Romans 1:18-32

I deserve the death penalty.

We just finished up the first chapter of Romans. The first chapter can be divided into two parts: Paul’s introduction and then his description of humanity. He further divides humanity into two parts: those saved by faith and those who aren’t.

Verses 16 and 17 describe the lives of the righteous. This can be whittled down to one phrase: The righteous shall live by faith. He then delves into the lives of the unrighteous, spending 14 verses in their description.

How is God’s wrath revealed against all ungodliness? It’s mentioned several times in this chapter – He simply let’s us do what we want. He leaves us to our own desires. God’s wrath is poured out on us by letting us do what we please. That is humbling and revealing. When left to myself, all I can choose is evil. The thing I turn to is evil. I worship the creature rather than the Creator.

Near the end of chapter one, there is a list of sins, which deserve death (being – all sin deserves death, not simply this by-no-means-exhaustive-list of sins). Among the “given bad sins” of murder, God-haters, those filled with evil and malice, there are others which are in the same list, seemingly equally as “bad”: faithlessness, pride, disobedience to parents.

The chapter ends with this accusation of me: Though (insert your name) knows God’s decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, he/she not only does them but gives approval to those who practice them. – That refers not only to murder, but also to faithlessness, pride, and disobedience to parents.

We all deserve the death penalty!

But yet . . . if we care to look back to the two verses prior to this description of the sinful world, we see our salvation: the righteousness of God. – The righteous shall live – God provides a way to recieve this life-giving righteousness: Faith. Faith in the saving-work of Christ’s death on the cross!

We all deserve the death penalty, but Christ has already paid that debt, leaving us clothed in the life-giving righteousness of God.

Romans 1:16-17

Faith is the basis for salvation. We are not saved by our Faith, for that would mean that Faith is a work of our own contrivance. We are saved through our God-given faith on the atoning-work of Christ’s death on the cross to pay our sin-debt.

Through this faith in salvation, we are saved from sin on three different levels.
1. Sin’s Power: We are no longer slaves to sin. We are free. This is evidenced by our progressive sanctification.
2. Sin’s Penalty: We are clothed in Christ’s righteousness and have inherited his standing before God the Father. This is justification. God proclaiming us righteous, because of Christ’s death on our behalf.
3. Sin’s Presence: We will be free from even the presence of sin upon Glorification.

Romans 1:1-15

3 things stand out to me from this passage:

1. Make Jesus Christ the focus of the gospel. (vs. 1-5)

Jesus is the Gospel. He should be the sole focus of our learning, preaching, and teaching. The Gospel is not necessarily what we believe but what Christ is. It is not defined by our beliefs but rather our beliefs should be defined by it.

2. God’s ways are not our ways. (v. 8-10; Is. 55:8-9)

Here Paul tells us that he asked from God every time he prayed if, somehow, he would be able to go to Rome. His intentions are pure and honest, seeing that he desires to go in order to encourage the church in that town. However, Paul had never been allowed to go to Rome. As a matter of fact, when he did go to Rome he was imprisoned and consequently sentenced to death. God’s will and ways are beyond our comprehension!! He is so more than our minds can understand. Even though Paul could not go to Rome, he continued to serve the Lord in the ways God allowed him to serve. When a door of opportunity closes before us, we should, instead of trying to force the door open, try other doors and go through the ones God opens for us and there serve Him with gladness.

 3. My responsibility when going to church. (v. 11-12)

My primary responsability in the body of Christ is to exercise my spiritual gifts. Many times I find myself saying, “I wonder how much I can get out of this service today.” That is the wrong perspective on the church. Paul first wanted to encourage the romans so that consequently, he would be encouraged by them. As I Cor. 12 illustrates, we are part of a body. As an eye in the body of Christ, my primary concern should not be to receive the benefits of smelling or tasting. My primary responsability is to see. If all parts of the body are exercising their roles and gifts, all members will consequently receive the benefits of the other member working. Let’s encourage one another so that we, consequently, may be encouraged.