JUSTIFICATION [1]:WAY OF THE GENTILES

ROMANSChapter 1: 18-32

[16.01.10]

1. FLASHBACK: CH.1:1-17: Paul’s Gospel of Salvation:1. The source of the gospel is God [1]2. Promised in the OT scriptures [2]3. Good news about God’s Son, Jesus [3]4. It is God’s power for salvation [16]5. It is for all men, Jews or Gentiles [16]6. Salvation is by faith alone [17]. God continues to save the faithful.

2.WAY OF THE GENTILES: CH1:18-32Paul turns to the universal need for the

gospel. Why do men need the gospel? -Lost without godliness and righteousness. Way of the Gentiles was unrighteous lives. [18] They face the wrath of God because of

their wickedness in suppressing the truth and living unrighteous lives

“Wrath” is a rather unpopular topic, Man wants to think God possesses only love.

Yes, God is love [Jn14:6], loves the sinner. But He hates sin and focuses His wrath

upon the sin, not the sinner. Many are bothered by a God who reacts in

wrath and judgment. I would be by One who does not. Why? His Scriptures tell of the day of His coming

judgment on the ungodly [2Pe3:7]

God had occasionally broken through human history to show His extreme displeasure:

The flood [Gen7], Sodom and Gomorrah[Gen19]Why does God want to manifest this “foretaste”

of His wrath before the real day of judgment?1. BECAUSE MAN SUPPRESSED GOD’S

REVEALED TRUTH BY HIS WICKEDNESS [18]• [19,20] Man rejected what is true; justifying

what is ungodly and unrighteous [making idols]; spurning the gospel God has revealed

• But that’s for those who heard the gospel, what about the heathens who have never heard the gospel, are they lost? 2 viewpoints

i. No, because they do not have that knowledge about the gospel of salvation.

ii. Yes, they are lost, they are without excuse [20] God has revealed Himself through His creation [His divinity, eternal power, design, order in the universe [Ps19:1,2] but they have not responded to this revelation.

They are not condemned for rejecting a Saviour they have never heard of BUT for being unfaithful to what they could know about God

When man fails to listen to the beauty of the universe that declares “God exists”, God is angry. IS GOD NOW HERE or NOWHERE?

2. BECAUSE MAN IS UNGRATEFUL & FOOLISH [21a]He is not thankful & does not know God. Even when they know God, they fail to glorify

Him; become vain in their thoughts and foolish in their hearts [21b-23]. They become idolatrous [worship of objects, images]

Modern man has his own idols: worship of self; speculative philosophies; other gods.

When man ceases to be thankful and esteems created things over Him, God is angry.

[24]As a result, 3 times God gave men up Firstly to uncleanness and dishonour to their

bodies [fornication, adultery, prostitution] [25]God abandoned them because they have

abandoned the truth about Him for the lie of idolatry, insulting and dishonouring God.

[26] For this same reason, God gave men up to erotic activity with members of the same sex.

Women became lesbians, practising unnatural sex and vile passions, knowing no shame.

Men became sodomites, burning with lust for other men resulting in disease, personality deformities, guilt [27].

-Some in the world take it as legitimate lifestyle.-But Bible says: punishable by death [Le20:13]God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah for this.

It is true some people have a natural tendency towards homosexuality.

The sin is not in having an inclination toward it, but in yielding and practising it.

The Holy Spirit gives power to overcome this and have lasting victory [1Co10:13]

The gospel offers forgiveness to them as it does to all sinners who repent and believe in Christ, confessing and forsaking the sin.

[28-31] Because of men’s refusal to retain God in their knowledge as Creator, Sustainer, Deliverer, God gave them over to a debased mind to commit a catalog of other forms of wickedness [29-31].

[32] Those who practise such sins have an innate knowledge not only of their wrongs but that they themselves are deserving of death.

They know death is God’s verdict, however much they rationalize these sins away.

But it is sad this does not stop them from indulging in these forms of ungodliness.

Worse, they unite with others to promote them and feel a sense of camaraderie with their partners-in-sin.

3. ARE UNREACHED HEATHENS LOST?

Many people do not live matching the light God gave them in creation [19-20]. They become idolaters, leading lives of vileness as heathens not acknowledging God.

But supposing a heathen does live up to the light God gave him, burns his idols and seeks the true God, what then?

Two schools of thought:

• Some believe that if a pagan lives up to the light of God in creation, God will send him the gospel light. Example: Cornelius.

[Ac10]Cornelius, a Roman, sought God who sent a vision to both Peter and Cornelius who sent men to find Peter, who also obeyed his vision which he interpreted to mean to include Gentiles into Christianity. They met and…..

Cornelius: the first Gentile to be saved

• Others believe: If a man trusts the one true and living God as He is revealed in creation, but dies before he hears the gospel, God will save him on the basis of the work of Christ although he knows nothing about this work. • God reckons the value of that work to

his account when he trusts God on the basis of the light he has received.

Those who hold this view say that this is how God saved people before Calvary

and how He still saves morons, imbeciles and also children who die before they reach the age of accountability.

But this view lacks scriptural supportThe pagans are lost, they need the gospel.

4. SUMMARY:[1:18-32] 1. People know Nature reveals God as

awesome Creator of our universe and deserves our worship but man choose to suppress the truth about His eternal power , divine nature…[19,20]

2. They refuse to recognize their Creator, worship Him or glorify Him as God [21]. Instead they resorted to worship manmade objects [idolatry] which angers God

3. While He is a God of love, in His wrath, He gave them over [24,26,28] to their sins many of which are listed in [29-31].

4. While society tends to rationalize certain sins [esp.sexual perversions], remember

GOD JUDGES ALL