Monthly Archives: May 2026

ROMANS …PAUL’S SOLUTION -8

Bible Study, ,

8“God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished— he did it to demonstrate his righteousness at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.”

What a bombshell! In the middle of the chaos humans have made…God stepped in and did something so outrageous that it needs careful unpacking for humans to understand. 

First, God did not come down on every sinner in wrath and judgment as He had the right to do. He waited! He had a plan! He had a heart of compassion for His broken and ruined world. He started from the beginning…slowly…over many centuries…one step at a time…He prepared His world for the one He would send to fix the mess. 

God chose a man, Abraham. Through him, He built a family, a nation, a covenant people to belong to Him…to live by His holy standards…and to show the nations the real God. They failed but…they had the law…

The Jews thought that they had the upper hand. They had the law…even though they didn’t obey it. The law they cherished and clung to as a passport to God was only the beginning of God’s plan. The law was never intended to deal with their sin because they could not obey it. The law could only show them how holy God is and how unholy they were. They were helpless to obey it even though they had the law. 

The law had another function. The very fact that they could not obey it perfectly even if they tried, pointed them to something more. God would step in with His master plan to send someone without sin to keep the law for them and then to die as a law breaker to pay their debt for breaking the law. 

For the Jews, boasting about having God’s law was futile. What did it help them to have God’s law if all it did was show them how bad they were? The only thing the law could do was to drive them to God for mercy…and that demanded faith. Only God could do something about their helpless condition. Both Jew and Gentile were in the same condition…guilty before God. 

“Where, then, is boasting? It is excluded. Because of what law? The law that requires works? No, because of the law that requires faith. For we maintain that a person is justified by faith apart from the works of the law. Or is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles too? Yes, of Gentiles too, since there is only one God, who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through that same faith. Do we, then, nullify the law by this faith? Not at all! Rather, we uphold the law.”

‭‭Romans‬ ‭3‬:‭25‬-‭31‬ ‭NIV‬‬

God didn’t abolish the law. He did something else. He made a promise that He would write it on human hearts. He would take what was written on stone and engrave it inside everyone who believes in the one He sent, Jesus,  to pay the debt and atone for sin by dying in the place of sinners. 

So…Faith in Jesus is the key to the world’s dilemma…but how does this plan demonstrate God’s righteousness? Let’s follow to the process.

Paul said that God is just. This means that God must be true to His word. He must treat every sinner justly. Justice demands that sin be punished. However, since everyone has sinned, and death is the penalty for sin, everyone must pay their own debt. 

So, God made a plan. He would come to earth as a human, live a  human life without sin…and then die as though He had sinned. His death would then pay the debt for every sinner. Was this just? Was this fair? Was this the right thing to do? 

Since there was no other way to rescue the human race from the punishment for sin…by dying in our place Jesus, who is God, became a man and died. He paid for our sin and then rose from the dead to prove that He was God and that death has no power over Him because He was sinless. 

Was God just? Yes! He punished a human for sin. Can He justify humans…declare them not guilty? Yes! Sin’s debt has been paid! 

“God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished— he did it to demonstrate his righteousness at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.”

‭‭Romans‬ ‭3‬:‭25‬-‭26‬ ‭NIV‬‬

The only way to experience the forgiveness God has made possible through Jesus and to participate in the eternal life He offers is to turn back to God, to receive His forgiveness for sin,  and to turn one’s life over to Jesus…to live in union with Him and under His control. 

“If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.”

‭‭Romans‬ ‭10‬:‭9‬-‭10‬ ‭NIV‬‬

To be continued

ROMANS…PAUL’S BOMBSHELL – 7

Bible Study, ,

If Paul’s theme was the righteousness of God, I wonder why he began the content of his letter on such a depressing note. The Gentiles were a wicked lot. Not only was their behaviour atrocious but also their hearts…their attitudes and motives, the entire direction of their lives was anti God. They had rebelled against Him to the extent that they had turned everything He stood for on its head. 

Paul’s use of “they” shows us that he was not particularly addressing his readers but rather exposing the hearts and attitudes of pagans in general. The world around them was on a downward trajectory towards eternal judgement, and rightly so because of their determined rebellion against God, their Creator. 

However, his readers, and particularly the Jewish people, were not exempt from Paul’s exposure. 

