Last time we read in Romans 1:18
18 The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness,
We then read Romans 1:21-23
21 For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles.
God could not allow this so: Read Romans 1:24-25
24 Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. 25 They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshipped and served created things rather than the Creator – who is for ever praised. Amen.
Paul may have been living in Corinth when he wrote this letter. That town was so well-known as a centre of immorality that the Greeks had a word for it: ‘to Corinthianise’
Read Romans 1:26-28
26 Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. 27 In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error.
28 Furthermore, just as they did not think it worth while to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done.
Look at the phrase ‘God gave them over’ in verses 24, 26, and 28. God will not force himself on anyone. If people really want nothing to do with him, then he will grant their wish and will remove all the constraints that right-thinking people would have applied. If you think that’s being a bit harsh, then consider the fact that English common law, once based on Judeo-Christian principles, has been largely superseded by the enormous growth of statutory legislation which now actively supports ‘unnatural relations’.
(https://www.thetrumpet.com/7863-uk-judge-says-judeo-christian-values-are-obsolete)
Removing all constraints can only have one outcome:
Read Romans 1:29-32
29 They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; 31 they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy. 32 Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practise them.
If Paul felt it was bad in his day, are we really any better?
Following this indictment will Chapter 2 be kinder?
Read Romans 2:1-4
1 You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge another, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things. 2 Now we know that God’s judgment against those who do such things is based on truth. 3 So when you, a mere human being, pass judgment on them and yet do the same things, do you think you will escape God’s judgment? 4 Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, forbearance and patience, not realising that God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repentance?
People in Paul’s day had lots of laws – Jewish laws, Greek laws, Roman laws – and they were happy to apply them to perceived law-breakers. Here Paul cuts through their hypocrisy pointing out that those who judge are not so ‘squeaky-clean’. They may be able to hide their sins from others but 'do you think you will escape God’s judgment? ’
Because of God’s love – ‘his kindness, forbearance and patience’ he has not punished them immediately; ‘In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent’. (Acts 17:30)
Even today there are many, including Christians, who can’t accept that a God of love would condemn people to an eternity in Hell. But if people insist that they do not want God in their lives in this world, God will grant them their wish in the next.
Read Romans 2:5-11
5 But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God’s wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed. 6 God ‘will repay each person according to what they have done.’ 7 To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honour and immortality, he will give eternal life. 8 But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger. 9 There will be trouble and distress for every human being who does evil: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile; 10 but glory, honour and peace for everyone who does good: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. 11 For God does not show favouritism.
Paul is not introducing the idea that we can be saved by good works (see Romans 3: 20) – rather the emphasis is that if we reject his salvation and persist in doing evil there will certainly come a day of judgement.
The Jews relied on the fact that they were God’s chosen people –
Deuteronomy 7:6
For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be his people, his treasured possession.
And as such they were proud that they had been chosen to receive ‘the Law’.
Their problem was that throughout history, they had not been able to keep it, and because of that they were no better than the Gentiles (anyone not a Jew) .
Read Romans 2:12-16
12 All who sin apart from the law will also perish apart from the law, and all who sin under the law will be judged by the law. 13 For it is not those who hear the law who are righteous in God’s sight, but it is those who obey the law who will be declared righteous. 14 (Indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature things required by the law, they are a law for themselves, even though they do not have the law. 15 They show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts sometimes accusing them and at other times even defending them.) 16 This will take place on the day when God judges people’s secrets through Jesus Christ, as my gospel declares.
‘Ignorance of the law is no defence’. That is a legal principle which still applies today. However, our conscience is an amazing thing : we know when we have done something wrong. Our conscience accuses us and we have to respond: perhaps to accept the rebuke, or to come up with an excuse. Either way, we still know we have done wrong.
Read Romans 2:17-24
17 Now you, if you call yourself a Jew; if you rely on the law and boast in God; 18 if you know his will and approve of what is superior because you are instructed by the law; 19 if you are convinced that you are a guide for the blind, a light for those who are in the dark, 20 an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of little children, because you have in the law the embodiment of knowledge and truth – 21 you, then, who teach others, do you not teach yourself? You who preach against stealing, do you steal? 22 You who say that people should not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? 23 You who boast in the law, do you dishonour God by breaking the law? 24 As it is written: ‘God’s name is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.’
