign of true circumcision, which is circumcision of the heart. Moses taught this, and the prophets shouted it over and over from the housetops. This is what Paul will begin to show in Romans chapter two and develop more fully as he goes along. Paul intends to puncture the pride of Jewish-Christian exclusivism and show the Judaizers that, rather than being more justified than Gentiles, they are more condemned than Gentiles because they knew to do good and did not do it, thus multiplying their condemnation.

In refusing to allow the Gentles full fellowship in the church, the Judaizers were judging the Gentiles as unworthy and condemning them to remain outside the New Covenant. This judgment/condemnation motif gets a lot of play in Romans. But now, in a surprising twist, Paul whirls around and points his long, bony finger at the judges themselves: "Therefore you have no excuse, O man, every one of you who judges. For in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, practice the very same things."

Hold it for a moment. This just became a little strange. The judge is practicing these things? The judge is guilty of the deadly sins just listed? Where did that come from? Surely the judge is not guilty of the very things for which he is passing sentence on others. And yet, that is exactly the point that Paul makes. Israel is guilty of the sins for which she despises the nations. Israel cannot disqualify Gentiles for being uncircumcised and breaking the law when she is more guilty of this than them.

Now, run the train of thought back down the track again. The gospel is the power of God to salvation for all who believe, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. The righteousness, or the faithfulness, of God is revealed in the gospel from faith to faith as the faith of Jesus Christ spreads from Israel abroad unto the nations, and the righteous shall live by this faith. Then, the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all who know the truth but willfully suppress it and turn to idols. Those who give themselves to idols are themselves given over by God to the idols they serve to be totally dehumanized and reshaped into the image of the beasts that they worship. The wrath of God that is revealed from heaven against this crew decrees that they are worthy of death, along with those who approve of their debauched way of life.

Of course, to the self-righteous, law-abiding Judaizer there is no doubt to whom Paul refers here. He simply must be describing those animalistic Gentiles, those lawless pagans, those filthy and uncircumcised dogs. And, of course, he is. There were Gentiles all over the world that fit Paul's vivid description of the unrighteous. And yet, Paul is about to show us that Israel has out-Gentiled the Gentiles, out-paganed the pagans. We first noted where Paul was headed when he quoted from Psalm 106, the story of Israel's sins against her Maker: "They made a calf in Horeb and worshiped a metal image. They exchanged the glory of God for the image of an ox that eats grass. They forgot God, their Savior, who had done great things in Egypt, wondrous works in the land of Ham, and awesome deeds by the Red Sea. Therefore he said he would destroy them—had not Moses, his chosen one, stood in the breach before him, to turn away his wrath from destroying them" (Psalm 106:19-23). Israel, while standing in the shadow of Sinai with the glory-cloud of God's presence resting upon the mountain, turned to idols. Furthermore, they never stopped turning to idols until God finally scattered them throughout the nations just as Moses said that He would (cf. Deuteronomy 28-32).

Then, after Israel had returned from exile into Babylon, they still did not turn to the Lord with their whole heart, but developed an empty form of religion that practiced empty piety and replaced truth with tradition. This form of religion was the Judaism that Jesus railed against so vehemently. It was the form of religion that elevated the traditions of man over the commandments of God. It was the form of religion that dragged an adulterous woman before the crowds to embarrass Jesus only to slink away in disgrace when invited to cast the first stone as a public declaration of blameless perfection. It was the form of religion that refused to recognize Messiah when He came and, finally, nailed Him to a Cross. This was the same form of religion that now sought to disqualify Gentiles from the Christian faith. This was the form of religion that wanted to play judge. Paul is having none of it.

