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Rev Romans Chapter 3 The Sin of Self Righteousness

Rev Romans Chapter 3 The Sin of Self Righteousness Imagine that you are sitting in the church of Rome in Paul's day when the epistle to the Romans is first read. The elder or the scribe or maybe even the messenger who brought this letter is reading Romans 1:18-32, the passage we covered in our last study. Notice that, while this chapter is being read where Paul describes the wrath of God revealed against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men and the terrible things that men are doing because they have turned their backs to God, a group of Christians are sitting on one side. These are Jewish Christians. Many of the Jews at this time were living in Rome and many had accepted Jesus as their Savior. These Jewish Christians formed a large section of the church at Rome and as they are listening to this passage that Paul has written in Romans 1:18-22, they are nodding their heads and whispering to one another. “This Paul has certainly said it correctly,” they say. “We have always known that these Gentiles are a lot of rebellious sinners.” But, suddenly, the reader turns to Romans 2 and these Jewish Christians hear these words in verses 1-4: “Therefore you are inexcusable, oh man, whoever you are who judge, for in whatever you judge another you condemn yourself, for you who judge practice the same things. But we know that the judgment of God is according to truth against those who practice such things. And do you think.... that you will escape the judgment of God? Or do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and long-suffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance?” The Jews begin to say to themselves, “Surely he is not talking about us. We are Jews! How could he talk about us like this? Surely he must mean somebody else.” But the scribe keeps on reading and he comes to verse 17 and these Jewish Christians hear these words: “Indeed you are called a Jew, and rest on the law, and make your boast in God.” In the first section of his dealing with the sin problem, in Romans 1:18-32, Paul has been describing the Gentile world and he has given us there a terrible picture. They are ungodly. They have deliberately suppressed the truth about God. They have made their own gods. They are worshipping themselves and their ideas. They are living in sin and now suddenly, Paul changes from the Gentiles to the Jews. Why does he make this distinction? It is because the Jews were in a very special position. The Gentiles had a knowledge of God but it was an implicit knowledge revealed to them through nature and through their inner convictions. But the Jews, over and above this, had the direct revelation of God. Paul mentions in Romans 3:2 that, to them, the Jews, God had given His oracles. God had revealed Himself to them through His law, through Moses and through the other prophets. He had revealed Himself to them in a very special way, in a very explicit way. But the tragedy was that the Jews were relying on their knowledge of the law and the special position God had given them for their salvation. They looked upon themselves as God's covenant people. They looked upon the Gentiles as sinners. They felt that because God had given them this special position, they were a special people. They felt that because they had the law in this explicit form, they were better than the Gentiles. They felt that these things in and of themselves, made them acceptable to God but they were ignorant of the fact that these things did not make them special people before God. Now, what was the problem of the Jews? Where did they go wrong? Their history has been recorded for our benefit and we ask, “Can we learn lessons from their mistakes?” The answer is, “Yes.” We read in 1 Corinthians 10:11 that Paul says that whatsoever happened to them was recorded in Scripture for our benefit upon whom the ends of the world are come. We believe we are living in the last days. All around us there is evidence that this world cannot last much longer. Now, what was their problem? What were they ignorant about? There are three areas: 1. First, the Jews were ignorant about the fact that the mere possession of the law, the truth, and the mere knowledge of God's revealed will, did not in and of itself make them righteous and acceptable towards God. The fact that we know the law of God does not improve our situation. If we break the law of a country, are brought before the judge and we say to him, “Why are you accusing me? I know the law,” the judge will say, “The fact that you know the law puts you in a worse position because you knew better than the person who did not have the knowledge of the law.” The Jews' knowledge of the law did not make them better than the Gentiles. Notice where Paul touches the heart of the problem in Romans 2:13. “For not the hearers of the law are just in the sight of God, but the doers of the law will be justified.” The law does not save men by their knowledge of it, nor even by faith in the law. The law says, “Only when you obey perfectly and continuously can you be saved.” If we want to be saved by the law, it is not enough to say, “I know the law,” or to say that we have the explicit knowledge of the law. We have to perform the law in every detail. Paul repeats the same thing when he discusses the Jewish problem in Romans 10:5. Moses described the righteousness of the law by writing that they who do these things shall live by it. The law comes to us and says, “If you want to live, you must obey me perfectly.” A knowledge of the truth of the law does not save anyone. Unfortunately, this was a tragedy for the Jews, because they thought possessing the law made them better than the Gentiles. They would look at the Gentiles and say, “Oh, these Gentiles. Poor people! They do not know the law of God. They don't even know the true God. We have the truth and they are outside the covenant of God. They are hopelessly lost.” This is how they boasted in Paul's day. Now, let us read Romans 2:17-20. Listen to what Paul has