Introduction

Welcome! Today we are starting a 5-week series based on some of the core principles and teachings found in the book of Romans. If you’re not familiar with the book of Romans:

“Romans is the most systematic and developed doctrinal book of the Apostle Paul...The probable date for the authorship of Romans is a.d. 56-58...Romans was likely written at Corinth toward the end of Paul's third missionary journey, just before he left for Jerusalem.”

This book is full of principles about living our life in response to the grace and mercy of God (given through His Son, Jesus). Specifically, we will spend the next five weeks learning about:

The Problem of Sin

The Rescue from Sin

The Pursuit of Righteousness

God Chooses Us

A Living Sacrifice

As I mentioned before, these are core principles of our faith and worthy of our study and attention. Paul is passionate about the power of the gospel, and at the very beginning of the book of Romans he says:

“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.” Romans 1:16

Paul knew, as we now do, that the gospel was meant for everyone. Jew, Gentile, male, female, slave, and free… there is no partiality in the grace of the gospel. And thank goodness, because there is no partiality in sin either. It does not discriminate or pick favorites, sin affects everyone.

And to understand grace, you must also understand sin.

“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.” Romans 1:16

Main Teaching

If you’ve got a Bible or Bible App with you today, turn with me to Romans, chapter 1. We are going to start reading in verse 18 of chapter 1. Here’s what Paul says:

[Read Romans 1:18-25]

Wow. What an incredible passage from Paul, right? He just got done encouraging people and talking about the Good News, but now he has shifted to speak about a subject we don’t often like to hear about: sin.

Sin is something we are all affected by. Back in the very first book of the Bible, God created a man and a woman. God gave them free reign over almost all of the garden they were placed in, with only one restriction: don’t eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

But even though this rule was in place, they broke it. Because the first man and woman both sinned against God by disobeying His command, each man and woman after them are impacted by the consequences of this “original sin.”

This is the reality that we are living in and Paul is writing in: all have sinned, no one is exempt.

But here’s what’s crazy: even amidst our sin, God has still revealed Himself ... View this full sermon with PRO Premium