“Extremely impious, amazingly evil and vile”, were the words that Judge Edward Cowart used to describe the crimes of Ted Bundy (the serial killer of the seventies) the day he was sentenced to death for more than 30 murders he committed.
Those words can also describe the wickedness of man, if we take into account what the apostle Paul said about it in Romans 1:16-32.
This is one of those chapters that we must know precisely and with which we must familiarize ourselves. This passage is central to a clear understanding of the human condition, necessary for the understanding of sin and for a correct perspective of the gospel. We cannot afford to live the Christian life without a correct, biblical understanding of sin, evil, grace, and the gospel.
Of all the texts that have been written in the history of humanity, the first chapter of Romans provides us with the most complete vision, the most coherent explanation, and the most reasonable argument about the evil of man. In this passage we have the most comprehensive exposition of the nature of sin. Here Paul opens the curtains of Genesis 3, to show with more clarity and detail what is really behind sin. To put it another way, Romans 1 is the development and explanation of Genesis 1 through 3.
There are at least four truths that we can find in this passage regarding the wickedness of men:
1. The evil of men is universal
Paul said: For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all impiety and injustice of men, who with injustice restrict the truth (Romans 1:18). With this, the apostle wants to establish that this evil and injustice is committed by all men and that is why the wrath of God falls on them. That the wrath of God is revealed on all men is the testimony that all, without exception, are guilty.
This evil is the reality of all human beings. That is, we are all in that condition. We all commit this impiety and injustice that provokes divine wrath. Evil is the state in which men find ourselves, a reality from which no one escapes and something that is evident in the world. Let’s watch the news, let’s look in the streets, let’s look at work, at school, and let’s look at our own hearts, and we will confirm the testimony of the Bible. The wickedness of men is a universal reality.
Jesus told the rich young ruler: Why do you call me good? There is none good, but only one, God (Mark 10:18). The Lord said this to correct the common belief among the Jews that there were good men, and the young man who approached him thought that Jesus is one of them. The Lord is not trying to prove his divinity. The boy talks about good men, because he considers himself a good man. In his own estimation, he is a good person and Jesus wants to teach him that “there are no good men.” Solomon himself said: Behold, only this I have found: that God made man upright, but they sought many perversions (Ecclesiastes 7:29).
That is why the apostle Paul said in Romans 3:12: There is no one who does good, there is not even one. What Romans 1 teaches us is that the wickedness of men is a universal reality. It is the condition of all human beings without exception.
2. The wickedness of men is rooted in abandonment to God
The essence of evil is that we have ignored God, we have not honored him as he deserves and we have not thanked him for all the blessings and favors with which he showers us every day.
Let’s read:
- For having known God, they did not glorify him as God, nor gave him thanks (Romans 8:21).
- and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into the image of corruptible man (Romans 8:23).
- since they changed the truth of God for a lie, honoring and giving worship to the creatures before the Creator (Romans 8:25).
- And since they did not approve to take into account God (Romans 8:28).
These texts accentuate the fact that man ignores God, does not take him into account and has turned his back on him. At the root of wickedness is an open, willful, and proud indifference that man has toward God. The evil in his essence is rooted in that declaration of independence that man expresses to his Creator.
Evil has to do with having denied God the glory he deserves and having given it to created things. Man has made his idols of things, whom he worships, whom he honors, and in whom he finds his identity, his joy, and his hope.
Let’s look at Jeremiah 2:11-13: Has any nation changed their gods, though they are not gods? However, my people have exchanged their glory for what they do not profit from. Be frightened, heavens, at this, and be horrified; desolate yourselves greatly, saith Jehovah. Because my people have done two evils: they have left me, the source of living water, and have dug cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that hold no water.
At the heart of the claim that the Lord makes through the prophet, is the fact that man abandons his God who is the source of his life, provision, well-being and hope, and makes for himself other sources (springs/ idols) to draw from them life, hope, well-being and joy.
