Earning God’s Favor Never Pays

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 6 He will render to each one according to his works: 7 to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life; 8 but for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury. 9 There will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek, 10 but glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good, the Jew first and also the Greek. 11 For God shows no partiality. – Romans 2:6-11 ESV

In Chapter Two of Romans, Paul addresses the Jewish community. In the first chapter, he talked about the non-Jew or pagan, who stands before God as without excuse and guilty. They have been exposed to God’s “invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature” (Romans 1:20 ESV) through creation, and yet, they have refused to acknowledge Him as God. Instead, they ended up worshiping the creation rather than the Creator, resulting in God turning them over to their own foolish hearts, dishonorable passions, and debased minds.

As far as Paul was concerned, the Jews were no less culpable or free from guilt. In fact, they were so busy pointing their condemning fingers at the pagan Gentiles that they failed to acknowledge their own guilt for having committed the same sins. As descendants of Abraham and children of God, they considered themselves exempt from judgment. They somehow thought themselves immune to God’s wrath. But Paul warned them that they, too, were without excuse. They stood just as condemned and guilty as the Gentiles who were outside the family of God. Their self-righteous attempts to honor God were no more effective than the Gentiles’ pagan pursuit of their false gods.

Paul accused the Jews of having hard and unrepentant hearts; they refused to admit their guilt and accept Jesus Christ as their Savior. So Paul warned them that “you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed” (Romans 2:5 ESV). Not only that, the day was coming when God would render to each of them according to his works.

Paul is using the Hebrew Scriptures to indict them. He quotes from two different passages; the first is a Psalm of David.

Once God has spoken;
    twice have I heard this:
that power belongs to God,
   and that to you, O Lord, belongs steadfast love.
For you will render to a man
    according to his work. – Proverbs 24:11-12 NLT

The second is a proverb of Solomon.

If you say, “Behold, we did not know this,”
    does not he who weighs the heart perceive it?
Does not he who keeps watch over your soul know it,
    and will he not repay man according to his work? – Proverbs 24:12 ESV

Their own Scriptures warned that the coming judgment of God would be based on each man’s works. The expectation was righteousness, but it would have to be God’s brand of righteousness, not man’s. His divine requirement was perfection and nothing less. Yahweh had repeatedly warned the Israelites, “I am the LORD your God. Consecrate yourselves therefore, and be holy, for I am holy. ” (Leviticus 11:44 ESV).

Jesus had told the Jews of His day, “unless your righteousness is better than the righteousness of the teachers of religious law and the Pharisees, you will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven!” (Matthew 5:20 NLT). James put it in even more practical, if not demanding, terms.

For the person who keeps all of the laws except one is as guilty as a person who has broken all of God’s laws. – James 2:10 NLT

Paul seems to give only two options for life, and both end in judgment. One is to satisfy the self and disobey the truth regarding God and His gospel offer. Those who choose that path will end up obeying unrighteousness and earning God’s full wrath on the day of judgment. The other option is to live self-righteously, attempting to obey God’s law and earn a right standing with Him through your own efforts. If you happen to pull it off, your reward on judgment day will be glory, honor, peace, and immortality, while everyone else gets tribulation and distress.

But is Paul suggesting that we can earn our salvation by doing good deeds? Certainly not. He is showing that those who are sinners will be judged and condemned, but so will those who consider themselves to be righteous because of their own efforts. In the next chapter, Paul makes it clear that “all people, whether Jews or Gentiles, are under the power of sin” (Romans 3:9 NLT), and that “no one is righteous – not even one” (Romans 3:10 NLT). Later, Paul will introduce the sobering news, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23 NLT).

So self-righteousness is no better than sinfulness. Attempting to do good things for God puts you in no better position than those who blatantly sin against Him. God shows no partiality; nobody gets to earn their way into His good graces. There is only one way for men to be made right with God, and that is through the death of Jesus Christ.

Later in Chapter Three, Paul states, “all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus” (Romans 3:24 NLT). That includes the Jew and the Gentile, the pagan and the pious, the selfish and the self-righteous. Paul elaborated on this grace-based gift from God in his letter to the Ephesians.

God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. – Ephesians 2:8-9  NLT

We can’t earn our salvation, and none of us deserves God’s grace and mercy. The Jews of Paul’s day were no better off than the Gentiles. They, too, were sinners who stood condemned and unclean before a holy, righteous God. Paul reminds us that at the foot of the cross, we’re all equals when it comes to our guiltiness and our need for salvation and atonement. Which is why he wrote, “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8 ESV).

The greatest danger men face is to fall under the delusion of man-made righteousness. We will never be able to achieve our way into God’s presence or earn our way into His good graces. Which is why He sent His Son to live among us, model holiness right in front of us, and die on behalf of us.

For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ. – 2 Corinthians 5:21 NLT

Father, I confess that I still have the tendency to try to earn my way into Your good graces. Despite all I know and understand about the gift of salvation, I find myself going down the path of self-righteousness, hoping that I can somehow do enough to earn Your love and deserve Your favor. But Your grace is a gift, and your love for me is unmerited and undeserved. In fact, You loved me while I was mired in my sin and incapable of doing anything that you would consider righteous or acceptable. Your Son died for me while I was a sinner, not after I got my spiritual act together. Jesus didn’t sacrifice His life to save the righteous. He willingly paid the penalty for my sins, a debt I could never have settled on my own. Yet, even after accepting the free gift of salvation through Your Son, I continue to pursue the path of self-righteousness, needlessly trying to do enough “good deeds” that will keep You satisfied and maintain my right standing before You. But Christ’s death was enough. His selfless sacrifice restored me to a right relationship with You – once for all. I don’t have to earn Your favor because I already have it. I don’t have to do anything to merit Your love because You loved me enough to send Your Son to die in my place. So, my “‘good deeds” aren’t done to earn Your favor, they’re a way of saying “thank You.” Amen

English Standard Version (ESV) The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Permanent Text Edition® (2016). Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

New Living Translation (NLT) Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.22

The Hypocrisy of a Holier-Than-Thou Attitude

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1 Therefore you have no excuse, O man, every one of you who judges. For in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, practice the very same things. 2 We know that the judgment of God rightly falls on those who practice such things. 3 Do you suppose, O man—you who judge those who practice such things and yet do them yourself—that you will escape the judgment of God? 4 Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? 5 But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed. – Romans 2:1-5 ESV

Paul was writing to the church in Rome, and, like many of the churches in those days, it was made up of converted Gentiles and Jews. Chapter one seems to be addressed to the former pagans or Gentiles. He wrote that he wished to come visit them so that he might “reap some harvest among you as well as among the rest of the Gentiles” (Romans 1:13 ESV). He made it clear to them that, like all men, prior to their conversion, they had been without excuse.

