Romans 1:24-32

24Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonouring of their bodies among themselves, 25because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.

26For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; 27and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.

28And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. 29They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, 30slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, 31foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. 32Though they know God’s decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.

This passage rings out with the phrase, “God gave them up”. God gave mankind up to impurity (v24), to dishonourable passions (v26) and to a debased mind (v28). This is v18 being worked out, “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.” The wrath of God is not just a future judgement, but a present one too, because sin is destructive now as well as then. God’s judgement upon us is simply to let us go – it’s not so much what he does, but what he doesn’t do. He doesn’t stop us leaving his side. He “gives us up”, tragically, to ourselves. If the rebellious son wishes to leave, he is free to do so. Little does he see the wrath of God being poured out as he does so.

The downward spiral begins with idolatry, which leads to immorality, which leads to dishonourable sex – we should not be surprised in our day and age why Paul keeps making sex the subject – our society is gorging itself on sewer water, and wondering why it ends up tasting bad. Our society has indeed, “exchanged the truth about God for a lie”, the greatest lie imaginable – that the ultimate worship and enjoyment in life belongs solely to the realm of pleasure. The saddest thing is that we are designed by the creator to find endless pleasure in enjoying and worshipping him. It is a lie friends.

From this point, all hell (perhaps literally) breaks loose. Those who live and believe the lie are given over (voluntarily) to shameful lusts and passions. Do not feel embarrassed or shocked that Paul uses homosexuality as a clear embodiment of this (v26-27). It’s such a simple picture of a natural relation being exchanged for one contrary to God’s created order. It’s the same with everyone having sex before marriage, “There is no created order or plan for sex! There is no creator who made it! We are in charge!” When you see the sexual immorality of this city, and you will see it every day, think, “Wrath of God being revealed against them”. Yes, you will be crucified for standing up and saying this, but who will you listen to?

From v28, the floodgates are opened wide. Sin snowballs bigger and bigger, further from God. You cannot read this and possibly listen to someone telling you that people come back to God by themselves on their own accord. Rubbish. We only head one direction as sinners – hellwards. We simply fill up more and more with “all manner of unrighteousness and evil…” (v29). And the landslide of sin begins to flow. 21 sins, the biggest ‘list’ in the NT. We are left with the horror of v32, that all this is not done in ignorance, but knowledge.

Never look at your city, your workplace, your school or anything else the same way again. Think only this; The wrath of God is being poured out here on this faithless, heartless, ruthless generation. They are dying in their sins. They have no hope in themselves of salvation. And neither did I.

This is why the gospel is good news. Pray, and go preach the truth.

May I boast in nothing but the cross, apart from which, I would be running into the very same mess of death.

Matt.

Romans 1:18-23

18For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. 19For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. 21For although they knew God, they did not honour him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools, 23and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.

This little passage opens a whole can of worms. But the hardest thing for me to get my head around is not how God has made himself plain to the world and how that leads to sinners being without excuse (v19,20), nor is the most puzzling thing to me how all people “knew God, (yet) they did not honour him as God” (v21). For me, the hardest thing to grasp is the very first word – “For…”. Paul just spoke of how in the gospel, “the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, ‘The righteous shall live by faith’” (v17). That sounds complete. Surely he doesn’t need to qualify that or explain that further. And yet he continues on, seemingly without the paragraph break we have in modern translations, with a seemingly left field idea – “The gospel is the power of God to save, for in it the righteousness of God is revealed by faith. FOR/BECAUSE the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men.”

There is only one way this works logically, and it’s not a pretty message, especially in our day and age. At the heart of it, Paul is making clear that the only reason he is so keen about preaching the gospel, and the only reason the gospel is so good and mind blowing, is because we are so mind-blowingly bad. So much so that the very wrath of God is awaiting us.

If we are to be effective, passionate, gospel-loving evangelists, we must see the world and its inhabitants as it truly is. We must look at our city and think, “ungodly, unrighteous”. We must be able to look at people we love and care for, even our closest family and think, “Suppressors of truth – for God is plain to them. They are without excuse. They will rightfully face the full wrath and anger of God against their sin, they will be in hell forever.”  We must not shrink from the truth. They do not give honour to God in their life, and so they chose the path of foolishness, and futility (v21). They became fools (22), because they gave up God for mere images and idols of his true glory. We must see this. We must feel the weight of this. There are not sinners and ‘kind of OK’ people. We must see our workmates, friends and family who don’t know Christ like this.

