Lenten Reflection – Day 12 of the Great Lent
The Great Exchange – Romans 1:13-25
“For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse.” (1:20)
Twelve days. Almost two full weeks of the fast. We have prayed. We have fasted. We have examined ourselves. We have been told to draw near to God. To trust the seed growing in secret. To pray without ceasing. To choose between two masters.
Today Paul takes us back to the beginning. Before the fast. Before the law. Before the prophets. Before Abraham. Back to the very start. Back to creation itself. And he asks a question that shakes the foundations of everything we think we know about ourselves.
What went wrong?
Not what went wrong in Corinth or Jerusalem or Antioch. What went wrong with the human race? How did creatures made in the image of God end up worshiping animals and stars? How did they end up worshiping the work of their own hands? How did people see the evidence of God’s power in every sunrise? They saw it in every storm and every blade of grass. Why did they decide to pretend He was not there?
Paul’s answer is devastating. They knew. They all knew. And they chose not to know.
This is not a passage about pagans in ancient Rome. It is a passage about the human heart. Your heart. My heart. The heart that sees the truth and trades it for something smaller. The heart that knows God and chooses something else. The heart that performs the great exchange.
The Great Lent exists because of this exchange. And the Great Lent exists to reverse it.
Not Ashamed of the Gospel (vv. 13–17)
“For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, ‘The just shall live by faith.'” (1:16–17)
Paul begins with a declaration. He is not ashamed of the Gospel.
Why would he be? Because in Rome, the Gospel looked foolish. The Empire worshiped power. Military power. Political power. Economic power. The cross was the Empire’s symbol of defeat. The Romans crucified criminals and rebels. To preach a crucified Messiah in the capital of the world was to invite ridicule. It was like walking into the headquarters of the most powerful army on earth and saying: our leader was executed by your soldiers, and that is why he is Lord of everything.
Paul says: I am not ashamed. Because this foolish Gospel is the power of God. Not a power among many powers. The power. The only power that actually saves. Everything else that claims to save, whether it is money or military strength or political influence or personal achievement, is a counterfeit. The Gospel is the real thing.
“The just shall live by faith.” Paul quotes Habakkuk 2:4. This sentence became the engine of his entire theology. The righteous person does not live by keeping rules perfectly. He does not live by accumulating enough good works to earn God’s approval. He lives by faith. By trust. By leaning his whole weight on God and letting God hold him up.
St. Cyril of Alexandria, in his commentary on Romans, teaches that Paul’s “not ashamed” is not just personal courage. It is a theological statement. To be ashamed of the Gospel is to misunderstand what power looks like. The world measures power by domination. God measures power by love. The Cross looks like weakness. It is the strongest thing in the universe. Cyril argues that the Incarnation itself was God’s refusal to be ashamed of humanity. God was not ashamed to become flesh. God was not ashamed to be born in a stable. God was not ashamed to die on a cross. If God is not ashamed of us, why should we be ashamed of Him?1
What Can Be Known About God (vv. 18–20)
“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse.” (1:18–20)
Now Paul shifts. From the Gospel’s power to the world’s problem. And the problem is not ignorance. It is suppression.
“Who suppress the truth in unrighteousness.” The Greek word for “suppress” is katechontōn. It means to hold down. To restrain. To sit on something so it cannot rise. Paul is not saying that people do not know the truth about God. He is saying they do know it and are actively holding it down. Pushing it under the surface. Keeping it quiet. Refusing to let it breathe.
Why? Because the truth is inconvenient. If God is real, I am accountable. If God is powerful, I am not in control. If God is good, my selfishness stands exposed. It is easier to suppress the truth than to face its demands.
“For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen.”
This is one of the most important sentences in all of Paul’s writing. God’s existence is not hidden. It is displayed. In every created thing. In the vastness of the night sky. In the structure of a leaf. In the complexity of the human eye. In the rhythm of the seasons. In the fact that anything exists at all rather than nothing.
The Orthodox tradition has always taught this. Creation is not just scenery. It is revelation. Every tree, every river, every mountain, every insect is a word spoken by God. The world is a book. And the author is visible on every page.
St. Athanasius the Great, in his early work Against the Heathen, develops this at length. He argues that the order and beauty of the created world are sufficient evidence for the existence and goodness of God. A person who looks at a well-governed city knows that a ruler is at work even if he has never seen the ruler’s face. A person who looks at a lyre playing beautiful music knows that a musician is at work even if the musician is hidden behind a curtain. In the same way, a person who looks at the ordered beauty of creation knows that a wise and powerful Creator is at work. The evidence is everywhere. The conclusion is obvious. The only reason people miss it is that they choose not to look.2
“So that they are without excuse.”
This is the verdict. No one can stand before God and say: I did not know. You did know. The evidence was all around you. You chose to look away.
