Bible Study Romans Part 40-Implacable

The end of Romans 1 does not let us keep sin at arm’s length. We start with Paul’s clear claim that the Gospel of Christ is the power of God unto Salvation, then we sit with the reason that message matters so much: God’s wrath is revealed against ungodliness and unrighteousness that holds down the truth. That is not abstract theology. It shows up in what we love, what we excuse, what we laugh at, and what we quietly cheer on. 

We walk line by line through the closing section of Romans 1, focusing on the final terms in Paul’s list: “without understanding,” “covenant breakers,” “without natural affection,” “implacable,” and “unmerciful.” We talk about the natural man and spiritual discernment, how self worship erodes honesty and honor, and why family love is not a side issue but a core measure of a healthy life before God. We also unpack “implacable” with a fascinating look at the ancient idea of a libation used to seal a truce, and what it means to be “truce less” in spirit and behavior. 

Along the way, we address a question people often fear: what about New Testament manuscripts and textual variants? We explain why the lack of original copies is normal for ancient documents, why Christian scholarship can be candid about sources, and why these issues do not change the true meaning of Scripture. We close with Romans 1:32 and the sobering warning about knowing God’s judgment while persisting anyway, plus why the Gospel remains genuinely liberating from slavery to sin. If this challenged you, subscribe, share it with a friend, and leave a review so more people can find these Bible studies.

Transcript

Why Scripture Is Life And Death

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Welcome to the program Study in the Chapel. God's Word is supreme in chapel ministries. We consider it absolutely essential to a proper relationship with God. We study it, we love it, we rely on it every minute of every day. The following program is an edited recording of the regular Bible studies we hold, and we decided to share these with you in the hope that you too will be able to find inspiration, encouragement, and ultimately salvation through discovering Christ in Scripture. Our intention is to travel all the way through the Bible. It will be a challenging journey, but one that will undoubtedly bring you to a decision. Through this study, you will be faced with either believing or rejecting what God has said to us. It is our intention to provide you with enough knowledge to make an informed decision about God and his word. We strongly encourage you to listen intently and diligently, because though at the moment you may not realize it, these things are truly a matter of life and death. In fact, these are matters of eternal life and eternal death. Never treat what God has said lightly. There is truly nothing more important to you. Now join us as we seek God's will through his inspired word.

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The gospel is what we study. We want to know what it is that God has to say to us about our salvation. And then once we find out what we are, what we have been saved from, it really is our responsibility to continue to pass that along. For some reason, God decided that the way he was going to spread his gospel was through the foolish human beings that we are. That is our job.

Romans 1 Sets The Stakes

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We are currently in Paul's letter to the Romans. We have been working our way through it for quite some time. We are going to finish the first chapter today. We are saying when we've gone through this first chapter, we've seen that it's been sort of a thrill ride. It's filled with ups and downs, highs and lows. He started out talking about the gospel. He told us that God had all along been preparing us for the arrival of our salvation since the very beginning of time. He said the prophets, Paul said the prophets talked about the gospel, about salvation. And then quite astutely, Paul realized that he needed to explain to us why we need salvation, what we need saving from. He even used the word wrath. And then that's where this list from these last couple of verses come in. We've been going over it now for a few weeks. It's not been very pleasant, but we only have a few items left to discuss. I'm going to read the whole thing again just to remind us of the context and frankly the mood of this passage because it's going to persist for a bit, even into the next chapter. Clearly, Paul wants to communicate the serious nature of all this. He's keen at getting his readers to recognize the difficult spot they're in. So let's start at verse 16. I read out of the King James. If you want to, you can follow along on the screen. I prefer that you would follow along in your own Bible. I'm hoping that you brought a Bible with you. Every time you sit down to this Bible study, you should have a Bible in front of you. But if you forgot this time or you don't have a Bible, we do have the verses up on the screen. As I always say, if you don't have a Bible and you want one, please contact our ministry and we will gladly make sure you get one.

