The Book of Acts tells us of the journeys of Paul. We are told that whilst in Corinth Paul made plans to voyage to Jerusalem, then onto Rome and eventually reach Spain. It is thought that whilst in Corinth he also wrote to the Roman Church. This enables us to date the letter with some precision. Tom Wright in the ‘New Interpreters Bible’ writes “Nobody doubts Paul wrote it in the middle to late 50s of the first century”.
Romans’ is Paul’s magnificent opus on salvation. It has been one of the most influential books ever written, particularly for those of the Protestant Christian tradition. A central theme of the letter is that whether one is a Jew or a Gentile the way to God is through justification by grace through faith in Jesus Christ.
Before considering the first chapter take a look at this brief outline of the letter.
Chapter One: GREETINGS!
1:1 Paul, a bond-servant of Christ Jesus, called as 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 born aof a descendant of David according to the flesh, 4 who was declared he Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead, according to the Spirit of holiness, Jesus Christ our Lord, 5 through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles, for His name's sake, among whom you also are the called of Jesus Christ; 7 to all who are beloved of God in Rome, called as saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
If anyone of us gets a letter from some body we don’t know that well we are anxious to check them out and are concerned about what they want from us. At the very start of his letter Paul tries to make it quite clear that he was writing to them as a servant of God with a desire to be of service to them.
His particular area of service is that of being an apostle, a person called and equipped by God to bring the Good News of Jesus Christ to others. He outlines what he understands the gospel to be about. That Jesus was the Son of God, promised by the prophets of old. In human terms He was of the royal line of Israel’s King David, in spiritual terms He had been powerfully revealed as God’s chosen one through His resurrection from the dead.
It was through the grace of Jesus that Paul had received his calling and it was through the grace of Jesus that the people of the church in Rome had also been called. Paul describes them as ‘saints’, not using that term in the way we might do today, but meaning that they were people who were having their lives transformed by the action of Jesus at work in them. As such he offers a salutation with the words “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” He continues;
8 First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, because your faith is being proclaimed throughout the whole world. 9 For God, whom I serve in my spirit in the preaching of the gospel of His Son, is my witness as to how unceasingly I make mention of you, 10 always in my prayers making request, if perhaps now at last by the will of God I may succeed in coming to you. 11 For I long to see you in order that I may impart some spiritual gift to you, that you may be established; 12 that is, that I may be encouraged together with you while among you, each of us by the other's faith, both yours and mine. 13 And I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that often I have planned to come to you (and have been prevented thus far) in order that I might obtain some fruit among you also, even 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 Thus, for my part, I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome.
He shares with them how he heard about the growth of their church and how the exciting news had encouraged him to pray for them and increased his desire to be with them; something that he had not yet been able to do. He wants to be with them so as he can share with them and receive from them… that they may build each other up in their faith.
In the first section Paul reveals he has a pastor’s heart. He is sure in his calling. He desires to serve. And he is willing to learn. What is true about pastors also applies to all church members… all ‘saints’. Part of belonging to any church community is having the sense that ‘this is the place God wants me to be’. There are members in our own congregation who describe their relationship with the church that way.
Somebody has said that the church is the only organization that exists mostly for the benefit for those who aren’t its members. At the core of our belief is that we are all called to be servants, both of each other and the communities to which we minister. And a vital part of being a disciple is having a teachable heart. We can only lead others to Christ to the extent that we ourselves are prepared to be led by Him!
Before focusing on specific things, Paul gives us a brief paragraph that reflects on what turn out to be some major themes in the letter.
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 to faith; as it is written, "But the righteous man shall live by faith."
1) Paul is not ashamed… he’s proud to make a stand for what he believes! A constant theme in Romans is that our profession of faith should be one that is clear and bold.
2) Why is he proud? Because this gospel, this awesome message that has taken his heart has the power to change people’s lives for the better, to take what is all but ruined and create something beautiful out of it.
