The Persistent Problem of Idolatry

Jim ButlerRomans 1:18–32

Romans 1:18–32 sets the universal guilt of mankind before any presentation of the gospel, and this exposition argues that the root of all social and moral disorder is not first a behavioral problem but a theological one: the suppression of God's self-revelation and the exchange of His glory for creature-worship. Paul's descent from ungodliness to unrighteousness maps directly onto contemporary culture, and the three divine abandonments of verse 24, 26, and 28 are read not as future threat but as present judicial reality. Believers are called to recognize idolatry as a persistent personal danger — of theology, innovation, utilitarianism, Mammon, and self — and to find the only antidote in the cross of Christ.