Romans 1:32 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Who, knowing the judgment Δικαιωμα, the righteousness, or righteous judgment, or appointment; of God And because God's law is founded in righteousness, and is the rule thereof to us, the word is often used in Scripture to denote an ordinance, statute, or particular law, Numbers 27:11; Numbers 31:21; and in the plural, the appointments, or institutions of God moral, or ceremonial, Luke 1:6; Romans 2:26; Hebrews 9:1; even those which were purely ceremonial, Hebrews 9:10. Here the word signifies the law of God written on men's hearts, called by philosophers the law of nature, and by civilians, the law of nations. For the Greeks could know no other law of God, being destitute of revelation; that they which commit such things are worthy of death God hath written on the hearts of men not only his law, but the sanction of his law. For the fear of punishment is inseparable from the consciousness of guilt. Further, that the heathen knew that the persons guilty of the crimes mentioned here by the apostle merited death, is evident from the laws which they enacted for punishing such persons with death. Not only do the same Allow themselves in the practice of these sins; but have pleasure in them that do them Approve, encourage, and patronise them in others, and even take pleasure in their committing them. This is the highest degree of wickedness. A man may be hurried by his passions to do the thing he generally hates. But he that has pleasure in those that do evil, loves wickedness for wickedness' sake; and thereby he encourages them in sin, and heaps the guilt of others upon his own head. In this stricture, Dr. Macknight thinks “the apostle glances at the Greek legislators, priests, and philosophers, who, by their institutions, example, and presence, encouraged the people in the practice of many of the debaucheries here mentioned, especially in the celebration of the festivals of their gods.”