Lessons #39 and 40
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+ 1. It is best to use this note after you have listened to the lessons because there are +
+ comments given in the actual delivery not in the note. +
+ 2. The Bible abbreviations are as follows: CEV =Contemporary English version, +
+ CEB = Common English Bible, ESV= English Standard Version, +
+ GW = God’s Word, ISV = International Standard Version, +
+ NAB=New American Bible, NASB= New American Standard Bible, +
+ NEB= New English Bible, NET = New English Translation, +
+ NLT = New Living Translations NJB = New Jerusalem Bible, +
+ NJV = New Jewish Bible, TEV = Today’s English Version. +
+AMP = Amplified Bible, UBS = United Bible Society +
+ HCSB = Holman Christian Standard Bible +
+ 3. Notes have not been edited for grammatical errors. +
+ 4. Text is based on 1984 edition of the NIV +
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Revealed wrath of God (Rom 1:18-23)
18 The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, 19 since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 20 For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. 21 For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.
Their failures and state continued (Rom 1:21-22)
The message of this section that we have been considering is You should avoid rejecting God’s truth communicated to you since that will draw His displeasure towards you. Recall we stated that there are three reasons, Apostle Paul gave in the section of Romans 1:19-23 for God’s wrath or punishment. The first reason has to do with clear revelation from God about Himself discoursed in Romans 1:19-20. In other words, God’s wrath or punishment is manifested on some people because they are without any excuse as they rejected truth about God despite His clear revelation of Himself that is given in creation. The second reason that concerns the failures and state of the target of God’s wrath or punishment as described in Romans 1:21-22. Hence, we stated that the second reason consists of two parts: the failures and the state of the object of God’s wrath or punishment. There are two failures the apostle stated as part of the second reason for God’s wrath on some people. The first is the failure to positively acknowledge, recognize, or esteem God’s character, nature, or attributes. A second is a failure of those who once recognized the existence of God through creation, is lack of gratitude to God. We also began to consider the state of those who are objects of God’s wrath that we indicated is described in three ways. The first is that state in which their thoughts are worthless in that they do not lead them to the right conclusion about God or in further understanding of God. Thus, these individuals are in a state where they are helpless in understanding further anything about God, the creator, other than acknowledging His existence. The second that is similar to the first is the state of “darkened heart” that we interpreted to mean the punishment of not being able to understand or perceive further any other attributes of God that should have caused them to recognize and thank Him. This inability to perceive or understand that describes the second state of object of God’s wrath in effect explains further the first state we interpreted to mean that those in view were in a state where their thoughts are worthless in that they do not lead them to the right conclusion about God or in further understanding of God. This brings us to their third state which is where we begin our study this morning.
The third description of the state of those who are objects of God’s wrath is that of foolishness that is associated with delusion. It is this state that is described in Romans 1:22 Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools. Literally, the Greek reads Claiming to be wise they became fools since the apostle used a Greek participle. Although a Greek participle is subject to various interpretations but in our verse, the apostle used the participle to convey that the state of foolishness attributed to the objects of God’s wrath that we would get to shortly, is indeed true in spite of their claim of being wise. The kind of construction used in the Greek that involves the Greek participle in our passage is often translated in the English with the word “although” to convey that a concession is implied. Take for example, the Holy Spirit rebuked the recipients of the epistle of Hebrews for lack of spiritual growth in Hebrews 5:12:
In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food!
In this passage, the human author of Hebrews chides the recipients of still being spiritually immature despite the passage of time since they became believers. They should have been so mature spiritually that they should be helping to teach others but that was not the case. Instead, they still needed the teaching of elementary doctrines of the Christian faith. It is this kind of construction that Apostle Paul used in the passage of Romans 1:22 to state that despite the claim of the objects of God’s wrath what is stated about their state is true.
