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

Transcript

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

0:00
You know, usually when we talk about a courtroom verdict, there
0:03
is this expectation of mathematical fairness.
0:06
Yeah, you sort of picture a set of scales.
0:07
Right, you put the good deeds on the right side, the bad deeds on
0:10
the left side, and the judge just leans over the bench,
0:13
points to whichever side is heavier, and hands down the
0:16
result. It feels very transactional.
0:18
I mean, if I do enough good, I buy my freedom.
0:21
It is a clean, predictable equation and well, we like that.
0:24
We like things to be earned, to be merited.
0:27
It gives us a sense of control over our own destiny.
0:31
But then you step into the theology of the Apostle Paul,
0:35
and suddenly that scale is thrown out the window entirely.
0:39
We are looking at a legal landscape that honestly shatters
0:42
our standard human logic. It really upends everything and
0:45
that shattered logic is what we are looking at today.
0:48
Welcome to reform thinking. It is great to be here.
0:50
Today, our mission for this deep dive into the source material is
0:54
massive. We are unpacking RCH Lenski's
0:58
highly detailed commentary on the 1st chapter of Paul's
1:01
epistle to the Romans. Yes, and we are going to analyze
1:04
the text to understand the precise mechanics of
1:07
justification by faith, the absolute necessity of God's
1:10
grace, and the stark reality of human rebellion.
1:13
For you listening, whether you are brushing up on your theology
1:17
or encountering this level of exegesis for the first time,
1:21
this text is the bedrock of Reformed theology.
1:25
It lays the groundwork for the Westminster Confession.
1:28
And it really shapes our understanding of how God
1:30
actually declares sinners righteous.
1:32
I'm so looking forward to this. I mean, Lenski brings a
1:36
microscopic level of attention to the original coin Greek text.
1:39
He really does. He synthesizes dense theological
1:42
concepts. Just by looking at the specific
1:45
grammar Paul uses, we are going to see how precision in language
1:48
leads to precision in doctrine. Right.
1:51
And Paul is writing to the Christians in Rome, the very
1:53
center of the known world, world the epicenter of political and
1:56
military dominance. Which is a huge detail when you
2:00
are writing a letter to the capital of the world, especially
2:02
when you're about to deliver a theological argument that
2:04
dismantles human pride. You have to establish your
2:07
credentials. You definitely have to tell them
2:09
who you are and by what authority you are speaking, but
2:12
Paul does something surprising right out of the gate.
2:14
He really does. He starts his introduction by
2:17
calling himself a slave, a doulos of Jesus Christ.
2:20
He puts that identity before his official title of Apostle.
2:24
The word doulos is fascinating here.
2:26
It indicates total ownership. Paul was purchased.
2:29
So a slave is wholly subject to his master, and has no
2:33
independent will except the masters will.
2:34
Precisely by using this word first, Paul does not introduce
2:39
himself from a high untouchable pedestal.
2:41
He puts himself right beside all the Roman believers.
2:44
Wow. Yeah, he is a brother to them, a
2:47
fellow slave before he is an apostle to them.
2:50
It makes me think of an ambassador from a foreign
2:52
nation. If a high-ranking ambassador
2:54
walks into a room full of expatriates and introduces
2:57
himself simply as a fellow citizen of their home country,
3:00
he builds an instant bridge. Oh, that is a great analogy.
3:04
He is looking at them and saying well, before we talk about my
3:06
diplomatic credentials, we share the same allegiance.
3:09
It levels the playing field. It really does, And once he
3:12
establishes that shared allegiance to Christ, he
3:15
immediately grounds his message in history.
3:17
Paul mentions that the gospel was promised in advance through
3:22
the prophets in early writings. Now Lenski stops here to look
3:25
closely at the Greek preposition dia, which translates to
3:28
through. Why does a single preposition
3:30
matter so much? Because it defines the mechanics
3:33
of how the Bible was written. God used the prophets as
3:36
mediums. So the prophets did not just get
3:40
a vague spiritual impression and then sit down to write out their
3:43
own human ideas about God. No, not at all.
3:46
God did the promising and the actual words came through the
3:49
prophets. I see, Lenski argues this is a
3:51
clear, undeniable case for verbal inspiration.
3:55
God enabled these men to transmit his words specifically
3:58
as He wanted them transmitted so they.