to say to his own fellow men, the Jews. “Indeed, you are called a Jew, and rest on the law, (that is, in the knowledge of the law) and make your boast in God, and know His will, and approve the things that are excellent, being instructed out of the law, and are confident that you yourself are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of babes, having the form of knowledge and truth in the law.” Then, having said that, Paul tells the Jews in verse 21: “You, therefore, who teach another, do you not teach yourself? You who preach that a man should not steal, do you steal? You who say, “Do not commit adultery,” do you commit adultery? Referring to Israel's apostasy in Ezekiel 16:24 and onwards, Paul says in Romans 2:24, “The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.” It is not enough to say that we know the truth or even to say that we know the gospel. The question is, “Has the truth set us free?” It is no use boasting about our knowledge of the law of God because Paul is saying that, while we are boasting, we are doing the same thing as the Gentiles. The law cannot produce righteousness in sinners. The law only demands righteousness. The knowledge of the law will not make us righteous. We human beings are legalists by nature and even these Jews, though they were not openly doing those terrible things that Paul mentions in Romans 1:18-32, they were secretly, in their minds, also enjoying these things. We read in Matthew 23:5 that all the things they did were to show other people how good they were, especially the Pharisees and the scribes. But, inside they were full of rotten bones. They were whitewashed sepulchers. Outwardly, they looked like holy men. The Pharisees of Paul's day had little boxes tied on their foreheads containing Scripture texts. They paraded themselves with those boxes dangling in front of their heads. They looked like unicorns. They were trying to show the people how holy they were. They prayed publicly and gave alms publicly. Paul is saying that it is not enough to simply know the truth. It is not enough to outwardly observe the law. They needed an inward solution to their problem. 2. The second problem was that the Jews felt that keeping the law to the best of their ability or keeping the majority of the law, was sufficient. They failed to heed what James 2:10 says: If we have broken one of these commandments, we have broken them all because the law is a unit. If we fail in one point only, we have come under the condemnation of the whole law. A church elder in Africa once said, “Pastor, I have given up and I have overcome by the grace of God most of my sins and I am living a good life. But there are one or two sins I still cling to. But surely God cannot bring His wrath against me just for one of those sins compared to how much I have overcome and given up.” The response to him is, “Brother, if you are depending on the law for your salvation, if you are depending on your performance, on your good deeds and what you have given up for your salvation and break the law only on one small point, you have failed.” There is an illustration in Matthew 19 where a young man comes to Jesus saying to him, “Good Master (notice he did not say Messiah, but Teacher), what good things must I do to earn eternal life?” Jesus told him that, if he wanted to go to heaven by his good deeds, he had to observe the law. He defined the law in terms of the last six commandments of the moral law which deals with our relationship with our fellow man. Jesus summarized the law, “Thou shalt love they neighbor as thyself.” The young man told Jesus that ever since he was a child he had been keeping this law. What did he lack? This young man was hoping that Jesus would pat him on the back and say, “Keep up the good works.” But Jesus did not do this. Instead He said to the young man, “Can I really test you to see if you are really obeying the law?” Jesus then asked the young man to give his wealth to the poor. In exchange he would receive the wealth of Christ. What an exchange! But this young man went home sorrowfully. The evidence was that he really was not keeping the law. If we break the law on one point, we are lost when we are depending on the law for our salvation because the law is rigid and demands perfect obedience on every point. Now, we need to be careful that we do not misunderstand. Paul is discussing here the law as a method of salvation. When we study Romans 13, we discovered that Paul discusses the law as a standard of Christian living. The fruits of justification by faith is holy living and this holy living is in harmony with the law. But here in Romans 2, Paul is discussing the law as a means of salvation and Paul in other places such as Galatians 3:10 says, “Cursed is the one who does not keep the law to do all the things that the law requires.” The moment we use the law as a method of salvation, the law demands from us perfect obedience. Otherwise we fail. The Jews went wrong because they were ignorant of the fact that they had to keep the law in every detail continuously if they were to be saved by the keeping of the law. 3. This brings us to the third point which is a very important one for us to consider. The Jews were correct; they were experts but only in the letter of the law. They had failed to see what the law demands in terms of the inward man, that is, the spirit of man. Unlike human laws, the law of God does not only require perfect performance, it requires perfect motives. Any act that is done by a man, a good act, motivated by egocentric concerns, is condemned by the law. This is the sin of self righteousness. The Pharisees would stand up and say to the apostles or the people or those they were talking to that they had never murdered anyone. But Jesus said, in Matthew 5:21-24: “You may not have committed the act of murder but if you hate somebody in your heart without a cause, you have murdered that person in the eyes of the law.” Remember at this time when Jesus made this statement, the Jews were planning to get rid of Jesus Christ. So it is not a question of regarding simply the