Category: Romans (Page 5 of 6)

The church where I grew up prohibited members from movies, dancing, drinking and card playing.  Many Reformed churches today erect a rhetorical fence around the Lord’s Supper table to keep out unbelievers.  My childhood church thus (unintentionally) implied being right with God was a matter of keeping regulations.  Reformed churches today (unintentionally) imply that properly participating in the ritual is required for justification.

In Romans 4:1-12, Paul addresses Jews and meets both regulation and ritual head-on . . .

REGULATIONS RE:  RIGHT WITH GOD

“What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather, discovered in this matter? If, in fact, Abraham was justified by works, he had something to boast about– but not before God. What does the Scripture say? ‘Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.’ Now when a man works, his wages are not credited to him as a gift, but as an obligation.  However, to the man who does not work but trusts God who justifies the wicked, his faith is credited as righteousness.  David says the same thing when he speaks of the blessedness of the man to whom God credits righteousness apart from works:  ‘Blessed are they whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered.  Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will never count against him'” (Romans 4:1-8).

Why was what Abraham found about how a person is made right with God important to Paul’s justification-by-faith argument?  Abraham is revered as the father of the Jewish nation.  And Paul is primarily addressing Jews here.

Can Abraham boast of his works?  Not before God, replies Paul.  Then, citing from the Greek translation of Genesis 15:6, he writes, Scripture says “Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness”.  “Credited” is the Greek logizomai, meaning ”to credit to one’s account”.  That is, his faith was the means right-standing with God was accounted to him.

This astounds the Jew.  Abraham was justified, not by obeying the Lord and leaving his father’s household to settle in an unknown land.  Nor by obeying the Lord and sacrificing his only son (the Lord stopped him at the last second).  But Abraham was counted right with God by his faith.  Therefore, Jews can’t appeal to Father Abraham as a model for justification by works; he’s a model for justification by faith.

Furthermore, a workman doesn’t get a gift of wages; a workman is due wages.  But, when it comes to right-standing with God, a person must choose not to work to earn justification, but simply trust “God who justifies the wicked”.  Thus “his faith is credited as righteousness.”

Paul next appeals to David, Israel’s greatest king.  David, he says, agrees with Abraham:  “Blessed are they whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered.  Blessed is the man who sin the Lord will never count against him”—a citation of Psalm 32:1,2.

Do two passages in the Old Testament contradict God justifying the wicked?  Exodus 23:7—“Keep your distance from a false charge—do not kill the innocent and the righteous, for I do not justify the wicked.”  Proverbs 17:15—“Justifying the wicked and condemning the righteous—both of them are an abomination to the Lord.”  The difference, however, is that justified now has been satisfied through Christ’s death, but it had not been in those Old Testament days.

RITUAL RE:  RIGHT WITH GOD

“Is this blessedness only for the circumcised, or also for the uncircumcised? We have been saying that Abraham’s faith was credited to him as righteousness.  Under what circumstances was it credited? Was it after he was circumcised, or before? It was not after, but before!  And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised. So then, he is the father of all who believe but have not been circumcised, in order that righteousness might be credited to them.  And he is also the father of the circumcised who not only are circumcised but who also walk in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham had before he was circumcised” (Romans 4:9-12).

God commanded Abraham to circumcise every male in his household (Genesis 17:10-14).  It became the outward mark of belonging to God’s covenant people (Genesis 17:1-10).  But did circumcision make a man right with God.  Absolutely not!  Abraham received the sign of circumcision (as a) seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised.”  In fact, Abraham was 99 years old when he underwent that rite (Genesis 17:24).

Paul applies a staggering (to the Jew) “so then”:  “So then, he is the father of all who believe but have not been circumcised” . . . and “he is also the father of the circumcised” . . . who also walk in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham had before he was circumcised.”

* * *

In his definitive research (published in Soul Searching:  the Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers and in Souls in Transition:  the Religious and Spiritual Lives of Emerging Adults), sociologist Christian Smith found that the majority of these groups believe “God wants us to be good.”  What is being “good” but a casual way of trying to keep God’s regulations?  But this is not what God wants.

Most Americans regard the sacraments (church rituals like the Lord’s Supper and baptism) as, in some way, “holy”.  But rituals signify deeper realities (fellowship with the Lord, commitment to follow him, and especially faith in him) without which rituals are empty forms–certainly not redemptive.

On one hand, we might say Paul has brought us to a joyful place.  Our sins doom us under God’s wrath–no escape by regulation-keeping or ritual-engaging.  All we can and must do is trust in Christ’s redemptive death.  Joy!

On the other hand, Paul has brought us to an uncomfortable place.  We have all sinned.  In anger, God has given us over to our lusts and their consequences.  We are storing up wrath against ourselves for the day of God’s wrath.  But God offers us Christ’s redemptive death to save us from sin and wrath and to put us in right-standing with himself.  All we can and must do is trust.  But trust means we can do nothing to justify ourselves.  Trust means we must step out on the high-wire and walk by what we can’t see.  Or in the words of the 18th century hymn, trust means singing . . .

“Nothing in my hand I bring,
Simply to Thy cross I cling;
Naked, come to Thee for dress;
Helpless, look to Thee for grace . . . “

Your team just won the title game. You played well.  Room for feeling good about yourself.  You aced the final exam.  Highest grade in the class.  Space for self-satisfaction.  Yet, as I envision Paul looking around a room filled with Jews, he asks, “Where is there room for boasting in here?”  That, I think, is the sense of Paul’s question.  His answer:  “No room in here for that.”

“Where, then, is boasting?  It is excluded” (Romans 3:27a).

