For this cause God gave them up to vile affections.
Human depravity
I. The cause of all this gross ignorance and corruption is assigned in Romans 1:28. “They did not like to retain God in their knowledge.”
1. The expression plainly assumes God’s having been known, and that the cause of corruption and loss of the original knowledge was entirely of a moral nature. This will appear--
(1) From the word itself--“they did not like.” Inability: whether arising from the want of evidence, or opportunity to observe, or capacity to understand it, is not alleged. The word clearly expresses the voluntariness of the defection, the indisposition to keep the knowledge as the true cause of the loss of it.
(2) From the consequence which followed in the Divine procedure: “God gave them over to a reprobate mind,” etc., is clearly judicial. Nothing of this description could ever be inflicted on account of mere deficiency of intellect, but must be connected with the disposition or state of the heart.
2. The true character of God it is impossible that corrupt creatures should relish. As a creature in love with sin, he wishes to believe that God is “such an one as himself.” In this way idolatry becomes an evidence of the deep and universal depravity of the human heart. This view of the case accords well with the character of the “gods many and lords many of the heathen world.” Men love sin; and they make their gods sinners, that they may practise evil under their sanction and patronage. The worship of their gods is such as might be anticipated from their characters. They consist, not merely of the most senseless fooleries and extravagances, but of the most disgusting impurities, and the most iron-hearted cruelties.
II. The consequences are clearly represented in Romans 1:26; Romans 1:28, as bringing upon them the just displeasure of a forgotten and insulted God.
1. “God gave them over to vile affections,” “to a reprobate mind.” God is not represented as infusing any evil principles; but simply as leaving them to the unrestrained operation of the principles of evil already in them. What an awful curse this was, will sufficiently appear from the portrait in the passage before us. The various evils are represented as “not convenient”--not becoming--against all propriety and all law; and as abounding--personal and social life being “filled” with them. The description shows the fearful length to which the corrupt affections of “a reprobate mind” will carry those who are given up to their unchecked dominion. We are not, it is true, to suppose all the evils enumerated to exist in individual characters. Many of them are of such different kinds that they could not exist together. It is with nations as with individuals. Some of the features of the picture may appear with more or less of characteristic aggravation or diminution, according to particular circumstances. But of the general state of the Gentile world, at that time and still the outline here drawn, hideous as it is, is not overcharged, but faithful to nature and to fact.
2. The displays of “eternal power and Godhead” in the works of God rendered men’s forgetfulness and ignorance of Him “without excuse.” In like manner, the wickedness here described was also rendered inexcusable by what is stated in Romans 1:32. The judgment originally pronounced by Jehovah against sin was death. Of this tradition could not fail to carry down some remembrance, and tradition had the assistance of natural conscience. And while the sentence of death was thus engraven on the memories and consciences of sinful men, the early and singular institution of animal sacrifices spoke the very same language. And so did the regular fulfilment of the original sentence against sin--“Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return”; together with all the judgments by which the Supreme Ruler manifested His displeasure against sin. Men, then, knew, and ought to have kept in mind, “the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death.” Yet, instead of this, they cast off all restraint. Instead of “striving against sin” they strove to rid their minds of every check to the commission of it. (R. Wardlaw, D. D.)
Sin
I. Its name is legion.
II. Its nature is devilish.
III. Its effect is demoralising.
IV. Its judgment is death. (J. Lyth, D. D.)
Sin its own punishment
I. In the sins here enumerated. Which were--
1. Senseless;
2. Filthy;
3. Inhuman;
4. Self-deceptive;
5. God dishonouring.
II. In their effects, such as--
1. Health impaired and bodily frame debilitated.
2. Mental faculties enfeebled.
3. Conscience seared, and moral sense weakened and degraded.
4. Finer feelings and delicate sensibilities blunted and extinguished.
5. Incapacity to appreciate the natural affections.
6. Insensibility to the noble and good, the beautiful, and true. (T. Robinson, D. D.)