The Fivefold Path of Reconciliation. Part II: The “change” effected in the fallen mind: Hell itself internalized making us, in the end, “foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless”

[Reading Time: 9 minutes]

Review

In the initial post, we examined the opening use of allássō, which, we found, operated on two levels. The first level was that of the manipulated control of the fallen mind, which, though able to direct and control external effects, failed to bring the ultimate outcome they sought. That is to say, though it succeeded in securing that which they desired, it enable (in a mysterious way) the inworking and outworking of the Divine Will. Stephen’s death became the seed for the massive growth of the NT Church. Now, we move onto the next occurrence, where we will see that there is another, unintended effect. When we give ourselves over to this manipulated control, it eventually changes us, not in ways that we expected, but in a darker, even terrifying way.

Summary Synthesis

The second occurrence of allássō in the NT comes at the close of Romans 1, where we see how the manipulated control of the fallen mind does indeed work. But the result is much different than we may have expected; for as we tread down this pathway of external, manipulated control, it has a deeply transforming inner effect upon our inner life. And the result of the change that we effect in and through it is our passageway, quite terrifyingly, down a road where, in the words of the Psalm, we begin to be “turned into Hell” itself. That is to say, in our very person the diabolical life of Hell is being internalized and the fruits of that change will be worked out in our midst. in our families, in our churches, in our communities.

Detailed Analysis

In a quite terrifying passage at the close of the first chapter of Romans, Paul documents with surgical precision what change is being worked into the soul of man when he rejects the original, Edenic calling to become, in the words of Schmemann, a “doxalogical eucharistic creature”—that is to say, men and women who “glorify (doxazō) and give thanks (eucharisteō) to God” (θεὸν ἐδόξασαν ἢ εὐχαρίστησαν, 1:21b). When man rejects this most fundamental Reality of all life, which has been made “known…manifest...shown” to them, it inevitably leads to the dissolution of their minds and hearts in hellish ways. It is, as it were, a kind of de-creation process:

…but they became futile (From mátaios: ‘emptied out into vanity’) in their thoughts,

And their foolish (asýnetos: From a + syn + hī́ēmi: ‘To be not (a) put (hī́ēmi) together-> broken apart, dissolute, disintegrated) hearts were darkened.

Professing to be wise, they became fools

Then comes the second occurrence of allássō:

And changed (ἤλλαξαν [allássō]) the glory of the incorruptible God into the likeness of the image (literally, the icon) of corruptible man (ἐν ὁμοιώματι εἰκόνος φθαρτοῦ ἀνθρώπου 1:25).

For their attempt to engineer degrees of change in the life of another (regardless of whether, we might add, it actually “works” or not), this sets them on a pathway that will progressively conform their mind/heart/soul/nous to the operations of darkness, chaos and corruption:

Therefore God also gave them over to (paredōken: From para + dídōmi: To give [dídōmi] over to [para] the power of) uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves (1:24)

And why, again, does God, the Creator, give them over?

“Because,” to repeat, “that when they knew God” (1:21), they responded not with a heart of praise and thanksgiving that would draw them into greater communion with their God; but instead they

exchanged (metallássō: From meta + allássō) the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen (1:25).

The next seven verses, then, document with terrifying precision the change that is effected in the depths of their personalities by such a pathway, painting for us a picture of those whose persons are progresively “given over” to what can only be described as the operations of Hell itself (Ps 9:17). And though our current cultural climate may resist this analysis with an almost religious-like fervor that can almost make the Church “want” to somehow edit this out of the NT, so that we may “become all things to all people,” we must be willing, nevertheless, to read on. For when we read on, we encounter that what “the Creator, who is blessed forever” reveals to the persons that He has formed after His own image works—not for the temporary pleasures of the corruption of This Passing Age—but for the fullness of the sanctifying love of His eternal glory.

And so, He gives to us a very plain warning of what will begin to happen. First the second of a threefold repetition:

On account of this very thing (dia touto), God gave them up (paradídōmi [first occurrence]) to vile passions (pathē atimía).

And how do these “passions” operate?

For even their women exchanged (metallássō) the natural use (physikēn [From phusis, “nature”] chrēsin [From chráomai: Literally to “furnish what is most needful’], that is to say ‘that which was perfectly fitted to their nature’) for what is against nature.

Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use (physikēn chrēsin) of the woman, burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful (1:26-27).

