Romans 1 verses 18-32 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 idolatres be saved from a process of divine heart-heartening?

This question arrives from a listener named Nate, Hello Pastor John.

I was recently reading Romans 1 verses 18-32.

Their Paul seems to be saying that God gave up homosexual sinners to dishonorable passions

because they worshipped 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 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?

...