Consider Romans 1:20-23 with Luca Brambilla

Consider One Verse! As we wait for the summer season to begin, we are starting a short 5-minute series focused on one Scripture and one key takeaway. In this episode, Luca and I look at Romans 1 and what it means to be without excuse. Listen to it in the car, while you're washing the dishes, or while you are on a hike! 

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:01

Welcome back to the Welcome to the Between Seasons Consider One Verse podcast. I'm sitting down here with Luca. We just recorded Luca's Bat and Leadoff for season three, but that's not gonna be for a little bit. In between these seasons, I want to give us just a couple of devotional thoughts just here and there. So this will just be five minutes. We're gonna look at one verse, consider it, and talk about it, and then that'll be it. Hopefully just five minutes. Luca, what are you reading and go ahead?

SPEAKER_00 0:31

I will be reading Romans chapter one, verse twenty through twenty-three. For since the creation of the world, his invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead, so that they're without excuse. Because although they knew God, they did not glorify him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man, and birds and four footed animals and creeping things.

SPEAKER_01 1:09

Romans 1 was kind of a leftover subject of the podcast we just recorded, so I want to give us a couple minutes to talk about it. I'm zooming in on they are without excuse. Luca's Italian Bible right in front of him, too. I'm kind of curious what that translates to at the end of verse 20. Uh, just read for us in the Italian. I want to hear it.

SPEAKER_00 1:30

Sendo intese per mezzo delle opere sue per ciò essi sono inescusabili.

SPEAKER_01 1:36

Okay, I think I heard excuse at the end. I didn't catch anything else. Is there something in the Italian uh that just hits you differently than when you read it in the English?

SPEAKER_00 1:47

Mm-hmm. I think just the last word, the one that you caught, inescusabili, that is like that means categorically inexcused. Like unexcusable. It is, you know, depending on your translation here, the New King James says without excuse, but inexcusable categorically is even stronger. So I that's a common theme, I suppose, of the Italian Bible that uses more just stronger language when it comes to these things, like harsher to those that refute God, which it's good for in this case because it makes the message even clearer. So that's the thing that stands out. Categorically, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 2:20

Without excuse. Yes. And what we're talking about here is creation. Yes. And whether that's just being out in the outdoors or whether it's learning about science, like Luca can tell us all about, we're without excuse. And that means we have to do something about it. I'm really putting Luca on the spot here for like 40 minutes now, and now five more minutes as we start this new idea of considering one verse before the next season starts. But I'm thinking about being without excuse. Categorically, what's as a science teacher, a science mind, someone who's done a lot of work and research, what is one scientific evidence that makes you say, Well, I'm without excuse.

SPEAKER_00 2:58

God is real. So I'm gonna go with an answer that probably Liz and I would share. And one that is maybe something that all of us often think about. I will say the human body, and more specifically, two things, the heart and the eye. And those are two organs or parts of the human body that are just so complex and so unlikely to just have just randomly spawned. In my mind, there is not a more convincing option for an intelligent creator and design behind all of this than just looking and studying the eye and the heart. There's a million other examples that anybody could come up with. But those two, especially to those that have studied them in depth, often come back as clear examples of there is a creator and there is someone that made this.

SPEAKER_01 3:53

I love that because in in the podcast we talked about glucose and black holes. You don't have to be a scientist with a microscope to be without excuse. Right. If you feel your heart beating and you're able to see, that should really make you wonder how did this happen? So the encouragement from me and Luca today is go get out in creation. Go see how great and how powerful God is, go behold our God and realize that requires us to do something.

SPEAKER_00 4:21

Take a long hike, get the heart pumping, and you'll really think about it. So get the heart pumping in creation. Exactly, and use your eyes to look at God's creation. Okay, so what I'm hearing is Romans 1 is telling us go hiking. Well, that's certainly a new take on it, but yeah, that's absolutely part of it, to behold in God's creation. And you do a lot of hiking probably for that very reason. That is certainly a part of it. Yes, there is, you know, we often hike, and that's just one of the best ways to be out there in God's creation and bask in his glory.

SPEAKER_01 4:51

Yeah, go look at it, feel your heart beating, and realize God made me. Go give glory to the creator. Don't spend so much time on your screens. Get in the word, get in the world, and go behold our God.

SPEAKER_00 5:04

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 5:04

We'll see how this ends. I think it's fun. Hopefully, that was just five minutes. Yeah, well, either way, I really I thought it was really good stuff.