God had revealed Himself to them through His creation, and had made His “invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature” (Romans 1:20 ESV) clearly perceptible. Yet, like all men, they had rejected God’s revelation and had chosen to worship the creation rather than the Creator. And it had been the gospel that had revealed to them God’s power for salvation to everyone who believes. They had discovered that the righteousness God requires was available only through faith in His Son. They had once been under God’s wrath for their dishonoring and disregard of Him, and had been given up by God to reap the consequences of their darkened hearts and foolish choices. The city of Rome was still filled with tens of thousands of people living according to “the lie.”

But now, Paul turns his attention to another group within the church. They might be described as self-righteous religious snobs, those who were quick to consider themselves better than the pagans Paul had described. More than likely, Paul was speaking directly to the Jews who had accepted Christ as their Savior and Messiah. When they heard Paul describe those whom God had given up, they excluded themselves from that list because they considered themselves to be God’s chosen people. They were descendants of Abraham, the recipients of God’s covenant promises. But Paul makes it clear that they, too, are without excuse. In fact, to a certain degree, the Jews were even more culpable because they had been given special revelation from God.

God had revealed Himself to Abraham and given him His covenant promises. Yahweh had used Abraham and his barren wife to create the nation of Israel, in fulfillment of His promise to make of Abraham a great nation. When the descendants of Abraham had ended up as slaves in Egypt, God had rescued them from their captivity and led them to the land He had promised them. On the way, He gave them His law and provided them with the sacrificial system as a means of receiving forgiveness for their sins so they could maintain a right relationship with Him. God also gave them the tabernacle in the wilderness and the temple in Jerusalem as places where His holy presence would dwell, and they could meet with Him. And yet, throughout their history, the Jews had continually sinned against Him. He had proven His existence to them time and time again, and they were fully aware of His divine expectations on them, but they had been incapable of keeping God’s law or of remaining faithful to Him.

Despite all this, the Jews of Paul’s day had become self-righteous and prideful because of their unique relationship with God. Their attitude had become like that of the Pharisee in the parable that Jesus had told.

“The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed this prayer: ‘I thank you, God, that I am not a sinner like everyone else. For I don’t cheat, I don’t sin, and I don’t commit adultery. I’m certainly not like that tax collector!’” – Luke 18:11 NLT

Because they were Abraham’s descendants, they viewed themselves as superior to the rest of humanity. But Paul warns them, “When you say they are wicked and should be punished, you are condemning yourself, for you who judge others do these very same things.” (Romans 2:1 NLT). They stood just as guilty as the pagans and were not exempt from the litany of sins found in Romans 1:29-31. They could not afford to consider themselves as somehow better than everyone else.

We can’t forget that this entire letter is ultimately about the gospel: “the power of God for salvation for everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek” (Romans 1:16 ESV). It is about “the righteousness of God … revealed from faith for faith” (Romans 1:17 ESV). Paul’s whole point in the opening chapters of his letter was to prove that no one stands before God as righteous; all are without excuse, whether they are Gentiles or Jews.

Later in his letter, Paul writes, “Well then, should we conclude that we Jews are better than others? No, not at all, for we have already shown that all people, whether Jews or Gentiles, are under the power of sin. As the Scriptures say, ‘No one is righteous – not even one’” (Romans 3:9-10 NLT). Righteousness is not man-made; it is God-given. It is based on faith, not works, and has nothing to do with human merit. Instead, it relies on God’s mercy and grace.

Paul wanted the Jewish believers to know that they had been recipients of God’s kindness, forbearance, and patience. The fact that they still existed as a people had to do with God’s covenant promises, not their faithfulness or righteousness. He had continually rescued them from their own self-destructive tendencies so that He might fulfill His promise to send the Messiah as a descendant of David. When Jesus showed up on the scene as the Messiah, He called the people of Israel to repentance. And Paul says that God’s kindness, in the form of the Messiah, was meant to lead them to repentance. Yet Paul tells them, “But because you are stubborn and refuse to turn from your sin, you are storing up terrible punishment for yourself” (Romans 2:5 NLT). Why? Because the Jews failed to recognize their own sinfulness and need for a Savior. In pointing their finger at the sins of the pagans, they were missing the whole point. No one is righteous, no, not one.

Father, how easy it is to practice a form of spiritual one-upmanship. In our competitive mindset, we can always find someone whose sinful lifestyle makes us look good. Rather than acknowleding our undeserving nature and expressing gratitude to You for Your love, grace, and mercy, we try to make ourselves look better by looking down on others. But in our attempt to set ourselves up as spiritually superior, we prove our own hypocrisy and undeservedness. Bashing “sinners” has become a popular trend for Christians. Finding fault with unbelievers somehow makes us feel better about ourselves. But Paul reminds us, “When you say they are wicked and should be punished, you are condemning yourself, for you who judge others do these very same things” (Romans 2:1 NLT). We should know better because we know You. We should act differently because we have Your Spirit living within us. We are without excuse and in need of repentance. Forgive us of our pride, arrogance, and judgmental attitude. Continue to remind us that we owe everything to You. Your love for us is not based on our righteousness or super spirituality; it is based on the gift of Your Son. Amen

English Standard Version (ESV) The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Permanent Text Edition® (2016). Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

New Living Translation (NLT) Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.22

The Unhappy Lot of the Unrighteous

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28 And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. 29 They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, 31 foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. 32 Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them. – Romans 1:28-32 ESV

This is the third time Paul uses the phrase, “God gave them up.” By this time, we should be able to see the seriousness of Paul’s point. If God releases men to live as they wish, separated from Him by rejecting His very existence or re-imagining their own version of Him, the outcome is less-than-ideal. Without God, the one true God, man is left to his own devices, and their foolish heart becomes increasingly darkened. Despite their self-proclaimed wisdom, they become fools, incapable of discerning right from wrong or righteousness from unrighteousness. The prophet Isaiah wrote about these kinds of people in his day.

What sorrow for those who drag their sins behind them with ropes made of lies, who drag wickedness behind them like a cart! – Isaiah 5:18 NLT

What sorrow for those who say that evil is good and good is evil, that dark is light and light is dark, that bitter is sweet and sweet is bitter. What sorrow for those who are wise in their own eyes and think themselves so clever. – Isaiah 5:20-21 NLT

When a man decides he has no need of God, he loses far more than his awareness of the Creator. The rejection or reinvention of God is a dangerous game to play. The NIV translates verse 28 this way: “they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind.” They basically said, “We don’t need God anymore,” so God allowed them to experience life without Him, and “abandoned them to their foolish thinking and let them do things that should never be done” (NLT).

Without God in their lives, man loses the capacity to think wisely. As Isaiah said, they end up calling evil good and good evil. Their minds become twisted, and their logic becomes skewed. And Paul states that they become “filled” with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, and malice. They literally become “filled to the brim.” Unrighteousness describes anything that is contrary to what God has deemed right or just. Evil has to do with man living out his godless purposes and desires in depraved ways. Covetousness is simply greed or the insatiable need for more; it is the opposite of contentment. Malice is a shameless desire to do others harm.

These characteristics mark those who reject God and manifest themselves in a variety of ways. Paul provides a fairly sobering list: “envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness, gossiping, slander, hate for God, insolence, haughtiness or pride, boasting, invention of evil, disobedience to parents, foolishness, faithlessness, heartlessness, and ruthlessness” (Romans 1:29-30 ESV). 

