18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. 19 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world,[g] in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. 21 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. 22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.
24 Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, 25 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.
26 For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; 27 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.
28 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. 29 They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, 31 foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. 32 Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.
Romans 1:18-32 ESV
After Paul’s introduction in Romans 1:1-17, he dives right into explaining the cause of the unrighteous state of humanity and its natural consequences in Romans 1:18-32. Here’s a bird’s-eye view of these ideas as detailed by Nancy Pearcey in Part One (pp. 21-54) of her book “Finding Truth”:
- We all have access to evidence for God through creation (Romans 1:19-20)
- We all suppress the evidence for God from creation (Romans 1:18, 21, 28)
- We all create idols to take the place of God (Romans 1:23, 25)
- God gives us up to the consequences of our idols–to a “debased” mind (Romans 1:21, 28)
- God gives us up to the consequences of our idols–to “dishonorable” behavior (Romans 1:24, 26, 28)
This summary helps if we want to understand how humanity got into such trouble after the fall and how we all end up sinning and falling short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23) outside of the grace of God through faith in Jesus Christ. In Nancy’s book, she also uses this scripture as her basis for disarming all other worldviews and helping us to “craft a compelling positive case for Christianity” (Pearcey p.42) with five principles. I will briefly state them, and then I highly recommend reading this book and checking out the resources below if you are interested in this apologetic approach!
- Identify the Idol: If humans substitute the Creator for something created, what is it?
- Identify the Idol’s Reductionism: Idols always lead to a lower view of human life.
- Test the Idol: Does it contradict what we know about the world?
- Test the Idol: Does it contradict itself?
- Replace the Idol: Make the case for Christianity.
Video Link: Nancy Pearcey “Test Everything: Five Principles for Answering Any Worldview”