Week 2

In week-one we established what the gospel of God is and what it isn’t. We also saw how God has been preaching this same gospel since the days of Adam and Eve. By the Doctrine of the Seed we saw how Jesus Christ fulfilled the promises made to Eve, Abraham, David and Mary to name a few. This week we move on a bit more rapidly to the end of chapter one.

Romans 1:3-4- …concerning His Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who was born of the seed of David according to the flesh, and declared to be the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead…”

Paul confesses that Jesus is both Son of Man and Son of God. That is to say that Christ fulfilled the prophesies made to David (2 Samuel 7:12), that He will come from David’s line, but also He would be divine, as Isaiah 53 says. Paul, from the beginning, is making it clear that He preaches, confesses, professes and teaches Jesus Christ, the God-Man, the Messiah-with-a-Name-and-Body. By confessing that Jesus was the Son of God both by David and by the Holy Spirit, he confesses what is known as the duel nature of Christ. That is fully God and fully Man, as the creed says.

Romans 1:5- …Through Him we have received grace and apostleship for obedience to the faith among all nations for His name…

Paul’s apostleship is to preach the gospel to all nations. Although an understanding of the Old Testament is helpful for us to know God, it is not necessary to believe in the gospel. In other words, no Jewish background is required. However, Paul uses the word “obedience.” He is not teaching easy-believism.

Romans 1:11-12- For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift, so that you may be established—that is, that I may be encouraged together with you by the mutual faith both of you and me.

Paul says he comes to impart “some spiritual gift” to the Roman church. Some might teach that this gift is of a charismatic nature, i.e. speaking in tongues or prophesy, etc. However, this may not necessarily be the case. It might be. But it could be that he is only speaking about the teaching he is brings in this letter. He goes on to explain that in his theological training of the Roman church, he also receives encouragement. In other words, training in the faith strengthens faith. The stronger our faith is, the more we rejoice with each other in its truth. Paul is training up the church so he might have some to rejoice with. Is this not true in your life? Do we not find kindred spirits with those who share our faith? With those who we might otherwise have nothing in common? When one Christian’s faith is strengthened, the whole body of Christ is strengthened.

Romans 1:16-17- For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “The just shall live by faith.”

This is what many regard as Paul’s Thesis. That is to say that Paul summarizes what he is about to expound upon in these two verses. Again, his thesis really isn’t anything new because it all hinges on the verse he quotes from Habakkuk 2:4: “the Just shall live by faith.” So what we can expect from Paul is an in-depth explanation of what it means for the just to live by faith.

Also in these two verses we find an exclusive tone in Paul that counters much of what our culture says; even church culture. The power of God to salvation that Paul speaks of is contingent on one thing: belief. He does not say: for in the gospel is the power of God to salvation for everyone but for everyone who believes. A good reading through the book of Romans, as we will see, reiterates this fact.

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 what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened.

Now, with the formalities out of the way, Paul begins to teach. First, that the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. Paul tells us that there is something we can know of His wrath against sin “since the creation of the world (v. 18, 20).” To put it another way, we do not need the specifics of the gospel to know that our creator hates sin. There is an underlying moral code known to mankind. Paul says that man has ignored this code, so to speak (v. 21).

Can we know the gospel by looking at nature? It might seem like Paul says we can, but the answer is no. He does say we can know two things by looking at creation: 1) His eternal power, and 2) His Godhead (v. 20b). This is, according to Paul, enough to know or see God’s wrath. Now Paul seems to speak of a specific people who “knew God, but did not glorify Him as God…” Who knew God but did not glorify Him? Perhaps the answer is the people in Noah’s day. Whatever the case, we can learn from Paul that it should catch no one off guard that they have sinned. “Nobody is perfect,” is our mantra but do we really believe it? Paul says we are without excuse (v. 20). According to him, we don’t have to believe our own mantra, we know it.

A brief word study would be beneficial, as a side-note. Paul uses the word Godhead in the above quoted passage. He also uses the word Godhead in Colossians 2:9. The words both translate as Godhead but have slightly different meanings. In Colossians the word Paul uses is Theotes, meaning divinity. But here in Romans he uses the word Theiotes: god-like or “God’s attributes.” This is a slight difference, but the point is that although it is very general, the revelation of God without the Bible is still revelation and thus men are without excuse.

Should this trouble us? If it does, we miss Paul’s point. Our knee-jerk reaction might be to think of those who have never heard the gospel and hope that God will still save them. If this is our line of thinking then we believe that a person is damned to Hell simply because he has not heard the gospel. This is not so. Paul says that man is without excuse. Excuse for what? Excuse for not having heard the gospel? No! Man has a great excuse for not hearing the gospel: “no one came to my village and shared the gospel with me, Lord.” Man doesn’t need the gospel to know he is a sinner; therefore he is without excuse regarding the fact that he deserves punishment. In other words, he cannot plea with God to simply let him off the hook because he didn’t know better. Paul says here that he does know better, hence he is without excuse. Man is not accountable to God to know the gospel; he is accountable to God to be perfect as He is perfect. I am getting ahead of myself, though. For know, we must understand where Paul is going. It must get much worse before it gets any better. And it doesn’t get much better for a few weeks so you might want to read ahead.