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THE KING’S BUSINESS
deliberately ignored, with the result that those rejecting such knowledge have been plunged into idle speculations regarding the Godhead, which have ended in gross idola try and sensuality (1:21-23). Third. The consequent judgment upon all who are unwilling to receive and retain the knowledge of God—they are given up totally to sin (1 :24-32). A picture of the natural man and a natural religion. It is worthy of note that the awful con dition described in these verses is not the result of not knowing God, for three things are definitely stated in this regard: First. The persons here described— whether they be heathen as we understand that word, or, which is more likely, Gen tiles or Greeks, such Greeks even as the cultured men of Athens and Corinth—had an innate knowledge of God, an inner con sciousness of God (v. 19, cf. 2:15)'; a knowledge of God was1within them (cf. John 1 :9). Second. They had a revelation outside of themselves, in nature and in providence (v. 20, cf. Acts 14:17; 17:22-31; Jeremiah 5:21 ff.; Psalm 19; 14:1). Third. The knowledge of God possessed by these people,\both inward and outward, was an adequate, full, sufficient knowledge, by means of which the Divine Being, at least in some of His attributes, was made so intelligible, so clearly visible that they were without an excuse in their wicked ness (21, 28, 32). The guilt of the Gentiles lay in a refusal to retain this knowledge, indeed their immoral and idolatrous condition was the direct result of “holding down the truth in unrighteousness” (v. 18). They had sup pressed the truth by their sin; they had imprisoned it by their immorality; they had it, but held it in unrighteousness; they “changed,” or perhaps better, exchanged the truth for a lie (vv. 22, 23). They willingly bartered truth, exchanged the spiritual for the material, the seen for the unseen, the good for the bad. Like Israel in the wilder ness, they exchanged the knowledge of the
true God for the worship of the beast (Psalm 106:20). The expression here is very strong, arid indicates that these people had not only possessed the truth, but had, after weighing it, speculating and reasoning about it, deliberately given it up them selves and applauded those who indulged in such conduct (v. 32), and even delighted in the society of those who had made this exchange. The result of this surrender of the knowledge of God is emphasized by the threefold repetition of the fact that “God gave them up” (vv. 24, 26, 28). Of course, we are to understand this expression in a judicial sense; that is to say, that God gave them up after they had really and actually given themselves up to work all manner of uncleanness (Ephesians 4:19; I Timothy 4:2; Isaiah 44:20). Men’s . thoughts of their fellowmen are judged by their thoughts of God. Wheri one thinks little of God, he is likely to think little of his fellows. So in verses 24-32, we have a picture of the spiritual, moral, mental, and physical insensibility and cor ruption of these people. In the giving up of the true knowledge of God, they had “shown themselves to be fools;” that is, they had become insipid, utterly senseless, and worthless in thought (vv. 22; 23, 28)', and had incurred the wrath of God (vv. 18, 32). Just at the point where men think they become wise (by denying the true doctrine of the Godhead) they actually become fools. Thus is the failure of the Gentile people set forth by the apostle. The Gentile world was under the wrath of God, lost and per ishing, not because it had actually rejected Jesus Christ—although men are lost who, when Christ is presented to them, reject Him—but because 'they, by reason of their sin, are destitute of the righteousness of God, without whifch no -mail is acceptable in His sight. It may be that some of these Gentiles had never heard of Christ, and consequently could not reject Him. The thing we need to remember in this con nection is that men are lost and subject
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