God Speaks
This letter is from Paul, a slave of Christ Jesus, chosen by God to be an apostle and sent out to preach his Good News. 2 God promised this Good News long ago through his prophets in the holy Scriptures. 3 The Good News is about his Son. In his earthly life he was born into King David’s family line, 4 and he was shown to be the Son of God when he was raised from the dead by the power of the Holy Spirit. He is Jesus Christ our Lord. 5 Through Christ, God has given us the privilege and authority as apostles to tell Gentiles everywhere what God has done for them, so that they will believe and obey him, bringing glory to his name.
6 And you are included among those Gentiles who have been called to belong to Jesus Christ. 7 I am writing to all of you in Rome who are loved by God and are called to be his own holy people.
May God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ give you grace and peace.
8 Let me say first that I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith in him is being talked about all over the world. 9 God knows how often I pray for you. Day and night I bring you and your needs in prayer to God, whom I serve with all my heart by spreading the Good News about his Son.
10 One of the things I always pray for is the opportunity, God willing, to come at last to see you. 11 For I long to visit you so I can bring you some spiritual gift that will help you grow strong in the Lord. 12 When we get together, I want to encourage you in your faith, but I also want to be encouraged by yours.
13 I want you to know, dear brothers and sisters, that I planned many times to visit you, but I was prevented until now. I want to work among you and see spiritual fruit, just as I have seen among other Gentiles. 14 For I have a great sense of obligation to people in both the civilized world and the rest of the world, to the educated and uneducated alike. 15 So I am eager to come to you in Rome, too, to preach the Good News.
16 For I am not ashamed of this Good News about Christ. It is the power of God at work, saving everyone who believes—the Jew first and also the Gentile. 17 This Good News tells us how God makes us right in his sight. This is accomplished from start to finish by faith. As the Scriptures say, “It is through faith that a righteous person has life.”
18 But God shows his anger from heaven against all sinful, wicked people who suppress the truth by their wickedness. 19 They know the truth about God because he has made it obvious to them. 20 For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God.
21 Yes, they knew God, but they wouldn’t worship him as God or even give him thanks. And they began to think up foolish ideas of what God was like. As a result, their minds became dark and confused. 22 Claiming to be wise, they instead became utter fools. 23 And instead of worshiping the glorious, ever-living God, they worshiped idols made to look like mere people and birds and animals and reptiles.
24 So God abandoned them to do whatever shameful things their hearts desired. As a result, they did vile and degrading things with each other’s bodies. 25 They traded the truth about God for a lie. So they worshiped and served the things God created instead of the Creator himself, who is worthy of eternal praise! Amen. 26 That is why God abandoned them to their shameful desires. Even the women turned against the natural way to have sex and instead indulged in sex with each other. 27 And the men, instead of having normal sexual relations with women, burned with lust for each other. Men did shameful things with other men, and as a result of this sin, they suffered within themselves the penalty they deserved.
28 Since they thought it foolish to acknowledge God, he abandoned them to their foolish thinking and let them do things that should never be done. 29 Their lives became full of every kind of wickedness, sin, greed, hate, envy, murder, quarreling, deception, malicious behavior, and gossip. 30 They are backstabbers, haters of God, insolent, proud, and boastful. They invent new ways of sinning, and they disobey their parents. 31 They refuse to understand, break their promises, are heartless, and have no mercy. 32 They know God’s justice requires that those who do these things deserve to die, yet they do them anyway. Worse yet, they encourage others to do them, too.
Source: New Living Translation: BibleGateway.com
We Respond
Reflection: The Apostle Paul had never been to Rome but really hoped to go there. He wrote this letter to introduce himself and his spiritual views of life and the world. He considered himself a debt-slave to God. He had been forgiven and chosen by God and sent out to tell other people about Jesus and what He had done for them. God made many promises through the Old Testament prophets. They wrote about the Messiah (the mighty son of God) coming as a descendent of King David and foretold all that He would do. Jesus was proved to be the Messiah by His Resurrection from the dead. If we accept these teachings by faith, we receive all the kindness of God. It will be poured out on us though we don’t deserve it because of our great sinfulness. Once we trustingly admit this to ourselves and to God, the Holy Spirit will empower us to take this great message to people around the world, so that they can believe in and obey Christ, too. This is why Paul so desperately wanted to go to Rome: he wanted to encourage believers there and be encouraged by them. He kept praying and looking for an opportunity, but God had other plans. Paul wanted to take this Good News to everyone regardless of their status in life. He definitely was not ashamed to tell people, “If you will truly trust in Christ, God will set you free from all your sin, guilt, and shame and give you the ability to live the way He wants. This is all done by faith.” The rest of the chapter tells how we got into this mess of sins and lists some specific sins for which people need to be forgiven. These sins have been ignored, trivialized, become culturally accepted, legalized, celebrated, even promoted; however, any and all of these sins can be forgiven and cleansed if we enter into agreement with God by faith.
Watch: Romans 1-4 Bible Book Overview Video | BibleProject™
Prayer: LORD God, this letter to the Romans is so packed with Your truth that it is hard to condense into a simple blog. Please, Holy Spirit, help people (myself included) to grasp all that You intend for this time. Thank You, LORD God, that Jesus paid my sin-debt by his suffering and death on the cross. Thank You for giving me the privilege of telling others that You did it for them as well. Thank You for Your promises in scripture, written centuries and millennia before You fulfilled them just as You said. Thank You that not only have You forgiven all of my sins, but (through the indwelling Holy Spirit) You have also given me the power and ability to live the right way. The bad news is that You named and condemned all kinds of sins here. The Good News is that You have forgiven every single one if we will admit them, believe the truth, and receive the forgiveness You provide. Help me and many others to walk that fact out in daily life. AMEN
Action: (Ask God, the Holy Spirit, which one of these He wants you to work on or something else more personal that He points out.)
- I will take _______ (a specific amount, time of day and date) to write out specific sins of mine for which Jesus suffered and died.
- Then I will thank Him for cancelling each one and write “forgiven” in red ink over it.
- If I’m having difficulty with the previous “I wills,” I will ask a trusted pastor, counselor, or mature Christian friend to help me.
- I will find, sing and/or play the song “The Old Rugged Cross Made the Difference.”
Share: I plan to share what I’ve learned with __________.