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Romans 1:21a
… although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful (Rom. 1:21a).
Here is the sinfulness of the human race, stated for us in the simplest possible terms: We know there is a God because of the evidence of creation, and yet, instead of falling on our faces in worship and pouring out our hearts in thankfulness for our very existence, we try to behave as if He does not exist at all. Glorifying and thanking God are the proper responses to the knowledge of God that creation affords. But people naturally refuse to do either.
Why do human beings do this? Dr. James M. Boice provides a simple answer—hatred of God. “We reject the things God has revealed because we do not like the God to which the truth about God leads us,” he writes in his commentary on Romans. “We do not like Him for His sovereignty; God’s sovereignty negates our autonomy. We do not like Him for His holiness; God’s holiness opposes and condemns our sin. We do not like Him for His omniscience; His omniscience terrifies us because we fear exposure. We do not like God for His immutability, because immutability means that God will never be other than He is in all His other attributes. We cannot stand these truths. So we repress them, denying their existence. It is obvious that if we do this, we are not going to praise God for these same characteristics.” Our lack of proper gratitude flows from the same rejection of God. “If we have life, it is from God,” Boice writes. “If we have health, it is from God. The food we eat, the clothes we wear, the friends we share—everything good is from God. If we fail to be grateful for this, it is because we are not really acknowledging Him or are rejecting a proper relationship to Him.”
The implication in this verse is that creation’s revelation of God places a responsibility on human beings. Because His existence is inescapable, we should seek to know Him in ways above and beyond what creation can tell us. We should seek to learn of Him and to know His will for our lives. We should acknowledge His primacy over all creation, including ourselves, and honor Him for it. And we should take note of all He has done in His works of creation and providence, and thank Him for them. In short, we should learn our rightful place as one of God’s creatures—and treat Him with the respect due to the One in whom “ ‘we live and move and have our being’ ” (Acts 17:28).
Coram Deo Living before the face of God
As Paul will show later in Romans, only God can change a person’s natural hatred of Him. If you are unwilling to worship Him for who He is and thank Him for what He has done, you most likely have not been redeemed from your sin. But if such a willingness is present in your soul, be assured of salvation—God has done a work in you.
For Further Study
- Psalm 81:15
- Matthew 6:24
- John 15:24
- 1 John 4:19