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Here is man's true dominion. O what a falling off is there in Rom. 1:! Placed over the
work of God's hand we find man so utterly darkened and besotted that he worships the
very creation that had been placed beneath his feet. This idolatry, and all that it implies,
degraded both God and man. The truth, and all it implies, honours both God and man.
Vanity.
At the fall of man in Eden, vanity entered and ruled. "For the creation was made
subject to vanity" (Rom. 8: 20). Ecclesiastes found everything connected with Adam
and separated from the risen Christ to be "vanity and vexation of spirit" (For justification
of such a statement see the articles on Ecclesiastes in Vols. 10:-13:). Vanity not only
ruled without, but it reigned within. "They became vain in their imagination" (Rom. 1:
21). There are two words that are translated" vain," kenos and mataios. The former refers
to contents, the latter to results. It is the latter word that is used here. The word
"imagination" is dialogismos, which is translated in Rom. 14: 1: "disputations." The fact
is, these reasonings were futile, resultless, empty. They led nowhere except to complete
alienation from God. "The Gentiles walk in the 'Vanity of their mind. . . . . . being
alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them" (Eph. 4: 17, 18).
The apostles at Lystra, as we have already seen, refer to the idols of the Gentiles as
"vanities." Jer. 2: 5 reveals the reason for Gentile blindness: .. They are gone
far from Me, and have walked after vanity, and are become "vain" (see also 2 Kings 17:
15).
There are two important lessons to be learned here. First, the more obvious one, that
man cannot by mere reasoning or philosophy discover God: "the world through its
wisdom knew not God." It is a primary necessity that" He who cometh to God must
believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him"; in other
words, approach to God necessitates the recognition of the glory due to Him as God
(Rom. 1: 21)- "He is" (Heb. 11: 6), and thankfulness (Rom. 1: 21), for He is the" rewarder"
(Heb. 11: 6). The moment the fool says in his heart, There is no God, it can be written,
"Corrupt they are, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good" (Psa.
16: I). This Psalm is quoted at some length in Rom. 3:, but its presence can be felt
already in Rom. 1:
The second lesson that we may learn is to avoid a tendency to extremes, and to the
condemning of "reasoning" as such. High in the list of those enduements that lift man
above the level of the brute is the possession of reason, and it is false to assert that faith is
contrary to reason, or that it is unreasonable; that is to degrade faith to credulity, and
revealed truth to the level of superstition. Where faith is in the ascendant, the mind is
clarified, false grounds of argument are detected, and reason and faith walk hand in hand.
"The entrance of Thy words giveth light; it giveth understanding to the simple" (Psa.
119: 130). The necessary outcome of these baseless and empty speculations was the
darkening of this very faculty of reason. "Their foolish heart was darkened" (Rom. 1: 21).
"Foolish" is translated undiscerning by Rotherham, and is translated in verse 31 (A.V.)
by "without understanding." The darkness that settled down upon the world shut out the
only light in which man may walk and please God; his reason and his mind ceased to
function correctly, even as the eye loses its power and its discernment if deprived of light.
It is" in Thy light we shall see light" (Psa. 36: 9). This assumption of wisdom was in
reality sheer imbecility. Rom. 1: 22 led the Gentile world by rapid stages into a morass of
the most degraded form of idolatry and immorality :