Through the Bible - Romans

Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God... concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord... declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead... For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith. (Romans 1)

The letter that has established more believers and sparked more revivals than perhaps any other—and why it had to be written.

The First of the Epistles

When preachers were asked which one book they would choose if they could teach from only a single book of the Bible for the rest of their ministry, 75% said Romans. This is the first of the epistles in our Bible. We've just finished Acts, which is the history of the New Testament, and now we move into the epistles, from Romans through Jude, before we reach Revelation, which is prophecy.

The New Testament is divided much like the Old. The Old Testament had the Pentateuch, the history, the poetry, and the major and minor prophets. The New Testament has the Gospels—Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John—then Acts as history, then the epistles, and finally the prophecy of Revelation. For the next several months we'll be going through the epistles, and most of them, as you'll see, were written by Paul.

Paul, the Author

We met Paul last week in Acts chapter 8. In Acts 1 Jesus said, "You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be witnesses unto me in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the uttermost parts." But the disciples stayed in Jerusalem until Acts 8:1, when "Saul made havoc of the church" and the people were dispersed. Saul came to know the Lord in Acts 9 on the road to Damascus, and his name was converted from Saul to Paul.

This man went on to plant many of the early churches in Asia Minor, Galatia, and Europe. The Lord used him to pen thirteen of the letters of the New Testament. Some believe Paul wrote Hebrews as well, but we'll deal with that when we come to it. Romans isn't the first letter he wrote chronologically, but when you consider what it has to say, it's fitting that it stands first in our Bibles.

A Letter to a Church He Had Never Visited

Romans sets forth salvation as its primary theme. Paul wrote it to a church he had never visited—a church we don't know exactly how was established. But it was a powerful church, with a testimony spoken of throughout the whole world. Rome was the capital of the world, the center of the dominating empire. All roads led to Rome, and from there the gospel went out to all the world.

Some believe the Roman church began with Pentecost Christians who returned home; some think Aquila and Priscilla started it. We don't know for certain. But we do know it was Paul's fervent desire to go to Rome and minister there. At the end of his third missionary journey, God told him he must preach at Rome. Before he ever arrived, he sent this letter ahead.

"That I May Establish You"

Paul gives his reason in chapter 1. He thanks God that their faith is spoken of throughout the whole world, and he writes:

For God is my witness... that without ceasing I make mention of you always in my prayers... For I long to see you, that I may impart unto you some spiritual gift, to the end ye may be established. (Romans 1:9–11)

This very letter has been the thing that established multitudes. Many great believers and great movements of God were established by it. It stirred the Protestant Reformation. As Martin Luther—a Catholic monk and priest in Wittenberg, Germany—sought the Lord, God ministered to him especially through Romans 1, through those words "the just shall live by faith." That truth started the Reformation, first in Luther's heart, then in his hearers, and when he nailed the 95 Theses to the castle church door, they say the clanging of that hammer reverberated through the whole Catholic Church.

Several hundred years later in England there was a man taught the Scriptures and the biblical languages from youth, determined to be a minister. He came to the Americas to preach, was sent back to England, and nearly lost his faith on the way home. Then he attended a Bible study on Aldersgate Street in London, where someone read the preface to Luther's commentary on Romans. John Wesley—father of the Methodists, called Methodist because of his structured, disciplined, even legalistic life—said his heart was "strangely warmed" as he finally heard the gospel from Romans. He had tried to preach in his own strength, but he wasn't saved until that night.

You can trace a great many revivals and movements of God's Spirit to these words. I'm thankful God hindered Paul from reaching Rome, because if Paul hadn't written this letter, where would the church be today? I believe God by His Spirit withstood Paul from arriving so that we would have these sixteen chapters and be established by them.