Pride is okay in some places, but not here, not when it comes to one’s standing with God.

Like an intense prosecutor confident of his case, Paul has driven home condemning truth . . .

“The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness . . . “ (Romans 1:18).

“But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God’s wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed” (Romans 2:5).

“What shall we conclude then? Are we any better? Not at all! We have already made the charge that Jews and Gentiles alike are all under sin” (Romans 3:9).

All those charges lead to the exclusion of pride.  And not just pagan Gentiles—Romans, for example, who worship gods of their own making—but Jews, too.  Jews, who are circumcised, who possess God’s very words, are also under the power of sin.  Nothing to boast about before God.

But on that black velvet of sin and wrath, the gospel shines like a diamond  . . .

“But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.  God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished–he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus” (Romans 3:21-26).

This gospel gives no grounds for boasting.  Justification comes freely by God grace through Christ’s redemption.  So pride . . .

“ . . . is excluded. On what principle? On that of observing the law? No, but on that of faith. For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from observing the law” (Romans 3:27b,28).

A man—a woman—is justified “by faith apart from observing the law.”  Tack up the Ten Commandments on your refrigerator and pray for power to keep them today, and whatever your performance, you’ve not improved your standing with God one bit.  Justification comes by faith apart from observing the law.  The work of being right with God is God’s work from start to finish. This, says Paul, is the gospel we preach.  As true for the Jew as for the Gentile, because “there is only one God” . . .

“Is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles too? Yes, of Gentiles too, since there is only one God, who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through that same faith” (Romans 3:29,30).

One God.  One way to being right with one God:  faith.  “ . . . faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe.”  That’s a stomach-punch to the crowd that insists many roads lead to God.  Only one God.  Only one way.

But what, then, of God’s law?

“Do we, then, nullify the law by this faith? (Romans 3:31a).

It seems Paul does.  If right-standing with God is by faith apart from law-keeping, don’t you do away with law, Paul?

 Not at all! Rather, we uphold the law” (Romans 3:31).

Paul is emphatic.  He upholds God’s law.  He’ll explain how starting in chapter 4.  For now, be sure of this:  faith-justification doesn’t allow for lawless living.

* * *

Boasting is pride spoken.  Spiritual boasting is spiritual pride spoken.  And spiritual pride is deadly–and insidious.   It lurks in our heart when we presume to deserve God’s grace.  Or when we presume to deserve good health.

That’s my problem.  I don’t deserve this chronic, debilitating disease.  I deserve healing or, at least, protection from it.

But since “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”, I’m one of the “all”.  And, likewise, facing the day of God’s wrath.  That’s what I deserve.  Justification, good health–anything good–is of God’s grace.   And when Jesus comes even by body will be redeemed.  I won’t deserve it.

“Father, years ago I was warned never to pray for humility.  Your humbling work would be too painful.  I’m humbled in my body now.  Please use it to remove my pride.  May I learn to walk humbly with you, my God.  In Jesus’ name.  Amen.”

On August 6 & 9, 1946, during World War 2,  the U.S. dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki respectively.  Within a week, Japan surrendered.  The bombs changed history.

“But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify” (3:21).

“But now . . . “  Those words signal a “bomb-dropping”-like change in the way God works in the world. God is pouring out his wrath against humans’ sin (1:18-3:20).  The question, then, that overrides everything else is “how can we escape God’s wrath and get right with him?”  Now not by trying (unsuccessfully) to keep regulations, but by receiving the gift of righteousness. This is what Paul means by “apart (separate) from law”. 

Yet this apart-from-law-righteousness was prefigured in the Mosaic Law and foretold by Israel’s prophets.  “But now” does imply that God is starting new “from scratch”; he’s fulfilling what he long-promised.

We might ask, “What’s the big deal?  I’m trying to get my career on track.”  Or, “I’m trying to mother three children.”  Or, “I’m struggling with debilitating cancer treatments.  Religion has to wait.”  But suppose Paul’s letter to the Roman church is right?  Suppose God really is giving us over in his wrath to the consequences of our wrong choices against him?  Suppose our sins against him really mean we’re storing up wrath for the day of God’s wrath?  If that’s true, what could be more important than getting right with him?  And what could be more important than receiving the righteousness he now gives, especially since regulation-keeping leaves us “short”? 

“This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus” (3:22-24). 

What is this “faith in Jesus Christ” through which God’s righteousness comes?  It’s “simply” trust in Jesus Christ.  It’s reliance on a person.  It’s not, “Act right and you get righteousness.”  It’s trust Jesus Christ to be the means through which God gives you righteousness.

“Faith” opens up righteousness as a potential gift to all who believe.  Paul makes a major point of this here.  “There is no difference (or, distinction); for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and (therefore all) are justified freely (without merit or achievement declared right with God) by his grace . . . ”

What does it mean to “fall short of the glory of God”?  First, what is God’s “glory”?  The Greek word itself (doxa) means, “glory, radiance, splendor”.  Doesn’t help much, does it!  John Piper calls glory “the going public of [God’s] infinite worth . . . the infinite value of God”.  So we gaze at the heavens and the earth that this God created.  We marvel at stars and clouds and mountains and oceans—and sleeping babies.  How glorious this Creator!  What a treasure all that he is must be!

But humans have exchanged God’s glory for images (Romans 1:19-24).  Thus, we “fall short” and are left without all that he is; indeed, we incur his wrath.

The Jew who’s been circumcised to mark his belonging to God’s people and assiduously commits to keeping God’s Law can now be “justified freely by [God’s] grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.  So can the pagan Gentile men whom God had given over to their consuming sexual passions for one another.  Like the “religious” person, the immoral person who’s utterly rejected God and his laws is declared right with God “freely” by faith.