What is worse? Doing the things the pagans did with the attitude they had towards God or judging the pagans for what they did but also doing the same things despite knowing God’s law? 

Jesus opted for the latter! He came down harder on the Pharisees for their hypocrisy than He ever did on sinners. 

So, the Jews didn’t escape Paul’s scathing criticism. 

“You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge another, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things.”

‭‭Romans‬ ‭2‬:‭1‬ ‭NIV‬‬

“Now we know that God’s judgment against those who do such things is based on truth. So when you, a mere human being, pass judgment on them and yet do the same things, do you think you will escape God’s judgment? Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, forbearance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repentance? But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God’s wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed.”

‭‭Romans‬ ‭2‬:‭2‬-‭5‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Turns out, according to Paul, that Jew and Gentile alike are under God’s wrath. No one will escape because everyone is guilty of failing to live up to God’s standards. 

“There will be trouble and distress for every human being who does evil: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile…All who sin apart from the law will also perish apart from the law, and all who sin under the law will be judged by the law. For it is not those who hear the law who are righteous in God’s sight, but it is those who obey the law who will be declared righteous.”

‭‭Romans‬ ‭2‬:‭9‬, ‭12‬-‭13‬ ‭NIV‬‬

What a sobering conclusion! Why are all people guilty and under God’s wrath? Paul’s gives two reasons…

First, God has revealed Himself in creation so clearly that no one has the excuse not to recognise His presence in the world. 

“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 ‭1‬:‭20‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Try to argue that one away!

Second, God has written His moral law in the conscience of every baby born into this world. Every young child knows the difference between right and wrong. 

“All who sin apart from the law will also perish apart from the law, and all who sin under the law will be judged by the law. (Indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature things required by the law, they are a law for themselves, even though they do not have the law. They show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts sometimes accusing them and at other times even defending them.)”

‭‭Romans‬ ‭2‬:‭12‬, ‭14‬-‭15‬

Why did Paul paint such a dark picture of the people of the world of Jews and Gentiles? Was it to show up the real meaning of God’s righteousness? Look at his conclusion. Gentiles…wicked to the core. Jews…also wicked in their behaviour but deluded because they thought they were righteous because they had God’s law. 

Paul’s conclusion is sobering. 

First, Paul brushed aside with contempt the foolish argument that people’s wickedness enhances God’s righteousness!

“But if our unrighteousness brings out God’s righteousness more clearly, what shall we say? That God is unjust in bringing his wrath on us? (I am using a human argument.) Certainly not! If that were so, how could God judge the world? Someone might argue, “If my falsehood enhances God’s truthfulness and so increases his glory, why am I still condemned as a sinner?” Why not say—as some slanderously claim that we say—“Let us do evil that good may result”? Their condemnation is just!”

‭‭Romans‬ ‭3‬:‭5‬-‭8‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Second, Jew and Gentile alike are guilty, under God’s wrath, and condemned. 

“…There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,”

‭‭Romans‬ ‭3‬:‭22‬-‭23‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Why was it important for Paul to prove the guilt of everyone, both Jew and Gentile? 

If all are guilty, then all alike are eligible to receive what God has done to deal with their guilt…

…and so, by painting a dark picture of the hopeless, helpless condition of everyone on earth, Paul has cleared the ground for his introduction to God’s magnificent righteousness in Christ. 

To be continued

ROMANS…PAUL’S EXPLANATION – 6

Bible Study, ,

To understand the need for and the impact of the gospel, Paul had first to explain the condition of the human heart.

Why is God angry with people?

Paul launched into a comprehensive explanation of the root cause of the sin in his world…and ours…because people are still the same today. 

First, the basic problem in the human heart is not just that people don’t know God. Why? They love their sin. They don’t WANT to know God. God is their enemy. They hate Him and do every possible thing to deny,  defy and rebel against Him. 

“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 ‭NIV‬‬

Denying that God exists is first, inexcusable because God’s presence is everywhere in creation and, second, has a downward trajectory that starts with, rather than ends with wickedness. People suppress the truth…they push it down, move it out the way, get rid of it, by their sin. 

“In the Bible, “suppress” generally means to actively hold down, stifle, or restrain something. It is most prominently used in the context of humanity willfully ignoring the reality of God…” ( Source: Google AI)

Human rebellion begins with denial. Even if they deny that there is a God or that they are accountable to Him, they still need something bigger than themselves to lean on.  So, people must substitute the real God with gods of their own making. 

