Lesson 6: Romans 2:1 – 11

  2 Therefore you have no excuse, O man, every one of you who judges. For in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, practice the very same things. ² We know that the judgment of God rightly falls on those who do such things. ³ Do you suppose, O man-you who judge those who do such things and yet do them yourself-that you will escape the judgment of God? ⁴ Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? ⁵ But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed.

⁶ He will render to each one according to his works: ⁷ to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life; ⁸ but for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury. ⁹ There will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek, ¹⁰ but glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good, the Jew first and also the Greek. ¹¹ For God shows no partiality.  

We have seen in the previous chapter that God has given all men a revelation of Himself and some of His attributes through the creation of nature.  We have also seen what men do with this knowledge of God.  They suppress it and substitute the worship and honoring of God with the worship and honoring of idols, which dishonors God.  God is pouring out His wrath, his righteous anger and punishment, on mankind who suppress the truth.  Man would rather not be subject and held accountable to a God that will actually demand righteousness from His subjects.  Man sees the righteous and holy God and prefers to have gods that are less intrusive, less demanding, and quite frankly, easier to control than the Almighty God.  Because of man’s dishonoring of God, God gives them over to their own desires, and man spirals downward into dishonorable, unnatural, and depraved actions and thinking. 

Pastor Donald Barnhouse states in his commentary on Romans that we need to go from the fact “that all men are sinners to the terrible consequences of that fact.  We must see that the inevitable result of our sinfulness is the certainty of God’s judgment upon all unrighteousness.”[1] When we know that judgment and condemnation follow from sin, then and only then will we as human beings be brought to the tremendous realization that we need a Savior, and must run to him if we are to avoid God’s coming wrath. 

However, there are some people who undoubtedly will say that, “I am not like that!  I am a good person.  I do what is right, and I live a good life.”  In fact, these people probably criticize and correct others based on their own sense of morality.  They may or may not know God, but nonetheless see themselves as obeying the law of their conscience and expecting everyone else to do the same.  These next two lessons in chapter 2 of Romans address these particular righteous moralists.  These people include both Jews and Gentiles who see themselves as superior to other people.  Paul understands that some people will look at those in chapter 1 and know that they are better than that.  The first chapter of Romans was the definite statement that all men were without excuse because God had written His truth and knowledge throughout the splendor of His creation.  In the first half of the second chapter Paul will show us that we are also without excuse because God has written His truth and knowledge on the conscience of all mankind. 

Theological Terms Everyone Should Know: Redemption

 How often do we use the terms redemption, atonement, grace, and salvation when talking about Christian things?  Yet how many of us can sit down and explain each one of them in a way that would be understandable to a new Christian or an unbeliever?  Over the next several months, as time and inspiration permit, I would like to explore some of these terms in such a way so that we can all understand them, be able to explain them, and really appreciate them as representations of our faith.  The more we know about God, the closer we will draw to Him, and love Him for who He is.  Comments are always welcome, especially if my feeble mind fails to explain something clearly or correctly!

The word redemption comes from the Greek word agorazo and means “to purchase in the marketplace.” Frequently it had to do with the sale of slaves in the marketplace. The word is used to describe the believer being purchased out of the slavemarket of sin and set free from sin’s bondage. The word presupposes slavery; it also presupposes sin.  The purchase price for the believer’s freedom and release from sin was the death of Jesus Christ. Because the believer has been bought by Christ, he belongs to Christ and is Christ’s slave. Paul Enns in his Moody’s Handbook of Theology states, “The redeemed are paradoxically slaves, the slaves of God, for they were bought with a price….Believers are not brought by Christ into a liberty of selfish ease. Rather, since they have been bought by God at terrible cost, they have become God’s slaves, to do His will.”

A second word related to the believer’s redemption is exagorazo, which teaches that Christ redeemed believers from the curse and bondage of the law that only condemned and could not save. Believers have been purchased in the slave market (-agorazo) and removed from (ex-) the slave market altogether. Christ set believers free from bondage to the law and from its condemnation (Gal. 3:13; 4:5). Enns states, “A curse rests on everyone who does not fulfill the law; Christ died in such a way as to bear or be a curse; we who should have been accursed now go free…(moreover, this is) a legally based freedom.”

A third term that is used to explain redemption is lutroo which means “to obtain release by the payment of a price.” The idea of being set free by payment of a ransom is prevalent in this word, in such passages as Luke 24:21. Believers have been redeemed by the precious blood of Christ (1 Pet. 1:18) to be a special possession for God (Titus 2:14).

Now let’s notice a few things here.  Redemption assumes slavery.  You can’t be redeemed if you are not a slave.  As a slave to sin, you are the property of sin.  It owns you.  You sin because it is in you and that is your nature.  A slave is helpless; they have no means by which to remove themselves out of their slavery.  A slave can’t free themselves no matter how hard they try.  They need someone to free them.  It is hard for us as 21^st century Americans to imagine slavery, and being owned by someone, even despite our history and skin color, because we have generally all lived in this country for so long that we become accustomed to the laws and rights we usually take for granted that protect us from such a condition. 

Because of our sin, we were under the sentence of death.  We were helpless to save ourselves.  God’s righteousness demanded that the debt of our sin must be paid if we were to return to the land of the living. We were without hope apart from a Redeemer.  But God provided a substitute to die in our place.  Through the blood of that innocent substitute, we were spared.  And now we belong to God.  He has paid the price of redemption for us.

The result of redemption is that we are free.  Redemption, by its very nature, is a very liberating doctrine.  We don’t need to ever feel guilty again.  And we don’t need to play the “holier than thou” game.  God doesn’t grade on the curve.  He has already graded on the cross.

Romans Lesson 5: Romans 1:24 – 32

²⁴ Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, ²⁵ because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.

²⁶ For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; ²⁷ and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.

²⁸ And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. ²⁹ They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, ³⁰ slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, ³¹ foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. ³² Though they know God’s decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.

            We observed in the last section that God has provided an abundance of evidence to make it clear to us as human beings that God exists. Moreover, God not only has provided the evidence through His creation, He has made the knowledge and its message plain to mankind so that we understand it.  Yet mankind refuses to acknowledge God; in fact, mankind suppresses, or “incarcerates” the truth about God through wickedness.  Instead of worshipping and honoring God, mankind instead honors and worships idols.  Man becomes foolish, disregarding the fact of God while bragging about how smart man has become without God.  Despite all of the evidence that leads to the existence of God, that God himself has provided and made clear to us, man creates other more comfortable gods.  Therefore, man has no excuse when faced with judgment on the last day.  No man will be able to stand before God and say, “I didn’t know,” or “If I had had just a little more information, I would have believed in you.”  God has made it clear to man that He is the Creator God, so man has no excuse for not believing. 

In this next section, Paul continues his analysis of the human condition in sin and willful disobedience of man towards God.  Up to this point, we have seen what man has done with God.  Man 1) suppresses the truth of God, 2) man refuses to honor and worship God as He deserves, and 3) man refuses to be thankful.  In this next section of Romans 1, Paul demonstrates what happens when man refuses to acknowledge God and instead creates for himself gods that satisfy man’s desire and longing for his creator. These gods are much more comfortable than a Creator God whose holiness stands in stark contrast to the sin of man, and who holds man accountable for his actions and beliefs.  Paul begins this section with the word, “Therefore.”  Paul wants to us to consider what he has stated about mankind in the preceding verses, because what is coming up next is a direct result of man’s activities in verses 18 – 23.  God is not arbitrary, but His punishments are just and purposeful. 

God’s Enduring Love: Hosea

 Remember Anna Nicole Smith?  I remember reading this online at Yahoo.Anybody who arrived from Mars and wanted to know what all the fuss was over this Anna Nicole Smith would do well to watch just one clip: her appearance at the 2004 American Music Awards. Prancing onstage in a tight-fitting black gown – she grabbed your attention. Her looks were outlandish, but there was beauty beneath the excess.

And then she spoke. “Like my body?” she asked, tracing her fingers over her breasts. Her slurred words spilled out dangerously. She was clearly very high on something, and you wondered if she would survive, literally.

It was hard to watch. And, of course, harder not to.