Ready and Not Ashamed

Now I would not have you ignorant, brethren, that oftentimes I purposed to come unto you, but was let hitherto... I am ready to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome also. (Romans 1:13–15)

Are you ready to preach the gospel? Paul told Timothy to be instant, ready in season and out of season, to convince, rebuke, and exhort. Here Paul says, "I am ready." That's a challenge to us—are we ready, or are we afraid? For the next verse says:

For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth. (Romans 1:16)

The gospel doesn't merely display or describe God's power—it is the power of God to bring salvation. In Romans 10 we read, "How shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach except they be sent? How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace." And this salvation comes to everyone who believes—"to the Jew first, and also to the Greek."

Salvation to Everyone Who Believes

On Friday I had a 45-minute conversation about Calvinism while driving our team to LAX. The mainline Reformed teaching, which arose not long after Luther, is that only the elect can be saved—if you're not elect, you cannot come. But that's not what Scripture teaches here. The gospel is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believes.

For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith. (Romans 1:17)

God's righteousness is revealed by faith, just as in Genesis 15:6, where Abraham "believed God, and it was accounted unto him for righteousness." From the very beginning, the father of our faith was accounted righteous by faith.

The Wrath of God Revealed

But the very next verse reveals something else:

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness. (Romans 1:18)

Going through the major and minor prophets, I hope you've gained a new reverence for the wrath of God. It is an awesome thing. We would not wish it even on our worst enemy—if we would, we don't understand what it is. It is revealed against two things: ungodliness and unrighteousness. It will be poured out in full measure on the great and terrible day of the Lord against those who hold the truth in unrighteousness—who cover over and mask the truth of God by their unrighteous deeds.

All Are Guilty Before God

In the opening chapters Paul establishes universal guilt. Chapter 1 (verses 18–32) shows the guilt of the Gentile, the unbeliever. Chapter 2 shows the guilt of the religious person who thinks himself righteous by works. Chapter 3 shows the guilt of the super-religious, the one who thinks he has it made. In the first three chapters Paul proves that every single person is guilty before God.

This makes Romans excellent for evangelism: whether someone is a total unbeliever (chapter 1), a decent religious person (chapter 2), or a super-religious Nicodemus (chapter 3), everyone stands guilty.

Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin. (Romans 3:20)

God's law brings our sin into clear light. Paul says elsewhere he would not have known sin but by the law. To bring someone the gospel, you must first show them they are lost without God, that His wrath abides on their ungodliness and unrighteousness.

The Three Tenses of Salvation

The first part of Romans, chapters 1 through 8, deals with the revelation of God's righteousness, and it makes clear that every one of us needs the justifying, sanctifying, and glorifying work of Jesus Christ. Salvation is not merely a past event; Scripture reveals it in three tenses. We were saved, we are being saved, and we shall be saved.

Christ's death on the cross demonstrates God's love, but Romans 5 makes clear it also deals with the punishment for our sins—that is justification. Romans 6 and 7 show that His work deals with the power of sin in our lives; we are no longer slaves to sin—that is sanctification. Romans 8 looks forward to the day God deals with the very presence of sin, when all creation groans for the manifestation of the sons of God—that is glorification.

Maybe you were saved at a Billy Graham crusade, a Harvest crusade, or here at Calvary Chapel. He justified you. Now, by faith, He is sanctifying you, cleansing you. And we groan for the day He will glorify us with new bodies. Anybody not looking forward to that? I see no hands. We can say all three at once: we have been saved, we are being saved, and we shall be saved.

Storing Up Wrath—and Christ Bearing It

Romans 2 tells us the ungodly are storing up wrath for the day of wrath. It is as if God is drawing back the bow of His wrath, the arrow set, and each time a person sins and rebels He draws it back a little more. One day He will let it fly, and judgment will come on all unrighteousness and ungodliness.

But Jesus' death on the cross is as if He stood in our place and took the full force of that wrath upon Himself. By faith we lay hold of the salvation He gives. That truth sent shockwaves through the church when Luther, on October 31—we call it Halloween, but in Germany it's Reformation Day—shook the church again with the word of God: the just shall live by faith. Not by indulgences, penance, confession, or sacraments, but by faith.

