- Covered In His Dust
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- Romans Chapter 1 (part 10)
If this is your first time receiving Covered in His Dust, welcome.
I’d love to hear where you’re reading from. Just reply and let me know.
Before diving into my notes, I encourage you to read Chapter 1 first.
I’ve included all the Scripture below, but there’s something different about sitting with the whole chapter first and letting yourself slow down. Let your mind wander a bit. Let yourself be curious.
What catches you off guard?
What doesn't make sense?
Where is that?
Who's that?
Why?
Those questions will make the notes hit deeper.
"When disciples followed a rabbi, they followed him closely so they would never be out of his sight, never be someplace where they couldn’t hear him speak. They followed him so closely that his sandals often kicked up dust."
May you be covered in His dust.
Good morning Saints! ☀️
Before we move into verses 21-23, we need to remember why Paul leads us down this road at all.
He isn’t trying to shock us,
or shame us,
or leave us discouraged.
He’s revealing the truth about the human heart so we can finally see our need for God.
Because no one reaches for the cure until the symptoms scare them. No one understands mercy until they see what their sin actually costs.
Paul is exposing the disease… to save us.
He strips away every excuse we hide behind.
Every defense we love.
Every argument we build to convince ourselves we’re fine.
And suddenly we see it. Life without God doesn’t stand upright. It buckles.
This is the tragic trade behind every wound in the world. The moment a heart gives up the glory of God for the imitation of a god. That’s when the damage begins.
And yet this journey through Romans 1 isn’t meant to crush you.
It’s
meant
to
prepare
you
for
grace.
The beauty of justification…
the surprise adoption…
the freedom of life in Christ…
none of it shines the way it should until you’ve stood in the shadow of these verses and realized,
you can’t save yourself.
Paul is showing you the world as it truly is.
Not how we wish it was, or how we pretend it is.
But don’t miss what happens right here.
When a heart turns from God, the mercy of God becomes almost overwhelming.
That’s the road Paul is leading us down.
Not to leave us in the dark.
But to help us see the Light.
Let’s go.
because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened.
Professing to be wise, they became fools,
and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man—and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things.
Let’s slow down for a second.
Look at what Paul is doing here, because there’s a thread running straight through verses 21 and 23 that you can miss if you read too fast.
Verse 21 says they did not glorify Him as God.
Verse 23 says they exchanged the glory of God.
They didn’t glorify God…
so they reached for a different glory.
That’s the motion of sin.
Paul isn’t describing two separate events.
He’s describing one turn of the heart.
A refusal… then a replacement.
A downward slide that starts in worship long before it shows up in behavior.
In verse 21 they knew God, but they wouldn’t honor Him or thank Him.
The heart stepped back.
The center gave way.
Worship broke.
Then verse 23 shows us what always comes next.
They traded the glory of the incorruptible God for images that look like us, or birds, or beasts, or anything that isn’t Him.
Glory rejected in verse 21 becomes glory replaced in verse 23.
And Romans 3:23 gathers it all into one sentence.
All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
You can be brilliant in business.
Respected. Influential.
You can fill a house with every comfort money can buy.
But if you trade the glory of God for the glory of you?
You’re lost, brother.
You become like the thing you worship.
That’s why the exchange is so dangerous.
You trade glory…
and then you start to reflect whatever you traded for.
A darkened heart always follows a misplaced glory.
The only light strong enough to break into a darkened heart is the Light of the world. Jesus.
Step away from that Light…
and the shadows move in.
Step toward Him…
and everything begins to change.
It isn’t just missing the mark, it’s losing the glory we were made to reflect.
It’s a trade.
A reach for an imitation that can’t save and can’t satisfy.
This is why Paul walks us slowly through this descent. Not to condemn us, but to help us see the truth: every sin begins with a glory problem. A heart that says, “Not You… something else.”
Professing to be wise, they became fools.
That’s Eden.