Her strange life seemed to veer from one outsized struggle to another. She struggled famously with her weight and with her family. She sometimes even struggled to speak without slurring. She had a TV show that could be so embarrassing you’d want to watch it with dark sunglasses on. Much more tragically, she lost her 20-year-old son. Five months ago she had a baby daughter and now two men claim to be the father.

In other words, she was a perfect pop culture icon. [1]

I really feel for Anna Nicole Smith.  Not only because she was dysfunctional.  Not only because she was addicted to drugs or alcohol, or she had a hard life.  Many people have those in one form or another, perhaps not at the same level as she did.  I feel for her because she was ultimately distracted, and wanted so much to be satisfied in life. To live life large.  She thought fame, fortune, drugs, alcohol, sex, her gorgeous body and her pretty face, her rich husband, her TV show, kids – having a family she never had… She thought those things would make her happy and satisfied.  She was distracted from real and lasting happiness.  She placed her trust in pop culture, and it killed her. 

Jonah, More than a Fish Story

 We just finished my series on Ruth, and I hope that everyone got as much as I did out of it.  While most people think that Ruth doesn’t have near as much substance or content as, say, an Isaiah or Romans, and they are right, this little book does have a wealth of good stuff about God, His relationships with human beings, and His provision through hardship and suffering. My next Old Testament project will be Jonah.  Again, this book is very short, only four chapters, but is stuffed full of content about God, rebellion against God, and God’s mercy to men from all nations and places. 

My outline will be roughly:

1:1-3      Running from the Lord

1:4-16    When God grabs you

1:17        The Sign of Jonah

2:1-10    Repentance

3:1-10    Obedience and its effect

4:1-11    Compassion contrasted

There are several themes in this study that will come out as we make our way through this little book.  One is the compassion shown by Jonah and by God, or better yet compassion as contrasted by God and Jonah.  Jonah runs from God because he lacks compassion for the Gentiles, fearing that they might repent and God will show compassion on them instead of Israel.  Jonah lacks compassion for the sailors in chapter 1, even though they wind up fearing the Lord at the end of the chapter.  Jonah has no compassion on the Ninevites, yet God moves and he witnesses one of the most dramatic times of repentance recorded.  In contrast with Jonah, God is shown as the one that shows His compassion on both the Israelites and the Gentiles, for all nations of the world.  God even has compassion on His rebellious prophet.    

Another theme is God’s sovereignty.  Despite his best efforts, Jonah cannot run from God.  God shows Jonah He is the creator God by controlling creation (the wind and the seas), creatures (the big fish and the big plant), and events (Jonah does go to Nineveh).  No one or nothing is outside the sovereign control of Yahweh. 

Resources:

Some resources that you may want to check out that I have used in preparation for this project. 

Sermon series by Arturo Azurdia:  http://www.spiritempoweredpreaching.com/sermons.htm

Jonah, by Hugh Martin, Geneva Commentary series.

The Minor Prophets, volume 1, by James Montgomery Boice.

The Message of Jonah, by Rosemary Dixon.

Obadiah, Jonah, Micah (Tyndale Commentaries), by Desmond Alexander.

Hosea-Jonah (Word Biblical Commentary), by Douglas Stuart.

Jonah: A Study in Compassion, by O. Palmer Robertson. 

Salvation Through Judgment and Mercy: The Gospel According to Jonah, by Bryan Estelle.

There are other commentaries and books, but these are some of the main ones.  There are number of great sermons on Jonah from many of the Puritan writers as well as Charles Spurgeon. 

Book Review: God and Evil: The Problem Solved by Gordon H. Clark

Gordon Clark’s book God and Evil: The Problem Solved, is really an essay he wrote for a British journal and published later in his book Religion, Reason, and Revelation.  It has recently been republished as a stand-alone booklet.  The central issue which Clark addresses is the age-old question, If God is all-good, and if God is all-powerful, then why are sin and suffering in the world?  In other words, how can the existence of God be harmonized with the existence of evil?  Clark analyzes the historical answers to this dilemma, and comes to a conclusion using logic and Scripture.  Clark’s answer to this situation does not deny any of the Scriptural characteristics of God as held by historic and orthodox Christianity. 

