SEV Biblia, Chapter 1:32
que habiendo entendido la justicia de Dios, no entendieron que los que hacen tales cosas son dignos de muerte; no slo los que las hacen, ms an los que consienten a los que las hacen.
Clarke's Bible Commentary - Romans 1:32
Verse 32. Who, knowing the judgment of God] dikaiwma, the grand rule of right which God has revealed to every man, the knowledge of which he has, less or more, given to every nation of the world, relative to honouring parents, taking care of their own offspring, keeping their engagements, &c., &c. In the worst states of heathenism this great principle has been acknowledged; but, through the prevalence of corruption in the heart, this law, though acknowledged, was not obeyed; and the corruption increased so that those were highest in repute who had cast off all restraints of this kind; so that they even delighted in them; suneudokousi, highly applauded, and gladly associated with those transgressors: which argues the very highest pitch of moral depravity. 1. THE preceding chapter gives us one of the finest views of the Gospel of Christ, to be met with any where. It is God's method of saving a lost world, in a way which that world could never have imagined: there is nothing human in it; it is all truly and gloriously Divine; essentially necessary to the salvation of man, and fully adequate to the purposes of its institution. Though it is an extension of the old covenant, yet it is almost wholly dissimilar; being as different from that as the person is from the picture which represents it, and as the substance is from the shadow projected by it. It is a scheme as worthy of God as it is necessary for man; hence there are no excluding clauses in it-it is for the Jew and for the Greek; for the wise and for the unwise; for all the nations of the universe, and for all the individuals of those nations. He blasphemes God who holds the contrary.
2. As God never does any thing that is not fitting, suitable, and necessary to be done, he has not made an unnecessary display of his mercy and goodness in the incarnation and death of his Son-all this was necessary, else it had not been done. But how does the necessity appear? In the deep-rooted and widely extended corruption and profligacy of the nations of the earth. Of these the apostle gives a most affecting and distressing picture. 1. Almost every trace of original righteousness had been obliterated. The proofs of God's eternal power and providence, so manifest in the creation and preservation of the universe, were wholly disregarded. 3. A vain philosophy, without right, principle, or end, was substituted for those Divine truths which had been discovered originally to man. 4. Their hearts were contaminated with every vice which could blind the understanding, pervert the judgment, corrupt the will, and debase the affections and passions. 5. This was proved in the most unequivocal manner, by a profligacy of conduct which had debased them far, far below the beasts that perish; and the apostle here gives a list of their crimes, every article of which can be incontrovertibly proved from their own history and their own writers: crimes which, even bad as the world is now, would shock common decency to describe. See the whole of the second, third, sixth, and ninth Satires of Juvenal.
3. So completely lost were the heathens to a knowledge of the influence of God on the souls and the necessity of that influence, that they asserted, in the most positive manner, that man was the author of his own virtue and wisdom. Cicero, Nat. Deor., lib. iii. c. 36, declares it a general opinion that, although mankind received from the gods the outward conveniencies of life-virtutem autem nemo unquam acceptam Deo retulit-"virtue none ever thought they received from the Deity." And again:-"This is the persuasion of all, that fortune is to be had from the gods; wisdom from ourselves." And again:-"Whoever thanked the gods for his being a good man? Men pray to Jupiter, not that he would make them just, temperate, and wise; but rich and prosperous." JUVENAL, on this point, speaks thus:- Monstro, quod ipse tibi possis dare: Semita certe Tranquillae per virtutem patet unica vitae. Sat. x. v. 363.
The path to peace is virtue; which, I show, Thyself may fully on thyself bestow.
In the same stain, HORACE, EPIST. lib. i. E. xviii. v. penult.
Haec satis est orare Jovem, qui donat et aufert: Det vitam det opes: aequum mi animum ipse parabo.
To Jove for life and wealth I pray, These Jove may give or take away; But, for a firm and tranquil mind, That blessing for myself I find.
Thus, they became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened; and professing themselves to be wise, they became fools. See Madan's Juvenal, vol. ii. p. 53.