It is our assertion that the third state of those who are objects of God’s wrath is that of foolishness that is associated with delusion. The word “claimed” the apostle used in the clause Although they claimed to be wise is translated from a Greek word (phaskō) that means “to state something with confidence,” hence, it is translated “assert” in the charges the Jews brought against Apostle Paul before Governor Felix as narrated in Acts 24:9:
The Jews joined in the accusation, asserting that these things were true.
In our passage of Romans 1:22, the word means “to assert” or “to claim.” It is because of what is involved in the word “claim” that is in part our reason for associating the third state we are considering with the concept of delusion or deception. Two facts should be remembered with respect to the word “claim” as it appears in the Scripture. First, some kinds of claim can lead to deception or delusion. The Lord Jesus warned of deception that would result from some individuals that would claim to be Him as we read in Matthew 24:5:
For many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many.
Some claim what they are not and gather followers around them. Their followers are usually under some kind of deception. It is this kind of deception that caused some Jews to follow those who made claims of their importance as leaders of the people but failed to deliver what they promised that Gamaliel used in advising the Jewish officials about being cautious with the disciples of Jesus Christ as narrated in Acts 5:35–36:
35 Then he addressed them: “Men of Israel, consider carefully what you intend to do to these men. 36 Some time ago Theudas appeared, claiming to be somebody, and about four hundred men rallied to him. He was killed, all his followers were dispersed, and it all came to nothing.
It is not only that certain kinds of claims could lead to deception of others, but some kinds of claims could lead to self-deception. The Holy Spirit gives an example of such a claim as it pertains to the subject of sin as we read in 1 John 1:8:
If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.
Second, anyone could make a claim about anything the person wants but for the claim to be valid it must be backed up by the appropriate action(s) that support the claim. Thus, the Scripture says much about those who claim something that they do not back up by actions that support their claims. The Holy Spirit through Apostle Paul describes negatively those who make claims about knowing God, but their actions say otherwise as we read in Titus 1:16:
They claim to know God, but by their actions they deny him. They are detestable, disobedient and unfit for doing anything good.
The Holy Spirit through Apostle John described as liars those who claim to be in fellowship with God but are living sinful lifestyle as we read in 1 John 1:6:
If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth
Furthermore, Apostle John states that anyone who claims to be in right relationship with God but hates a fellow believer is still living in the sphere of sin as implied in 1 John 2:9:
Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates his brother is still in the darkness.
Anyway, the point we are stressing is that anyone can make whatever claim the person wants but to be true the person’s action must support the person’s claim.
Be that as it may, the claim of those who are the objects of God’s wrath or punishment is described in Romans 1:22 they claimed to be wise. The word “wise” is translated from a Greek word (sophos) that was primarily used in classical Greek for a clever person who knows how to do something or construct something, such as buildings, poems, and speeches. Thus, the word pertains to knowing how to do something in a skillful manner and so means “clever, skillful, experienced.” It is in this sense that Apostle Paul used our Greek word to describe himself as skilled master builder in 1 Corinthians 3:10:
By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as an expert builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should be careful how he builds.
The phrase an expert builder of the NIV is more literally a skilled/wise master builder. The Greek adjective may pertain to the understanding that results in wise attitudes and conduct hence means “wise.” It is in this sense of “wise” in understanding that leads to proper conduct that Apostle Paul used the word to encourage the Ephesians to be mindful of their conduct in Ephesians 5:15:
Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise,
In our passage of Romans 1:22, it means “wise or learned,” that is, “having intelligence and education above the average person.”
There is nothing specifically wrong with being wise or learned per say but the apostle is concerned with the kind of wisdom that leads to disastrous results such as arrogance. The learned or the wise often assume they can find the answers to life’s problems or to attempt to explain fully God’s creation through their learning. They generally do not recognize their human limitations. It is because of such failure to recognize human limitations, especially regarding knowledge that the wise Teacher stated the false claim of the learned or the wise in Ecclesiastes 8:17:
then I saw all that God has done. No one can comprehend what goes on under the sun. Despite all his efforts to search it out, man cannot discover its meaning. Even if a wise man claims he knows, he cannot really comprehend it.