‘you rely on the law and boast in God’ (v17) It was so easy to teach others how to be Godly – they knew God’s ‘How to be a Human’ manual from cover to cover. But how often did ‘Don’t do as I do – do as I say’ apply? And as a result (v24) the Gentiles used the name of the Jew’s God as a profanity (They had done so since the dawn of history – Exodus 20:7 – and still persist in doing it today).
Not only did Jews depend on ‘The Law’ but also on the physical sign of their ‘Jewishness’.
Read Romans 2:25-29
25 Circumcision has value if you observe the law, but if you break the law, you have become as though you had not been circumcised. 26 So then, if those who are not circumcised keep the law’s requirements, will they not be regarded as though they were circumcised? 27 The one who is not circumcised physically and yet obeys the law will condemn you who, even though you have the written code and circumcision, are a law-breaker.
28 A person is not a Jew who is one only outwardly, nor is circumcision merely outward and physical. 29 No, a person is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code. Such a person’s praise is not from other people, but from God.
Paul repeats this in Galatians 5:1-6 where he addresses those who are insisting that to be saved you must be circumcised:
1 It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.
2 Mark my words! I, Paul, tell you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no value to you at all. 3 Again I declare to every man who lets himself be circumcised that he is required to obey the whole law. 4 You who are trying to be justified by the law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace. 5 For through the Spirit we eagerly await by faith the righteousness for which we hope. 6 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.
So we can now move into chapter 3, containing perhaps some of the most important verses in the whole book.
Read Romans 3:1-4
1 What advantage, then, is there in being a Jew, or what value is there in circumcision? 2 Much in every way! First of all, the Jews have been entrusted with the very words of God.
3 What if some were unfaithful? Will their unfaithfulness nullify God’s faithfulness? 4 Not at all! Let God be true, and every human being a liar. As it is written:
‘So that you may be proved right when you speak and prevail when you judge.’
Here Paul insists that being a truly faithful sinless Jew, following the Lord’s purpose in their lives in every way, must be the ideal example of God’s creation. Unfortunately, he has to follow this with another ‘but’.
Read Romans 3:5-8
5 But if our unrighteousness brings out God’s righteousness more clearly, what shall we say? That God is unjust in bringing his wrath on us? (I am using a human argument.) 6 Certainly not! If that were so, how could God judge the world? 7 Someone might argue, ‘If my falsehood enhances God’s truthfulness and so increases his glory, why am I still condemned as a sinner?’ 8 Why not say – as some slanderously claim that we say – ‘Let us do evil that good may result’? Their condemnation is just!
Some might argue that our sinfulness enhances God’s holiness. So it’s unjust to punish us for our sinfulness. That is a dreadful argument, trying to pass the blame for our sin onto God himself.
Read Romans 3:9-10
9 What shall we conclude then? Do we have any advantage? Not at all! For we have already made the charge that Jews and Gentiles alike are all under the power of sin. 10 As it is written:
‘There is no one righteous, not even one;
That simple statement of fact ‘There is no one righteous, not even one,’
cannot be denied.
Paul will now back that up with many bible verses
Read Romans 3:10-20
‘There is no one righteous, not even one;
11 there is no one who understands; there is no one who seeks God.
12 All have turned away, they have together become worthless;
there is no one who does good, not even one.’ (Psalms 14:1-3; 53:1-3; Ecclesiastes 7:20)
13 ‘Their throats are open graves; their tongues practise deceit.’ (Psalm 5:9)
‘The poison of vipers is on their lips.’ (Psalm 140:3)
14 ‘Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.’’ (Psalm 10:7)
15 ‘Their feet are swift to shed blood; ruin and misery mark their ways,
17 and the way of peace they do not know.’ (Isaiah 59:7,8)
18 ‘There is no fear of God before their eyes.’ (Psalm 36:1)
19 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. 20 Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by the works of the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin.
Oh!
So what hope do we have? Our next study will provide the answer!
