This is the first post in an infrequent series of posts based on things I’m considering during my study of the Book of Romans over Skype.

There’s a prevailing image of God in our culture – a wisened grandfather in the sky with white hair, a bald patch and a Morgan Freeman-esque demeanor. He’s never angry, never hurt and always comes back for more, even when His creation treat him like dirt. He’d never abandon his creation…right?

Well, I put it to you that He can, and He has. Look at Romans 1:24-32:

Rom 1:24-32 ESV Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, (25) 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. (26) For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; (27) and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error. (28) And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. (29) They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, (30) slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, (31) foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. (32) Though they know God’s decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.

Note the use of the term “gave them over” both in verses 24 and 26. The term there is paradidomi – and it’s a little stronger than just giving something over. It can mean “to allow” – as though God removes his hand of providential restraint and lets man run loose. In a sense, you could say that God abandons man to himself. Now, isn’t that a frightening thought? Presently, God’s hand of restraint holds back the full onslaught of man’s evil – but look what happens when God calls time on that restraint and leaves man to it. Moral degeneracy takes root, society looks worse for wear and in the end, this is all because man rejects the God who created Him. Yikes.

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