What is God doing when He gives people up to their sin?
Scripture teaches that when God gives people up to their sin, He is judicially causing them to go deeper into that sin as a consequence of their idolatry, unbelief, and rebellion. This is not mere permission but an active handing over, resulting in lower levels of sin, as seen in Romans chapter 1.
Les explains that this giving up is rooted in the Tower of Babel, where idolatry began. In Romans 1:23, mankind changed the glory of the incorruptible God into images of corruptible man, birds, beasts, and creeping things. Because of their falling into idolatry, God gave them up to uncleanness (v.24). Les asks what God is doing, and answers that God is judicially causing mankind to go deeper into sin—something we cannot comprehend, but Scripture teaches it. Then when they descended to a lower level of sin, God put them even lower (v.26) because of their behavior, unbelief, and rebellion.
Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves:
More Questions
What does 'God gave them up' mean in Romans 1:24?
When mankind turned his back on the one true God and began to worship idols and things made with men's hands, God gave them up, and this 'gave them up' was an act.