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The Gospel Power That Saves Sinners (Romans 1) | Matthew Poole · Reformed Thinking

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Imagine standing in front of like a massive collapsing
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skyscraper. Oh wow, OK, setting a scene
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right off the bat. Yeah, I mean, the glass is
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shattering, the steel beams are groaning, and the whole concrete
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structure is cracking right down the middle.
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Sounds terrifying. It is, but you know when a
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physical building falls apart, there is at least a certain
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mechanical clarity to it. Like an engineer can walk up,
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point a flashlight at a rusted support strut and say there is
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the flaw, that is why the whole thing came down.
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Right, because it is physical, it is visible, it is completely
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clean. Yeah, we like failures to be
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tangible like that because tangibility means we can easily
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categorize the problem and, well, isolate it.
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It gives us a sense of control, you know, like if we can see the
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rested steel, we know we can replace the rested steel, We
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know how to fix it. Precisely.
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But then you step away from architecture and you look at the
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collapse of human morality. That is a hard pivot.
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Right. You look at the spiritual decay
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of a society, or even just the the slow, quiet fracturing of a
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single human soul, and suddenly that diagnostic scanner is
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completely useless. The blueprints are just.
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Gone. Gone.
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You are staring into this murky, terrifying landscape of human
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behavior. Try and figure out where the
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cracks even started. Which is, I mean, the absolute
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definition of diagnostic. Muddy Waters.
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Trying to trace the origin point of human corruption is something
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philosophers and historians have lost sleep over for.
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Welcome to Reform Thinking. We have a custom tailor deep
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dive lined up for you today. We are pulling the core insights
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from an absolute heavyweight of a historical text, which is
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Matthew Poole's commentary on the 1st chapter of Romans.
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It is quite the document. It really is.
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So, OK, let's unpack this. We are looking at a text with
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staggering magnitude. I mean, this commentary outlines
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the absolute necessity of divine grace, and it sets that grace
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right against the stark, brutal backdrop of total human failure.
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What's fascinating here is that this single chapter of an
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ancient letter contains both the highest theological peaks and
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the darkest psychological valleys of the ancient world.
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Yeah, it covers so much ground. It does, and our goal for you
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today is to analyze how this specific text completely
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dismantles human pride. We are going to look at the
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mechanics of imputed righteousness, and we are going
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to chart the terrifying descent of human rebellion.
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Which is a brilliant, unsparing look at the human condition that
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feels honestly, uncomfortably relevant right now.
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Yeah, highly relevant. So let's start the very
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beginning of the letter with what I look at as a radical
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rebranding of the Apostle Paul. Oh I like that term rebranding.
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Yeah, because in verse one Paul opens by claiming the title
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servant of Jesus Christ. Now, to modern ears, a servant
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is a lowly position. Right, it sounds like a
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demotion. Exactly, but the commentary
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points out a massive irony in the historical context here.
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In the ancient world, emperors and great monarchs would
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actually style themselves as vassals to the gods.
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Oh, right, because they wanted to be seen as the ultimate
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subjects to the divine. Yeah, so by taking the title of
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servant to Christ, Paul is actually claiming a status
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higher than being the monarch of the entire world.
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He is bypassing Caesar entirely. That is such a bold move and the
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specific word used carries immense weight.
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I mean, Paul is not positioning himself as a a casual volunteer
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or someone who just, you know, agreed with a philosophy.
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It wasn't a hobby for him. No, not at all.
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He is identifying himself in direct relation to his singular
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miraculous conversion. He was so obligated to Christ
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that he wholly devoted his entire existence to that
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specific duty. But he does not stop his
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servant, does he? No, he immediately moves.
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To the astonishment of his vocation.
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He says he was called to be an apostle.
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And Poole makes it very clear this was not some sort of
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promotion he earned, like he didn't work his way up the
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corporate ladder of the early church.
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No, he really didn't. It was a sheer gift, which is
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shocking when you consider his resume.
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Precisely. Poole references an old proverb
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from Israel. Is Saul also among the prophets?
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You see that in the Old Testament when King Saul, who
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was not exactly known for his piety, unexpectedly begins
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prophesying. Right.
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And people were just stunned by that.
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Yeah. And Poole applies that directly
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to Paul, whose Hebrew name was also Saul.
