Session 2: Day 6 (Romans 1)

[music] Romans 1. Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called as an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God, which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures, concerning his son. Jesus Christ our Lord, who was a descendant of David according to the flesh, and was appointed to be the powerful Son of God according to the Spirit of holiness by the resurrection of the dead. Through him, we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith, for the sake of his name among all the Gentiles, including you who are also called by Jesus Christ. To all who are in Rome, loved by God, called as saints, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because the news of your faith is being reported in all the world. God is my witness, whom I serve with my Spirit in telling the good news about his son, that I constantly mention you. Always asking in my prayers that if it is somehow in God's will, I may now at last succeed in coming to you, for I want very much to see you, so that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you, that is, to be mutually encouraged by each other's faith, both yours and mine. Now, I don't want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, that I often planned to come to you, but was prevented until now, in order that I might have a fruitful ministry among you, just as I have had among the rest of the Gentiles. I am obligated both to Greeks and barbarians, both to the wise and the foolish, so I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome. For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, first to the Jew and also to the Greek, for in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith, just as it is written, the righteous will live by faith. For God's wrath is revealed from heaven against all Godlessness and unrighteousness of people who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth, since what can be known about God is evident among them because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, that is, his eternal power and his divine nature, have been clearly seen since the creation of the world, being understood through what he has made. As a result, people are without excuse. For though they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God or show gratitude. Instead, their thinking became worthless and their senseless hearts were darkened, claiming to be wise they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man, birds, forfeited animals and reptiles. Therefore, God delivered them over in the desires of their hearts to sexual impurity, so that their bodies were degraded among themselves. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshiped and served what has been created instead of the creator who is praised forever. Amen. For this reason, God delivered them over to disgraceful passions. Their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. The men in the same way also left natural relations with women and were inflamed in their lust for one another. Men committed shameless acts with men and received in their own persons the appropriate penalty of their error. And because they did not think it worthwhile to acknowledge God, God delivered them over to a corrupt mind so that they do what is not right. They are filled with all unrighteousness, evil, greed and wickedness. They are full of envy, murder, quarrels, deceit and malice. Their gossips, slanderers, god-haters, arrogant, proud, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, senseless, untrustworthy, unloving and unmerciful. Although they know God's just sentence that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them, but even applaud others who practice them. This is the Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. Paul addressed his letter to all in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints. Every Christ follower from every culture and ethnicity. God promised the gospel of Christ before it was reality. When Jesus was born through the line of David, he proved to be God the Son and the Spirit verified this. He's the way we receive grace. He's the way we receive salvation. His life, death, resurrection and ascension are the conduit for our obedience. We don't muster it on our own. It is him at work in us. Through Christ, we received grace and apostleship, which lead to the obedience of faith. Our obedience is a gift of grace from him to us. It's something he gives us that we offer back to him. While we were all born into a fallen world, some people have resigned themselves to that ballonist, despite the fact that God has made the truth obvious to them, that there is a creator who is in charge of all this. Like Psalm 19 says, "The heavens declare the glory of God and the expanse proclaims the work of his hands. But people ignore the truth and continue to live life on their own terms, suppressing the truth." Jesus said the same thing in John 3.19. He said, "This is the judgment. The light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than the light because their deeds were evil. They knew God but didn't honor or thank him. And their lack of humility and gratitude toward God served to harden their hearts all the more, catapulting them further down the trajectory of disbelief and disobedience. Their idolatry continues on ever increasing. Instead of worshiping the creator, they worship the things he made, humans and animals as they distort worship and sexuality and creation. The way God responds to them is with inaction. He doesn't grant them repentance. They feel no guilt over their actions. In fact, they celebrate them. This is what God's passive wrath looks like. It lets people continue on in their sins unchecked. It gives them over to their sins. It's terrifying and heartbreaking. This is convicting to me because even though I do have a relationship with God and I'm not under His wrath, there are so many times when I live like a pagan, not honoring God or giving thanks to Him. I don't want to live like that. I don't want my heart to be darkened. I don't want to become futile in my thinking. I don't want to become wise in my own eyes. I don't want to exalt other things above God. While believers in Christ will never experience any version of God's wrath, passive or active, it's important to remember three things. First, if we're honest, we all find ourselves somewhere on this list in verses 29-30. And not just in the past, but maybe even in the present. Unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, maliciousness, envy, murder, strife, deceit, gossip, slander, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, and ruthless. Does any of that ring a bell? Second, death and separation from God is what we all deserve. But God grants us grace instead. And third, the recognition that we deserve the same condemnation as those who practice these things keeps us humble. We can't grow prideful as if we did anything to earn grace. Romans 1 is a wady passage. It's a reminder that we all deserve death. But it's also a reminder of the sweet mercy and grace and salvation God poured out on us through Christ. We can either be under His wrath or under His grace and I'm so grateful for His grace. He's where the joy is. I'm Tara Lee Cobble, and you're listening to The He's Where the Joy is Podcast Presented by Lifeway.