We will pause here just for a moment, as this can illicit in us a vindictive judgmentalism, on the one hand, for those caught in the grips of these passions (especially as we may have worked with such a one today in our clinics or churches or ministries); or, on the other hand, it can cause us to back away from the text and even questions its implications.

But again, we will simply follow the text where it leads.

For it reveals to us what is actually happening in the depths of a person when his passions are operating unopposed. What we find is, even if we were to say that such an “alternative” lifestyle is ok, acceptable, even natural, etc., it would in no way prevent the reality of what is actually happening deep within him/her.

Paul states very clearly that this “giving over” (1:24, 26, 28) opens them up to the inner-working of judgment, for they begin,

receiving in themselves the penalty (antimisthía: From antí + misthós: ‘the reward [misthós] given in compensation for [antí ]) their error (plánēs [From plános, which can be thought of as the ‘inner working of the deceiving, delusions of sin that separate us from God and one another [cf. I Tim 4:1, II Jn 1:7]) .

And thus, our words of “Peace, peace!” “when,” in fact, “there is no peace” (Jer 8) have absolutely no ability to effect actual peace for they are not ontologically rooted in the living Word, Who Himself is peace and came to establish peace in our world. And when we, therefore, divorce our actions from His living Word, we have no ability either to become genuine “peacemakers,” or to prevent those we care about from experiencing the penalty, the reward that is due for their ways.1 The Cross of Christ Jesus, His broken body, His blood shed is the only way.

It is the only way the progressive dissolution of our inner man may be halted and a new pathway formed through His crucified Body. Otherwise, the passage into still greater darkness will become in us a reality and God will finally give us up (the final, terrifying use of paradídōmi in the passage) to a “reprobate mind/heart/soul/nous” (From the Latin, re + probare: ‘One whose character has been tested, proved [probare] and demonstrated to be thoroughly undone [re-]-> hence, ‘morally depraved and corrupt,’ which term in the Latin Vulgate exactly parallels the Greek word, adókimosa: From a + dokimádzō).

That is to say, the entirety of our being, our person created in God’s image, is completely given over to corruption, such that we become “filled with all unrighteousness,” manifest in a pathway of “sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness” to such a degree that we become “full of envy, murder, strife, deceit...” and ultimately “haters of God” (theostygḗs). We literally begin to hate Him Who is the source of all goodness, truth, peace, love and mercy and are given fully and completely over to the opposites, becoming, finally, “foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless” (1:31).

That is to say, we become finally and utterly separated from God and experience in our person the change of nothing short of Hell itself.

And this, then, is the negative outworking of allássō, the dimension operative in the children of darkness.

In the next post, we will examine the positive dimension (finally…thankfully!), finding that the life and death of a believer leads to exactly the opposite; yet only as he passes through the mystery (mystḗrion)—which word comes to mean “sacrament,” rooted in the word, mueó, which means to ‘shut our mouths’ at something that cannot be expressed in mere words but only experienced—in our communion with the of broken body and blood of Christ Jesus:

Behold, I shew you a mystery:

We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed (allássō).

In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound,

And the dead shall be raised incorruptible,

And we shall be changed (allássō, I Cor 15:51-52).

1 As the extended passage in which the phrase, “Peace, peace! when there is no peace” provides an OT background for Romans 1, we quote it below in its entirety:

“Will they fall and not rise?
Will one turn away and not return?
Why has this people slidden back,
Jerusalem, in a perpetual backsliding?
They hold fast to deceit,
They refuse to return.
I listened and heard,
But they do not speak aright.
No man repented of his wickedness,
Saying, ‘What have I done?’
Everyone turned to his own course,
As the horse rushes into the battle.

Even the stork in the heavens
Knows her appointed times;
And the turtledove, the swift, and the swallow
Observe the time of their coming.
But My people do not know the judgment of the Lord.

How can you say, ‘We are wise,
And the law of the Lord is with us’?
Look, the false pen of the scribe certainly works falsehood.
The wise men are ashamed,
They are dismayed and taken.
Behold, they have rejected the word of the Lord;
So what wisdom do they have?
 

Therefore I will give their wives to others,
And their fields to those who will inherit them;
Because from the least even to the greatest
Everyone is given to covetousness;
From the prophet even to the priest
Everyone deals falsely.

For they have healed the hurt of the daughter of My people [b]slightly,
Saying, ‘Peace, peace!’
When there is no peace.
Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination?
No! They were not at all ashamed,
Nor did they know how to blush.
Therefore they shall fall among those who fall;
In the time of their punishment
They shall be cast down,” says the Lord (Jer 8:4-12)