This is “grace” (God’s favor, kindness, unearned love).  And it comes “through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.”   “Redemption” means “to buy back” and carries with it the idea of slaves being released.  So, we are slaves “under (the power of) sin” (Romans 3:9), but we can be redeemed (bought back from slavery) by Christ’s ransom-price death.  Thus, this faith centers in the person of Jesus Christ, crucified.

“God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood.  He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished—he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus” (Romans 3:25,26).

The NIV’s translation, “presented”, is of the Greek protithayme, better translated “presented publicly”.  God openly offered Jesus as “a sacrifice of atonement”.  The Greek is hilastayrios meaning “propitiation”; that is, the place where sins are forgiven.  Again turning to John Piper’s definition, propitiation is “the work of God to absorb his divine anger toward sinful man.”  In other words, God unleashed his wrath due sinful humanity on Jesus, his Son.  Such is the unspeakable grace of God.

Because hilastayrios is used in the Septuagint (the Greek version of the Old Testament) to translate “mercy seat”, some have argued “mercy seat” lies behind the word’s meaning here.  Thus Paul is saying that God publicly offered Jesus in his bloody death as the merciful covering for our sin–an apt image!

Either way, it’s instructive to note that Paul narrows the object of faith from “Jesus Christ” (3:22) to “his blood”—that is, his propitiatory sacrifice.

Paul then explains the reason for God offering Christ as a propitiation—that is, “he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished”.  How can God be just and allow sins go unpunished?  He only allowed it for a time.  Christ endured the punishment for all sins committed by all believers.  At the same time as he is just, he is “the one who justified (declared righteous) those who have faith in Jesus.”

* * *

Paul will apply all this in the next sentences:  “Where, then, is boasting? It is excluded. On what principle? On that of observing the law? No, but on that of faith.  For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from observing the law” (Romans 3:27,28).  In other words, “You Jews who work hard at keeping God’s law, you have nothing to brag about.  Don’t go point your finger at Gentiles who do what they shouldn’t!  Everybody who believes is justified!”

More about that next time.  For now it will be good to re-read this blog–even better to prayerfully meditate on Romans 3:21-26, admit our sin and worthiness of God’s wrath, and affirm that we are relying on Jesus Christ crucified alone to be right with God.

Because God’s “But now” changed history–and miraculously changed our standing with our glorious God.

Sin-talk.  Mostly reserved for Sundays.  It left ordinary conversation with the Enlightenment–a European intellectual movement of the 17th and 18th centuries in which ideas concerning God, reason, nature, and humanity were synthesized into a worldview that gained wide assent in the West and that instigated revolutionary developments in art, philosophy, and politics. Central to Enlightenment thought were the use and celebration of reason, the power by which humans understand the universe and improve their own condition. The goals of rational humanity were considered to be knowledge, freedom, and happiness–https://www.britannica.com/event/Enlightenment-European-history.

In Romans 3:9-20 Paul paints the final dark strokes of  his picture of God’s wrath.  Why God’s wrath? He explains and, therefore, the reason for the gospel.  Further, he insists “that Jews and Gentiles alike are all under sin”.  To prove his concluding points, Paul cites a catalogue of verses from his (Old Testament) Bible . . .

“What shall we conclude then? Are we [Jews] any better? Not at all! We have already made the charge that Jews and Gentiles alike are all under sin” (Romans 3:9)

Despite being entrusted with God’s very words, Jews are no better off.  All humanity is “under sin”.  Paul sees sin as a power that dominates all humans since the Fall.  No one is free from it.

“As it is written: ‘There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God.   All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one’” (Romans 3:10-12).

“As it is written” claims the words that follow are authoritative.  Paul cites Psalm 14 and virtually repeats himself citing Psalm 53 . . .

“They are corrupt, their deeds are vile; there is no one who does good. The LORD looks down from heaven on the sons of men to see if there are any who understand, any who seek God. All have turned aside, they have together become corrupt; there is no one who does good, not even one” (Psalm 14:1b-3).

“They are corrupt, and their ways are vile; there is no one who does good. God looks down from heaven on the sons of men to see if there are any who understand, any who seek God. Everyone has turned away, they have together become corrupt; there is no one who does good, not even one” (Psalm 53:1b-3).

No one possesses a personal, moral righteousness enabling him/her to stand before the holy God.  No one is able to comprehend his personal unrighteousness before God; unrighteousness has corrupted his moral thinking.  And no one is searching after God.  Instead, they have turned away and become depraved.  This doesn’t mean that every human commits acts of what we would call moral depravity (few are as evil as they could be); it means every aspect of our being is morally depraved because we all have turned away from seeking after God.  Not one of us does what God’s law says is good.

“Their throats are open graves; their tongues practice deceit. The poison of vipers is on their lips. Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.  Their feet are swift to shed blood; ruin and misery mark their ways, and the way of peace they do not know.  There is no fear of God before their eyes”  (Romans 3:13-18).

Citing  Psalm 9:5, Paul says every person’s throat is like an open grave from which deceitful speech gushes.  Citing Psalm 140:3, Paul claims their words, like poisonous snakes, are aimed to destroy.  Their words curse God and man. Vile speech overflows their mouths.

Paul next turns to Isaiah 59:7,8 where the LORD condemns Israel.  Paul applies it to all humans.  They are violent in words and acts.  Theologian Karl Barth, writing near the end of World War 1 commented, “The whole course of human history pronounces this indictment against itself.”

Finally, Paul cites Psalm 36:1—“There is no fear of God before their eyes”.  No awe.  No trembling.  No sense of responsibility or accountability.  Instead, a brazen presumption that God will not judge.

“Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God. Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin” (Romans 3:19,20).

Jews condemn Gentiles.  But Paul reminds Jews that God’s law speaks to those under it; they can no longer boast of their righteousness.  Their lawbreaking silences their arrogant tongues.  God’s law sharply confronts their sin.   It holds the whole world accountable to him.

* * *

 Before the Enlightenment, people in the West believed in God as they believed in the sunrise.  But the Enlightenment changed that.  It elevated rational thinking.  That is, what made sense to the human mind, what was logically based on fact, won the day.  Scientific studies (man isn’t the center of the universe), geological discoveries (earth is much older than the Bible suggests) and even the Protestant Reformation (wars within the church undercut its authority) all contributed to throwing off traditional beliefs in favor of human experience and what the human mind could understand.

New scientific discoveries led to an “unprecedented optimism” based on confidence that man could “shape his material and social environment and this led man to assume that he was “to a great extent the master of his own destiny” ( https://probe.org/the-enlightenment-and-belief-in-god/).

Enlightenment thoughts still permeate ours.  But over 30 major wars in the 20th century may have shaken our confidence that man is “the master of his own destiny”.  Nevertheless, the assumption that we can shape our material and social environment remains.  And all the while we are storing up wrath for ourselves on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed (Romans 2:5).

That doesn’t compute with the rational mind.  Remember:  the rational mind, however intelligent, is corrupted.  “For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking and their foolish hearts were darkened . . . ” (Romans 1:21).

We are (graciously) called to believe what the fallen human mind deems irrational–that we’re all under the power of sin, that no one seeks God, that all have turned away from him, that not even one does good, that the day of God’s wrath is coming . . .

and that God has  revealed his righteousness in the gospel
to powerfully save all who trust in his grace in Christ Jesus.

*Note:  Interested in a good summary of Enlightenment thought and its effect?  Go to  https://probe.org/the-enlightenment-and-belief-in-god/

Any group known as the Religious Right will certainly be criticized.  True to form, this group, that came to prominence in the 1970s, has been charged with self-righteousness and hypocrisy, guilty or not.

Another group definitely was guilty . . .

“Now you, if you call yourself a Jew; if you rely on the law and brag about your relationship to God; if you know his will and approve of what is superior because you are instructed by the law;  if you are convinced that you are a guide for the blind, a light for those who are in the dark,  an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of infants, because you have in the law the embodiment of knowledge and truth– you, then, who teach others, do you not teach yourself? You who preach against stealing, do you steal?  You who say that people should not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples?  You who brag about the law, do you dishonor God by breaking the law?  As it is written: ‘God’s name is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you’” (Romans 2:17-24).

Paul warned pagan Gentiles of God’s wrath (1:18-2:16).  Here for the first time, he addresses Jews by name.  He charges them with presuming to escape God’s wrath because they are Jews who . . .

• possess God’s Law
• enjoy a special relationship with God
• are taught by the law and so know God’s will and approve of what is morally/spiritually superior
• Because they have the embodiment of knowledge and truth in the Law, are certain they are “a guide for the blind, a light for those in darkness, a teacher of the foolish and of infants”

Then come the penetrating, prosecuting questions . . .

• You who teach others, do you not teach yourself?
• You who preach against stealing, do you steal?
• You who say people shouldn’t commit adultery, do you commit adultery?
• You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? (Probably by making and selling little idols)
• You who brag about the law, do you break it and so dishonor God?

Indeed, instead of the Jews’ actions moving the Gentiles to praise God, what Isaiah prophesied of his generation (“all the day my name is despised”—Isaiah 52:5b), is also true of Paul’s:  God’s name is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you”.

“Circumcision has value if you observe the law, but if you break the law, you have become as though you had not been circumcised. If those who are not circumcised keep the law’s requirements, will they not be regarded as though they were circumcised?  The one who is not circumcised physically and yet obeys the law will condemn you who, even though you have the written code and circumcision, are a lawbreaker.  A man is not a Jew if he is only one outwardly, nor is circumcision merely outward and physical.  No, a man is a Jew if he is one inwardly; and circumcision is circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code. Such a man’s praise is not from men, but from God” (Rom. 2:25-29)

Circumcision externally marks every male Jew as belonging to God’s covenant people.  But the Jew has come to trust in the external mark.  It’s valueless without obedience to the law.  Indeed, “ . . . if you break the law, you have become as though you had not been circumcised.”  Furthermore, if the uncircumcised obey the law, “ . . . will they not be regarded as though they were circumcised?”

Who are these uncircumcised who obey the law?  Possibly Paul’s writing of a “what-if” situation.  But I think he’s referring to actual Gentiles.  Many commentators posit that these Gentiles obey the law as the result of general revelation (the revelation of God in creation).  I think, however, Paul is referring to Gentiles who believe in Christ Jesus.  It seems to me Paul’s next statements bear that out.

Here Paul redefines “Jew” and “circumcision”.  “A man is a Jew if he is one inwardly.”  Furthermore, “circumcision (the mark that a man belongs to God’s covenant people) is circumcision of the heart by the Spirit, not by the written code (or law).”

Paul has, almost incidentally, dropped a bombshell.  A new kind of circumcision exists, and by it Jew and Gentile can belong to the covenant people of God.  This “new circumcision” actually has its roots in the Old Testament from which Paul is probably drawing.

In Deuteronomy 10, Moses is rebuking the Israelites for creating a golden calf to worship.  In verses 16 and 17 he urges . . .

“Circumcise your hearts, therefore, and do not be stiff-necked any longer. For the LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality and accepts no bribes” (Deuteronomy 10:16,17).

