Romans 1 - Paul Teaches About the Power of the Gospel To All People and Describes the Universal Nature of the Sinful Human Condition!

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Introduction

In the book of Acts we ended up with Paul being tried in Rome for supposedly opposing the customs and laws of Moses. Paul appealed to Caesar, and because he was a Roman citizen, he was sent to Rome to see the Roman Emperor. When Paul went to Rome, I mentioned in the last blog that he had already written this letter to them. 

Perhaps this is why Romans is the first letter included after the Gospels and Acts in the New Testament. Many consider Romans to be Paul's "magnum opus". Like the church in Ephesus, the church in Rome was a very important church in the 1st century. Paul's letter is primarily focused on what it means to be saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. Paul spends quite a bit of time distinguishing between the Law, which convicts us of our sin and need for Christ, and the Gospel, which justifies us before God by faith by what Jesus did for us on the cross. 

In Romans there a good mixture of both the theology of law and gospel, application of theology in the life of a disciple and the church. 

In Paul's introduction he refers himself as, "A servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God." v.1

The word "servant" is also translated "slave". It is the Greek word, "doulos", which is someone who has given up their rights to serve their master. Paul gave up his rights to serve his master, Jesus Christ. The word apostle means someone who is sent, or is an ambassador. In this case Paul was an ambassador of the Good News. The Good News of God, the Father sending Jesus, His Son to save all of humankind. 

Paul points to the fact that Jesus was both human, as a descendent of David. And also the powerful Son of God, whose was raised him from the dead, which proved he was God. Then, Paul refers to the Gentiles, who he brought gospel to when most of the Jews rejected him and the gospel. There is a little bit of debate over whether Paul wrote this gospel to the Gentile Christians in Rome, or the Jewish Christians in Rome. It seems by this comment it was written to the Gentiles. But, as you read the rest of the letter, the Jewish Christians seems to be his primary audience. 

For An Article on the Impact Romans Had On People Like Luther and Augustine Click on This Link!

Paul’s Longing to Visit Rome

Paul praises the Roman church for their faith, which is commended all over the world. He prays for them all the time and hopes he will have a chance to visit them soon. This confirms that this letter was written before he actually visited them in Acts 28. 

It is important to not only pray for our own churches, but all of the churches of Jesus Christ both locally and globally. Paul mentions he wants to share a spiritual gift with them so they may be MUTUALLY encouraged. The purpose of spiritual gifts is to build up the body of Christ and draw us into deeper unity. He mentions he is excited to preach to them, "just like other Gentiles". confirming the fact he was writing this letter to Gentiles. 

Then Paul writes a verse worthy of memorizing!

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile. 17 For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed—a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.” Romans 1:16-17

Paul was not ashamed of the gospel because it was God's power not his. He wasn't responsible for converting anyone, but it was God's power working through in Him as He preaching the Good News. In the gospel, the righteousness of God is revealed that is by faith. This will be a theme Paul will repeat over and over, and is a very distinctive part of Paul's theology in all of his letters to the churches. 

Righteousness simply means "being right with God". It is also called "being justified". I like to refer to it as being in a "right relationship with God".  When we were stuck in our sin, we all were unrighteous. Paul will say in Romans quoting from the Psalms, "There are none who are righteous, no not even one." Romans 5:8

But though we could never justify ourselves or create a "self righteousness" before God, the Good News is that Jesus has become our righteousness. Paul will say we have now been "credited with Jesus' righteousness". Luther calls this an "alien righteousness", because it comes outside of ourselves. It is out of this world. Thus, "the righteous will live by faith." Faith is trusting that Jesus did for us what we could never do for ourselves and living in assurance of this promise.

God’s Wrath Against Sinful Humanity

Before Paul can talk about the Good News, he first needs to explain why our sin brought God's wrath. Another important verse for understanding the universal nature of sin is verse 20 which says, 

"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."

This is important because it says that everybody has been given knowledge of God through God's creation. As we look at the world around us, it points to a Divine Creator, who is all powerful. The only other explanation for what we see and experience around us is that everything happened by chance. The world and all that is in it, including us, is unexplainable. If there is no Creator, there is no meaning or purpose in life. We live we die. That's it! So Paul concludes that all people are "without excuse". 

