Following the assertion that there is a lack of any excuse, as we continue to view these verses from the first chapter of Romans through the lens of Adam and Eve and the fall, we read “For although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God or give Him thanks, but became futile in their thoughts and their senseless hearts were darkened” (Romans 1:21). Once again, we reflect on the fact that Adam and Eve most certainly knew God, and in a way that would have been quite unique to them alone. In the midst of this knowledge and this way of knowing, they still rebelled against Him and ate the fruit. In that, there was most certainly no glory given to God. There was no thankfulness.
Not only would glorifying God have consisted of following His direct command, but through disobedience they would, for the first time, fall short of His glory as well, thereby losing the ability to reflect adequately and properly and perfectly reflect His glory into the world. Though this was to be rectified by the call of Abraham and Israel, this would ultimately be left undone until Jesus placed a foot on to the stage of history. Clearly, they were not thankful for the responsibility and exalted position that had been given to them. With the influence of the serpent, their thoughts did indeed become futile. Their thoughts were turned towards themselves and away from that which was God’s purpose for them. It can be said that the inward turning of thought was the beginning of futility, and the beginning of idolatry, as Adam and Eve were convinced to focus on themselves and that which could be gained for themselves, rather than on what God had done for them and what it was that they were supposed to be doing for His glorification.
In consideration of the statement that “their senseless hearts were darkened,” could it not be said that, prior to the taking from the tree and the subsequent fall, that they had no sense of nakedness, no sense of shame, no sense of fear, no sense of the knowledge of good and evil, no sense of remorse, and no sense of guilt? Now though, following the cataclysmic act, these senses were all present, having been darkened by the presence of sin---falling short of the glory of God. Prior to this, they lived in a conscious state that were devoid of these things, but now, that condition was darkened by an evil presence.
Yes, they ate from the tree. It was the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The serpent told them that if they did so, they would become like divine beings. He said that their eyes would be opened. He said that they could have power. Power? Yes, because they understood the power of God, and because this tree was connected with knowledge, it could be said that it is here that we have the first human premonition that knowledge is power, and they wanted it. Part of the motivation for taking and eating from the tree was that not only was the fruit “attractive to the eye” (Genesis 3:6b), but that it was also “desirable for making one wise” (3:6c). Did wisdom come? What do we find in the next verse here in Romans? “Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools” (1:22). Fools! What is it that the Scriptures have to say about fools? The Psalmist writes that “Fools say to themselves, ‘There is no God.’ They sin and commit evil deeds; none of them does what is right” (14:1). So what we have here is Eve first, and then Adam, desiring wisdom but becoming fools. Effectively declaring that “there is no God.” Is this not what they were truly expressing in their desire to become like gods, beings that know good and evil?
What is the end of this becoming foolish and its expression of foolish statements? Paul writes that the ones who did not glorify God, nor give Him thanks, but became futile in their thoughts, with darkened hearts, who claimed to be wise, but instead became fools, “exchanged the glory of the immortal God for an image resembling mortal human beings or birds or four-footed animals or reptiles” (1:23). What Adam and Eve accomplished was indeed the beginning of idolatry, and it began with self-worship, along with a complete disregard of God and a forgetfulness of the Creator. We can see a forgotten Creator, together with self-worship, when Eve gives birth to a son and declares herself to have been able to create a man. With that, man looked at himself as being able to bring forth life---as god-like.
Once the Creator is shoved to the side and replaced by another creator, then the fact that there was a creation by that Creator falls quickly from the mind. Having forgotten their Creator, and no longer bearing in mind that they were part of a good created order, Adam and Eve (and those to whom they gave birth) could look around them, observing the entire order of nature, and surmise that the animals that they saw had brought themselves into existence, and that they could also pro-create and generate life, and were therefore worthy of worship as well. So began the interminable fall into the practice of idolatry that has gripped mankind from the very beginning. It is only the grace of God that enables one to break free from the ingrained tendency to idolatry, so as to see the Creator in His glory, and in doing so, seek to honor and give worship to Him.
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