Otherwise, the gospel will never be good news, and you will never preach it as you ought. Your view of non-Christians, whoever they may be, close or not to your heart, will directly decide your view of the good news that can save them. There is no way around this. You will not win friends with such a message. It gets you crucified. It might mean your church will never have 30,000 people like other churches you see. But it is the power of God to save. Grace is only amazing if the background it contrasts to is endlessly black.
Not really knowing what to think either.

Matt.

Romans 1:16-17

16For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

17For in it, the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, ”The righteous shall live by faith”.

Ever been ashamed of the gospel? Yep. Had those times when the ‘good news’ felt more like ‘totally dumbness’? Yep. Jesus warned us this would happen, and it’s clear here in Romans that even the great Apostle Paul felt he could quite possibly be ashamed of it. We need to see that our shame over the gospel grows only out of how we view it, because there is a simple cure to our ‘gospel-shame’; the truth. “It is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes.” We can just rush over that, maybe just take it as a throw away line. That would be foolish. If we are to stand up and declare the gospel without shame in this godless, desperate, God-hating city, we need to be simply broken and awestruck by the force of that phrase we read in v16. 

This gospel, this good news that Christ Jesus has appeared in human likeness and died in the place of sinful man, defeating sin and removing its consequences, this good news that Christ Jesus abolished the power of the law and guilt and opened wide the door to the very throne room of God through the new temple of his body, this good news that Christ Jesus is no longer dead but risen to be Lord and King of all creation, never to die again, the good news that this risen Lord Jesus now lives and intercedes for us, forever, perfectly, that we might have full assurance and hope of eternal life with our heavenly Father if we place our faith and trust in his saving power and Lordship over all - this gospel, it is no mere intellectual argument. It is the power of God. It is the centrepiece of all creation, where the grandest plans of God were worked, where the eternal kingdom of Christ was unshakably established for all to see - it is the be all and end all of God’s work in creation, it is his power fully unleashed, his character fully displayed. All the justice, love, righteousness, peace, wrath and judgement of God poured out on a single moment in time. Everything that came before it looked and pointed to it, everything after it will look back and glory in it. And this unimaginable power and plan of God…is for your salvation, and for the salvation of everyone who simply believes it to be true. ”For in it, the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith.” And we are made to be ashamed of this? Be broken friends. Rejoice in your Saviour!

Nick might have become a Christian today at UWS. He might not have, but he certainly seems to be heading that way. We prayed the old sinners prayer with him, and he loved what he heard. Friends, the gospel is the power of God. It’s not up to you. The only role you played in the gospel plan was to hurl insults and mock the Son of God crucified for you. Now that through this gospel you once hated, the righteousness of God, the perfect standard of Christ has been lavished upon you by grace and faith alone, take it with both hands and preach it to a desperate world that desperately needs some good news.

Fighting with myself, to fight for the gospel with you,

Matt.  

P.S – Thankyou for all those praying for my health in the last few days. I’m nearly better.

Romans 1:8-15

 8First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is proclaimed in all the world. 9 For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, that without ceasing I mention you 10always in my prayers, asking that somehow by God’s will I may now at last succeed in coming to you. 11For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you— 12that is, that we may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith, both yours and mine. 13I want you to know, brothers, that I have often intended to come to you (but thus far have been prevented), in order that I may reap some harvest among you as well as among the rest of the Gentiles. 14 I am under obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish. 15So I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome.

The word ‘fellowship’ is thrown around these days in church circles fairly liberally. And in one sense, it doesn’t matter, it’s just a word. If you want to call going out for coffee after church ‘fellowship’, (regardless of what you talk about over the coffee) - go for it. But we do need to ask ourselves what the foundations and motives for our ’fellowship’ are, because we want to be shaped by the bible in all we do – and we’re generally pretty susceptible to being shaped by things other than the bible. For me, Romans 1:8-15 provides a hard hitting rebuke to my preconceived ideas of fellowship, and made me think hard about my motives and goals in my relationships to my brothers and sisters in Christ (you!).