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Of course, he says. We might ask with great
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astonishment, is Saul also among the apostles?
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Because his history was a literal nightmare for the people
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he's now leading. He was a violent, state
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sponsored persecutor. He dragged families out of their
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homes. It was the bad guy.
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He was. Anyone who had seen him
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operating in Jerusalem would never have dreamed he would hold
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the highest office in the very movement he was trying to
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exterminate. It's a complete inversion of
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expectations. And that background brings us to
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a highly specific detail regarding the word separated.
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He writes that he was separated into the Gospel of God.
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Yeah, I was looking at that word.
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When I hear separated, my mind immediately goes to isolation,
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like a monk going off to live in a cave in the desert somewhere.
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Was Paul just saying he was retreating from society?
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Not at all. It is actually a highly
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intentional play on words. It alludes directly to Paul's
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former life as a Pharisee. Oh, really?
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How so? Well, the very name Pharisee in
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Hebrew is derived from a root word meaning to separate.
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Wow, OK, I didn't know that. Yeah, so before his conversion,
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Paul was a Pharisee of the Pharisees, meaning he was
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entirely separated to the law. He lived his life setting
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himself apart from the general population based on strict,
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meticulous legalistic adherence. So he was the ultimate rule
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follower. Right.
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But now, as a Christian, he is separated to the gospel of God.
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So the intense dedication is still there, but the object of
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his devotion has shifted 180°. He went from being obsessed with
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the law to being consumed by the good news.
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That is a brilliant linguistic flip.
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It really is, yeah. But even with that background,
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he immediately has to deal with critics.
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People are always suspicious of new things, right?
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Paul anticipates objections from people claiming this whole
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Christian movement is just some sort of novelty.
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We see that same suspicion today.
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If a religious movement is brand new, people assume it is a cult
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or a scam. But Paul cuts off that claim of
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novelty right in verse 2 by rooting his message firmly in
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the Old Testament prophets. He insists this is not a modern
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invention. He just cooked up on the road to
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Damascus. Right.
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He didn't just invent it out of thin air.
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No, the history of the Gospel was foreshadowed centuries
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prior. Jesus Christ, with all the
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benefits he brings, was promised by those whom God conversed with
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familiarly in the past. There is a total seamless
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harmony between the Old and New Testaments.
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He's basically saying I am not bringing you a new religion, I
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am bringing you the completion of the oldest promises we have.
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Spot on. And then he gets into the core
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of what that completion looks like in verses 3 and 4, dealing
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with the two natures of Christ. Let me try an analogy here.
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Go for it. Think about that massive
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skyscraper again. You have the visible structure,
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the glass, the steel, the lobby. That is the part you can walk up
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to and touch. But then you have the invisible
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foundation, the bedrock it sits on deep underground that
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actually holds the whole thing up.
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OK, I follow you. So the commentary describes
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Christ as made of the seed of David according to the flesh,
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which is that visible human lineage.
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You can trace his family tree, but then it contrasts that with
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declared to be the Son of God with DI and potency according to
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the spirit of holiness. That analogy holds up really
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well in regard to his human nature, his manhood.
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He was made, He was born into the lineage of the Virgin Mary,
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the seed of David, but in regard to his divine subsistence, he
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was eternal. Right.
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And Poole clarifies A crucial theological distinction here
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regarding his resurrection. The resurrection did not make
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him the Son of God. Right, because if the
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resurrection made him divine, that would be adoptionism.
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Yes, exactly. The idea that he was just a
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spectacularly good regular guy who earned divine status by
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passing a test. Correct, which is a massive
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error. The text strictly opposes the
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resurrection miraculously demonstrated him to be the Son
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of God. It was the ultimate public
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vindication of his internal identity.
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So it was proof, not a promotion.
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Yes, the divine nature called here the Spirit of Holiness,
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sanctified His natural body and showed the entire world His
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omnipotent majesty. He was already the Son of God.
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The resurrection was the indisputable proof.
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OK, so Paul establishes his own radical credentials.
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He roofs his message in ancient prophecies to prove it is not a
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fad, and he centers everything on the dual nature of Christ.
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That is a very solid opening argument.
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It is. Now let's look at who he is
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actually writing this letter to. He is addressing believers
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sitting right in the capital of the Roman Empire.
