"This is why God delivered them over to degrading passions." Following the sin of men and women exchanging natural relations for unnatural ones in verse Romans 1:26-27, the following passage continues in verse 28-32:

(Note: I'll usually speed read and blow past this section of scripture because my mind sums it up fast, "Bad stuff, dude. 'Stay on the sunny side of life.'" But, I want to break it down visually.)

And because they did not think it worthwhile to acknowledge God:

God delivered them over to a worthless mind to do what is morally wrong.

They are filled with

• All unrighteousness
• Evil
• Greed
• Wickedness.

They are full of

• Envy
• Murder
• Quarrels
• Deceit
• Malice

They are:

• Gossips
• Slanderers
• God-haters
• Arrogant
• Proud
• Boastful
• Inventors of evil
• Disobedient to parents
• Undiscerning
• Untrustworthy
• Unloving
• Unmerciful

"Filled with"..."full of"..."are." Interesting progression.

1. Although they know full well God's just sentence

2. That those who practice such things deserve to die.

3. They not only do them, but even applaud others who practice them.

And all of this above was kicked off with their exchanging the truth of God for a lie (Romans 1:25) to bow down before something else (we all worship), resulting in a failure of identity.

Now, before you start popping over the head of your favorite sinner with a whack-a-mole cudgel, here's a definition of "die" that is used in the text:

θάνατος (thanatos). n. masc. death. Refers primarily to physical death but also used for spiritual death or damnation. Often thanatos is used to refer to physical death (e.g., Matt 10:21). Death is described as a consequence of sin (Rom 5:12; 6:16, 21, 23; 7:5). Dying is referred to metaphorically as seeing death (e.g., Luke 2:26) or tasting death (e.g., Luke 9:27). Like the OT use of מָוֶת (māwet, “death”), thanatos may also at times refer to being near death (e.g., 2 Cor 11:23; Phil 2:27). Thanatos also occurs in reference to resurrection from physical death (e.g., Acts 2:24), the abolition of death (2 Tim 1:10; Rev 21:4), and spiritual death (e.g., Luke 1:79; Rom 8:6; Jas 5:20).

-Austin, Benjamin M. "Death." Lexham Theological Wordbook

And what I really like, is that IMMEDIATELY following that passage, when the reader might think, "Whew, sho glad that ain't me," we've got, "Therefore, any one of you who judges is without excuse. For when you judge another, you condemn yourself, since you, the judge, do the same things" (Romans 2:1). I'm immediately reminded of James 2:8-11:

Indeed, if you keep the royal law prescribed in the Scripture, Love your neighbor as yourself, you are doing well. But if you show favoritism, you commit sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. For whoever keeps the entire law, yet fails in one point, is guilty of breaking it all. For He who said, Do not commit adultery, also said, Do not murder. So if you do not commit adultery, but you do murder, you are a lawbreaker.

As soon as I start jabbing that finger toward another, I better go take a peek in front of that mirror—it better be one of those old pocket mirrors I used to keep in my jeans in high school 'cause I don't think I want to see the panoply of MY sin!

And it's funny: I seemingly expect that those who do NOT love God might still do the things of God. That's nuts! I should expect the very opposite! Why am I even surprised that in tears, they lament that they cannot take a claw hammer to a baby's face or throw Mama into an oncoming bus? These people are EVIL. They steal, kill and destroy like their father (John 10:10). They are queued up for Hell.

But, whatever they do, if they dance around whatever their golden calf is, so be it, they'll receive their just penalty. But, was I any different? I gotta examine myself: what do I find?

Hope. In only this, a repurposed version of Romans 3:23-26

• For I, <INSERT NAME> have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
• I am justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.
• God presented Him as a propitiation through faith in His blood, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His restraint God passed over the sins previously committed by ME.
• God presented Him to demonstrate His righteousness at the present time, so that He would be righteous and declare righteous ME who has faith in Jesus.

That's the gospel in a nutshell, folks. Not earned. Everything else you or I do after that is our response of love. We're a whole lotta nothing, but our heavenly Dad sees us through the lens of Jesus; when we stand before Him and our life is recounted, there is not a single sin, not a single stain in our lives. All of our filth, our brother Jesus bore in pain and torment on that cross. That propitiation is a huge gift. Yes, we earned Hell but we were gifted Jesus' blamelessness. Like Romans 4:5, we believe in Him "who declares the ungodly to be righteous."

And not only are we saved from what we deserve, our Dad adopted us. We are HEIRS!

Indeed:

How joyful are those whose lawless acts are forgiven and whose sins are covered!

How joyful is the man the Lord will never charge with sin!

-Romans 4:7–8

Now, there's been a verse, Romans 5:17, that's been standing out to me:

Since by the one man's trespass, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive the overflow of grace and the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ.

Admittedly, I've passed by this one for awhile, just thinking it was extra fluff (I know, I know...). But as I re-read it each day, it got me to thinking: a single human's error, that wretched fall to the deception in the Garden, has had exponential catastrophic results. Quite literally generational sin! Cascading avalanches of sin. Now 8 billion in, the number of sins committed is unfathomable to grasp—even if folks just gave up just a single sin per day!

OK, so we have all of that...and then with the Second Adam, that Eden failure is flipped on its head. In the death of the God-man, there are the utter delights of exponential of the exponential—again, our finite minds cannot fathom the infinite!

For those that have been called by Him, they'll identify with everything I've written here; their heart will again tug toward the One that has always loved them. And whoever you are, I look forward to celebrating time with you in Eternity.

For those that hate the things of God...may He make you ALIVE:

And you were dead in your trespasses and sins in which you previously walked according to the ways of this world, according to the ruler who exercises authority over the lower heavens, the spirit now working in the disobedient.

We too all previously lived among them in our fleshly desires, carrying out the inclinations of our flesh and thoughts, and we were by nature children under wrath as the others were also.

But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love that He had for us, made us alive with the Messiah even though we were dead in trespasses.

You are saved by grace!

Together with Christ Jesus He also raised us up and seated us in the heavens, so that in the coming ages He might display the immeasurable riches of His grace through His kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For you are saved by grace through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is God's gift—not from works, so that no one can boast.

For we are His creation, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared ahead of time so that we should walk in them.

Ephesians 2:1–10