Passage: The Study of Romans
Week 3 | Romans 1:18-32.
The apostle Paul continues to elevate the need for the gospel of Jesus Christ by describing the depraved life one has absent of God. The suppression and denial of God creates a pseudo world in which many people live in, and sadly, relish in. It is a world where sin is its culture, and its citizens do, and will, consequently receive God's righteous and holy justice against them. God's wrath indicates his righteous anger against sin. God's wrath is the just response to sin.
God's eternal power and divine nature can be clearly seen on earth and in the heavens above. All of creation points to his existence. Those who worship God the Creator reside in the world of truth and what is real.
Those who deny his existence or dismiss his reality proceed on a downward spiral of ungodliness and unrighteousness.They won't acknowledge God in any way, and instead will form personal philosophies and theories, and create concepts or images of who they think is a god. They go from denial to ignorance to foolish. God does not tolerate idols and their intentional abandonment of truth. If these have this desirous pursuit, this conviction for the pseudo-world, then God must remove them ("gave them over") from his holiness and righteousness, for this false world is not compatible with God's reality. Being isolated from God and victim to their own depraved minds, they live in a culture of sin, and exhibit the qualities of godlessness. Lastly, not only do they know what inevitably will bring them "death", but they approve of others who pursue this same world.
Where are you? Do you live in the reality that the righteous man lives by faith in God? Or do you reside where you are creator?
Week 2 (Romans 1:8-17).
Week 1 (Romans 1:1-7).
The apostle Paul continues to elevate the need for the gospel of Jesus Christ by describing the depraved life one has absent of God. The suppression and denial of God creates a pseudo world in which many people live in, and sadly, relish in. It is a world where sin is its culture, and its citizens do, and will, consequently receive God's righteous and holy justice against them. God's wrath indicates his righteous anger against sin. God's wrath is the just response to sin.
God's eternal power and divine nature can be clearly seen on earth and in the heavens above. All of creation points to his existence. Those who worship God the Creator reside in the world of truth and what is real.
Those who deny his existence or dismiss his reality proceed on a downward spiral of ungodliness and unrighteousness.They won't acknowledge God in any way, and instead will form personal philosophies and theories, and create concepts or images of who they think is a god. They go from denial to ignorance to foolish. God does not tolerate idols and their intentional abandonment of truth. If these have this desirous pursuit, this conviction for the pseudo-world, then God must remove them ("gave them over") from his holiness and righteousness, for this false world is not compatible with God's reality. Being isolated from God and victim to their own depraved minds, they live in a culture of sin, and exhibit the qualities of godlessness. Lastly, not only do they know what inevitably will bring them "death", but they approve of others who pursue this same world.
Where are you? Do you live in the reality that the righteous man lives by faith in God? Or do you reside where you are creator?
Week 2 (Romans 1:8-17).
You have to be
amazed
at God's job on Paul. Once a persecutor of Christians, now radically
wanting to speak of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Even the coldest heart
has been won over by the power of God for salvation. As you read Romans
1:13-17, you can hear his heart for the Roman Christians (v13), and
moreover, his heart for all who do not know Christ (v14). This Gospel is
for everyone, from the intellectually heightened Greek, for the savage
barbarian, and for everyone in-between.
Paul himself is a
testament to this "power of God for salvation." It was strictly God
through Jesus Christ who gave him his salvation. It was only God who
radically changed his life, and it is God who delivered Paul into a
restored relationship with himself. (Paul is making many implications
here against the social and cultural norms: true salvation comes from
only one god—God, and not from any of the cultural polytheistic gods;
salvation does not come from works or animal/monetary sacrifices; there
is no shame in proclaiming this minority belief in a non-believing
world.) This power of salvation is available for you and others.
Paul, like Abraham
and
all the patriarchs, received the "righteousness of God" through faith.
By belief and conviction in the facts of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, one
receives life in God, and one lives day to day in the reality of the
Gospel.
Week 1 (Romans 1:1-7).
Paul makes this assertion of believers in Rome, "...among whom you also
are the called of Jesus Christ; to all who are beloved of God in Rome,
called as saints..." The exact
translation of saints is "holy ones." And what's specific about "saints"
is that it is in the present tense (and not future tense). How is that
significant? When we enter into this relationship with Jesus Christ, we
ARE holy ones or saints. You may think this odd or impossible but the
truth of the matter is that it is not you that makes the
difference, it's Jesus Christ that has made you holy. "I am a
saint."
We should see ourselves very differently, and more importantly, live in a
different manner. Our "holy one" status implies the elevated standard
of living for which we should strive. We can be encouraged that we have
this title despite our sinful past, whether that is before Christ or
today as a work in progress. We should be reminded that this title is
imparted to us solely on the work of Jesus Christ and through
nothing else.
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