The clause Even if a wise man claims he knows, he cannot really comprehend it is relevant to our assertion about limitation in human knowledge or wisdom. You see, the wise person in the ancient world was regarded as an expert with expert views and opinions so we equate such an individual to the expert of our times in the various disciplines of science or humanities that include philosophy. Thus, the point of the clause in this passage of Ecclesiastes is that no matter how hard the learned or the wise struggle to unravel God’s work and understand the affairs of this life, they cannot. They will only know just enough as God intended for humans to know in order to benefit them while on this planet but no more than that. A person who seeks to understand better the affairs of mankind on this planet or divine activity, but not completely, should turn to God so that He will enlighten the person through the Scripture. The most we can know of this life and God’s work is that revealed in the Scripture. Therefore, a person who seeks to have a better understanding of God’s work or human affairs on this planet should look to the explanations given in the Scripture. But that is not what most of the learned or wise of the world do. They rely on their own intelligence as a way of explaining God if they even acknowledge His existence.
Anyway, when the apostle wrote the sentence in Romans 1:22 they claimed to be wise, it is likely he had in mind the kind of thing he wrote to the Corinthians about the wise of this world, recorded in 1 Corinthians 3:18:
Do not deceive yourselves. If any one of you thinks he is wise by the standards of this age, he should become a “fool” so that he may become wise.
The clause If any one of you thinks he is wise by the standards of this age is related to the sentence of Romans 1:22 they claimed to be wise. To be wise in this age or by the world standard means to know how to manipulate knowledge or information to help a person have an advantage over others or get ahead. This is illustrated in the parable of the Shrewd Manager the Lord gave in sixteen chapter of Luke. His master commended him for acting shrewdly, as we read Luke 16:8:
“The master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly. For the people of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own kind than are the people of the light.
The parable indicates that the manager was shrewd according to the value system of this world that involves success at any cost so that lying and cheating are welcomed standards of practice in the world system. Therefore, many businesspeople who are unbelievers or even believers that function in the world system have no problem lying and cheating others in order to make a quick gain. People who are wise by world standards are very clever when it comes to their survival hence are willing to go any length to survive, consequently, we have many scammers. One thing that is for certain is that people of this world are characterized by callousness and arrogance as indicated in Psalm 73:7:
From their callous hearts comes iniquity; the evil conceits of their minds know no limits.
It is because of the callousness of the people of this world that they have no problem cheating or hurting others. In effect, those who are wise by the standard of this world usually operate in sinful manner. It is because they operate in sinful manners that their wisdom is described as not coming from God, as stated in James 3:14–16:
14 But if you harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast about it or deny the truth. 15 Such “wisdom” does not come down from heaven but is earthly, unspiritual, of the devil. 16 For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice.
It is not only that those who are wise in this age or according to the worldly standards operate with self-interest, but they also ignore God. Thus, they are the kind of individuals Apostle Paul was thinking when he wrote the sentence of Romans 1:22 they claimed to be wise. A person can only be wise as far as God is concerned if the person lives in fear of God in the sense of avoiding sinful conduct as the Scripture indicates, for example, in Proverbs 14:16:
A wise man fears the LORD and shuns evil, but a fool is hotheaded and reckless.
Thus, a person who claims to be wise should reflect that through the individual’s lifestyle as implied in James 3:13:
Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show it by his good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom.
In any case, to convey that those who are objects of God’s wrath or punishment that claim to be wise are false in their claim, the apostle describes their actual state in the last sentence of Romans 1:22 they became fools. It is this sentence that is the basis for our assertion that the third state of those who are objects of God’s wrath is that of foolishness that is associated with delusion.
The expression “became fools” is translated from a Greek word (mōrainō) that may mean “to become insipid or tasteless” as it is used to describe what could happen to salt in the Lord Jesus’ teaching recorded in Matthew 5:13:
“You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men.