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The absolute epicenter of the known world at that time.
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And here is a historical nugget from the text that actually
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surprised me. You would assume a letter
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written to the Romans living in Rome would be written in Latin.
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That would be the logical assumption, yeah.
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But the commentary points out that it was originally written
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in Greek. Rome was a highly cosmic
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cinemapolitan city, a total melting pot.
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I love the quote the text brings in from the ancient Roman poet
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Juvenile. He complained and called Rome a
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Greek city because the inhabitants, native Romans and
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immigrants alike, widely used and understood Greek.
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It was a trade language. It highlights how universally
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accessible Paul wanted this document to be.
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He was writing to all the faithful there.
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Jews and Gentiles bond and free. Everyone could understand it.
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That makes a lot of sense. And addressing the believers in
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Rome brings up verse 8 where Paul says their faith is spoken
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of throughout the whole world. Which leads to a massive
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historical and theological dispute.
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It does indeed. Poole impartially reports a
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significant theological critique regarding the specific phrase.
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Proponents of the Roman Catholic view historically use this verse
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to claim that Rome is the mother Church, you know, the supreme
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authority over all other churches simply because Paul
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says its faith was famous worldwide.
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Right, they point to that fame as proof of hierarchy.
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But Poole's text refutes this assertion by looking at the
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broader biblical context. How does he walk through that
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argument? Well, he points out that the
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church in Thessalonica receive the exact same high praise from
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Paul. In his letter to them, Paul
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wrote to the Thessalonians that their faith was also spoken of
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everywhere. Oh, interesting, so it wasn't
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exclusive to Rome. No, it wasn't.
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Therefore, geographical fame or widespread reputation does not
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equate to structural supremacy. Just because people are talking
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about your faith across the empire does not mean you hold
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jurisdictional authority over every other congregation.
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That makes perfect logical sense.
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You can't claim exclusive supremacy based on a compliment
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that was literally also given to someone else.
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Right, the logic just falls apart there.
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But what really stands out to me in this section is Paul's
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attitude toward these Roman believers.
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In verses 11 and 12 he talks about his deep desire to visit
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them. Now you would expect a guy with
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his Apostolic credentials writing to the capital city to
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take a top down authoritarian approach.
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You would think so. Like I am the apostle, I'm
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coming to audit your theology and fix your problems.
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Exactly. But instead, he says he wants to
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be comforted by them. It is this beautiful concept of
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mutual faith. He's like a world renowned
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tenured professor hoping to sit down in a room full of freshman
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students and actually learn something from their
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perspective. That mutual edification is a
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brilliant concept. Poole notes that the most
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ordinary of Christ members can contribute to the edifying even
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of an apostle. That is so humbling.
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It is. The commentary references the
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Apostle John in his second epistle, where John expresses
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hope to be quickened and comforted by the graces of a
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woman and her children. Wow.
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Yeah, it shows that true spiritual comfort springs from
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the common faith they share, not from hierarchical status.
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Paul is not above receiving encouragement from the people he
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is meant to lead. But he hasn't been able to visit
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them yet. He says he was let hitherto,
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which is an old way of saying hindered.
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Right, blocked from going. Yeah, he mentions hindrances by
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Satan, by the spirit disposing of him to work elsewhere, or by
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his own physical infirmities, or even the urgent necessities of
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other churches. And then he says something
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striking in verse 14. He calls himself a debtor to
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both Greeks and Barbarians. Now I hear debtor and I
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instantly think of a financial loan.
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What does it mean that Paul considers himself in debt to
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people he has never even met? He owes them the gospel.
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He owes them. Yeah, Poole explains this
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obligation very clearly. Preaching was not some arbitrary
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favor Paul was handing out from his own goodwill.
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It wasn't charity. It was a bound duty assigned to
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him by God. He was entrusted with massive
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spiritual talents, and he owed the return on those talents to
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the nations. He divides all nations into
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Greeks and Barbarians, the educated and the uneducated,
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showing that this message is adapted to absolutely everyone.
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He feels a crushing weight of responsibility to, you know,
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deliver the mail, so to speak. So since Paul is a debtor to
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preach, what is this message he is so eager to bring to the
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center of the civilized world? Let's look at verse 16.
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He says he is not ashamed of the gospel of Christ.
