Are We Looking in a Mirror?

This evening we dive into Romans 1… and this chapter has always seemed a bit… eerie to me.

First off, let’s remember the them of this book. Romans is all about God’s gift of righteousness revealed through Christ and received by faith.

The subject of this theme is righteousness.

The source is God.

The messenger is Christ.

The avenue is faith.

God does NOT desire for His people to live unrighteous lives.

Why would God not want that for His people? Is He trying to make us all operate like His robots or clones?

My thoughts

God wants people living free of all sin. Because sin leads us away from Him. Sin leads a person to certain destruction

So… what does a life free from sin look like?

It is life set free from this world and its influences. Life free from sin is GOOD… better than GOOD it is RIGHTEOUS. It is living as God intended us to live: in His presence and in His truth.

But ever since sin entered this world, the world has struggled to live in a righteous way. In fact, such is an impossible task without the revelation of Christ and the avenue of faith.

Righteousness is NOT something we can obtain on our own… but we try.

“Pastor, you make that sound like a bad thing.” To a degree… it is and I will tell you why.

I want EVERYONE here and watching online to want to live righteously before the Lord. But that desire will fall short UNLESS we understand that our righteousness CAN ONLY come THROUGH our relationship with Jesus.

You can’t make yourself righteous in the eyes of the Lord. The righteousness we have… is the righteousness of Christ given to us at salvation.

When we try to be righteous on our own… we tend to make a mess of things.

We tend to become judgmental of others. We tend to boast of our strengths and sugar coat our weaknesses. We tend to think higher of ourselves than we should. We believe “we’ve got this.” You know else who did this? The Pharisees, Sadducees, the religious higher ups that missed what Jesus was offering.

This might shock you but here me out: In a minute we are going to read a passage that describes the condition of a fallen world. And much of it will sound familiar… why? Because the world is still broken.

BUT… I would argue that to some degree, we could turn the focus to “believers” who are trying to earn and prove their righteousness… instead of receiving it by faith through Christ. Because in both situations: Jesus is not in focus. The gift of God’s righteousness is not in focus. “ME” is in focus and that same mentality that is so prevalent in a broken world can “invade” our hearts if we are not careful.

My point is: WE LIKE TO OVER COMPLICATE THINGS! And real problems can arise when we try to over complicate things!

The Problem.

Romans 1:18–22 NIV

18 The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, 19 since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 20 For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse. 21 For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools

First off, we see a bit of a contrast to the theme of the book presented in verse 18.

The theme is the revealed gift of righteousness from God through Christ… but here we see the revealed wrath of God from heaven because of godlessness. In other words Paul is saying, “Houston… we have a PROBLEM!”

AND… we can make NO EXCUSES regarding the problem. We cannot stand up and say, “We didn’t know God, His glory, His power and divine nature. How were we supposed to know what we were doing is wicked in his eyes?”

First, Paul says simply look around you… at creation… and see God.

Don’t look at what man has “created” but look at what God has created. Anyone who stops and really looks… will see and know there is a God.

So the world can see Him, the world can know Him, but the next verse says they neither glorified His as God nor gave thanks to Him.

People… became inwardly focused… more concerned with what WE CAN DO ON OUR OWN. The Bible says this led to:

Futile thinking - incapable of producing any useful result

Darkened foolish hearts - hearts having no light while lacking good sense or judgment

And verse 22 seals the deal. Although they CLAIMED to be wise, they became fools.

Church… I WARN YOU… this can happen to us if we are not careful and in a very deceitful way.

In regard to where our righteousness comes from: IF WE FOOL OURSELVES INTO BELIEVING that we are the source of our righteousness, we too can become futile in our thinking and lost in darkened and foolish hearts.

Think about it: WE KNOW GOD. But when we begin to think that our righteousness is from within, we cease to glorify God and we begin to glorify ourselves.

SO… before we point a finger at the world in our own self righteousness tonight… we need to stop and ask, “Are we looking into a mirror” as we read this passage.

WHO DO WE GIVE CREDIT TO FOR OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS TONIGHT?

The answer… will CHANGE YOUR PERSPECTIVE FOREVER. Or at least it should.

This is about the best I can do. This coat is dirty, it’s smelly. It hasn’t been washed for decades. I used to play paintball in it. It’s got dirt in the pockets, stains in the fabric, and tears in the lining. If my righteousness was wearable… this is about the best I could do.

In fact, it’s too good. In fact, Isaiah 64:6 says it this way

Isaiah 64:6 NIV

6 All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away.

I won’t tell you what the real translation is for “filthy rags.” THAT’S THE BEST WE CAN DO!

But then God sends His Son to a world that fell short, and a new way to righteousness became available.

When we give our lives to Christ, He comes in and rids us of… this. And in it’s place, He gives us something new… something beyond what we could do on our own. He gives us a new covering of righteousness and takes our old covering or self… puts it on His own shoulders, and nails it to the cross.

You see…what we used to call “righteousness” was nothing but filth in the eyes of the Lord. But God is offering us something new… NOT THROUGH WHAT WE CAN DO, BUT THROUGH WHAT CHRIST HAS DONE.

WE CANNOT MISS THIS POINT TONIGHT! WHY? Because bad things happen when our focus shifts from God.

This is especially true when we think our focus in on Him, but it’s really on us!

Paul goes on to talk about what this kind of thinking will lead to.

The Results.

Romans 1:24–32 NIV

24 Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. 25 They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen. 26 Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. 27 In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error. 28 Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done. 29 They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; 31 they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy. 32 Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.

This is what futile thinking and a darkened foolish heart will lead to. Again, remember that Paul warned that they claimed to be wise, but became fools.

The enemy is going to tempt us… to take our eyes off Jesus. He is going to try to get you to fall for yourself instead.

He did this in the Garden of Eden. He played on the desires of Adam and Eve and they fell for His deception.

He tried to do this with Jesus. He tried to tempt Jesus in the wilderness through deception and self, but Jesus didn’t go for it.

If the enemy tried to tempt the Son of God, do we not think that he will try to tempt the body of Christ?

In fact, I want to point out a temptation happening right now in this room.

WE MIGHT BE TEMPTED to weaponize this passage against the world we live in today. We might be tempted to cast judgment and point fingers utilizing this passage. If we do… then we have missed it.

This passage show not move us to condemnation… it should move us to compassion. Jesus was moved to compassion regarding the lost and the broken. He NEVER condoned their sin or redefined it… but He loved them through it and because of His love, many found freedom from their sin.

YES… the world is broken… but Jesus came to offer wholeness.

The Solution.

As we continue to move through this book, we will see how Jesus truly is the only way to being made whole again.

The world is in trouble… and we were too. It was Jesus that made all the difference. It was Jesus that changed your life.

In that change, we become pursuers of Christ. We become followers of His way. We reject the ways of the world and embrace His truth as we know it as the source of our spiritual freedom.

But don’t be tempted to fall for self again. We are called out, to stand out, to be the light to this darkened world. God has given this world His church… to be the extension of Jesus’ ministry until He returns.

What will we do with that? Will we take the glory for our righteousness for ourselves? Or will we humble ourselves and give the glory to whom it belongs?

Two things as we close:

One: Keep your focus on God. DO NOT LOSE SIGHT OF THE LORD.

That is how the downward spiral begins and YES… we can lose sight of Him even when we think we are living for Him!!!

Two: Show compassion to this hurting world.

People need the Lord. We NEED the Lord. Someone compassionately introduced us to Jesus. The looked beyond our sin and filthy rags. Can we do the same for others?