May 31st, 2010-Romans Chapter 1

In starting up my devotions regularly again, I decided to start with one of my favorite books, containing also some of my favorite verses: the book of Romans.

Chapter 1 is chock-full of important content. The book starts off with a greeting of the apostle Paul. It is emphasized in his greeting that he was set apart to spread the gospel of God in the name of our Lord, Christ Jesus, and through Christ Jesus we have received not only the commission to spread the gospel, each one of us, but also grace. Paul then expresses his longing to go to Rome, for the purposes of preaching the gospel, imparting spiritual gifts to the faithful and in order to reap some harvest from them as well. Something in this section struck me. I think the fact that Paul realized that he had something to gain from them as well speaks volumes to the importance of Christian fellowship. We just got done being reminded that Paul is an apostle; one of twelve men appointed by God to spread his message to the world. In essence, Paul is a giant of the faith. But here we see that even he has something to gain from having fellowship in Rome. This passage is a great reminder to me that the fellowship and building up of believers is so important because without that fellowship, it's easy to wander off the path and go astray. We need that encouragement and accountability so badly. 

The next passage of chapter 1 speaks to the importance of the gospel and also the importance of faith. Romans 1:16-17 is a well-known passage that proclaims the gospel as the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes and that in it, the righteousness of God is revealed. It also says that the gospel starts and ends with faith and that the righteous live by faith. This concept of faith keeps coming up; earlier in verse 5 it talks about bringing about "the obedience of faith". Faith really is what the Christian life is all about; we really do live by faith. Every day we have an opportunity to go against what makes sense to the world and follow the Lord. That takes faith. We see the Bible equates faith with obedience and that is so true. If I'm not following God, do I really have faith in him? How could I? Why would I disobey someone I don't trust? If I really have faith in God, wouldn't I follow him without hesitation? Our faith in God demands action; faith is not some abstract, magical, foolish thing as the world makes it out to be. In theory, you can see it before your eyes. 

The final section in Romans is pretty harsh but vitally necessary. It talks about God's wrath on sin. The gospel has two main parts: you're a sinner (addressing sin) but there's a way out (God's way of redemption). I notice that in verse 16 Paul covered briefly one of the parts, proclaiming the gospel as the way of salvation for those who believe. Now, for the rest of the chapter, Paul shows us the evil nature of humanity and how a holy God must have nothing to do with it. It says God's wrath is revealed to all the sin of man and that man suppresses the truth of God. And as if to answer to anyone that would say we don't know the truth, Paul writes that God has revealed himself to all men. His attributes and nature have been clearly seen in what has been made and that no man has an excuse. It goes on to write how man, even with this knowledge, pushes God away and follows their own path of idolatry and sin. Starting from verse 24, it speaks of how God has given such people up to their sin. That is a scary thought and at first I didn't know what to make of it. Even Christians fall into spells of disobedience but as he promises God delivers them from their sin. I think that the people talked about here are those that know the truth of God and his plan of salvation but reject it to stay in sin and that they are the ones that God has not called to himself before the foundations of the world. In any case, jumping to verse 28, these final verses of chapter 1 serve as a reverse role model of sorts, showing me what my life should not look like. It lists the sins of those who reject God, with a debased mind: unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice, envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness, gossip, slander, hating God, insolence, haughtiness, boasting, inventing evil, disobeying parents, foolishness, faithlessness, heartlessness and ruthlessness. The book finishes by reemphasizing that although "they know God's decree that those that practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them".

This passage really hit me hard because I can think back to times and see my life in this position: knowing the right thing to do and instead, walking the other way. For me the main thing to take away from this passage is that sin is serious. It's a big deal. I know that at times I've used the promise of God's forgiveness to justify indulging in sin. That's wrong and Romans chapter 6 addressed that very thing. The difference of course is the heart. Although sin continues to plague our lives, it is our adversary, not our friend. We sin from time to time but we cannot practice sin, and if we are there's a big problem. When I pray I not only ask God to help me love him more but to also help me to hate sin more. I want nothing of that old life and I thank God for that desire. Looking back on Romans chapter 1 I see how heavy it is with the gospel message. It really explores the depravity of man's condition and the consequences of that but not without mention of God's free salvation for everyone that believes.