Written by: Delirious?
Romans 1 v 1-7
From Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus. God called me to be an apostle and
chose me to tell the Good News.
God promised this Good News long ago through his prophets, as it is written in
the Holy Scriptures. The Good News is about God’s Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
As a man, he was born from the family of David. But through the Spirit of holiness
he was appointed to be God’s Son with great power by rising from the dead. Through
Christ, God gave me the special work of an apostle, which was to lead people
of all nations to believe and obey. I do this work for him. And you who are in
Rome are also called to belong to Jesus Christ.
To all of you in Rome whom God loves and has called to be his holy people:
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Notes
It’s early in the spring of AD 57 and Paul is in a dilemma. He’s got a burning
desire to finally make it to Rome - the most important city on earth - and
meet with the multitude of local Christians. However, he’s also got a sack
full of cash that needs to be hand-delivered to the impoverished church in
Jerusalem. The solution? He writes the Book of Romans. This part-letter/part-essay
sums up just about everything that Paul could possibly have to say about
life, the universe and everything. It encourages, warns and guides, and helps
nurture a group who, within five years of the letter being written, would
die for their faith. What’s really ironic is the fact that Paul would be
one of them, sacrificing his life for the God he had served.
So what goes into making a man like Paul? His life and conversion were extreme, but take a look at his introduction here and you’ll see the true mark of the man. The original word for “servant” in verse 1 could also be translated as “slave”: one who is devoted to a master. But we need to scrap our modern ideas of oppressive slavery, as in this case the slave was massively honoured to be able to serve. And there we have Paul all summed up. He knew his place: he was there to follow God’s agenda and was privileged to walk any path that may be before him. Could the same be said about us?
Prayer
Where do I fit into this, God? How do I line up alongside the greats of the
gospel, those who sacrificed their last breath for you? Show me what it means
to really be your servant, with head held high but heart bowed low. Amen
Romans 1 v 8-13
First I want to say that I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you,
because people everywhere in the world are talking about your faith. God,
whom I serve with my whole heart by telling the Good News about his Son,
knows that I always mention you every time I pray. I pray that I will be
allowed to come to you, and this will happen if God wants it. I want very
much to see you, to give you some spiritual gift to make you strong. I mean
that I want us to help each other with the faith we have. Your faith will
help me, and my faith will help you. Brothers and sisters, I want you to
know that I planned many times to come to you, but this has not been possible.
I wanted to come so that I could help you grow spiritually as I have helped
the other non-Jewish people.
Notes
Why had Paul not been able to make the trip out to Rome before? Maybe this
was one Italian job that took more than a little planning to get right. Read
between the lines here and you’ll see that Paul’s agenda is already starting
to come out, despite the fact that he’s still introducing himself to the
readers.
He starts by acknowledging the fact that their faith is not something that is hidden. Instead, the people who are the church in Rome have made a fantastic job of living their lives out in public. Of course, this was going to end up costing them dearly, but he made sure that they had the concept of faith at the front of their minds. It was absolutely vital that they understood just how important it was.
Paul goes on to mention that there are two things he’d love to do when he finally meets up with the Romans: first he wants to help them; then he wants to share faith with them. With Paul, encouraging others in their faith is a two-way street, and he’s more than happy to admit that he hopes to get something out of the bargain for himself.
Too often we get caught up with the idea that being spiritual means dumbing down our weaknesses and failings. In Paul’s world, we can all do with encouragement and assistance. Are we willing to drop the ego enough?
Prayer
God, your Son was the perfect example of selfless living. Right up to the cross
and beyond you showed the way to live. Help me to share my faith with confidence,
yet learn from others in humility. Amen
Romans 1 v 14-17
I have a duty to all people—Greeks and those who are not Greeks, the wise and
the foolish. That is why I want so much to preach the Good News to you in
Rome.
I am proud of the Good News, because it is the power God uses to save everyone
who believes—to save the Jews first, and also to save those who are not Jews.
The Good News shows how God makes people right with himself—that it begins
and ends with faith. As the Scripture says, “But those who are right with God
will live by trusting in him.”
Notes
He's not exactly big on suspense is our Paul, as this early paragraph sums
up the entire letter. But that's no reason to leave it alone, as the two
verses contain some real treats. “I’m not ashamed of the gospel” says an
alternative translation, giving a top-notch model to the fellow believers
living right at the heart of the Roman empire. Nice one.
