Latest / Reformed Thinking / Not Ashamed of the Gospel (Romans 1) | R. C. H. Lenski

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Not Ashamed of the Gospel (Romans 1) | R. C. H. Lenski · Reformed Thinking

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Usually when you walk into a typical courtroom, there's a
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very strict, almost mechanical expectation of how the
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proceedings will operate. Right, a highly structured
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environment. Yeah, you have the judge sitting
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at the bench, you have the accused sitting at the defense
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table, and you have the evidence presented for all to see.
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And everyone knows their role. Wait, I mean precisely if that
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evidence clearly demonstrates guilt, like if the fingerprints
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are on the weapon or if the witnesses all corroborate the
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story, the outcome is fixed. The judge brings down the gavel.
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Right, the gavel comes down, issues the penalty, and the
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guilty party is LED away in handcuffs.
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It is an absolute binary system. It has to be or the system
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collapses. Yeah, acquittal in any
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functioning human justice system is a verdict reserved strictly
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for the innocent. Innocent people go free.
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Guilty people pay the price. But then you step into the
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theological courtroom with the Apostle Paul, and suddenly that
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conventional legal machinery operates in a staggering,
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counterintuitive way. It flips the entire concept of
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courtroom on its head. It really does.
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We are looking at a judicial landscape where the judge does
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not hand down a self help manual.
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He is not asking for better behavior.
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Right. He does not demand better future
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behavior from the guilty in exchange for leniency.
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Instead, the judge issues a forensic verdict of complete
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acquittal to the guilty party by providing the very perfection
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required to satisfy the standard of justice.
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Which is mind blowing when you really stop and think about.
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It it is welcome to reform thinking.
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Our goal today for you the listener, is to examine a heavy
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stack of notes drawn from RCH Linsky's massive commentary on
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the Apostle Paul's epistle to the Romans.
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Specifically focusing entirely on Chapter 1 today.
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Yes, chapter one, we want to analyze the core mechanics of
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forensic justification by faith alone.
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And simultaneously, we need to look at the terrifying dark
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backdrop that makes this justification so urgently
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necessary. Right, the stark reality of
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total human depravity. For you listening right now,
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These are doctrines to the Westminster Confession, and
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understanding them requires us to look unflinchingly at the
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text. We cannot look away from the
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harsh parts. No, we cannot.
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So I am looking at how Paul begins this letter and it
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strikes me as an incredibly dense salutation.
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He packs a lot into those opening line.
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He does. Before he lists any Apostolic
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credentials, before he mentions any authority, he introduces
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himself first as a slave or doulos of Jesus Christ.
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That specific word choice is deliberate.
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Yeah, and I am trying to wrap my head around this opening move.
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Rome was a city completely obsessed with status.
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Oh, status was everything. It was their whole social
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currency. Right.
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So why would a royal ambassador, possessing the highest office in
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the early church introduce himself to the capital of the
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known world as a peasant completely owned by a foreign
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king? Well, Lenski goes into rigorous
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detail to explain its weight. To understand it, you have to
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realize what the Greek word doulos meant in that specific
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1st century Roman context. It meant more than just a
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servant. Oh, absolutely.
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It carries A distinct meaning of absolute, unmitigated ownership.
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You see, Paul was a Roman citizen by birth.
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Which was a big deal. A massive deal that citizenship
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held. Rights that were highly prized.
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Rights that people paid absolute fortunes to acquire.
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Yet he just bypasses his civic status entirely to declare
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himself a slave. Yeah, Lenski points out that
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Paul uses this term to strike the full Christian note
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immediately. So he is leveling the playing
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field. Precisely.
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He is putting himself on the exact same level as the Roman
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believers to whom he is writing. He does not elevate himself
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above them in his first breath. He identifies with them.
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Yes, as someone who has been purchased at a price, someone
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who possesses no independent will outside the will of his
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master. I mean, an employee clocks out
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at the end of the day and goes home to live his own life.
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But a Doulos never clocks out. His time, his body and his will
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belong entirely to the one who bought him.
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That makes me think of an analogy.
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Imagine a man who is a conquering general, someone with
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immense authority, walking into a room full of dignitaries.
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OK, picture that. But instead of wearing his chest
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full of metals, he walks in carrying a massive heavy iron
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chain. And he treats that chain as his
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most prized possession. He displays the branding mark of
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his owner before he ever shows his badge of office.
