The Bogus Exchange - Romans 1:21-23

21 Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. 22 Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, 23 And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things.

When men, knowing God, refused to glorify God and be grateful, they made an exchange. There was something not-so-glamorous about the truth. Either it was too simple or too difficult. It was what it was and Adam and Eve were enticed by the possibility of knowing as much as God, being as wise as God, and usurping the place of God as the last word in everything. They wanted to be wise and professed themselves to be wise. As a result, they became fools.

The fool hath said in his heart there is no God. - Psalm 14:1a

It is not an intellectual decision to say, "There is no God," but a moral decision and a heart choice. The "fool" may actually know there is a God, but at the core of his being, he has made the choice to exclude God.

The result of this process is a bogus exchange. It is a decision to abandon the incorruptible, invisible, unchanging God of the universe for one of our own making. We can control gods we manufacture and theologies that we conjure up. We can tame them, rename them, sanitize them and compartmentalize them into manageable units.

And Heaven sees it as a tragic comedy.

"Look at the birds and four legged beasts they are calling gods," the angels must be saying ... and the God of glory weeps for He, devoid of all ego, simply desires to be known for who He is and afforded the His rightful place in the loving worship of the sons and daughters of man who He loves so much.

Our sophistication is mere sophism and folly.

There are three reasons why this exchange is bogus drawing from verses 21-23.

• It is DECEITFUL. It comes from futile thinking as verse 21 say..We dealt with that some in the last lesson. Futile thinking is circular at times and dead end thinking at others. It goes nowhere and accomplishes nothing because it simply isn't true.

• The fear of the Lord is the begininng of knowledge. To reject Him is to reject truth.
• We make the exchange knowingly and deliberately. We buy into a lie because we want what we want.
• When we get what we want we find that we haven't really gotten anything.
  

• It is DARK. Darkness exists where light is excluded. Paul says in verse 21 that our hearts have been darkened. Jesus explained it this way to Nicodemus:

And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. - John 3:19

• We really need to see darkness for what it is - dark.
• The only way to expose the darkness is to turn on the light.
• Jesus is the light of the world.

• It is DECAYING. The things we have chosen to worship in place of God are either mortal or are already dead. They have no life and give no life. we have been lulled into a stupor of self-pride, deliberate ignorance, ingratitude, and dark deception. It has produced all manner of emotional, intellectual, and relational repercussions that have damaged us spiritually and in every way imaginable. We are adrift in a sea of ambiguity because we have refused to worship God as God. That is our bottom-line problem.

What do we do?

• First we Wake Up. Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light. - Ephesians 5:14
• Then we Rise Up to worship Him as God and acknoweldge Him as Lord.
• Then we Give Up the praise and gratitude that is due Him which we have foolishly withheld.

To do this will require a measure of grace which Paul is yet to explain in Romans. But we know it. It has been revealed to us in the life and death of Jesus Christ. It has been made available by His resurrection and glorification. It is presented to us by the Holy Spirit. We receive it when we receive Him by faith. That grace will restore what was lost to us by willful disobedience and arrogant pride.