How can they purify their hearts?  While it does reveal the depth of their depravity, it’s a command they can’t keep.  So later he prophesies . . .

“The LORD your God will circumcise your hearts and the hearts of your descendants, so that you may love him with all your heart and with all your soul, and live” (Deuteronomy 30:6).

Decades later the prophet Jeremiah picked up the same theme . . .

“I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. (Jeremiah 31:33b).

In the middle of a dark passage about God’s wrath, then, Paul offers Jews and Gentiles the only hope for “all [who] have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (3:23b)—not “just” justification, but sanctification, not “just” forgiveness but a new, pure heart.  But, if this puts Jew and Gentile on the same footing, a troubling question rises . . .

“What advantage, then, is there in being a Jew, or what value is there in circumcision?” (Romans 3:1).

In other words, “If being a circumcised Jew doesn’t get us favor with God, what good is it?”

“Much in every way! First of all, they have been entrusted with the very words of God. What if some did not have faith? Will their lack of faith nullify God’s faithfulness? Not at all! Let God be true, and every man a liar. As it is written: “So that you may be proved right when you speak and prevail when you judge.”  But if our unrighteousness brings out God’s righteousness more clearly, what shall we say? That God is unjust in bringing his wrath on us? (I am using a human argument.)  Certainly not! If that were so, how could God judge the world?  Someone might argue, “If my falsehood enhances God’s truthfulness and so increases his glory, why am I still condemned as a sinner?”  Why not say– as we are being slanderously reported as saying and as some claim that we say—‘Let us do evil that good may result’? Their condemnation is deserved” (Rom. 3:2-8).

Gentiles have creation’s general revelation, while God has committed his very words to Jews.  But this raises another question (which Paul will confront in more detail in chapters 9-11):  Do the Jews (whom Paul is charging are under God’s wrath) lose God’s promises? Will God not keep the promises he made to them?

God will keep his promises (he’ll explain how in chapter 9-11).  God will be true to his word, yet pour out his wrath on Jewish unrighteousness.  And that reminds Paul of gossip against him:  “If my falsehood enhances God’s truthfulness and so increases his glory, why am I still condemned as a sinner?  Why not ‘Let’s do evil that good may result’”?  Paul won’t waste ink on more of a response than this:  “They’ll get what they deserve” (my paraphrase).

* * *

We are less like the pagan Gentile (1:18 and following) and more like the self-righteous Jew.  Because of our commitment to biblical morality, it’s easy for us to sit in judgment on egregious sinners.  The Holy Spirit warns us as Paul did the Jews . . .  “You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge the other, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things” (Romans 2:1).

 Our only hope, then, is the message of the gospel  which is . . .

” . . . the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile.  For in the gospel a righteousness from 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).

This is real power.

“To hope when all seems hopeless, to wait in faith when all human means are exhausted, to persevere in the midst of trials, and most of all to love others (including our enemies), involves the experience of the supernatural as much as performing the miraculous does” (Robert L. Saucy in Are Miraculous Gifts for Today?).

I add “to have a pure heart” in a fallen world involves the experience of the supernatural, too.  For we can be physically circumcised–just a quick flick of the knife (easy for me to say!); but we can’t cut away sin from our heart and make it pure.  Only God can do that.

And God does it when we trust Jesus.  In that moment, self-righteousness is removed;  Christ’s righteousness is imputed.  And we get a new heart.  This is the power of God for salvation . . .

“ . . .  the LORD rained brimstone and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah, from the LORD out of the heavens” (Genesis 19:24).

That’s what my mind sees when I read about God’s wrath.  But the way God reveals his wrath today is quite different—subtle we might say, so much so that we mistake it for just a changing society instead of wrath from heaven.

Paul began this section of his letter (1:18) declaring that God is revealing his wrath against humans who, instead of glorifying him as God of creation, worship images of mortal, created things.

How is God revealing his wrath?

Paul’s first five words in the scripture below, repeated twice more in 1:26,28, give the answer (and are among the most frightening in Scripture) . . .

“Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator–who is forever praised. Amen” (1:24,25).

The original Greek is paradidomee—God handed them over or gave them up to suffer the consequences of worshiping created things instead of the Creator.  No restraining.  No protecting.  God gave them over to what they wanted—and the consequences.

A father hears his son choose a homosexual relationship.  Hours of pleading, persuading and warning accomplishes nothing.  The father can do nothing but let his son go to satisfy his desires and suffer the consequences.

This, writes Paul, is what God has done.  Humans craved what God called sexually unclean rather than seeking God’s glory.  So God let them go, knowing they were exchanging the truth that he, the Creator, is glorious and satisfying, for a lie that the creature is more.

For my illustration above, I chose homosexual practice, because Paul does . . .

“Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion” (1:26,27).

Because this is what humans craved, God gave them over to dishonorable passions. Women exchanged natural intercourse for unnatural.  Men forsook natural relations with women and burned in lust for one another.  So they suffer in themselves the penalty due them for their perverted behavior, a penalty Paul doesn’t define.

It’s now clear that the “degrading of their bodies” Paul has in mind, indeed all the shameful lust and unnatural behavior, is homosexual behavior.  According to Paul, homosexual behavior is not just another lifestyle choice; homosexual behavior is contrary to the nature God created and an expression of God’s wrath, because we exchange the truth about the glory of God for a lie about the glory of the creature.

Why is Paul telling the Roman church about God’s wrath?  He wants them to know wrath is why God is revealing his righteousness to powerfully save.  He wants them to realize homosexuality, though accepted by their society, is an exchange of God for a lie and to realize that homosexual practice itself is God’s wrath.  Finally, he wants them to know escape from God’s wrath is a rescue—God’s power to save.

