Romans 1: Greetings & Gospel beginnings

• v.1-7 Opening Salutations
• v.8-15 Paul’s Longing to Visit Rome
• v.16,17 The Nature of the Gospel
• v.18-31 God’s Wrath Against Sinful Humanity

v.1-7 Opening Salutations

v.1-4 Paul introduces himself and the gospel

v.1 Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God—

v.2 the gospel he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures

v.3 regarding his Son, who as to his earthly life was a descendant of David,

v.4 and who through the Spirit of holiness was appointed the Son of God in power by his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord.

[Note: Paul introduces himself, Christ’s servant, an apostle called to preach the good news, the gospel about the Son of God seen in the Old Testament prophets. This Son’s context was a descendant of David but shown to be the Son by his resurrection.

v.5-7 Paul’s call to the Gentiles, including the Romans

v.5 Through him we received grace and apostleship to call all the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith for his name’s sake.

v.6 And you also are among those Gentiles who are called to belong to Jesus Christ.

v.7 To all in Rome who are loved by God and called to be his holy people: Grace and peace to you from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.

[Note: Through Christ came God’s grace to enable Paul to be an apostle to call Gentiles to faith, of which the Romans are part. Thus he now addresses them, desiring God’s resourcing for them.]

v.8-15 Paul’s Longing to Visit Rome

v.8-10 Paul’s praise and prayers

v.8 First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is being reported all over the world.

v.9 God, whom I serve in my spirit in preaching the gospel of his Son, is my witness how constantly I remember you

v.10 in my prayers at all times; and I pray that now at last by God’s will, the way may be opened for me to come to you.

[Note: I thank God for you as I hear about your faith and God knows how I frequently pray for you and now that I might be able to come to you.]

v.11-15 His intentions and frustrations

v.11,12 I long to see you so that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to make you strong— that is, that you and I may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith.

v.13 I do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, that I planned many times to come to you (but have been prevented from doing so until now) in order that I might have a harvest among you, just as I have had among the other Gentiles.

v.14 I am obligated both to Greeks and non-Greeks, both to the wise and the foolish.

v.15 That is why I am so eager to preach the gospel also to you who are in Rome.

[Note: I want to come to bless you with the gifting that God has for you. I’ve often wanted to come but have been prevented. I come to all men, the educated and not educated, this is why I’m so eager to come.]

v.16,17 The Nature of the Gospel

v.16 For 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.

v.17 For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed—a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.”

[Note: This Gospel is God’s power bringing salvation to both Jew and Gentile, bringing right living before God, expressed through faith, just as the scriptures say. [Hab. 2:4]]

v.18-31 God’s Wrath Against Sinful Humanity

(Stage 1: turning from the obvious truth)

v.18,19 The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them.

v.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.

v.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.

[Note: But the Gospel begins with bad news – God is angry about godlessness and wickedness, because people should be able to learn about Him from the world. From the beginning, His nature is obvious when you observe the earth, so people inherently knew of Him, but instead turned from Him, failed to glorify Him and thank Him, and so became stupid.]

(Stage 2: turning to worship idols)

v.22,23 Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles.

[Note: Although they thought themselves clever, they weren’t as they turned from God to idols.]

(Stage 3: God’s threefold judgement, letting them do what they want with twisted thinking and behavior)

v.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.

v.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.

[Note: So God lifted off His hands of restraint from them, and one expression of that was how they degenerated sexually, they turned from the truth and worshipped the world rather than the Creator.]

v.26 Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones.

v.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.

[Note: So again, God lifted off His hands of restraint from them and let them go their own way, so they rejected His design and distorted their desires; men and women both did it.]

v.28 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.

[Note: Turning from knowing God, a third time he lifted off His hand of restraint and let them come up with crazy thinking, ignoring His design, doing what they wanted.]

(Stage 4: sin expressed in so many ways becomes ‘normal’ across the earth)

v.29-31 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, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy.

v.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.

[Note: We see this expressed in so many kinds of evil and wrong, and although deep down their consciences know this is wrong, they still do these things and even approve them.]

Summary Conclusions

A. Introduction: v.1-17

• 1. Paul introduces himself as the gospel bringer, a gospel all about Jesus Christ.
• 2. He longs to come to them and bring God’s blessing to them but hasn’t been able to – so he writes
• 3. The gospel is about God’s way of making us righteous by faith in His plan

B. The Need of the Gospel v.18-32

• 4. The good news begins with bad news – facing the reality of our world
• 5. Mankind has ignored what the world shows us about God the Creator
• 6. We should be worshipping Him and thanking Him but we don’t
• 7. This is seen in a variety of ways – we ignore God, turn to idols and our own ways of thinking
• 8. God is angry about this because His presence and His good design should be obvious.
• 9. God’s design is good and should bring peace and harmony and blessing through life
• 10. Instead we turn away from God so He respects our self-will, even if it is folly, and so lifts His hands of restraint off us so we can run amok with twisted and distorted thinking and behavior that follows.
• 11. We so often think this is freedom, not realizing the way we live is ultimately harmful and destructive.
• 12. For these reasons we need His salvation that draws us back from the brink and transforms our lives. 

For those who may wish to make a study of this chapter, to perhaps think some more about what you have been reading, use the link below: