Romans 2:12-16 – God’s perfect judgment

In these verses, Paul showed that whether one has received the Law (of Moses) in a formal way or not is inconsequential. For everyone is under condemnation. Those Jews who prided in the fact that they have the Law, therefore they are unlike the Gentiles who did not have the Law, Paul tells them that having the Law is no advantage. For it is not about having the Law but keeping it that would put a person in right standing with God.

The Gentiles, on the other hand, have no disadvantage. Although they may not have the Law but they do fulfill what the Law requires unknowingly. In so doing they have lived in alignment with what the Law requires. And thus show that they do have a law written in their heart. Paul refer to it as the conscience, or the light within, that guides them. This light is their inner witness that either affirms when they act rightly, or bring a sense of guilt when they act wrongly. However, we need to know that conscience is an inadequate guide in life. For conscience could be weakened every time we go against it. And when we persist in the same wrong long enough, our conscience does not even sound the alarm. In that sense it’s not a good indicator. The point is that besides the Law, men still have his conscience as a light.  

Paul then points us all to the Day of Judgment when everything will be revealed. Right now all of us may put up a respectable front and hide our shame, but on that Judgment Day, nothing would remain hidden. God will judge all things. And God will judge it through Jesus Christ. The Judge Himself is the one who had died for us. Who else could be a better judge than He?

Knowing that every secret of men’s heart will be exposed on the Day of Judgment, should make us want to pursue life with honesty before God. He is all seeing and all knowing. Let’s stop rationalizing a wrong or moralizing when we are right. God knows the intention of the heart. No wonder the author to the Hebrews say this, “And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him whom we have to do.” (Hebrews 4:13) 

Romans 2:1-11 – God is impartial

There are two truths that we need to bear in mind as we reflect on these verses. First, we need to know that God is perfectly holy; second that human is utterly sinful. God is unlike man. He knows everything and He judges impartially. Man is sinful and by his sin, he has distorted the image of God that he was made to represent. So in verse 1, Paul introduced a kind of conversation with an imaginary opponent. It is as if he was having a conversation with that opponent who would ask a question or state an objection, then he would answer that question or objection.

In the first four verses, Paul imagined the moralists, the people who think that they are good, objecting to all that he had said about God’s wrath. A moralist would think of himself as separated from the rest. He would judge others but fail to examine himself. Very likely Paul was thinking of the Jews who felt that they were immune to God’s wrath, by virtue of their relationship with God. They were the moralists who felt that they were above the rest and would begin to point an accusing finger at others for their sins. Paul here tells them they have no excuse and they would be judged by God. Why? For they accused others but were themselves doing the very thing they condemned. They should not suppose that God would bypass them in judgment, when they were no different from the people they were accusing.

Moralists are unusually self-righteous. They fail to see the extent of sin and are oblivious to their own sins. Hence they can be extremely critical. And even if they side with God in condemning others, they will condemning themselves for they practice those same things they condemned. Paul wanted these moralists not to take the grace of God lightly. God had been kind, tolerant and patient, only so that they could see His goodness and repent from their sin. God sees and knows everything. He knows man’s real intention behind every spoken word and every deed. Regardless of how upright one may think himself to be, without Christ he is doomed.

Verses 5-11, Paul set out to show that God is impartial in His judgment. Everyone, moralists as well as the rest, will be judged. So long as one is stubbornly unrepentant, he would be storing up wrath for himself in God’s final accounting. Here we are told that God will measure everyone according to his works. Did Paul contradict himself? One moment he was saying that only faith would save and here he seemed to say that man would be judged according to their deeds? So what was he saying? Paul had quoted Psalms 62:12 and proverbs 24:12 and his point is this: whether there is faith or not in our life, our works or deeds will reveal them.  

So we see the two aspects of God. He is not only righteous but He is also impartial. They are like the flip sides of a coin. There is a day coming when everyone will be called to give an account of his life and works. The judge would be impartial and would reward accordingly. Knowing that there’s a coming judgment should help us, believers, to be more authentic in our faith journey.  