There’s no avoiding it – Paul is passionate about the gospel, and about the faith of God’s people. The first thing he does in his grand explanation of the gospel is thank God for the Roman church’s faith. And he prays, “without ceasing…asking that somehow by God’s will I may now at last succeed in coming to you” (v10). He longs for fellowship with this church – if only, somehow, by God’s will, he might be able to see them. And in our age of facebook, emails, airmail, cars and phones, I don’t think we can empathise with Paul. Which is why I think we take fellowship for granted. Which is why I think we redefine fellowship into ‘meeting and catching up as Christians’. Redefine it from Paul’s concept, “I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you— 12that is, that we may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith, both yours and mine” (v11-12). We don’t know how good we’ve got it, until it gets taken away – which is why we often take fellowship for granted, and waste it. This is a great rebuke and challenge for me personally. I need to rethink my motives and goals in ‘fellowship’, and live accordingly.

If we want to get into Paul’s mindset, and treasure fellowship like him, we must be shaped by the things that he was shaped by. And that’s abundantly clear. “I have often intended to come to you (but thus far have been prevented), in order that I may reap some harvest among you as well as among the rest of the Gentiles. 14 I am under obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish.”(v13-14). He loves and treasures Christian fellowship because he loves and treasures the gospel, and wants to spend his life for that gospel. The phrase ‘I am under obligation’, literally means, ’I am indebted’. Paul is indebted. How? Well, you can get into debt by owing someone money that you borrowed. But you can also get into debt by being entrusted with someone else’s money. Paul says he is indebted to the Romans (and all people, foolish and wise, v14) because he’s been entrusted with the Roman’s good news. That’s why he says in v15, “So I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome.” And that’s why he wants fellowship with them, to share the gospel and encourage them in their faith.

Are you treasuring Christian fellowship because you treasure the gospel?

Being challenged with you,

Matt. 

Romans 1:1-7

Romans 1:1-7

1Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, 2which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy Scriptures, 3concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh 4and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord, 5through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations, 6including you who are called to belong to Jesus Christ,
7To all those in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints:
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

As I write this post, I’m supervising a group of year 12’s studying ‘furiously’ for the HSC. When you ask them what they want to do in life, you get a mixture of answers, but for most, they don’t really know. And that’s Ok, I wasn’t really sure either!

In stark contrast, if Paul the apostle were here, and I asked him what he wanted to do in life, I could be confident of a rock solid answer. “I’m called to be an apostle, I was set apart for the gospel of God.” – Paul, what is the gospel of God? And before you know it, he’s rattled off one of the most beautiful and encouraging summaries of the gospel (vv2-4). It’s a gospel promised long ago in the prophets (not a late ‘Plan B’), it’s written in the Scriptures, and it’s all about the Son. A son who was fully human, “descended from David according to the flesh”, and fully God, “declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection”…it can only be, (in full title), “Jesus Christ our Lord”. Christ: Promised Messianic King, Jesus: Our Saviour, Lord: King of everything and everyone, and notice in particular, Jesus Christ our Lord.

And through knowing this Jesus, as King, Saviour and friend, we have received grace (not a burden, law or debt). For Paul it meant the great joy of “bringing about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations” (v5). And thus he addresses the church of Rome (v7), and we begin to read what John Piper called, “The Greatest Letter Ever Written”. It’s the fullest, most complete, Christ-exalting and mind-blowing unpacking of the gospel we have, and will ever have. As I go through it with you all in this little blog, I pray this;

Heavenly Father,
I thank you for your eternal Word, for Christ himself, the Lord of all. I thank you for the gospel of grace, freedom and life in Christ. I thank you for the book of Romans, and ask that as I delve into it, you might open my eyes to see Christ and his gospel in all its splendour, glory and might. Help me understand it, open my heart and eyes to hear you speaking. May I then say with Paul, “I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God” (Acts 20:24). Do this, I pray, that Christ might be magnified and glorified.
In his name pray,
Amen.

Hope you can join me for the ride,
Matt.