The whole world needs Christ, but unfortunately most don’t want him. Of course this is not secret knowledge.
God gives every man, who comes into the world a test. If they fail the test, God himself responds to that man.
The test is whether or not to glorify God as God and be thankful. If men choose not to glorify God as God, then God rejects them by giving them up to something! He doesn’t just give up and walk away.
- “Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves” (Rom. 1:24).
- “For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature” (Rom. 1:26).
- “And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient; 29 Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, 30 Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, 31 Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful” (Rom. 1:28-31).
What difference does it make that God gives men over to different sins?
- “Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them” (Rom. 1:32).
All of this takes place because they did not glorify God as God and were not thankful (Rom 1:21).
Men ARE thankful for all of God’s gifts – and ask for more.
Men DO glorify him for giving all of the gifts he gives, and they continually ask for more.
How do they NOT glorify God? They do not glorify God as God. So how does one glorify God as God?
- “Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them. 20 For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse” (Rom. 1:19-20).
What does “eternal power” refer to? Something has to be eternal. Why? We know nothing comes from nothing. If God is the source of all things, then he is the OWNER. Everyone knows the principle of ownership. Only the owner has a right to make the rules for what he owns. No one has a right to do anything with what the owner owns without permission (authority) from the owner. If God is the owner of everything and everyone, then who has the right to make the rules?
If all men listened to the owner and did nothing with what the owner owns without specific authority from the owner, then no man would do anything without God’s authority.
Men don’t like that truth (Rom 1:28). Men imagine that they are the owners and make their own rules. Those who acknowledge God’s ownership will seek the Lord (Acts 17:26-28; Psa. 14:1-3) to find out the owner’s purpose for creating the universe and man.
—BETH JOHNSON
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So true. It’s strange how so many of us don’t think this through all the way. We love God, we want to claim allegiance to Him, but we still want to make up our own rules. But thankfully, as Psalm 100 says, because God is GOOD, we can serve him with gladness. When men make up their own rules, as in the days of the judges, things really don’t seem to go that well. In contrast, when men do follow the Creator’s laws, He blesses them richly. Think of David’s time, or even the beginnings of our own country, when we at least professed Christianity. Now, as our country turns away from God, I can’t see that our nation is any “happier” for our moral “freedom.”