Romans 1:26-32 – The depravity of fallen men

When men choose not to worship and honor God, they lose control of themselves. In His wrath, God gave man over to depravity. And this depravity is seen in three aspects: sensual, mental and ultimate.

In verse 24, we see that man chose to change love into lust. Sexual intimacy, the expression of deep love between a man and his wife, had been changed into inordinate lust. Now in verses 26-27, Paul tells us that God gave them over to sexual depravity and unruly passion. The un-regenerated chose to indulge in aberrant sex instead. Whether male or female, their sexual orientation was changed and they chose to engage in perverse sex. They began to lust for people of the same gender. Women became lesbians and men, homosexuals. Paul specifically singled out homosexuality so that we can see that this sin leads one to live unnaturally. Today, they are those who propagate homosexuality as an alternate lifestyle. But regardless of how one calls it, homosexuality is sin, pure and simple. Unwittingly, homosexual practice had brought harm to their bodies as a just desert for their indecent acts. This is the first kind of depravity, sensual depravity.

Then Paul dealt with the second kind of depravity, it’s the mental depravity or depravity of the mind. Verse 28 tells us that God gave fallen men over to their corrupt mental attitude. This state of mind then led man to all kinds of degenerated acts. Losing all moral compass, plus a sheared conscience, man began to indulge in all kinds of wicked and unrighteous deeds. Paul had a whole catalogue of them in verses 29-31. Fallen man are now “…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…”

In verse 32 Paul mentioned the ultimate depravity of man, “…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.” Man reached the pinnacle of their depravity when they not only continue to live sinful lives but they also gave hearty support to those who practice sin that would bring death. This approving of another’s sin shows us how low mankind had become.    

As Christians, living in the midst of sinful people with the propensity to embrace a depraved life, what can we do? Be mindful that we are called to be the salt of this earth and light to the world. By our testimony, behaviors and conducts, we need to live out a God glorifying life. We point others to God and the right way to live life, when we ourselves live a God honoring lifestyle. 

Romans 1:18-25 – The wrath of God

We are all accustomed to the grace of God and rightly so. God had shown Himself gracious even in our wickedness, in that He provides the way in Christ for us to avoid His wrath. The problem with us is that we have taken His grace for granted and ignore the fact that God is also a God of wrath.

What do we understand by the word, wrath of God? It is not anger of the human kind. The human anger is the uncontrollable, impulsive and negative emotion that causes him or her to hit out. The word wrath is a controlled, measured and perfect anger. He is not a God who gets out of control, and haphazardly hit out at anyone who happened to be nearby. And just as God had revealed His righteousness, Paul said that He had also revealed His wrath. As much as we need to know the righteousness of God, we also need to be aware that He is also a God of wrath. This wrath, Paul said, is directed at all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men.

Why are the ungodly and wicked people under the wrath of God?

The first reason for God’s wrath is that in man’s unrighteousness, he chose to suppress the truth. God is knowable and anyone has the capacity to know Him. By examining oneself, a person should be able to detect evidences of God’s design in his or her life. For ages, all of nature had been there to reveal God with all His powerful and invincibility as well as His invisible qualities. Yet man chose to ignore this truth of a God who had created the universe and all nature, and that He continues to sustain them. Creation clearly and plainly reveals God’s existence to mankind. God had made it so plain and obvious that man has no excuse for not knowing Him. Mankind in their philosophical thinking considered themselves wise, but by suppressing the truth they had proven themselves to be fools. Only a fool would say in his heart that there’s no God.

The second reason for God’s wrath towards mankind is because they twist and pervert the truth. Instead of seeking and worship the knowable God of Creation, they chose to worship His creatures, peoples and beings that He had created. They had made God into all forms of images of fallen man, birds, and four-footed and even crawling creatures. In so doing man had perverted the truth and denigrated God, making Him lesser than Who He really is.

The third reason for God’s wrath is mankind’s perversion of life. Mankind had chosen to take a path lower than the one that God had created for them to assume. They chose to denigrate themselves in all kinds of loose living, and exchange what is real and true for something untrue and false. They would rather worship what they had deceitfully contorted than a God who alone deserves to be praised and blessed forever.

