Romans 1:8-22
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God’s Good News
God’s Good News
I am grateful for each of you here tonight. Those in the sanctuary and those online. Praise be to God through Jesus Christ tonight that we are able to meet, praise, and fellowship. Amen?
Tonight we continue in the great book of Romans. Paul’s epistle to the Romans. Last week we discussed being enslaved to Christ. Being enslaved to Christ means coming under the obedience of Christ and acting as an ambassador of Jesus Christ.
You and me, we are called to be holy, set apart, and prepared to share the Good news of God. That Good news of God is the Good news of Jesus Christ.
As we move forward in our studies, let us check our mindset . Our mindset and our heart-set should be one of absorbing the Word, applying His truths, and sharing the Good News. Let us look at our time together not just as a way to learn more, but as a way of gaining a closer walk with God and as a way of learning how to share His good news with others. Let’s join Paul tonight.
8 Let me say first that I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith in him is being talked about all over the world.
The first thing that Paul does is thank God through Jesus Christ. He does not follow with a second or a third thing. For Paul, thanking God comes before anything and everything else, regardless of the conversation, thought, or action.
That thanks to God comes through the redemptive actions of Jesus Christ at the cross. Christ created the access that enables us to go before the throne with thanksgivings and prayer.
Paul is thanking God through Christ for his fellow believers who have faith known throughout the region. Paul is truly edifying and building up these believers. Think about this for a moment: Paul is not thanking God through Christ for what was done for Him. Paul is thanking God for what He has done for others.
How often it escapes us to thank God when we cross paths with other believers. How often do you say “I thank God for you” to a fellow believer? We are not talking about a fake thanks here, but we should be grateful to the Father that He has surrounded us with a cloud of witnesses, and we need to let those witnesses know!
How about when we are speaking to a non-believer? We can transform our heart and our mind while setting the tone of the conversation by simply letting the person know that we are grateful to God through Jesus Christ that we have the opportunity to talk with them.
12 When we get together, I want to encourage you in your faith, but I also want to be encouraged by yours.
Paul is talking about the “communion of the Saints.” When we fellowship, we are doing so in remembrance of Him. What we experience in this walk is meant to be shared with one another. We all need Christian friends that we can talk about our feelings, our views, our successes, and our struggles.
We are to share those feelings that “Christians are not supposed to have!” What do you think these believers openly talked about with each-other? They were thanking God and encouraging one another.
“There is none so poor in the church of Christ, that he cannot make some addition of importance to our stores.” - John Calvin
We all contribute with not one of us being more important or less important to the Kingdom works of God.
16 For I am not ashamed of this Good News about Christ. It is the power of God at work, saving everyone who believes—the Jew first and also the Gentile.
The Gospel is available to all people. Not a select few, but all people, regardless of: sin, mistakes, or what they have done. It is all about what He Has Done.
Paul says to the Jew first and then everyone else. Jesus came through the Jews. The Jews held the manuscripts so it is natural that They would receive the message first. Paul is referencing how the Gospel was shared. It was in fact shared with the Jews first and then everybody else. Not because the Jews were any better, the Gospel came to them first.
17 This Good News tells us how God makes us right in his sight. This is accomplished from start to finish by faith. As the Scriptures say, “It is through faith that a righteous person has life.”
Paul is quoting the Prophet Habbakuk 2:4 here. It is interesting that the word “faith” or “pistis” means faith, but not a blind unknowing faith. It is never to be “cause grandma said so” or “cause the pastor said.” Our faith is rooted in something. That something is this:
We are witnesses to the divine nature and the power of God. When we look closely, we can see His hand on everything. We have witnessed the miraculous works of Jesus Christ in the hearts, lives, and in the minds of the believers around us. Our faith, brothers and sisters, is rooted in what we plainly see with our own eyes and hear with our ears. We are the great cloud of witnesses to the works of Christ.