Here’s the worst part: not only do they do these things, but they also give their full consent and approval to anyone else who does them. Even though they know “that those who practice such things deserve to die,” they do them anyway. They become driven by unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, and malice. It ends up filling them and overflowing from them.

It was Chrystostom who said, “the one who praises the sin of others is far worse than the one who sins himself” (Chrystostom, Homilies on Romans). Paul warned Timothy that a day would come when people would no longer want to hear the truth. They would look for teachers who would approve of their actions and tell them that their lifestyles were perfectly acceptable.

For a time is coming when people will no longer listen to sound and wholesome teaching. They will follow their own desires and will look for teachers who will tell them whatever their itching ears want to hear. They will reject the truth and chase after myths. – 2 Timothy 4:3-4 ESV

The Greek word Paul used for “myths” is mythos, which refers to something invented, a fiction or falsehood. Without God, men will not only invent their own god, but a different form of righteousness as well. They will determine their own ethical and moral standards, and then seek out those who will tell them that their unrighteous actions are acceptable. That is the world in which we live today. Sadly, there are pastors all across the country who are more than willing to tickle the ears of their congregations, telling them what they want to hear, approving of their lifestyle choices, and, as a result, denying the truth of God.

We live in a day when the cry for tolerance has drowned out God’s call for righteousness. We have become accepting and accommodating of all kinds of attitudes and actions that God has deemed unrighteous and unacceptable. It is unloving to allow someone to live according to a lie. It is unmerciful to hide the truth from those who are deceived. It was Jesus who said, “You are truly my disciples if you remain faithful to my teachings. And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:21-32 NLT). The gospel of God is about the righteousness of God made available to men through the gift of His Son.

Left to his own devices, sinful man will never produce the righteousness that God demands. Even those who claim to believe in God will fail to live up to God’s righteous standards. That is why Paul says that all men are without excuse and stand guilty before God.

But the good news is that Jesus came to die for sinners. He came to pay the price for our guilt and to free us from condemnation. But for a man to be free, he must acknowledge the truth of his own sin and accept the gift of God’s Son. He must understand the reality of his guilt and the just outcome of his sin: death. Then he must accept the free gift of God’s grace and believe that Jesus Christ has paid his debt and replaced his unrighteousness with righteousness. That is the good news, the gospel of God.

Father, in a world where tolerance and a reduced standard of righteousness rule the day, there is an ever-increasing need for the truth of the gospel. Sin is real, whether anyone wants to admit it, and judgment is coming. Your holiness and righteousness do not diminish just because men question Your reality or try to reinvent Your nature. Your judgment against sin remains unchanged, but so does Your solution. Your Son is the only means by which sinful men can be restored to a right relationship with You. Death remains the penalty for unrighteousness, but Jesus gave His life so that sinners could become Your sons and daughters. But this world is full of people who have rejected You as God and who have determined to live according to their own standard. They are blind, ignorant, deceived, and in desperate need of the truth. Empower Your children to take seriously their role as reconcilers. May we become increasingly more bold in proclaiming the good news about Jesus and calling condemned sinners to “Come back to God!” (2 Corinthians 5:20 NLT). Amen

English Standard Version (ESV) The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Permanent Text Edition® (2016). Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

New Living Translation (NLT) Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.22

The Fallacy of Free Will

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26 For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; 27 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. – Romans 1:26-27 ESV

What happens when man abandons the truth of God for “the lie?” The lie is that God does not exist at all or that He is a figment of man’s fertile imagination. And if the one true God does not exist, then man is free to be the master of his fate and to choose his own moral agenda. With God out of the picture, man can determine what is right and wrong and create his own laws for life.

Three times in this section of Romans 1, Paul uses the phrase, “God gave them up.” Paul is attempting to demonstrate what life looks like when God releases men to pursue and believe “the lie.” Thinking themselves to be wise, their foolish hearts become darkened, and they lose any ability to make decisions based on the wisdom and righteousness of God. In this moral free-for-all, they find themselves believing and practicing every imaginable lifestyle choice.

“Those who turned against God turned everything on its head. For those who forsook the author of nature could not keep to the order of nature.” – Pelagius, Commentary on Romans

Paul refers to women who “exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature,” and he mentions men who “gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another” (Romans 1:26-27 ESV). There are those who attempt to write this off as Paul’s personal opinion. There are others who try to dismiss what Paul says by insinuating that he is only speaking against “improper” homosexual acts, not the act itself. Still others want to believe that Paul is only referring to homosexual acts that were taking place in the context of pagan worship. But these are not the words of Paul; they are the words of God. They are part of the powerful explanation Paul has provided in this letter regarding the gospel of God.

Men are without excuse; they have abandoned the truth about God and His will for mankind. They have ignored His clear revelation of His invisible attributes and divine nature in His creation. Rather than worship God, they have ended up worshiping anything and everything but God. And Paul makes it painfully clear that sinful man always ends up distorting the truth of God. They exchange the natural for the unnatural, what is right for what is wrong, the holy for the unholy, and the will of God for the will of self. They become consumed with passions, all kinds of passions, both good and bad. But the time comes when they can no longer tell the difference, and the lines become blurred. Their consciences become seared, and they lose the ability to discern right from wrong, even becoming rabid defenders of their actions and attitudes.

It doesn’t take a biblical scholar to read the words of God recorded in Genesis 1 and to reach a conclusion.

So God created human beings in his own image. In the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. Then God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and govern it.” – Genesis 1:27-28 NLT

They were to bear fruit, to multiply their kind. That is why God created a male and a female. It was together, as man and woman, that they were to fulfill the command of God. Adam could not do it alone. Eve was incapable of procreating on her own. God built the ability to multiply their kind into their very nature and physiology. But man, in his sin, determined a “better way,” a preferred way. Natural passions are replaced by unnatural, ungodly passions. Paul calls them “dishonorable passions.” The Greek word he uses is atimia, and it carries a very graphic connotation. It was “used of the unseemliness and offensiveness of a dead body” (Thayer’s Greek Lexicon). It was also used to refer to the dishonorable use of a vessel or container. Bodies were meant to contain life. That is why a dead body is unnatural and offensive to our senses. It is lifeless and no longer operating as intended. The same thing is true of those who are consumed by same-sex attraction. They are no longer operating as God intended, and their acts are unnatural and against the ordained will of God.

But in our day and age, any attempt to make this claim is met with disdain, hatred, cries of bigotry and intolerance, and a violent defense of individual rights and freedoms. But, according to Paul, we should not be surprised. Their foolish hearts are darkened. Claiming to be wise, they boast in their enlightened understanding and progressive outlook on morals and ethics. But they are fools who have “exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man” (Romans 1:23 ESV). Of course, Paul was referring to idol worship here, but the real issue is that of man-worship. When the best expression we can come up with for God’s revealed power and divine nature is the image of man, we are in trouble. When we make a god out of man, we end up worshiping ourselves, sacrificing truth at the altar of our own corrupt passions and desires. Self-satisfaction and self-gratification consume us, and God releases us to pursue our increasingly perverse passions.