God had revealed two great things to us: His righteousness and His wrath. Thankfully all of us had chosen to receive God’s righteousness by faith in Christ. In so doing, we are now the object of His love rather than His wrath. God’s revelation of His righteousness which we have received in Christ, shows us how He longs to connect with us. Can we see that God is straining to reach us? Shouldn’t we reciprocate His love by seeking to know Him more? Knowing Him will lead us to live our life gratefully in the light of that inextinguishable hope we have in Christ!

Romans 1:8-17 – Motivation par excellence

Paul began by giving thanks to God for the believers in Rome for their faith which had spread far and wide. Their fame had created a desire in him to visit them so he prayed many a times to the Lord for an opportunity to come to them. Since the believers in Rome did not really know Paul, so he called on God to be his witness of how much he longed to visit them. He did so because both he and the Roman believers had a common faith in this God. Paul assured them that God alone would know how intensely he had desired to visit them by the number of times he mentioned them in his prayer. 

Why was Paul so eager to visit the believers in Rome? From verses 11-13, he gave us his first reason. He believed that by his visit they would be mutually encouraged. Paul knew that they had the capacity to grow further and be strengthened. He was conscious that God had given him gifts that could help them in their growth and had hoped to establish them in God. When that took place he was also hopeful that they in turn would encourage him. In this way the encouragement would be mutual. Just like he had been encouraged by the Gentile churches in the various places that he went, he now hoped to be encouraged by them in Rome. But so far he did not have the opportunity. Somehow things just did not work out for him as far as coming to Rome was concerned.

The second reason for his eagerness to visit Rome was his sense of obligation to fulfill His calling as an apostle to the Gentiles. God had given him a mandate to all Gentiles, not only to those of Greek origin but also to those not of Greek origin, whom he termed barbarians. This was the mentality of the Greeks: they were the learned and the rest the unlearned. Paul saw the Gentiles, regardless where they were from, as people he was called to minister to. So he had a great sense of obligation towards the believers in Rome as well.

Finally the third reason is found in verses 16-17. It stamped from his confidence in the power of the Gospel which he preached. In these two verses Paul literally established the theme of this book. In them we see his entire argument in the book of Romans in a nutshell. “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jews 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.”  

Paul openly declared that he was not ashamed of this Gospel. In fact he was glad to associate with it and we can see why. It is God’s power to save. The Gospel is the good news about Christ and His saving works – His death, burial and resurrection and ascension. He tells us that the only condition required to experience this salvation is belief. Besides, this Gospel is all inclusive, it is meant not just for the Jews but also for the Greeks, for everyone. In this Gospel God reveals His righteousness and we can see it increasingly clear through the eye of faith. Paul concluded his introduction by quoting Habakkuk 2:4, “But the righteous man shall live by faith.”  

Just consider the righteousness of Christ that is made available to us through believing in this Christ of the Gospel. It motivated Paul. And it should motivate us. When we see it through the eye of Paul we will understand why. We exchange our filthy garment for the righteousness of Christ. It meant that God sees in us not what we used to be. And we no longer need to be frustrated by our own frail works to earn God’s acceptance. He accepts us because of what Christ had experienced on our behalf. Now He sees the righteousness of Christ in us. But having the righteousness of Christ meant also that henceforth we will live a life to please Him.    

             

Romans 1:1-7 – Paul and the Gospel

Romans is one of the most important and influential letters written by Paul. God had used it to touch many influential people of the past and He is still using it to address many of our issues today. Paul began in these seven verses to introduce himself and his message.

Paul’s other name is Saul. One name indicates his Jewish origin and the other his Roman Citizenship. By calling himself a bondservant of Jesus Christ, he is revealing his relationship with the Lord. Jesus Christ is His master and he is His bond servant, one who had willingly and totally given up everything to serve the Lord. He wanted his readers to know that his entire allegiance was given to the Lord. The term apostle tells us of his apostolic calling. He saw himself as one given the unique gift of caring, ministering, teaching, establishing and governing the body of Christ. As a Pharisee, he was set apart for the Law, but since Christ met him on the road to Damascus, he had been set apart for the Gospel of God.

