“Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things” (Romans 1:22,23).
When something is corruptible in the Biblical sense, it can decay, be spoiled, or be ruined. Man’s sinfulness is most evident when he attempts to create a mental picture or physical facsimile of God that resembles either himself or another of God’s creations. Thus, the battle lies in realizing that the “glory of the incorruptible God” is not like corruptible man or the creation which groans under the bondage of sin. Hebrews speaks of Jesus Christ with the “power of an endless life” (7:16). Contrast this with the work of men, which comes to “naught” (Acts 5:38).
Our only real hope lies in the fact that God is incorruptible. It is His incorruption with which our corruption (I Corinthians 15:42–45) must be “clothed” (II Corinthians 5:2). “As we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly” (I Corinthians 15:49). Life comes from life—and true spiritual, immortal life must come from immortal life. Speaking of God, Paul says, “Who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto” (I Timothy 6:16). “For as the Father hath life in Himself; so hath He given the Son to have life in Himself” (John 5:26). Man, on the other hand, is hopelessly trapped in a “body of death” (Romans 7:24). With these thoughts in mind, this old familiar verse takes on a new sweetness: “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 6:23). “Now unto the King eternal, immortal [same Greek word as incorruptible in our text verse], invisible, the only wise God, be honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen” (I Timothy 1:17). CJH