The word may mean “to make foolish or to show to be foolish” as the word is used to describe what God has done to worldly philosophers as described in 1 Corinthians 1:20:
Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?
In our passage of Romans 1:22, the word means “to be foolish,” that is, “to be devoid of good sense or judgment.” Thus, we can say that those described to be foolish by the apostle in our passage are indeed fools. Before we continue with our consideration of Romans 1:22, it is worthwhile to make a few observations about a fool as such observations are relevant in the passage we are studying.
The psalmist tells us that a sad characteristic of a fool is the denial of the existence of God as stated in Psalm 53:1:
The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, and their ways are vile; there is no one who does good.
There is a sense that this description of a fool by the psalmist is echoed by what Apostle Paul wrote about the failures and states of those who are objects of God’s wrath in Romans 1:21:
For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.
The psalmist describes the state of unbelievers as fools but there are those who believe in God that are also described as fools because they do not know God’s word or instructions as Prophet Jeremiah described in Jeremiah 5:4:
I thought, “These are only the poor; they are foolish, for they do not know the way of the LORD, the requirements of their God.
In addition, there are those who believe in existence of God, but they are described as fools because they are involved in idolatry as Prophet Jeremiah states in Jeremiah 10:8–9:
8They are all senseless and foolish; they are taught by worthless wooden idols. 9Hammered silver is brought from Tarshish and gold from Uphaz. What the craftsman and goldsmith have made is then dressed in blue and purple—all made by skilled workers.
Fools are not only involved in idolatry and ignorant of God’s word, but they are that way also because they do not want to be instructed in God’s word as implied in Proverbs 1:22:
“How long will you simple ones love your simple ways? How long will mockers delight in mockery and fools hate knowledge?
Those who hate knowledge could not possibly know what God requires and so it is equally true that fools are sinful. Of course, not everyone that sins, is a fool in the sense we have been describing a fool but the thing about a fool and sinful conduct is that a fool takes delight in sin unlike a believer who sins because of lack of the control of the Holy Spirit as we read in Proverbs 10:23:
A fool finds pleasure in evil conduct, but a man of understanding delights in wisdom.
Believers should not be labeled as fools in the same sense as unbelievers who delight in sinful conduct. This is because foolishness associated with sinfulness is supposed to be the thing of the past for the believer as implied in Titus 3:3:
At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another.
In any event, what we have said about a fool applies to those the apostle described as being in foolish state in Romans 1:22 they became fools.
We have commented on the wise and the fool because of the description of Apostle Paul regarding the state of those who are the objects of God’s wrath or punishment given in Romans 1:22 Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools. The question that a person would normally raise is what the apostle means in this clause. In other words, how does a person claim to be wise when in fact the person proves to be a fool? The apostle provides us with the answer to this question in the next verse, that is, in Romans 1:23 to which we turn our attention.
The fact that the apostle provides us the answer to the question of how those who claim to be wise prove to be fools is indicated by the very first word and that begins verse 23. This is because the word “and” is translated from a Greek particle (kai) that is often translated “and” in our English versions as a marker of connection between single words or clauses, but the conjunction has several usages. It may be used as a marker of introduction of a result that comes from what precedes and so may be translate “and then, and so.” It may be used to emphasize a fact as surprising or unexpected or noteworthy, leading to the translation “and yet, and in spite of that, nevertheless.” It may be used as a marker of emphasis where there is a stress on what is said and hence means “indeed, certainly.” It may be used as a marker to indicate an additive relation that is not of equal rank and significance to another clause, in which case, it means “also, likewise.” Still the word may be used as a marker of contrast so that it means “but.” In our passage of Romans 1:23, it is used as a marker of explanation of what preceded its use so that it may be translated “that is” or “namely.” As far as I can determine none of our English versions reflected this translation. In fact, most of our English versions translate our Greek word with “and” as in the NIV while a handful such as the CEB, the CEV and the NCV did not translate it. The TEV began the verse with the word “instead” while the NLT used the phrase “and instead” to begin verse 23. The NJB began with the word “that.” This rendering probably comes close to the interpretation we assigned the Greek word that begin the verse. Nonetheless, as we have indicated, the apostle used the word to say something like, “this is what I mean by what I said regarding those who claim to be wise but are fools.” The point is that the first word of verse 23 in Greek explains what the apostle stated in verse 22 as we will demonstrate. The explanation of the apostle that follow tells us how those who are the object of God’s wrath claim to be wise but prove that they are indeed fools.