The content of his message of the wonderful Gospel of God, is about Jesus Christ, our Lord. There are several elements of this Gospel: firstly, the Gospel did not come haphazardly. It was something God had promised long ago. How do we know? Many prophets of old foretold it in the Holy Scriptures. Secondly, this Gospel is about Jesus Christ, God’s Son. He came from the linage of David hence qualified to be the Messiah. This indicates His humanity. It tells us that although He was the powerful Son of God, He chose for a season, to become a Man with human frailties. Thirdly, He was resurrected from the dead by the Spirit of holiness, to affirm that He is indeed the Powerful Son of God. From these facts, we see the dual nature of Christ – perfectly human and perfectly God.

In was through the Lord Jesus Christ that Paul received grace and the calling to be an apostle to the Gentiles. While others might be called to minister to the Jews, his calling was to minister to the Gentile believers, among whom were those residing in Rome. And his aim was to bring them to obedience of faith, for the sake of Christ. Paul did not do it for himself but for the Lord. Like him, it’s important that we know that our service in whatever capacity, should be unto the Lord.

In verse 7, he addressed all the believers in Rome, calling them saints, meaning they were set apart for God. He then sent his usual greetings of grace and peace from God, the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

What made Paul so faithful and diligent? It was in how he perceived himself and the Gospel. He saw the reality of Christ and realized that he was called into His service. The pertinent question to start us off on the book of Romans is: how do we perceive ourselves in God’s scheme of things? When we have a clear perception of ourselves and the Gospel, we will experience the fire that Paul experienced! 

Mark 16:9-20 – The Great Commission

Early Sunday morning the risen Lord appeared to Mary Magdalene. In all four Gospels she was recorded as the first witness to the Lord’s resurrection. Here Mark tells us that this was the Mary from whom seven demons that possessed her were cast out. This Mary was also the first to herald the news of Christ’s resurrection to all those who had been with Christ. But they refused to believe her

Verses 12-13 and Luke 24:13-35 are talking about the same two people whom the Risen Christ appeared to. Mark gave us a summarized form while Luke told it in greater detail. Here we are told that Christ appeared to them in a different form. That accounts for why they did not recognize Jesus initially. They only recognized Him after He had broken bread with them. When these two reported to the disciples, they did not believe them either. We are told in verse 14 that the Lord Himself then appeared to the disciples while they were having a meal. And there He rebuked them for not believing what was told them by those whom He had appeared to.

The Lord then gave them the Great Commission to go into all the world and preach to all creatures. The Lord emphasized the world, telling them and us today that the Good News is not meant for Jews only, but for everyone in the world. Since baptism is a public proclamation of one’s acknowledgement of Christ’s Lordship, it should be a new believer’s initiation into the family of believers. As believers of Christ, we not only have peace as a sign of our relationship with Christ, we also have power for ministry. The manifestation of the power will be seen in the eviction of demons, speaking in tongues, healing the sick with the laying on of hands and preservation from dangers of serpents and poison. The last two were given not for Christians to boast, but to demonstrate the power of God’s keeping grace. It should not be exercised boastfully to demonstrate that one has greater power than others. Christians must not deliberately pick up serpents or drink poison to prove the reality of Christ.

Verse 19 summarizes the Lord’s ascension into heaven and is now seated at the right hand of God. Obediently, the disciples then went forth and proclaimed the Good News and the Lord attested to the truth by signs that followed. The ending of Mark had been disputed. Some felt that it ended in Mark 16:8 and insisted that the rest after verse 8 are later additions. We are not here to debate these issues but we need to know that the longer version testify to us that the New Testament church is called to be a witnessing community.     

As believers we are challenged to trust Christ, not just for now but also for the future. We who embrace the message of the Gospel are expected to proclaim the full Gospel i.e. that Christ is Savior, Lord, Baptizer of the Holy Spirit and our soon coming King. And as we go about proclaiming the Good News, we have the power to pray and heal the sick and cast out demons. Let’s just do it!