4:00
Were not mindless typewriters, but the output was entirely
4:03
divine, right? So Paul is basically saying I am
4:05
a slave to Christ and the message I am bringing you is the
4:08
strict fulfillment of what God spoke through the prophets.
4:11
Then he moves into describing Christ himself, laying out two
4:14
distinct states of Jesus's existence.
4:16
Yes. First, he describes the state of
4:19
humiliation where Christ is a descendant of David according to
4:22
the flesh. And second, the state of
4:25
exaltation, where He is declared the Son of God in omnipotence
4:28
according to the spirit of holiness by the resurrection.
4:31
We need to look closely at that phrase spirit of holiness,
4:34
because it trips up a lot of readers.
4:36
Yeah, I have seen a lot of debate on that.
4:38
Many older commentaries try to say this refers to the third
4:42
person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit.
4:43
Right, and others argue it refers exclusively to Christ's
4:47
divine nature. But Lenski looks at the parallel
4:50
structure Paul is building. How does that structure work?
4:53
Well, Christ came from David's seed according to the flesh,
4:57
meaning his human nature in its lowliness and weakness.
5:01
OK, that makes sense. Then he was ordained as God's
5:04
Son in might according to the spirit of holiness.
5:07
So Lenski interprets this as referring to the holy obedience
5:11
Christ rendered in his human nature.
5:13
Yes, from his conception all the way to his death on the cross.
5:16
Because of that perfect, unstained obedience, God exalted
5:20
him through the resurrection. That sets up the theological
5:23
framework beautifully. Because Christ rendered perfect
5:26
obedience, Paul now has a specific objective for his
5:30
apostleship. He says his goal is to bring
5:32
about the obedience of faith among all nations.
5:35
But Lensky is adamant that obedience of faith is a single
5:38
concept. Right, it is a compound idea,
5:40
not 2 separate actions. Why does Lensky stress that
5:44
obedience of faith is a single concept rather than two separate
5:47
actions? This is where we hit the core of
5:49
Reformed theology. Faith itself is the obedience
5:52
God requires. So it is not a two step process
5:55
where you believe the facts of the gospel 1st and then later
5:58
you add your own moral obedience to it in order to finally
6:02
satisfy God. No.
6:04
The gospel calls on you to acknowledge and appropriate it.
6:07
Doing that, trusting the promise, is the essential act of
6:10
submission. It is entirely non synergistic.
6:12
Wait, hold on. If God is the one doing the
6:14
saving and faith itself is the only required obedience, but we
6:18
also believe that faith is a gift from God, doesn't that make
6:21
us just robots? That is a very common reaction.
6:24
I mean, if faith is entirely an operation of God, where is human
6:27
agency? How does Lenski counter the
6:30
argument that this turns humans into unthinking machines?
6:33
That is the classic objection. Lenski tackles it by looking at
6:37
the nature of the gospel itself. God does not force compliance
6:41
like a programmer typing Cund into a machine.
6:43
So how does he do it? He uses a means of grace, the
6:46
Word. When the gospel is proclaimed,
6:49
it carries the Holy Spirit's efficacy within it.
6:52
Oh, I see. It works on the human will,
6:54
eliminating the darkened mind and softening the hard heart.
6:57
Exactly. You are not a robot, you are a
6:59
corpse being resurrected. A dead man doesn't cooperate in
7:03
his own resurrection. Right.
7:04
But once he is made alive, he breathes, He sees, he believes.
7:09
The faith is your act of trusting.
7:11
But the generation of that faith is 100% God's work.
7:15
So you are entirely passive in your justification, but you are
7:18
highly active in the trusting that flows from it, yes.
7:21
That is a massive distinction. You are not a robot, you are a
7:24
corpse being given breath. And once Paul lays out this
7:27
grand, sweeping introduction, he shifts his tone.
7:30
He does. He moves from high theology to
7:32
intense personal affection. He has never been to Rome.
7:36
He did not plant this church, yet he thanks God that their
7:40
faith is proclaimed in the whole world.
7:42
You have to appreciate the historical context here.
7:44
The fact that a congregation of believers flourished in the very
7:48
capital of the Pagan empire, right under the nose of Caesar,
7:52
was incredible news. It must have encouraged
7:55
Christians everywhere. Absolutely, Paul tells them.
7:58
He unceasingly makes mention of them in his prayers, always
8:01
asking if somehow, in the will of God, he will finally get to
8:04
visit them. He says he wants to impart some
8:06
spiritual gift to them, but he uses a very specific word to
8:10
describe his goal, some pericothani.