3) He also wants to point out how the religion of the Jews relates to the religion of Jesus Christ. There were real tensions between Christians from a Jewish background and those from amongst the Gentiles. He is anxious to clear away any misunderstandings by affirming that who ever lives in a right relationship with God has discovered how to really live. And all it takes is faith!
Having given his introductions and hinted at some of the themes to come we move into our first main block of teaching: WHO NEEDS THE GOSPEL? . In this first chapter, Paul tells us that the Gentiles do.
NAS Romans 1:18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth n unrighteousness, 19 because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. 20 For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. 21 For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God, or give thanks; but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. 22Professing to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures.
In addressing the Gentile world Paul begins by speaking of the wrath of God. Wrath is an interesting concept. It is associated with anger, but not in the sense that we may get angry with one another when we are hurt or offended. It’s not an outburst of rage or a sudden uncontrolled reaction. It is more like a grinding, ongoing disconnectedness that creates in those subject to it a feeling of desperation and a blindness to the truth.
I don’t know if any of you are familiar with a children’s fantasy movie called “The Never Ending Story”. Without going into detail the plot of the movie is that the hero, a little boy called Bastian, has to save the world by reaching the Empress. The baddy in the story though isn’t a particular person, but a dark force called ‘The Nothing’.
‘The Nothing’ is a relentless pursuing destroying darkness that drives Bastian near the beginning of the tale into a ‘swamp of sadness’. This swamp has the effect of inflicting upon all who travel through it intense feelings of hopelessness and despair that pull both Bastian and those traveling with him further and further down into it’s depressing depths.
In the New Testament Paul speaks of “The Wrath” in a similar way to “The Nothing” and of its effect being like that of a swamp of sadness. The picture that is given is not of God sitting in heaven getting angry at every little sin that people fall into, but rather of humanity, by persisting in ungodliness and unrighteousness placing themselves under the force of this ‘nothingness’… ‘ the wrath’ and every step of the way becoming deeper and deeper entwined in darkness and disbelief and distanced from God’s purposes… deeper and deeper descending into a swamp of despair.
I’m sure you have at some time rolled a snowball down a hill and watched how it gathers snow around itself and grows larger with every turn. So humankind, under ‘the wrath’ becomes like some dark, evil, snowball whom with every roll away from God finds them self further and further away from discovering the ‘Way, Truth and Life’ that God offers.
Paul uses the word ‘wrath’ in a similar way to the Psalmist, who when aware of the way that living out of God’s will has impacted their lives use expressions such as those in Psalm 88:7: “Thy wrath lies heavy upon me, and thou dost overwhelm me with all thy waves.” and verse 16 “Thy wrath has swept over me; thy dread assaults destroy me” or Psalm 90:9 “For all our days pass away under thy wrath, our years come to an end like a sigh.
Wrath is what happens to people who act against God’s will just as getting burnt is the result of putting a hand into the fire. It’s not that the fire burns because the fire has some kind of grudge against having hands put into it, rather that burning is what placing hands into flames creates. Eugene Petersen’s “The Message” captures the force of this verse well as he transliterates it; “God's angry displeasure erupts as acts of human mistrust and wrongdoing and lying accumulate, as people try to put a shroud over truth.”
The sad thing is, Paul explains, is that there’s no need to be under God’s wrath, because God has given to all people revelations of God’s presence and God’s concern. “For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen”. Paul insists that even amongst the cultures of the Gentiles there was enough in the creation around them to prevent them saying, “Well we never thought there might be a God”.
He suggests that in all that God has created, including humanity itself, some hint of divine origin is retained. That the existence of conscience, that sense of right and wrong, those moments when people look out a sunset and say “Wow”, the smell of a flower or a gaze between two lovers, should be enough to let people know that there was more to this earth and this life than just an accident. That behind it all lay God’s wonderful creative work.
But the heart of humankind is dark and proud. Rather than seek to give God honor and praise something in us seeks a way around God’s requirements. We would rather come up with our own game plan than live by God’s playbook.