John Calvin refers in strong terms to the great evil that we have committed against God. According to Calvin, the mere existence, beauty, and grandeur of creation “should have led man to glorify God. However, no one fulfilled the proper duty of him. Therefore, it seems that all were guilty of sacrilege and perverse and abominable ingratitude.”(1)
Man does not give glory to God, he does not thank him, he does not honor him, he does not trust him, he despises him, he does not take him into account, and that is where our impiety resides. Evil begins and has its starting point in that we have distanced ourselves from our highest good, which is God. All vices, wickedness, crimes and injustices flow from the greatest of all crimes. That is, they have their roots in the greatest of injustices and wickedness: abandoning God.
3. The wickedness of men is a judgment of God
What does God do in the face of this wickedness of men? How has God responded to this rebellion and defiance? Perhaps the most instinctive response would be to mention the curse on the created world, as Paul said: For we know that all creation groans together, and has been in labor pains until now.”(Romans 8:22).
However, Romans 1 tells us something very revealing about the way God has responded. He actually says that God has given men over to his evil desires:
- Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, so that they dishonored their own bodies among themselves (Romans 8:24).
- For this reason God gave them up to shameful passions; for even his women changed the natural use for that which is against nature (Romans 8:26).
- And since they did not approve of keeping God in mind, God gave them up to a reprobate mind, to do things that are not convenient (Romans 8:28).
That is, that evil that men did (by not giving glory and honor) leads God to let them live in accordance with their desires, so that that same evil is expressed, manifested and made visible in their daily lives. Faced with the wickedness that they did in abandoning God, He himself does not interrupt them but rather tells them: “Is that what you want? Alright, that’s what they got.” They do not take God into account, Paul tells us, and God leaves them to follow that path. The natural result is the same and more evil.
It is true that God reserves the right to judge a nation, a people, a person, and he can do so through natural disasters, disease, impious rulers, famine, and unexpected tragedies. But the judgment of God can be seen more clearly, more daily and patent, in the very wickedness of men.
In verses 29-31 Paul offers a list of almost 30 vices and sins. What is striking is that he encloses all kinds of sins, from fornication to envy, from gossip to murder, to remind us that all sin, even those that do not seem so serious to us, are related to the glory of God. That is, the moment we sin with gossip, envy and arrogance, we are ignoring and taking the glory of God in little.
On the other hand, the special mention made of the sins of homosexuality and lesbianism is not precisely because these are worse sins. In reality, what God wants to show us with these practices is how despicable it is to abandon God. That is, just as it is unnatural for a man to have relations with another man, so it is also unnatural for a creature created by a good God not to adore him or live for Him. Just as it is abnormal for a woman to have sexual relations with another woman, that is how abnormal it is that creatures do not glorify and give thanks to their Creator. John Piper says this sin is like a dramatization of what men have done against God.
To summarize, the root of evil is abandonment to God. Man’s wickedness is rooted in the fact that he has turned his back on God and He judges that wickedness by delivering him to more wickedness so that we can see how unjust and impious it is to abandon God. The evil that men commit is, in itself, a judgment. It’s like someone wants to jump off a slide and we let them. That is precisely what God has done. The consequence of the sin of abandoning God is more sin. The judgment for wickedness is more wickedness.
4. The wickedness of men only has a solution in the gospel
There is no hope for men outside of God. If we have abandoned the Creator, if we have offended Him, and it is He who condemns us, it follows that the solution can only come from Him. Only through Him can we be forgiven, transformed, and redeemed. Only through Him can this situation be repaired and restored.
So this neat and terrifying section begins with the solution to the problem. Pablo, contrary to what we would think, presents us with the remedy before giving us the terrible diagnosis. He gives us the solution before posing the problem: Because I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. Because in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed by faith and for faith, as it is written: But the just shall live by faith (Romans 8:16-17).
Sin has fundamentally brought two problems to the sinner: it has corrupted him inside and makes him guilty before God. That is, because of sin, man is condemned and corrupted. That is why the gospel of grace is the only answer to the problem of man.
The gospel offers forgiveness of sins (beginning with the sin of having turned our backs on God), and also offers men a change of heart. The gospel of Christ is the only solution to the evil of men because it produces a new life, with new desires, desires, new goals and ideals. The grace of Christ is the only hope for this fallen world because only Christ brings forgiveness and a new life to the sinner.
This contemplation of the deep…