Today's passage marks the beginning of Romans, one of the richest books in the New Testament. In it, Paul provides detailed support for the Gospel, the good news that, through faith in Jesus Christ, both Jews and Gentiles may participate in the salvation He bought through shedding His blood. The first three-and-a-half chapters offer a framework for the rightness of God's judgment against a world without excuse and frame a proper Biblical understanding of the motivations that underlie people's actions.
(1) The theme of the Gospel. "I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last... " The Jews had become sidetracked in their religious practice, thinking that their actions would someone earn righteousness for them, while the Gentiles had exchanged the "truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator -- who is forever praised."
Clearly, both Jew and Gentile had missed the major melody of God's entire revelation, both through human history and the recorded Scripture: God desired a relationship with the people He had created, but their sin had created a separation. In His Son, God provided a means to reconcile this broken relationship and to restore the fellowship that He had initially had with the first Adam (and Eve) in the Garden. As Paul writes, this revelation involved "a righteousness... by faith." As Paul noted in his letter to the Galatians, "I want you to know, brothers, that the gospel I preached is not something that man made up. I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it; rather, I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ." (Galatians 1:11,12) As many have noted, the Gospel's offer of salvation cost God so much that it seems implausible, but, in it, we can see the very heart of a loving and merciful God.
(2) People without excuse. Still, God's mercy does not extend to the unrepentant; sin must receive its proper punishment, as heaven cannot be corrupted by sin. God's holiness will not allow such corruption. Paul shows that, apart from grace (unmerited favor) and atonement (Christ's sacrifice in our place), we stand condemned and without excuse.
Paul explains that, "since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities -- his eternal power and divine nature -- have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse." Psalm 19:1-3 explains:
"The heavens declare the glory of God;
the skies proclaim the work of his hands.
Day after day they pour forth speech;
night after night they display knowledge.
"There is no speech or language
where their voice is not heard."
From the revelation of creation, we may see the beauty and order of God. Paul argues that, as people created in the image of God, even the Gentiles, who were not under law, grasped the spirit of the law from their consciences: "Indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by anture things required by the law, they are a law for themselves, even though they do not have the law, since they show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts now accusing, now even defending them."
(3) The effect of free will. Paul explains how both the Jews and Gentiles have turned away from God. The Gentiles "neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles."
In short, people have a God-shaped hole in their hearts and were created with the capacity and desire to worship. Or, as Bob Dylan noted, you "gotta serve somebody." People then have free will to choose whom to worship and whom to serve. Even with a revelation of God's character, people may turn away from Him. Logically, this turning away leads to all sorts of sinful desires and actions. In the end, apart from righteousness through Christ, no one may be righteous, either under or not under the Law: "there is no one righteous, not even one;/ there is no one who understands,/ no one who seeks God."
Theologically, we may describe the condition of the unrepentant heart as "total depravity." While the world argues that people are essentially good, we see from this passage and others that, without God, people's hearts are self-seeking and bankrupt. In Genesis 6:5,6, God grieves over man's sinful hearts prior to bringing the flood: "The LORD saw how great man's wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time. The LORD was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain." It is only by God's grace that we are not destroyed for our sinful hearts, both before and after receiving Christ (John 1:12).
(4) The benefit of the Law. From our New Testament standpoint, we may be tempted to view the Law as a now-archaic addemdum to the "real truth" that Jesus revealed. Still, as Paul notes, the Law provides a standard of accountability and points to sin: "Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God. Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin."
QUESTIONS
1. How can you celebrate the truly good news of the Gospel today?
2. How do these first three chapters help to explain what's going on in our world today?
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