Stand Strong in the Word
Stand Strong in the Word is a weekly bible study that teaches through the Bible verse by verse in chronological order. For more information, visit www.standstrongministries.org.
Stand Strong in the Word
#310 "No Excuse: When God Makes Himself Known" (Romans 1:19)
What if those who claim there is no evidence for God's existence are not missing evidence, but rather ignoring it? In this episode, we will demonstrate how God has made Himself evident to everyone through creation, conscience, and the world around them—showing that rejecting God is a matter of the heart, not of reason. This episode will challenge excuses and inspire us to see what has been staring us in the face.
Please follow me here:
LINKS
https://www.facebook.com/jason.jimenez.5099
https://www.tiktok.com/@jasonpjimenez
https://www.instagram.com/jasonpjimenez/
https://twitter.com/jasonpjimenez
What if those who claim there's no evidence for God's existence are not missing evidence, but rather ignoring it? In this episode, we're going to demonstrate how God has made himself evident to all people through creation, consciousness and the reality that surrounds him, and how refusing to acknowledge God is an act of the heart, not a reason. Turn to Romans, chapter 1, and let's stand strong in the word together. Well, hey, there, my friends, welcome to Stand Strong in the Word. Podcast. Jason Jimenez with you guys, as always, blessed to be with you as we continue our study here in the book of Romans, and we're going to be looking at verse 19 specifically today. And, as I mentioned in the opening, this verse is fascinating because it definitely points to the fact that people are without excuse, that there is in fact evidence, proof for God's existence. And for people who reject it, it's not because they're rejecting it because they don't believe it. They're rejecting it because it does exist. And this has really shifted my focus as I engage people, not skeptics, not people who are agnostic, where they just don't really know, and, yeah, I would probably put some people in this discussion, but primarily people who say that there is no evidence, that they've looked at it analytically. They've tried to be objective, but they're not convinced. Based on this verse, and this verse alone, anybody who says there is no God because there's no proof that he exists and die they're without excuse, so they're not exonerated. I, they're without excuse, so they're not exonerated. So meaning that there's nobody who has lived up to this point or who will ever live who could be justified or exonerated in saying well, I didn't believe in God, therefore I didn't put my faith and trust in Jesus Christ, who claimed to be God, because there was no evidence. I tried, I looked everywhere, I spent most of my life and all of my earnings to investigate the claims if God is real, and I found no evidence to suggest otherwise. And this verse sets everything in motion.
Speaker 1:And so, as you and I jump into this verse, I want you, as I've been praying and thinking through several people in my own life who at one point believed. Now the question is what exactly did they believe? What did that faith look like? Because I don't believe, and I just had this discussion with somebody in one of my recent travels, saying what do you say to people who once believed, not just grown up in a Christian home, but they said, they put their faith and trust in Jesus Christ and then, for whatever reason, over time in their life, as they get older, they now reject that belief fundamentally and have done like a 180, where they not only believe God existed but Jesus is God, but now saying that there is no God. Well, based on this verse, and this verse alone, this really sets the tone where I don't need to speculate because what we're going to see today. It lays the groundwork for us to move forward with people who are without excuse.
Speaker 1:Now let's just pick up where we left off, and that was in verse 18, where it says for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who, by their unrighteousness, suppress the truth, so even people who are living ungodly and unrighteous lives. They are suppressing the truth in the process in order to justify or to try to find satisfaction in their sin. Now, as always, my friends, if you've missed out any previous podcast, their sin. Now, as always, my friends, if you've missed out any previous podcast, wherever you get it, wherever you don't download your podcast, make sure that you guys like and share with your friends and leave us a comment that can continue to help grow this stand strong community, because it's all about growing in God's word, and I thank you guys for that. So if you have missed out on some of these episodes, I encourage you guys to maybe go back and then listen to this one, because we are really breaking things down verse by verse right now, because there's so much packed into chapter one that really lays the groundwork.
Speaker 1:And so what was important, though, where we left off, was understanding that the people who suppress the truth remember they hold down it with force. So anybody who rejects something have knowledge of that thing that they're rejecting. So they have analyzed. I'm not saying that they've done it thoroughly and objectively and honestly, but the point is, is that they know it to be something that they don't believe in Doesn't mean that it's not true. They just don't want it to be true in their lives, or they don't want to be true across the board, and because of that, they either try to silence it, they try to hinder it, they try to block it, and so when you think about cancel culture and you think about when God's truth is spoken, you see the hostility of people who come from that.
