What is The Meaning of Romans 1:24-28?

My question concerns Romans 1:24-28, where Paul is talking about the unrighteous, and how “God gave them up,” first in the “lusts of their hearts,” then to “dishonorable passions,” and finally to a “debased mind.” 

What does it mean when God does this?  Is it a progressive removal of divine restraints and consequences that push people closer and closer to “rock bottom?”  Does it ever go to the point that God abandons the unrighteous and they can never be saved, or is there still hope for them through the Gospel?  If there is still hope for them, why does Paul seem to put them in a special category of being “given up?”  Wouldn’t they be in the same state as everyone else before conversion, i.e. biased to choosing sin over holiness until God changes their hearts? 

Excerpt From The Answer

“For the unrighteous to be saved would mean they see their sin as the lie and God as true. We might say, they’d need to make the right exchange. If anyone prefers a life of unrighteousness, immorality, and depravity then they have chosen to worship self, sin, and not God. The two cannot occupy the same space. They remain in an unrighteous state, willfully living against all that the Word teaches, preferring their sin, immorality, pride. In sum, they’ve chosen self over God, they are locked in sin. They will find no hope unless they turn to Christ.”

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