“The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities — his eternal power and divine nature — have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.” – Romans 1:18 – 20
God has already won this culture war which is why Satan can’t win any ground other than that which we – you and I – cede to him or give away to him in this cultural combat. He wants to rob us of our victorious lifestyle, the joy of communing with our Lord, and the blessing bestowed upon us at the moment we were saved and safe and sure for Heaven. He may not be able to snatch us from our Father’s hands, but he wants to limit our witness and to ruin our ministry and to place tears in the eyes of our family members and destroy our marriages and send our kids away and mess up our lives here on the planet. And he does this by convincing us that sin is OK to dabble in for a while – and many times we don’t realize it when it’s happening and not until we feel guilty about it after the fact – like Israel in the Old Testament, and then we return to our Lord in repentance.
Romans 1:18 is about the conception of sin. We are told about this in the book of James:
“When tempted, no one should say, ‘God is tempting me.’ For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.” – James 1:13 – 15
Sin is not about desire—desire is not a bad thing in and of itself. I desire my bride and the hugs of my grandchildren. I desire my Father’s inclined eyes towards me. Desire isn’t the issue.
But rather when evil and desire are wed together then sin is conceived. In Romans 1:18 here we see the sperm and egg of sin meeting. This is the moment of conception of sin. And James tells us what happens after that.
And this moment of conception could be taking place on any of the culture war’s battlefields. I think you’ll agree with me that we can learn about this most insidious entry of sin into our lives. It has to do with truth and this moment of conception of sin in Romans 1:18.
Sin doesn’t begin when we jump into bed with the secretary. Sin doesn’t begin with that inappropriate conversation at the water cooler that we have with her before that happened. Sin was conceived the moment we suppressed the truth that it’s wrong to have that conversation or engage in adultery. Sin was conceived the moment we gave away ground to the enemy on the culture war’s intellectual battlefield. Sin was conceived the moment we decided that living a little less victoriously was worth it. And we feel guilt when we finally discover too late that it wasn’t worth it. That sin separates us from a Holy God. We discover too late that it wasn’t a little less victoriously but a lot less victoriously.
You see, it’s an intellectual construct and suddenly you and I don’t feel as well-prepared to go out into the world and face the enemy because we know of times we have given ground to the enemy on the intellectual front — when we’ve laughed at that off-color joke, or when we have gone to that movie that filled our minds with images when our minds need to be filled with the things that Paul tells us in Philippians 4:8: “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable–if anything is excellent or praiseworthy–think about such things.”
We may not feel as well-prepared to go out, but we should. We are prone to wander; Lord I feel it. Prone to leave the God I love. As long as we keep in mind that the mind is the womb of sin, then we’ll better recognize the sin in our lives before it robs us of the joy our Father wants for us.