Reading Romans 1:16 To 32

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Romans 1, and we're going to start at verse 16. For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, the just shall live by faith. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who hold down or hold back. It only says, hold in the King James, it's hold back or hold down the truth in unrighteousness. Verse 19, because that which may be known of God is manifest in them, for God hath showed 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 Godheads, 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. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man and to birds and four-footed beasts and creeping things. Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonor their own bodies between themselves, who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshiped and served the creature more than the creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections, for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature, and likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman burned in their lust, one toward another, men with men, working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompense of their error, which was meet, which was appropriate. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind to do those things which are not convenient. And now here's that list we've been working on, verse 29. Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness, full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity, whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents. We've covered all of that so far. Next is what we're going to go over in this lesson, verse 31. Without understanding, covenant breakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful. Now let me make sure that you remember that these aren't just sins. These are the resultant behavior of those whom God has given up, those that have pushed God too far, those that God has simply handed over to their own sinful natures. And let me also remind you that this is not an exhaustive list, but rather the types of behaviors that humans engage in when God is nowhere in their lives. For a couple of weeks, we've been briefly covering some of these that I guess hit our ears and minds in a bit of an awkward way. Many of these we know, some of them need a little explanation. So hang tight. I know this isn't fun, but we're almost through it.

Without Understanding And Broken Promises

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So this first one in verse 31 without understanding is translating a single Greek word, albeit a compound Greek word, and it's being used to describe someone who thinks foolishly. But in this case, it has a very specific meaning. What Paul means by using this word is someone who cannot process spiritual matters, someone who hears the eternal things of God, but they're nonsense to them. This is what happens when God withdraws his influence, his spirit from you. Elsewhere, Paul says it this way: 1 Corinthians 2, 14. But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God. The natural man is a man who is completely without God in his life. The natural man is the one who relies strictly on his human nature. But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him, neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned. The natural man cannot understand spiritual things. The natural man is without understanding. Next, Paul mentions covenant breakers. Listen to me. God hates dishonesty and hypocrisy. Covenant breakers are those when they promise to do something, they don't. There's no sense of honor, no feeling of obligation to one's own word, no desire whatsoever for holding up their end of a bargain. What's in it for me? If there's no upside, then there's no need to see through what I committed to do. One scholar suggests the word treacherous is appropriate here. Listen, almost all of these come down to a retreat into one's own self, a feeling that the only thing that matters is whether I'm taken care of. My agenda is advanced, my personal goals are given exclusive priority. When God withdraws himself from us, we become our own object of worship. Without God present, we move ourselves to the highest place, the pedestal of worship. And no matter the consequences suffered by those around them, they will

Natural Affection And The Family Test

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be satisfied. Next is this term without natural affection. Oh boy, here he goes again. No, no, no, this is actually a far more heinous sin than what you think I'm going to say. Most scholars agree that Paul is actually referring to the type of affection one naturally feels toward kindred or parents or even children. Once again, look at how important family cohesion and support and love is to God. You can hardly go a page or two of a section that's stating God's expectations for us or what it means to live a holy life where the family isn't either outright mentioned or strongly inferred as it is here. Self-centered, literally godless people will not express nor even feel the built-in human set of emotions so necessary for establishing and growing a godly family. And not just a godly family, but even one that's just simply productive within society. Certain affections must be shared with our loved ones if we wish to foster environments that will bear fruit to include a stable society. Well, without God's influence in your life, none of that really matters to you. The only affections one under such circumstances can express are those directed inward. Now the next one is very interesting. The original Greek word is