Let’s talk about something unpopular in todays churches:
God’s Anger at Sin
God’s Anger at Sin
18 But God shows his anger from heaven against all sinful, wicked people who suppress the truth by their wickedness.
The closest rendering is “God showed His (orge) wrath.” Let’s not confuse this with the wrath of men or women. It is not instant fury or an angry outburst.So what is God’s wrath? It is his indignation at sin, his revulsion to evil and all that opposes him, his displeasure at it and the venting of that displeasure. It is his passionate resistance to every will that is set against him.
Although the wrath of God is primarily eschatological (death, judgement, the souls destination, and end times), it is at the same time a reality today.
There is an essential relationship between God’s righteousness and His wrath. Think about it for a minute. If God responded to sin and wickedness as being no more than tolerable, His righteousness would be called into question. Tolerating sin is a liberal western theology.
God’s wrath is mentioned over 580 times in the Bible. God’s present wrath anticipates His final withdrawal from those who do not respond to His love. That is going to be a very bad day for many people. I pray that we are able to reach those people before it is too late.
19 They know the truth about God because he has made it obvious to them.
Paul is referring to “natural revelation.” It’s funny, people who try to call this some big cosmic accident know that they are spouting off something absolutely ridiculous.
It took an intelligent designer to create everything that we see, touch, taste, and smell. That intelligent designer has reveled Himself in creation. It is obvious, but many have and will harden their hearts to God while calling themselves wise, woke, or enlightened.
20 For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God.
21 Yes, they knew God, but they wouldn’t worship him as God or even give him thanks. And they began to think up foolish ideas of what God was like. As a result, their minds became dark and confused.
I want you to highlight Romans 1:20-21. These two verses are part of what we refer to as “The Roman Road.” The “Roman Road” is a road map to salvation.
In verse 20, Paul says: man is without excuse. The point is shocking. We have every evidence imaginable within creation directing us toward God, yet people reject the knowledge of God within creation. This is the second reason why God reveals and shows His wrath. People are without excuse. Man has no defense, no answer, no reason that can justify rejection of God.
In verse 21 Paul is speaking about people in the past, but also of what people still do today. It is reasonable to think that knowing God means we are to honor Him and give Him thanks. Yet so many people reject God. They replace Him with man made idols, some weird “new age movement,” and things that God detests. Jesus spoke on this during the Sermon on the Mount:
45 In that way, you will be acting as true children of your Father in heaven. For he gives his sunlight to both the evil and the good, and he sends rain on the just and the unjust alike.
God gives to all of the basic requirements of life irrespective of the persons relationship with Him. The evil and the good. The correct response should be gratitude. Yet so many chose to ignore the one true God and come up with new gods of their own making.
21 Yes, they knew God, but they wouldn’t worship him as God or even give him thanks. And they began to think up foolish ideas of what God was like. As a result, their minds became dark and confused.
To turn from the light of revelation is to head into darkness. Sin inevitably results in a darkening of some aspect of human existence. In a moral universe it is impossible to turn from the truth of God and not suffer the consequences. Ignorance is the result of a choice. People who do not “know” God are those who have made that choice. I pray that we can reach them.
22 Claiming to be wise, they instead became utter fools.
Foolish, or moraino is a pretty heavy word, a curse word back in the day. This is actually where we get the word “moron” from. In the early twentieth century it was used as a medical term denoting an adult with the mental age of an 8-9 year old.
Paul is calling these people “morons” and saying that those who think that they are so smart that they can declare their is no God or there are different gods are in fact stupid and tasteless. Paul has given us two contrasts: Light and darkness, wisdom and foolishness.
As you reflect on tonight's study, remember that the first stop on the Roman Road is acknowledging that the one True God, YHVH, is the creator of everything. We should be giving all thanks, glory, and recognition to Him.
“Religions are born through the rejection of the One True God, YHVH Elohim.”
God Bless you tonight, Let’s Pray.