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Which is a huge statement in that culture.
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Right, the commentary notes a sharp, almost dangerous contrast
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here. The gospel, which centers on a
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crucified Carpenter from a backwater province, looks like
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absolute foolishness to carnal Roman eyes.
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Yeah, Rome respects power. They respect military might, the
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eagle conquering armies. And Paul is bringing them an
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instrument of state execution. Yet he is bringing it to the
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most splendid, powerful city on earth without flinching.
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He doesn't shrink back because he understands the true nature
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of the message. The tact calls the gospel the
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efficacy of God unto salvation. Efficacy of God, yeah.
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Pool unpacks this by defining the gospel as an.
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Organical force. Organical force.
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Define that for the listener, because that is not a phrase we
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use every day. It means the Gospel is an
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ordained means to an end pool compares it to a medicine.
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OK, a medicine. Right, A medicine might have the
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chemical capability to cure a deadly disease, but it's
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completely useless if it just sits in the bottle on the shelf.
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Oh, obviously you have to actually take it.
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Exactly. It is only effective for those
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who actually receive it and apply it.
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The Gospel is offered to all, but it brings salvation only to
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those who apply it through faith.
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OK, here's where it gets really interesting.
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In verse 17, Paul talks about the righteousness of God.
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Now we have to pause here. When I hear the righteousness of
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God, my instinct is to think of God's own personal moral
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perfection, you know, his internal attribute of being
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holy. How does Poole define this
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specific phrase in this context? This raises what is arguably the
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most critical theological concept in the entire letter.
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The righteousness of God here does not refer to human
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righteousness. So it's not our goodness.
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No, it is not something we generate by trying really hard
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to be good people or by following a moral checklist.
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According to Poole, this righteousness is performed by
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the God man, Jesus Christ. It is accepted by God the Father
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because it is absolutely flawless.
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OK, and here is the mechanism. It is imputed to the believer.
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Imputed meaning credited to our account, like a legal or
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financial transaction where someone else's perfect record is
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suddenly placed over my bankrupt account.
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Yes, that is a great way to put it.
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We receive His righteousness just as He took on our sins
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through imputation on the cross. It is an exchange.
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A completely one sided exchange in our favor.
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Absolutely. It is the only righteousness God
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can look at and find no fault with.
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Poole stresses that the law of God discovers no such way of
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justifying A Sinner. Human reason and ancient
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philosophy cannot teach it. You cannot logic your way into
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imputation. Only the Gospel reveals it.
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And the text says this righteousness is revealed from
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faith to faith. That is a phrase that can
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definitely trip people up. Sounds circular.
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What does it actually mean? Poole offers a few variations on
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this to give it a robust meaning.
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First, it could mean from the faith of the Old Testament to
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the faith of the New Testament, showing the historical
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continuity of how God justifies people like.
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A progression through history. Right second, it could mean from
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a lesser faith to a greater faith, noting the natural growth
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and perfection of a believer over time as they mature.
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OK, that makes sense. Or third, perhaps most simply,
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it means that justification is wholly absolved by faith from
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start to finish. It is not moving from faith to
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works or from faith to law keeping, but strictly from faith
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to faith. To back this up, Paul quotes the
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Old Testament prophet Habakkuk. The just shall live by faith.
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But Poole points out a fascinating shadow here.
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Oh yes, the historical context of Habakkuk.
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Yeah, because if you read Habakkuk, he was originally
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talking about temporal preservation from the Babylonian
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captivity. The Babylonians were literally
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coming to destroy the city and Habakkuk said the just would
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survive by faith. How does that localized
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historical event connect to eternal salvation in Romans?
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This is a classic example of biblical typology.
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The physical Babylonian captivity figured or shadowed
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our spiritual bondage under sin and Satan.
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Well, the physical picture of a spiritual reality.
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Exactly. Habakkuk was saying that faith
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would preserve the Israelites through that specific temporal
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calamity. Paul takes that historical
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reality and elevates it to apply to our eternal deliverance.
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Wow, so the stakes get infinitely higher.
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They do, just as faith preserved them from the physical swords of
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the Babylonians, faith in Christ frees us from eternal spiritual
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destruction. The temporal physical rescue
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shadows the eternal spiritual rescue.