outward performance, the letter of the law. Paul, himself, was a victim of Judaism before his conversion. In Romans 7:7, Paul says, “I had not known sin, but by the law: THOU SHALL NOT COVET. (KJV) Paul was raised as a Pharisee. He was raised with the idea that he had to obey the rules his church had laid down in terms of the law. But now, he discovers, when his eyes were opened that the law demands more than perfect performance. Notice, the commandment Paul quotes in Romans 7:7. The law commanded man, “Thou shalt not covet.” Coveting had nothing to do with an act. God does not only look at the act; He looks at our motives. If we covet someone else's property or wife, even though we may not commit any sin in terms of the act, in the eyes of the law, we have sinned. Anyone who plans to do something good that he may have a star in his crown or that he may show others how good he is, if his motive is wrong, selfish or egocentric, no matter how wonderful the act is, in God's eyes, it is sin. The prophet, in Isaiah 64:6, says, that all our righteousness is filthy rags. God gave the Jews the law which is, in principle, a revelation of His character. Therefore, in order to produce the character of God, they had to have a nature that was in the image of God. But they did not have that because of the Fall. The moment we try to keep the law of God in our own strength, we have to do what the Jews did. We have to take the law of God which is as high as God Himself and reduce it to rules to “do” and “don't” that man can keep. Then they fooled themselves that they were keeping the law. We, as Christians, often do the same thing. The only difference is that, in each country, we have different rules. But any act that is done outwardly with the wrong motive, no matter how good it is, is sin. If we sit in church thinking of how we will transact business for ourselves, we may be physically in the church but our minds, are on business. We are far away from God. This is why the key text for this study is Romans 2:28 and 29: “For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh; but he is a Jew who is one inwardly and circumcision is that of the heart, (a spiritual and not a literal matter) in the Spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not from men but from God.” (NKJV) The Jews were doing many good things so that they would be praised by men but the true Christian is one whose praise is not of men but of God. God reads the mind more than the act. He is the one who is truly keeping the law who, inwardly, is loving his neighbor as himself. This, in and of ourselves, is impossible. We need the gift of God's love, and the Holy Spirit, for this to be a reality. This gift comes to only those who are standing on the platform of justification by faith alone in Jesus Christ. Read what Paul says in Romans 7:6: “But now we (the believers) have been delivered from the law(legalism).” We have been delivered from that system by which we cannot save ourselves under the law. “Having died to what we were held by, so that we should serve in the newness of the spirit and not in the oldness of the letter.” The gospel does produce fruits but legalism is self-righteousness. It is an outward religion and Paul demolishes the platform on which the Jews were standing because they were depending on their law keeping to go to heaven. The Jews were also depending on circumcision. Paul says in Romans 2:25: “For circumcision is indeed profitable if you keep the law; but if you are a breaker of the law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision.” In other words, if we have been circumcised and have failed to keep the law, that circumcision does not help us. If we have made circumcision a way to heaven and want to be accepted by God but we are failing to keep the whole law, which is what “under law” means, then our circumcision is of no value. Today, Paul would demolish the same thing if we were depending on certain things we had done or were doing. For example, the act of baptism by water does not save us. Belonging to a church does not save us. Giving clothes to the poor and food to the hungry in itself does not save us. These things are good if we have a right relationship with Christ. But without this, they are useless. Do not think that because our names are in the books of the Christian church that we are qualified for heaven. Do not think that because our parents are Christians, we qualify for heaven. Neither will our grandparents, being pillars of the church or pioneers of some missionary movement, help us. The Bible makes it very clear that God has no grandchildren. Every believer must accept Jesus Christ personally. It matters not where we have come from or who we are. God is no respector of persons (Acts 10:34). Paul explains to the Jews in Romans 2:14, saying, these Gentiles who do not know the law, by nature do the things contained in the law, have the law in themselves. In other words, there were Gentiles who were closer to God than the Jews. This was devastating to the Jews. If Paul had been there at the time Romans 2:14 to 16 was being read to the Jews, they would have killed him. We read this is what they tried to do. They laid their hands on him and said, “This is the man who is against our people.” Paul is destroying every confidence that men have in themselves, Jew or Gentile because he cannot give the gospel unless he has destroyed this confidence. So, in this section, Paul says we are condemned whether we are Christians or unbelievers, it does not matter. Whether we are doing good works, or are moralists or doing fine Christian works, if we are depending on these for salvation, we have no hope. In our next study, Paul summarizes and concludes the study of the universal sin problem. What we have been covering is a dark, dismal, hopeless picture, both for the Jews and the Gentiles, but Paul is simply preparing us for the good news. May God help us to realize our total depravity so that we may turn to the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. May we see as Paul saw that man's hope is only in Jesus Christ.