Paul then describes what happened when people exchanged the truth about God with a lie. People made images to worship in the forms of humans, animals, birds, and reptiles. Basically false worship is worshipping what is created rather than the Creator! And when people chose to worship images and created things, God gave them over to error their worship. 

Part of that downward spiral was the perversion of the gift of sexuality. Whereas God created sex as a gift to be enjoyed in the context of the covenant of marriage, people were given over to the degrading of their bodies with one another. Does this sound familiar today? 

Part of this degradation happened when men and women exchanged natural relationships i.e. between a man and woman, which we call heterosexual, for same sex relationships, which we call homosexuality. Notice Paul notes both men and women practiced these "unnatural" relationships. Specifically, Paul says men committed shameful acts with other men, and in due time received the penalty for their error. 

Obviously this has been a tremendously controversial issue both in the church and in society. Today, the prevailing cultural view is that homosexual relationships are morally okay. Anyone who thinks otherwise is considered judgmental and prejudiced. The LGBTQ movement is a natural outgrowth of the acceptance of homosexuality in our world. It is really all the same thing exchanging our natural image as a man or woman, with an unnatural one. It is one thing for people to believe in these lifestyles, but now this agenda is being pushed everywhere in our society including our public schools. So while Christianity cannot be taught in schools this view of sexuality being normal is. And all of us fund this education through our tax dollars. So basically I am funding my child to be taught what Paul describes as the epitome of our sinful nature, which brings God's wrath on all humankind. 

This is a challenging issue, because Jesus died for all of our sin. Christians sometimes look at homosexual sin as the unforgiveable sin. Or, they judge and shame homosexuals to the point that they would never darken the doors of a church. I have had many experience with Christians, who are either practicing a homosexual lifestyle, or those who struggle with it because their basic attraction is to be of their same sex. 

So I try to handle this as Jesus did with both grace and truth. Grace is unconditional acceptance because of what Jesus did on the cross for all of us. In that sense my own heterosexual lust, greed, or thinking more highly of myself than I ought is no different than homosexual practice in terms of objective sin. Though the consequences of different behaviors are different, "sin is sin". There are no better or worse sins. All of our sin offends a holy and righteous God. 

But because of this passage I can never teach as a pastor that God is okay with homosexual practice, whether someone is in a "same sex committed relationship or not". In my Lutheran church, this issue in some sense of the word "split" our denomination. Not so much that we split over the issue of whether God was for or against homosexuality, but the role of scripture in our proclamation, life, and teaching. Other Lutherans interpreted scripture to say that Paul's wholesale condemnation of homosexuality only applied to his day and time. Homosexuality in our day is different because people are in committed in marriage and in fact legally married. In my opinion this is a slippery slope to think we are above scripture and we can decide whether we believe it is applicable today or not. So the real issue is the authority of scripture. Do we trust it or not. Do we interpret scripture or does scripture interpret us.  

Rather than limited his description of the sinful nature to homosexual behavior, Paul now gives us a litany of other sinful behaviors, which I referred to earlier. 

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.

So in chapter 1 Paul describes the problem we all face , our sinful nature! Before we can hear the Good News, we need to accept the bad news. We all fall short of the glory of God and are condemned before him. Each one of us has gone astray and would rather serve ourselves rather than God or others. This applies to all of us. Sin is an equal opportunity problem. 

As a pastor I am called to preach the Word of God, the bible, which is inspired by God and useful for teaching, proclamation, and exhortation in the one true faith. I can't in good conscience ignore this passage, which is the clearest passage in the bible which teaches that God does not condone homosexuality. The book of Leviticus condemns homosexuality, but many say this was Old Testament, and Jesus accepted everyone and everything in the New Testament. But clearly Paul is referring to the acts of homosexuality as an outgrowth of degradation of our bodies and our sinful nature not just a cultural phenomenon. 

You may feel differently than me or have another interpretation of this passage. I hope we can continue to be in relationship, because as I said before we are all sinners and I am no better than anyone else. We are saved by grace alone and faith alone in what Jesus did for ALL OF US!