Again “The Message” captures this so well. “People knew God perfectly well, but when they didn't treat him like God, refusing to worship him, they trivialized themselves into stupidity and confusion so that there was neither sense nor direction left in their lives.”
This idiotic way of looking at life ultimately led people to worship what they had created, rather than the Creator, leading to the creation of idols and stories that people venerated as being the real truth or representing the gods that ruled their lives. I wonder if Paul here had in mind the history of his own people - the Jews. My mind goes to that whole story of Moses receiving the commandments of God and coming down the mountain only to discover that in his absence the people have made a golden calf to worship. Or maybe it was the many myths and legends of the Greeks and Romans that he was thinking of!
What was the result of this idolatry? It led to immorality.
24 Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, that their bodies might be dishonored among them. 25 For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. 26 For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural, 27 and in the same way also the men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their desire toward one another, men with men committing indecent acts and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error.
One way that Paul suggests that the willful ignorance of God that led to idolatry expressed itself was through sexual promiscuity. Paul suggests that sexual dysfunctions are a result of being out of touch with the Creator. Staying with that picture of “The Wrath” of God, people involving themselves in such acts led themselves not towards freedom but deeper and deeper into despair and disconnectedness. Such is the sense of the last part of verse 27 “receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error.”
The thrust of these verses is that Paul suggests that the sexual confusion he saw around him in Roman society was related to their lack of knowledge of God’s will and God’s ways. Nothing less and nothing more than that. I’m sure he would say a similar thing about today’s society. But he was not writing a text book on Christian ethics. We do well to remember that. Neither was he singling out sexual sins as being particularly those that led people to experience the wrath of God. For he continues…
28 And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper, 29 being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice; they are gossips, 30 slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, 31 without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful; 32 and, although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them.
Sinful actions have their root in sin filled thoughts. Because people thought they could live without God, it led to them thinking they could live however they liked. And what the sinful mind thinks is best is doing whatever takes its fancy.
G. K. Chesterton once said that when a person stopped believing in God they didn’t believe in nothing, they believed in anything . You remember the song? “Anything goes.” You’ve seen the ads. “What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas”. Attractive thought. Do what you like. With who you like. When you like. And nobody will ever know.
The truth is that history is strewn with the wreckage of those who have swallowed such a lie. It is interesting to read through that catalog of sins. Gossip is seen as being just as bad as sexual perversion. Hating God equated with murder. Greed along with untrustworthiness. And Paul does not mince his words. Verse 32 “Those who practice such things are worthy of death”
Bear in mind that ‘death’ for Paul was a little like ‘wrath’. It was a condition that you lived with in the present. We are either passing through life ‘dead in our sins’ or ‘Alive in Christ’.
In this first chapter Paul has been addressing the Gentiles. He suggests that ‘pleading ignorance of God’s ways’ was a futile argument. That deep within themselves they knew the difference between right and wrong. That they had the God given capacity to give thanks and live in a way that was respectful of their Creator.
But they had fallen short. They had gone their own way and the society that surrounded them, with all it’s excesses in religion, in morality, and in hurtful attitudes, plainly revealed that they fell well short of living in a way that God required. In fact they felt the wrath of God in their being. The unfulfilled lives. The confusion. The desire that nothing could quench.
He needn’t have been writing to Rome. Surely he could be addressing our contemporary world. People still seek for any solution other than God. They still worship the creation whilst neglecting the Creator. They still create all sorts of stories to believe and idols to worship.
It is our task as those Paul calls ‘saints’ to engage our world with the message that we still desperately need the Savior we proclaim as, King of Kings, Redeemer and Healer, Our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for our sins and was raised to give power to live.
Having spoken mostly about Gentiles, in our next chapter Paul moves on to consider those of his own nation, the 'chosen people', and reflects on the obligations laid upon the Jews of his day. This will lead him into asking the question, “What is true religion?”