By: David Kayumba
Category: My Blog

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Romans Chapter 2 The Wrath of God

Romans Chapter 2 The Wrath of God In our last study, the first in this series of our studies on this tremendous epistle of Paul to the Romans, we considered the theme of this great epistle. Luther described Romans as the clearest gospel of all and in Romans 1:15-17 which was the main topic of our last study, Paul tells his readers that he is now ready to preach this gospel to the Romans in the city that was the metropolis, the center of the then civilized world. Paul added, “I am not ashamed of this gospel for it is the power of God unto salvation.” Having introduced this great theme of the gospel of Jesus Christ to his readers, Paul immediately goes directly into the sin problem. In fact, he deals with the universal and the total sin problem of mankind beginning with Romans 1:18 right up to chapter 3, verse 20. Why such a lengthy passage on the sin problem? The question we must ask is “Why does Paul begin with the sin problem?” The gospel is good news, not for good people but for sinners, not for eighty or ninety or even ninety-nine point nine percent sinners. The gospel is for one hundred percent sinners. Jesus Christ came to save man from sin. He did not come for the righteous. So He first has to convince us that in and of ourselves there is nothing good. Yes, man may be capable of doing many good things but nothing that can save him. God has to convince us that we, in ourselves are helpless, incapable of saving ourselves. He has to destroy in us every confidence in the flesh, (our sinful human nature) because man's only hope is the gospel. But it is hope only for those who recognize that they need a Saviour. It will take us three studies to deal with this issue. But, be warned, that before we deal with this subject, that Paul does paint a dark, dismal picture of the human race to which we belong. It can be discouraging but Paul has some wonderful good news for us beginning with Romans 3:21. He begins his introduction to the gospel with two wonderful words, “But now.” After he has painted this dark, dismal, hopeless picture of mankind, he says, “But now. Do not give up hope. I have good news for you.” The stars shine the brightest on a night that is pitch dark and it is only in the light of our total sinfulness, our total depravity, that the gospel shines gloriously. So please remember, our next two studies, plus this one, are not pleasant ones, but something that we need to understand before we go into the study of the glorious gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. The key statement of this section that we will study, Romans 1:18-32, is verse 18. The rest of the passage, verses 19-32, is simply expounding what Paul has told us in verse 18. “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of man, who hold the truth in unrighteousness.”(KJV) Paul begins discussing our sin problem with the phrase, “the wrath of God.” Whenever we read in the Bible about the wrath of God, it sometimes makes us fearful. But this is because we have a tendency to project human wrath on to God. But when the Bible talks of God's wrath, we must never equate it with human wrath. In fact, James tells us that the wrath of God is unlike any human wrath. Many people today, reading the Old Testament, think of God as a God of vengeance, a God of wrath, waiting to bring fire down upon us because of our sins and because of our enmity with Him. When Paul uses the words “wrath of God,” he is talking about something that is very different from human wrath. He is not talking about such emotional anger or loss of self-control where He lashes out against his enemies. No, in fact, this passage we will study, Romans 1:18-32, is one of the best explanations in all of Scripture concerning this wrath of God. What, then, is God's wrath? In a nutshell, it is His hatred for sin. God hates sin. He hates sin because He loves us. God cannot love us sinners and love sin at the same time because it is sin that kills us. As Paul mentions in Romans 6:23, the wages of sin is death. In 1 Corinthians 15:56, the apostle Paul defines sin as “the sting of death is sin.” Sin is a killer. It kills us. God hates sin because He loves us. John 3:16 says He so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son because whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. Now, there is a problem that we human beings face. We do not know how to separate sin from the sinner. When somebody does something wrong or commits a crime, we shut him up in prison. We ostracize him from society. We condemn him as well as the sin that he has committed. God, on the other hand, makes a distinction between sin and the sinner. It is true that when the sinner refuses to separate himself from his sin, then he suffers the wages of sin. But God loves the sinner and hates the sin that kills us. There is, however, one sin that God cannot forgive. This is the sin of unbelief. If we reject the gift of God, which He gave us at infinite cost to Him, then we are in a position where God cannot save us. Paul tells us that the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of man. There are two important facts regarding this statement. 1. First, we need to emphasize the order in which Paul points his finger at man's problem. Notice that God puts ungodliness first and then in his thinking, unrighteousness follows. To God the important thing is ungodliness and it is this we need to understand, especially in our modern society. The modern approach is that man's real problem is unrighteousness. We read about the terrible things taking place in our cities, in our countries, and we say that man's problem is his unrighteousness. Ungodliness is hardly mentioned. But unrighteousness is the consequences or the fruits of ungodliness. The problem with man is not unrighteousness; it is ungodliness. When man turns his back to God, the result is unrighteousness or sin or crime or whatever term we would like to call it. We need to be aware of this because unfortunately, in the last few decades, nations have gradually begun to turn there backs to God. Ever since the entrance of secular humanism into our society, we have been turning our backs to God. Today we are seeing the results of that. We must realize that it is not possible to solve man's problem of unrighteousness by human effort. The reason is that we are slaves to sin. Today many modern liberal theologians are saying that what we need is dialogue. The world, they say, is torn and divided into all kinds of factions, political, racial. Sin today is regarded by many as a sickness, a disease which needs to be cured by man. Sin, in fact, is sometimes looked upon as the remnant of our animal nature and it is only a question of time as we develop and progress in life that we will get rid of this problem. But all the time, it is man speaking in terms of man, man in relationship to man. But the problem is not here. The problem is man's relationship to God. Paul is saying that God hates, He detests, sin. His wrath from heaven is revealed against all ungodliness and its fruits, unrighteousness of man. Then, having made that statement, notice the second point. 