Board index ‹ Specific Bible verses, texts, and passages ‹ Romans

[No Name]

Is it really possible to be given over to a reprobated mind?

I’ve heard testimonies of people who claim they wish they could still be saved but God stopped dealing with their heart because they ignored him too many times.

Is that really true? I always thought it was possible to be saved as long as you’re still alive.

[jimwalton]

It is possible. These rebellious ones had tested God (not in faith, but in rebellion), and when God didn't conform to their notions, they turned their backs on him, suppressing the truth that they inherently knew in their consciences and had learned in their lives. God became a mockable caricature based on partial truths and outright lies.

God, in his love, doesn't force people to love him, so he "punished" them by letting them exercise their free will in their insistence on sin. This is the third "God gave them over" in the text. Again we have a cause and effect. The cause is sin (rebellion in tossing into prison the knowledge of God); the effect is God's righteous judgment (his “wrath”). Their minds are not just dark, but reprobate—depraved. The godlessness of humankind is complete, a theme he will hammer home all the way through Romans chapter 3. He then launches into a directory of depravities to prove his point: everyone, every human being, no matter who you are, fits into one of these sins. There is none righteous, no not one.

"Reprobate" is the Greek word ἀδόκιμον: “Not standing the test; unqualified; worthless; base; disqualified; unfit for any good deed; unreliable; unworthy; tested and failed.” The preposition εἰς ("to") is used here to suggest the figure of a captive subjected to another power. They made their choice by free will, and God lets the natural consequences come upon them (so the punishment fits the crime), their knowledge of God becomes unreliable and worthless, and they are now captive of its power. Robertson says, "They rejected God and God rejected their mental attitude and gave them over. Like an old abandoned building, left to do those things which are not fitting. Like bats and snakes in a deserted building, like the nightclubs of modern cities, the dives and dens of unrestrained animal impulses."

The Interpreter's Bible says, "When you give away what is really worth keeping, you are left only with the kind of resources that isolation affords."

The result is serving one's own self-seeking desires rather than the will of the One True God. The reprobate mind is equally as destructive to self as the reprobate flesh, both characterized by sin. It is unprincipled, depraved, and unable to discern good, God, or evil. It is mind consumed by the cloud of self.

The result is serving one's own self-seeking desires rather than the will of the One True God. The reprobate mind is equally as destructive to self as the reprobate flesh, both characterized by sin. It is unprincipled, depraved, and unable to discern good, God, or evil. It is mind consumed by the cloud of self.