Total Depravity / Romans 1:18-32
Introduction: How to Study the Word
If you have a Bible, turn to Romans chapter one. Just a heads up, if you’re new with us and Bibles are a bit new to you, feel free to pull out your phone and turn on your Bible app. Personally, I’m a fan of the turning page. To give you a heads up on the best way to enjoy a series here at The Well, I’d suggest two things: one, bring the Book, open it up, and put it on your lap. Two, bring a notebook, put it on the other side of your lap, and bring a pen to dig in.
If we say something of note, write it down. If we say something that’s intriguing, write it down. If we say something where you think, “I don’t know about that,” write it down. Because if you’ll lean in and enter into what’s being taught here, you’re not only going to learn your Bible, but your Bible’s going to begin to study you—and that’s the point. If you need a Bible and you don’t have one, they are available at the iHub at any of our campuses or right outside. Grab one. We’re going to start in verse 18 of chapter one and cover through verse 32.
Paul’s Confidence in the Gospel
Let me set the stage. Last week, if you missed it, you missed one of the top five messages I’ve ever heard in my life. Shay is awesome. I sat there taking notes, Bible on one side of my lap and notebook on the other, thinking, “Man, this is legit.” He laid out an explanation of what the Gospel really is. The book of Romans consists of 16 chapters laying out the beauty of the Gospel and the implications of righteousness.
Now, the church at Rome was struggling. They felt, in many ways, that Paul might not have cared about them as much as they thought he should. They were frustrated that he hadn’t visited them yet. They were also concerned that perhaps this Gospel Paul was preaching—this Gospel of grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone—was somehow “JV ball.” They worried that on the big stage in Rome, with the academics, philosophers, and elite education, Paul was afraid the Gospel couldn’t compete.
But in chapter one, Paul tells them that he has prayed to come, longed to come, and planned to come. He was obligated and eager to come to Rome. Why? Because of verse 16. He says he will take the Gospel of saving grace in Jesus Christ toe-to-toe with any religious system, any philosopher, or any so-called intellectual anywhere.
Romans 1:16 (NASB)
For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
Why Start with Wrath?
In verse 18, Paul begins to articulate what the Gospel truly is. I want you to think about this: if you have a loved one or a friend you want to see come to know Christ, and the opportunity finally arises to share the Gospel, where do you start? Most people start with, “God loves you.” That’s a good place to start. Or they say, “God has a plan for your life.” Some might point to the sign in the end zone at the football game—John 3:16. We tend to default to the love of God.
It’s interesting to me that as Paul lays out 16 chapters articulating the heart and soul of the Gospel, he doesn’t start with “God loves you.” He starts with the reality that God is ready to pour out wrath. He doesn’t start with the love of God, but with the depravity of man. Paul recognizes that the beauty of the Gospel is not just that God loves us, but that God loves us despite us.
He brings out the idea that the Gospel is so superlative that even in our noblest deeds, we fall short. In our total inability to please God in the flesh, God reaches down, bridges the gap, and calls us to Himself. While we were dead in our transgressions and sins, He made us alive in Christ. Paul immediately deals with a fundamental issue: the assumption of human goodness. People ask, “What about a good person? Would a good God send a ‘good’ person to hell?” Or, “What about someone in a godforsaken hole-in-the-wall place like Chowchilla who has never heard?”
Paul exposes our grossly overestimated view of our own moral quality. The reality is that without Jesus Christ, there is nothing good in our flesh. We aren’t just hemorrhaging; we have flatlined. The Bible is a terrible self-help book because it has nothing good to say about us apart from Jesus. Apart from Christ, all we’ve done is booger life up with sin and become deserving of wrath.
Romans 1:18 (NASB)
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness,
Natural Revelation: No Excuse
This wrath is revealed against two types of people: the ungodly (those lacking proper reverence for God) and the unrighteous (those characterized by overall wickedness). These people take the truth of God and suppress it. They try to hold it down, but they are trying to deny the undeniable. The truth about God cannot be concealed because of what we call “natural revelation.”
God has revealed Himself in us and to us. He has placed a conscience inside each of us. Ecclesiastes says eternity is set in our hearts. Whether we admit God exists or not, we know life is bigger than just us. It can’t be that we just live, die, and that’s it. He has also revealed Himself to us through creation. Psalm 19 says the heavens tell of the glory of God.
Psalms 19:1-2 (NASB)
For the choir director. A Psalm of David. The heavens are telling of the glory of God; And their expanse is declaring the work of His hands. Day to day pours forth speech, And night to night reveals knowledge.
When you see a beautiful sunset, you don’t thank the valley pollution; you realize God is putting on a show, painting a mosaic every night. When you stand at the base of El Capitan in Yosemite, you don’t think, “What an amazing accident.” You think, “Look what God created.” When you see the birth of a child, you don’t think genetic mutation is beautiful; you realize there is a Designer.
Romans 1:19-20 (NASB)
because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.
God has revealed His invisible attributes, eternal power, and divine nature through what has been made. We are responsible to respond to what we’ve seen. However, as powerful as natural revelation is, it is not salvific. You might remember that guy on YouTube who saw the double rainbow and lost his mind—as funny as that was, you don’t get saved by seeing a rainbow. Salvation comes by placing faith in Jesus Christ as revealed in the Word.
What natural revelation does do, unfortunately, is leave us without excuse. The “good person” doesn’t exist. The person who has never heard is not off the hook. Whether your daddy was a deacon or your mama was in the quilting group, we are all without excuse because even though we knew about God, we did not honor Him.