2. Man, because of his sinful state, deliberately wants to suppress the truth of God and His saving activity in Jesus Christ. Romans 1:28 says that man does not like to retain the knowledge of God because he detests God. We will see that the reason man does not like to retain the knowledge of God is because man, in his sinful state, is born egocentric or self-centered. He does not want to accept the fact that, without God, he can do nothing. Man, in other words, does not like to be a beggar. He hates to be given a gift when he cannot repay it. We only have to live in the Third World to be amazed to see how many, while they accept foreign aid from the developed countries of the world, hate the ones who give them that aid. Many Americans who travel overseas wonder why these people, whom their country has helped, hate them. It is because we are revealing to them that they are beggars, incapable of returning our favor to them. Now we will see how Paul explains this situation. How is the ungodliness of man revealed from heaven? In Romans 1:21 onwards, Paul says it was revealed through the history of the Old Testament. We will notice that, ever since the Fall of man, it has been man's tendency to run away from God. Before Adam and Eve sinned, they were happy and welcomed God's presence. But the moment they sinned, the first time God came to see them after their Fall, they hid from God. Paul tells us in Romans 1:19 “because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God had shewed it unto them.”(KJV) If man doesn't have a knowledge of God, it is not because of his ignorance. It is because he has deliberately pushed God out of the picture. Man, Paul says, began with a knowledge of God. If they have failed to know God, it is not because God did not reveal Himself to them. In Romans 1:20, we read, “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 (the human race) are without excuse.”(NKJV) God has revealed Himself in man and in nature. When Adam and Eve sinned, God's image was not completely obliterated. There was still left in Adam and Eve, in their consciences, a knowledge, a desire to seek after God. But, Paul says, even though He has revealed Himself through nature and through the conscience, man does not want to retain this knowledge in his heart. So, we have many explanations about God and about creation. How can we imagine that this complex, highly refined, highly planned, highly organized world of ours could come about just by chance, by the mixture of gases that suddenly produce light and with the evolutionary urge greatly developed and improved until we became what we are today? If we took some scrap metal, put it in a bag and shake it for a million years or let us say for fifty million years, will that produce a Cadillac? We know very well that all it will do is produce some polished metal that is worthless. The creation of the world is highly organized. We boast of our technology but we can be sure that as the angels look down upon us from heaven, they say, “Wait until they get to heaven and realize what more they still had to learn.” Our knowledge with all our present accomplishments is nothing to what we will learn when we get to heaven. But what does man do when he turns his back to God? The answer is found in Romans 1:21: “Although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful.” Here is a God who is the Giver of all good things and man becomes unthankful. Not only does he refuse to acknowledge God but he becomes ungrateful for what God has accomplished for him. The moment Adam sinned, he had no right to live. The moment Adam sinned, he should have died but God kept him alive because He had a plan of salvation which he had planned before the foundation of the world, Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God. He kept Adam and Eve alive for only one reason. It was that they may turn back to Him and accept the gift of salvation in Jesus Christ. But does man do that? No. Man is unthankful. He is not only ungodly but he is unthankful. Paul continues, in verse 21, that men become futile in their thoughts and their foolish hearts are darkened. When man turns his back to God, all that is left is darkness. The year after a missionary family arrived in Ethiopia, that country experienced the Marxist revolution. What disturbed them was to see how many educated Christians fell for the Marxist philosophy. Yes, they did not like the practice of Communism but they fell for the ideology. They said to themselves, “There must be something attractive about Marxist philosophy.” So they began reading the Communist Manifesto authored by Karl Marx and Frederick Endross. They read Karl Marx's book and began discovering that the essence of Marxism is ungodliness. It is an atheistic philosophy. Karl Marx says that the problem with man is selfishness. He recognized man's selfishness but he called it self alienation. His argument was that the reason man is selfish is not because of his nature but because of his environment. Of course, by environment he meant capitalism. So his gospel was, “Let us change the political and economic environment. Let us force our people to share until it becomes natural.” He suggested that socialism was to confiscate private ownership, the banks, the businesses, then make equal distribution of this wealth. The people in Russia said, “Wonderful!” The people in Ethiopia said, “Wonderful!” Then Karl Marx went on to say that once people had been taught how to share, then it would become spontaneous and natural and man would be redeemed from selfishness. Russia has tried this method. For seventy-five years, they have been forcing their people to share until today they have nothing to share. The problem with man is not his environment but it is that his very nature is sinful so he needs a Redeemer. In Romans 1:22 and 23, Paul says: “Professing to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man—and birds and four footed beasts and creeping things.” Some say that this does not apply to us today, that we are living in a sophisticated world. That may be true but something is creeping into even the Christian churches. It has already crept into many of the churches in Europe. This is liberal theology, the critical, historical method of interpreting Scripture. This is a big term but it simply means that the human mind becomes the ultimate measuring stick of truth. Man must interpret Scripture on the basis of his rationale, on the basis of the scientific method. But, we cannot use the scientific method to interpret the Word of God because this is an inspired word and the Bible is revealing a supernatural God who cannot be measured by the scientific method. It is the Holy Spirit who must enlighten us. But man thinks he has the solution to all his problems. He does not want to retain God in his mind. How does God react to such stubbornness, such infidelity? How is God's wrath revealed from heaven against man's ungodliness? Romans 1:24, 26 and 28 gives us the