Romans: Part 1

We Have Gone through many of Paul’s letters to various churches

many of them were smaller letters and so they only had one or two main points

Galatians dealt with a false teaching that encouraged gentiles to convert to judaism before coming to Jesus.

Ephesians encouraged the church to continue to live a life worthy of their calling

Philippians was a thank you note for the generosity of the church, encouraging us to be generous

Colossians was a warning against a heresy that said the material was evil and the spiritual was good.

and the two letters to the Thessalonians dealt with the return of Christ and the day of judgement.

Now i want to spend a few weeks exploring the letter to the romans, which is longer and goes through several themes.

Paul wrote this letter to the roman church well before he ever set foot in rome. But he was exicited to visit, and boy did he go through a lot to make sure that he eventually got there.

Paul opens this letter much like he does all of his letters

Romans 1:1–7 ESV

Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy Scriptures, concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord, through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations, including you who are called to belong to Jesus Christ, To all those in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

He includes a big section about the divinity of JEsus

Linking him to the Line of David - a messiah

the Son of God

A savior

There is a reason for this. Pauls entire letter is going to be presenting problems and showing how Christ is the Solution.

And he does that masterfully with these first few chapters.

He presents his argument as though the world has been put on trial, God is the judge, and it doesnt look good.

Romans 1:18–23 ESV

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.

He starts off with something interesting.

The evidence of God should be plain to all people, so there is no excuse to not follow or obey him.

That is quite the claim.

Instead it is mankinds fallen nature, our unrighteousness, our rebellion against God that darkens our heart, and chooses to ignore him, or to try and find any other explanation that God for the evidence that we see.

the Ancients looked to idols, and pagan gods, images of animals, forces of nature.

What do people look to replace God with today

Science? Identity? Social justice? Materialism.

Since Mankind has rejected God Paul writes that God gives mankind over to their desires:

Romans 1:24–32 ESV

Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen. For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error. And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.

No words are minced here. Homosexuality is wrong, but it looks natural

many sins are. Gossips, murder, envy, deceit, disobedience.

So it is not a good argument that just because something is natural that it is good. because our nature has been twisted and fallen,

But then we hit a snag, by judging others we ourselves are revealed to be just as fallen.

Romans 2:1–5 ESV

Therefore you have no excuse, O man, every one of you who judges. For in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, practice the very same things. We know that the judgment of God rightly falls on those who practice such things. Do you suppose, O man—you who judge those who practice such things and yet do them yourself—that you will escape the judgment of God? Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed.

So the whole world is caught up, either we have twisted fallen desires because we rebel against God, or we judge those who sin differently than we do because we are trying to prove that we are better than them, which just shows that we are just as fallen as they are.

There is a difference in pointing out that some one is doing wrong out of a desire to help, and condemning them in their sin.

Ultimately God alone is the one who will judge, so the question becomes, how will he judge us?

Well that should be obvious, he will judge the world by the Law - the old Testament.

But here Paul brings up a good point: what about the Gentiles who did not have the old testament? is it fair for God to judge them by the Law.

Romans 2:12–15 ESV

For all who have sinned without the law will also perish without the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law. For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified. For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them

Just like the gentiles, the non-jews had a way to recognize the existance of God through creation, so they have a knowledge of what is right and what is wrong.

Paul says that the law is written on our hearts.

Every person, no matter how twisted and fallen, still has a conscience that allows them to recognize right from wrong. Most people would agree that certain things are wrong,

and so the Gentiles can still be judged based off of God’s law, because it is in everyone.

and what about the jews who know the Law

Romans 2:17–24 ESV

But if you call yourself a Jew and rely on the law and boast in God and know his will and approve what is excellent, because you are instructed from the law; and if you are sure that you yourself are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of children, having in the law the embodiment of knowledge and truth— you then who teach others, do you not teach yourself? While you preach against stealing, do you steal? You who say that one must not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? You who boast in the law dishonor God by breaking the law. For, as it is written, “The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.”

The Jews have even more responsiblity before the law then, because they had the old testment, and they learned it as children, and so they have less of an excuse. becuase they know what the law says.

So even God’s chosen the people, the jews, are guilty before him.

Romans 3:9–12 ESV

What then? Are we Jews any better off? No, not at all. For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin, as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.”

So the law has condemned us all. Paul then concludes that we cannot be saved by the laws of the Old Testament.

Romans 3:19–26 ESV

Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin. But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

So having established that all mankind is guilty under the law, the only solution is to find a substitute to take our place in punishment, and Christ was that substitute.

All have sinned and fallen short but now all can be justified by Christ, who has paid the price for our sin.

So the only way to live a righteous life is not by following the Law, but by living by faith in the only one who could fulfill the law.

Church there is no other way to find eternal life without Jesus.

You could try to do it on your own, but that would require becoming perfect.

and if we know anything its that mankind is not perfect.

you could try and run to some other belief or lack of belief, but the evidence for God is there and it is obvious.

Only the body of jesus, broken for us, and the his blood shed upon the ground can save us.