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He is essentially saying before I tell you about my authority
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over you, let me tell you who possesses complete authority
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over me. That is a highly accurate way to
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visualize it. It is only after establishing
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this shared status of complete submission that Paul lists his
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specific credential as a called Apostle or Clay's Apostolus.
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And Lensky is very careful to note the grammar here, isn't he?
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Yes, because the grammar dictates the theology called
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functions like a past passive participle.
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Meaning Paul did not volunteer for this role.
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Right. He did not submit a resume or
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work his way up a corporate ladder.
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He was sovereignly drafted by Jesus Christ on the road to
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Damascus. The calling happened to him.
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Yeah, he was the recipient of the action.
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That passive element is crucial because it takes the focus off
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Paul's initiative and puts it entirely on God's sovereignty.
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Which is a very reformed understanding.
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Absolutely, And that leads directly to the message he is
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authorized to carry. Lenski notes that this gospel
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was promised in advance through the prophets in the Holy
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Scriptures. The commentary highlights the
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specific use of the Greek preposition lya, meaning
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through. Which points directly to the
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verbal inspiration of the Old Testament text, right?
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Yes, God is the author speaking through the prophets as His
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chosen medium. They are the instruments, but
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the voice is divine. Now, the contents of this
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promised gospel are strictly focused on the sun moving
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through two distinct states. Lensky outlines these as the
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state of humiliation and the state of exaltation.
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I want to push back on the terminology here though.
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Sure, God, Paul writes that the sun came from David's seed
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according to the flesh, right? But in a lot of Paul's writings,
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the word flesh is used to describe the sinful human
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nature. So does this imply that Jesus
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inherited it a sinful nature? No, no, that is an excellent
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clarification to make, because confusing the definitions there
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leads to massive theological errors.
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Which we want to avoid. Yes, Lensty is adamant that the
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Greek phrase katasaka, meaning according to the flesh, does not
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imply sinfulness in this specific context.
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OK, So what does it mean here? Instead, it refers to the
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genuine physical and human reality Christ assumed.
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The eternal Son of God entered into the severe limitations, the
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frailty and the lowliness of human existence.
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Specifically fulfilling the Messianic royal line of David.
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Exactly. I mean precisely.
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That is the state of humiliation, the infinite God
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confining himself to a human matrix.
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Then you have the second state, the state of exaltation.
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Right. Paul writes that Christ was
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ordained as God's Son in divine might according to the spirit of
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holiness, by the resurrection from the dead.
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And Lenski draws a critical theological boundary here.
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He rejects any Apollinarian notion regarding the phrase
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spirit of holiness. He really does.
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Wait, I need you to pause and define that for the listener.
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What is the Apollinarian notion and why does Linski feel the
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need to reject it right here in the opening verses?
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OK, so Apollinarianism was an early church heresy proposed by
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Apollinaris of Laodicea. A mouth full of a name.
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Yeah, he tried to explain the incarnation by claiming that
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Jesus had a normal human body, but that the divine Logos took
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the place of the regular human or rational soul.
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So like a divine mind in a human show.
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Right. He thought this protected
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Christ's divinity, but the Orthodox Church rejected it
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completely, reasoning that what is not assumed is not healed.
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Oh, meaning if Jesus did not have a human mind, he could not
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redeem human minds. Spot on.
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Linski points out that the phrase spirit of holiness in
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this verse does not mean the Holy Spirit replaced Christ's
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human spirit. What does it mean then?
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It refers to the perfect holy obedience Christ rendered
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throughout his earthly life in his human spirit, and obedience
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which culminated in the resurrection.
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So through the resurrection, the sun transition from the lowly
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state of human weakness, the flesh, into the exalted state of
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divine might. The resurrection is the
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vindication of His perfect human obedience.
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OK, that makes perfect sense. And that transition from
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humiliation to exaltation sets the stage for the sheer scale of
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Paul's mission. Because Paul is completely owned
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by this exalted, resurrected king.
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Yeah, he carries an inescapable obligation to the King's
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subjects. This obligation drives his
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global mission and moves us directly into the Apostolic
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debt. It is a massive debt.
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Paul writes to the Romans that he thanks God for them, that
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their faith is proclaimed worldwide, and that he prays
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unceasingly to finally visit them.
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But then he declares himself to be a debtor.
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Right. A debtor to the Greeks and to
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the Barbarians, to the wise and to the foolish alike.