Historically, Clark argues that most of the answers to this dilemma center around the proposition that if God is good and wants to eliminate sin, but cannot, He is not omnipotent.  If he is omnipotent, and can eliminate sin, but doesn’t, then He is not good.  Therefore, God cannot be both omnipotent and good at the same time.  Some religions pose the theory that the universe must be the work of two independent, conflicting deities.  Some pose that God is not the cause of everything, but only some things.  Some pose that evil is not really real, but metaphysical, and so since it is not real, then God is not the cause of evil.  However, historically, the answer to this question has generally entailed a limited deity.  At some point, God is not the omnipotent and omniscient being that is clearly defined in the Bible. 

Lesson 4: Romans 1:18 – 23

 ^{Romans 1:18 – 23}

¹⁸ For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. ¹⁹ For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. ²⁰ For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. ²¹ For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. ²² Claiming to be wise, they became fools, ²³ and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.

            The previous 17 verses were Paul’s introduction to his letter to the Romans.  He introduced the gospel, described the fact that Jesus was both God and man, and proclaimed in verses 16 and 17 that the gospel was the power leading to salvation for all nations and races (Jews and Gentiles), and that in this gospel the righteousness from God was revealed by faith, and that those that are saved by this gospel live by faith.  Paul’s introduction, however, begs the question, why do we as human beings need this salvation?  Why did Jesus have to come in the first place, and why did He have to die?  Why is this message “good news?”  In the next several chapters, from Romans 1:18 through Romans 3:26, Paul explains the human condition.  In meticulous detail, Paul makes it abundantly clear that regardless of who you are or where you come from, all human beings are sinful creatures.  We all sin by nature, are separated from God, and are destined for divine judgment.  In order for Paul to fully explain the gospel and all of its glory, Paul must first explain sin. 

            In verse 17, Paul described a righteousness from God that is revealed by faith, from faith.  However, in verse 18, Paul begins a description of the human condition that is disgusting.  Contrasting verse 17, in verse 18 Paul explains the wrath of God is being revealed.  The wrath of God is something that is not normally discussed much any more, but it is a key doctrine in the study of God and in this study of Romans.  A quick search of the word “wrath” and its various Hebrew forms in the Old Testament results in about 200 hits, and about 50 hits in the New Testament for the Greek forms.  Boice states that there are over 20 words in the Old Testament for wrath, and nearly 600 passages on the subject.[1]  The word translated “wrath” in Romans 1:18 is the Greek word orge, the word from which we get our word orgy.  It means strong displeasure or strong indignation directed at wrongdoing, with a focus on retribution.[2]  The word orge in the New Testament is used almost exclusively with God as the subject or possessive, meaning God’s wrath.  But God’s wrath is not the same as human anger.  John Murray describes wrath as “the holy revulsion of God’s being against that which is the contradiction of his holiness.”[3]  Wrath is God’s reaction to that which is not holy.  It is not a flare up or an instance of God losing control and getting angry in a human sense.  It is a strong and steady opposition to sin and all evil, and God’s wrath is a product of His divine and Holy nature.  God must punish sin, and His wrath is His punitive justice. 

What We Think About God Makes a Difference

I was reading the website of a minister who turned to atheism this weekend and noticed some very disturbing things in his story.  First of all, there was so much profanity on the site that it was hard to get through some of the articles.  Now, I have been in the Army and used that language extensively in my younger days, but nonetheless it was difficult to get past the language and the anger and hatred that it portrayed.  My heart went out to this man who had gotten so frustrated with Christianity and God that he “converted” to atheism.  His story is revealing, and it makes me wonder if he is not just acting out the consequences of what many people in this country actually believe. 

The problem is that I don’t believe that this person was actually a regenerate Christian in the first place.  Now, before everyone starts judging me, and I clearly do not even pretend to know someone’s heart, let me clarify what I mean, generally at first, then specifically.  Faith and believe in the New Testament come from the same root word that means “to trust.”  When we trust something or someone, we basically put our confidence in that person or thing.  We are assured and rely on the character, strength, skill, or truth of that person or thing.  We cannot believe or trust in someone, for instance, if we believe falsely about that person.  I would strongly argue that a person is not a Christian if that person believes in doctrine that is clearly not orthodox.  I would argue that a Mormon is not a Christian, despite what some people state.  We do not have to be theologians to be saved, but there are some basic truths that all Christians must believe in order to be saved.  This is critical, because we can be duped into thinking we are saved when we might not be.  Applying this logic to this minister-turned-atheist, from reading his story, it appears that he might have been confused about the nature of God which caused him to be confused, frustrated, and finally misled.  My fear is that he was not a true Christian, despite his being a minister.  It appears that this person simply followed his mistaken beliefs about God to their logical conclusion.  My other fear is that there may be many people who are on this path.  Many people may think they are Christians, but have a completely erroneous view of God.  If they think hard about what they believe, then these views may also lead them to atheism. 

