Romans Week 1
5 comments | Posted by Tony Dong on 20 Feb 2010 in Quiet Time ::
Romans 1
1Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God— 2the gospel he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures 3regarding his Son, who as to his human nature was a descendant of David, 4and who through the Spirit[a] of holiness was declared with power to be the Son of God[b] by his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord. 5Through him and for his name’s sake, we received grace and apostleship to call people from among all the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith. 6And you also are among those who are called to belong to Jesus Christ. 7To all in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints: Grace and peace to you from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
Paul’s Longing to Visit Rome
8First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is being reported all over the world. 9God, whom I serve with my whole heart in preaching the gospel of his Son, is my witness how constantly I remember you 10in 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. 11I long to see you so that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to make you strong— 12that is, that you and I may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith. 13I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that I planned many times to come to you (but have been prevented from doing so until now) in order that I might have a harvest among you, just as I have had among the other Gentiles. 14I am obligated both to Greeks and non-Greeks, both to the wise and the foolish. 15That is why I am so eager to preach the gospel also to you who are at Rome. 16I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. 17For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last,[c] just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.”[d]
God’s Wrath Against Mankind
18The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, 19since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 20For 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 men are without excuse. 21For 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. 22Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools 23and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles. 24Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. 25They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen. 26Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. 27In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion. 28Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done. 29They 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, 30slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; 31they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless. 32Although 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
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2 Brendan Taylor :: 20/02/10 07:54 PM
I loved this part here “the obedience that comes from faith.” highlighting that we shouldn’t obey God out of obligation, but instead trust his commands and obey Him out of love. we are not just simply obeying a set of rules on how to live, we are obeying Jesus’ teachings.
verse 20 is also an important one I reckon. God has made it know to all that He exists and is powerful, so the appropriate action to take is to seek Him out. all the more reason for us to share the gospel with our friends.
3 Samuel Baumgart :: 01/03/10 08:21 PM
Hey guys, sorry i’m one week late in replying, but having caught up on reading chapter 1, I was really challenged by verse 14 to make sure that I’m willing to evangelise to everyone – especially ALL of my friends! We shouldn’t just evangelise to people who we think will listen to us, we should be inspired to talk to those who may be harder to talk to. However remember that it’s up to God to change their hearts, but nonetheless that doesn’t stop Him using us as catalysts! (and if you guys have time, you should look up a Matthew West song – ‘Something to Say’)
4 Rhys Goldingay :: 01/03/10 09:35 PM
:)
5 Izzy Ramos :: 08/03/10 09:47 PM
tony i commented on the book of Roman :) well i am anyway, this passage (God’s wrath against mankind) was a really strong and wise. The words of verse 18 – The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness
For me, personally, I know I feel more touched by this passage as the large amount of power God has, and how we have betrayed and abandoned him. I feel as though this passage makes a lot of sense to why the world the way it is…and how we are far from the perfect image God imagined.
Relating to Swannie’s talk…something about following the crowd? I suppose with the last verse about how people see what is wrong whilst they know God and let other people practice all that wickedness…mayhaps?
I have no idea if any of that made sense :p
1 Tony Dong :: 20/02/10 07:05 PM
Hey Guys,
Romans is a really awesume book from the bible that we will be going over for the next 16 weeks. Only 1 chapter per week is nothing guys so I’d like to encourage you all to read the chapter each week and leave a comment with your thoughts and questions on the chapter and the leaders as well as others at couch will try and answer questions as well as discuss ideas. Soo important to get stuck into God’s word as its such a key part in growing as christians and strenthening our relationships with God