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Now, you listening to this right now might be wondering why Paul
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is spending so much time establishing this complicated
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mechanism of imputed righteousness.
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Why is it so desperately needed? It is a fair question.
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Because, as the text is about to make abundantly clear, humanity
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has absolutely no righteousness of its own.
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Not even a little bit. We're moving into the section
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regarding the imprisonment of truth.
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Verse 18 talks about the wrath of God being revealed from
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heaven and Poole. Is very careful to define this
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wrath. We often think of natural
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disasters or historical judgments as just random bad
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luck. You know, like, oh, that was
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unfortunate. Right, just a product of a
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chaotic universe. But plagues and judgments do not
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just spring out of the dust. They do not come by chance or
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originate strictly from second causes like weather patterns or
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political shifts. They proceed originally from
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God. But Poole notes an interesting
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grammatical structure in the Greek here, doesn't he?
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He does. Paul uses the abstract
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ungodliness and unrighteousness for the concrete.
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Meaning God targets the sin itself.
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He is not just, you know, throwing lightning bolts at
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people randomly. The Wrath is highly specific to
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the Rebellion. Spot on.
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The wrath is directed at those who hold the truth in
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unrighteousness. I really want to focus on that
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phrase, hold the truth, because when I hold something, usually I
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am possessing it like I'm holding a cup.
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But Poole uses a striking, almost violent metaphor here.
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He compares human beings to tyrants.
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He does. He says humans act like tyrants
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who oppress and imprison innocent people.
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Imprison the truth. Yes, humanity takes the natural
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knowledge of God, the baseline truth left in the human
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conscience since the fall, the common principles of equity and
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charity, and we literally imprison it.
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We suppress it wickedly so that we can send more securely.
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So we lock the truth in a dungeon because the truth is
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highly inconvenient to our desires.
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That is a phenomenal image. The truth is a hostage.
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We know what. Is right, but we put a gag on it
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and lock it in the basement so we do not have to listen to it
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while we go about our lives. But wait, let me push back on
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this because this is an argument you hear all the time.
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How can people be held accountable for suppressing the
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truth if they do not have the scriptures?
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The classic objection. Right.
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You might have someone living in a remote part of the ancient
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world saying, I never read the Bible, I never met a prophet,
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how could I possibly know any of this?
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Poole anticipates that exact defense.
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He points to what he calls the Book of the Creatures.
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The Book of the Creatures. Yeah, which is written in
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capital letters across the entire universe.
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Even without a single page of written law.
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The invisible attributes of God, His eternity, His Godhead, His
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almighty potency, are clearly seen in the visible creation.
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So by looking at what is made, anyone with a functioning brain
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can argue from the effects to the 'cause you see a painting,
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you know there is a painter. Exactly.
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God gave all people such undeniable means of knowledge
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that it suffices to leave them without excuse.
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Without excuse, that is a heavy verdict.
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It is. There is no valid pretense of
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ignorance. The evidence of a creator is so
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overwhelming in the physical structure of the world that to
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deny it requires an active, willful, exhausting suppression
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of basic reason. You have to work really hard to
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ignore it. So what does this all mean?
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If the truth is so glaringly obvious in The Stars and the
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seasons, how did humanity get it so incredibly wrong?
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We have to look at the folly of the philosophers and the anatomy
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of idolatry. Right verse 21 says they became
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vain in their imaginations. They knew God, but they failed
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to glorify Him or be thankful. Instead, they attributed reality
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to chance or fortune, or the influence of the stars.
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If we connect this to the bigger picture, we see the tragic irony
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of human intellect. Poole points directly at the
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ancient philosophers. The smartest guys in the room.
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Exactly. These were men who were
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secularly brilliant. They understood advanced
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mathematics, astronomy, rhetoric, architecture.
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Yet they became absolute fools in spiritual matters.
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They understood the mechanics of the creature perfectly, but they
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aired entirely concerning the creator.
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Yes, the commentary provides a highly specific historical
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detail here about Socrates that really, really brings this home.
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Socrates considered one of the wisest men of the ancient world,
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a core pillar of Western thought.
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Right. But Poole notes that with his
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dying breath after drinking the hemlock, Socrates asked his
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friends to offer a rooster to the false God Esculapius.