Speaker 1:Now, one of the things we're going to be entering now in verses 19 through 21,. But we're again, we're going to be highlighting verse 19 right now is this futility that we see that is associated with people who are ungodly, who are unrighteous and who suppress the truth. And so, because they suppress the truth, what we saw in verse 18, the wrath of God is revealed, meaning that God's judgment on unrighteous behavior will be noticed. And people who purposefully try to suppress it, they will be punished as a result of it, because of their vanity, because of the consequence of their sin, when they choose to worship self rather than worshiping the true and living God. And remember we talked about in Ephesians 4.18, where Paul was talking about how they're darkened in their understanding.
Speaker 1:And so, from verse 19 to 21, paul is going to go in deeper discussion about that, but now, as we draw our attention to verse 19, that says for what can be known about God is plain to them. Who is he talking about? Well, we go back to verse 18, the people who are ungodly, who are unrighteous, who are suppressing the truth. God's wrath has been revealed to them, so it's not like they don't know what's going on when they're being punished. They know exactly that this is something that's supernatural. Again, they could reject it, they could denounce it all they want, but it's. You can't avoid the consequences of God's wrath. And so, for what has been known about God is plain. So again they are without excuse because God has shown it to them.
Speaker 1:So God has intentionally, purposefully, in his creation, made it a way to communicate through, again, creation, that is natural revelation, through special revelation, through prophets. Again creation, that is natural revelation through special revelation, through prophets, through apostles, through the canonicity, the inspired word of God, through the work of the Holy Spirit in the lives of people. And so here Paul emphasizes the truth and reality of divine revelation. So God, who is spirit, who's eternal, that he interacts in creation, that he performs miracles, miracles, is a special act of God. That's special revelation.
Speaker 1:Oftentimes, when we see confirmation of God's reality and the effects of God, a supernatural being in the natural realm, is through signs and wonders. And so he's emphasizing that this divine revelation is known because God has revealed it, he has shown it. And what God has revealed, for example, in part, is beauty, aesthetics, like the study of aesthetics, like the fact that something is beautified, something that we treasure, that we see and we look upon and it takes our breath away. Well, ultimately God is beauty. God is filled with glory and splendor. God has also revealed himself through complexity. When you think of, you know, the intelligence, design theory, when you think of irreducible complexity, when you think of also the precision of design throughout the entire universe, if you want to explore some of those things, I go in detail about this in one of the books I wrote, a Q&A book about God's existence, the Bible's answers to 100 of life's biggest questions.
Speaker 1:I also kind of break that down in a book I wrote with a colleague called Stand Strong in your Faith, about evidence for God. But this is important to know that God has plainly made it known to them. So let's understand this phrase known about God is plain to them. Now the Greek term here is is toy, no stone toy, theo. And the Greek word here for plain is F on Errolson and is written in the arrows active tense.
Speaker 1:And this is so significant because what Paul's pointing out here in his writing, as he's writing in Greek, is God's purposeful revelation that he has made visibly clear to mankind repeatedly. So it's not like he did it way back when and you have to go and search it out, and because you know, word of mouth says, yeah, we God had revealed himself, and this is legendary. This has just been passed down generation after generation. No, it's saying that he is constantly, repeatedly revealing his truth to people. Now, this is taken from the verbal adjective of gnosko, where it carries a level of certainty. So it is certain that God repeatedly reveals his truth plainly, okay, with certainty, with no confusion.
Speaker 1:Oftentimes, when you and I communicate something, we thought we communicated clearly, but then when our children or maybe an employee repeats it back to us, we're like, yeah, that's not what I said. And they got confused and in our mind we thought we were speaking clearly, but clearly we weren't being clear enough. Well, that's not the case with God, and that's what Paul's pointing out here. In fact, the same terminology Paul uses in Philippians, chapter three, in the first part of verse eight, where he says I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ. So here you have a follower of Jesus Christ, who's an apostle, who's been called to speak the mysteries of the gospel. He's revealing God's truth to the Jews and to the Gentiles, and the same terminology is being applied here in Romans 1, verse 19. So the same knowledge that you, my friend, have received and therefore taken that knowledge and believed as a result because you believe it to be true that same knowledge has been revealed to the world. So they're not in a position where they can make the case that God has not proven himself enough.