Ruth 4:13-22, Consummation

 Ruth 4:13 – 22 

¹³ So Boaz took Ruth, and she became his wife. And he went in to her, and the Lord gave her conception, and she bore a son. ¹⁴ Then the women said to Naomi, “Blessed be the Lord, who has not left you this day without a redeemer, and may his name be renowned in Israel! ¹⁵ He shall be to you a restorer of life and a nourisher of your old age, for your daughter-in-law who loves you, who is more to you than seven sons, has given birth to him.” ¹⁶ Then Naomi took the child and laid him on her lap and became his nurse. ¹⁷ And the women of the neighborhood gave him a name, saying, “A son has been born to Naomi.” They named him Obed. He was the father of Jesse, the father of David.

The Genealogy of David

¹⁸ Now these are the generations of Perez: Perez fathered Hezron, ¹⁹ Hezron fathered Ram, Ram fathered Amminadab, ²⁰ Amminadab fathered Nahshon, Nahshon fathered Salmon, ²¹ Salmon fathered Boaz, Boaz fathered Obed, ²² Obed fathered Jesse, and Jesse fathered David.

            In the last chapter we saw Boaz deal shrewdly with the unnamed redeemer, with the ability to redeem Ruth and Naomi, legalize the contract, and make a public declaration of his intention to redeem the land and marry Ruth.  In this last section we see the consummation of God’s plan working throughout the entire book of Ruth.  As readers, we are able to get a bird’s eye view of what God has in store for Boaz and Ruth.

            Boaz made Ruth his wife.  Then he “went to her.”  “Boaz went to Ruth” is a typical Biblical euphemism for sexual intercourse between Boaz and Ruth.  Note the order here in these first few sentences.  Boaz made Ruth his wife, then he had intimate sexual relations with her.  A sexual relationship between a man and a woman has been designed by God to be exercised only within the marriage relationship.  Today, we have made sex as strictly a fulfillment of stimulation and pleasure, with little to no deep commitment or relationship.  It has become a superficial act of pure stimulation in which we attempt to selfishly satisfy our own desires and urges.  What modern man and woman has made sex is much to the contrary of what God designed sex to be.  God intended sex to be the consummation of a close and personal relationship within the marriage covenant. 

Killing Sin Daily in our Lives

Listen to John Owen on the consequences of not mortifying (basically, killing) sin daily in our lives.  Classic!

“Let him pretend what he will, he has slight thoughts of sin; at least, of sins of daily infirmity. The root of an unmortified course is the digestion of sin without bitterness in the heart. When a man has confirmed his imagination to such an apprehension of grace and mercy as to be able, without bitterness, to swallow and digest daily sins, that man is at the very brink of turning the grace of God into lasciviousness and being hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. Neither is there a greater evidence of a false and rotten heart in the world than to drive such a trade. To use the blood of Christ, which is given to cleanse us (1 John 1:7; Titus 2:14); the exaltation of Christ, which is to give us repentance (Acts 5:31); the doctrine of grace, which teaches us to deny all ungodliness (Titus 2:11-12), to countenance sin is a rebellion that in the issue will break the bones. At this door have gone out from us most of the professors that have apostatized in the days wherein we live. For a while most of them were under convictions; these kept them unto duties, and brought them to profession; so they “escaped the pollutions that are in the world, through the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ” (2 Pet. 2:20): but having got an acquaintance with the doctrine of the gospel, and being weary of duty, for which they had no principle, they began to countenance themselves in manifold neglects from the doctrine of grace. Now, when once this evil had laid hold of them, they speedily tumbled into perdition.”

John Owen, Of the Mortification of Sin in Believers