“Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.” -Romans 1:24–25
At this stage of Paul’s argument, he purposes to make clear that God is active in the process in which consequences of sin follow the committing of sin. It’s true, we live in a moral universe which holds intrinsic consequences for sin but that does not mean God is strictly passive as the Deists suppose. Rather, when they consciously gave God up for idols, he gave them up in the lust of their hearts.
God said there would be certain consequences for sin, and yet he providentially governs the natural course of things.
He says, “So I gave them over to their stubborn hearts, to follow their own counsels.” -Psalm 81:12
“And they made a calf in those days, and offered a sacrifice to the idol and were rejoicing in the works of their hands. But God turned away and gave them over to worship the host of heaven, as it is written in the book of the prophets: “ ‘Did you bring to me slain beasts and sacrifices, during the forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel? You took up the tent of Moloch and the star of your god Rephan, the images that you made to worship; and I will send you into exile beyond Babylon.’” -Acts 7:41–43
That is not to say, he is capricious, malicious, or vindictive. Rather, he allows them to have what they demand and in having it, they also have the consequence. The consequence of their lustful desire is impurity. And as is the case with sin, it costs more than the sinner bargains for.
Because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshipped and served idols, their foolish hearts were darkened, which led to a passionate desire for forbidden pleasure. God, giving them up to their lustful pleasures, allowed them to suffer a particular impurity, the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves.
As Leenhart notes, “Man has mocked the honour of God by deifying the bodies of creatures erected into idols; God therefore abandons man to passions which dishonour his own body” (Leenhardt).