We must not lose sight of the fact that Paul was attempting to explain and expound upon the gospel of God. The good news of Jesus Christ must be displayed against the backdrop of man’s darkened, sinful state. Paul was showing that man is in trouble. Without God, things always go from bad to worse. In Paul’s estimation, it doesn’t matter if you’re pagan or pious, immoral or a moral icon of virtue. Without God’s glorious gospel, all men ultimately receive “the due penalty for their error” (Romans 1:27 ESV). A man without God is hopeless. Left to his own devices, he will always gravitate toward ungodliness and unrighteousness. But the gospel 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” (Romans 1:16-17 ESV).

Father, You created us and You know what is best for us. But, in our sinful condition, we have determined that we know better. We are like the clay pot telling the potter that he has made a mistake. In our arrogance and ignorance, we have decided that our will is preferable to Yours and so we stubbornly follow our own agendas and rationalize our rebellious behavior as nothing more than our right to free will. But rejecting Your will never results in freedom; it produces slavery to sin. Without Your divine guidance, our passions become self-consuming and self-destructive. The enemy convinces us that self-willed lifestyles are making us god-like, when, in reality, they are making us godless. But the gospel provides an escape from this downward spiral of spiritual and moral enslavement. Through faith in Your Son, we can experience true freedom from sin and the soul-stifling lie of self-rule. Thank You for opening my eyes to the gospel and setting me free from the destructive power of sin. Amen

English Standard Version (ESV) The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Permanent Text Edition® (2016). Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

New Living Translation (NLT) Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.22

The Lie That Leads To Death

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24 Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, 25 because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen. – Romans 1:24-25 ESV

This whole section of Romans 1 is concerned with the truth versus the lie. In these verses, Paul states that man has “exchanged the truth of God for a lie,” or literally, “the lie”. To understand this passage, we need to define what Paul meant by these two terms. What is the truth of God, and what is it that unrighteous man has suppressed (vs 18)?

Through His creation, God has revealed His eternal power and divine nature to man, so they are without excuse. Nature virtually screams the truth regarding the existence of God. The very fact that men have ended up worshiping the creation rather than the Creator reveals that man recognizes the existence of a powerful source outside of himself, but has chosen to exchange “worshiping the glorious, ever-living God” to worship “idols made to look like mere people and birds and animals and reptiles.” (Romans 1:23 NLT). The truth to which Paul refers in this opening chapter is the reality of God’s existence.

For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. – Romans 1:19 ESV

Because man has rejected the truth regarding God’s existence, it is virtually impossible for him to accept the need for a Savior sent from God for his salvation. Ignorance of or disbelief in God’s existence ultimately leads to a refusal to accept any kind of divine standard for moral conduct; morality becomes highly subjective and relativistic. Each man ends up doing what is right in his own eyes. As a result, they begin to believe “the lie,” either rejecting that God exists at all or replacing the truth about God with something or someone else.

Rather than honoring God as the sovereign Lord of the universe and giving Him thanks for all that He has done for them, they turn their attention elsewhere, relying on their own wisdom to explain their existence and to determine their conduct.

As a result of their rejection of Him, God gives them up. That sounds like such a harsh statement, and comes across as some form of divine abandonment. The Greek word is paradidōmi, and it means “to give into the hands (of another)” or “to give over into (one’s) power or use.” In a way, this simply means that God releases them to pursue and believe “the lie.” He allows men to rely on their own wisdom and darkened hearts. In this sense, His wrath is less active than passive. He doesn’t abandon them; He allows them to reap what they sow.

Paul had this idea in mind when he wrote to the believers in Galatia.

Don’t be misled—you cannot mock the justice of God. You will always harvest what you plant. Those who live only to satisfy their own sinful nature will harvest decay and death from that sinful nature. But those who live to please the Spirit will harvest everlasting life from the Spirit. – Galatians 6:7-8 NLT

Three times in this section of Romans 1, Paul uses the phrase “God gave them up.” In these two verses, he describes God giving man up to impurity. Rejecting the truth regarding God’s existence ultimately leads to a false conclusion that man is the final arbiter of his fate. It is the wisdom of man, divorced from God, that leads to things like genocide, infanticide, abortion, and virtually all forms of sexual sin and perversion. Highly intelligent people can commit and justify extremely immoral acts. Humanism, as a philosophy of life, is destructive. It can be defined as “a variety of ethical theory and practice that emphasizes reason, scientific inquiry, and human fulfillment in the natural world and often rejects the importance of belief in God” (Collins English Dictionary – Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition).

Man ends up worshiping and idolizing man. But in the end, all men are inherently selfish and self-centered. Even our best attempts at living altruistic lives end up being self-serving. When you make man the center of your world, it is difficult, if not impossible, to keep from making that world revolve around yourself and your individual wants and desires. You end up doing what is right in your own eyes and find yourself serving the creature rather than the creator. Not only do you dishonor God, but you eventually dishonor your own body, doing things that God never intended or approved and selfishly fulfilling the lusts of your heart. God releases you to reap what you sow and allows you to experience the negative outcomes of your own myopic and narcissistic lifestyle choices.

We see the reality of these verses all around us. We are surrounded by highly educated and intelligent people living godless lives who have made themselves the sole focus of their worship and attention. Mankind has made a habit of rejecting the one true God and coming up with their own version of the truth. They exchange the truth about God’s existence and sovereignty for the lie that He is irrelevant or replaceable, and the lie always leads to destruction.

Paul will outline some serious consequences of living according to the lie. When reading the following verses, it is tempting to focus on a particular sin, but Paul has a much broader view of man’s belief in the lie. He will describe those who reject the truth of God and accept the lie in far-from-flattering terms.

Their lives became full of every kind of wickedness, sin, greed, hate, envy, murder, quarreling, deception, malicious behavior, and gossip. They are backstabbers, haters of God, insolent, proud, and boastful. They invent new ways of sinning, and they disobey their parents. They refuse to understand, break their promises, are heartless, and have no mercy. – Romans 1:29-31 NLT

His words should sound familiar because they describe the world we live in. Paul says, “Since they thought it foolish to acknowledge God, he abandoned them to their foolish thinking and let them do things that should never be done” (Romans 1:28 NLT). And they reaped what they sowed. 

A life lived without God is not a pretty picture because buying into the lie comes with serious consequences. Any man who is left to himself and allowed by God to pursue his own way will ultimately live a life marked by godlessness, unrighteousness, and, in the end, death.