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Wow, so even at the very end. It perfectly demonstrates Paul's
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point. Even the absolute pinnacle of
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human wisdom, when disconnected from divine revelation, ends in
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rank superstitious idolatry. They set up puppets and idols of
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their own devising in the room of the true God.
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They changed the glory of the incorruptible God into images
22:27
made like corruptible man, birds, beasts and creeping
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things. Which is just absurd when you
22:32
think about it rationally. But surely these ancient people
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knew a block of wood wasn't actually the creator of the
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universe, right? I mean, the Roman senator wasn't
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that naive. They knew his statue was just
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marble. Poole addresses this
22:43
sophisticated defense using a historical parallel.
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He brings up Symicus. Symicus.
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Yeah, a brilliant Roman orator and politician who begged the
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emperors Valentinian and Theodosius to restore the old
22:56
Roman gods to the Senate. OK, and what was his argument?
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Symicus argued to a very nuanced point.
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He claimed the Romans didn't actually worship the statues
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themselves. They weren't stupid.
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They worship the true God through the statues.
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They saw the images simply as conduits or representations to
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help focus their minds on the divine.
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That sounds incredibly modern. It is the exact excuse people
23:20
use today when they engage in syncretism.
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It's just a symbol to help me connect.
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It is a very slick argument, but Poole strictly refutes this
23:29
logic. He asserts that worship intended
23:31
for God via an image is simply the worship of the image itself.
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You can't separate the 2. No, the Israelites tried the
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exact same thing in the desert with the golden calf.
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They explicitly claimed the calf represented the God who brought
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them out of Egypt. They were trying to worship
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Yahweh through the gold. And God condemned it as pure
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idolatry. Absolutely.
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Poole equates this ancient Pagan defense with modern practices
23:53
regarding images, offering a severe warning about the
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mechanics of idolatry. You cannot rebrand the infinite
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God into a physical object of your own making without
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fundamentally changing the truth into a lie.
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The medium corrupts the message. And this suppression of truth,
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this creation of sophisticated idols to replace the Creator,
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inevitably triggers a terrifying divine response.
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We are entering the darkest part of the chapter here, the
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judicial handover. This part is very sobering.
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It is three times. In this passage, Paul uses a
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chilling phrase. God gave them up.
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Now what does that actually mean?
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Does God just passively step back?
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Does he just, you know, take his hands off the steering wheel,
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sigh, and let people do what they want?
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Poole strongly clarifies that this is not mere permission.
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It is not just a passive withdrawal of grace where God
24:40
looks away. It is a judicial active handing
24:42
over. God, acting as a perfectly just
24:45
judge, puts rebellious humanity directly into the hands of Satan
24:49
and their own corrupted lusts. He sentences them to their own
24:52
own desires. That is a staggering, horrifying
24:55
concept. God actively uses sin as a
25:00
punishment for sin. It is terrifying.
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The commentary points to Psalm 81 to illustrate this concept.
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God punishes previous iniquity by allowing further iniquity.
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When humanity actively abandons the author of nature, the just
25:13
terrifying response is to allow them to abandon the very order
25:16
of nature itself. The rebellion gains momentum
25:19
until it crushes the rebel. Precisely which leads right into
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verses 26 and 27 where Paul details the unnatural
25:25
uncleanness of the ancient Roman world.
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Because they change the glory of God into the similitude of
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beasts, they were left to do things that even be support.
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It is a complete systemic inversion of the natural design.
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And it does not happen all at once, does it?
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No pool traces the specific downward steps of this judicial
25:41
handover. It is a staircase into the dark.
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First they are given up to their own hearts lusts.
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The internal desires go unchecked.
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Then they are given over to vile dishonorable affections, The
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internal desires become external shameful actions, and finally
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the absolute rock bottom. They are given over to a
25:57
reprobate mind. A reprobate mind.
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Let's unpack that term. And because we use reprobate
26:02
casually sometimes, like, oh, he's a reprobate, but what does
26:05
it mean in this theological context?
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It means an injudicious mind, a mind completely void of
26:11
judgement. It is a mind that has lost the
26:14
ability to distinguish between right and wrong.
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So the compass is just gone. Completely.
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It is an evil habit of thought so deeply ingrained, so
26:23
calcified, that the person can do nothing but evil because they
26:27
did not see fit to retain God in their knowledge.