8:12
Yes, which means to be jointly comforted.
8:15
This highlights a beautiful humility in the apostle.
8:18
He intends to strengthen them with his Apostolic teaching, but
8:21
he fully expects that their faith will also strengthen him.
8:25
The comfort is mutual. The Greek prefix sin implies
8:28
together with. He is looking forward to the
8:31
cheering mutual contact of their faith and his own.
8:34
But Paul also reveals another motivation for wanting to visit
8:37
Rome. He describes himself as a debtor
8:40
to both Greeks and Barbarians, to both the wise and the
8:43
foolish. He says he owes them the Gospel
8:46
and he intends to reap some fruit in Rome, just as he has in
8:49
other leases now. Usually paying off a debt leaves
8:51
a person with less You empty your bank account to pay off a
8:54
mortgage and your net worth goes down.
8:56
That is usually how it works, yes.
8:58
But Paul's Apostolic debt leaves him richer in fruit.
9:02
How does that paradox work? This brings us to the economy of
9:05
grace, which operates on a totally different Ledger than
9:08
human finances. OK, break that down for us.
9:11
Paul's obligation, his debt, was placed on him by Christ on the
9:14
road to Damascus. He was commissioned to preach to
9:17
the Gentiles. Woe to him if he does not preach
9:20
the gospel. But paying this specific debt
9:23
does not bankrupt him. No, delivering the message
9:26
fulfills his obligation while simultaneously gathering souls.
9:30
Those souls are the fruit which enriches the global Church and
9:32
brings immense joy to the Apostle himself.
9:35
And it is interesting how he views the audience in Rome.
9:39
To the rest of the world, Rome was the absolute pinnacle of
9:42
human civilization, culture and dominance.
9:45
But Linsky points out that to Paul, Rome was simply another
9:49
field of human souls. He divides them into the exact
9:52
same 2 categories found everywhere else on Earth.
9:54
The cultured Greeks and the uncultured Barbarians, The wise
9:58
and the foolish. Paul strips away the imperial
10:00
mystique. He knows that a Roman senator
10:03
and a barbarian slave share the exact same terminal disease, and
10:07
they desperately need the exact same cure.
10:10
Which brings us to the moment Paul drops the thesis statement
10:13
of his entire letter. He knows he is holding onto a
10:16
message that completely upends all of that cultural arrogance.
10:19
He is looking at this massive, intimidating empire and he
10:22
writes, I am not ashamed of the gospel.
10:25
Which is a brilliant use of Leto's a deliberate
10:27
understatement. You're right, Paul is actually
10:29
immensely proud of the Gospel. When you consider Paul, a
10:32
provincial Jewish man from Tarsus, bringing a message about
10:35
a crucified Carpenter to the center of global dominance, the
10:38
natural human response would be hesitation or embarrassment.
10:42
But Paul towers above Rome's grandeur because he knows what
10:46
the gospel actually is. It is not just a philosophy, it
10:50
is God saving strength. He calls it God saving strength
10:53
for everyone, believing to the Jew 1st and also to the Greek.
10:56
Now people often get confused by the word first there is he
11:00
talking about a chronological timeline?
11:02
Lenski is quick to correct that misconception.
11:05
The word first here proton in Greek, is comparative, not
11:09
strictly temporal. So it is not about a timeline
11:12
where Jews get the gospel for a few years and then Gentiles
11:15
finally get a turn. Not at all.
11:16
Paul is singling out the two highest classes of people in his
11:20
cultural context. The Jew, who possesses the Old
11:23
Testament law and the covenants, and the Greek who possesses high
11:26
cultural philosophy and worldly wisdom.
11:28
Yes, Paul is saying that even the most elevated, privileged
11:31
humans have absolutely no advantage when it comes to
11:34
salvation. They need the gospel just as
11:36
much as anyone else. And they access it the exact
11:38
same way, by believing. And then we hit the absolute
11:41
core of our Reformed faith. This is the verse that started
11:44
the Reformation. Paul says that in the gospel the
11:47
righteousness of God is revealed.
11:49
The Greek phrase is decayos in Theo.
11:54
We view this as a forensic judicial verdict.
11:57
It is entirely fatal to Christian doctrine to eliminate
12:00
the forensic idea from this word.