The explanation of how those who are the objects of God’s wrath claim to be wise but prove they are fools is given in the verbal phrase of Romans 1:23 exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles. This verbal phrase is concerned with idolatry. The language of the apostle is reminiscent of the description of Israel’s involvement in idolatry in Mount Sinai as the psalmist described in Psalm 106:20:
They exchanged their Glory for an image of a bull, which eats grass.
Thus, those who claim to be wise but prove they are fools are charged with being involved in idolatry as we will demonstrate in what follows.
Idolatry is essentially worshipping anything other than God, the supreme creator. Such an act will involve replacing God with anything created and assigning to such an object the honor or majesty that belong to God. In the verse we are considering, this act of replacing God with created thing is introduced first in the phrase exchanged the glory of the immortal God.
The word “exchanged” is translated from a Greek word (allassō) that may mean “to change,” that is, “to make something other or different” as Apostle Paul used it to describe what will happen in the last day to the bodily condition of believers as stated in 1 Corinthians 15:51:
Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed—
It is in the sense of “to change” or “to alter” that the word is used in the accusations by false witnesses against Stephen of changing Mosaic traditions in Acts 6:14:
For we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and change the customs Moses handed down to us.”
In our passage of Romans 1:23, the word means “to exchange or substitute,” that is, “to put in the place of another” or “to switch seemingly equivalent items.”
The apostle emphasized this word in the Greek because it is the second word of the verse after the Greek particle translated “and” in the NIV that we explained is used to introduce an explanation to what was stated in verse 22. It is true that there is no fixed order for a Greek sentence, but a verb does not normally begin a Greek sentence unless the author intended to emphasize the action of the verb. Since the apostle placed the Greek verb in the position we stated, he intended to emphasize that the main action of those who are objects of God’s wrath that is the reason for charging them with idolatry is that they exchanged or substituted something that belongs to God with something else or they ascribed what belongs to God to another object. You see, as we have stated, at the heart of idolatry is substituting something that belongs to God with something else or ascribing something that belongs to God to another object. Take for example, when a person is supposed to be in a place of worship the individual is in a place of entertainment, that person has substituted devotion that should belong to God with devotion to entertainment and that is idolatry. My use of the word “entertainment” should not be limited to going to a place of entertainment per say since a person’s home could be the venue of entertainment. This will work like this. Suppose your children or friends visit you and because you want to entertain them, you do not go to Bible Study or worship service you have become idolatrous because you have placed pleasing a human being over pleasing God, that is idolatry. Anyway, the apostle used the word translated “exchanged” in such a way in the Greek that implies that the act of exchange in view in this verse is that which is universally true of all those that get involved in idolatry at all times and in all generations of people on this planet. It remains true that people do not become involved in idolatry unless they exchange something that belongs to God with something else or ascribe to an object something that belongs to God.
In our verse of study, the thing that belongs to God that is exchanged is described in the phrase of Romans 1:23 the glory of the immortal God. The focus is on the word “glory.” So, what is the glory of God that was in the mind of the apostle? This question is important because of the possible meanings of the Greek word used. The word “glory” is translated from a Greek word (doxa) that may mean “brightness, splendor, radiance”, that is, the condition of being bright or shining and so it is used to describe the physical phenomenon associated with the light that blinded Paul prior to his conversion while on his way to Damascus to persecute Christians, as stated in Acts 22:11:
My companions led me by the hand into Damascus, because the brilliance of the light had blinded me.
