Romans 1
Romans 1
[00:00:00] Hey everyone, welcome to God's Plan, Your Part, Year Two, where this year we're reading through and studying the entire New Testament, one chapter at a time. Thanks again for joining us in discovering God's plan and your part in it. Today we are looking at Romans chapter one. That's right. We are starting a whole new book of the Bible.
So I'm excited to jump into this book. This is an incredibly valuable theological book. It helps us understand why we believe what we believe. Uh, crazy. Kind of, I don't know, understanding of when this is all happening. Uh, this is actually being written way back in Acts. So like while we were reading through Acts, this was actually happening on one of Paul's missionary journeys.
In the earlier journeys. Yeah. So we're talking like around chapters like 18, 20, right? 18 or 20 is what I think I read earlier. So this is actually like already happened. We're just getting like this. Much better under the microscope version of [00:01:00] what Paul was writing and telling this group of people within Rome.
And I think what's important also to remember is this is written to Jewish and Gentile Christians in Rome. Um, this is not just one or the other. It's like meant to unite them. As a group of Christ followers. And I think what you'll also find too, is this is like Paul's way of, like I said earlier, uniting these believers together, but also how they will essentially be like this obedient group of people to the people around them within Rome, like Rome, remember we said earlier, like this is where Rome is where he ends up at the very end of his life too.
So like, To have a strong foundation of Christian believers there will only help his ministry, even at the end of his life, which is kind of crazy and kind of cool to think about. So interesting book. I'm excited to see like how this obedience plays out throughout all the chapters, what he encourages the [00:02:00] believers with, and some of the things that might be uncomfortable to hear.
Um, even in our own day and age, I think it can be. Comes out full fledged even here in the first chapter, but he definitely holds these believers accountable and really encourages them. Like if you're going to live this life, you need to be an example of who God is to the people around you. Can't just be flimsy about the things that you say you believe.
If you've been tracking with us on the podcast since the beginning of the year, um, we did the gospels. Then we did the book of acts. They were all historical narrative. So we are actually entering into a different kind of literature. It's with. Worth noting that this is an actual letter that was written to believers in Rome, most likely from Paul while he was in Corinth, but also it's like pretty instructional and a little bit more theological.
So we've been dealing with stuff that is just like telling a story as it unfolds. This is a lot more like how to handle specific situations, and in this case, how to handle specific beliefs. Um, so I just wanna recognize we are entering into a different type of literature. We [00:03:00] want to pay attention to it differently.
Um, but this, this is like, as we walk into Romans one, uh, this is known as one of the clobber passages, . That's not the, it's not the only thing present in this passage. And I don't want to overfocus on just the clobber part of the passage. Um, but if you follow , what's going on in the Christian world? It's been a pretty big deal recently, um, that this has been identified as a clopper passage.
I don't know that anybody needed the news that it was a clopper passage, um, but that's what they're called lately. Um, so anyway, like the, the first part of the chapter opens with Paul just kind of doing this lengthy, um, introductory piece, but something that is worth noting In that introductory piece, he says, grace to you and peace from God, our father, and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Um, if anybody's going to try to trick you into believing that, uh, early believers thought, um, that Jesus was just a good guy, it would be problematic here that Paul recognizes him as Lord and is going to continue to expand on that. I also like how in verse six, [00:04:00] he kind of even expands on that. It says that, um, Through whom we have received.
This is talking about Jesus through whom we've received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations. And I love this part for six, including you who are called to belong to Jesus Christ. Like how, I don't know. That's just like, how exciting is that?
Like, is that? It's you. It's your opportunity. You are also a part, like you're called to be a part of this. So like get on board and here we go. I really, really like that piece. Oh, one of the clear indications that we are going back in time a little bit, if you've been tracking with the podcast day in and day out, um, we are going backwards from the end of the book of Acts.
He here is talking in chapter one about how badly he wants to go to Rome. Like he just wants so badly an opportunity to get to Rome. And we know that eventually. He appealed to Caesar and because he appealed to Caesar, he was sent to Rome. So that as Paul's writing, this has not occurred yet, but we do know because we've been walking through acts [00:05:00] that that will occur, but here he's just expressing how badly he wants to get there.
He apparently is aware that there are some believing people in Rome and he wants to go and visit them, which we see at the end of acts and X 28, that he does visit them. He does meet with them, all those things. So when we come back into the letter. We've gotten past all the niceties and then basically Paul kind of gives us a little bit of like a, I don't know, like a warning, like, hey, I'm not ashamed of what the gospel says.