And for Paul it really was all about the power of salvation. Having met Jesus so powerfully on the way to Damascus, Paul's entire life from that point on was marked by an unshakeable belief that not only had Jesus risen from the dead, it was only through him that salvation was possible.
But there is some confusion in there too. Just look at that line about saving the Jews first. We know that there was a bit of grief going down among the Christians in Rome, mainly in the shape of friction between those of different backgrounds. The non-Jews felt that the Jews were unnecessarily attached to their old laws about diet and sacred days. Is Paul just adding fuel to the fire here? Perhaps not. In truth things did all start with the Jews: the law, the covenants, the prophesies about the Messiah, not to mention Jesus himself. But Paul shows that something had happened to cause a change, something that brings all the other people in too. Jesus' life, death and resurrection changed things for all of us, regardless of where we've come from.
Prayer
To get right with you is too hard a task for us to attempt on our own. But
with your gift of faith we can learn how to live an upright life in front
of you. Thank you for opening up the doors that should be closed in our faces.
Amen
Romans 1 v 18-23
God’s anger is shown from heaven against all the evil and wrong things people
do. By their own evil lives they hide the truth. God shows his anger because
some knowledge of him has been made clear to them. Yes, God has shown himself
to them. There are things about him that people cannot see—his eternal power
and all the things that make him God. But since the beginning of the world
those things have been easy to understand by what God has made. So people
have no excuse for the bad things they do. They knew God, but they did not
give glory to God or thank him. Their thinking became useless. Their foolish
minds were filled with darkness. They said they were wise, but they became
fools. They traded the glory of God who lives for ever for the worship of
idols made to look like earthly people, birds, animals and snakes.
Notes
The anger of God is a familiar theme throughout the Old Testament. Yet this
passage sits nicely in the middle of the second half of the Bible, taking
centre stage in the teachings of the Apostle Paul. So why is it in here?
Didn’t Jesus come to ditch all that Angry God stuff?
It’s vital that we don’t try to sanitise God. Heathen religion and cesspool morality created a culture of darkness into which Paul knew he had to shine a light. As he saw it, signing up to rationalism – the belief that we can get to know God without divine intervention – amounted to a deliberate choice to accept a lie about God, a hollow trade of “the glory of God”.
This all may sound kind of extreme, and perhaps we might feel as if we are safely removed from so dubious a moral state. But we’d be wrong if we let ourselves or our culture off the hook so easily. Yes, God is the Maker of all things, and yes, his fingerprints can be found all over creation, but there is only one way towards relationship with him: faith - faith in God’s power to judge, and faith in God’s merciful power to forgive. If we can begin to get these fundamentals straight in our own minds, if we can resist the temptation to water the message of the cross down, if we turn our backs on the ideas of being ashamed of the gospel, then we might be surprised at how well our voice is heard.
Prayer
It’s tempting to want to become the type of “relevant” Christian who is so
in tune with the culture that it’s impossible to tell that I’m different.
Help me, God, not to trade in your glory. Amen
Romans 1 v 24-27
Because they did these things, God left them and let them go their sinful way,
wanting only to do evil. As a result, they became full of sexual sin, using
their bodies wrongly with each other. They traded the truth of God for a
lie. They worshipped and served what had been created instead of the God
who created those things, who should be praised for ever. Amen.
Because people did those things, God left them and let them do the shameful
things they wanted to do. Women stopped having natural sex and started having
sex with other women. In the same way, men stopped having natural sex and began
wanting each other. Men did shameful things with other men, and in their bodies
they received the punishment for those wrongs.
Notes
Ever had that sense that there’s something missing? We’re not talking train
tickets or house keys here, but the deeper, darker nagging that there’s more
to life than money, sex and power? Perhaps those times are just a distant
memory for you, but for many they are part of the fabric of everyday life.
An uncomfortable part, but the thoughts remain nevertheless.
Paul hits on the truth here by repeating the phrase: “God left them”. He’s describing the way in which non-believers of the past had turned their back on God, choosing instead to embrace an age of brazen sin, vice and moral decadence. In turn God withdrew from these non-Jews and they were left in quite a state. Man became alienated from God yet at the same time haunted by the shadowed knowledge of their Creator.
It’s not hard to join the dots between the society that Paul was describing and the communities we live among today. Like all periods in history, life in the 21st century is marked by a challenge for God’s people to connect their beliefs with the needs of the world. In 1st century Rome, Christians needed to be uncompromising, servant-hearted and lovingly honest. Is it any different for us today?
