Episode notes
Don't suppress the truth
Even before you became a Christian, the battle raged for your worship. Paul described the wrath of God against those who would
"suppress the truth" (v. 18).
Humanity once fellowshiped with God and had no doubts about His existence (Gen. 3:8). After the Fall, people suppressed the truth about God even though they knew He was real.
This passage indicates that God can be known in two clear ways-from the inside and from the outside. First, people are without excuse for rejecting God because "what may be known of God is manifest in them" (Rom.(1) v19
God has put it in the hearts of people to seek Him. They can either embrace or reject that inner conviction.
Second, people are without excuse for rejecting God because His "invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made... so that they are without excuse" (v. 20).
People can look at God's glorious creation and believe that a God exists who is full of power, creativity, and wisdom.
We deceive ourselves when we reject the inner witness of the Holy Spirit and
Revelation of God in creation.
Romans 1:18-32.
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In fact, Paul chided unbelievers, calling them fools who "changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man-and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things" (vv. 22, 23).
Instead of worshiping God who deserves that worship, they settled for cheap imitations made in the image of man or beast.
They worshiped the creation rather than the Creator.
MORE INSIGHT
The prophet Isaiah exposed the foolishness of misdirected worship. In Isaiah 44:6-20, the prophet painted a picture of how strange it was for the created to worship anything except the Creator.
In verses 6-8, Isaiah asked if there was really any other God than the Lord God. Then he described the folly of a person making an image and worshiping it (Is. 44:9,10).
It is equally foolish for people today to lavish their worship upon a person, a view-point, a relationship, a position, or anything else that was created.
next: Romans 3:1-31