(Text Only)
Title: The Downward Spiral
v21 So much of our understanding, not only of Paul’s theology, but of our sinful state as a race, hinges upon this one word, “know.”
There are two workable options as we read this text. The first is that “know” refers to having a general knowledge of someone.
“I know George Bush.” I’ve never met George Bush, never had any conversations with him. But I know and recognize who he is. People ask me, “Pastor Ben, do you think George Bush is a good man?” No. There are no good men. Do I think he’s moral? The honest answer: I don’t know, because my “Knowing” our president is from secondary sources: TV, Papers, internet, word of mouth, etc. I know who he is and what he does, but I don’t know him.
Now, if that’s what Paul means here, then humans can’t really be held to be that guilty. Would it be just of our God to hold us to His standards of morality and justice when we only know of him through secondary sources? When we don’t know His intentions? I think not.
But what if know means something more, something more intimate?
Let’s take a look at the Greek and the other places this same word is used in the N.T. to decide what “know” means.
Greek= “Ginosko”
Definitions: 1) to learn to know, come to know, get a knowledge of perceive, feel
a) to become known
2) to know, understand, perceive, have knowledge of
a) to understand
b) to know
3) Jewish idiom for sexual intercourse between a man and a woman (Houston, we have a problem.)
Let’s look at the other places “Ginosko” is used in the N.T.
Mat 1:25 And knew her not till she had brought forth her firstborn son: and he called his name JESUS.
Jhn 8:32 And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.
1Jo 2:3 And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments.
I’ll give you three guesses as to which “know” we’re talking about, and the first two don’t count.
They didn’t just know of God and chose to not give him glory, they knew God and didn’t give him glory, and the inevitable result is that their foolish hearts are darkened.
And then the downward spiral starts: v22 They profess to be wise and become fools. Does this not perfectly illustrate what we sat here and watched last week with Bill Maher?
Charles Spurgeon said it this way:
The way to be a fool is to pretend to be wise. A shortcut to wisdom is the confession of folly. The near way to folly is the profession of wisdom.
V23 (read) and finally, man chooses to change the Glory of the incorruptible into the corruptible, and the vision of a perfect God is reduced to a vision of a flawed and relative God.
Paul is operating on several levels at once here.
1. Historically with his own people: tower of Babel, Moses and the Golden Calf.
2. As a social commentary against the Law of the Jews becoming a roadblock to them seeing Jesus as the Christ instead of the fulfillment of that Law.
3. (Most likely unintentionally: Paul is painting a perfect picture of society today. God has become “things” Money, toys, power, fame, intellectualism, etc.)
Listen to what J.I. says about these verses, it’s spot on:
Here Paul stresses that humanity not only has the opportunity to know God through General revelation, but that the general revelation reveals real knowledge. Humanity’ sin is the individual refusal to acknowledge what is already known to be true. While knowing God, people refuse to honor Him as God or give thanks to Him. The consequence of rejecting God was that their minds and hearts grew dark. A refusal to honor God leads all intellectual pursuits to frustration.
Intellectual arrogance before God displays a reversed sense of values; the worship of God is exchanged for devotion to man-made and man-reflecting idols. The indelible instinct to worship is perverted by being centered on the wrong object.
Packer says, “Hey, we are a worshipful people! We just worship the wrong things!” And he’s dead on. Something you worship should be the object that we focus on in everything, the “Why” behind all our action. For some it’s family, or love. For a lot it’s money or recognition. But for the believer, this is what we say when we proclaim that it’s our heart’s cry to do everything for Jesus Christ. Those aren’t just words!
Now do we understand how we are without excuse? We see God clearly. We deny him. We have all the evidence in the world to know that God is real. Yet we put our worship, and our faith in other things. And, if it weren’t for the intervention of the Holy Spirit, and the revelation of Jesus Christ, we’d be in this exact same boat.
Praise God that he chose to save some. We are so unworthy of such a gift, let us praise God’s name in his sovereign decision.