02 - Romans 1:16-32

 

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Romans 1:16-17

¹⁶ For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. ¹⁷ For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “The just shall live by faith.”

Paul had just said how he felt indebted to share the Gospel (good news) with both Jews and non-Jews alike; let’s see why he felt the need to share this Gospel with them. What’s so amazing about the Gospel of Jesus Christ?

He begins by saying that there is nothing in the Gospel of Christ for him to be ashamed of. This would have been particularly relevant to the readers or hearers of his letter, especially since many of the Jews and even non-Jews felt that this gospel of Jesus sounded rather strange and unbelievable. We live in a time today when that’s exactly how the world looks at the Gospel as well. It sounds too simple, far-fetched in its message of the love of God, and almost impossible for a person of reason to believe. Paul says that he is not ashamed of this Gospel, which means that he is proud of it. Let’s delve deeper as to why he feels this way.

He says that it’s the power of God to salvation, meaning that those who believe this gospel of Jesus will experience the power of God to transform their lives forever. This power is available to both the Jews as well as the non-Jews. Until then, only the Jews were referred to as God’s chosen people, but now the gates were thrown open to the non-Jews as well, provided they believed in this good news of Jesus.

He goes on to say that one of the good things in this good news about Jesus is the fact that God is willing to bestow His own righteousness on those who believe the Gospel. There’s nothing one needs to do to be made righteous. One cannot purchase or earn this righteousness of God – it’s a free gift that God freely bestows on those who believe in Him. He’s not talking about our own righteousness which, before God, is no righteousness at all. Isaiah 64:6 says, “But we are all like an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags; we all fade as a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.” Isaiah had written about the righteousness of God in Isaiah 61:10 with these words, “I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for He has clothed me with the garments of salvation, He has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.” So here was an amazing opportunity to all of us who had tarnished the image of God in the Garden of Eden and became unrighteous, to now be bestowed with God’s own righteousness free of cost on their part. What a privilege! Little wonder Paul was not ashamed of the Gospel that talked about this righteousness.

He goes on to say that this righteousness of God is available only through faith – there’s nothing that one needs to do to earn it or deserve it. All we need to do to receive it is to merely believe and trust in the Lord Jesus’ work on the cross on our behalf. He adds that it takes faith to receive it and it takes faith to continue to walk in it every day of one’s life. He quotes from Habakkuk 2:4, which says, “The just (righteous) will live by faith.” One cannot receive this amazing gift in faith and then try to earn it along the way. It will always be a gift – it can never be a wage or a prize.

Romans 1:18-23

¹⁸ For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, ¹⁹ because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. ²⁰ For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, ²¹ because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. ²² Professing to be wise, they became fools, ²³ and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man—and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things.

Paul goes on to say that there’s a warning to those who reject this amazing gift of the righteousness of God. They’ll have to face another consequence – His wrath. Paul says that God’s wrath had already started being poured out on people. He goes on to give two reasons for which the wrath of God is being poured out on people today – the first being on account of man’s ungodly and unrighteous way of life, which is totally in contrast to the character/nature of God, who is holy. The second reason for His wrath being poured out on people is because man has suppressed or negated the truth about God through his unrighteous lifestyles which jars with God’s expectations of man. He goes on to say that there’s no excuse for any person to not know God if he truly wants to know Him because God has made Himself known to us in various ways.

He goes on to say that the evidence of God was evident right from the time the world was created. (Paul clearly mentions creation and not evolution). The invisible characteristics of God – His love, wisdom, grace, care, provision, protection, creativity, etc. are all evident through the created things. Even God’s amazing power and divine nature are both evident through all that He created. Therefore no man has an excuse to not know God. So the only reason one does not know God is that they don’t want to seek Him.

He goes on to say that man initially knew God (had a personal relationship with God) but the problem was that man did not glorify God for who He was, and then man became unthankful. When we don’t appreciate what we have, we begin to get unthankful and grumble about it.

The next thing we did was, become futile or foolish in our thinking and our hearts were blinded by the truth about God. Man has professed to be wise and knowledgeable about life and everything else, and yet finds it easy to deny the creator of life and everything else - what a tragedy. Paul refers to such people as fools. Can a created thing exist without a Creator? But that’s the state of man today. Atheism is thriving in many countries across the globe today and the Bible refers to an atheist in Psalm 14:1 this way – “The fool has said in his heart, ‘There is no God.’” There are others who may not deny the existence of God, but have done something else, which is as foolish as denying His existence.

The next thing that man does after denying the existence of God is to create his own gods out of created things like men, animals, birds, and reptiles. By doing so what man has done is exchanged the glory of this amazingly powerful eternal God for images (which are made of created stone, wood, etc.) of temporal, corruptible, man.

Romans 1:24-25

²⁴ Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonour their bodies among themselves, ²⁵ who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.

On account of man’s willful rejection of God as God, and instead. creating his own so-called gods, God decided to let them live their lives just as their evil hearts desired. If one is to truly live just the way he wants, his life will be detrimental to both himself and others around as well – such is the evil desire and propensity to sin that lurks within each of us. When God permitted man to live any way he wanted, he chose lifestyles that were in total contradiction to God’s plan for mankind. People began to dishonour their bodies with one another. The body was no longer used for the purpose for which God created it. They ignored the truth about God and chose instead to believe lies about who God is and began worshipping created things instead of worshipping the Creator Himself. It is God alone who needs to be praised and worshipped forever, not any man, or any other part of God’s creation.

Romans 1:26-27

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.

God permitted them to go still further in their evil desires to sin and they began to do shamefully lustful things, where women, instead of having sexual relations with men, began to have such relationships with other women and men, too chose to not have sexual relationships with women but rather chose to do so with other men. They committed and commit shameful acts with other men and are also receiving the punishment that is due for their immoral behaviour. There are a lot of Sexually Transmitted Diseases that are the direct result of Homosexuality. This is seen as normal in many parts of the world today, but that does not make it right and it will never be. God does not change in His understanding of morality.

Romans 1:28-32

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.

Since man decided that retaining the knowledge of God (having a relationship with God) was not important, God permitted them to go still further in the fulfillment of their evil desires. He permitted them to become completely depraved in their thinking and they began to do things that should never have been done. (Little wonder the world is in the moral turmoil it is in today). Here’s what they began to do as a result. Man began to commit every form of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. When one is at the centre of their own lives, then no one else matters to them and getting all they want is the only driving force and get it they will, by hook or by crook and that’s what happened to man.

Man became filled with every evil desire – envying one another, instead of rejoicing with one another, taking each other’s life instead of helping each other live, conflict instead of living in peace and harmony, deceit instead of honesty and integrity, malice instead of sharing love, gossiping and slandering instead of talking good of one another, God-haters instead of lovers of God; insolent instead of respectful, arrogant and boastful instead of being humble. Man began to invent creative ways of doing evil, so as to make evil doing easier. Children became disobedient to their parents instead of obeying them, people lost their understanding on how to live, they became unfaithful to one another instead of being faithful to one another in all relationships, including marriage, instead of being loving and merciful to one another, those attributes were lost.

Man knew that God is righteous and expected them to live a certain way, and though they knew that the lifestyle they had chosen was deserving of eternal death, not only did they continue to live in total rebellion against God and His ways, but they went one step further to approve others who lived the same way. As they say, ‘Misery loves company.’ There’s the unspoken yet popular belief that if something is popular, then it’s right, but sadly, that’s not the case always. God does not change his character to suit our whims – He was, is and will always remain holy.

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Michael Collins