4. By all this we see what the world was, and what it would have continued to be had not God sent a Divine revelation of his will, and established a public ministry to proclaim and enforce it. Were man left to the power and influence of his fallen nature he would be, in all places of his dispersion on the earth, what the apostle describes in the 29th, 30th, and 31st verses of this chapter. Reader, magnify God, who has called thee from such deep darkness, to the marvellous light of the glorious Gospel of his Son; and walk as a child of the light and of the day, in whom there shall be no cause of stumbling.
John Gill's Bible Commentary
Ver. 32. Who knowing the judgment of God , etc..] Either of the law of God, the law and light of nature, by which they might in some measure know the difference between good and evil, and what was right and wrong; or the judiciary sentence of God against sin: that they which commit such things are worthy of death ; at least of corporeal death: not only do the same, but have pleasure in those that do them ; all which greatly aggravated their wickedness, since they sinned against light and knowledge, with approbation and good liking of their own sins, and took pleasure in the sins of others. The Jews have a saying f14 , that no man is suspected of a thing but he has done it; and if he has not done the whole of it, he has done part of it, and if he has not done part of it, he has thought in his heart to do it, and if he has not thought in his heart to do it, jmw w[ yrja har , he has seen others do it, and has rejoiced.
And if such a man is a wicked man, how much more wicked are such who commit sin themselves, and delight in the sins of others? now from this whole account we see the insufficiency of the light of nature to guide persons in the way of salvation; what need there was of a divine revelation; and how impossible it is that such men should ever be justified before God, by any works of seeming righteousness done by them; which the apostle had in view, in giving this account of the depraved nature and conduct of the Gentiles, and of those among them who professed to be, and were the wisest and most knowing of them.
Matthew Henry Commentary
Verses 26-32 - In the horrid depravity of the heathen, the truth of our Lord's word was shown: "Light was come into the world, but men loved darknes rather than light, because their deeds were evil; for he that doet evil hateth the light." The truth was not to their taste. And we all know how soon a man will contrive, against the strongest evidence, to reason himself out of the belief of what he dislikes. But a man cannot be brought to greater slavery than to be given up to his own lusts. A the Gentiles did not like to keep God in their knowledge, the committed crimes wholly against reason and their own welfare. The nature of man, whether pagan or Christian, is still the same; and the charges of the apostle apply more or less to the state and character of men at all times, till they are brought to full submission to the fait of Christ, and renewed by Divine power. There never yet was a man, wh had not reason to lament his strong corruptions, and his secret dislik to the will of God. Therefore this chapter is a call to self-examination, the end of which should be, a deep conviction of sin and of the necessity of deliverance from a state of condemnation __________________________________________________________________
Greek Textus Receptus
οιτινες 3748 R-NPM το 3588 T-ASN δικαιωμα 1345 N-ASN του 3588 T-GSM θεου 2316 N-GSM επιγνοντες 1921 5631 V-2AAP-NPM οτι 3754 CONJ οι 3588 T-NPM τα 3588 T-APN τοιαυτα 5108 D-APN πρασσοντες 4238 5723 V-PAP-NPM αξιοι 514 A-NPM θανατου 2288 N-GSM εισιν 1526 5748 V-PXI-3P ου 3756 PRT-N μονον 3440 ADV αυτα 846 P-APN ποιουσιν 4160 5719 V-PAI-3P αλλα 235 CONJ και 2532 CONJ συνευδοκουσιν 4909 5719 V-PAI-3P τοις 3588 T-DPM πρασσουσιν 4238 5723 V-PAP-DPM
Robertson's NT Word Studies
1:32 {The ordinance of God} (to dikai"ma tou qeou). The heathen knows that God condemns such evil practices. {But also consent with them} (alla kai suneudokousin). Late verb for hearty approval as in #Lu 11:48; Ac 8:1; 1Co 7:12. It is a tragedy of American city government that so many of the officials are proven to be hand in glove with the underworld of law-breakers.