Speaker 1:So the knowledge Paul refers to here is a personal one. So it's not just general revelation. So it's not just general revelation. God also speaks his truth plainly to people, personally, specifically. So, yes, we have creation around us, but in creation God uses his truth, he takes his truth and he plainly reveals it to people on a case bycase basis, on a personal level. He doesn't give some more favor than others. Every single person that has ever lived God has spoken to them directly in a way that they can understand, just as parents who are listening, or grandparents, or even teachers or pastors. When we are going to teach our people, our family, our children, something we want to ensure that we're going to communicate in a way that they can understand at their level. And that's what Paul's pointing out here. It is a personal knowledge, because God is personal and in this personal knowledge that has been implanted in each one of us, meaning we have abilities.
Speaker 1:And you think well, jason, what about somebody who was born with a disability or who has a high degree of autism? You know they're functioning on a high level that way and they don't communicate to us in a way that is, you know, normal, that you see with most people. Well, guess what? That person is still made in the image of God. Yes, because on this side of heaven there's sin, so there's distortion, there's contortion that may be happening within their mindset, but God still can reveal his truth and does reveal his truth plainly to that individual. But because cognitively or because of a disability that has interfered there, that has marred their ability to really comprehend things in a normalized way or fashion, doesn't mean that that person is now liable for whatever happens afterwards. No, there's God's grace and how his knowledge falls upon people, depending on their circumstance. And so somebody who's a high functioning, autistic individual who does not, let's say, in a normal fashion, communicate the way that you and I would, that person has still been given the knowledge of God. They still represent the image of God in them and the love that many of them are able to comprehend and understand in certain environments where they have knowledge that this is good for them, that they feel safe and protected. Those are all blessings of God that are being spoken over them and this is something that Paul is talking about that this knowledge is implanted in each of us, that we are image bearers of our creator.
Speaker 1:And so, even when you talk to people family members, caregivers of an individual with a disability and they're not able to verbalize how they feel, but that loved one knows that that person they're caring for knows that they're loved, even if they can't communicate that verbally or even give them emotion physically or with their eyes, there's this sense of knowing that they're being cared for. In fact, I was witnessing this one time in my travels when I was on one of the subways and I'm looking at a family that was taking care of somebody who seemed to be an invalid and you know they have to wipe their mouth. You know they're just kind of crippled and they don't blink and they're just kind of staring off there and they had a um, you know a machine on in order to breathe. That was, and you know just like and yet they just took such great care of this girl. It was, I believe, more it seemed like the dynamic there was the mother and the grandmother, and this was their daughter, their granddaughter and you just see this love. And so you see this person where, even though they can't speak or even blink at them or even grip their hand in response or use some form of sign language, that person knows or loved by these people who speak the love of God to them. And so that's undeniable, and I just always find that so fascinating when you're looking around creation and seeing that God has clearly revealed his truth about himself. And so therefore, you know, as you and I, as Christians, particularly as Christian thinkers, when we see this truth that's being spoken in God's word, that then tells us that there's no excuse for not knowing that he exists. In fact, I wanted to go deeper in this, and so I was looking at West's word studies from the Greek New Testament and in some translations, the word where it says for what God or what can be known about God is plain to them or that has been manifested to them that's oftentimes a word that's used and that's where we get the word for narrows, and it just means apparent or evident, and it says that it's manifested, notice in them. That's in autois in greek. And what is the? What is in them, what is it referring to? It means their hearts and their conscience. So in our conscience, knowing right from wrong, right there God's revealed his truth.
Speaker 1:One of the commentaries by the name of Denny. He says this quote God's power and the totality of the divine attributes constituting the divine nature are inevitably impressed on the mind by nature or, to use the scripture word, by creation. There is that within man which so catches the meaning of all that is without as to issue, in an instinctive knowledge of god. This knowledge involves duties and men are without excuse because when in possession of it, they did not perform these duties, that is, did not glorify as God the God whom they thus knew. So that's what's interesting and what Danny's pointing out is even the things that they do that is wrong. They know that they're doing wrong, which points back that God has plainly revealed that to them and that's why sometimes we suppress it.
Speaker 1:That is the ungodly or unrighteous. And even Christians. Sometimes we can ignore and refuse to follow God willingly and we can go kicking and screaming sometimes, because that's our flesh desire to want to do what we want to do. And sometimes the old man can start perking its head up, if you will, in our lives, and we have to reject that. Perking its head up, if you will, in our lives, and we have to reject that. And so people in the world, they get to a point now where they start justifying their actions and those actions, of course, are ungodly and they they try to make a case why they believe it to be right. So notice every time when someone is trying to reason their point of view or explain why why they don't believe Christianity is true, or when they bring objections to it, why does it matter? Why should they care? Or why do they care so much passionately? And they're so consumed by this if it isn't real, if it doesn't exist, if it doesn't exist, then it doesn't matter.