Father, Paul was right, the world is filled with people who have believed “the lie.” They can see the evidence of Your existence all around them but they have become blind to the truth. Their hearts are hardened and their minds have been deceived by the enemy’s constant barrage of blatant lies and half-truths. He has convinced them to worship anything other than You and, as a result, they have left to fend for and care for themselves. Thinking themselves to be wise, they have become fools. And yet, in Your love and mercy, You continue to call the lost back to Yourself. As You have done for centuries, You extend grace and mercy to the rebellious and disobedient, offering them the opportunity to accept the free gift of salvation and spiritual restoration made possible through Your Son’s death on the cross. You allow them to pursue their false gods and, yet, You never completely abandon them. The gift is always available. As Paul told the believers in Rome,“The wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23 NLT). Thank You for this reminder of Your goodness, grace, patience, kindness, and love. Give me a heart to love the lost like You do and never let me forget that, at one point, I too “exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator” (Romans 1:25 ESV). Amen

English Standard Version (ESV) The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Permanent Text Edition® (2016). Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

New Living Translation (NLT) Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.22

Wise Fools

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21 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. 22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. – Romans 1:21-23 ESV

Wise fools. The world is full of them and always has been. Paul describes them as futile in their thinking. The Greek word Paul uses is mataioō, which can mean “to passively become foolish, or to become idolatrous.” Paul says these wise fools are without excuse because they have had every opportunity to honor or recognize the existence and reality of God, who has revealed Himself through His creation.

For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. – Romans 1:20 ESV

These kinds of people indict themselves because they all end up worshiping something or someone. They may not call it worship, but they esteem or honor other things, giving them the place of prominence in their lives that belongs to God alone. Some end up worshiping man, making humanity the end-all be-all of our existence; they believe we are our own savior. Others worship science, placing all their hope and trust in reason and man’s ability to solve all of the world’s problems through scientific research and development. There are those who worship political parties or governmental and ideological policies.

Elevating men or man-made ideas to a god-like status in our lives has been humanity’s lot since the fall. That was the original temptation of the serpent in the garden.

“For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” – Genesis 3:5 ESV

Paul makes it painfully clear that all men know God because they sense the existence of something greater than what they can see. Creation virtually shouts that there is something or someone out there, the first cause behind all that exists. Ancient man inherently knew that there was a force greater than themselves; that’s why they created idols. It is the reason they worshiped the sun, moon, stars, animals, nature, and every other created thing.

Claiming to be wise, they instead became utter fools. And instead of worshiping the glorious, ever-living God, they worshiped idols made to look like mere people and birds and animals and reptiles. – Romans 1:22-23 ESV

But modern man is more sophisticated than that; our idols are more subtle and sensible. We wouldn’t dream of worshiping the sun but we will worship the Big Bang Theory. We will go out of our way to concoct every possible explanation for our existence, while refusing to accept the idea that God exists. Claiming to be wise, we become fools, self-deceived, and sadly mistaken in our conclusions. We end up exchanging the glory of the immortal God for a cheap, but seemingly plausible replacement.

Paul insists that man’s persistent attempt to explain away God has left him with a darkened heart. What was once clearly discernible to them, the invisible attributes of God, has become cloudy and veiled. Man has lost the ability to sense God’s presence and power. This has left him with the nagging need to explain his existence and make sense of a world that continues to spiral out of control, despite all our scientific advances, modern conveniences, and misguided hope in moralistic relativism. We keep believing we can make the world a better place. We have made vast improvements in communication, transportation, medicine, education, and agricultural production, yet the world remains plagued by hatred, disease, famine, ignorance, and inequities in all their hideous forms. We have made advances in everything except the state of man’s heart. We can help him live longer, but we are incapable of making him live better. Human reason will never come up with a way to deal with sin. Science will never find a solution to the problem of the human heart. In our wisdom, we have become fools.

And yet, in the midst of all of mankind’s arrogance and pride, God sent His Son. Paul calls it the gospel, “the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes” (Romans 1:16 ESV). In the gospel, the righteousness of God has been revealed through the life of His sinless Son. God’s righteous expectations for humanity were fulfilled by Jesus.

For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ. – 2 Corinthians 5:21 NLT

The law of Moses was unable to save us because of the weakness of our sinful nature. So God did what the law could not do. He sent his own Son in a body like the bodies we sinners have. And in that body God declared an end to sin’s control over us by giving his Son as a sacrifice for our sins. – Romans 8:3 NLT

He personally carried our sins in his body on the cross so that we can be dead to sin and live for what is right. By his wounds you are healed. – 1 Peter 2:24 NLT

Jesus did what no other man had been able to do since Adam; He lived in perfect obedience to the law of God. As the author of Hebrews states, “he faced all of the same testings we do, yet he did not sin” (Hebrews 4:15 NLT). And it was His sinless life that made Him the perfect sacrifice to pay for the sins of man. He died so that man might live. He gave His life so that we would not have to give ours. The death of Jesus was what God required so that men might be made right (righteous) with Him. And this righteousness is only available by faith. Not by reason. Not by scientific explanations or experiments. Not through human effort or any amount of seemingly moral advancements.

Man, apart from God, is helpless, hopeless, blind, ignorant, and spiritually dead. Even his best efforts on his best day are flawed and, ultimately, worthless. As the prophet Isaiah so aptly put it, “We are all infected and impure with sin. When we display our righteous deeds, they are nothing but filthy rags. Like autumn leaves, we wither and fall, and our sins sweep us away like the wind” (Isaiah 64:6 NLT).

Man has become too smart for his own good. His intelligence has left him unable to honor God or give Him thanks. He is determined to come up with his own explanation for his existence and a personal plan for his future. But in the end, all men must face the reality of God’s existence. God doesn’t go away because we attempt to explain Him away. He doesn’t cease to exist simply because our intelligence refuses to accept Him. God has revealed Himself in His creation and made Himself known through His written Word. And He has given men the means by which they can know Him personally and permanently through His Son. But the knowledge of God is ultimately available through faith, not wisdom.

Father, You are self-evident. Your existance is displayed in the universe You created. Yet, in our “wisdom,” we have determined to write You out of the script, to remove You from the story of our lives. Yet, rather than give up on us, You sent Your Son to live among us. Jesus became one of us, so that He might demonstrate what obedience to Your righteous law looks like. Not only that, Jesus made You, the invisible God, visible and knowable. As the apostle John wrote, “No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is Himself God and is at the Father’s side, has made Him known” (John 1:18 BSB). He walked among us. He lived like us. Then He died for us. All so we could be restored to a right relationship with You. In our foolish wisdom, we turned our backs on You. We became too smart for our own good. However, You had a plan to redeem us from our own stupidity and self-destructiveness. You sent Jesus and He offered His life as payment for our well-deserved judgment. As Paul told the Corinthians, “The message of the cross is foolish to those who are headed for destruction! But we who are being saved know it is the very power of God” (1 Corinthians 1:18 NLT). Thank You for graciously loving a fool like me. And forgive me for the many times I fall back on my own foolish wisdom and fail to honor You as God and give You thanks. Amen

English Standard Version (ESV) The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Permanent Text Edition® (2016). Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

New Living Translation (NLT) Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

The Wrath and Love of God

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18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. 19 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. – Romans 1:18-20 ESV

In verse 17, Paul states that the gospel reveals the righteousness of God from faith for faith. In Greek, the word “reveals” is apokalyptō, which means “to make known what was once hidden.” So Paul is saying that the way to achieve righteousness, which was once hidden from men, is through faith in the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ. That is why he says, “The righteous shall live by faith” (Romans 1:17 ESV). This new or formerly hidden faith means that getting right with God was revealed through the birth, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ; in other words, through the gospel.

