Why did Paul write Romans 1?  That is the question I ask as I read it.

 

Romans 1  18 The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men 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 men are without excuse.  21 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 mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.

 

On the road to Syria–on his way to kill and exterminate Christians–with the world at his command….Paul was radically changed and became part of the greatest “religious” movement of all time……..

 

And so why, as the Jesus movement had its strongest momentum, did he need to write that?

 

Perhaps it was for December 23, 2017.

Perhaps it was for you and I to read it today……..

Perhaps it was so that we could build a foundation of change.

 

I know that God’s Word if for all people, for all times, and for all seasons……but I never cease to be amazed at the application it has on the RIGHT NOW.  And this verse is for the RIGHT NOW.

 

You see, we live in a different season……and in our season people need to hear what Paul wrote so many years ago……in my going there yesterday I began to be convicted that I needed to write that AFTER telling Paul’s story with Jesus and Jesus’ offer to all man…….So, today, I want to write to those who have accepted that offer and how we must move forward with Paul’s challenge.

 

You see…..There is a movement on the other side of the one Jesus started….a movement that has been going on since the moment that Jesus came……It is the “No God” movement.  When the enemy found out we could Know God, he countered and schemed with the “No God Movement”.  It is the idea that we came about by accidental process, that intelligence “spawned itself” out of chaos.  It is to think that something intelligent and with great order came from something random and accidental…….

 

We know better…..and Paul is saying just that:  “Professing to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of God for a lie.”

 

We are created beings…..

Fearfully and wonderfully made….

Born as an image of God….

Full of sin….

And in dire need of a Savior….We covet, we steal, we lust, we crave, we lie, we worship idols, and we fail miserably at all we aspire to be…..

 

Until we meet Jesus.  When we meet Jesus….He kills that part of us and we are born again.  God tells us that we are “being made holy” to remind us that we are free from sin but that we are not perfect—that He is not done with us yet.  That being said, we are free…..

 

But here is the TRUTH that all of us must grasp:  We are not called, by Him, to judge the world.  We are called to reconcile the world and to walk in a ministry of reconciliation.  (2 Corinthians 5:18  All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation)

 

We are called to be ministers of the new covenant….to deliver the good news to the lost…….

 

So when you go to do so, what does God say we will encounter?  We will encounter EXACTLY what was written earlier—–a people that Covets, Steals, Lusts, Craves, Lies, and Fails….a people that fails miserably……

 

Don’t judge them.  Love them.

Give them a chance to “be made holy” by a God who can do it.

 

Love them like Christ did you.

 

It is the only way that we can get to:  Thy Kingdom Come…..which, by the way, is the first thing you pray for when you say the Lord’s prayer.

 

In The Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

 

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Coach J