Romans and my new road

I've decided to do a study on Romans. Brandy just walked in and asked if I was writing my sermon. Maybe I am and maybe I'm not. Who knows......

Romans 1-3 All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

Paul is very systematic in his thought and he makes sure every T is crossed and every i is dotted. In Romans 3:23 he says that "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." Jews and Gentiles are alike. No one gets special treatment in the kingdom. The Jews are under the Law but Gentiles are not. But everyone knows about God.

There are 3 ways to know about God.
Romans 1:20 - We can know God by His creation of the world.
Romans 2:14-15 - We can know God by our consciences, our thoughts either condemning us or comending us.
Romans 3:21-22 - We can know God by Jesus Christ, that is, the faith OF Jesus Christ (KJV).

Paul talks about God's wrath in Romans 1. the wrath of God is being revealed against the godless and the wicked. Who are these "godless and wicked" people??

a. vs. 23...they exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images makde to look like man and animals. (check out Psalm 106:20, Jeremiah 2:11, Acts 17:29, and the big story in Exodus 32).

Therefore God gave them over to their sinful desires:
b. sexual sin - he spends a lot more time on this one than the others; and it's first. A man lies with a man and woman with a woman.

Vs 28...since they did not bother to know God, God let them do what they wanted, although what they wanted was wrong. They were:
c. wicked
d. evil
e. greedy
f. depravity (badness)
g. envy
h. murderous
i. strife (arguing)
j. deceit
k. malice
l. gossips
m. slanderers (back-biter)
n. insolent
o. God hater
p. arrogant
q.r.s.t.u.v. w. boastful; invent ways of doing evil; disobey their parents; senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless.

I think if we broke down a. and b. we could have one for every letter of the alphabet. Do any of these look familiar in the people you know? Do you hear arguing, slander, or gossip in your church?
Colossians 3 starting at vs 5 says what you need to do. "put to death whatever belongs to your earthly nature...which is idolatry. You must rid yourselves of such things as these." Everything you do that is not God-like is idolatry. You must have no other God (that's in the 10 Commandments). Ephesians 5 says to be "imitators of God and live a life of love just as Christ loved us."

I'll pick this up again in chapter 2 in a couple days. In closing, all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God...but all are justified by his grace if they accept his grace thru the redeption that is in Jesus Christ. God sent him to be a propitiation (an atoning victim) to declare his righteousness, and thru his blood, the righteousness of all who believe on the faith of Jesus Christ.