12:02
By his verdict, God the Judge in heaven, pronounces the believer
12:06
righteous. He places the believer into the
12:09
status of righteousness. This has nothing to do with our
12:11
internal moral progress. It is not a righteousness that
12:15
we slowly generate over a lifetime of good deeds.
12:18
It is God's own perfect righteousness, credited to our
12:20
account by His verdict, the instant faith is kindled in us.
12:24
This goes back to our courtroom metaphor from the beginning.
12:26
It is like a judges gavel falling.
12:29
The gavel slams down and it officially clears the
12:31
defendant's record, completely disregarding their past crimes.
12:34
The record is wiped clean. The person is declared legally
12:38
innocent even if they were guilty a second beforehand.
12:40
But Paul adds a phrase that trips people up.
12:42
He says this righteousness is revealed.
12:44
Ek pistas E piston out of faith unto faith.
12:47
Yes, that is a dense phrase. If faith is just receiving the
12:51
gavel strike, what does that phrase mean in practice?
12:54
Lenski strongly guards against any synergism here.
12:58
How does this align with our Reformed understanding of faith?
13:02
Lenski is brilliant on this specific point because he
13:05
fiercely guards against any creeping synergism.
13:08
The gospel itself generates the trust it demands.
13:11
So when Paul says the revelation occurs out of faith, he means
13:15
the saving revelation of God's righteousness never occurs
13:18
unless faith is present. But as we discussed earlier,
13:21
that faith is an operation of God, we do not meet God halfway.
13:25
God, through the gospel message, creates the faith in our passive
13:29
hearts. He Kindles it.
13:31
Then this righteousness is directed unto faith, meaning the
13:33
verdict is intended solely for the believer to possess.
13:36
This seems like a good place to pause and distinguish between
13:39
objective reconciliation and personal justification, because
13:42
confusing those two creates massive theological problems.
13:45
I agree the distinction is vital.
13:46
Objective reconciliation was accomplished historically
13:49
entirely outside of us at the cross.
13:51
When Christ died, the sins of the whole world were paid for.
13:55
The world was objectively reconciled to God.
13:58
That is a finished fact. But personal justification that
14:01
forensic verdict of righteous is applied to the individual only
14:05
in the instant faith is kindled by the gospel.
14:08
No Sinner is declared righteous by God, saved by faith alone.
14:12
The cross paid the debt. Faith is the empty hand that
14:15
receives the receipt. And Paul backs up this radical
14:18
claim by quoting the Old Testament.
14:19
He quotes Habakkuk chapter 2, verse 4.
14:22
The righteous shall live by faith.
14:24
He does this to prove that this is not a new invention.
14:27
The Old Testament Saints were saved specifically the same way.
14:30
The ancient prophet and the New Testament Apostle are in perfect
14:33
agreement, and notice the sequence of events in that
14:36
quote. It is not that a man is
14:38
pronounced righteous, then he takes a few days to generate
14:40
faith, and then he finally receives eternal life.
14:43
No, all three are simultaneous. The pronouncement, the faith,
14:46
and the life all happened in the precise same instant, and they
14:49
all come purely from God. OK, so Paul has established this
14:52
glorious mechanism of forensic justification.
14:55
The gavel falls and we are saved.
14:58
But that naturally begs a massive question.
15:00
Right. Why do we need this gavel to
15:02
fall in the 1st place? Why is this forensic
15:04
justification so desperately needed by humanity?
15:07
And Paul answers that immediately because human beings
15:11
are facing a catastrophic legal problem, divine wrath.
15:15
This is where the text turns very dark and Paul's diagnosis
15:19
of the human condition becomes terrifying.
15:21
He writes that God's wrath or Theo is constantly revealed from
15:25
heaven against all ungodliness, A sabia and unrighteousness
15:29
addictia. I think when modern people hear
15:32
the phrase wrath of God, they picture a frustrated deity
15:35
losing his temper. Yeah, like a human father who
15:38
finally snaps after the kids won't stop yelling in the
15:40
backseat of the car. Which is a complete
15:42
misunderstanding of the divine nature.
15:44
God's wrath is not a sudden, uncontrolled emotional outburst.
15:48
It is the constant, settled, unchanging reaction of His
15:51
absolute holiness to sin. God cannot tolerate evil any
15:54
more than light can tolerate darkness.
15:57
His wrath is the necessary legal response to human rebellion.
