Kingdom Ready Blog

Here is the link, hope you enjoy:  http://www.timberlandbiblechurch.org/audio/dustin’s%20personal%20mp3s/romansaudio2.mp3

Romans 1:18-32 summary:

-Idolatry and dehumanizing behavior resulting in God’s wrath.

-Remember that the covenant was there to ultimately deal with the sin of Adam (and the world).

1:17 and 18 – 17 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.“

 18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness,

(The result from God for man’s unfaithfulness)

 

vs. 19-21 –

-God is evident

-This has been so ever since creation

-No excuse (cf. 2:1)

-Refusing to honor Him

-Refusing to give thanks

(If you were a Jew, who would you think Paul was describing in these three verses?)

 

v.22 –

“Professing to be wise, they became foolish”

-cf Gen 3:6 When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate…

The Fall of Adam (which the covenant was supposed to fix and resolve).

 

v.23 –

“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.”

-cf Psalm 106:19-20 (describing the event of Exodus 32).

-The Fall of Israel (which was a prominent interpretation during Paul’s lifetime). An honest Jew reading this could not claim that this denunciation was for the Gentiles only.

 

v. 24 –

“Therefore, God gave them over” (because of the previous “exchange”.

-cf Psalm 81:11-12

-Note the 3 fold “exchanging” on the part of man which results in a 3 fold “giving them over” on the part of God (cf. 1:17 – “from faith to faith”). This inevitably leads to the questions of whether or not we are responsible for our actions and how God operates within our world.

 

v.25 –

“served the creature rather than the creator”.

-Hints again of Genesis 3.

-Typical Jewish complaint against idolatry (although most Jews of Paul’s time would not admit that they themselves are guilty).

-Denunciation for the giving of allegiance to that which is not God.

 

v.26 – 27 –

“giving up the natural function of one’s own sexuality”.

-Again, hints of Genesis, where man was created in the image of God, and a critical part of being an image-bearing human is the “male plus female” aspect (Gen. 1:27).

-Paul is not picking out homosexuality as a random sin which is bad, rather he is saying that when the image-bearing part of distinctive sexes has been lost, this is a sign of severe moral corruption (which mankind is to blame).

 

Failure to worship God results in corrupting and human degradation:

1- God as creator is ignored by humans (1:25)

2- Human bodies dishonored because of idolatry (1:24)

3- Humans did not glorify God as God (1:21)

4- Humans knew about God’s power but failed to worship (1:20)

5- The dishonoring of bodies by females and males turning away from one another (1:26-27)

 

v.28 –

“God gave them over to a depraved mind”.

-Fixed in 12:2 – And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.

 

v. 29-31 –

-List of corruptions which the human race has brought upon itself. It has fallen pretty far from what man was created to do in Genesis (who was labeled as “good”).

-Ends with 4x un- to drive the point home.

 

v. 32 –

-Death (although the decay has clearly already started) is deserving of those who practice such things.

-Also to those who approve of them.

-Once “good” and “evil” have been renamed, then the dehumanizing process has been complete.

 

Where are we at?

-1:16-17

God’s covenant faithfulness is revealed in the gospel, and our response should be faith[fulness].

-1:18-32

Man’s response to God has been that of disobedience, which has led to severe moral corruption and falling away from what man was created to do (be God’s image-bearer and rule of His creation). The case for both Jew + Gentile guilt is being laid out.