Now, in verse 18, Paul unveils another once-hidden mystery; the gospel also revealed the wrath of God. He states, “God shows his anger from heaven against all sinful, wicked people who suppress the truth by their wickedness” (Romans 1:18 NLT). The gospel, which is the good news regarding salvation through Jesus Christ, the wrath of God was poured out. Jesus’ excruciating death on the cross is simultaneously a picture of God’s love and wrath. The prophet Isaiah, under the influence of the Holy Spirit, wrote of the coming Messiah.

Yet it was our weaknesses he carried;
    it was our sorrows that weighed him down.
And we thought his troubles were a punishment from God,
    a punishment for his own sins!
But he was pierced for our rebellion,
    crushed for our sins.
He was beaten so we could be whole.
    He was whipped so we could be healed.
All of us, like sheep, have strayed away.
    We have left God’s paths to follow our own.
Yet the Lord laid on him
the sins of us all. – Isaiah 53:4-6 NLT

Peter referred to this passage when he wrote, “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed” (1 Peter 2:24 ESV). The full extent of God’s hatred of sin was revealed on the cross. The innocent died for the guilty. The sinless One had to pay the price for the sinful. God died for the godless.

To restore sinful, disobedient men to a right relationship with Himself, God had to pay the ultimate price and sacrifice His own Son. Jesus came to die, and His death was the only means by which the wrath of God could be satisfied, so the sins of man could be forgiven, and righteousness could be achieved.

Later in this same letter, Paul asks a rhetorical question.

What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory—even us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles? – Romans 9:22-24 ESV

God would have been completely just and right if He had chosen to destroy all mankind, because all men are guilty of having rebelled against Him. They were all vessels of wrath prepared for destruction. But instead, God chose to pour out His wrath on His own Son, so that some might be saved from destruction. There are those who have described that idea as a form of divine child abuse. They struggle with the idea that a good and loving God would out His own Son to death, even though it resulted in the redemption of countless millions of condemned people.

But God knew what man couldn’t know, that a restored relationship with Him was impossible without His help. Humanity could never live up to God’s righteous standards and was totally incapable of producing the kind of righteousness God required. That’s why Jesus told His followers, “Unless your righteousness is better than the righteousness of the teachers of religious law and the Pharisees, you will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven” (Matthew 5:20 NLT).

That statement from Jesus did not come across as good news to His audience; it sounded implausible and impossible, but that was His point. The righteousness God required was outside their capacity to achieve, so it would have to come from a source other than themselves. It would have to be a righteousness revealed from heaven in the form of Jesus Christ.

But while the gospel is good news, it is accompanied by bad news: God hates sin and must punish it. In His holiness, He cannot tolerate or overlook sin. Mankind is inherently ungodly and unrighteous, and in their state of unrighteousness, they suppress or hold back the truth. This doesn’t mean they in some way restrain or hinder the truth of God, but that their actions deny the reality of God’s holiness and His expectation that His creation reflect that holiness.

Paul goes on to say that humanity is without excuse because God has revealed Himself through His creation.

For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God. – Romans 1:20 NLT

The very existence of idols throughout human history lends credence to Paul’s statement. The human race has always recognized the existence of a greater power outside of everyday experience. Men reveal the reality of God in their built-in need to worship someone or something. Martin Luther writes, “This demonstrates that there was in their hearts a knowledge of a divine sovereign being. How else could they have ascribed to a stone, or to the deity represented by stone, divine attributes, had they not been convinced that such qualities really belong to God!” (Martin Luther, Commentary on Romans).

So man is without excuse, but not without hope. While the full extent of God’s wrath was poured out on His Son on the cross, His love was also on full display.

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” – John 3:16 ESV

Later in this letter, Paul elaborates on this remarkable truth.

When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners. Now, most people would not be willing to die for an upright person, though someone might perhaps be willing to die for a person who is especially good. But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. And since we have been made right in God’s sight by the blood of Christ, he will certainly save us from God’s condemnation. – Romans 5:6-9 NLT

God’s wrath was satisfied by Jesus, but men must accept God’s gift of His Son’s sacrificial, substitutionary death. They must rely on Jesus’ payment to provide them with the righteousness they could never have earned on their own. But the apostle John goes on to reveal a sad but true reality.

God’s light came into the world, but people loved the darkness more than the light, for their actions were evil. All who do evil hate the light and refuse to go near it for fear their sins will be exposed. – John 3:19-20 NLT

Men can choose to accept the love of God or remain under His wrath. He has provided a way of escape, but all men must choose to accept or reject it.

Father, this is a difficult truth to understand. As human beings we tend to believe that we are inherently good and capable of performing “good deeds.” Yet, Your assessment is, “We are all infected and impure with sin. When we display our righteous deeds, they are nothing but filthy rags” (Isaiah 64:6 NLT). As Paul so bluntly put it, “None is righteous, no, not one” (Romans 3:10 ESV). And because we are all sinful and unrighteous, we are deserving of Your just condemnation. Yet, You chose to send Your Son to die in our place and take upon Himself the punishment we deserved. He payed the price we owed for our rebellion and allowed us to be declared just, righteous, and fully forgiven of every sin we have ever committed — past, present and future..Yet, You didn’t stop there. The gracious gift of Your Son’s death didn’t just remove our iniquity, it transferred His righteousness to our account. Remarkably, we stand before You as fully righteous and acquited of all charges against us. At one time, I was guilty, condemned, unclean, and without excuse. But, in Your grace, You offered me the free gift of faith in Your Son’s death on my behalf, and my life was changed forever. Amen

English Standard Version (ESV) The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Permanent Text Edition® (2016). Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

New Living Translation (NLT) Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Unashamed and Unapologetic

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16 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. 17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.” – Romans 1:16-17 ESV

Paul was eager to preach the gospel to the people in Rome. That is why he wanted to make the long, arduous journey there. He was grateful to God for those who had already become followers of Jesus and commended them for their faith. But he knew there were many more who had not yet heard the good news regarding God’s gift of salvation through His Son, and Paul was anything but ashamed of that message. He proclaimed it anywhere and everywhere he could to anyone who would listen, whether they were Jews, Greeks, or even barbarians, because he knew that the gospel had the power to change lives. It was the only way for sinful men to be made right with a holy God.

For Paul, the gospel, the message regarding God’s sending of His Son in the form of a man to live a sinless life and die a substitutionary death on the cross as payment for the sins of men, was powerful and life-changing; he knew from personal experience. He had been radically changed by his side-of-the-road encounter with the resurrected Christ, and that same power was available to anyone who would believe in Jesus Christ as their Savior. In other words, they had to give up trying to earn a right standing with God in their own strength or according to their own merit.

