Romans 1 - The Power of God
You do what you think, & you think what you believe, so you better make sure you know what you believe & why you believe it.
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Romans 1 (ESV)
1 Paul,
a servant of Christ Jesus,
called to be 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 descended from David according to the flesh
4 and was declared to be the Son of God in power
according to the Spirit of holiness
by his resurrection from the dead,
Jesus Christ our Lord,
5 through whom we have received grace and apostleship
to bring about the obedience of faith
for the sake of his name among all the nations,
6 including you who are called to belong to Jesus Christ,
7 To all those in Rome
who are
loved by God
and called to be saints:
Grace to you and peace from
God our Father
and the Lord Jesus Christ.
8 First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ
for all of you,
because your faith is proclaimed in all the world.
9 For God is my witness,
whom I serve with my spirit
in the gospel of his Son,
that without ceasing
I mention you 10 always in my prayers,
asking that somehow by God’s will I may now at last succeed in coming to you.
11 For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you—
12 that is, that we may be mutually encouraged
by each other’s faith,
both yours and mine.
13 I do not want you to be unaware, brothers,
that I have often intended to come to you
(but thus far have been prevented),
in order that I may reap some harvest
among you as well
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 So I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome.
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 for faith,
as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.”
18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven
against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men,
who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.
19 For what can be known about God
is plain to them,
because God has shown it to them.
20 For his invisible attributes,
namely, his eternal power and divine nature,
have been clearly perceived,
ever since the creation of the world,
in the things that have been made.
So they are without excuse.
21 For although they knew God,
they did not honor him as God
or give thanks to him,
but
they became futile in their thinking,
and their foolish hearts were darkened.
22 Claiming to be wise,
they became fools,
23 and exchanged
the glory of the immortal God
for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.
24 Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts
to impurity,
to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves,
25 because
they exchanged
the truth about 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 up to dishonorable passions.
For their women
exchanged natural relations
for those that are contrary to nature;
27 and the men likewise
gave up natural relations with women
and were consumed with passion for one another,
men committing shameless acts with men
and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.
28 And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God,
God gave them up
to a debased mind
to do what ought not to be done.
29 They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice.
They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness.
They are gossips, 30 slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, 31 foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless.
32 Though they know God’s righteous decree
that those who practice such things deserve to die,
they
not only do them
but give approval to those who practice them.
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Romans 1 Summary
Paul's letter to the Romans is probably the most important, influential thing that's ever been written. But this wasn't just written to a particular people in Rome two millennia ago, rather, he addressed it to you! This letter is for all people who are loved by God and called to be saints (a person made holy through faith in Christ).
This short letter is the clearest explanation of the gospel, which is the good news of the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes (v16).
But before you can fully understand the good news, you must come to grips with the bad news, and it's really, really ugly. Although all people know God, our sinful instinct suppresses that knowledge, which has corrupted our ability to think truthfully (v21).
Although these first few chapters are tough to hear, it's critical that you understand how badly sin has infected you so that you can begin to fully appreciate that you've been set free from it.
Dig Deeper
It's obvious that people in this world are really messed up. Romans 1 helps us understand why this is: sin has affected our ability to think.
The truth of who God is and the good things He's done is clear: His fingerprints are all over the universe and our lives. But since sin causes people to ignore God, people have "become futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened."
So God gave sinful people exactly what they want. Three times in this chapter we read "so God gave them over," to:
the lusts of their hearts (v24)
dishonorable passions (v26)
a debased (literal: failed) mind (v28)
Notice our the root cause of physical, bodily sin is an inability to think straight.
You do what you think, and you think what you believe (about God).
This means to fix the problem, the situation must be reversed. Believe in the gospel and you will be able to think clearly. As you think clearly, you'll behave in a way that honors God.
AAA Prayer:
ACKNOWLEDGE WHO GOD IS: Our Holy and powerful Father who has a righteous wrath for sin (v18)
ALIGN YOUR LIFE WITH GOD'S WILL: Pray that you will not be ashamed of the Gospel, but that you would experience God's power through it (v16), as you learn to think truthfully
ASK GOD FOR WHAT YOU NEED:
