"And so, since they did not see fit to acknowledge God or approve of Him
or consider Him worth the knowing, God gave them over to a base and
condemned mind to do things not proper but loathsome..." (Romans 1:28).
In my opinion, this is one of the saddest verses in all of Scripture.
What a shame. The Almighty God, giver of breath, life, freedom and love,
was deemed by men as not woth the knowing. It pains my heart to think
that the God of the Universe is held to so little worth as to be
considered "not worthwhile". Oh, what a stab into the holy heart of the
Lord of Glory. The most frightening aspect of this is that men "knew and
recognized Him as God, but did not honor Him as God nor give Him
thanks" (Romans 1:21). Men have forever bought the lie that God is a
tyrannical deity, withholding good from His creation. This was the lie
spawned by the serpent in the garden, wherein he seduced Eve. Men bought
into it and have created their own society built on gods that they can
control. You see, it's not that men were ignorant of the truth. Quite
the oppposite. They KNEW the truth. God Himself made it evident and
plain to them. Man refused it. They hindered it, repressed it in their
own wicked desires. Not wanting to be accountable to anyone but
themselves, men became thankless, ungrateful. In fact, I believe they
took God's creations and falsely worshipped them as vengeful malice to
God. A slap in the Almighty's face! They took the worship and glory due
Him and cast it upon worthless idols instead. What ingratitude! No
wonder God "gave them over" to commit all manner of perverse things and
to defile themselves in any and every perversity imaginable; vile
affections, degrading passions. You want an answer to why God allows
evil and suffering to exist? Here's a good one for you. man rejected
God-violently so. God is merely giving man what he asked for...a world
of their own, without Him telling them what to do. This world we see all
around us is the aftermath of that choice. God "gave us over" to defile
ourselves as we desire, and so here we are. Worse yet, we have the
audacity to blame God for the whole thing!!
Having been redeemed by
grace and come to a deeper experience of the love and goodness of God, I
feel especially broken over the results of sin and man's rebellion;
over the very heart of God pierced through by the rejection of His own,
special creation. We did NOT see fit to even acknowledge God, nor
approve of Him, nor consider Him even worth knowing. Unimaginable!
GOD---NOT WORTHWHILE!!! I just cannot wrap my redeemed mind around that.
And so, this is one of the saddest verses of Scripture for me. men have
been seeking for centuries to eradicate every visible manifestation of
God. We've even gone so far as to declare that "God is dead"! How deep
runs this this damning hatred and venomous antipathy for God, that we
wish the Creator-God, Who has made us lovingly in His own image, to be
dead!
Amazingly, incredibly, it is to this very group of dastardly
rebels that God sends His only Son, to sacrifice Himself, as an offering
on their behalf. Jesus came to obliterate the wall of sin that
separates man from God (Isaiah 59:2) and in the brutal destruction of
His flesh on a bloody Cross, open the way of reconciliation back to God
(Colossians 1:13-22). "While we were yet in our (hateful, rebellious
natures), God proves His own love for us by this very act of
self-sacrifice (Romans 5:6-10).
Elsewhere we read of the wickedness
of men and how no concern for God is in their hearts, except hostility.
YET (nevertheless) God-so rich is He in His mercy that, in order to
satisfy the great, wonderful, intense love He has for us (even while we
were dead in our own sins) makes a way for us to come alive with Him in
union with His Son, through the Blood of His cross (Ephesians 2).
And in all this, even now WITH the offer of free grace, men choose to
revile God and consider Him "not worthwhile". Tragic! One day all who
refused this incredible gift of mercy and reconciliation will rue their
choice. The great white throne judgment will find them guilty and
wretchedly damned to eternal condemnation. Trust me. God is MORE than
well worth the knowing. He is far more than worth your while.
"Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says: Today, if you will hear His Voice,
Do not harden your hearts" (Hebrews 3:7-8a). Think carefully and with
purpose. Woe to all who consider the Creator of the Universe to be "not
worthwhile". Consider your ways. Consider Jesus. Consider God. Consider
Him, for He is absolutely "worth the knowing"!
Blessings,
Brother John Grace~
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