Manuscripts And Trusting The New Testament

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aspendos. Now, before we go any further, let me remark that this word is actually not present in the oldest known manuscripts. This is not on the list of some of the oldest manuscripts. It doesn't show up until later in the manuscript record. Now, this may be a good time to discuss an important topic. We'll get back to implacable in a moment. As you've heard me say many times, there exists no original copies of any of the books of the Bible. And that bothers some people when they hear it, but believe me, that is not in any way unusual for ancient books. For example, there are no original copies of the important historical document written by Julius Caesar entitled Gallic Wars. What we know of Caesar's earliest exploits, we learn from this document. Although many scholars see it as largely a work designed to inflate the exploits of this important Roman, we still rely on it as a valuable piece of literature and consider it authentic. Likewise, there are no original copies of Livy's The History of Rome, generally considered an authoritative account on the Punic Wars. If you studied just about any aspect of that pivotal moment in European history, you learned what you learned not from original documents, but from manuscript. And might I add, by far fewer corroborating manuscripts than any New Testament book. There are no original copies of the works of other important histories, such as Herodotus and Thucydides, and yet no one is a bit bothered about the fact that we all we have are later, much later, and very often partial manuscripts of these important and heavily relied upon records of the classical world. So don't let anyone impugn the New Testament for similar reliance. Those that study the New Testament rely on manuscripts just like every other important document of history. In fact, there are no sets of documents in history, no written documents in human history that is better attested to than the entire Bible. That is an indisputable fact. So back to my discussion of the word implacable, and more importantly, its Greek original ospendaz. And let me say it again. Now, does that mean it wasn't in the original? Well, not necessarily. It is entirely possible that this was in the original, but missed when the first manuscripts were produced. In other words, the copyist in charge of those oldest manuscripts may have just left it out. Now, how could that have happened? Well, as the early church became less endangered, they were more able to freely distribute their materials. It may have been that when it was a capital offense in Roman Europe to have copies of Christian documents, some of the more complete originals were hidden away and only rediscovered over a period of time. Maybe the original with this word on it didn't show up for many centuries. Now, of course, that's pure speculation because I don't know why some things are in some manuscripts and some things aren't in others. Now, should any of this cause me to lose faith in the Bible? Of course not. Did you think I'd answer in any other way? Unlike most other religions, Christian leaders and scholars are honest about the possible problems with their sources. So that means that all of the anomalies, things that are problematic, have already been identified and taken into account. And the result of that is that the true meaning of scripture, all of scripture, is unaltered by these minor issues. So even though the word ospendas is not in those older manuscripts, it may have been in the original letter to the Romans. And since that's a possibility, let's take a brief look at what it means. First, let's define implacable, which is the English word that translators consider a good rendering for Ospendas, according to the Oxford Dictionary. Remember, I like to use them because they're the bosses of the English language, and I dare you to disagree. Anyhow, the Oxford Dictionary says implacable means, listen to this, unable to be appeased or placated, or probably better for its use here in verse 31, unable to be stopped, relentless. The Cambridge commentary, although acknowledging this word is absent in some manuscripts, but not fully accepting that it should have been, nonetheless, says that a near-literal translation, they call it literal, but it's not. They say the original word means trusseless. Although that feels a little awkward,

Implacable Means Truce Less

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I think it's rather a genius viewpoint. You see, the Greek word ospendus, the original word that gets translated into our word implacable, is a compound word that is literally translated without libation. Now, most of you know what a libation is, don't you? When we hear the word libation, we think of a drink, right? Something you drink is a libation. Nerds who think they're cool ask a bartender for a libation instead of a beer or a cocktail. Well, that's actually not technically correct, because a libation isn't just a drink, but instead it's a drink that's poured out, usually as an offering. You've seen those rap videos of pouring one out, right? That's a form of what we're talking about here. That is going back to a very old, very ancient, very classical way of doing things. Pouring out a drink signifies something important. Now, hang on because we're getting somewhere with this. I love to take you through the intricacies of the Bible. Historically, one of the situations where a libation, a pouring out of a drink would come into play would be at the establishment of a covenant or a treaty or a truce when two parties would come together, would come to some agreement, perhaps a peace treaty. Each side would signify their assent to the agreement by pouring out a libation on the ground. That's why the Cambridge commentary says this word aspendas means truce less. The compound word ospindas is made up of two other Greek words. A alpha in the Greek is often, very often placed in front of a word as a negation. The example I always use is agnostic. In the Greek, the word is a nosis. The G is silent. Means to know. Ah gnosis means to not know. An agnostic, we've pulled that over into the English. An agnostic is not someone who doesn't believe, it's someone who doesn't know. The alpha negation is placed in front of the word to give us that meaning. Ah gnosis. Well, ospindos is the alpha, a alpha, the negator, followed by spode, meaning libation, symbolic for agreement. Someone who is ospendas is disagreeable. It's someone who cannot be pleased, someone who will not bargain, someone who will not give an inch, even when it makes sense to. An implacable ospendas person is someone who is stubborn, as they say, to a fault. They won't agree to peace for any reason. You cannot draw up a truce that this obstinate person will agree to, plainly stated. They're jerks. The polite King James folks call them implacable, but they're jerks. Okay? Can you believe it? We're almost done with chapter one. We started this in November of last year. It's taken all this time to get through one chapter, and it's just the first chapter. But don't worry, this is one of the most doctrine-filled, complicated chapters in the whole letter. So I don't expect that they'll all take us this long, but don't hold me to it. So let's finish verse 31 and then go right into the final verse of the chapter. Romans 131. Without understanding, we covered that. Covenant breakers covered that. Without natural affection, implacable covered all those.

