As was just discussed, fallen man’s utter deadness produces within him a need to excuse himself from the things of God. Perhaps this is for his own conscience sake or so that he does not have to acknowledge that God has every sovereign right to direct his thinking and behavior. To which ever end the natural man must travel the logistical outworking is the same; he not only denies the knowledge of God, but he also seeks to actively suppress this knowledge. Again, the Apostle Paul has much to say,
“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.” (Romans 1: 18, ESV)
And again, “because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.” (Romans 1: 25)
And yet again, “And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.” (Romans 1: 28 - 32)
It seems that as the Apostle delineates what it means to suppress the truth, it falls into two primary categories; an active suppression with willful intent and a passive suppression born out of an ignorance of one’s true condition.
The Active Suppression Of The Truth
When the Apostle says that by men’s unrighteousness they suppress the truth, part of this suppression is the active and intentional pressing down what is obviously knowable about God. God has revealed Himself in a way that may not lead to salvation, the general revelation of God, but this knowledge is sufficient for the understanding that God exists. In turn, those who are utterly dead deny that simple knowledge of God and seek to eradicate it from all existence. As Paul says they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature, all of what the natural man does is with active forethought and premeditation. His intentionally seeking to suppress the knowledge of God is not accidental, it is with great purpose. In the absence of God, man fills the void.
The Passive Ignorance Of One’s True Condition
There is another component to man’s suppression of the truth in his radical corruption; it is the passive ignorance of his true condition. In verses twenty-eight through thirty-two, the Apostle states that not only do men suppress the truth about God that has been given to them, but because of their willful denial, God gives them over to practice the greatest expressions of this corruption by doing everything that stands in opposition to God. This is more than just removing all restrictions. Rather, fallen man does not see himself in the wrong and therefore accepts all types of debauchery as being completely acceptable. This concept is seen at the end of verse thirty-two when Paul says that the natural man seeks to give approval to those who think and behave as he does. In the utter deadness of his corruption, the only one man has really deceived is himself thinking that the standards of God communicated through the created order are somehow authoritative to all except him. Or perhaps the reason fallen man seeks to bring others into his way of thinking serves to validate his corrupt behavior through the mutual consensus of the guilty. Either way, those deluded by their own radical corruption do not see the peril that they flirt with and this passive ignorance blinds the lost man to his real condition.
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