Paul’s repetitive phrases, “God gave them over”, reflect a downward spiral of immorality/wrath.  Here, Paul says, “he gave them over to a depraved mind” . . .

“Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done. 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, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless. 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” (1:28-32).

“ . . . since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God”  is the height of self-centered arrogance.  They knew God through creation but didn’t think it worthwhile to keep that knowledge.

“ . . . a depraved mind” is a mind so corrupted it no longer provides moral direction.  Thus, given over to a depraved mind they “do what ought not to be done.”

No need to define the specific vices a depraved mind produces.  To us, some seem hardly depravity (gossips?  disobey their parents?), while others do.  But in God’s book all are.

The question arises, how do “they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death . . .”? Paul doesn’t explain, but the only answer is “it’s written on their heart, beneath the conscious level. Charles Hodge (a 19^th century Presbyterian theologian) said this about that:  “The most reprobate sinner carries about with him a knowledge of his just exposure to the wrath of God” (Romans, Edinburgh: The Banner of Truth Trust, 1972, p. 45).

This is mind-boggling: “they (in Paul’s day, the Gentiles who ‘do what ought not to be done’)” KNOW “God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death.”  Yet, they keep doing them and “also approve of those who practice them.”  Suicidal.

 * * *

Paul was pointing to the Gentile world.  I might point my finger for a different reason.  I might point a finger of condemnation and moral pride (Paul’s not writing about me! It’s those people!).  In chapter 2 Paul will pull the self-righteous rug out from under my feet and in chapter 3 make this damning conclusion:  ” . . . all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (3:23).

Which leads me to ask, “Why did Paul write so much about my guilt and God’s wrath?”

He wants me to see my absolute hopelessness.  He wants me to own my guilt.  He wants me (to borrow a title of Jonathan Edward’s famous sermon) to realize that I am “a sinner in the hands of an angry God” (here’s the sermon–http://www.ccel.org/ccel/edwards/sermons.sinners.html).

So that I will cherish the life-saving gospel, which is . . .

” . . . the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes,
to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith,
as it is written, ‘The righteous shall live by faith.'”
–Romans 1:16,17

Here’s a side of God we don’t much think of and a work of God we’re unaware is going on right under our noses.

“[For] The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 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 men are without excuse” (1:18-20).

I inserted the word “For” because Paul originally wrote it (Greek, gar).  Inexplicably, the NIV omits it, though it’s a key word.  Paul has just noted that God’s righteousness is revealed in the gospel of his power for salvation (1:16,17).  With the word “For” Paul explains why the gospel is being revealed—namely, because his wrath is.  He reveals his saving righteousness to save us from his revealing wrath.

But we don’t know it.  Ask American teenagers about their religious faith, as sociologist Christian Smith did in 2005, and this is what you get: a god who “watches over” human life, who “wants people to be good, nice and fair”, who is involved in human life only “to resolve a problem” and who “takes good people to heaven when they die.”  Sociologist Smith calls it Moral Therapeutic Deism.  Deism:  a god who created the world but leaves us pretty much alone.  Therapeutic:  a god who makes things better for us when we can’t do it for ourselves.  Think “therapist”.  Moral:  a god who is concerned about right and wrong conduct, who wants us to be “nice”.   No room in that belief system for a God who reveals his wrath.

But, I’ve got to ask.  What’s got God so upset?  “ . . . all the godlessness (disregard for God) and wickedness (disregard for what God says is right) of men . . . “

For that to make sense and for God’s wrath to be fair, we have to move on to “ . . . since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them.  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 men are without excuse.”

In sum, creation reveals God!  Paul’s readers had no telescopes or microscopes.  But they had eyes.  They could see stars and mountains and rivers.  They had skin.  They could feel wind and raindrops and the sun’s heat.  Paul is arguing that, through creation, God is showing himself.  He shows himself to be divine.  He shows himself to possess unimaginable power.  He shows himself to be eternal, because he existed before he created.

Humans, however, disregarded God and disregarded what is right.  That’s what got God so angry.  And he’s revealing his wrath on humans who have no excuse.

But humans’ sin does more than offend God.  Sinners “ . . . suppress the truth by their wickedness”.  Question:  what truth do they suppress?  That God must not be disregarded.  Or, as Paul puts it more clearly in the next sentence, that such a God is to be glorified and thanked.

Question:  how do godless, wicked humans suppress that truth about God by their unrighteousness?

Here are two illustrations.  A university professor unrighteously forbids mention of God in classroom discussion.  His prohibition keeps the truth about God from public knowledge.  A husband has sexual intercourse with another woman.  His unrighteous act, by magnifying illicit sex, covers over the truth of God’s glory in moral purity.

So God is angry. And he’s revealing his wrath—his punitive fury.  But it comes in a surprising way, which we’ll see later in this chapter.  For now, let’s uncover more of what’s got God so angry—and how humans’ disregard for God affects them.

“For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles” (1:21-23).

“For although they knew God” is a stunning statement.  It means that everyone who can see God’s creation knows God.  Not in a saving way, not in the way Paul writes of in 1:16,17.  But knowing in a way that should evoke praise and thanks.  Instead, humans “exchanged the glory of the immortal God (seen in creation) for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.”

This has got to be the height of offense to God—to refuse to glorify him as the immortal God that he is and to refuse to give him thanks and instead to make (as the Romans did) wood and stone images of mortal creatures.

Why did intelligent, caring humans do it?  Because their thinking and their hearts were literally affected by their disregard for God.  “ . . . they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile (meaningless, deceptive, foolish) and the foolish hearts were darkened (made unable to morally understand).” 