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Rome was the absolute undisputed center of the known world at
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that time. Yet Lensky points out that to
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Paul, it was just another location containing the same 2
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categories of humanity found everywhere else.
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In the political and cultural grouping of the Roman Empire,
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humanity was divided by the elite into two broad categories,
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Greeks and Barbarians. What?
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Did that actually mean on the ground?
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Well, Greeks referred to anyone possessing Hellenistic culture,
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philosophy, and education, regardless of their actual
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geographic ethnicity. So if you spoke Greek, read
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Homer, and understood Stoic philosophy, you were in the
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club. Yeah, exactly.
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You were considered cultured. Barbarians, on the other hand,
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referred to the uncultured natives, the massive populations
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of slaves, the rural peasants, and those outside the Greek
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intellectual sphere. Linsky explains that this
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linguistic division covered all of humanity.
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And Paul places himself under a massive, crushing debt to both
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groups. Which is the paradox of the
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Apostolic office, right? This internal compulsion to
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preach? Yes.
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The educated elites in the forums needed the perceived
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foolishness of the gospel to shatter their pride.
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And the uneducated masses in the slums needed the divine wisdom
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it offered to lift them out of despair.
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Paul owes this gospel to every single social class.
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He is eager to discharge this debt in Rome, treating the
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imperial capital with the exact same gospel urgency as he would
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a remote provincial outpost in Galatia.
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I find the logic of that debt fascinating because it operates
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completely backward to normal human economic.
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How so? Well, typically paying off a
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financial debt leaves a person with less money.
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If I owe the bank $10,000, writing that check empties my
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bank account and leaves me poorer.
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Right, you lose resources. But discharging the spiritual
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debt operates more like a farmer planting seeds.
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I like that. Imagine a farmer who inherits 10
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tons of grain. If he hoards that grain in a
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silo trying to protect his wealth, it eventually rots or
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gets eaten by rats. It becomes useless.
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Yeah, the only way to secure a massive harvest, the only way to
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actually generate true abundance, is to continuously
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give the seeds away, throwing them into the dirt.
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So paying off the Apostolic debt enriches the one paying it.
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Yes, because it produces the obedience of faith among the
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nations. And to pay this immense global
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debt in the capital of the Roman Empire, Paul brings a very
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specific currency. He does not bring Greek
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philosophy. He did not bring Roman political
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theory. He brings a saving force.
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In Romans 1.16, Paul declares he is not ashamed of the gospel.
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He is not ashamed because he knows precisely what the gospel
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actually is. Lenski untaxed the Greek term
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dunamis, which Paul uses here. Right, he does.
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It translates to a mighty force or an act of anonymity.
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Now, Lenski's very careful to distinguish this from raw divine
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omnipotence. What is the difference?
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Raw omnipotence is the force that spoke galaxies into
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existence. If God applied raw omnipotence
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to sinful humanity, it would not save sinners.
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It would just crush them under the weight of infinite justice.
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Right. The gospel, rather, is the
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specific, concentrated force of God's saving grace.
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It is the active operating instrument that rescues humanity
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from the damning consequences of sin.
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And this force operates effectively for everyone
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believing. But the core mechanism of this
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salvation, the actual way it works, is revealed in verse 17.
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Where Paul introduces the concept of Dakaya, soon Theo,
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the righteousness of God. Yes, and Lenski stresses over
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and over that this is a forensic judicial term.
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It is a legal verdict of acquittal.
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Completely legal. I really want to stop and
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examine this forensic reality because it is the hinge on which
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the entire reformed understanding of Scripture
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turns. It is the core issue.
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And we use the courtroom analogy.
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I often hear people confused by the terminology.
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Sure, it can be tricky. Like if I am a guilty defendant
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standing before a judge with my crimes fully proven, how can a
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perfectly just judge strike the gavel and declare a legal
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verdict of righteous without violating his own standard of
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justice? Doesn't that make God a corrupt
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judge, letting the guilty go free?
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Exactly. I mean, how do we answer that?
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Well, that is the tension that terrified Martin Luther before
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the Reformation. If the righteousness of God
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means the standard God demands of us, then we are all doomed
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because we can never meet it. We fall short every time, right?
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But Linski notes that this righteousness is not a human
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works based achievement. It is also not an infused
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substance. What?
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Do you mean by infused substance?
