Scripture Reading: Romans 1:18-32; Romans 3:23; Romans 5:8; Romans 6:1-11; Romans 8:1-28
Confusion. This one word describes the current cultural climate in our nation.
Mankind has finally reached a pinnacle. This is not a pinnacle of morality, nor is the height of compassion and concern. Instead, we have climbed the mountain, and while cresting this seemingly sacred place of knowledge and wonder, we have declared ourselves gods who have the power to remake ourselves into whatever image our delusional minds can conjure.
In Romans chapter One, as the Apostle Paul works from his declaration that the gospel is the power of God unto Salvation, we run afoul of a series of pronounced judgments that flow from the Creator-God of the Bible.
We move from a sordid sexual rebellion, to a humiliating homo-sexual rebellion and finally crest on to the contemptable wasteland of confusion about such things as our basic anatomy, and the fundamental purpose for our existence.
This disgusting decay, however, is regarded in our society as being “woke” and suddenly the unholy Mastermind has impressed a new Gnosticism upon us. With the new-found understanding of reality and of existence we are finally freed from the so-called tyranny of patriarchies, polite societies, partiality and pathetic religions. The limits of our understanding about ethnicity, gender and sexual expression are being unwound by a new “woke” mob that wants only the best for us… Or if we are unwilling to acquiesce to the their not so subtle demands to re-imagine culture, customs and Created order, then we will be quickly silenced and slapped with a label… REJECTED…
As a Christian, I believe that the Decay and ultimate Confusion of Romans chapter One is not the final focus. If you are bound up in focusing on what is wrong, you have missed the rest of the message to the church at Rome. This message is that THE JUST shall live by faith. Who is JUST? Jesus Christ. Who is JUSTIFIER of those who believe? JESUS CHRIST. The message of doom in Romans chapter One culminates in the teaching on Justification in chapter Five, The teaching on Baptism into Christ’s death, burial and Resurrection in chapter Six, The truth that there is now no longer ANY condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus and that we can cry out to our heavenly Father and know He is working all things out for the sake of those who love Him in chapter Eight.
This does not even begin to plumb the depths of the book of Romans. I want those who are followers of Christ to realize, the crazy path of wrath in Romans chapter One meets the LOVE of GOD in JESUS CHRIST, and if a person trusts God about their sin and trusts that Jesus is the sacrifice on behalf of their sin then THEY ARE SAVED from this earned judgment. They may then live in peace because they are at peace with God through Christ.
Please, don’t get stuck in Romans 1:18-32, read the rest of the story!