Unmerciful Hearts And Celebrating Sin

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Next is unmerciful. Unmerciful is the last one there. Nothing hidden or unusual about that one. If you know what unmerciful is in English, then you know what the Greek word means too. Someone who doesn't practice compassion, someone who is cruel, someone who has no regard for human decency. A person without God's influence in their life is capable of the most uncaring, most unapologetic, unrestrained hatred imaginable. All right, verse 32. Who knowing the judgment of God, all these people committing all of these things, who knowing the judgment of God. Now, in the Greek, this is much stronger. The translation would be better if it said, well knowing, who well knowing the judgment of God. These are people who have a conviction about the wickedness of their actions, and yet they persist. There are plenty of examples I could give, but I'm sure you know a few yourself. Who, well knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them. Everything that Paul mentions here is worthy of death. And that should concern you. If it doesn't, then perhaps you're one of those that God has already turned his back on. I suspect that's none of you because you stuck around listening to this for several weeks. If you were one that didn't care because God had already turned his back on you, took his hand out of your life, you wouldn't have done that. You would have been long gone. So if that's not the case and yet you continue in your sins, count yourself lucky. But let me tell you, your luck will run out. Please realize that your life, your eternal life, is in jeopardy. Who, well knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them. There is no brotherhood like the brotherhood of sin. Going all the way back to the builders of Babel, men who have banded together in their rebellion against God, and there's been no let up since. Hey man, don't let them tell you how to behave. You have a right to be whatever you feel like being. Their oppressive rules are only in place to make us all unhappy. We should be happy, and that means there are no rules. I support you, and I know you support me. Rallies and marches and flags and symbols and catchphrases, all designed to foster unity and rebellion against God. Sin has sent has entered into every structure of our society, and the people are at best confused. Right and wrong are no longer concepts to adhere to. Morality and decency are pliable. The calls of the mob drown out God's truth and masks itself as the voice of reason and compassion and justice and equality. Listen to me, the only equality they're working towards is the equality of condemnation. The world wants to make sure you don't read things like Paul's letter to the Romans, so it tries to paint it as harmful and hateful and shameful, and they'll shout it down because if they didn't, you might actually see the path of destruction they're leading you down. And I'm not being dramatic. I'm trying to get you to recognize your true enemy. God is trying to save you, and the devil is trying to destroy you, but I can't convince you of that without scripture. Satan hates hope, and so he doesn't want you to regard the gospel as the power of God to save everyone that believeth. He wants you to revile such things as restricting when in fact they're liberating. Nothing is as liberating as the gospel because it frees you from the slavery of sin. Much more on that as we continue through this letter.

Closing Thoughts And How To Connect

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So that's it for chapter one. Now, usually this is where I do a wrap-up of some sort, maybe a little review of what we've covered, but this is kind of a unique situation. Chapter one flows so naturally into chapter two and does so purposely, in my opinion. I believe the Holy Spirit wanted us to see these two sections of Paul's letter to the Romans as a unified whole. And that's exactly how it feels. So we'll just end this lesson here and let chapter two sort of seamlessly integrate into the conversation. Next time we'll simply continue with all this. See you then.

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