Romans 1:21 (NASB)
For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened.
The Great Exchange
Instead of submitting to God, people became futile in their speculations. That’s your Philosophy 101 class right there—people who know a little about God but have no relationship with Him trying to articulate the meaning of existence. They profess to be wise, but they become fools.
This leads to a dual exchange. First, we exchange the glory of the incorruptible God for creation. Instead of our hearts being lifted in worship to a sovereign God, we lower our affections to worship things that fly, walk, or crawl. We start worshipping people and stuff.
Romans 1:23 (NASB)
and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures.
As a result, we see a “divine giving over.” This phrase appears three times in this passage. To “give over” means to remove restraint. Imagine a dam holding back a lake; to give over is to lift the dam and let the water do what it is naturally bent to do. It’s like a parent with a child on a skateboard at the top of a steep hill. The parent warns them, but eventually, the parent has to throw their hands up and say, “If that’s really what you want, go ahead and find out what happens.”
Romans 1:24 (NASB)
Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, so that their bodies would be dishonored among them.
Then comes the second exchange: exchanging the truth of God for a lie. We set aside the inspired text and let our passions drive our lives. We decide to do whatever feels right with no divine correction.
Romans 1:25 (NASB)
For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.
The Design of Sexuality
It fascinates me that when you exchange God’s truth for a lie, sexuality is immediately called into question. Your sexuality says more about God than almost anything else because God has a specific design for it. From Genesis, the design was maleness and femaleness coming together as one.
Genesis 1:28 (NASB)
God blessed them; and God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.’
Genesis 2:24 (NASB)
For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh.
God’s best is one man and one woman for life. But when people reject God’s authority, they embrace a lie driven by the flesh. Paul illustrates this by speaking about those who deviate from this design.
Romans 1:26-27 (NASB)
For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural, and in the same way also the men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their desire toward one another, men with men committing indecent acts and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error.
Some argue this is just a cultural issue from the first century. But you can’t just set the moral law aside. We agree killing and stealing are still bad; sexuality expressed outside of God’s design is still a sin today. Others try to do biblical gymnastics to make these verses mean something else, but the text is clear.
This is personal for me. I was nine when my mom left my family, and she has been a lesbian most of my life. I’ve looked into the research on genetic causation because I wanted to know. But even the most brilliant neuroscientists who are openly homosexual admit they have not proven a “gay gene.” Most research points to environmental issues or violations.
Even if someone says, “I was born this way,” I would concede that we are all born with a desire to express our sexuality deviantly. I have things deep inside me that are wicked. The issue isn’t “homosexual vs. heterosexual”; the issue is that any sexual expression outside of one man and one woman for life is a rejection of God.
Grace and Truth
We have a lot of heavy lifting to do to mend bridges with the homosexual community. Some idiot in the backwoods on national TV holding a sign saying “all gays are going to hell” blackens the character of all Christians. We have often treated homosexuality as a “greater” sin than others. We excuse the 18-year-old boy trying to pressure his girlfriend, but we send the 18-year-old boy with same-sex attractions to intense counseling. We should just say, “You’re both sinners. Let’s talk about Jesus.”
If you are here and you’ve felt targeted by the church, please accept my apology. You are no more of a villain than the person sitting next to you. However, we must also speak the truth. Sexuality is not a “human right”; it is an issue of obedience to a Creator who has a design. If we deviate—whether through pornography, affairs, or homosexuality—we deserve the wrath of God.
Lest anyone feel left out, Paul gives a list of other “improper” things that come from a depraved mind.
Romans 1:28-31 (NASB)
And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper, being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice; [they are] gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful;
If you have ever gossiped, been arrogant, or been disobedient to your parents—busted. We are all dead in our sin.
The Reality of Our Culture
We aren’t evolving into a moral utopia. This world will get nastier and more sexually perverse because we have rejected God. Verse 32 is as true today as it was then: we not only do these things, but we give “hearty approval” to those who practice them.
Romans 1:32 (NASB)
and although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them.
We celebrate celebrities who have no talent but leak sex tapes. We watch artists who perform half-naked and say, “Wow, that’s amazing.” We live in a world where a grandfather kills his grandkids, where workers are hacked to death with machetes, and where casual “hook-up” culture is the norm. Why are we surprised? When you reject the Word, God gives you over to what you want.
The Hope: But God
Here is the good news: without Jesus, we have no hope. You can be philanthropic, you can serve sandwiches to the homeless, and you can promise to never drink again, but there is no life change in that.
But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love, made us alive while we were still dead. Does God love you? Yes—despite you. He knows the nastiness you are capable of, and He loves you anyway. The Gospel is more amazing when we realize our own depravity. God didn’t call you because you were moral; He called you because you were dead.
Until you live “downwind of yourself” and recognize the stench of your own depravity, you don’t truly understand the Gospel. It’s time to own who we would be without Christ and recognize that without Him, we have nothing.
Closing Prayer
Father in Heaven, we thank You for the beauty and the riches of the Gospel. We are not just morally wounded; we are morally incompetent. There is nothing of worth in us, and yet You love us. You pursued us so that through Jesus, the old life could be set aside. We thank You that the wrath of verse 18, which should have been ours, fell on Him. The Gospel is not about our performance, but about receiving the finished work of Jesus Christ. As we respond in worship, may the Gospel take on even more grandeur in our hearts as we see the beauty of Christ despite us. In Jesus’ name, Amen.