16:00
And what does that rebellion look like?
16:02
Paul says that men actively suppress the truth and
16:04
unrighteousness. The Greek word katakin means to
16:08
hold down or suppress. Usually people use the analogy
16:11
of trying to hold a beach ball underwater.
16:14
You push it down, but it keeps wanting to pop up to the
16:17
surface. But honestly, looking at the
16:19
sheer weight of what Paul is describing here, a beach ball
16:22
feels too innocent. It really does.
16:25
It feels more like a person living in a house where the fire
16:28
alarm is absolutely blaring, the smoke is filling the room, and
16:32
instead of running out the front door, this person spends all
16:35
their energy buying acoustic foam and soundproofing the wall
16:39
so they can sit on the couch and pretend there is no fire.
16:41
Wow, yeah. It is deliberate, exhausting and
16:44
completely self-destructive. That is a much more accurate
16:47
picture of the Greek word cata chain.
16:49
The alarm is deafening, but humanity refuses to leave the
16:52
burning building. And Lenski frames this this as
16:55
an inescapable either or proposition based on natural
16:58
theology. Because of the things God has
17:00
made the visible universe, his invisible attributes,
17:03
specifically His everlasting might and divinity, are clearly
17:07
perceived by the human mind. Men have a natural theology
17:10
thrust upon them by creation itself.
17:13
You look at the stars, you look at the complexity of biology,
17:16
and the fire alarm goes off. There is a creator.
17:19
So when confronted with this blaring alarm, what are the
17:22
options? If creation so clearly points to
17:24
God, why is the human reaction to suppress it rather than
17:28
embrace it? Humans have two choices.
17:32
They must either abandoned their sin and bow to the God who made
17:35
them, or they must suppress the truth to keep their sin.
17:38
Because of total depravity, humanity uniformly chooses the
17:42
sin. They would rather burn in the
17:44
house than submit to the. Owner They strangle the
17:46
disquieting voice of their own conscience because acknowledging
17:49
God would mean acknowledging his moral authority over their
17:53
lives. They want to live however they
17:54
want, and God's existence is a massive inconvenience to that
17:57
lifestyle, so they nail the soundproofing to the wall.
18:00
Because of this general revelation in nature, Paul
18:03
concludes that humanity is without excuse.
18:05
And Linski has a very specific linguistic note on the grammar
18:08
of that phrase. Is to being without excuse.
18:10
Yes, some commentators try to soften the blow here by saying
18:14
God's purpose in creation was to leave men without excuse.
18:18
They try to make it sound like a hypothetical legal setup, but
18:21
Lenski argues the grammar indicates actual result.
18:24
It is not just a purpose, it is a historical and present fact.
18:29
No man can stand before the judge's bench on the last day
18:32
and say, well, I lacked the evidence.
18:34
You hid yourself from me. I needed a sign.
18:37
The evidence is overwhelming. The universe itself is the
18:39
evidence. But suppressing the truth does
18:41
not leave the human mind in a neutral state.
18:44
When you ignore the fire alarm and stay in the burning house,
18:47
things get messy very quickly. Paul describes A downward spiral
18:51
into idolatry. He writes that despite knowing
18:54
God, humans refused to glorify him or give him thanks.
18:58
Lenski points out that this is a conjunctive or they failed in
19:00
both categories. To glorify God is to recognize
19:04
who He is in His nature. To give thanks is to recognize
19:08
what He gives to us in His Providence.
19:09
Humanity refused both acknowledgments.
19:11
They took the gifts and ignored the giver.
19:13
And the result of that refusal is an intellectual collapse,
19:19
Paul says. Their reasons became empty
19:21
Dilaismoy, and their senseless hearts were darkened.
19:25
They profess to be wise, but they became utter fools.
19:28
When men rationalize away the true God, their reasoning loses
19:32
its anchor. It reaches no valid goal.
19:35
The heart, which in biblical terms is the center of
19:38
personality, intellect, and will, become senseless.
19:42
It loses actual comprehension of reality.
19:44
They boast about their high philosophies, their advanced
19:47
cultures, but Paul looks at all of it and calls it precisely
19:50
what it is. Silly.
19:52
The ultimate silliness is what they trade God for, Paul says.
19:55
They traded the glory of the incorruptible God for image
19:58
likenesses of corruptible man, birds, 4 footed animals and
20:01
creeping things. Think about how absurd that is.