Paul doesn’t mean they became dumb.  In fact, some of these men and women today  are lauded in their fields of expertise as being exceptionally intelligent.  But when it comes to God, in Paul’s day they became so foolish and morally bankrupt they actually worshiped stone idols instead of the Creator!

So God is angry.  And is revealing it.  We’ll see how next time.

* * *

Lest we boast we’d never be like that, Paul writes 3:23 . . .

” for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”

And, if we’re honest, we know we’re like that.  We know we don’t glorify God the way we should.  We don’t make much of him in daily living.  (I know that I, with my handicap, sometimes blame God!)  We know that we put created things above God.  We do it when we engage in sex outside marriage, when we cut corners on our work to make more money faster, when we gossip or slander, or disobey our parents, or cut down people with our words.

We know our hearts are idolatrous.    We know that we too exchange the glory of the immortal God for our idols.  Therefore, in our most honest moments, we admit we deserve God’s wrath.  “Woe is me!” should rightly be on our lips.

But for Romans 1:16,17 . . .

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

God’s wrath won’t consume us.  We won’t drown in his fury.  By faith in the gospel that reveals God’s righteousness, by faith in the gospel that is the power of God for salvation, we will live!

The gospel. The gospel.  The gospel.  Read almost anything in evangelical circles today, and you find the “the gospel”.  What is it?  And why is it so important?  And why might we be, of all things,  ashamed of it?

Paul tells the Romans he’s champing at the bit to preach the gospel at Rome, because he’s obligated to Greeks and non-Greeks (1:14:15–  https://theoldpreacher.com/the-obligated/.)

He explains further . . .

“[For] I am not ashamed of the gospel . . . “ 

Whoa!  Why write that?  Why might Paul be ashamed of the gospel?  Primarily because the gospel is news of a Jewish Messiah crucified by the Romans like a common criminal.  This is why Paul wrote earlier that this Christ was “a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles” (1 Corinthians 1:23).

Remember that (Good) Friday’s events? Jesus seized by Jewish authorities (little more than a mob accosting Jesus in an olive garden in the dark) . . . dragged before Roman Governor Pilate, who wants to release him but succumbs to the mob’s cries for blood . . . flogged by Roman soldiers and herded through the city like an animal to the execution hill . . . nailed to a cross, mocked by soldiers and passers-by, forsaken by God the Father, buried in a borrowed tomb.  Days later his followers proclaim him resurrected, but only they saw him alive.

Why is Paul not ashamed to preach the news of this Messiah, especially in the heart of the empire, especially when he’s persecuted and beaten down doing it?

“[For] I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. For in the gospel a righteousness from 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’s not ashamed of the gospel, because “it is the power of God . . . ”  The abject weakness of Christ crucified is, in fact, the dynamic power of God—God’s dynamite (the Greek for “power” is dunamis).

God’s power for what?  “ . .  for the salvation of everyone who believes”.  In other words, God, in Christ’s death, saved everyone who would believe throughout all time and in all places.  That rescue becomes our experience when we hear that good news and believe it.

Salvation (rescue, deliverance) from what?  Paul answers starting in 1:18 . . .

“[For] The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness . . . ”

And he climaxes his explanation in 3:23 . . .

“ . . . for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God . . . ”

We’ll dig more deeply into that text when we reach it.  For today, it tells us that God, in Christ’s death saved everyone who would believe from his own wrath against us because we have sinned against him.

This saving power, writes Paul, is the revelation of God’s righteousness.  That is, Christ’s death reveals God’s condemnation of sin.  He poured out his wrath due us believers on his Son.  Therefore, God’s righteousness is his absolute moral uprightness according to his standards.  But in Paul’s mind, righteousness is more.  It is God’s action by which he puts a sinner right with himself and which then becomes a transformative power in the believer’s life.

And this saving power, this righteousness of God, is “by faith from first to last . . .”  That is, we experience God’s saving power–God’s righteousness–when we believe.  And it’s ours progressively as we progressively  believe.  Ultimately, God will consummate his saving work in believers at the end.

This obviously implies the good news that God’s saving power in Christ is ours  not by how well we keep his laws, or how loving we are to the loveless, or how “good” a person are.  It’s ours by faith.  We trust what God says is true about Christ’s work. In the gospel, God’s righteousness is revealed, not ours.  Our part is to admit we need God’s saving power in Christ, then to trust that it reaches us.

This, writes Paul, is the gospel.  It’s God’s power to save from his wrath those who believe it.  Therefore, he claims, I’m not ashamed of it, even though it’s news of a crucified Messiah and his believers get “beat up” in this world.  I’m announcing, Paul declares, God’s power to save.

*  *  *

Put me in a church building, give me a Bible and pulpit, and I’m proud to proclaim the gospel.  But in a supermarket, or office building, or kitchen table, or anyplace else out in the world I hesitate.  Am I ashamed of the gospel?

Maybe.

Not because of the crucified Messiah.  For two other reasons, I think.  One, the claim that he’s the only way for salvation from God.  In our society, “one way” implies that all other religions are wrong.  That marks us as intolerant troublemakers.  Check out this interview by Bernie Sanders as a glaring example . . .

If we don’t accept “religious pluralism” (which probably means the ridiculous idea that everybody’s faith is “right”), we’re “disqualified”.  I think there are times I’m ashamed of that.

Second, the appearance of the church.  Is this what God’s power produces?  People who look and apparently act like other “morally upright” people?  What’s so different about believers except what we do Sunday mornings together in a building shut up among ourselves?  The answer to such questions is, “Be patient.  God’s not finished with me yet.”  In other words, nobody sees the full effect of God’s saving power until The End.  Still, a bit more visible power now wouldn’t hurt, right?

