Romans 1 verses 18 to 32 is striking. There, the Apostle Paul casts the fallout of idolatry into categories of sexual sin, of a deepening entrapment to sexual sin, and specifically homosexual practices. The immediate relevance and potency of this text for our own culture raises all sorts of controversy, and merely expounding the Bible's own words in this chapter is an act commonly judged to be scandalous hate speech.

But the Bible says it, we won't ignore it, and Christians can't ignore it. So then, can these idolatries be saved from a process of divine heart-hardening? This question arrives from a listener named Nate. "Hello Pastor John, I was recently reading Romans chapter 1 verses 18 to 32. There, Paul seems to be saying that God gave up homosexual sinners to dishonorable passions because they worship the creature rather than the Creator.

There's a judgment in this text of God giving them over to a further hardening, and yet it also seems to me that former practitioners of homosexual sin can be saved out of that lifestyle, as we see in 1 Corinthians chapter 6 verses 9 to 11. So the handing over does not seem to be a permanent, irreversible thing either.

So is it possible for the ever-hardening heart of Romans 1 to eventually be saved?" Well, if Nate uses the phrase "ever-hardening heart," then he's already answering the question. Because if they are saved, then the hardening wasn't ever-hardening. But I assume what he's asking is whether the people of Romans 1 whom God gave up to the lust of their hearts can be saved.

In other words, is the giving up to hardness, to lusts, always forever? God can give up to hardness and corruption for a season or not, can He? And my answer is yes. He can and He does, and so the people of Romans 1 can be saved if God sends them the gospel and opens their hearts to believe it.

And here are several reasons that I think that. And the main one is the flow of thought in Romans 1 through 3 itself. We don't have to run over to 1 Corinthians 6, which we will, but we don't have to. The main point is that the flow of thought, Paul's intention in Romans 1 through 3, is to teach just that—namely, that these folks in Romans 1 can be saved.

Chapter 1 describes the typical Gentile situation before God in the bondage of blindness and sin. Chapter 2 describes the Jewish situation of bondage and blindness to sin. Then chapter 3 introduces God's saving action to rescue people from both groups, Jew and Gentile. So verse 9 of chapter 3 summarizes what he's been saying for two chapters, and he says, "What then?

Are we Jews any better off? No, not at all. For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks," chapter 1 and chapter 2, "are under sin." And I think that phrase "under sin" refers to bondage, under the power of sin for both Jew and Gentile, as they were described in chapters 1 and chapter 2.

And then comes this glorious saving action in chapter 3, 21, "But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from law, although the law and the prophets bear witness to it, the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For," and these important words, "there's no distinction for all who have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

They are justified by his grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus." Those words, "all have sinned and fall short," or literally lack the glory of God, are, I think, intentionally designed to recall verse 23 of chapter 1, they exchange the glory of God for images and resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.

Those are the people that God gives up to dishonorable passions, because they exchange the glory of God. They lack the glory of God. These are the very ones who threw away God's glory and he handed them over to corruption. These are the ones in 323 who are justified by faith.

That's the connection Paul is making. So that's my first reason for saying that the condition of the Gentiles in chapter 1 of being handed over to the lusts of their flesh is not necessarily irrevocable. I think chapter 3 of Romans is intended to say that God saves all who believe, including some of them from chapter 1.

Here's the second reason I think we should be hopeful for folks in chapter 1 of Romans. That same flow of thought is found in 1 Corinthians 6, 9, and 10. It says, "Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God?" So there they are, set, trajectory is on, they are doomed.

"Do not be deceived, neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God." That corresponds to the Gentile situation of Romans 1. In verse 11, "Such were some of you, you believers, you saints, you people on the way to heaven, but you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God." And that corresponds to the salvation in Romans 3 through 8.

So we're encouraged to believe that God steps in to the seeming impossible bondage to sin that he himself has handed people over to and sovereignly changes their hearts and saves them. And here's the third reason I think the sinners in Romans 1 that God has given up to bondage to sin can be saved and should take heart.

God is free to save anyone he please, and none can thwart his purpose to do so. Romans 9.15, God says to Moses, "I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion." So then it depends not on human will or exertion, or you could add, or any bondage that they're in, but on God who has mercy.

So he has mercy on whom he wills, and he hardens whom he wills. In other words, if God has given people over to the hardness of their heart, he is free to step in at any time he please, with anyone he please, to free them from that hardness. Here's a fourth reason we should be hopeful for those who seem to be impossibly ensnared in sin.

He raises the spiritually dead. Ephesians 2.5. He gives new birth. John 3.8. He takes out the heart of stone and puts in the heart of flesh, Ezekiel 11.19. So we should be encouraged that God can take out any hard heart that he has handed people over to. In other words, salvation isn't a mingling of human resolve and God's resolve.

It is a powerful, sovereign work of God replacing hearts. Finally, we should take heart for those folks in Romans 1, because even though Satan is stronger than we are, nevertheless, God overcomes satanic blindness to save people, according to 2 Corinthians 4, 4-6. So if he's willing and able to step in and conquer Satan's supernatural power of blindness, who loves to beat up on people who have been handed over by God to their sin, we can be encouraged that he is able and willing to save those who are in bondage to their own finite sinfulness.

So my conclusion is, when we read about God giving someone over to passions and hardening, we should not conclude that this is always permanent. God can and does break in and save. Yes, amen. He is a gracious God. Thank you, Pastor John, for those hope-filled words. Well, for everything you need to know about this podcast, you can pretty much find it all at our online home at DesiringGod.org/AskPastorJohn.

There you can find past episodes, a list of our most popular episodes, and you can send a question or a follow-up question to us through that page as well. Well, on Wednesday, we hear from a Christian who came to embrace Reformed theology in college, and that same believer is now having children of her own and building a family with children that may or may not be elect in Christ.

And that reality raises huge questions for young parents like a young mom named Alex. We will hear from her next time on Wednesday. I'm your host Tony Reinke. We'll see you then. 1. What is the purpose of the Reformed Church? The Reformed Church is a Christian organization.