Like, I definitely know that God has given salvation to everyone who believes, uh, first to the Jews, then to the Greeks. He's just kind of like laying the foundation of like, I'm not going to back down. From what I know God has done for us and what he essentially commands of us And then he goes into this section in our Bibles.
It's entitled God's wrath for the unrighteous So that kind of like sets the tone then like okay, we're friends You're not afraid to tell me how it is and here is how it is. This is an important foundation because we do need saved and what we need saved from is the wrath of God. [00:06:00] And this does not get talked about often, um, but we are, we all deserve the wrath of God because we are all by nature against God and deserving of wrath.
But because God is gracious and merciful and long suffering and desires relationship with us, he provides a pathway, um, to. Basically, fulfill his wrath and still have right relationship with God. And so this is the foundation that Paul's laying like, Hey, you need saved. And what he's going to do is walk into what happens when people reject God.
And it's an ugly picture. And this is the way I like to describe it. When you're reading Romans chapter one, uh, what I want you to think about in your mind is that God. Desires relationship with us and we're like in this wagon and he is pulling the wagon up the hill like it's an upward journey It's not something you do by mistake and you need god helping you with it But if you continue to reject god, he lets go of the wagon and you fly Backwards further and further and further down and that's what [00:07:00] happened.
It happens in romans 1 He's explaining what it looks like when you go further and further down So I have a question because as we were reading through this part, it does say in verse 21, for although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him as God became futile in their thinking and with foolish hearts they were darkened.
When he says they, I think my mind immediately goes back to like the Israelites because there was a point and like, and I could be totally confused, but like there's a point where they give up who God is for these graven images and like worshiping human nature, idols and all the things. We. All, all, all have an opportunity to know God, and we all desire to know God.
So this is not calling out a specific point in time. No, and that's what's interesting. There is general revelation and there is special revelation. General revelation is that we have this innate desire in us to know God. That's why many people who have never had contact with Christian people still have some kind of cultural God that they actively worship.
All [00:08:00] humans know that there is a higher power and we desire relationship with that higher power. It's because we're made in the image of God and we naturally desire relationship with him. But some people reject that and when they reject that, they don't become aware of special revelation. That is the unique way that God has revealed specifically himself to us.
That is through his word. That's by the power of the Holy Spirit. All those things. So what he's saying is, Everybody knows there's a God, but some people reject that God. And so you, I mean, you bring up the Israelites. Yes, they are guilty of that. The Romans at this time. Yes, they are guilty of that. And oftentimes what you see happening is people start to worship things that are not God.
So that, that is helpful to me because it feels kind of like we have, I had this like very Old Testament understanding of the first part of this God's wrath on unrighteousness, but then the second part is where it's like, okay, wait a minute I'm not sure that that was necessarily like an issue that I totally would have like pinned on the Old Testament Israelite people with, [00:09:00] um, essentially the idea of homosexuality.
Like, I feel like that's really coming through here. So one of the things that Paul does in this argument is he says, when you reject God, your mind starts to slide backwards and you start to do more and more foolish things like the wagon in verse 22, claiming to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man.
Therefore, God gave them up. That is, he let go of the wagon. He's like, you know what? You don't want a relationship with me. Here you go. And we've seen that over and over. It's not a new thing developing in Romans. We've seen that throughout the Bible, throughout the story of God's people, rejecting him, God's like, fine, like do what you want and always well, it doesn't, it doesn't end well.
But what's interesting is he's revealing specifically here. Um, and I don't want to shy away from this. For this reason, God gave them up to dishonorable passions for their women, exchanged natural relations for those who were contrary to nature and those men likely are likewise gave up natural relations for women and were consumed with passions for one another.
Men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due [00:10:00] penalty of their error. Same sex partnerships. Is evidence of this fact that you have rejected God and are sliding backwards. It is not a natural desire that has been placed in you. It is an irrational desire that has been placed in you.
And Romans one is saying, even the passions are contrary to God. It does remind me of the, the sermon on the Mount where Jesus is saying like, Hey, Even thinking about this is evil. Even desiring this is wicked. So here, Paul saying, Hey, when God lets go of you, which he does not want to do. And when you reject God and he allows you to fall backwards, these are the things that you see happening.
And there has been some recent scholarship to try to say, like, through the language, through the original languages, the idea here is not actual homosexual partnerships. It's not same sex partnerships. It's actually like, um, relationships with a power imbalance and like, like All the recent scholarship on this is nonsense, like it actually means exactly what it says.