Speaker 1:The fact that we even discuss something that supposedly doesn't matter points to the fact that it matters, and that's the language. Other translations use the word skewed for narrow and some people say that it's not only meaning that it's apparent or that's evident, but it's visible. Meaning you can't ignore it, it's right there in front of you. Meaning you can't ignore it, it's right there in front of you, it's clearly, has been manifested in front of you. And so, god, through the light of the created universe. When you and I explore the complexity of the universe, when you see the knowledge and you see life and you see good and you see performance and you feel comforted and you feel joy and you have ideas and you have innovation and creativity, all of it, over and over and over and over again, points to God and the human race. That we exist and have our being because God put us here, and so that, my friends, is so important when you read this verse, for what can be known about God is plain to them. So, and notice the way in which the English translates it anything that you think about God, that we can on this side of heaven as finite human beings, god has revealed enough for us.
Speaker 1:So how can I know God, if he does exist, that he exists? And let's say you look at goodness, you look at the origin of the earth and before that, the universe, and you look at design of the universe and the design of human life and its complexity. And then you say, well, if God does exist, and I'm compelled by the cosmological argument or the theological argument or the moral argument, but how do I know this God that exists, this uncaused first cause, as Aquinas referred to him as If everything had a beginning. It must have a cause, and the universe had a beginning, therefore has a cause. But that doesn't apply to God, because God is eternal. So if God does exist, how do we know he's a loving God? And then you see the love in the world. If God is a God of love, that means he's a God of beauty, and you see beauty in the world. And beauty isn't just in the eye of the beholder, because we're not the barometer, we're not the judge or the arbiter of it. These things, my friends, transcend us. So, just as truth, we can know truth, we can speak truth, but we do not determine it, we don't define it, and that's what Paul's talking about at this point.
Speaker 1:Now, notice now the shift. So what you want to know about God has been revealed. Why? Because God is the author of it. He's his own PR, if you will. So he's like I'm truth and I'm going to speak that truth. And therefore no one's going to be with an excuse to say well, okay, truth does exist, but the way in which the truth teller told it didn't really make sense to me. You can't make that excuse either.
Speaker 1:So this phrase because God has shown. It's not just saying that God has shown his truth to them, but God has shown himself, and God, of course, is truth. So God just doesn't show an angle of him, because he's a simple being. So there's so much that God has revealed about himself that is true again, love that he's a God of justice, he's a God of wrath we just saw in 18. So there's so much that we actually know about God, the Greek word because, going back to the phrase that we were just talking about, where we're learning about for narrow, that this has been manifested, that it's apparent, his knowledge is apparent to us, to all mankind. This word that we have because God has shown, it's diotai and it's explaining the reason Going back to wrath. So when we start talking about stuff that's hey, we're arguing for justice. Or when we see an injustice and so we demand for justice, it all goes back to because God has spoken this truth. This is God's order, this is how he's revealed himself. So when we do see an evil act, we, within ourselves and our conscience, we know that an evil act has been occurred, that has occurred and as a result of that, that there needs to be justice, not just the consequences that will fall upon that person, naturally speaking, morally speaking. But we as a human race need to respond to that evil and not tolerate it. Why? Because God has shown that to us.
Speaker 1:So in Douglas Moe's commentary, when he's talking about this particular passage, the all-encompassing aspect of it. Let me just share with you a couple of things that he points out. He points out that again, the gnoston can be known and what we're talking about, and he adds the word evident or kathero, that's clearly seen. He uses it in a form. He says that Paul's writing this in a form that is ascending like a triad, and the reason why he says Paul does that is because he's emphasizing the undeniability okay of divine self-revelation. So that's why you have in English we have the word known, evident and clearly seen, and so that is the ascending triad. And you see that actually in the Greek, when you have Nostan in Faro, naromian in Kathero, all of it's there.
Speaker 1:So when we go back to what I was saying in the beginning, that when someone says there's not enough evidence at the heart of it, I don't believe them. Now I believe that they may believe that to be true, but in their conscience, in their heart of hearts, if you will, that I don't believe you could be fully certain that to be true. Now, there could be a level of deniability or ignorance, and you know. But when you clearly encounter somebody who's suppressing the truth, they're doing as much as they possibly can to avoid believing something that deep down they know to be true. It's very apparent, and I see that a lot in ministry. So this is an important point that Paul is making here, that I love how Mo kind of emphasizes this ascending triad, because essentially this is what Paul's saying about God that God has revealed a great deal of universal knowledge about himself and so there's evidence for his existence right in creation and therefore leaves people without an excuse.
