Romans 1:18–32 (GW)

God’s Anger Against Sinful Humanity

God’s anger is revealed from heaven against every ungodly and immoral thing people do as they try to suppress the truth by their immoral living. What can be known about God is clear to them because he has made it clear to them. From the creation of the world, God’s invisible qualities, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly observed in what he made. As a result, people have no excuse. They knew God but did not praise and thank him for being God. Instead, their thoughts were total nonsense, and their misguided minds were plunged into darkness.  While claiming to be wise, they became fools.  They exchanged the glory of the immortal God for statues that looked like mortal humans, birds, animals, and snakes. For this reason God allowed their lusts to control them. As a result, they dishonor their bodies by sexual perversion with each other.  These people have exchanged God’s truth for a lie. So they have become ungodly and serve what is created rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen! For this reason God allowed their shameful passions to control them. Their women have exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. Likewise, their men have given up natural sexual relations with women and burn with lust for each other. Men commit indecent acts with men, so they experience among themselves the punishment they deserve for their perversion. And because they thought it was worthless to acknowledge God, God allowed their own immoral minds to control them. So they do these indecent things. Their lives are filled with of all kinds of sexual sins, wickedness, and greed. They are mean. They are filled with envy, murder, quarreling, deceit, and viciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, haughty, arrogant, and boastful. They think up new ways to be cruel. They don’t obey their parents, don’t have any sense, don’t keep promises, and don’t show love to their own families or mercy to others.  Although they know God’s judgment that those who do such things deserve to die, they not only do these things but also approve of others who do them.

Later in Romans we have the solution!

We Have God’s Approval Because of Faith

What can we say that we have discovered about our ancestor Abraham?  If Abraham had God’s approval because of something he did, he would have had a reason to brag. But he could not brag to God about it.  What does Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and that faith was regarded by God to be his approval of Abraham.”  When people work, their pay is not regarded as a gift but something they have earned.  However, when people don’t work but believe God, the one who approves ungodly people, their faith is regarded as God’s approval.  David says the same thing when he speaks this blessing: God approves of a person without that person’s earning it. David said,

            “Blessed are those whose disobedience is forgiven
       and whose sins are pardoned.
            Blessed is the person whom the Lord never considers sinful.”

 Are only the circumcised people blessed, or are uncircumcised people blessed as well? We say, “Abraham’s faith was regarded as God’s approval of him.”  How was his faith regarded as God’s approval? Was he circumcised or was he uncircumcised at that time? He had not been circumcised.  Abraham’s faith was regarded as God’s approval while he was still uncircumcised. The mark of circumcision is the seal of that approval. Therefore, he is the father of every believer who is not circumcised, and their faith, too, is regarded as God’s approval of them.  He is also the father of those who not only are circumcised but also are following in the footsteps of his faith. Our father Abraham had that faith before he was circumcised.  So it was not by obeying Moses’ Teachings that Abraham or his descendants received the promise that he would inherit the world. Rather, it was through God’s approval of his faith.  If those who obey Moses’ Teachings are the heirs, then faith is useless and the promise is worthless.  The laws in Moses’ Teachings bring about anger. But where laws don’t exist, they can’t be broken.  Therefore, the promise is based on faith so that it can be a gift. Consequently, the promise is guaranteed for every descendant, not only for those who are descendants by obeying Moses’ Teachings but also for those who are descendants by believing as Abraham did. He is the father of all of us,  as Scripture says: “I have made you a father of many nations.” Abraham believed when he stood in the presence of the God who gives life to dead people and calls into existence nations that don’t even exist.  When there was nothing left to hope for, Abraham still hoped and believed. As a result, he became a father of many nations, as he had been told: “That is how many descendants you will have.”  Abraham didn’t weaken. Through faith he regarded the facts: His body was already as good as dead now that he was about a hundred years old, and Sarah was unable to have children.  He didn’t doubt God’s promise out of a lack of faith. Instead, giving honor to God [for the promise], he became strong because of faith  and was absolutely confident that God would do what he promised.  That is why his faith was regarded as God’s approval of him.  But the words “his faith was regarded as God’s approval of him” were written not only for him  but also for us. Our faith will be regarded as God’s approval of us who believe in the one who brought Jesus, our Lord, back to life.  Jesus, our Lord, was handed over to death because of our failures and was brought back to life so that we could receive God’s approval.

We Are at Peace With God Because of Jesus

Now that we have God’s approval because of faith, we have peace with God because of what our Lord Jesus Christ has done. Through Christ we can approach God and stand in his favor. So we brag because of our confidence that we will receive glory from God. But that’s not all. We also brag when we are suffering. We know that suffering creates endurance,  endurance creates character, and character creates confidence.  We’re not ashamed to have this confidence, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.  Look at it this way: At the right time, while we were still helpless, Christ died for ungodly people.  Finding someone who would die for a godly person is rare. Maybe someone would have the courage to die for a good person.  Christ died for us while we were still sinners. This demonstrates God’s love for us.  Since Christ’s blood has now given us God’s approval, we are even more certain that Christ will save us from God’s anger.  If the death of his Son restored our relationship with God while we were still his enemies, we are even more certain that, because of this restored relationship, the life his Son lived will save us.  In addition, our Lord Jesus Christ lets us continue to brag about God. After all, it is through Christ that we now have this restored relationship with God.

GOD’S WORD Translation. (1995). (Ro 4:1-25 & Ro 5:1–11). Grand Rapids: Baker Publishing Group.