The phrase the brilliance of the light is more literally the brightness of the light. The word when used of God means “glory” that could refer to “His power, brilliance, splendor, presence, authority, and majesty.” It is the context that determines which of these meanings is most applicable. Take for example, the word is translated “glory” in connection of the second coming of Jesus Christ as He stated in Matthew 16:27:
For the Son of Man is going to come in his Father’s glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what he has done.
Because after the word “glory,” the verse goes on to speak of judgment, “glory” here has the sense of authority of God the Father. Take another example, the word “glory” is used to describe that which is associated with an angel that announced the birth of Jesus to the shepherds as narrated in Luke 2:9:
An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified.
The “glory of the Lord” is here a visible manifestation of Divine presence that appeared in form of light or radiance. Take another example of the word “glory” being used to describe an effect of Jesus’ miracle of turning water into wine that the Holy Spirit through Apostle John indicates reveals an element of Jesus’ true nature in John 2:11:
This, the first of his miraculous signs, Jesus performed at Cana in Galilee. He thus revealed his glory, and his disciples put their faith in him.
The sentence He thus revealed his glory, according to the UBS Translators’ Handbook, may be translated “there he showed how wonderful he was.” Of course, what Jesus revealed was His power or might in the miracle so that “glory” here refers to His power or might. Still take another example where Apostle Paul used the word in the context of speaking about God and His promises to the Corinthians as we read in 2 Corinthians 1:20:
For no matter how many promises God has made, they are “Yes” in Christ. And so through him the “Amen” is spoken by us to the glory of God.
Glory here refers either to the “honor” or “praise” of God. Thus, we see that the meaning of the word “glory” depends on the context. In our passage of Romans 1:23, the word “glory” is used in the sense of “majesty” or “dignity.” Thus, although some interpret our Greek word as “honor” in this verse which is certainly possible and may well be implied, we contend that what belongs to God that is exchanged for something is His majesty or dignity. We insist on this meaning because the only other place in Apostle Paul’s writing that he described God with the adjective “immortal” that he used in Romans 1:23, the apostle used the Greek word (doxa) translated “glory” along with another Greek word (timē) translated “honor” in 1 Timothy 1:17:
Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen.
The word “glory” here in 1 Timothy 1:17 because of the context could also mean “praise” and so honor and praise would be synonymous with each other. The word “immortal” that the apostle used here in Timothy to describe God is the same word used in Romans 1:23 to describe God. The word “immortal” (Greek aphthartos) is used only in these two passages by Apostle Paul to describe God as unaffected by the power of death and decay. Thus, while “glory” could mean “honor” or “praise,” we contend that the context of Romans 1:23 better supports understanding the word “glory” as a reference to God’s majesty or dignity.
The charge of idolatry on the objects of God’s wrath is continued by describing what they exchanged God’s majesty or dignity with as in the verbal phrase of Romans 1:23 for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles. The literal Greek is a phrase that reads for (the) likeness of (the) form of (a) mortal human being and birds and four footed animals and reptiles. The verbal phrase images made to look like of the NIV is how the translators rendered two Greek words the apostle used, as the literal translation reveals.
The first Greek word (homoiōma) the apostle used may mean “likeness” in the sense of “state of having common experiences” as it is used to describe believers sharing in the death of Christ in Romans 6:5:
If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection.
The clause If we have been united with him like this in his death is more literally if we have become identified with him in the likeness of his death. The Greek word may refer to “the state of being similar in appearance” hence means “image, form, appearance.” In our passage of Romans 1:23, the word has the sense of “similarity,” that is, “the state of being similar to something.”
The second Greek word (eikōn) the apostle used refers to an object shaped to resemble the form or appearance of something and so means “likeness, portrait” as it is used in question of Jesus Christ to those who wanted to entrap Him regarding payment of taxes to Caesar, so He wanted to know whose portrait and inscription were on the coin as we read in Luke 20:24:
“Show me a denarius. Whose portrait and inscription are on it?”
