Romans 1 - Are You Ashamed of the Gospel?

Click Here to Read or Listen to Romans 1 

All quotes taken from David Guzik, Enduring Word unless otherwise mentioned. 

Today we begin reading a very important book of the bible, the book of Romans. Romans played a significant role and impacted several important figures in our church history including Saint Augustine, Martin Luther, and John Wesley. 

Here is the impact the book had on Martin Luther, the father of the Protestant Reformation. 

In August of 1513, a monk lectured on the Book of Psalms to seminary students, but his inner life was nothing but turmoil. In his studies he came across Psalm 31:1: In Thy righteousness deliver me. The passage confused Luther; how could God’s righteousness do anything but condemn him to hell as a righteous punishment for his sins? Luther kept thinking about Romans 1:17, which says, the righteousness of God is revealed through faith for faith; as it is written, “He who through faith is righteous shall live.”

Luther the monk went on to say: “Night and day I pondered until… I grasped the truth that the righteousness of God is that righteousness whereby, through grace and sheer mercy, he justifies us by faith. Therefore I felt myself to be reborn and to have gone through open doors into paradise… This passage of Paul became to me a gateway into heaven.” Martin Luther was born again, and the Reformation began in his heart.

The letter to the church in Rome was written in about 57-59 A.D., two years or so before Paul went to prison in Rome in about 60 A.D. The Holy Spirit had warned Paul about this troubles ahead of him on his missionary journey to Rome, so he wanted to make sure he got a letter to them in case he didn't make it. 

The 16 chapters of Romans is the longest letter written in the New Testament. It is theological in nature, though it also addresses many practical, everyday issues in the Christian life. It focuses most of all on the fact that we are justified by faith in Jesus. Romans 8 is one of the best chapters in all of the bible in my opinion. We start with chapter 1. 

As Paul begins chapter 1, he reviews his calling to be an apostle who is set part to preach the gospel and reach all people. Romans is primarily written to the Jewish Christians in Rome, but also the letter is very pertinent to the new Gentile Christians, who Paul was specifically called to reach. 

Paul will talk quite a bit about being saved by faith in this letter, but he also focuses a lot on the obedience that comes through faith. 

Paul’s gospel impacts individual lives. It isn’t interesting theory or philosophy, it is life-changing good news.

Paul’s Longing to Visit Rome

Paul commends them for their faith, which he has heard about. He shares with them the fact that he was hoping to see them soon. He is praying for an open door, which will enable him to see them. Paul longed to see them to impart a spiritual gift to them, which in this case means the mutual encouragement that comes from the Holy Spirit. The bible calls this the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. Fellowship is one of the great gifts of the Spirit, as it enables us to deeper relationships than the world could ever offer. And because of the hope of eternal life, we are forever friends. 

Paul shows his desire to reach all people, both Jews and Gentiles, with the gospel. And concludes this section by saying, 

"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,[e] just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.”

These verses are worth memorizing. Our world tries to make us ashamed of the gospel. If we share the gospel, we are seen as "narrow-minded" or trying to "convert" someone against their will. We fear being looked at as a "religious fanatic", or one of those "crazy Christians". But Paul gives us the reason for sharing the gospel. 

We are not ashamed to share the gospel because it is, "The power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes." There is inherent power in the gospel, which is generated through the person sharing it and also the Holy Spirit, who convicts the person for their need for it. The gospel brings "salvation", which means deliverance or freedom from bondage. In this case it is the bondage of sin and the deliverance from sin, death, and the devil. This is why it is such good news. 

And, this good news isn't just for the "frozen chosen", but for all people. The apostles Paul and Peter were given a specific calling to reach all people not just the Jews. They took a lot of flack for it, because the Gentiles were seen as "dirty dogs". This is another reason not to be ashamed of the gospel. 

If a person had terminal cancer, and you had the cure would you withhold it from them. Would you be afraid of them being offended? Or, someone ridiculing you for thinking you had the cure that would save them from the death. We all have a type of terminal cancer, and it is called sin. As Paul will say in Romans 6:23, "The wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus, our Lord!"

Also, when someone is cured of a life threatening disease, it only prolongs their eventual physical death. The mortality rate is still around 100%. But the cure for sin, Jesus' death on the cross for us, will give us eternal life. The decision to accept or reject the gospel of Jesus has eternal consequences. 

Are you ashamed of the gospel? Do the people you love most know Jesus? Have you shared the good news with them? Why wait?

God’s Wrath Against Sinful Humanity

Paul then begins a systematic way of looking at our path of salvation starting with the fact that we are all sinners. The sinful nature of humankind brought on the wrath of God. It is not that God delights in wrath, but He is also holy, so he can't just turn his head at wickedness. 

Paul argues that what can be known about God is first revealed in His Creation. If you just look at the Creation around you, you will have to conclude that there is a higher power that created us and the world around us. It takes more faith to believe that everything around us happened by chance and evolving over billions of years. It just doesn't make sense. 

Evolution can be likened to someone throwing up all of the mechanism and parts of a watch in the air and hoping by the time it hit the ground it would be a "Rolex". Something simple cannot evolve into something complex. No matter how many times you throw the watch parts in the air, it is never going to happen. 

We call this general revelation. Whether or not someone has heard the gospel of Jesus, they have seen the God who created the heavens and the earth. But the people chose to reject God and made human idols and images to worship instead of Him. You can see how offensive this would be. They were worshipping creation vs the Creator. 

People still do this today. In the process God gave them over to what they wanted. They worshipped  their bodies through all kinds of immoral behaviors, including exchanging natural relations between a man and woman with same sex relationships.  Paul also describes perverted heterosexual practices, including prostitution. Paul wrote this letter from Corinth and had seen plenty of this behavior there. 

Though many people try to say the bible doesn't condemn homosexuality, how else can you interpret these verses. 

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.

The bible clearly says homosexual behavior is sin, but it is not worse than any other sin. I.e. Heterosexual immorality. But the bible does say there is a penalty associated with homosexual sin though it doesn't spell out what this is. Various interpretations range from diseases, or any other physicial, spiritual and emotional effects of the unnatural nature of homosexual intimacy. 

But like with any sin, the biggest penatly is a broken relationship with God and all the effects of shame and guilt that go with that. You could just as easily say having sex with a prostitute could bring on of these "due penalties" as well.  

Our society and many churches accept and even bless same sex relationships for those who are "committed". But it is pretty hard to justify any of it by straightforward biblical teaching.  But some might point out that the bible also condemns people living together, especially if they are having sex outside of marriage. Is homosexual sin any worse or better than this? I think that would be hard to argue. 

I think my point is we have to be careful about being subjectively judgmental in one area and then give a pass to another sexual sin. What about pornography, which is a huge scorge in our culture and effects men of ages? Many men are addicted to it. Is watching pornography on a regular basis better or worse than homosexual sin? 

These are all things a Christian needs to keep in mind with this subject. After all Jesus said, "Whoever is without sin can be the first to throw the stone." This was in the context of the immoral woman, but it could just as well have been a person caught in homosexual sin! 

As Paul closes out chapter 1, he gives a litany of other byproducts of the sinful nature that rebels against God. He even says you "invent ways to do evil." Fortunately chapter 1 is not the end of the story, but unless we look at the problem (our sinful nature that rebels against God), we cannot receive the solution (God's grace in Christ!)

I think you are going to enjoy through the book of Romans. I know our church Fathers did!