That’s the serpent whispering the oldest lie in the world: “You’ll be wiser without God. You’ll see more. You’ll rise higher. You can be like Him.”
Sin never introduces itself as foolishness.
It comes dressed as clarity.
As enlightenment.
As the promise you think God is withholding.
Eve didn’t reach for the fruit because she wanted rebellion. She reached because she thought she was reaching for wisdom. “Desirable to make one wise.”
The first idol wasn’t carved out of wood. It was carved out of self-confidence.
Out of the belief that our judgment is better than God’s word.
And here’s the tragedy Paul is pulling into the light:
When you separate wisdom from the glory of God, you don’t become enlightened. You become blind.
And if you trade the glory of God for the glory of you?
You become a fool.
Not because your mind stops working, but because your heart stops seeing. The same lie from the garden echoes through every generation. “You don’t need God. You can define truth. You can be your own light.”
And every time we believe it, the darkness moves in. Every time we reach for wisdom without God, we repeat the oldest fall in the world.
That’s why Paul gives us a verdict that should shake us awake:
“Professing to be wise, they became fools.”
Paul turns the mirror.
The foundational problem isn’t behavior.
It isn’t even circumstances.
It’s glory.
At the root of every struggle in the world… marriages that fracture, addictions that pull people under, sons and daughters who drift, finances that suffocate… there’s a deeper wound hiding just beneath the surface.
We don’t treasure the glory of God.
We trade it.
We trade it for a better job.
For approval.
For comfort.
For pleasure.
For control.
For the chance to keep ourselves at the center.
The world keeps putting bandaids on tumors.
It keeps offering new habits, new systems, new programs…
while ignoring the real issue:
we love the glory
of us.
Culture says, “Image is everything.”
But Scripture says the opposite.
The glory of God is everything.
And until the heart returns that glory to the One it belongs to, healing will never reach the roots.
Every sin is a glory trade.
And every real healing begins when the glory goes back where it belongs.
Next week we’ll step into Romans 1:24–28.
It’s the moment Paul shows us what judgment actually looks like on earth.
And it’s nothing like we expect.
These verses show the first movement of God’s judgment. And it’s terrifying.
God lets people have what they insist on.
Three times Paul says the same thing:
God gave them over.
God gave them over.
God gave them over.
Not because He stopped caring. But because the human heart kept pushing Him out, kept clinging to idols, kept trading His glory for lesser things.
So God hands them the keys to their own desires.
He lets those desires run the house.
And when that happens, the heart collapses.
These verses aren’t about one sin.
They’re about what happens when God steps back and lets a heart chase its own version of heaven without Him.
It’s the first picture of what judgment looks like on earth.
God letting someone walk the path they begged for.
It’s heavy.
It’s honest.
And it’s the starting point for why grace becomes breathtaking.
One last thing.
Don’t invite anyone to this study.
Yet.
Not because I’m holding something back…
but because I’m building something for you.
I’m resetting the referral program for Christmas. The old rewards were good. The new ones are better. Bigger. And worth the wait.
With your very first referral, you’ll unlock the Christmas Writing Bundle. It’s a collection of five Christmas studies that reveal things we usually rush past. And yes, I’m working on an audiobook version read by me that you’ll be able to unlock as well.
We’re at 3,400 subscribers right now, scattered across the world. Can we hit 5,000 by the end of the year?
Maybe. But not by accident. And not by staying quiet.
You’ve had that moment where a line hits you and you think, “I know exactly who needs this.”
Hold that name.
Pray for them.
When the new launch goes live, you’ll have the perfect moment to invite them in.
I love you,
George
Uncovering Scripture
George Sisneros is a full-time missionary in Guatemala and the founder of Ordinary Missionaries and the El Rosario Christian Academy for Boys.
He’s been married to his wife, Vonda, for 27 years. He’s a father to nine children, five adopted.
In 2024, George and his wife expanded to Cuba, joining forces with nine pastors committed to transforming lives through the gospel.