Prayer
There are many people I know who need more of you in their lives, me included.
Help me on my journey to know when to talk, when to listen, when to ask and
when to answer. Help me to hear you more. Amen
Romans 1 v 28-32
People did not think it was important to have a true knowledge of God. So God
left them and allowed them to have their own worthless thinking and to do
things they should not do. They are filled with every kind of sin, evil,
selfishness and hatred. They are full of jealousy, murder, fighting, lying
and thinking the worst about each other. They gossip and say evil things
about each other. They hate God. They are rude and conceited and brag about
themselves. They invent ways of doing evil. They do not obey their parents.
They are foolish, they do not keep their promises, and they show no kindness
or mercy to others. They know God’s law says that those who live like this
should die. But they themselves not only continue to do these evil things,
they applaud others who do them.
Notes
This passage is the final part of Paul having a pop at the way in which Gentile
(non-Jewish) society blocked God out from their lives and made their own
gods to worship. Read it through again and you can’t fail to notice the tone
of the language: it’s not exactly kids’ tv is it?
So what do we do with all this condemnation of “sin, evil, selfishness and hatred”? Do we take it as a cue for us to climb up onto the moral high ground and start pointing the finger at all the sinners around us? Or do we ignore it, put it down to historical context and go back to the “buddy Jesus” concept that seems far more suited to our branded age?
It has been said that this passage shows just what happens when we take God off the throne and place our own desires at the heart of our lives. We become deaf to our duties towards others, taking advantage of them for our own desires. The numerous sins that Paul mentions are not the result of us giving in to temptation. Instead they are the kinds of sins that are indulged in deliberately. What’s more, Paul is clear that it’s not just those who commit the sin who are in trouble, but those who “applaud” from the sidelines and condone the actions.
So here’s what we do with a passage like this: we get on our knees. We ask forgiveness for the times when we have taken God off the throne of our own hearts or have watched limply as others have done the same. These are vital lessons to learn.
Prayer
Forgive me, God, for the sin of substituting you for false idols. Forgive me
for the sin of silence too, for the times when I have not spoken up for what
I know is right, true and pure. Help me to serve you more faithfully. Amen
Romans 2 v 1-5
If you think you can judge others, you are wrong. When you judge them, you
are really judging yourself guilty, because you do the same things they do.
God judges those who do wrong things, and we know that his judging is right.
You judge those who do wrong, but you do wrong yourselves. Do you think you
will be able to escape the judgement of God? He has been very kind and patient,
waiting for you to change, but you think nothing of his kindness. Perhaps
you do not understand that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to change
your hearts and lives. But you are stubborn and refuse to change, so you
are making your own punishment even greater on the day he shows his anger.
On that day everyone will see God’s right judgements.
Notes
So what does it mean to be righteous, to live a life that is right by God?
Previous generations thought that it was a legal term, that righteousness
came through living according to a strict set of laws. Ah! If only life were
that easy. The nagging truth is that life is far more about attitude than
achievement, about sacrifice more than it is about scoring holiness points.
This passage is where Paul turns to his Jewish audience and declares that they are nicely lined up for a little criticism themselves. They are no less prone to sin than their cousins in the pagan world, and it is made clear that the relatively judgement-free time that they have enjoyed has been due to God’s patience, not a chronic bout of indifference or forgetfulness. God’s judgement is, it seems, impartial: it scans the believer and the non-believer alike.
Paul wrote this letter, essay or whatever you want to call it with many things in mind. One of them was the rift that was running between Jewish Christians and non-Jewish Christians over some of the traditions that the Jewish believers felt were important to keep.
Ring any bells? We all get caught up in the small print about how our faith should be expressed, sometimes with pretty disastrous consequences. Don’t get it wrong: Paul doesn’t shy away from the issue; he addresses it fully later on. But it’s important to note that he kicks off by encouraging his readers to face up to their own – our own – sin. You get the feeling that he spends plenty of time searching his own soul too. How about we do the same?
Prayer
Thanks for Paul’s inspiration. I’d love to learn more about how to be a loving,
caring, selfless Christian. Forgive me for the times when I’ve put myself
first, when I’ve judged others before thanking you for them. Open my eyes,
Lord. I want to see you. Amen
word-on-the-web uses the Scripture text taken from the Youth Bible, New Century Version (Anglicised Edition) copyright 1993 by Word Publishing Milton Keynes