One of the scariest thoughts that can come to one’s mind is the possibility of God simply giving up on people. There is no argument or doubt that God loves all (John 3:16) and that He desires the salvation of all (1 Timothy 2:4), but there can also be no argument or doubt that God will simply leave men to their own sinful devices and “give up” on them as it were.
Romans 1:17 through Chapter Three deals with the sin problem man has from the perspective of both the Jew and the Gentile. In the context of chapters One and Two, which deal with the sins of the Gentile world, the reader should take note that within the latter portion of Chapter One the phrase “God gave them up” or “God gave them over” (KJV) is used three times. In this article we will examine the significance and seriousness of this phrase as employed in the text to show to each of us the fact that there indeed comes a time when God gives up on people and leaves them to their own selfish and sinful vices.
God Gave Them Up to Uncleanness (v. 24)
The context notes that these individuals under consideration “knew God” but “glorified him not as God” (v. 21) and possessed “vain imaginations” and “darkened” hearts or minds. Further, the text reveals that they considered themselves wise, but in reality they were fools (v. 22) because they had attempted to change the uncorruptible, unchangeable God into “an image made like to corruptible man” (v. 23). Individuals such as these described here in this verse were willful and constant rebellers against the perfect and just will of God. As a result, God, knowing their hearts and seeing them filled with sinful lusts, “gave them up to uncleanness, through the lusts of their own hearts to dishonor their own bodies between themselves.” The construction of the phrase in the original language connotes that God abandoned these individuals to impurity and those actions associated therein. These people (as well as people today) were so desperate to do what was evil and perverse that God allowed them to carry out their desires by abandoning them to these vile acts. Sadly and obviously, there are many today who will not be reached with the Gospel of Christ because of this very same disposition. When people have this desire, there really isn’t much one can do other than to leave them to “wallow in the mire.”
God Gave Them Up To Vile Affections (v. 26)
This phrase deals with the same principle discussed in Verse 24 in that it deals with acts that were and are still unnatural. The vile passions to which God abandoned these people were those of homosexuality (v. 26b-27). These affections were and are vile because God never intended such to occur. These acts are rebellion against God’s natural order (Matthew 19:4). When men and women insist on doing such things, God will allow them to do them, but in the end, they will receive “the recompence of their error” (v. 27), that is, they will face consequences for their actions both in the here and now but also in eternity.
God Gave Them Over to a Reprobate Mind (v. 28)
This statement reveals the answer as to the “why” God gives people up and over to such things. It is because they have given themselves over to them in their own minds in that they possess a mind that wants nothing to do with God or to retain Him in their knowledge (v. 28). Contextually, the Gentiles “refused” (that is they “tested,” from the Greek “dokimazo”) and determined they wanted nothing to do with God. As a result, God allowed them to reject Him (God will not violate man’s free will) by leaving them to themselves. As a result they began to pay the price for lives lived apart from God. This same principle holds true today. There are a great many people who have rejected God because His will does not correspond with what they want for their lives. As a result, God gives them up to their own reprobate minds to do those things that are “not convenient” or those things that are not fit or right.
In reality, these three phrases say that God gives people up, but it is not so much that God gives them up as they give God up. When men give God up or want nothing to do with God, then it is God who gill give them over (allow, abandon them) to do those things that they want to do because God created men with the ability to choose. God will not force men to obey Him. Men choose to give up God when they refuse to “know” God by accepting and submitting to His will. However, all are warned that to give God up will result in Him giving us up and over to sin. Yet, if we draw nigh unto God by humbly conforming our lives to His will, then He will draw nigh unto us (James 4:8).
