Welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the book of Romans. Tonight is study 38 of Romans, chapter 1, and we are reading Romans 1:19-21:

Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them. 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: 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.

In our last study, we were looking at Romans 1:19:

Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them.

I mentioned that the word “unto” is the Greek preposition “eis,” and it is in the dative, and it should read “into them.” We went to Romans, chapter 2 and we read a little bit here, but I am going to read, again, Romans 2:14-16:

For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves: Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another;) In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel.

So God tells us a fact that applies to every human being, and it does not matter who they are, where they live, or what age they are. They have the “law written in their hearts.” God has not stopped writing the Law in the hearts of men, according to what the Bible is saying. This is something that every human being possesses who are created in the image of the Creator and fashioned as a man. Now there are other statements that speak of man’s conscience being “seared with a hot iron,” which indicates the conscience is there, but it can be distorted where people can actually live contrary to it. We know that already. But, nonetheless, every person has a conscience and their conscience is a result of the Law being written on their hearts.

So this means that man is not “totally depraved.” We can get a Biblical, historical example of just why man is not “totally depraved,” in John 8:3-11:

And the scribes and Pharisees brought unto him a woman taken in adultery; and when they had set her in the midst, They say unto him, Master, this woman was taken in adultery, in the very act. Now Moses in the law commanded us, that such should be stoned: but what sayest thou? This they said, tempting him, that they might have to accuse him. But Jesus stooped down, and with his finger wrote on the ground, as though he heard them not. So when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself, and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her. And again he stooped down, and wrote on the ground. And they which heard it, being convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest, even unto the last: and Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst. When Jesus had lifted up himself, and saw none but the woman, he said unto her, Woman, where are those thine accusers? Hath no man condemned thee? She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more.

This passage is a wonderful declaration of the forgiveness, mercy and grace of God toward the woman, but we also find information that is related to Romans 2:15 where God speaks of writing the law on the hearts of men. And it is interesting that Jesus had stooped down, and with His finger wrote on the ground. Where did mankind come from? We came from the “dust of the ground.” God took some dust and formed the man, and Adam was created. When God created Adam, who was “dust of the ground,” He also instilled in his heart His law written upon the heart at that time. As I mentioned in our last study, it is not the physical heart, but it is what the heart represents, which is the soul or spirit of man. So God wrote His Law upon Adam’s heart at the time of his creation, and Adam was from the “dust of the ground.” You see, God writing on Adam’s heart was like Jesus stooping down and writing in the “dust of the ground” in front of the scribes and Pharisees.

We also know that Jesus is Almighty God, and God wrote the Ten Commandments with His finger, so not only did Jesus stoop down and write in the ground (which reminds us that God wrote upon the hearts of men that were made of the “dust of the ground,” but His using His finger directs us to the Ten Commandments, written by the finger of God.

So God wrote His Law upon the hearts of men. That is why their consciences were activated in this account because they were doing something underhanded and deceitful in trying to entrap the Lord Jesus Christ. In their desire to entrap Him, they were abusing this woman. They had no care or concern for her and, certainly, they had no love for her. Who knows what could have happened to her? People could have gotten “riled up” and she could have been stoned to death. There could have been all kinds of bad things that resulted, and her reputation was certainly ruined by what they did, and they cared nothing for that.

More than likely, it was Laws that Jesus was writing on the ground: “Thou shalt not commit adultery. Thou shalt not kill. Thou shalt not steal.” What did Jesus say to them? He said in verse 7: “He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.” Then He stooped down and wrote a Law, and then He wrote the next Law, and they could see what He was writing. So starting with the eldest, they realized that they were not qualified to throw the first stone because they had broken the Law. Some of them had committed adultery. Some of them had stolen or lied. So, from the eldest to the youngest, they all left. They had all been convicted by their conscience. You see, it was a very curious phenomenon or circumstances as Christ was writing the Law, because no matter what He wrote, it would have been the Law of God written in the ground before them, which would have been a reminder of the Law of God written on their hearts by the hand of God as He created men. As that was happening, the inner workings of these men were activated in their consciences, which is a result of the Law written in their hearts. Remember what we read in Romans 2:15:

Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another;)

Their conscience is a result of the Law written in their hearts and accusing them, as they saw the Law of God before them. It was convicting them, so they walked away.

As we get into this, it is the testimony of the creation to the people of the world, plus the testimony of the Law of God written upon the hearts of men, and the Holy Spirit, who is God, used these things to “order” society and civilizations and whatever cultures were out in the world over the course of history. And at the right time, the Holy Spirit would activate, as it were, the Law written upon the hearts to remind the sinner: “If you go after that act of adultery, you are breaking the Law.” The person’s conscience would bother him, and he would think, “I know I should not do this. I cannot.” And if he did something along those lines, there would be guilt and shame. There was the “accusation,” without anybody having to point a finger at him. Nobody knew what he had done, but he would feel the guilt and shame, knowing that he had done wrong. The Holy Spirit used this to hold back the sinful nature of man’s heart to suppress iniquity and to keep the world operating because it needed to function throughout history until we reached the time of the end.