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The medieval church taught that God infused grace into a person,
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making them internally morally better over time, and if they
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cooperated enough, they might eventually be righteous enough
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to be saved. Which puts the burden back on
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the Sinner. Yes, Linsky, following the
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Reformed tradition, completely rejects that forensic
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justification means it is an objective legal status bestowed
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by God the judge. So the standard of justice is
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not ignored. Not at all.
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It is perfectly satisfied by the substitute Jesus Christ.
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His perfect obedience and His atoning death are credited or
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imputed to the defendant's account.
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So the judge is completely just in declaring the defendant
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righteous. Because the penalty has been
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paid and the law has been fulfilled, just not by the
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defendant. That makes the distinction
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incredibly sharp. It is an external righteousness
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applied to my record, not an internal renovation that I have
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to maintain to stay out of trouble.
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Yes, an alien righteousness. And Paul says this status is
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received from faith to faith. Lenski makes it clear that this
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faith is entirely non synergistic.
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Meaning we do not cooperate with God to generate a little bit of
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faith and then God tops off the rest.
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Right, the gospel itself, that Dunamis force creates the faith
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within the dead human heart. And that faith is completely
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filled by its object, which is Christ.
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Faith is just the empty hand receiving the verdict.
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Precisely, Paul anchors this New Testament revelation firmly in
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the Old Testament by quoting Habakkuk 2.4.
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The righteous shall live from faith.
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Linsky provides excellent historical context here
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regarding Habakkuk. Yeah, the prophet Habakkuk was
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contrasting the arrogant, self-sufficient Chaldean
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invaders with the righteous person.
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The Chaldean relies on his own military strength, his own
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achievements, and ultimately faces destruction.
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While the righteous person relies entirely on God's promise
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and receives life. The Greek preposition eek,
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meaning out of or from is vital here.
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Justification springs out of faith.
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It is instrument of reception Lenski.
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Insists on a chronological and logical absolute here, doesn't
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he? He really does.
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He says no human being is righteous for even 1 millisecond
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before he has faith, nor does he have faith for even 1
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millisecond before God declares him righteous.
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Wow, so the legal? Pronouncement, the creation of
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faith, and the impartation of spiritual life all occurs
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simultaneously in the instant the.
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Gospel force penetrates the heart, but why is.
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This rescue mission so desperately required, I mean, a
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forensic acquittal is only necessary if you are facing
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catastrophic legal danger, and we are.
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This moves. Us away from the solution and
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into the terrifying reality of the human condition.
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In Romans 1.180, Paul pivots sharply away from the grace of
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the gospel and looks at the sky. It is a harsh.
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Pivot. He writes that the.
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Wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness
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and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in
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unrighteousness. We have to look closely at this.
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Concept of divine wrath, Yeah, because.
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Modern Sensibility, please constantly try to sanitize it,
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apologize for it, or explain it away as some primitive Old
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Testament concept that Jesus somehow did away with.
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But Lenski? Refuses to sanitize it and
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neither does the Westminster Confession.
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So what is the Greek? Phrase used here it is org.
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Theo The wrath of God and is presented not as a petty,
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unpredictable emotional outburst, it is not.
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God losing his temper because humanity annoyed him, right?
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It is the. Constant, unchanging and
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absolute reaction of God's perfect holiness against sin.
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Like how light? Naturally destroys darkness,
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yes. Holiness naturally and violently
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opposes sin, Lensky points out. The present tense of the verb is
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revealed, that is a. Crucial grammatical detail it
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is. This is not a wrath reserved
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exclusively for a distant final judgement at the end of time.
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It is a current. Ongoing revelation, yes.
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God's opposition to sin is constantly breaking through into
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human history, into societal collapse, and into the human
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conscience. Right now the text.
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States that this wrath is directed against ungodliness,
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which is irreligion, or the internal rejection of God's
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authority and unrighteousness, which is immorality, or the
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outward violation of God's standard of right, the internal.
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Attitude always produces the outward action, but the most
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chilling. Action of humanity is found in
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the verb catechin, which means to.
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Hold down or suppress, Lenski observes.
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That men actively, aggressively suppress the truth about God
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because acknowledging that truth would require them to abandon
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their unrighteousness they hold it down on.
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Purpose I picture it. Like a man trying to hold down a
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tightly coiled heavy duty industrial spring.
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Oh, that is a good. Visual the Spring.
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Represents the reality of God's existence and moral law.
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It is constantly trying to pop up into human conscience.
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It just will. Not stay down right it.