answer. Verse 24: “Therefore (that is, because man insists on living without Him), God also gave them up.” Verse 26: “For this reason (because man refuses the blessings of God), God gave them up to vile passions.” Verse 28: “And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge (notice man's problem-he does not want to retain God in his knowledge), God gave them over to a debased mind.” God says to mankind, “All right, you think you can live without Me. Try it and see what happens.” The moment we turn our backs to God, the result is unrighteousness. America, which was established on the principle of “In God we trust” which is imprinted on coins, today, is turning its back to God. First, it has stopped young children from praying in schools. Now, there is talk about doing away with the inscription, “In God We Trust.” The result is what we see today, crime and sin rampant in every city and even in the country. A father with a three year old son, was about to go to church when his wife said to him, “Could you please tie his shoelaces?” He went to him but his son would not let him do it. He said, “I can do it,” so he allowed him to do it. The father did not use his authority. He gave him that freedom and after trying and trying, he finally looked up at his father sheepishly and said, “Daddy, you do it.” We are God's children and we cannot live without Him but when man thinks that he can live without God, what does God do? He does not bring fire down upon mankind. He says, “All right. Try to live without Me and see what happens.” America is heading in the direction of living without God. It is about to reach the end of its resources and God patiently allows this wonderful country to go the way it wants to go. Paul was like that himself. He was a Pharisee. He had become quite successful in life. Read about this in Philippians 3:4-6. He was a pure blooded Jew. He was circumcised the eighth day. He was zealous for God. He was blameless regarding the righteousness of the law until God opened his eyes and revealed his sin problem. The question is, “Have we lost confidence in ourselves?” This is why God allows man to live independent of Himself. God allows man to reach the end of his resources. The question is, “Have we reached the end of our resources? Have we realized that our only hope is Jesus Christ and His righteousness?” This is Paul's purpose in describing the sin problem. We do not have to learn it the hard way. The Word of God makes it very clear, “Without Me,” says Jesus, “you can do nothing.” We do not have to go through the process of learning it all over again as Paul's world did. Therefore, may each one of us realize that God's wrath is against all ungodliness of which the fruit is unrighteousness. He wants us to turn back to Him. He wants us to accept Him as the only source of the hope of salvation and of righteousness. Whether it be in terms of our standing before God or whether it be in terms of Christian living, the formula is always the same, “Not I, but Christ.” The “Not I” is the hardest part. This is why Paul spends so much time discussing the sin problem before he introduces us to the gospel. He wants us to be established in the gospel. But before he can do that, we must learn the lesson that, without Christ, we are hopelessly lost. The gospel of Jesus Christ will become, to us, unconditional good news because we have realized that we are total sinners in need of a Redeemer.

By: David Kayumba
Category: My Blog

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Romans Chapter 1 The Clearest Gospel of All

Romans Chapter 1 The Clearest Gospel of All No book or section of Scripture expounds so clearly and so masterfully the plan of salvation and this doctrine of righteousness by faith than Paul's epistle to the Romans. No wonder Luther described the epistle to the Romans as the clearest gospel of all. In fact, it was through his understanding of Romans 1:17 that Luther was delivered from his bondage to legalism and became the great leader of the Protestant Reformation. The same doctrine, which was expounded by Luther, led to the conversion of John Bunyan commonly known in Great Britain as the immortal tinker of Bedford. Most of those in America know him as the author of Pilgrim's Progress. In the same way, it was by listening to the preface of Luther's Commentary to Romans that John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist Church, felt his heart strangely warmed on the evening of the 24th of May, 1738. The result was that it brought about the birth of the great and tremendous revival in Great Britain during the 18th century. There are other examples but Romans has been the basis of most of the revivals in the history of the Christian church. The question is, “What makes Paul's epistle to the Romans so special?” There are at least two reasons. One is a general reason and the other one more specific. We will begin with Acts 9 for here we have the wonderful account of how one of the great persecutors of the Christian church, on his way to Damuscus to persecute the Christians there, found Jesus Christ. Not too long after, God appeared to Ananias and told him that he had to go to the street called Strait and meet this young man, bless him, baptize him and open his eyes. This is found in Acts 9:1-12. Ananias thought that God had made a mistake for here was the great persecutor of the early Christian church. But notice how God responds to Ananias in Acts 9:15: “But the Lord said unto him, Go, for he is a chosen vessel of Mine to bear My name before Gentiles, kings, and the children of Israel.” (NKJV) We are told that, after Paul was given his vision back and was baptized by Ananias, he immediately proclaimed Jesus Christ saying, “He is the Son of God.” When Christ came to this world two thousand years ago, He came that there might be a gospel to be preached. But it was Paul that God chose to be the instrument to expound the unconditional good news of salvation which He obtained, to the whole world, in Jesus Christ. With this in mind, we will turn to the book of Romans which we will now study. Notice in Romans 1:1 how Paul introduces this epistle to the Christians at Rome: “Paul, a servant (the Greek means slave) of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God.” (KJV) Paul was the theologian of the New Testament. Almost half of the New Testament is Paul's writings. In fact, the Christian Church would be at a terrible loss if we did not have his writings. The first reason Romans is so special to every Christian is because Paul was God's chosen vessel to expound the gospel to the world. But the second and most specific reason for considering the study of Romans as the clearest gospel of all is that, unlike any other epistle Paul wrote whether to the churches or to individuals, this is the only letter that he wrote to a body of Christians whom he had not established or whom he had not seen except for a few who had known him previously. When Paul wrote his epistle to the Corinthians or the Ephesians or the Philippians or to individuals like Titus or Timothy, he was writing to people to whom