Paul was unashamed of the gospel because he knew it worked and that it was of God. In fact, it had been God’s plan from the very beginning. His sending Jesus to earth was not a contingency plan He was forced to devise in response to man’s inability to keep the Law. He had planned all along to send a Savior, and it had to be His very own Son so that He could meet the stringent requirements of a sinless sacrifice. Peter tells us, “God chose him as your ransom long before the world began, but he has now revealed him to you in these last days” (1 Peter 1:20 NLT).

Paul goes as far as to say, “Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes” (Ephesians 1:4 NLT). The gospel is not only God’s Plan A, but it is also the very power of God that leads to man’s salvation. Paul makes that point clear when he writes, “For in it (the gospel) the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith” (Romans 1:17 ESV).

Because of Jesus’ sacrificial death on the cross, man has access to a form of righteousness he could have never achieved on his own. The law could only reveal God’s holy standard, but it couldn’t help man achieve or live up to it. Jesus told His followers, “But I warn you – unless your righteousness is better than the righteousness of the teachers of religious law and the Pharisees, you will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven!” (Matthew 5:20 NLT). As shocking as this statement must have been to those who heard it, Jesus was simply telling them that the righteousness God required could never be self-produced; it would have to be the result of God’s power, as revealed in the gospel.

Man’s salvation is based solely on faith; it begins and ends with faith. It is our initial faith in Christ that leads to our growing faith in the power of the gospel to not only save us, but transform us into His image. The righteous, Paul says, live by faith. Our righteousness is based on faith.

Later in this letter, Paul states, “We are made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ. And this is true for everyone who believes, no matter who we are” (Romans 3:22 NLT). He reiterates this same thought in his letter to the church in Corinth.

For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ. – 2 Corinthians 5:21 NLT

The gospel, the good news regarding salvation in Christ, reveals the righteousness of God, the very means by which sinful men and women can be justified or made right with Him. It is through the death of God’s Son, and it is confirmed by God’s power that raised Him from the dead. It would not have been enough for the death of Jesus to pay for our sins and leave us in a sinless state. Sinlessness is not the same as righteousness. Once our sins had been paid for and forgiven, we still needed to be declared righteous. But in order to do this, God had to impute or transfer to our account the righteousness of Christ. So our spiritual account went from a negative balance to zero, but then God added to our account the invaluable righteousness of Christ.

The reason so many of us find ourselves “ashamed” of the gospel is that it sounds so far-fetched, even to us. After all, the idea of God sending His own Son to take on human flesh, live a sinless life, and die as our sacrifice on a cross doesn’t exactly come across as logical or sensible. That message can be offensive to those with whom we share it. Telling someone that they are sinners, completely unrighteous, and incapable of pleasing God in any way can be a bit off-putting to say the least. But Paul was unashamed of the gospel because he knew it was the only way. It was the power of God made practical and personal, providing mankind with a fail-proof means by which they could be restored to a right relationship with Him. The righteous, those who have been made right with God through Christ, were saved by faith and live their lives based on faith, in the power of God.

The message of the cross is foolish to those who are headed for destruction! But we who are being saved know it is the very power of God. – 1 Corinthians 1:18 NLT

Father, if we truly believed the message of the gospel, we wouldn’t be so quick to distance ourselves from it or refuse to share it with those who have never heard it. But that’s exactly what we do. Out of the fear of rejection or a failure to believe in the gospel’s transformative power, we remain woefully silent. Yet, Paul faced constant rejection and repeated failures when sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ, yet he remained unashamed and unwilling to keep quiet. He was driven by his firm belief in the gospel’s power to transform lives because he was a living, breathing example of that power. He was deeply convinced of the gospel’s transformative powers because he had witnessed it firsthand. He knew what it was like to experience joy, contentment, peace, and the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit, and he couldn’t help but tell others. I want to live that way. I want to get out of my comfort zone and shout the good news from the rooftops, not out of some sense of obligation, but because I believe it and I want others to know it. Please continue to kindle the flame of passion in my heart so that I might boldly proclaim Paul’s message , “The righteous shall live by faith” (Romans 1:17 ESV). Amen

English Standard Version (ESV) The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Permanent Text Edition® (2016). Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

New Living Translation (NLT) Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

It’s A Family Affair

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8 First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is proclaimed in all the world. 9 For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, that without ceasing I mention you 10 always in my prayers, asking that somehow by God’s will I may now at last succeed in coming to you. 11 For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you— 12 that is, that we may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith, both yours and mine. 13 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 among the rest of the Gentiles. 14 I am under obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish. 15 So I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome. – Romans 1:8-15 ESV

Paul had heard about the believers in Rome, but he probably had little or no awareness of any particular individuals, because he had not yet been able to visit the church there. However, he had become aware of the church as a whole and expressed his gratitude to God for them.

I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith in him is being talked about all over the world. – Romans 1:8 NLT

The church in Rome had gained a reputation for its faith. News of their corporate commitment to the gospel of Jesus Christ had been spread throughout the known world, and Paul longed to see them face to face. He prayed for them consistently and persistently asked God to allow him the opportunity to visit them.

It is clear that Paul loved the believers in Rome even though he had never met them. He was more than an evangelist, spreading the good news about Jesus Christ and watching people come to faith in Him. Paul was a builder. He wanted to see the local congregations that were springing up all around the world grow into spiritual maturity. The majority of his letters were written to local congregations and have a corporate context. There is a tendency to read his letters from an individualistic viewpoint, failing to understand that his words were intended for the congregation as a whole, not the individual believer.

The church in Rome had a corporate reputation for its faith. It was as a body that they had become known for their faith, not as individuals. Somehow, with our Western, individualistic mindsets, we lose sight of the fact that there is a reason we were baptized into both the local and global body of Christ. We have become members of something far greater and more significant than ourselves. For Paul, salvation was not an individual event; it was a team sport.

Later in this same letter, Paul tells the believers in Rome, “Just as our bodies have many parts and each part has a special function, so it is with Christ’s body. We are many parts of one body, and we all belong to each other.r” (Romans 12:4-5 NLT). He wrote something similar to the church in Corinth.

But our bodies have many parts, and God has put each part just where he wants it. How strange a body would be if it had only one part! Yes, there are many parts, but only one body. – 1 Corinthians 12:18-20 NLT

Our tendency is to focus on our own spiritual growth while neglecting the body’s well-being. We concentrate all our efforts on ourselves. But it’s interesting to note Paul’s comment to his brothers and sisters in Rome.

For I long to see you, that I may impart some spiritual gift to strengthen you. – Romans 1:11 ESV

It is unlikely that Paul is saying he wants to lay hands on every one of them and give them a spiritual gift, such as tongues or healing. He clarifies what he means in the very next line.

…that is, that we may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith, both yours and mine. – Romans 1:12 ESV

In other words, Paul simply wanted to be a source of encouragement to them as he shared his faith with them. And he knew that they would lift him up in his own faith as they ministered to him. He was less focused on any specific spiritual gift than he was on the mutual encouragement that believers receive as members of the body of Christ. Paul’s heart was for unity in the body and a sense of shared concern for one another, so “that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together” (1 Corinthians 12:25-26 ESV).