“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.”

‭‭Romans‬ ‭1‬:‭21‬ ‭NIV‬‬

If one denies that God exists, or that He is real, anything  goes. One can invent one’s own god…and one can make him be or do anything in one’s imagination…but the outcome is horrible. Darkness! Futility! 

What is darkness?

”In the Bible, darkness generally symbolizes the absence of God’s presence. It primarily represents sin, ignorance, spiritual blindness, and divine judgment.“ (Source: Google AI)

Futility…the outcome of darkness…

“In the Bible, futility describes the emptiness, purposelessness, and frustration of human endeavors apart from God. It refers to the fleeting, transient nature of worldly pursuits—like chasing the wind—and highlights that life’s true meaning can only be found in a relationship with the Creator.”

(Source: Google AI)

Darkness and futility exactly describes the condition of Paul’s world and ours but…the downward spiral gets worse…

“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 ‭1‬:‭22‬-‭23‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Out of their wickedness, people have made a conscious and deliberate exchange…the true God for gods made like creatures…the worst of humans or animals…the result of their futile thinking and perverse “wisdom”. 

Look around you at the way people are living out this pattern. The mess people’s lives are in…the consequences of their behaviour…makes no sense unless it starts with the notion that they can do as they like and get away with it. 

Not with God! Consequences are inevitable and follow what people do. 

Paul reaches a startling conclusion… the outcome of bad choices and the behaviour is not just a consequence…it’s God’s judgment…and He judges in an unexpected way. 

“…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 ‭1‬:‭25‬-‭27‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Perverse sexual behaviour and everything connected with it is not “sexual orientation” or the result of a rogue gene over which no one has control. Homosexuality is not a feeling or an urge. It’s a consequence! It’s God’s judgment on people who refuse to acknowledge God and deliberately submit themselves to substitutes and…

…Gods’s judgment is perfectly just. He gives them what they want! This is scary because they have no idea where their choices will take them. They do not understand that their persistence and justification for turning God’s righteous way upside down will lead to a “perverse” mind.

“In the Bible, “perverse” means to deliberately turn away from God’s moral standards to do what is wrong. Rather than just making a mistake, it describes a willful, stubborn attitude of twisting what is good into evil.” (Source: Google AI)

The Greek word, ”adokimos”, has the meaning of unapproved…that is “unacceptable”, translated “reprobate”, “depraved”, or “perverted”. The idea is that what was good is regarded as evil and what is evil has become acceptable as good. 

Wicked behaviour had deliberately pushed God and His instructions to do what is right down and out of the way. People  did such bad things that they could no longer think what was right and good…and God confirmed their choices by giving them what they wanted.

 Paul’s description of his world mirrors our world perfectly.  Reading what Paul has to say is like reading today’s newspaper or listening to today’s news. 

“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.”

‭‭Romans‬ ‭1‬:‭29‬-‭31‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Paul’s caps his description of society with his diagnosis…

“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 ‭1‬:‭32‬ ‭NIV‬‬

That’s who they are, and that’s what they have become…and that’s what they deserve. 

To be continued 

ROMANS…PAUL’S THEME – 5

Bible Study, ,

“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 ‭1‬:‭16‬-‭17‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Righteousness! The righteousness of God. Why God’s righteousness? 

Put yourself to the shoes of these Roman converts. Their background was paganism…they had worshiped a plethora of gods who were evil, capricious, controlling, and demanding…originated in the imagination of those who created them….

“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 ‭1‬:‭22‬-‭23‬

Against this background, there were people in Rome who had emerged from the darkness of idolatry to believe in Jesus and to be made new creatures in Christ.

Where was Paul to begin? What had happened to them that had caused a radical change deep inside them. Despite the way they had thought and behaved, they were different now…viewing God, themselves, and the world from a different perspective. They knew they had changed inside but on what did they base their faith?

However, they still had to contend with minds and lives shaped by an evil belief system that had infiltrated their thinking and shaped their lives. This belief system had to be dismantled thought by thought. 

There were so many things Paul could tell them but…he must start at the beginning…with God. 

Paul’s readers had heard the gospel…the good news…and believed it. Something amazing had happened to them. They were different people…but how… why?

It was God, God who had stepped in with a way so daring that it takes one’s breath away. He d done something for them and in them that needed explanation…a solid foundation that would not shake when troubles came. 

