“Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.” -Romans 1:32
We have been following Paul’s argument that by refusing to acknowledge God and glorify him as such, man’s path is a downward spiral, accelerating faster and faster the further he goes down his moral black hole. There seems to be three stages or landings on the staircase to hell: worthless thinking, moral insensitivity, and religious stupidity.
This final stage of devolution in man’s moral and spiritual descent ironically becomes his highest demonstration of culpability. Paul asserts “they know God’s righteous decree.” In the next chapter, speaking to and about the Jews, specifically, he says something remarkable related to this final stage in human culpability:
“For all who have sinned without the law will also perish without the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law. For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified. For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them on that day when, according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus.” -Romans 2:12–16
The law does not have to be written anywhere for human beings to know when they break God’s law. It is written on their hearts. The proof is the fact that not only do our consciences bear witness against us (2:15-16), but also society’s make laws outlawing murder, purgery, theft, etc.
Not only do they know God’s righteous decree, they know those who live in defiance of it, deserve to die. Not only is the law written on man’s heart, his just deserts for breaking them are too. Yet, filled with Knowledge of God—to the degree that they are without excuse—fallen man not only continues to practice his wickedness, but embraces and affirms others who do the same.
Is it any wonder, then, that God’s law (including the Mosaic Law) is so despised and suppressed while every kind of wickedness (i.e., abortion, homosexuality, etc.) has wealthy advocates who invest large amounts of time, money, and propaganda lobbying for its legalization and cultural embrace?