This isn't a New Testament invention. It's quoted from Habakkuk 2:4, and it appears in three New Testament books. Romans focuses on "the just," Galatians focuses on "shall live," and Hebrews focuses on "by faith." The whole book of Romans is built upon that statement.

Illustration and Application of God's Righteousness

Chapters 9 through 11 give the illustration, or vindication, of God's righteousness through Israel. We see Paul's sorrow that most of his Jewish brethren had not turned to Christ, and we see God's sovereignty in choosing Israel. There we read, "Jacob have I loved, and Esau have I hated"—a quote from Malachi. I have a harder time with "Jacob have I loved," given what a scoundrel he was in Genesis. But Hebrews 12 reveals Esau as a profane man who refused to repent. God's foreknowledge and sovereignty are on display. And chapter 11 shows God still has a plan and purpose for the Jews—something I don't think the church fully understands yet.

Then chapters 12 to the end give the application. Having seen God's righteousness revealed and illustrated, how then shall we live?

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. (Romans 12:1)

In light of all God has done in justifying, sanctifying, and glorifying us, the only reasonable response is to lay ourselves down. Some translations render it "your reasonable worship," which is better.

And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind. (Romans 12:2)

What made us holy enough to be laid on His altar? Not ourselves—Romans 7 says in my flesh dwells no good thing. Only the work God has done on our behalf. Chapters 13, 14, and 15 then show how this plays out practically—in the church, in the family, and in the world.

A Practical Book to Master

The Bible is intensely practical, and we'll see this throughout the epistles. The apostles wrote epistles—I know that can be confusing, but it's a good thing. Many of these letters were responses to real questions from real churches—1 and 2 Corinthians and Ephesians especially. These were Christians like you and me 2,000 years ago, without the internet or recorded sermons, asking how they ought to live now that they had been radically transformed.

I strongly encourage you to read and study Romans slowly and in its entirety. It's hard in 45 minutes to do it justice. I say it every week, but this is one of my favorite books—I have all 66, but this one is powerful. When I meet a proud, arrogant person who won't repent, I take them through chapters 1, 2, and 3. When I meet a defeated Christian who sees only his sinfulness, I take him to chapter 7. For the believer struggling against sin, chapters 6 and 7 are powerful, because God is sanctifying and cleansing us.

It's still studied in secular universities because of how perfectly Paul lays out his defense—ideal for law students. He even anticipates our objections. After revealing God's grace in chapter 5, he answers the obvious question:

What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein? (Romans 6:1–2)

The Romans Road

Several key verses form what we call the Romans Road to salvation. Romans 3:23—"all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God"—shows that the heathen, the religious, and the ultra-religious all stand guilty. Romans 6:23—"the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." Romans 5:8—"God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." And Romans 10:9–13:

That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved... For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

You lay out the truth that people are dead in trespasses and sins, with no hope apart from Christ's work. Romans reveals this more clearly than any other book.

No Separation From His Love

Paul, like many a Calvary Chapel pastor, has several endings. At the close of chapter 8:

Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth... Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?... Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:33–39)

I can't think of a better passage to memorize. I challenge you to commit verses 33–39 to memory this week. Here's the secret: go to blueletterbible.com, grab the free audio Bible, and just listen to it five or six times. It will be drilled into your mind.

Conscience and Creation Leave Us Without Excuse

Let me go back to chapter 1, verses 18–20. The first thing to note is that God has given all mankind the knowledge of Him.

Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them. For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen... even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse. (Romans 1:19–20)

First, God has revealed Himself through the conscience—an internal moral law, an understanding of right and wrong written into our very fiber. I recommend C.S. Lewis's Mere Christianity, where he philosophically lays this out. Even little children know wrong from right; you feel terrible when a child points out that you lied. God wrote that into us.