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Constantly asserts its presence every time a person looks at the
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stars or feels a pang of guilt or witnesses the birth of a
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child but the. Rebellious human uses all his
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strength. Yeah, all his.
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Philosophical arguments, all his scientific theories and all his
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cultural conditioning to force that spring down, to sit on it,
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to suppress it. Which brings up the.
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Argument of the innocent Pagan. We hear that.
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All the time today, the idea that people living on a remote
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island cannot possibly be held accountable by a just God if
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they've never read a Bible or heard the name of Jesus but
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Paul. Aggressively dismantles that
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entire concept of innocent ignorance.
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He does. He claims that the natural
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knowledge of God is abundantly clear.
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He writes that the invisible things of God, specifically his
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everlasting might and divinity, are perceived fully through the
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things he has made. It is an.
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Incredible oxymoron. The unseen things are fully
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seen. Creation.
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Shouts the reality of the Creator so loudly that all
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humanity is left entirely without excuse.
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Lenski's. Analysis of the Greek
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terminology here is highly instructive for understanding
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human psychology. What does he focus on?
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He points out that this. Perception happens through nurse
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the mind. It is a mental apprehension
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derived inevitably from observing the physical universe.
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So from the. Creation of the world onward,
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the sheer scale of the cosmos, the intricate design of biology,
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and the mathematical consistency of physics they all function as
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a. Massive, unavoidable, blazing
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billboard for the Creator's existence and His eternal
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attributes. Every single.
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Human being possesses this natural theology, God has wired
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it into their consciousness. Therefore the.
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Suppression of this truth is not a tragic accident of geography,
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is not innocent. Ignorance.
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No, it is. A hostile, deliberate act of the
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human will. And when a human being violently
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holds down the clear reality of the Creator, their mind cannot
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just remain a blank slate. It requires a substitute.
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Reality. Yes.
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This deliberate rejection triggers a catastrophic
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cognitive chain reaction, which Paul outlines next.
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So what happens? When you hold the spring down,
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what happens to a mind that wages war against reality?
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Paul writes that. Because men knew God but refused
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to glorify Him or give Him thanks, their reasonings became
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empty and their senseless hearts were darkened.
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Glinski. Unpacks this downward
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intellectual spiral with devastating clarity.
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The refusal. To worship leads directly,
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inevitably, to cognitive failure.
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The Greek. Word matthios is used for their
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reasonings, meaning they became. Empty, futile, Failing to reach
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any valid conclusion, I think of an.
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Analogy involving a brilliant physicist or mathematician.
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Imagine a scientist trying to calculate the orbital physics of
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a black hole, but for some stubborn personal reason he
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completely refuses to acknowledge the law of gravity.
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OK, that math is. Going to get weird fast right?
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He can fill. Dozens of chalkboards with
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incredibly complex equations. He can use the most advanced
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calculus known to man, but because he has rejected the
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bedrock foundational principle of the physical system, his math
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eventually becomes absurd. It yields pure.
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Nonsense. Yeah, in the.
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Exact same way human philosophy, political theory, and
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sociological reasoning, no matter how sophisticated or
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academically credentialed it appears, becomes empty and
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absurd the moment it removes the creator from the equation.
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The irony poll. Highlights in the text is razor
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sharp, he writes, claiming to be wise.
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They became silly fools. The Greek verb.
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Moreno is used there, yes, Which is?
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Where we got the word moron. It literally means they became
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silly or foolish while loudly. Bursting of their intellectual
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superiority, their enlightenment and their scientific rationale,
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humanity descends into the ultimate intellectual
21:57
degradation. And what is the?
21:59
Concrete historical manifestation of this
22:01
foolishness, Paul states they traded the glory of the
22:04
incorruptible God for image likenesses of corruptible men,
22:08
birds, 4 footed beasts, and creeping reptiles.
22:10
Lensky. Emphasizes the supreme, almost
22:13
comical folly of this exchange. It is.
22:15
Insane. They take the infinite
22:18
imperishable fountain of eternal blessing, the sovereign God of
22:21
the universe, and they trade him for a piece of carved wood or
22:24
stone shaped like a snake or a cow.
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Man was. Made in the image of God to rule
22:28
over the animals, but in His. Rebellion.
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Man makes God in the image of the lowest crawling brutes and
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then bows his own head down to worship them.
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Think of the Egyptian. Pantheon with their Jackal and
22:39
bird heads or the Roman emperors demanding worship while living
22:43
completely debased lives. It is the.