Righteous by faith? What did that mean? In the following pages, Paul would give them a thorough explanation of God’s righteousness…how they could approach a holy God and be accepted, and how, by faith, they could live in fellowship with this holy God. 

God’s story was, first, good news. All their lives, the Romans had lived sin, apart from God, and had within them the sentence of death. No peace…always fearful and aware of guilt even if they tried to deny what their conscience was telling them. 

So, what Paul had presented to them was indeed good news. When they received Jesus, they knew that something radical had happened to them. They had peace inside… the burden of guilt, fear, and shame was gone. They felt free. 

They had experience salvation…a wholeness in which their whole world had turned right side up. Apart from the peace that had replaced their dis-ease, even their desires had changed.  They no longer lusted after the desires of their old selves. They felt comfortable with God. Jesus was real to them. They enjoyed being with God ‘s people. 

All these changes happened to them when they gave themselves to Jesus as a choice based on what they heard about Him…as Paul later explained. 

“Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word about Christ.”

‭‭Romans‬ ‭10‬:‭17‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Righteousness by faith…the gospel…God’s power… big subjects that Paul was about to unpack, one step at a time…

To be continued

ROMANS…PAUL’S OBLIGATION – 4

Bible Study, ,

“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. I do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, 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.”

‭‭Romans‬ ‭1‬:‭8‬-‭13‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Paul wanted to go to Rome. He planned to go to Rome but…it didn’t work out for him.. not yet. As he worked his way from Syrian Antioch, his headquarters, across the province of Asia, preaching and starting churches in cities and towns as he went, through southern Europe, Rome would always be his goal.

He had answered the call to enter Europe and eventually, to reach Spain, so he thought, which, for him, was the outer reaches of the empire but…Rome was his target. Why Rome? We can only guess. 

Rome was the capital of the Roman Empire, the centre and hub of government. Its influence, like the spokes of a wheel, radiated outwards to the farthest reaches of Rome’s territory. Caesar, whoever he was, was the mighty human power that controlled the lives of its citizens and those who lived in its conquered colonies. The Caesar’s power, however despotic, was everywhere but…

Paul had a message to share with the world that would lift its people above the power of an earthly tyrant into the realm of God’s reign. Jesus, and what He did would free them from fear and give them hope of a life now and a future beyond their wildest imagination and beyond Rome’s reach. He had to go to Rome from where the influence of his message would spread throughout the world. 

Paul’s letter, after giving his credentials, which were so necessary because of those masqueraded as apostles, began in the best possible way…thanksgiving for the news of their faith that had spread across the whole Roman world. In Paul’s day, he didn’t need social media or the internet to get information out. Constant movement of people took news everywhere, good or bad. 

So, Paul could be sincerely grateful that there, in Rome, was a group of people who believed in Jesus and were not afraid to make it known. However, he was also keen to ensure that they clearly understood the ramifications of their faith so that they would be grounded in the truth…especially in the face of the danger they faced daily, the threat of death at the hands of a ruthless despot, should they be discovered. 

These Roman believers had to live their faith in secret. Like many Christians in the Islamic world today, they gathered in small groups in hidden places, to worship, read Scripture, pray, and share their stories, to avoid being discovered,  arrested, and often tortured to death. 

It was to these people that Paul wrote…to anchor their faith in the timeless truths of God’s eternal plan and the grace that brought Him to earth to set His plan in motion. They had begun well. Now it was important that they understood the foundation of truth upon which their faith rested. 

Paul’s calling to preach the good news was as wide as the world itself…and it was not optional. 

“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.”

‭‭Romans‬ ‭1‬:‭14‬-‭15‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Jesus had given Paul the task of taking His message across the world…from Jerusalem, where it began, to Rome where the world was centred. No one was excluded from hearing and responding to the good news. His was more than a calling. It was an obligation that pressed hard on him, moving him ever onward to wherever the Holy Spirit led him. 

Paul had learned that, far from his narrow view of God’s exclusive dealings with Israel as His covenant people, God was offering His mercy to whoever would receive it. Jew, Gentile, Greek, Roman, men, women, slave or free…His grace was available for everyone who would believe. So, he had to tell them or they would never know. 

His message was both broad and narrow…broad because it was for everyone and narrow because everything God offered was about one man, Jesus,  and one foundation…God’s righteousness. 

To be continued