20:04
It is like a person inheriting A priceless estate, a sprawling
20:07
mansion with acres of land, and they trade the actual legal deed
20:10
for a child's crayon drawing of a mud Hut.
20:13
You look at that transaction and think, how could anyone be so
20:16
foolish? The psychology of idolatry that
20:18
Lenski extracts from the text here is highly revealing.
20:21
When humans reject the true Creator, they do not actually
20:25
become atheists in practice. The human heart is wired for
20:28
worship. It has to worship something.
20:31
So if they reject the creator, they elevate the creature.
20:34
They fabricate gods that are lower than themselves.
20:37
Why? Because a statue of a bird or a
20:40
creeping thing does not issue moral commands.
20:42
Right. It does not demand faith,
20:44
obedience, It doesn't judge you. By trading the incorruptible God
20:48
for a corruptible idol, they get a deity they can manage and
20:51
control. But they demonstrate the sheer
20:53
darkness of their own minds in the process.
20:55
Which is terrifying. You build a God out of woods so
20:58
it won't talk back to you. But the story gets even darker.
21:01
Because humanity traded the truth for a lie, God responds,
21:06
but his wrath is manifested here, not in fire and brimstone
21:09
falling from the sky, but in a terrifying judicial abandonment.
21:13
Three times in this subsequent section of text, Paul uses the
21:16
Greek word Paraducan. God gave them up.
21:19
This is a judicial handing over. It is not just God passively
21:22
allowing them to wander off into the woods.
21:24
It is God as a righteous judge actively handing them over to
21:27
their own self destruction. The Sinner essentially says I
21:30
want my sin more than I want you.
21:33
God eventually says you may have it and you will suffer all the
21:35
inherent consequences that come with it.
21:37
The scariest punishment is not a lightning strike.
21:40
It is God simply taking His hands off the steering wheel,
21:44
removing His common grace, and letting humanity drive itself
21:48
off the Cliff. Paul outlines 3 distinct
21:51
handings over. Let's look at the first one.
21:53
God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to uncleanness,
21:57
dishonouring their own bodies. Notice the progression.
22:00
Lenski highlights that God finds them in their internal lusts and
22:04
hands them over to the external realization of that uncleanness.
22:08
They worship the creature passing right by the Creator, so
22:10
God let their bodies reflect their internal degradation.
22:13
And the second handing over follows right on its heels.
22:16
God gave them up to passions of dishonor.
22:19
Females and males exchanged natural sexual relations for
22:23
unnatural ones. Now, looking strictly at the
22:25
text in Lenski's linguistic analysis, Paul points out that
22:28
these actions carry an inherent physical and mental recompense.
22:32
Alinski notes that Paul views these actions as a direct
22:35
violation of nature itself a physical aberration.
22:38
The text explicitly states that the practitioners receive in
22:42
themselves the due penalty for their error.
22:44
The judgement here is that the sin acts as its own punishment,
22:48
degrading the individuals who abandoned the natural biological
22:51
order God established in creation.
22:53
Then we reach the third hand, handing over the final stage of
22:56
the spiral. God gave them up to a reprobate
22:59
mind and the document noun. Because they disapproved of God,
23:03
God gave them a disapproved mind, a mind that cannot pass a
23:06
basic moral test. A mind that cannot distinguish
23:09
between up and down, right and wrong.
23:11
This leads to Paul's famous catalog of 21 vices.
23:14
Lenski shows how these are organized into four rhetorical
23:17
groups. Her first general traits like
23:20
unrighteousness, wickedness, covetousness, baseness.
23:22
Then a group characterized as full of envy, murder, strife,
23:25
cunning, malevolence. Then active social destroyers
23:28
like whisperers, slanderers, haters of God, insolent,
23:32
haughty, boastful inventors of cruelties.
23:35
Finally, relational breakdowns. Disobedient to parents,
23:38
senseless, faithless, loveless, merciless.
23:40
I want to stop on that list for a second because it is easy to
23:43
just read past it. You have things like murder,
23:45
strife and inventing evil. And right in the middle, Paul
23:49
lists being disobedient to parents.
23:51
That seems like a strange leap. How do we get from rejecting the
23:54
creator of the universe to kids disobeying their moms and dads?
23:58
What is the causal link there? It makes perfect sense when you
24:01
understand the mechanics of a reprobate mind.