So how can I (we) not be ashamed of the gospel?  One way is to meditate on Romans 1:16,17.  Better yet, meditate on Romans 1-8.  And pray for God to strengthen our faith to believe it.  Because, after all, this Christian life is a faith-walk in our God who is mighty to save.

Spreading the gospel doesn’t excite us.  “Oooh!  Ooooh!  Pick me!”  Perhaps in our “everybody’s-got-their-own-truth” culture, evangelism is  too daunting.  Perhaps we don’t know how to explain the gospel.  Or perhaps we don’t care enough.

Paul, however, is eager to tell the gospel.   Buried in his greetings to the Roman church lies an overlooked  truth:   making the gospel known is an obligation.

THANKS AND PRAYER FOR THE CHURCH AT ROME

First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is being reported all over the world. God, whom I serve with my whole heart in preaching the gospel of his Son, is my witness how constantly I remember you in my prayers at all times; and I pray that now at last by God’s will the way may be opened for me to come to you (1:8-10).

Ten years before Paul’s letter, the church (composed of numerous house churches) had become a major presence in the city.  But the world knew of their faith, because Rome was the pagan empire’s center and travelers from the city spread the news.  For that Paul tells them he thanks God through Jesus Christ.

He also tells them he prays for them, invoking God as his witness to confirm how he remembers them constantly. In fact, the church at Rome is so much on his heart that he prays God may finally open the way for him to visit.

We have no reason to doubt Paul’s sincerity.  After all, this church flourishes in the heart of the pagan empire!  But Paul’s plans reach far beyond Rome:  he hopes the Roman church will become a base from which he can take the gospel to Spain.

I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me in leading the Gentiles to obey God by what I have said and done–by the power of signs and miracles, through the power of the Spirit. So from Jerusalem all the way around to Illyricum, I have fully proclaimed the gospel of Christ.  It has always been my ambition to preach the gospel where Christ was not known, so that I would not be building on someone else’s foundation.  Rather, as it is written: “Those who were not told about him will see, and those who have not heard will understand.”  This is why I have often been hindered from coming to you.  But now that there is no more place for me to work in these regions, and since I have been longing for many years to see you,  I plan to do so when I go to Spain. I hope to visit you while passing through and to have you assist me on my journey there, after I have enjoyed your company for a while.  Now, however, I am on my way to Jerusalem in the service of the saints there (Romans 15:18-25).

LONGING TO SEE THE CHURCH AT ROME

I long to see you so that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to make you strong–  that is, that you and I may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith. I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that I planned many times to come to you (but have been prevented from doing so until now) in order that I might have a harvest among you, just as I have had among the other Gentiles (1:11-13).

At the same time, he longs for meaningful ministry among the Roman church.  He wants to “impart . . . some spiritual gift to make you strong.”  In fact, he explains, he hopes that “you and I may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith.” 

Paul will bring with him whatever spiritual gifts the Holy Spirit has given him as an apostle and the church will utilize whatever gifts the Spirit has given them.  The purpose:  that they might be strengthened and encouraged in the faith.

Paul may be concerned the Roman church presumes Paul doesn’t care much about them.  This concern may lie behind Paul invoking God as witness to his constant prayers for them.  And may lie behind Paul assuring them he’s often planned to visit them but has so far been prevented.

EAGERNESS TO PREACH TO THE CHURCH AT ROME

I am obligated both to Greeks and non-Greeks, both to the wise and the foolish. That is why I am so eager to preach the gospel also to you who are at Rome (1:14,15).

Why is Paul eager to preach the gospel to those who are at Rome?  Because he is “obligated” to.  In the original Greek, Paul says, “I am a debtor both to Greeks and non-Greeks . . . But why is Paul a debtor, or under obligation, to preach the gospel to everyone?

“Debtor” implies we owe something to someone.  Suppose we discovered the cure for cancer.  Wouldn’t we owe it to cancer-sufferers to make the cure known.  So we have received the good news of God’s grace in Christ.  It explains how sinners can be saved from eternal hell to know God now and in the righteous, eternal new creation to come.  Don’t we owe it to lost sinners to make the “cure” known?

Note:  Paul isn’t indebted to God.   Pay back God for his grace and grace is no longer grace.   But God’s grace in Christ to Paul makes Paul a debtor to everyone who doesn’t know grace.

TAKE-AWAY:  OBLIGATED

Am I obligated to spread the gospel of grace as Paul was?  After all, I’m not an apostle.  But obligation doesn’t spring from apostle; it springs from grace.  If I’ve received God’s grace in Christ, then I’m obligated to talk about grace.

But grace-obligation is different from law-obligation.  Law-obligation commands me to spread the gospel and warns of stiff consequences if I don’t.  Grace-obligation urges me to spread the gospel out of love for the lost and a desire to spread God’s glory.

Receiving God’s grace in Christ is like finding a cancer-cure.  Love (at least concern) for suffering cancer patients  should motivate me to spread news of the cure.   But spreading grace doesn’t depend on my emotions.  I’m still obligated.  I still am indebted to God.  But I pay the debt to him by telling others of his grace.

“Lord Jesus, you brought me grace  from the Father.  It comes with an obligation to spread the good new of that grace.  Please change my heart so that I love others who need that grace too.  You know all sorts of objections hold me back, the biggest being their resistance.  So please show me who I should reach out to and how.  Talking about this grace-cure should be easy, but we both know it’s not.  I need you to work by the Holy Spirit, because this obligation is way beyond me.   I ask this for your glory.  Amen.”