Romans 1

Romans 1
Background:

Rome was the capital and most important city of the Roman Empire. In Paul’s day, the city had a population of over one million people, many of whom were slaves. Rome boasted magnificent buildings such as the emperor’s palace, the circus maximums, and the forum, but its beauty was marred by the slum in which so many people lived. According to tradition, Paul was martyred outside Rome on the Ostian way during Nero’s reign. (A.D. 54-68).

Some of those converted on the day of Pentecost probably found the church at Rome (acts 2:10) Paul had long sought to visit the Roman church, but had been prevented from doing so (1:13). In God’s providence, Paul inability to visit Rome gave the world this inspired masterpiece of gospel doctrine. Paul’s primary purpose in writing Romans was to teach the great truths of the gospel of grace to believer who had never receive apostolic instruction. The overarching theme of Romans is the righteousness that comes from God; the glorious truth that God justifies guilty, condemned sinners by grace alone through faith in Christ alone. (Mc Arthur Commentary )

With the grace of God upon me, I want to attempt to dig into Romans 1 in a broad deceptive. It is such a convincing book and I am convinced that it depicts the evil nature (unrighteousness) of man and the abundant grace of God (righteousness).

Romans 1:1-15 Paul use bond servant which is a Greek word that was most often referred to the involuntary permanent service of a slave. Paul elevates this word by using it in it’s Hebrew sense to describe a servant who willingly commits his life to serve a master who he respects and love. Paul was an apostle (a sent out one, that primarily refers to the twelve men Christ chose to accompany him, Paul was chosen by Christ to preach to us the gentiles). The gospel of God is the good news. This message says that God will forgive sins, deliver from sins power, and give eternal power. This is more than just a gracious offer but a command to be obeyed.

Jesus was born of the seed of David making him fully God and fully man which making him able to serve as mans substitute for sin. He was declared to be the son of God. His resurrection clearly divides him from the rest of humanity, providing irrefutable evidence that he is the son of God. The resurrection declared him as deity. He submitted himself to do the will of the father in the spirit of holiness. Salvation is a gift from God that is separate from human efforts. This is what you called grace. You know you have faith when you are obedient and submissive to the Lordship of Christ. The called refers to the call of elect sinners to salvation. I hopefully plan to do sermon notes Matthew 20 about this topic.
Paul wanted to visit Rome. He was saying that the faith was spoken out because what happened in Rome went everywhere literally. He wanted to come to them, but was submissive to the will of God( God’s sovereign orchestration) . He wanted to impart in them a spiritual gift. In Greek “gift” is translated charisma which means a gift of grace. The fruit Paul was referring to was now new converts. (Galatians 5:22, 23 and Phil 4:16-17 talks about other fruits) Paul was a debtor (an obligation to fulfill his divine mandate to the gentiles). In short, the Greeks were people of different nationalities who embraced the language culture and education. The barbarians were the opposite; they were considered uncultured and uneducated. (Outcast)

Men rationalize his sin by believing his own philosophies about God. Therefore, many substitute the worship of idols for the worship of the true God.
God also gave them up… When abandon God, God abandons them. He will remove his restrain and allow their sin to run its course.

Lie… A denial of God’s existence and his right to be glorified and obeyed.
God gave them up.. he gave them up to homosexuality, which begins in the heart and move to the shame of the body.

16 -32
When Paul said he was not ashamed, it was not just a saying. Paul was imprisoned, chased out of cities, smuggled out of cities, and beaten, laughed at and stone. Yet he gets up and says I am not ashamed. Nothing could curb his boldness.
It is the power of God unto salvation.. This simply means only the power of God is able to overcome man’s sinful nature and gave him life. Salvation means to rescue or deliver.

Of what you ask? Being lost, the wrath of God, willful spiritual ignorance, evil self indulgence and from darkness of self religion. When you believe (trust or have faith in), this is a present tense “believing”. This is not a onetime event, but an ongoing condition. True saving faith is supernatural, a gift that God produces in the heart, this is the only way to have true righteousness.

Saving faith consist of the three elements:

1) Mental: the mind understands the gospel and truth about Christ.
2) Emotional: one embraces the truthfulness of those facts with sorrow over sin and joy over God’s mercy and grace.
3) Volitional: the sinner submits his will to Christ and trusts in him alone as the only hope of salvation. Genuine faith always produces authentic obedience.

Righteousness of God.. Only God is righteousness, and he will impute his righteousness to ungodly sinners through faith. Grace through faith alone.

The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men…

The wrath of God is the settled determined response of a righteous God against sin. The most graphic revelation of God’s holy wrath and hatred against sin was when he crushed his son on the cross.

God has various kinds of wraths:

1. Eternal wrath: which is hell
2. Eschatological wrath: (the ultimate destiny of mankind and the world) which is the final day of the Lord.
3. Cataclysmic Wrath: (severely destructive) like the flood and destruction and Sodom and Gomorrah
4. Consequential Wrath: This is the principle sowing and reaping.
5. The Wrath of abandonment: This is removing restraint and letting people go to their sins. Ex. 81: 11,12 / Proverbs 1:23-31

Ungodliness indicates a lack of reverence for , devotion to and worship of the true God. Unrighteousness is a lack of conformity in thought, word and deed to the character and law of God. They suppress the truth because although they see evidence from conscious creating, they resist God and hold on to their sin. He made and sustains all we surround us, creation itself delivers a clean message about his eternal power. Everyone will be held responsible for their refusal to acknowledge of what he was shown them to creation.

Although they didn’t know God, they didn’t glorify him… We are conscious of God’s existence power and diving nature through general revelation (the trees, the animals and the wind). He should be glorified for who he is an this attributes, the very fact that if we don’t, is like spitting in his face. Our personal search for meaning and purpose will become meaningless. Once we reject the truth, the darkness of spiritual falsehood takes its place.
God gave them over.. they become debased “not passing the test”. This Greek word was often described useless worthless metals, discarded because of too much impurity.

It’s not that they were ignorant but blatant rebellion.

I pray that this lesson blesses you, I told you beforehand that it would be vast but I wanted to give you a little history and insight on the Romans 1 passage.

Your brother in the Lord,
Zerub