26:30
God saw fit to leave them with a corrupt judgement, or really no
26:33
moral judgement at all. It is the total catastrophic
26:36
collapse of the internal moral compass.
26:39
They look at a lie and genuinely believe it is the truth.
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Once that compass is smashed, once the mind is fully
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reprobate, what does that society look like on the ground?
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Verse 29 unleashes a massive, exhausting list of sins against
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the second table of the Law. The Law is concerning how we
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treat each other. Poole notes that unrighteousness
26:56
is the genus, the fountain, from which all these specific streams
26:59
of wickedness flow. Fornication, wickedness,
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covetousness, maliciousness, envy, murder, deceit.
27:07
It is a portrait of a society tearing itself apart from the
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inside because the anchor of truth is gone.
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Yes, and one specific category in this massive list really
27:16
stands out. Inventors of evil things, yes.
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Think about the psychology behind that.
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People weren't satisfied with the old traditional
27:24
run-of-the-mill sins. They actually had to invent new
27:26
ones. They got bored with standard
27:28
cruelty. They did.
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The commentary shares some brutal historical examples of
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this Philaris, the ancient tyrant who literally offered a
27:37
financial reward to anyone who could invent a new method of
27:40
torture for him. That is how we got the Brazen
27:42
Bull right. Yes, and Sardinopoulos, who
27:45
offered royal rewards for anyone who could find out new, unheard
27:48
of venereal pledgers. It shows the boundless creative
27:51
depravity of a reprobate mind. They are innovating in the space
27:55
of cruelty and lust. They apply human genius to
27:58
destruction. And this innovation leads to the
28:01
breakdown of the most basic human instincts.
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Poole points out the phrase without natural affection,
28:07
citing the horrifying Pagan practice of sacrificing their
28:10
own children to idols. Which goes against every
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biological instinct we have. Exactly.
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When you lose the Creator, you lose the fundamental fabric of
28:19
human empathy. The parents who are supposed to
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protect the child become the executioners, and they do it
28:24
thinking it is religious duty. So what does this all mean for
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us today? As we look at verse 32, the
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final verse of the chapter, we see the absolute floor of human
28:34
morality. The text explains that knowing
28:38
the judgement of God, knowing inherently that these things are
28:41
wrong and worthy of death, people not only do them, but
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they have pleasure in them that do them.
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Poole. Explicitly states that this is
28:47
the highest possible degree of wickedness.
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Patronizing, applauding and taking pleasure in the sins of
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others is the worst state of all.
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Why is that worse than actually committing this in yourself?
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Because it comes closest to the nature of the devil himself, who
29:00
loves evil simply because it is evil.
29:03
When you commit a sin yourself, you might be driven by a
29:06
momentary flash of passion or fear or weakness.
29:09
But when you sit back and applaud the sin of another
29:12
person, you're showing a cold, calculated alignment with
29:15
wickedness. You are celebrating the
29:17
rebellion without even the excuse of personal temptation.
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You listening to this right Now think about how this commentary
29:24
utterly dismantles any notion of human self-sufficiency.
29:28
If humans are left entirely to themselves without divine
29:31
intervention, we do not ascend to some enlightened
29:34
technological utopia, We descend.
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We descend rapidly. We descend into a reprobate
29:39
mind, turning the truth into a lie and innovating our own
29:42
destruction. This terrifying empirical
29:45
reality is precisely why the imputed righteousness we
29:47
discussed back in verse 17 is the only viable rescue.
29:51
We cannot fix the structural collapse of the soul with our
29:54
own broken tools. This raises an interesting
29:56
question I want to leave you with a final thought to Mull
29:58
over. If this entire descent into
30:01
complete moral collapse begins simply with the failure to be
30:04
thankful to God, as we saw back in verse 21, how might our daily
30:08
ingratitude be a subtle echo of the very rebellion that
30:11
fractured the ancient world? That is a sobering thought.
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Think about how recognizing God is the source of all good is not
30:18
just polite religious behavior. It is the vital psychological
30:21
anchor that keeps the human mind from fracturing.
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Because once you lose sight of the foundation, the whole
30:26
building comes down. The diagnostic scanner might be
30:29
murky, but the cure is crystal clear.
30:32
Thanks for joining us on this deep dive into reformed
30:35
thinking.