22:46
Ultimate bad bargain. It is a complete collapse of
22:49
rational thought, driven not by a lack of intelligence, but by a
22:52
desperate, blinding desire to avoid moral accountability to
22:57
the true God. Faced with this.
22:58
Absurd, deliberate, and frankly insulting rejection.
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God responds, and his. Response is quite surprising.
23:04
He does not send immediate fire and brimstone from the sky, no.
23:08
His justice enacts a far more terrifying penalty three times
23:11
in the. Following verses, Paul repeats a
23:13
chilling phrase. God gave them up.
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This is not. Passive permission, right?
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It is an. Act of judicial sentencing for
23:19
the bench first. God hands them over in the lusts
23:22
of their hearts to uncleanness, to dishonor their own bodies
23:25
Second. He hands them over to vile
23:27
passions where females. And males exchange natural
23:30
relations for those contrary to nature, receiving the do
23:33
recompense in their own bodies. I want to look closely at how.
23:36
Lensky interprets this action of God handing humanity over to
23:40
sin. Yeah, because it.
23:41
Sounds almost like God is forcing people to do evil.
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Which contradicts his holy nature Lenski frames.
23:47
This carefully within the Reformed view of judgment,
23:50
focusing on the doctrine of total depravity, the Greek verb.
23:53
Is Perdokan yes. Gave them up.
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It indicates A judicial removal of divine restraint.
24:00
God does not inject fresh evil into anyone's heart, nor does He
24:03
force anyone to sin against their will.
24:05
So what? Is he actually doing?
24:08
He removes. His common restraining grace, he
24:11
takes his hands off the steering wheel and allows human depravity
24:14
to run its natural, devastating chosen course, is the principle.
24:18
Of sin being used to punish sin when men.
24:20
Violently demand absolute autonomy and reject God's moral
24:23
governance. God's ultimate, most severe
24:26
judgement is simply to grant their request.
24:29
He hands them over to. The very lusts they cherish,
24:31
Lenski notes. That Paul's text is reticent in
24:34
its language but completely unyielding in its description of
24:37
sexual degradation, Paul views. The violation of nature, not
24:41
merely as a private personal failing, but as a glaring
24:44
systemic symptom of a society that has thoroughly abandoned
24:48
its creator. The logic.
24:50
Is clear when the truth of God is exchanged for a lie in the
24:54
spiritual realm. The natural order is
24:56
simultaneously exchanged for the unnatural in the physical realm,
25:00
the body. Follows the theology you know.
25:03
I sometimes struggle to communicate why this is a
25:05
punishment. If men and women are doing
25:08
exactly what their fallen, corrupted nature passionately
25:11
desires to do, how can that be considered a penalty?
25:14
It is a fair. Question.
25:15
Let me offer. An analogy to see if it tracks
25:17
with Lenski's exegesis. Imagine a rebellious sailor on a
25:22
massive ship navigating through a lethal storm tossed freezing
25:25
sea. The sailor hates the captain, he
25:28
hates the strict rules of the ship, and he demands to jump
25:30
overboard into the violent water because he is convinced the
25:33
ocean represents true, unrestrained freedom.
25:37
A terrible. Idea the captain.
25:38
Tries to hold him back, pointing out the jagged rocks in the
25:41
freezing temperatures, but the sailor is violently determined
25:44
to jump. So what does the captain?
25:45
Do the captain's? Ultimate most severe punishment
25:48
is not to throw the sailor in the Brig.
25:50
The worst punishment is simply to remove the physical
25:53
guardrails, step aside, and say jump.
25:56
The sailor gets exactly what he wants, but what he wants is the
25:59
very thing that will drown him. That is a.
26:01
Very grim but accurate picture. The physical and social
26:05
degradation Paul describes is the outward visible symptom of a
26:09
total internal cognitive collapse, a mind.
26:12
That rejects reality produces a society that rejects nature and
26:16
that internal. Collapse leads us into the
26:18
concept of the reprobate mind. The text moves from the physical
26:21
actions back to the root mental state in verse 20. 8 Paul writes
26:25
that because they refused to have God in their realization,
26:28
God handed them over to a reprobate mind to do things not
26:31
fit, Lenski highlights. A brilliant, stinging Greek word
26:34
play here that gets lost in English translation.
26:37
Oh, I love looking. At the original Greek word play,
26:39
what is it? The humans.
