The Need in ROMANS 1

By Michael Griego on January 26, 2024 • ( 0 )

To some, the 1st chapter of Romans is controversial for its clear commentary on homosexuality. What’s also clear is a view of the deity of Jesus and an understanding of the surprising way God looks at our sin. ◊

Even in modern days, Jesus makes many people feel uncomfortable. Many give Him token approval as a good man or teacher, but nothing more that that.

That’s why ROMANS chapter 1 is such a difficult text for many to deal with. Right away, the Apostle Paul, the writer of this significant letter to the newly minted Christ-followers (Christians) living in the city of Rome, presents Jesus in an undisputed light as someone way more than a mere good man and teacher.

Paul equates Jesus with God.

His opening lines speak to an audience of both Jewish and Gentile (not-Jewish) Christians of the prediction and promises in the Old Testament Scriptures, the historical descendancy from the Jewish line of David, and the power of God’s Holy Spirit on Jesus manifested in His resurrection from the dead after His crucifixion:

Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God— the gospel He promised beforehand through His prophets in the Holy Scriptures regarding His Son, who as to his earthly life was a descendant of David, and who through the Spirit of holiness was appointed the Son of God in power by His resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord. (Romans 1:1-5)

Paul notes that he and fellow Jews, having received grace, authority, and calling by Christ, through faith, are to call themselves and Gentiles into right obedience with God, the Father of all and the Lord Jesus Christ, who loves them and considers them all His holy people.

The deity of Christ is firmly established – He is no mere man.

Through him we received grace and apostleship to call all the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith for his name’s sake. And you also are among those Gentiles who are called to belong to Jesus Christ. To all in Rome who are loved by God and called to be his holy people: Grace and peace to you from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. (Romans 1:6-7)

Paul’s Overarching Theme
It is believed that Paul wrote this letter in AD 57 while staying over in Corinth, a city near Athens, Greece. In Chapter 1, Paul expresses his thankfulness for these early Roman Christians, his prayers for them, and that he longs to visit them, strengthen, encourage, and preach the gospel:

First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is being reported all over the world. God, whom I serve in my spirit in preaching the gospel of his Son, is my witness how constantly I remember you in my prayers at all times; and I pray that now at last by God’s will the way may be opened for me to come to you. I long to see you so that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to make you strong — that is, that you and I may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith…. (Romans 1:8-12)

He then states his obligation and eagerness to preach the gospel to the wise and the foolish; and that he is not ashamed to preach the gospel of Christian faith through which the righteousness of God is revealed to all.

I am obligated both to Greeks and non-Greeks, both to the wise and the foolish. That is why I am so eager to preach the gospel also to you who are in Rome. For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile. For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed—a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.” (Romans 1:13-17)

A Sinful World’s Need for God
Then Paul writes boldly and without apology about sinful humanity and God’s reaction. God’s wrath is against godless and wicked people, particularly those that cover the truth. They are without excuse because God’s eternal power and divinity have always been on display through the observation of the clearly created world around them:

The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—His eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse. (Romans 1:18-20)

Nevertheless, some thankless people with dark and foolish hearts, disregarded God. Thinking themselves wise, they were but fools glorifying mortal images, birds, animals, and reptiles.

For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to Him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles. (Romans 1:21-23)

But God simply lets them do what they wish. He gave them over to their sinful desires and to indecent, degrading sexual impurity.¹ These people exchanged truth for a lie and worshiped the created rather than the Creator:

Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen. (Romans 1:24-25)

God therefore gave them over to shameful lusts. Both women and men engaged in homosexuality, abandoning God’s natural ways and committing indecent and shameful acts with the same sex.²

Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error. (Romans 1:26-27)

Beyond that, God gave them over to a depraved (corrupted, degenerate) mind and they became filled with all kinds of wickedness and evil. Though they should have known better, they continued to these things willingly and encouraged others as well:

Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy. Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them. (Romans 1:28-32)

Sin Summary
While Christianity is about faith in God and belief in what He has created. It’s also about how one responds in obedience to God’s natural and moral law which has been clearly presented in the Scriptures.

A sinful world really has no excuse, hence the need for God.

Yet God gives us room to decide for ourselves. We have full freedom to believe the Creator or not. He gives us over to ourselves and our own behavior, even shameful actions.

That’s not to say there are not consequences for our behavior. But it’s our choice.

We’ll see in coming chapters in the Book of Romans that both Gentiles and Jews have a sin and guilt problem with God. Therefore, the whole world has a problem. What should be clear to all is ignored and disregarded by many. But there is hope for a guilty world through a Holy God whose righteousness is available to all, through faith.

No one should be ashamed of that.

Do you understand man’s need for God? Your own need for God?
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For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed—a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.” – Romans 1:17

¹Note: “Indecent acts” refer to sodomy, for which Sodom had become noted (Genesis 19:5). God strictly forbade this practice (Deuteronomy 23:17). Typically, this act took place in connection with heathen worship and its presence was a sign of departure from the Lord (1 Kings 14:24). Both King Asa (1 Kings 15:12) and King Jehoshaphat took measures against this sin (1 Kings 22:46), but its practice continued; until in the days of King Josiah it was being practiced even in the Lord’s house (2 Kings 23:7), in The Archaeological Study Bible, Zondervan, Grand Rapids, MI, 2005, p, 1835.

²Ibid., p. 1836. Homosexuality in the Ancient World, Cultural and Historical Notes. While homosexuality was common in the Greek world, the Jews regarded this behavior as depraved and wrong, a view founded upon Biblical texts (Leviticus 18:22). Even Plato later observed that homosexual intercourse was widely recognized to be unnatural. Widespread homosexuality remains irrefutable proof that a culture stands under divine judgment.