It means that same sex [00:11:00] partnerships, homosexual relationships are contrary to God and contrary to what he was revealed. And it's also evidence that you are sliding backwards into like silliness. And when this starts to become widespread in the culture, it starts to be evident that they have rejected God outright, and God is allowing them to slide backwards.
Well, and then it, even towards the end of the chapter, it even goes into more of, I would, I would say, like, product sins of, The ones we just talked about. Yes. So it says, uh, because they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. They were filled with manners of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness.
I mean, you can read it, uh, full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, and like you, it just makes sense. There's another, I don't know where it is. There's another, uh, verse in the Bible where it basically says this breeds this and then this breeds this. It's like, it's all the same. Thing like the more that God, like if God gives you over to your desires, those desires will [00:12:00] breed new like other, your wicked desires.
Yes. Like the evil things. Yeah. And like the one that I circled that was like, I guess stuck out to me the most was inventors of evil. Mm-Hmm. , like your evil will, will breed up and think of newer ideas of evil. And it's like, it sounds silly, but it makes sense. Mm-Hmm. , like if you steal one time. You're ready to steal bigger, better the next time.
If you do this, if you let yourself go this way, you're willing to like give a little bit more the next time. So just very interesting how it all just kind of domino effects. I know that, uh, there, we have listeners all over the place and I do know that every single culture is not exactly the same.
Obviously, if you're a Christian in the United States right now, a huge topic is like, how does the church handle homosexuality? And is it possible to be a gay Christian? And I think that trying to invent. New ways to like speak circles around these passages is not wise and it's not doing anybody any favors.
It has been clearly prohibited by [00:13:00] God. It has clearly been shown as like a, like a sign of evil and wicked. And the cool thing about the book of Romans is yes, it starts out with this heavy clobber passage. Like if you are dealing with any one of these issues and I'm even talking like gossip, malice, disobedience to parents.
If you're dealing with any of these, it feels like a hammer to your face. That's like, wow. Like God. Is upset with me. The beauty of Romans is that the book does not end there. Romans one is not the only chapter in the book, but it is laying the foundation that, Hey, like we are deserving of wrath. And when we entertain these thoughts, even passions, and when we act these things out, we are deserving of wrath.
It is not wise for the church, um, to try to create like, I don't know. Like ways to ignore these passages, ways to pretend like they don't mean what they mean. Um, in, in a way when we do that, we're actually showing that we are ashamed of the gospel and we don't want people to dislike us because what, of, of what has been [00:14:00] clearly taught.
Our Bible puts it really well. The theme of overall Romans is that because of the cross of Christ, God judges the sin and at the same time shows his saving mercy and I think what oftentimes if we're going to tap on the United States current present day I think oftentimes we really resonate with showing the mercy but forget that God judges the sin too.
Like it it is both like the sin is judged but he's also going to show you mercy knowing like You have sinned, I forgive you, but it doesn't mean to keep living in the sin. One of the things that proves God loves us is that He tells us to stop. Like, hey, that is contrary to what I have decided is good for your life.
You should stop. And one of the things that modern church in many circles is trying to do is like water that down or not even say it at all. And that's not loving at all. Like encouraging people or supporting people while they continue to destroy their own lives is not loving. Is not going to help them and actually [00:15:00] driving them further and further into God's judgment.
And therefore God's wrath is not going to help them. And then that's actually going to turn you into a false teacher, bringing false security to people who are living in sin. And please hear me. Obviously this is a touchy topic and I'm like choosing not to avoid it. I'm also saying like, if you're allowing people to be comforted in their gossip or comforted in their disobedience to parents or comforted in their.
Envy, murder, strife, deceit, what you're doing is wrong. And if you're allowing people to feel comfortable in the fact that they are entertaining their passions that are clearly against God, what you're doing is wrong. And we can't do that because what we're, we're, we're eventually proclaiming is that we are ashamed of the gospel and we're like nervous about what proclaiming Christ will make us look like.
I think a lot of times when I'm thinking about this opening for Romans, Um, it's, this is almost like the tough love chapter. It is. Yes. Because it's like, it does hurt a little bit to hear some of [00:16:00] these things, but it's also like, man, you know, if I see an alcoholic that's like about to take their last drink of their lives, I'm not just going to stand by and watch and be like, you got to just do it.
Cause I know you're hurt. Like, no, stop. Like. Yeah. Yeah. This is a clear and, like, very pointed message of, like, this is what God commands. You have to stop so that you can enjoy the mercies and, like, the forgiveness and the growth and, um, whatever. The relationship that you can have with God without all these things hindering your life and your relationship with Him.