Paul will have none of it because he knows all about it. He has been there, done that, as folks like to say. Paul knows all about this because, before converting to the Christian faith, he was a model Judaizer. He says, "I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people, so extremely zealous was I for the traditions of my fathers" (Galatians 1:14). Paul knows very well about judging others only to discover that he, the judge, was guilty of the very crimes for which he was prosecuting others. Paul testifies elsewhere that he was "circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness, under the law blameless" (Philippians 3:5, 6), and yet, he was struck down on the road to Damascus with the revelation he was not the blameless law-keeper he had imagined himself to be. Rather, he was a murderer! That must have been quite a shock. So, Paul knows a thing or two about "passing judgment on another" while "you, the judge, practice the very same things." Paul knows about Israel's hypocrisy here because he had lived it. He had embodied it.

And speaking of embodiment, there is another character in the background here that will come into closer focus in chapter three. When Paul whirls on the judge and shouts that he is the one that is truly condemned, there are rising echoes of Nathan the prophet confronting David over his adultery with Bathsheba and his murder of her husband, Uriah the Hittite. This subtle allusion will become a direct comparison when we get to chapter three and Paul starts quoting Psalm 51. There is no doubt that this narrative casts Paul in the character of Nathan with the Judaizers sitting in judgment like another David perched self-righteously on his throne. More on that anon.

Israel, Paul says, you have no excuse. You have condemned the Gentiles for idolatry while bowing before the very same idols. You disqualify pagans for their uncircumcision and law-breaking while you, too, are uncircumcised in heart and shatter the commandments with persistent disobedience. You know that the judgment of God rightly falls on those who do such things, and yet, you keep on doing them. Do you now think that you will escape the wrath of God, the wrath that is revealed from heaven against the unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness? Your judgment on others is presumptuous. God's kindness is intended to bring you to repentance, but instead, as His wrath is delayed, you waste your time pointing fingers at others. And now, the time is coming when both Jew and Gentile will be judged for their sins. Do not think that Jerusalem shall escape the fate you wish upon Rome. Both shall be destroyed on the day of wrath when God's righteous judgment shall be revealed. Everyone will get exactly what is coming to them. The Jews and the Gentiles that do evil will receive wrath and fury. The Jews and the Gentiles that do good will receive eternal life. For God shows no partiality.

A Living Sacrifice: Studies in Romans (1:24-32)

Romans 1:24-32

Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.

For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.

And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Though they know God's decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.

God Gave Them Up

Three different times in this passage Paul states that God "gave them up." Because sinful men chose futility over faith, lies over truth, God gave them over to the tendencies latent within the human heart. And their heart, of course, was the problem. Their heart could not be right, and therefore they could not do right. This is the problem that Paul will pound like a drum throughout Romans: fallen man cannot be righteous in the flesh because his heart is inherently corrupt. Flesh that is cut off from the life of God will immediately begin to decay. Man must be given a new heart before he can be holy, a new heart that is filled with the indwelling, empowering presence of God in Christ through the Holy Spirit.

Notice also how the impurity of the heart will always work its way out to the body. The lusts of their heart caused them to dishonor their bodies among themselves. The corruption of the heart never stays put. It always finds its way out. Paul will spend a great deal of time later on talking about the sin that works within our "members," the parts of the body, and he will show us how this sin flows out of the corruption within our hearts. We need a new heart!

Romans 1 is a vivid description of the dehumanization that occurs when man turns to idols. The human race falls apart when Christ no longer holds everything together at the center of life. When man turns from God to idols, everything in his world shatters into fragments. He descends into the chaos of sexual disorientation. He forsakes fruitfulness and purpose for futility and pleasure. He falls from the lofty heights of sharing dominion with God to the lowest gutter of reptilian shame. All of this is the inevitable consequence of forsaking the true and living God.

Man cannot be what he was created to be apart from true worship. Man was created to bear the image and share the glory of God. Thus, to do anything else or to be anything less is to be something else and something less than truly human. This is the deep and tragic irony of secular humanism: humanism is inhuman! And because it is inhuman, it becomes inhumane. The radical humanists of the twentieth century made that clear in the death camps of Nazi Germany, Soviet Siberia and Maoist China (among many others of the same ilk). Man cannot know what it is to be truly human apart from relationship with God. Because man was made in the image of God, God defines what it means for man to be human. Remove God, and you lose humanness. Remove God, and man becomes bestial.