he had already proclaimed and expounded the gospel verbally. But in the book of Romans, he was writing to a group of people he had never met before apart from a few individuals. In Romans, Paul expounds the full message of the gospel which he would have done if he had been there speaking to them verbally. In Romans 1:11, Paul says that the purpose of writing this letter and the purpose of his desire to visit Rome was that he, Paul, might impart to the Roman Christians some spiritual gift to the end that they may be established. If there is ever a time that Christians need to be established in the truth of the gospel, it is now. Then in Romans 1:13 Paul says, “Now I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that I often planned to come to you (but was hindered until now).” (NKJV) He continues telling why he was hindered in Romans 15:22 and 23. God told him that he was not to go to Rome until he had entered every unentered area in the Middle East. Now, having done that, he was ready to come to Rome. But God had another reason why Paul wrote this letter to the Romans. He had us in mind because if Paul did not write this message of the gospel in clear distinct tones which he did to the Christians at Rome, we, then, would not have had Paul's full message in a written form. But because he had not yet been to Rome, he was writing to a people he had not yet seen. He is expounding the gospel in all its clarity so that it came to us in the Word of God. Therefore, Luther was right when he defines Romans as the clearest gospel of all. We may, therefore, conclude that the main reason Paul wrote this rather lengthy letter to the Christians in Rome was to establish them. We will spend thirty-two studies going step by step through this epistle so that we may discover in this epistle what Paul is telling us about the whole plan of salvation. The great theme of this book of Romans is expressed in Romans 1:15-17. Let us look at this passage. Paul has already told the Roman Christians that he wants to come to Rome and then in verse 14, he tells them that he is a debtor, both to the Greeks and to the barbarians, both to the wise and to the unwise. He wants to preach this gospel to everyone in Rome, to the captain as well as to the slave. Rome, of course, was regarded as the capital of the world in those days and Paul is saying to these Roman Christians in verse 15: “As much as is in me (with every ability that I have) I would like to come to Rome and preach this gospel to those who are residing there.” He is saying that he has preached this already in the Middle East and now, having finished his work there, he wants to come to Rome. This epistle is to prepare them for that trip. Paul makes this tremendous statement, his introduction to his epistle and his gospel in Romans 1:16: “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 (that is, the Gentile).” It was quite customary in Paul's day, when they wanted to make an emphasis, to put things in the negative. Paul uses the negative in verse sixteen to emphasize the positive. If Paul was living today, he would have put the whole thing in the positive for that is how the Western mind would understand it. He would probably have said, “I am absolutely and completely excited and would like to know nothing among you except the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I have nothing else to proclaim except this message.” Paul is saying that he is not ashamed of the gospel even though the Romans looked on the Christians as third class citizens. The Romans had a class distinction. They considered themselves first class citizens. They were the rulers of the world as it was known in those days. They looked upon the Jews as second class citizens but Christians, both Jews and Gentiles, were looked upon as third class citizens because these citizens were worshipping a man who was crucified on a Roman cross which to them was a symbol of shame and degradation. Understand clearly that Rome was a proud city. All kinds of philosophies were being proclaimed in it. It boasted of military power, architectural power and economic power. But Paul is saying he wants to come to Rome, not because he has another human blueprint that he had invented but to bring the gospel of which he is not ashamed. The reason he is not ashamed is because it is not man's but God's power unto salvation. Rome, with all its pride, all its accomplishments, had failed to do one thing. It had failed miserably to conquer sin. In fact, it was sin that eventually brought the downfall of that great empire. Paul says he wants to make this power available to those who are in Rome. Ashamed of it? Why should he be? It is the only power that can save man. As long as we accept salvation and believe, whether Jews or Gentiles, we have the power of God who is able to save both the wise and the unwise, the rich and the poor, the noble and the slave. It does not matter to which class we belong or to which category we belong. It does not matter in which time of the world's history we are living, whether in the first century of this Christian era or the twenty-first century because man is a slave to sin and the only power that can liberate him from sin is the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. According to the New Testament, it is God who takes the initiative for our salvation. This is why, having announced his ultimate confidence in Romans 1:17, Paul defines the gospel as the righteousness of God. By this, Paul means that the gospel is a righteousness planned by God. Second, it is a righteousness prepared by God and finally, it is a righteousness made available to mankind by God Himself. Man has made no contribution to this salvation. Therefore, it is unconditional good news. In Romans 5, we will discover that while we were helpless, incapable of saving ourselves, while we were ungodly, while we were still sinners and worse still, while we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son. God took the initiative and our salvation in Jesus Christ is a salvation that comes entirely from God based on His unconditional love for mankind. God so loved the world, we are told in John 3:16, that He gave us His only begotten Son, that whoever believes should not perish but have everlasting life. The commission God gave to Paul was to preach this to the world. This is the commission we have, today, to go into all the world and preach the gospel. Paul, in this book of Romans, presents the unconditional good news of salvation that God prepared in Jesus Christ for all man. This, of course, is the grand theme of the whole Bible, Old and New Testament alike. But in no place is this message of salvation set forth so clearly and explained so masterfully as in the epistle to the Romans. In this book, the apostle Paul unfolds for us the whole counsel of God. He presents to us our sin problem which we will study later on. The gospel is God's solution to our sinful condition. But before he presents the gospel, Paul must convince us that we are sinners, one hundred percent sinners, in need of a Saviour. Then, salvation is described