January 11, 2004

VAIN IMAGINATIONS

Romans 1:21-23

   "They glorified Him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools..." (Romans 1:21-22). Vain is the word for emptiness, and imaginations might better be thought of as reasoning. Greatest among the many endowments God gave man setting him far above the beasts is the ability to reason. This faculty suffers immeasurable loss in those who turn away from God. The creation, made "subject to vanity" means that God gave man the option to decide for himself whether or not he would trust God and obey Him. Turning away from God was man's choice in Eden 's garden and again at Babel 's tower. The result of dishonoring God is that man himself is also dishonored in the process. When man robbed God, he robbed himself!

   God made man "a little lower than the angels, and...crowned him with glory and honor" (Psa. 8:5-8), yet this self-degradation resulted in man sinking lower than the beasts. Man's true dominion given of God was lost in the fall. But at Babel he worshiped the very creatures God had put under his feet! Just as idolatry, and all that it implies, degraded God and man, so truth, and all it implies, honors and exalts God and man!

   Solomon in all his wisdom found that everything connected with Adam and separated from the living God was but "vanity and vexation of spirit (Eccl. 1:2, 12:8). When the idolaters of Lystra and Derbe thought "the gods are come down to us in the likeness of men," Paul and Barnabas pled with them to "turn from these vanities unto the living God, Who made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all things..." (Acts 14:11,15). Gentiles are characterized by "walking in the vanity of their mind" (Eph. 4:17). Jeremiah said even of Israel 's wickedness, "they have gone after vanities" (Jer. 2:5).

   By vain reasoning man cannot discover God, "for the world through its wisdom knew not God" (1 Cor. 1:21). On the other hand, "he that comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him" (Heb: 11:1). Seek Him now!

Ivan L. Burgener