As we shall see, Romans is about the re-humanization of de-humanized man. Paul shows us how God in Christ through the Holy Spirit indwelling the church is forming a new humanity as a new creation that is conformed to the image of Christ. This new creation is offered up to God as a "living sacrifice" (Romans 12:1), and this living sacrifice is one unified whole made up of many members joined together by baptism into one holy community of faith. When we as individual humans are baptized into this new creation in Christ, we no longer conform to the world, the present evil age, but we are transformed according to the perfect will of God by the renewing of our mind. The resulting relationship with God and our fellow man brings a renewal of the original humanity and restores us to the glory that God intended for Adam. The shaping of these new relationships and the realization of the potential and purpose latent within the heart of baptized, Spirit-filled man re-humanizes us and allows us to become the people God made us to be.

So, Paul concludes that God gave fallen man up to impurity to dishonor their bodies among themselves; to dishonorable passions that led to sexual disorientation; and a debased mind that produced "all manner of unrighteousness." And Paul goes on to list in remorseless detail the unrighteousness that their debased minds produced. Not a pretty picture. Furthermore, Paul concludes that both those who practice such things and those that approve when others practice these things are worthy of death according to the law of God. This is a powerful point and entirely correct, but, as we shall see, Paul will use this point in an unexpected way. He will turn this point around and show that we all—including the so-called "righteous"—are worthy of death and cannot be saved apart from the faithfulness of Jesus Christ. Paul will show that each one of us can find ourselves somewhere in this list of shameful acts. That is the point we shall encounter with almost terrifying force in Romans 2.

A Living Sacrifice: Studies in Romans (1:18-23)

Romans 1:18-23

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.

The Wrath of God Revealed From Heaven

Paul cannot speak about living by faith without thinking immediately about the wrath of God. That may seem odd, but as noted above, this was the issue that Habakkuk dealt with, and it is the central issue of Romans: God promised to save the world through Israel, and Israel, because of unbelief, is under the wrath of God. How do we square this with the promises of God? By faith. Faith trusts the faithfulness of God in spite of the faithlessness of Israel.

Paul shows us that the wrath of God is an integral part of the faithfulness of God. God's wrath is not a matter of God giving up in frustration. Rather, the wrath of God has a redemptive purpose; it is the chastening of the Lord. We understand by faith that God is working out His purpose in the earth in and through the chastening of His people. God will save the world by His grace freely given in Christ. This is the astounding idea that Paul will develop more fully in chapters 9-11. God is bringing about the resurrection of all things through the death of all things in Christ.

Furthermore—and this is where is gets really astounding—Israel even in her rebellion embodies the death and resurrection of Christ in a redemptive manner. Paul will show that Christ has borne the wrath of God upon Israel in such a way that the chastisement of Israel is transformed from mere punishment to redemptive suffering that brings salvation to the world. The "casting away of Israel" inaugurates the ingathering of the nations, and the ingathering of the nations will precipitate the restoration of Israel. That is truly astounding!

The wrath of God is a major theme in the book of Romans. Paul will speak at length about "condemnation" as God's judgment upon the lawless, which includes everyone, both Jew and Gentile. Paul will show how the wrath of God is focused upon Christ as a substitute and sacrifice, and that "there is no condemnation" to those who are in Christ. But the theme of God's wrath will come to its crescendo in Romans 9-11. There Paul speaks about the first-century situation of Israel in light of her apostasy and the wrath to come. The wrath to come, at least in the immediate future, is the impending judgment upon Jerusalem and its temple in AD70, which Paul characterizes as the "breaking away" of branches from an olive tree.