by Paul as the truth as it is in Christ, His birth, His life, His death and His resurrection. Christ is our Righteousness. He came to this world as our Representative, as our Substitute and as our Surety. Paul goes on to describe, in this book of Romans, our human response because the righteousness of Christ has to be made effective. And it is made effective by faith alone. He describes faith in Jesus Christ as the basis of making that salvation effective in our lives. Then, Paul continues, describing in the book of Romans, the work of the Holy Spirit in our sanctification. God has not left us on our own. As Christians, having accepted Jesus Christ, He gives us His Holy Spirit so that we may experience the power of the gospel in our personal lives. Finally, in the concluding chapters of the book of Romans, Paul expounds the practical application of the gospel in daily Christian living. The gospel, when applied to sinful human beings, is defined as righteousness or justification by faith. The just shall live by faith and, having been justified by faith, the question is, “How shall we live”? Paul, in Romans 12 to 16, is describing practical Christian living or Christian ethics. Everything we need in the plan of salvation is found in this book of Romans. We must confess it is a difficult book, not because Paul wrote this for scholars, but because Paul wrote it to a people living in his day whose mind-set was so different from people, living today in the twenty-first century. The purpose of this book is to bridge that gap between Paul's day and ours so that the gospel of Jesus Christ, as expounded by Paul in this epistle to the Romans, may come to us as the clearest gospel of all. We will study this book in detail because here we have the most extended treatment of the entire range of Scripture on this crucial doctrine of justification or righteousness by faith. The devil does not want this message to be clearly understood by Christians today. He wants us to believe that “we” have to “do” something in order to attain salvation. He trapped the Galatians into this mixed, confused idea of salvation. He wants to do the same thing with us. For this reason, it is important for us to understand this message of righteousness by faith. It was this message that turned one man's ministry around. Five years of his ministry was in legalism, trying to work his way to heaven. He became so discouraged that at the end of the five years, He was willing to give it all up. But then, God stepped in and turned him around as He opened to his mind this wonderful message of salvation by grace alone through faith in Jesus Christ. Now, he enjoys preaching from the pulpit even though, by nature, he is an introvert. We need to share this message so that we may know this truth. Let us briefly, in concluding, hear what Paul is telling us in this whole epistle. There are four major parts into which we can divide this book . This doctrine of justification by faith is a truth that tells us that God has already unconditionally, redeemed all mankind in the holy history of His Son Jesus Christ so that, lawfully or legally or forensically, all humanity has been reconciled to God and stands justified before a holy God. Paul brings this out in Romans 5:18. This is the unconditional good news of salvation. Paul tells us, in Ephesians 1:3, we have been blessed with every spiritual blessing in heavenly places in Jesus Christ. This is what Paul will expound in Romans. Secondly, Paul then tells us that this legal, forensic justification, while it does apply to all men, has to be made effective. All mankind will not go to heaven, not because Jesus has not redeemed us, but because God has created mankind with a free will. He will not force this salvation on any human being. This justification, which He obtained for all men, has to be made effective. It is not done by going on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, not by doing some good works or not by keeping the law. It is made effective by faith alone. The gospel and our human response, put together, sums up the doctrine of justification by faith alone. Luther's greatest discovery, Justification made effective by faith alone, turned Europe upside down as he proclaimed it in Germany and the rest of Europe. The third point is that Justification by faith does not stop at giving us peace and assurance of salvation. Yes, it does that. Thank God for it but it goes beyond that. It further teaches that, because we have become children of God, He sends His Holy Spirit to indwell the believer so that we may become partakers of the divine nature. Through this indwelling power, we may escape the corruption that is in the world. What is this corruption? If we turn to 1 John 2:16, we will notice how Paul defines this corruption. He says it is the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life. These are three basic drives that control the sinful man. Paul tells us that, through the indwelling Spirit, we may escape this corruption. We may live a life that is pleasing to Him. Remember what Jesus said in John 15:4. Jesus reminded His disciples, “Abide in me and I in you.” He is talking to born again Christians, to His disciples who had already accepted Him as the Messiah. This statement is also applied to us who have accepted Him. Jesus tells us, “Without Me you can do nothing, but, if you abide in Me and I in you, you will bear much fruit and My Father will be pleased.” Again, in Matthew 5:14, Jesus, addressing the disciples by the Sea of Galilee in the Sermon on the Mount, makes this statement: “You (Christians) are the light of the world.” The word “light” in the original Greek text is in the singular but the word “you” is in the plural. The English translation does not bring this out. Jesus is saying that we Christians who are many are but one light and that light is “Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Colossians 1:27). When Jesus came into this world, He came to bring light into darkness. Jesus is no longer here today. He is in heaven but His body, the church, the called out people, are still living on this earth. Jesus said, “You are My representatives. You are to be the instrument through which I am going to shine.” Then, in Matthew 5:16, Jesus said, “Let this light shine so that men may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.” This is the final purpose of the gospel. But there is a fourth point which must be added. Even though we have accepted Christ, even though we stand justified, even though we are perfect in Christ, even though we are born again Christians, our nature is still sinful and will remain until the Second Coming of Christ. Paul does bring out in Romans the wonderful news that one day Christ will come and He will redeem us from the corruption that we inherited through the Fall. One day, we will know the power of the gospel in its fullness. Until then may God help us to know this truth as we study this excellent book, the epistle to the Romans, the clearest gospel of all.

By: David Kayumba
Category: My Blog

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