Sometimes we make far more of the gifts than the purpose behind them. Paul told the Corinthian believers, “A spiritual gift is given to each of us so we can help each other” (1 Corinthians 12:7 NLT). Whatever gift the Spirit has given, He has done so for the mutual benefit of the body. We exist to build one another up. My presence within the body of Christ is other-oriented, making it all about us and not me. That is why God gave apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds, and teachers to the early church  “to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ. This will continue until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ” (Ephesians 4:12-13 NLT).

The writer of Hebrews reminds us, “Let us think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works. And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of his return is drawing near” (Hebrews 10:24-25 NLT).

The gift of mutual encouragement is desperately needed in the church today. We are in this thing together. We are members of one body, serving one God and sharing a common faith in one Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. May we learn to share our gifts with one another and grow in our desire to love and encourage one another. And may our corporate reputation for faith in Christ spread throughout the world.

Father, we live in an individualistic society where the sense of community has been lost or replaced by a souless focus on identity politics and group think. Our affiiliations are shallow and have little to do with a shared faith or a common bond in a just or righteous cause. Yet, You have placed Your sons and daughters into a family where they are meant to enjoy the benefits of a loving, faith-based community that is empowered by Your Spirit, instructed by Your Word, and built up by their shared belief in a Savior who died for their sins. This isn’t about idealogy or perceived identity. It is all about the saving work of Jesus Christ and how he broke down the barriers of identity, ethnicity, and individuality. His death unified a disperate and diverse group of people into a family where our selfless displays of mutual love and corporate care reveal that we are Your children. But it is so easy to practice an individualistic faith that negates the blessings of community and destroys the testimony of the body of Christ. Jesus said, “Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples” (John 13:35 NLT). When we live in unity, we are a force to be reckoned with. Together, we become a powerful light shining in the sin-stained darkness of this world. Amen

English Standard Version (ESV) The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Permanent Text Edition® (2016). Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

New Living Translation (NLT) Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Called to Be Saints

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1 Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, 2 which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy Scriptures, 3 concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh 4 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, 5 through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations, 6 including you who are called to belong to Jesus Christ,

7 To all 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. – Romans 1:1-7 ESV

Paul wrote his letter to the church in Rome from the city of Corinth during the winter of A.D. 56-57. It would be another three years before Paul actually set foot in Rome and, when he did, he would do so as a prisoner of the Roman government. It is not clear how the church in Rome got started. Paul obviously played no role in it, having never been there before, and there is no indication that any other apostle had ever made it to the Roman capital to share the gospel. Nevertheless, the gospel had arrived, perhaps as a result of eyewitnesses to the events at the Feast of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit descended upon the followers of Jesus. When Peter preached his first sermon, under the influence of the Spirit of God, more than 3,000 individuals came to faith in Christ. Many of these people, who had been in Jerusalem for the annual celebration of Pentecost, would have returned to their hometowns, carrying the good news about Jesus with them. It is likely that some were citizens of Rome.

Regardless of how the church in Rome began, it had gained a worldwide reputation, and Paul acknowledged it.

Let me say first that I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith in him is being talked about all over the world. – Romans 1:8 NLT

No doubt, Paul wrote his letter to the church in Rome under the influence of the Holy Spirit and with the desire to provide them with a solid understanding of the doctrine of the gospel of God. He knew the incredible influence this church would have because of its location within the capital of Rome, the most powerful nation in the world at the time.

Paul began his letter by introducing himself, even though the believers in Rome would have been well-acquainted with him. He referred to himself as a servant of Christ Jesus, who did not operate on his own initiative, but was a willing slave to the one who had saved him. He served as an apostle, commissioned by Jesus Himself. And he acknowledged that he had been set apart or appointed for a singular purpose: to take the gospel to the Gentiles.

The entire letter of Romans will elaborate on the remarkable significance of God’s good news concerning His Son. Paul boldly and unapologetically claims both the deity and full humanity of Jesus, “who was descended from David according to the flesh and was declared to be the Son of God” (Romans 1:3-4 ESV). Paul emphatically declares that Jesus was resurrected from the dead by the power of the Holy Spirit, and that one miraculous reality made salvation possible and the grace of God available to sinful mankind. The resurrection of Jesus is the central doctrine of the Christian faith. Without it, we have no hope, which is what led Paul to write, “If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins” (1 Corinthians 15:17 ESV).

Paul never missed an opportunity to share the gospel, but he also took advantage of every chance he was given to strengthen the local church. He not only wanted to see people saved from sin, but also to ensure they grew in their salvation. In verse seven, Paul refers to his readers as saints (hagios), which means “set apart or holy ones.” In Paul’s mind, they were positionally holy, but they were also to be practically holy in their behavior. They had been “called to belong to Jesus Christ,” and so their actions and attitudes should reflect that calling.

A major part of what Paul writes in this letter concerns what practical holiness looks like. He wanted the Roman believers to live as if they were dead to sin and alive to God. They were to live by faith and not by works. They were to live according to the power of the Spirit of God and not the flesh. They were to recognize their position as heirs of God and to offer their bodies as living sacrifices to God, refusing to be conformed to this world.

The gospel of God does not stop with our salvation, but carries on throughout our lives as God continues His work of sanctification in our lives, “to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations” (Romans 1:5 ESV).

As followers of Jesus Christ, we are loved by God. The very fact that He sent His own Son to die in our place is the greatest expression of love He could have displayed. But not only are we loved by God, but we are also called by Him to be saints or set-apart ones. We are to live our lives in the power of His Holy Spirit and allow Him to continually transform us into the likeness of His Son. It is God’s miraculous transformation of us that proves our salvation by His Son. Not only have we been saved, but we are also being conformed to the image of Christ.

For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. – Romans 8:29 ESV

God’s continual transformation of our lives is one of the greatest testimonies to the reality of the risen Christ and the power of the gospel.

Father, there is no doubt in my mind that You have been conducting an ongoing transformation of my life from the moment I placed my faith in Jesus at the age of seven. There have been days when that growth has wained and my faith has weakened, but You have never left me or forsaken me. Despite my stubbornness, You have never removed Your Spirit from me. I have repeatedly stiff-armed the Spirit and refused to listen to His words of warning and conviction. I have lived according to the flesh far more than I would like to admit. But Your work of sanctification in my life has never stopped. I can look back and see the radical change that has taken place, not because of my efforts, but because of Your grace, mercy, and love. More than 63 years ago, You called me into a relationship with You through faith in the death and resurrection of Your Son. Over the decades, You have remained faithful to Your promise to transform me into the likeness of Jesus. It hasn’t always been pretty and I haven’t always done my part. But I am grateful for Your commitment to finish what You began and for the knowledge that I will one day experience the joy of becoming like Christ, sinless, pure, and completely set apart from sin. Amen

English Standard Version (ESV) The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Permanent Text Edition® (2016). Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

New Living Translation (NLT) Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.