The Great Lent is a season of looking. Of paying attention. Of opening our eyes to what has been in front of us all along. The fast strips away the distractions that keep us from seeing. The silence removes the noise that keeps us from hearing. And when the distractions are gone and the noise is quiet, what remains? God. Visible in everything He has made. Speaking through everything He has created. Waiting for us to stop suppressing and start seeing.
The Exchange (vv. 21–23)
“Because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man, and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things.” (1:21–23)
Here is the centre of the passage. Here is the diagnosis of the human disease. Three steps downward. Each one leads to the next. And each one is present in our own hearts.
Step one: ‘… they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful.‘
The first step down is not a dramatic sin. It is a failure of gratitude. They saw God’s work. They benefited from His gifts. And they did not say thank you. They took the sunrise for granted. They ate the food without acknowledging the Giver. They breathed the air without praising the One who made it.
Ingratitude is the root sin. Before idolatry. Before immorality. Before every other evil Paul will list in the coming verses. Ingratitude. The refusal to recognize that everything we have is a gift.
On Day 11, we learned that we are stewards, not owners. Today we learn why stewardship fails. It fails because we forget to be thankful. The person who is truly grateful cannot hoard. The person who recognizes every good thing as a gift cannot claim it as his own. Gratitude is the antidote to greed. And the absence of gratitude is the doorway to everything that follows.
Step two: ‘… they became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened.’
When gratitude disappears, clarity disappears with it. The mind that does not acknowledge God begins to lose its ability to think straight. Not because God punishes it, but because truth and gratitude are connected. The person who refuses to see the Giver eventually loses the ability to see the gift clearly. Everything becomes distorted. Priorities shift. Important things seem trivial. Trivial things seem urgent. The heart grows dark. Not suddenly. Gradually. Like a room where the curtains are being drawn shut one by one.
St. Irenaeus of Lyon, in his great work Against Heresies, teaches that the human mind was designed to know God. When it turns away from God, it does not become neutral. It becomes disordered. Like an eye that refuses to look at the light. The eye does not simply see darkness. It begins to see everything wrongly. Shapes blur. Distances distort. Colors fade. The eye still functions. But it no longer functions as it was designed to. Irenaeus argues that heresy and idolatry are not failures of intelligence. They are failures of orientation. The mind is brilliant but it is pointing in the wrong direction.3
Step three: ‘…they changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image.‘
Here is the exchange. The great swap. They had the glory of the incorruptible God. Infinite. Eternal. Beyond all beauty and all understanding. And they traded it. For what? For an image made like a man. Or a bird. Or an animal. Or a reptile.
Read that list again. It goes downward. Man. Bird. Animal. Creeping thing. The exchange does not stay at the same level. It descends. Once you start trading down, you keep trading down. You trade God for a human ideal. Then you trade the human ideal for something lower. Then lower again. Until you are worshiping snakes and beetles and things that crawl in the dirt.
Paul is describing ancient pagan idolatry. But the pattern is universal. We do not carve wooden statues of Isis or Apollo. But we do worship images. The image of success. The image of beauty. The image of wealth. The image of ourselves that we project on social media. And the exchange always goes in the same direction. Downward. Always downward. Always trading something eternal for something that fades.
Worshipping the Creature (vv. 24–25)
“Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonour their bodies among themselves, who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.” (1:24–25)
“God gave them up.”
Three of the most terrible words in Scripture. Not “God punished them.” Not “God struck them down.” He gave them up. He let them go. He let them have what they wanted.
This is not rage. It is grief. The grief of a father watching his son walk out the door and knowing he cannot force him to stay. The grief of a doctor watching a patient refuse treatment. God does not drag people into the light by force. He offers the light. He displays the light. He fills creation with the light. And when they choose darkness, He lets them go into it.
St. John Chrysostom, in his Homily 3 on Romans, is careful to explain what “God gave them up” does not mean. It does not mean God caused their sin. It does not mean God pushed them into evil. It means God withdrew His restraining hand. He allowed the consequences of their choice to unfold. Chrysostom compares it to a General who withdraws his protection from a soldier who has deserted. The General does not attack the soldier. He simply stops defending him. And without the General’s protection, the enemies the soldier used to be shielded from now have free access.4
“Who exchanged the truth of God for the lie.”
Not a lie. The lie. There is one fundamental lie beneath all other lies. The lie that says: you do not need God. You can be your own god. You can determine your own truth. You can provide for your own needs. You can save yourself. This is the lie of the serpent in the garden: “You will be like God.” It is the lie behind every idol. Behind every addiction. Behind every attempt to build a life that does not need the Creator.
“And worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator.”
This is the final description of the exchange. Not worshipping nothing. Worshipping something. But the wrong something. The creature instead of the Creator. The gift instead of the Giver. The painting instead of the painter.
