Romans 1:32

Romans 1:32, in plain English

Most painfully, these people know that God says their behavior deserves death and judgment, yet they continue doing it anyway—and they actually cheer other people on to do the same.

Why it's here

This is the devastating conclusion to Paul's diagnosis. It's not that people sin in ignorance. Deep down, people know God's standard and understand that rebellion against Him has consequences. But they don't just ignore that knowledge—they actively promote these behaviors in others. They've become advocates for their own destruction. This is Rome in Paul's time: a society that not only sinned but celebrated and legislated sin.

Who's speaking

Paul

Where it sits in the story

This brings you full circle to verse 21: they knew God. They still know His standard. But they've hardened their hearts so completely that they've begun defending what they know is wrong. This is why Paul will spend the next chapters showing that only God's grace can break this cycle.

The scholarly reading

Despite possessing knowledge that God's justice necessarily condemns such destructive behavior with death, humans not only continue perpetrating these acts but actively endorse and celebrate others who do the same—representing the final inversion of conscience and community.

Language and setting

The phrase 'righteous decree' (to dikaiōma tou theou) denotes God's just ordinance—the fundamental axiom that sin produces death (Romans 6:23). Paul assumes his audience knows this; conscience itself testifies to it. Yet knowledge remains impotent to transform behavior. The final phrase—'they not only continue to do these things, but also approve of those who practice them'—represents what theologians term collective rationalization. Societies construct narratives justifying their vices and celebrating those who embody them most fully. This is not mere personal sin but systemic inversion: the community becomes complicit in its own degradation. Origen identified this as perhaps the gravest manifestation of alienation—when conscience becomes a tool of self-deception rather than moral correction.

Voice

Paul

Significance

This closes the argument of Romans 1 and sets the stage for Romans 2-3: Paul has established the universal condition of alienation such that 'every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God' (Romans 3:19). Only now, with the diagnosis complete, can the cure be introduced—the revelation of divine righteousness through faith in Christ, which alone can restore what sin has systematically destroyed.

30slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant, and boastful. They invent new forms of evil; they disobey their parents.

31They are senseless, faithless, heartless, merciless.

32Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things are worthy of death, they not only continue to do these things, but also approve of those who practice them.

Read all of Romans 1 — Paul's masterpiece — the most systematic explanation of the Christian faith ever written. Dense, brilliant, and life-changing from first verse to last.