26:40
Reprobated God. The Greek word is a doki Masan,
26:44
meaning they tested him, weighed him in the balances, and
26:46
rejected him as unworthy of their worship and God.
26:49
Responds in kind, yes. In direct symmetrical response,
26:54
God gave them over to a reprobate mind, a document, a
26:58
mind that is entirely unfit, tested by God, and rejected as
27:01
worthless that word play. Regarding the reprobate mind,
27:04
the A document makes me think of the ancient Roman practice of
27:08
testing coinage like biting. A gold coin?
27:11
Yeah, exactly. In the ancient world, merchants
27:13
would test silver or gold coins to ensure they weren't
27:16
counterfeit, shaved down, or mixed with cheap, worthless
27:19
metals like lead, right? If a coin failed the test, it
27:22
was deemed reprobate. It was tossed into the scrap
27:24
heap, but really useless for any legitimate commerce.
27:27
So Paul is. Pointing out that the human
27:29
intellect tested the concept of God and foolishly decided God
27:32
had no value, Yes. Therefore, God took the human
27:35
intellect, declared it morally counterfeit, and threw it onto
27:38
the scrap heap. And what does a scrap?
27:40
Heap mind produce it produces a scrap.
27:42
Heap Culture Following this, Lenski categorizes the 21
27:45
specific vices Paul lists to demonstrate that this is not a
27:49
random, chaotic assortment of bad behaviors thrown together to
27:52
sound scary. No, it is a.
27:54
Comprehensive systemic indictment of human society in
27:58
its fallen state. Can you break?
27:59
Down the specific groupings of these 21 vices that Lenski
28:03
identifies, because reading them all in one breath can be be
28:06
overwhelming, sure. Lenski organizes them
28:09
meticulously into 4 distinct rhetorical groups to show the
28:12
total saturation of sin. What is the?
28:15
First group. The first group.
28:16
Consists of four nouns focusing on underlying qualities of
28:19
character, unrighteousness, wickedness, covetousness, and
28:23
baseness. So this.
28:25
Shows the internal corruption of the moral compass before any
28:28
outward action even occurs, right the second.
28:31
Group is composed of five terms highlighting malicious actions
28:34
and attitudes, envy, murder, strife, cunning and malevolence.
28:38
Notice the. Psychological insight.
28:40
There, an internal attitude, like envy is placed right
28:43
alongside a violent outward atrocity like murder.
28:46
Paul is showing. They spring from the exact same
28:48
reprobate route. What about the third?
28:50
Group the third group. Shifts to arrogant, destructive
28:53
postures toward others, slanderous whisperers, insolent
28:56
people, arrogant boasters and inventors of cruelties.
28:59
Inventors of cruelties. I think of the Roman
29:01
gladiatorial games. They literally invented new ways
29:04
to be cruel just for entertainment.
29:06
Absolutely. And finally, the fourth group
29:09
highlights the severe breakdown of fundamental relationships.
29:13
Disobedient to parents, senseless, faithless, loveless
29:17
and merciless. I want to stop on that.
29:19
Fourth group for a second. Disobedient to parents it
29:22
stands. Out, doesn't it?
29:23
It almost feels out of. Place you have murder, inventing
29:26
cruelties and malevolence, and then you have a teenager talking
29:30
back to their mom. Why does Paul elevate filial
29:34
disobedience to the same catastrophic level as murder?
29:37
Well, Lenski. Makes a very poignant
29:39
observation regarding that specific placement.
29:41
Filial disobedience, rebelling against the authority of
29:44
parents, is a foundational fracture of all human society
29:47
because the family is. The basic unit of civilization,
29:50
right? If a child's mind is so
29:52
reprobate that they cannot respect and obey the immediate
29:55
visible authority of the parents who gave them life and shelter,
29:58
they will never respect the invisible authority of God, nor
30:01
will they. Respect the civic authority of
30:03
the state, Lenski. Demonstrates that the root of
30:05
societal collapse does not begin with bad government policies or
30:09
foreign invasions. It begins.
30:11
In the home, in the fracture of the most basic human bonds, once
30:15
the family. Structure is despised.
30:17
The descent into a merciless, loveless society is guaranteed.
30:22
It is a devastating. Bleak portrait.
30:25
And Linsky insists that Paul is not just describing the ancient
30:29
Pagan world of Nero's Rome. No, he.
30:31
Is describing the perpetual natural state of humanity apart
30:35
from the intervening grace of God a discarded?