Second, God has given us creation. What He made reveals His eternal power and Godhead—His existence, His power, and His intellect. Conscience and creation together are enough evidence to convict every person beyond a reasonable doubt on the day of Christ Jesus. Some ask, what about the pygmy in Africa or the person in Burma who never heard? Paul says God has given man conscience and creation; it is enough to convict.

Hebrews 11 ties to this. "Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God." And verse 6:

But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.

Conscience and creation show there is a God. If a man will take that step of faith and seek Him, God will reward him and make sure the seeker finds. As Psalm 19 says, "The heavens declare the glory of God." David, simply looking at creation in Psalm 8, could see there is a God. The atheist checks his brain at the door—they say we do, but they have conscience and creation and still deny Him. "The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God."

The Downward Spiral of the Rejecting Heart

Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools. (Romans 1:21–22)

Consider Bertrand Russell, who wrote Why I Am Not a Christian. When it came down to it, he refused Christianity not for lack of evidence but because he would not yield to God. Many atheistic philosophers ultimately refused to submit. Friedrich Nietzsche, who coined "God is dead," was on his way to seminary in Geneva; unable to find lodging, he stayed at a brothel, was radically transformed for the worse, and finally rejected God because he wanted to chase his fleshly appetites. He died in an insane asylum—his foolish heart darkened.

When a person rejects the knowledge of God, a downward slide begins. Their imaginations become empty, their hearts dark; they worship and serve the creature rather than the Creator. You see it in the modern obsession with "going green"—often birthed out of an atheistic worldview that rejects God and worships creation. Then the slide continues:

Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness... For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: and likewise also the men... burned in their lust one toward another. (Romans 1:24–27)

As politically incorrect as it is to say, homosexuality is the result of a heart turned away from God—the progression of sin, the last stop on the road toward the destruction of a nation, a society, and an individual. It is not that a person cannot be saved out of it, but we must recognize it as the fruit of a heart that has departed from God.

And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind. (Romans 1:28)

They hate the thought of God and want to be rid of it—yet they cannot, for God wrote it into their fiber. This is what lies behind the marriage issue in California: ultimately they want to silence the church and escape the conviction of God's word. In Denmark and Canada, what I'm teaching from Romans 1 is already against the law, and it's moving that direction here. If Prop 8 doesn't pass, this will eventually become illegal.

Keep Preaching—Conviction Is a Mercy

But the homosexual agenda to silence the church actually shows that conviction is still at work, and that's a good thing—their conscience has not yet been seared with a hot iron. So bring the word of God before people. If they get angry and won't speak to you, praise the Lord—that means there's still conviction. Keep preaching the gospel. As Jesus said in John 16, the Holy Spirit is in the world to convict the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment.

If your family members are on this progression and have moved into the homosexual lifestyle, keep preaching the gospel to them even if they won't talk to you—it shows your love, because you don't want them to spend eternity without God. Romans is a good starting point. The gospel justifies, sanctifies, and glorifies, and it is the power of God. Don't be ashamed to preach it.

We have a stack of Prop 8 banners in the lobby for the sanctuary. When I first looked at one, a satanic thought ran through my mind: "But what would my neighbors think?" I don't care what my neighbors think—I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation. The enemy wants to sow that thought in me as your pastor, and in you. Who cares what the neighbors think? They need to know the truth of the gospel and the truth of morality declared in God's word, and Romans is a good place to start.

Closing Prayer

God, we thank You that You stirred Paul, that You hindered him from going to Rome so that he would write this letter. We ask that You would give us the boldness that Paul had by Your Spirit—to be ready in season and out of season to preach the word, and not to back down even if it means arrest or death. Lord, there may come a day in our own nation when this very gospel becomes against the law as man sees it. Give us boldness to speak the truth, to stand, and not to be ashamed, because this is Your power to bring justification, sanctification, and glorification in the life of all who believe. Give us opportunities to share Your word with our families, our coworkers, and our friends, that they would know the truth and be set free as we have been. Thank You. We praise You in Jesus' name. Amen.