The word may mean that which represents something else in terms of basic form and features, hence means “likeness, form, appearance” as it is used in describing transforming of believers to conform to the form of Jesus Christ in 2 Corinthians 3:18:
And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.
The word may mean that which has the same form as something else, that is, “living image” as it is used to describe Jesus Christ in relation to God in Colossians 1:15:
He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.
In our passage of Romans 1:23, the Greek word has the sense of “form or appearance,” that is, “that which represents something else in terms of basic form and features.”
The apostle in using the two Greek words we examined that have similar meanings meant to convey in an emphatic manner that the majesty or dignity of God is exchanged or substitute with something that in its appearance is similar to what he described in the phrase of Romans 1:23 mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles. The word “man” is translated from a Greek word (anthrōpos) that means “a human being” without regard to gender, as Apostle Paul used it to describe the fate of evil doers as stated in Romans 2:9:
There will be trouble and distress for every human being who does evil: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile;
The word may mean “man” as male person as the apostle used it to describe Jesus Christ in His humanity in Romans 5:15:
But the gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God’s grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many!
The word may mean “self” as it is used in the instruction of Romans 6:6:
For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin—
The phrase old self is literally old man. The word may mean “person” as that is the way the word is used when the concern is to be inclusive of men and women, as in the doctrine of justification by faith Apostle Paul stated in Galatians 2:16:
know that a man is not justified by observing the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by observing the law, because by observing the law no one will be justified.
Justification is for both men and women so that the phrase a man is to be understood as “a person,” hence the NRSV simply used the phrase a person. In our passage of Romans 1:23, the word is used in the sense of “person,” that is, “a human being.” This is because the pagans represented what they worshipped as both males and females as we find, for example, the goddess, Ashtoreth and the god, Chemosh King Josiah destroyed during his reformation mentioned in 2 Kings 23:13:
The king also desecrated the high places that were east of Jerusalem on the south of the Hill of Corruption—the ones Solomon king of Israel had built for Ashtoreth the vile goddess of the Sidonians, for Chemosh the vile god of Moab, and for Molech the detestable god of the people of Ammon.
Anyway, Apostle Paul wanted to convey that human beings are in no way comparable to God so that His majesty or dignity should be exchanged with anything that resembles humans, so he used a contrasting adjective to what he described God to describe man, hence the adjective “mortal” in the phrase mortal man that is translated from a Greek word Greek word (phthartos) that pertains to decay or destruction hence means “perishable, mortal, not lasting” as it is used to describe what will take place at resurrection in 1 Corinthians 15:53:
For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality.
It is in the sense of “perishable” that the word is used to describe the fate of seed in contrast to the word of God as stated in 1 Peter 1:23:
For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God.
In our passage of Romans 1:23, the word means “perishable,” that is, “being subject to breaking down into one’s constituent elements.” Although our word is used primarily to describe human beings, the meaning extends to the lower creatures mentioned in the phrase of Romans 1:23 and birds and animals and reptiles.
The exchange of the majesty or dignity of God for God’s creatures is indeed idolatry that clearly violates God’s commandments against idolatry as given in Deuteronomy 4:15–18:
15 You saw no form of any kind the day the LORD spoke to you at Horeb out of the fire. Therefore watch yourselves very carefully, 16 so that you do not become corrupt and make for yourselves an idol, an image of any shape, whether formed like a man or a woman, 17 or like any animal on earth or any bird that flies in the air, 18 or like any creature that moves along the ground or any fish in the waters below.
Thus, this instruction against idolatry indicates that those who claimed to be wise prove they are fools because they became involved in idolatry. Although we are concerned with those who are objects of God’s wrath in the sense of unbelievers, you should consider yourself a fool anytime you get involved in idolatry in that you place anything above God. In any event, let me end our study of Romans 1:18-23 by reminding you of its message which is You should avoid rejecting God’s truth communicated to you since that will draw His displeasure towards you.
08/16/24