24:03
What is a parent? A parent is the first, most
24:07
immediate representative of authority and order a human
24:10
being encounters in life. When a society collectively
24:13
decides to suppress the truth of the ultimate authority, God, the
24:17
entire concept of given authority crumbles.
24:19
If the universe is just a cosmic accident and I am my own God,
24:23
then why should I submit to the man and woman who raised me?
24:26
The loss of a transcendent creator dissolves the absolute
24:29
basis for human empathy, social hierarchy, and family order.
24:33
Lenski argues that these vices are not tandem.
24:36
They are the logical, inescapable outworking of a mind
24:39
that has severed its connection to reality.
24:41
When you reject the truth at the top, the rot spreads all the way
24:45
down to the dinner table. That is incredibly sobering.
24:48
When the mind is reprobate, the ties that bind humanity
24:51
together, truth, mercy, family structure, they dissolve
24:56
completely. And then Paul delivers the final
24:58
crushing blow. He writes about the ultimate
25:01
level of guilt. These people know God's
25:04
righteous ordinance, his de Chioma, that such actions
25:07
deserve death. Yeah, they not only commit these
25:10
acts, they applaud others who do them.
25:12
If doing the evil is bad enough, what is the significance of the
25:15
final verse where Paul highlights that people applaud
25:18
the practitioners of evil? The applause validates the sin.
25:21
It represents the final, most hardened layer of a callous
25:24
conscience. The Sinner at this stage is not
25:27
just failing through weakness. They are not momentarily
25:30
slipping into temptation and feeling remorse afterward.
25:33
They're actively organizing a rebellion by applauding others.
25:36
They seek solidarity and their rejection of God's legal
25:39
ordinance. They are building a community of
25:41
rebellion to insulate themselves from the dread of divine
25:44
justice. If everyone is doing it, and
25:46
everyone is cheering for it, they can temporarily convince
25:49
themselves that the fire alarm isn't actually ringing.
25:52
Exactly. I mean, absolutely.
25:54
It is a desperate coping mechanism.
25:56
OK, let's pull all of this together.
25:57
If you are listening to this on your commute or while you were
26:00
working around the house, you might be feeling the sheer
26:03
weight of what we just covered. We started at the absolute
26:06
heights of God's forensic justification.
26:09
The glorious reality that God the Judge declares the Sinner
26:12
righteous through the non synergistic gift of faith.
26:15
The gavel falls and our record is wiped clean by Christ's
26:19
obedience. But then we stared straight into
26:22
the abyss of human depravity. We saw how humanity suppresses
26:26
the truth, trading the majesty of the Creator for the absurdity
26:29
of idols. And we saw the terrifying
26:31
consequence, God's judicial abandonment, the removal of his
26:34
restraining grace, leading to a reprobate mind and a society
26:37
that claps for its own destruction.
26:39
It is a dark, devastating diagnosis of the human
26:42
condition. But it is precisely this
26:44
darkness that makes the light of the Gospel so necessary.
26:48
If we are completely incapable of producing our own
26:50
righteousness, if our natural total inclination is to suppress
26:54
the truth and run further into the burning building, then a
26:58
righteousness that comes entirely from God out of faith
27:01
unto faith is our only hope. Lensky's rigorous attention to
27:05
the text shows us that bully is absolutely no room for human
27:08
boasting. Every single part of salvation
27:12
must be an act of divine grace, because humans bring nothing to
27:15
the table but they're sin. And as we close, we want to
27:18
leave you with something to consider.
27:19
We spent a lot of time talking about natural theology and the
27:22
evidence of creation. Lensky notes throughout this
27:25
commentary that the entire visible creation stands as a
27:28
constant, inescapable witness to God's nature.
27:31
His everlasting might and divinity are on display every
27:34
single second of the day. Which leaves you with a pressing
27:37
question for your own life. Does your daily routine numb you
27:40
to this physical reality? As you go to work, as you walk
27:43
outside, do you just see background scenery?
27:45
Or do you view every sunrise, every thunderstorm, and every
27:48
single law of physics as an active, unavoidable legal
27:52
summons from the Creator calling you to the obedience of faith?
27:56
Because that is the reality Paul presents.
27:58
Creation is not just a backdrop, it is a testimony.
28:01
It really is. Thank you for joining us for
28:03
this deep dive into the source material.
28:05
We will see you next time on Reform Thinking.