Our need for a savior Romans 1:18-32
We are told of the sin problem from the beginning of the Bible. Genesis chapter 3 explains the origin of sin, when Adam and Eve disobeyed God. The results of sin quickly spiral out of control when Cain, the first son of Adam, kills his brother. The problem of sin runs through every book of the Bible.
The law of the Old Testament is a system dealing with our sin problem. The system of law in the Old Testament tells us that God has a standard of righteousness that we can never meet. We cannot save ourselves. God is holy and we are sinners.
Romans lays out the sin problem of man like no other book of the Bible. The tragedy of sin is in full view. Sin destroys individuals, families, and societies. Romans lays out the problem and gives the solution.
This passage of Scripture lays out the seriousness of our sin and the consequences of our sin. And is there a silver lining to this great problem you may ask? Oh yes! The book tells us how we have righteousness through faith in Jesus Christ that we could never obtain through the system of the law. The fellowship with God that was lost in the Garden of Eden is restored in the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ through our faith in Christ.
God’s creation leaves us without excuse Romans 1:18-20
The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, 19 since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 20 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.
God has revealed himself through nature. What is for you the most wonderous aspect of nature? Its it the Himalayan mountains? Have you ever seen bioluminescent plankton? What about the complexities of the human brain? There are countless natural wonders that should tell you God exists. Our creation has a creator, and that creator is almighty God. The creator God revealing himself through his creation is called natural revelation. We look at the stars of the sky and we are made aware of the power of God.
People are without excuse for their sin. There are those who will suppress the truth and they will experience the wrath of God. That does not give people an excuse for their sin. God has made himself known. The wonder of the natural order known as general revelation is enough to hold you accountable for your sin.
The foolish exchange Romans 1:21-24
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. 22 Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles. 24 Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another.
People have enough knowledge of God through natural revelation to understand there is a God. But instead of seeking how do they know this God they have taken a foolish dark path that has led them to depraved thinking and actions. That has happened because they fail to acknowledge God.
Those who claim the intellectual superiority are the ones acting like fools. If there is an intelligence quotient IQ and an emotional intelligence EQ these claiming to be wise have the low spiritual intelligence quotient, I suppose we can call SQ. If a high IQ individual has turned their back on seeking God, they have become an intelligent fool. Jesus gave the parable of the rich fool, but this is a different kind of person who would be the intelligent fool.
Worship the creator, not the creation Romans 1:25
25 They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.
What is a watershed? A watershed drains all the water into a river system leading to a lake or ocean. At the great continental divide in the United States, we have two watersheds. On one side all rainfall ends up in the Pacific Ocean and on the other just nearby the water ends up in the Atlantic Ocean. This is rainfall that fell at almost the same spot yet, ended up in two drastically different places.
Worshiping the creation instead of the creator is one of those watershed dividing points. It takes you to two drastically different places. How can this happen? Let’s take an example. A farmer has a cow and during a hard time the farmer has no food to feed his family. But the cow provides milk through the whole difficult period and because of that wonderful cow and the milk provided he was able to keep his family alive. He is grateful of course. He is grateful for the cow and the provision that kept his family alive.
But it was God that provided the cow. It is God who is worthy of all our worship. This is the point of division where we are grateful that the cow provided this milk. But worshiping this cow or anything God created is misplaced worship. Almighty God alone is worthy of all our worship. Worshiping God is the truth. Worshiping the cow or any aspect of creation like a tree or the sky, is exchanging the truth for a lie. God alone is to be forever praised. We worship the creator and not the creation.
Think about how some super intellectual people follow the new age movement and worship the earth and reject God. This is foolishness to reject God.
Sin destroys us Romans 1:26-27
Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. 27 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.
This rejection of God and misplaced worship has led men and women to misplaced sexuality. God has given us a wonderful plan in the fulfillment of our sexual desires in the context of marriage.
When I was in college, we prepared to bring in an evangelist to our campus. His topic was “maximum sex.” The idea was to fill up the auditorium with a couple of thousand college students. We plastered the campus with big posters to come and here a talk on maximum sex. The plan worked and the large auditorium was packed. The evangelist explained that to experience maximum sexual satisfaction in your life that it means following God’s plan of having sexual relations in the context of marriage between one man and one woman.
Those promoting a homosexual agenda have been misled. It is misplacing right desires for sexual intimacy for a wrong expression of those desires. Any sex outside of marriage is wrong and brings long term harm. Those engaging in homosexual relations are doing so as a result of where their sin has taken them. It has landed them in a place far from the will of God.
No understanding
Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done. 29 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, 30 slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; 31 they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy. 32 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.
Once we walk down a path that leads us away from God there are so many sins, as listed here, that we can find ourselves tangled in, gossiping, slander and greed to name just three on the list. You are going to find some sin mentioned here you are guilty of. Maybe you made a promise to your mother and broke that promise. It is on this list, disobeying your parents. It is alongside being a God-hater. If it is what we consider a big sin or a small sin we have fallen short of the glory of God.
If a man is drowning it would not make a difference if the water was twelve foot deep or two hundred foot deep. That man would still drown, even if twelve feet seemed relatively shallow. A big sin or a small sin is enough to separate us from holy God.
Conclusion
God is holy and we are sinners. The fact that we are sinners condemned to wrath by God for our sin is terrifying. Romans chapter 1 is the chapter sparking the protestant reformation. There were religious monks spending hours in prayer who became painfully aware of their sin problem. They could make long religious pilgrimages on their hands and knees to a famous shrine, but there was no spiritual peace for them and there was no forgiveness of sin.
This passage of scripture has made us keenly aware that we have a sin problem. We are unrighteous. There is no amount of good works or religious ritual that will save us. The payment of our sin is death, physical and spiritual. If we die as a sinner we will be eternally separated from God. That means we will go to the place of punishment, suffering and torment. That place is hell. The payment for our sin is death, and the good news is that Jesus paid that price for us with his death on the cross.
The righteous will live by faith. No matter what kind of religious ritual you do you cannot get your sins forgiven this way. No matter how much sacrifice we ourselves make we cannot pay the sin debt ourselves. Jesus came to die for our sins.
For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive in the Spirit. (1 Peter 3:18)
We are saved through faith in Jesus Christ. We are saved when we ask God to forgive us and ask for Jesus’ death on the cross to pay the penalty for our sin. We can pray and ask for forgiveness. Here is a prayer of forgiveness you can pray.
Prayer
Dear God, I thank you that you love me and desire a relationship with me. I acknowledge that I am a sinner. I know my relationship with you is broken because of my sin. I ask you that Jesus’ death on the cross count for my sins. I ask Jesus to come into my heart and make me a new person. I want to follow you Lord Jesus with my whole heart. I thank you God that my sins are now forgiven, and our relationship is restored through Jesus Christ. Amen.