Paul declares here that the wrath of God is "revealed from heaven." Paul speaks as one thoroughly steeped in Old Testament language and imagery. The judgment of God upon Israel and the nations is always characterized in the Law, the Psalms and the Prophets as coming from heaven upon the earth. God rushes upon the cities of the earth with His mighty host of heavenly armies to destroy those who resist His will. Of course, God's heavenly action is always manifested in the visible realm as earthly armies drafted by God to be the agents of His divine retribution. This is how God can speak of using Assyria as a "hired razor" (Isaiah 7:20). When God judges His people, He uses the armies of the earth to do His bidding. The kings of the world become His "hired gun," as we might say. And then, ironically, God judges the kings that He used to chasten His people. God drafts pagan kings to spank His people, and then God spanks the pagan king for spanking His people using another pagan king that will himself be spanked! Seems like a whole lot of spanking going on.

The wrath of God is directed "against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth." God focuses His wrath upon ungodly and unrighteous men who "suppress the truth" about God through unrighteous living. These men lie about the nature of God. They lie about the faithfulness of God. They know the truth about God, "for what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them," but they deliberately lie about God and misrepresent Him. They do so through idolatry.

These idolaters have no excuse for their lying, for God's "invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made." Creation was formed by God to bear His image and manifest His glory. However, even though fallen man knows the truth about God, he refuses to "honor him as God or give thanks to him." And this is the bottom line: rebellious humanity cannot abide the idea of giving thanks to God. Thanksgiving acknowledges an obligation. Thanksgiving requires genuine humility, and the fallen pride of man cannot submit to such humiliation. So, they turn to idols.

Paul says that idolatrous men start down the path toward idolatry by becoming "futile in their thinking." Futility is vanity or emptiness, worthless and fruitless behavior. The prophets described idols as worthless vanities, and Paul borrows the description. Idolatry is vain worship because there is nothing there. Idol worshippers pray to gods that do not exist. However, Paul traces the vanity of idolatry back to its roots in the mind. Vain worship begins with vain thinking.

These idolaters claimed to be wise, but they became fools. And in their folly, they "exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles." Man was created in the image and likeness of God, and this image and likeness would grow into perfect glory as man beheld the face of the Lord in daily worship and communion. In other words, man was created to become like God as he beheld the glory of God. The divine likeness is communicated by revelation and reflection. Man becomes what he worships. But now, man, in his folly, turned his face away from the one true God and bowed before images of his own design, images that reflected man, birds, animals and reptiles.

However, the basic idea that man becomes what he worships did not change. So, when man began to worship other men, birds, animals and reptiles, he began to take on the nature of these things. Fallen man began to reflect other fallen men so that the corruption of man was compounded. Man began to take on the nature of birds, animals and reptiles. Furthermore, notice the degenerative nature of idolatry: fallen man first worships other men; then, he worships birds; next, animals; and, finally, he bows before reptiles to worship them. Idolatry leads man further and further down into the gutter until he more closely resembles the serpent than God. How are the mighty fallen!

It may seem at first that Paul's discourse here is a generic diatribe against idolatry in general. However, a closer look reveals that Paul is already marshalling his arguments against Israel and her attempt to be righteous "in the flesh." When Paul speaks about those who "exchanged the glory of the immortal God," he has a specific sin of idolatry in mind—Israel's sin at the Golden Calf. We see this when we trace Paul's quote in verse 23 to Psalm 106:20, which speaks about Israel "exchanging the glory of God" at the Golden Calf. Israel's worship of idols, while in the very shadow of Sinai, is the perfect illustration of the impossibility of attaining righteousness through the law. This will echo throughout Romans.

Remember, the Book of Romans is written to explain the role of Israel and the nations in the salvation of the world, and how all creation is made new through the mediated work of God in Christ through the Spirit. Paul will show that this salvation cannot come through the physical lineage of Israel, the act of physical circumcision and the deeds of the Law. Paul summarizes all of this as the works of the flesh. Paul will show that salvation cannot come through the flesh, and he begins here by showing that Israel, who had the proper genealogy, the covenant of circumcision and the Law of Moses, could not be righteous in the flesh. They turned away from the One enthroned upon the mountain and bowed down to worship the works of their own hands. We do the same when we seek to be righteous through the works of the flesh. To exchange the glory is to lose it altogether.