So that tough love is kind of what I see as this chapter being. Not necessarily like a shove it in your face and Deal with it. I also think when we do like gymnastics to be less offensive and I'm not, I'm not purposely offensive, but I'm not going to thread and it's become more popular. Yeah, it is. And in some ways we are actually inventing new ways to do evil.
Like it's like, well, actually that's not really what it means. You should try this. It's like, no, just to appease sin. Don't do that. Don't do that. And please hear me. I'm not [00:17:00] being purposely offensive, but one of the goals that I have with this podcast is to, you. Really like represent the truth of God's word.
And one of the things I love is that we read every single word of God's word. And one of the things that that does is it forces us to cover things that are historically not very popular passages. Um, historically, like you probably don't hear a lot of sermons on this stuff. Um, but we want to cover them and we want to cover them.
Truthfully. And that's what we're striving to do here. Yeah. So a little bit longer of an episode, but I think, honestly, I think Romans as a new book for us and as this chapter as it is, uh, deserves a little bit more time spent. So overall, I would say what, like for, uh, your part today would be definitely like, hear this chapter and allow it to like, convict your spirit and not necessarily like, close it off.
To what God could potentially be like, yes, like guarding you from, and I think it is not potentially, he is guarding you from understanding the darkness of ourselves [00:18:00] actually brings more beauty to how incredible God is. Like we are fallen, sinful people. There is evidence of our fallen, sinful nature everywhere.
And yet God pursues us and provides a pathway for us to have relationship with him. Even though we've done literally nothing to ever deserve it. That's how incredible. God is. And so I don't want us to shy away from saying, Hey, you need to stop that. You need to pursue relationship with God. And these things that are being clarified in Romans.
One are all things that show the evidence of our own fallen nature and our own simple desires. And we need to live a life contrary to those things and sin. No more. Yeah. We've got to honor God with our lives. And part of it is actually aligning our lives to with what God has asked us. So please stick with this book.
Um, Romans is incredible. The arguments laid out here are going to help you understand faith so much better. And it is the book. Romans is a huge book. It's a huge foundational piece of Christian faith today. And so I'm excited for going through this book. [00:19:00] Uh, but it does start with a clobber passage. Uh, but just because it's a clobber passage doesn't mean we should ignore it.
So thanks for joining us today on this first chapter and like segue into Romans. I'm excited to see what we'll learn together throughout the rest of this book and essentially throughout the rest of the new Testament, we'll be back again with Romans chapter two tomorrow. Have a great day. Thanks for joining today's episode of God's Plan, Your Part.
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Every little bit of this helps so much and we're so thankful for your support. With that in mind, we'll see you Here's today's reading Romans chapter 1 Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus called to be an apostle set apart for the gospel of God, which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy scriptures concerning his son, [00:20:00] who is descended from David according to the flesh and was declared to be the son of God in power, according to the spirit of holiness, by his resurrection from the dead.
Jesus Christ, our Lord, through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all nations, including you who are called to belong to Jesus Christ, to those in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints, grace to you and peace from God, our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is proclaimed in all the world. For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, that without ceasing I mention you always in my prayers, asking that somehow, by God's will, I may now at last succeed in coming to you.
For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you. That is, that we may be mutually encouraged by each other's faith, [00:21:00] both yours and mine. I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that I have often intended to come to you, but thus far have been prevented, in order that I may reap some harvest among you as well as the rest of the Gentiles.
I am under obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and the foolish, so I am eager to preach the gospel to you, also who are in Rome. For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed, from faith for faith.
As it is written, the righteous shall live by faith. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the [00:22:00] world, in things that have been made.
So they are without excuse 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, claiming to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man, and birds and animals and creeping things.
Therefore, God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity. to dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshipped and served the creature, rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. For this reason, God gave them up to dishonorable passions.
For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature. And the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another. Men committing shameless acts with men, and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error. And since they [00:23:00] did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not be done.
They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil. Disobedient to parents. Foolish. Faithless. Heartless. Ruthless. Though they know God's righteous decree, that those who practice such things deserve to die.
They do not only do them, but give approval to those who practice them. Thank you so much for listening to today's episode of God's plan. Your part. Don't forget. You can find us on just about every social media platform and YouTube. Let us know what you thought of today's episode. And if you have any questions, go ahead and post them there.
You can also reach out to us directly at God's plan. Your part at gmail. com as always. If you don't have a Bible, or if you'd like to use the one that [00:24:00] we use, uh, reach out to us via email and we'll be happy to send one to you. Thanks again for listening. We'll see you again tomorrow.