Romans 1 (Kate and Dar)
- Teaching 9.21.10
- Main theme of Romans is the Gospel
- How can we connect with God through the Gospel?
- Romans 1:16-17
- “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. 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.”
- Save us from what?
- “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. 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.”
- Romans 1:18-20
- “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. 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.”
- We need to get saved from the wrath of God
- God is saying that we are guilty
- How does that make you feel?
- Makes us scared
- Makes us anxious to know what our punishment is
- How does that make you feel?
- In our thoughts we have not been super bad
- But we are guilty
- We are guilty of watching people suffer and not doing anything about it
- We are really good at thinking “Oh someone else will take care of it”
- We need an external standard stating what is right and wrong
- We need to measure ourselves
- We know intuitively that we are guilty
- We have a lot of guilt to answer for
- “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. 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.”
- What does God do with our guilt in this life?
- Temperal punishment: punishment that does not last long
- God just lets it happen
- How is this judgment?!
- It seems great, but it is not great at all
- We choose to not live under God’s protection
- Romans 1:23-25
- “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. Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, so that their bodies would be dishonored among them. 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.”
- We served the creature instead of the Creator
- Creature: Kosmos, nature, 5 senses, material world
- When you remove God out of the picture
- We look at humanity as being more complex than animals or plants
- What do we serve when it is not God?
- Money and sex
- When it comes to sex, every time you try, you are scarred
- There is nothing left
- With God though, there is deeper meaning
- Spiritually, mentally, emotionally, physically
- We served the creature instead of the Creator
- “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. Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, so that their bodies would be dishonored among them. 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.”
- Romans 1:26-27
- “For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural, 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.”
- Without God, there has been a distortion about our genders
- Broken relationships, confused gender identity
- Something has gone wrong!
- “For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural, 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.”
- Romans 1:28-32
- “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, being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice; they are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful; 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.”
- Cognitive dissonance: when you are aware of something that is right, but in your behavior you go the opposite direction
- GUILT
- We give people excuses
- “Well if you were in my situation, you would have done the same.”
- This is why Paul starts out Romans with the issue of guilt
- EVERYONE is guilty
- Cognitive dissonance: when you are aware of something that is right, but in your behavior you go the opposite direction
- “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, being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice; they are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful; 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.”
- Why would our loving God do this?
- God gave us free will, it is our choice to sin
- Not God’s fault
- It teaches us a lesson because he hopes that we come to our senses when we reject God
- Prodigal Son
- Youngest son was sick of dad telling him what to do
- Got his inheritance and left for “fun” (women, betting, friends)
- Lost all of his inheritance, feels guilty leaving, and goes home to his dad
- His dad welcomes him with open arms and takes him back
- Son had to learn his lesson before coming back to his dad
- People think God and Christians are all about punishment
- It does not matter what you think or do, God loves you
- God wants to take on our guilt but only if we accept his gift
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