30:38
Reprobate Mind does not simply commit crimes in the shadows and
30:41
feel guilty about them, It actively builds an entire
30:44
culture that normalizes and celebrates the rebellion which
30:48
brings. Us to the climax of the chapter,
30:50
the absolute bottom of the downward spiral.
30:52
Yes, Paul. Concludes this terrifying
30:54
chapter. In verse 32, he states that men
30:56
realize God's righteous ordinance, that those practicing
30:59
such things are worthy of death. They know it.
31:02
Yet they not. Only keep performing these acts,
31:04
they actually applaud and encourage others who practice
31:06
them. This verse.
31:07
Is the absolute zenith of total depravity, Linsky stresses.
31:11
That at this stage, the excuse of ignorance is completely,
31:14
permanently eliminated. The human.
31:15
Conscience, despite being darkened, despite being
31:18
reprobate and handed over, still retains the inescapable judicial
31:23
reality of God's law deep down. They know the penalty is death.
31:27
They know the bridge is out ahead.
31:29
Yet the. Climax of their depravity is the
31:31
social reinforcement of sin. What is the Greek?
31:34
Verb used for that it is. Suno Tokyo It means to deem with
31:38
others that something is well done, to give enthusiastic
31:41
consent, to cheer, to applaud. It is the.
31:44
Deliberate communal celebration of behaviors that they
31:47
internally know are fatal, they validate.
31:50
Each other in their rebellion, they throw parades for their
31:52
vices. Why do they do that?
31:54
Because there is. Safety in numbers.
31:56
They applaud the sin of others to drown out the lingering,
31:59
agonizing voice of their own conscience it requires.
32:02
A shocking, almost unimaginable level of malice to reach that
32:06
point. It really does.
32:07
I mean, it is tragic. Enough for a man to sit alone in
32:09
a dark room and drink a vial of poison because he is deceived or
32:13
depressed, That is a tragedy, a terrible tragedy.
32:15
But it is a. Completely different, horrifying
32:18
level of pure malice to host a lavish banquet, hand out glasses
32:23
of poison to all your friends and family, raise a toast and
32:27
cheer wildly while everyone drinks it together, knowing
32:29
full. Well, it will kill every single
32:31
person in the room, yeah. That is the picture Paul paints
32:35
of human culture applauding rebellion against God, the
32:38
mutual celebration of spiritual suicide.
32:41
And that is? The theological genius of Paul's
32:43
letter to the Romans, as Linsky so masterfully demonstrates,
32:47
Paul has painted. This devastating, inescapable
32:49
picture of universal human guilt for one specific strategic
32:54
reason to completely destroy. Any notion that a human being
32:57
can possibly save themselves by their own merit or intellect The
33:00
complete. Ruin of the human mind, the
33:02
total bondage of the human will to sin, and the terrifying
33:06
present reality of God's wrath. Make one thing absolutely clear
33:09
if the judge does. Not intervene to provide the
33:11
righteousness himself. We are all left cheering at the
33:14
poisoned banquet. The darkness.
33:16
Of Chapter 1 is strictly required to make the blinding
33:18
light of the forensic justification in chapter 3 shine
33:21
with its true intensity, the law.
33:23
Condemns universally, stripping away every excuse so that grace
33:28
may save selectively, through faith alone, the legal gavel.
33:31
Must strike. But the verdict we deserve would
33:34
ruin us. Therefore, the verdict of Christ
33:37
is our only hope, the only hope. We have.
33:40
For you listening, consider how modern society continues to
33:43
invent new idols and new ways to applaud rebellion.
33:47
The ancient wooden statues of creeping reptiles might be gone
33:50
from our modern cities, but the worship of total autonomy, the
33:54
worship of the human intellect and the worship of physical
33:56
desire remain exactly the same the objects.
33:59
Change, but the reprobate mind functions in the same
34:02
predictable patterns if the wrath of.
34:03
God is revealed constantly in the visible breakdown of human
34:06
logic, in the fracture of the family, and in the normalization
34:09
of cruelty. Today, how much more urgent is
34:12
the objective reality of the gospel verdict for you right
34:15
now? It is a question.
34:16
That demands an answer if the courtroom.
34:18
Is real and the evidence of human guilt is overwhelming.
34:21
The only thing that matters is how you stand before the judge.
34:25
Thank you for listening to this deep dive on reformed thinking.