St. Severus of Antioch, the great sixth-century Patriarch and theologian of the Oriental Orthodox tradition, teaches in his Cathedral Homilies that idolatry is never the worship of nothing. It is always the worship of something real that has been given a status it does not deserve. Money is real. Beauty is real. Power is real. Intelligence is real. None of these things is evil. All of them are gifts of God. The sin is not in valuing them. The sin is in worshipping them. In giving them the place that belongs only to God. Severus warns that the most dangerous idols are not the obvious ones. The golden calf is easy to spot. The subtle idol of self-sufficiency is not.5
What This Means for Day 12
The Great Lent is the reversal of the exchange.
For twelve days, the Church has been guiding us back. Back from the creature to the Creator. Back from the lie to the truth. Back from the images we have been worshipping to the glory of the God we have been ignoring.
The fast reverses the exchange at the most basic level. We stop worshipping food. We stop treating our stomachs as the centre of our lives. We skip the meal and in doing so we say: the creature is not my god. The Creator is.
The prayer reverses the exchange at the level of the mind. We stop listening to the thousand voices that tell us we can manage without God. We turn our attention back to the One whose invisible attributes are clearly seen in everything He has made. We open our eyes. We look. We see.
The repentance reverses the exchange at the level of the heart. We stop suppressing the truth. We stop pushing it down. We let it rise. We let it speak. We let it expose the idols we have been protecting. And we let it break them.
Paul ends verse 25 with a sudden, unexpected doxology: “the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.” In the middle of describing humanity’s darkest failure, he cannot help himself. He breaks into praise. Because even while describing the exchange, Paul knows that the Creator has not changed. The glory has not diminished. The truth has not become less true because people have traded it for a lie. God is still blessed. God is still worthy. God is still God.
And that is the good news of Day 12. The exchange can be reversed. Because God has not moved. We moved. And the road back is open.
For Our Journey Today
Practice gratitude. Ingratitude is where the exchange begins. Gratitude is where the reversal begins. Today, before we eat, before we start work, before we do anything, stop and give thanks. Not a vague, general thank-you. Specific thanks. For the air in our lungs. For the water in our cup. For the person sitting across from us. For the fact that we woke up this morning. Name the gifts. Name the Giver.
Identify one idol. We do not worship golden calves. But we worship something. We all do. What is the creature we have given the Creator’s place? Our career? Our reputation? Our comfort? Your phone? Our plan for the future? Name it. Not to destroy it. It is probably a good thing in itself. But to put it back in its proper place. Below God. Not beside Him.
Look at creation. Go outside today if you can. Look at the sky. Look at a tree. Look at the face of another human being. And see God’s invisible attributes clearly displayed. Let creation preach to us. Let the evidence speak. Paul says it is all there. We just need to stop suppressing it and start seeing it.
Lord God, Creator of heaven and earth, whose invisible attributes are clearly seen in everything You have made, forgive us for the exchange. We have traded Your glory for images. We have worshipped the creature and ignored the Creator. We have suppressed the truth because it was inconvenient and replaced it with lies that were comfortable. Reverse the exchange in us during this holy fast. Open our eyes to see You in Your creation. Open our hearts to thank You for Your gifts. Open our hands to release the idols we have been clutching. You are blessed forever. You have not changed. You have not moved. Bring us back to where You are. By the prayers of the Most Holy Theotokos, the holy Apostle Paul, and all the saints, have mercy on us and save us. Amen.
References:
- St. Cyril of Alexandria, On the Unity of Christ, translated by John McGuckin (St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, Popular Patristics Series, 1995) ↩︎
- St. Athanasius the Great (c. 296–373). Against the Heathen (Contra Gentes). Athanasius: Contra Gentes and De Incarnatione, translated by Robert W. Thomson (Oxford University Press, Oxford Early Christian Texts, 1971). ↩︎
- Irenaeus of Lyons: Against the Heresies, translated by Dominic J. Unger and John J. Dillon, Ancient Christian Writers Series, Nos. 55, 64, 65 (Paulist Press, 1992–2012). Multiple volumes covering the five books. Also in the Ante-Nicene Fathers (ANF), Vol. 1, translated by Alexander Roberts and William Rambaut (available at newadvent.org and ccel.org). ↩︎
- St. John Chrysostom (c. 349–407). Homily 3 on Romans, on Romans 1:18–25. Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers (NPNF), Series I, Vol. 11: Homilies on the Epistle to the Romans, translated by J.B. Morris, W.H. Simcox, and George B. Stevens (available at newadvent.org and ccel.org). ↩︎
- St. Severus of Antioch (c. 465–538). Cathedral Homilies (Homiliae Cathedrales). The Cathedral Homilies exist in Syriac translation (the Greek originals being largely lost). Critical editions of select homilies have been published in the Patrologia Orientalis (PO) series, edited by Maurice Brière and François Graffin. English translations of select homilies are available in Pauline Allen and C.T.R. Hayward, Severus of Antioch (Routledge, Early Church Fathers Series, 2004). ↩︎