Speaker 1:So people don't say, okay, well, maybe the super powerful force this is like deism created something, but it has nothing to do with the affairs of mankind today. So when we look around and we see creation itself, there is okay, because we know that the universe is not eternal, because at a beginning, in the first and second law of dynamic et cetera. So let's say that there's this massive force out there and we can't explain really what it is. Let's just say you know, eternality is out there in the form of a force, not a person or spirit, or maybe it's a spiritual force, whatever, but they give allegiance to this idea that something greater, meaning the cause of the effect, which is the universe, does exist, but it's a distant one, meaning that it's not actively engaging the affairs of mankind. So we live and inhabit space and time because it was created through a special force, but that special force is not personable and is not imminently involved in our affairs, and so we're on our own. That's deism. Now, as a theist, we don't buy into that at all.
Speaker 1:And that's what Paul's saying here is he's pointing out that we don't just have creation, we have a God who's involved in creation, and so anybody who violates God's order in his way of life, when he's made it clearly known to them how we ought to live, they're deserving of wrath. So not only that, but when again, when you go, when you point back to verse 18, and now when we're completing it here in verse 19, and then, of course, in verse 20 and following, he's going to start giving more detail about God's invisible attributes, about his eternal power. So now he starts getting into specifics, and we'll touch on that in the next episode. But when somebody is judged now for rejecting the message of God, they can't get out of it, because God is the ultimate judge, because he is truth and there's consequences when people go against his truth. In this case, what Paul's talking about is mankind that reject him, they suppress his truth, they're actively pushing a different narrative. Why? Because if you go back to John 8, 44, this is demonic because from the very beginning he says Satan was a murderer and his very character. He is defiled. He's the father of lies.
Speaker 1:Now, the one last thing I want to touch on as we close, and I hope this makes sense to you guys as you now look at people in your life around you who says, yeah, I don't believe god exists because there's no evidence based on this verse, in this verse alone. That's a lie. Now, like I, some people are ignorant. Some people again, who don't know Christ, are blinded by the God of this age, to whatever level, to whatever degree. It depends on their life. But this brought up something that I went back and looked at, and it was Bertrand Russell. He was a British philosopher and in 1927, he wrote a book called why I Am Not a Christian, and he said in that this quote I do not think that there is any conclusive evidence for the existence of God. I think that the arguments for his existence are not sufficient to outweigh the arguments against. Way. The argument's against.
Speaker 1:And so one of the first things, when asked by a reporter when bircher russell was living, what would you say if god is real? And you find yourself face to face with him when you die and you're going to be judged, and he says why didn't you prove that you existed? Why don't you do a better job? Essentially now, rich Now, richard Dawkins, who's still alive, who refers to himself now as a cultural Christian.
Speaker 1:He wrote a book years ago called the God Delusion and in it he says quote the universe we observe has precisely the properties we should expect if there is, at bottom, no design, no purpose, no evil, no good, nothing but blind, pitiless indifference. End quote. So notice, what he's trying to say is, instead of looking at the complexity, the design, the beauty, the splendor, the order, something that's known as the anthropic principle, meaning that we have all of the things necessary in order to live and survive in this planet, he says everything that you see, it's not special. This is what you would find, um, you know, without a god existing, that we just come here randomly, by chance, through evolutionary means. That's why why he calls it blind, pitiless indifference, which ultimately would be referred to as mindless matter right Over a mindful God. Well, how would he know that? And again, this is somebody who is intentionally mixing words. Right, he's mincing words so that he is suppressing the truth while at the same time trying to defend and articulate that his belief system is what Is true. And so that's a prime example between Bertrand Russell, a famous British philosopher who wrote the book why I Am Not a Christian, and the famous New York bestselling author, Richard Dawkins in his classic work the God Delusion.
Speaker 1:Those are clearly what this verse is saying here in verse 19. So I hope that helps you. My friends, I wanna just say, as we close out this podcast today, that I'm so grateful for many of you guys who listen faithfully to this podcast and know that we love you guys, that we're praying for you. If you have any Bible questions, you can always contact our ministry by emailing us at info at standstrongministriesorg. You can check out standstrongministriesorg and see all the resources that we make available to help you guys daily. Stand strong in your faith. So until next time, keep standing strong in the word of God. Thank you.