Let us go back to Romans 1, where we saw at the end of verse 19 that God hath shown it “into” them (in their souls), and then it says in Romans 1:20:

For the invisiblethings 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:

This is talking about mankind in general being “without excuse.” No person in all the world can say, “Well, I did not know. I did not know there is a God. I did not know there is a Creator. I did not know that I should have served Him and obeyed His Law. I did not have the Bible, so you cannot hold me accountable, because I never had the Bible.” But God is saying here that man is still accountable. They have no excuse or reason to cite. We will look at the word “excuse” at some time later. It is an interesting word. But people have no defense for this position: “Because I did not have the detailed revelation from God as found in the Bible, I am basically innocent of sin or wrongdoing, because I would have had to know the Law and what God wanted of me in order for me to be considered a lawbreaker.” But we just saw that God wrote upon the hearts of men, and it either “accuses or excuses,” and we have all experienced this even before we heard the Bible. I am sure we can look back in our lives or we can look at other people that had nothing to do with the Bible, and we have had a “guilty conscience” and we were troubled by things. We knew we did wrong. “I should not have said that. I should have not been so mean. I should not have fought with or argued with that person.”

There was a sense of right and wrong, even though in our time at the end of time, it is greatly distorted. We have seen the consequences of societies that are now entering another generation of people that have been living during the time after the hand of God has lifted His hand of restraint off the hearts of men, and man is losing more and more the sense of right and wrong, although he will never completely lose it. This leads to increased depravity and increased depths of wickedness, as some people cannot even determine “gender identify,” and some people not only have homosexual relations, but they engage in same-sex marriages. They are losing sight of right and wrong in our time and, yet, there is no “excuse” for it because the creation is a witness and the Law written upon their hearts is a witness. And, certainly, that Law written upon the hearts of men would include the fact that men should marry women and women should marry men, and there is not to be same-sex marriage. The Bible does not allow that, and the Bible is very clear when it comes to that question.

But, here, it is a very involved verse. It is not as simple as it seems. Again, it says in Romans 1:20:

For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen…

So God is not talking about the visible creation, but the invisible creation. There is an invisible creation, and we can use that word because of what we read in Colossians 1:15:

Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature:

We can properly translate this as “firstborn of all creation,” as the word “creature” is also translated as “creation.”

It goes on to say in Colossians 1:16:

For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him:

Jesus is the Creator, and by Him were all things created that are in haven and in earth. And things on earth that are part of this creation are “visible,” so when it says, “visible and invisible,” we can apply the “visible” things to things on this earth, and “invisible” things to things created in heaven where God dwells. And God Himself is invisible. We know He is Spirit. That tells us that spiritual things or spiritual beings are invisible things or invisible beings, and we also know there are “angelic beings.” I do not want to just use the word “angels” because the word “angels” has been mistranslated in both the Hebrew and Greek. Oftentimes, when we find the word “angels,” it is really the world “messengers,” which can apply to God’s elect that are living on the earth, or it could refer to the Lord Jesus, the Messenger of the Covenant, or Archangel, or Chief Messenger. As I see it, it is better when referring to angels to refer to them as “angelic beings,” but they are also called “angels” because they, too, are messengers of God. They are “invisible” creatures because they were created. A creature is not just something that we can see in this world. Everything in this world is part of this creation, and all living things are creatures, including man, because the Creator has created us. Likewise, the Creator created angelic beings and, therefore, angelic beings are creatures, but they are invisible creatures to our eyes. They abide in the invisible realm of the kingdom of God.

We abide in the physical realm of this earth. We are in the world, although there is a part of man that is also invisible because God has given us a spirit. In our soul existence, we have an invisible side to us. It is part of us. In the unsaved, their soul is said to be “dead” in trespasses and sins, but in those God has saved, He has given us life in our soul, and we have a quickened spirit. When one of the elect dies, his or her soul goes to be with the Lord in heaven. The elect are creatures, and when we become born again, we are said to be a “new creature,” as it says in 2Corinthians 5:17. So at the point of death, the soul of one that God has saved goes to be with the Lord in heaven.

Of course, no one can see the soul depart because it is invisible. No one can see that this soul is in heaven because heaven is invisible, but in heaven there are souls of men that are invisible in their spirit existence. So they are also invisible creatures that inhabit heaven. On the last day of this world’s existence, God will bring about the resurrection and He will equip all those He has saved with their new resurrected bodies. (There are a few in heaven that have already received those new resurrected bodies.) The elect child of God will be given a new resurrected body to match the soul, and in 1Corinthians 15, God calls it a “spiritual body,” which means that if this world would continue (from the perspective of someone in the world), the body that God has in store for His elect would be an invisible body. It is a body that cannot be perceived or seen with the natural, physical eyes. But, of course, God will destroy this world, and the invisible angelic beings and the invisible God and the invisible souls of (elect) men will then be “visible” when we receive our new spiritual bodies. I am sure the invisible aspects to these things will no longer be invisible because we will dwell with God, and the Bible says in 1John 3:2:

Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.

God will be evident, and He will be “seen” not just with eyes of faith, but we will see God. In the new heaven and new earth, we are all going to be part of the spiritual kingdom, so there will be a way of “seeing” and the eternal kingdom will not be invisible to those that are part of it. (I guess that is a good way of putting it.)

Going back to Romans 1, it says in Romans 1:20:

For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made…

Now I think the point of this goes back to the testimony of the creation: “The heavens declare the glory of God.” And the testimony of the Law of God written on the hearts of men would also declare that there is a God. These things testify to the reality of the invisible God – that He does exist. So the invisible things of Him are clearly seen in that way. Of course, they cannot be seen with physical eyes. You cannot squint really hard and see a spirit creature. They are in a different realm of existence. They can only be clearly seen with understanding, and that is why it says, “…being understood by the things that are made.”

Now there is one way of looking at this that I want to mention. I do not have time to mention it now, but I will discuss it in our next Bible study. It just needs to be brought up, but I am sorry that we have run out of time at this point. Lord willing, we will discuss this in our next Bible study in Romans.