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Tag: Romans

Why Does It Have To Be This Way?

January 22, 2024 / / 0 Comments

I’m pretty sure we’ve all asked this a time or two. Why are things the way they are? Why does life have to be this way?

Now this post will teeter on the edge of being somewhat punchy. That’s not the actual intent but some things have unintended consequences that can be predicted.

We’re in a section of the Bible right now that hits at the heart of the struggles we’re seeing in the world. Paul, in the book of Romans, is addressing a group of Jesus followers and he drives right at the heart of a culture that has walked away from God.

The Roman culture was all about freedom of religion although they didn’t call it that. They had more gods than we have brands of soda. It was kind of astounding if you think about it. Everything and every part of life had a different god to worship. There was a god for politics. One for rain. One for money. One for fertility. One for…well you get the picture.

The only caveat to the whole deal was that you could worship anything or anyone you wanted as long as you didn’t claim your god was the best or only. You see you had to be open and tolerant and accepting of everyone’s beliefs. But they took it one step further than that. You were supposed to be affirming of it.

There’s a difference between loving someone in spite of what they do and encouraging the behavior they’re exhibiting. You can love someone deeply and still offer correction. As a matter of fact, if you really love someone you darn well better offer a correction if they’re showing signs of destructive, uncharacteristic, or improper behavior.

So back to Paul. In Romans 1:18-32, something you can read on your own, Paul hits on the topic of an unraveling society. The first part of the section talks about how the people had done all they could to remove God from the picture. They did things like take him out of schools, off political buildings, remove his name from currency, not allow him to be talked about in places of business.

Ok so I know that all sounds like something you might hear today and some of you are probably thinking I’m talking about today. You’re right and you’re wrong at the same time. You’re right in that it does apply to our lives today. But you’re wrong in that it really was kind of what was going on in Paul’s day, with some modernized language.

Paul is really driving home the point that society, his and ours, has walked away from God in pretty staggering ways. Then he transitions to his closing argument. This is why the world is the way it is.

You see the issue is the unraveling of the world is a direct result of society wanting to push God away. When we exchanged God for everything but God, we shouldn’t be surprised when he hands us over to the unhealthy desires and behaviors that go along with turning our backs on him.

Why is the world the way it is? People talk about same sex attraction and legalized abortion. Stories of kids wanting to change their gender. Some of these conversations make my head spin but they shouldn’t really surprise us. We’re getting exactly what we asked for here.

Actions have consequences, and we’re living our consequences right now. So why does it have to be this way? We’re just getting what we asked for, that’s why.

The Man, The Message

January 8, 2024 / / 1 Comment

The book of Romans will be our focus for the next several weeks together. Ok let’s be honest, it will be months before we get through Romans, so stick with me here. The goal of this series of posts on Romans that should post every Monday, is to fill in the gaps and kind of summarize a portion of the book each week.

We start this series by circling the runway before landing the plane in Rome. We’ll do this by getting to know the letter as a whole and who exactly wrote it. Let’s start with the who question.

Who is Paul?

Now for some of you this might be a no brainer kind of question. Paul is…Paul right? I mean he used to be Saul but Jesus met him on the road. He was blinded and Jesus changed his name to show his new identity. The name Saul meant prayed for, but Jesus changed his name to Paul which means small or humble. Yikes what a shift!

Paul starts the letter identifying himself by his new name and then gives a couple titles or offices he holds. The first one is servant of Christ Jesus. This is pretty important. He didn’t start by showing his credentials. He started by showing his humility. He’s a slave of Christ. That means his new identity is to submit to what God wants, not what Paul thinks is right in the moment.

So Paul is now a humble servant of Jesus focusing his life and ministry on the things God wants him to do. This is a huge shift in thinking and acting for Paul! It’s only after he demonstrates his humility that he says anything about this new office to which God called him.

Called to be an apostle is the next phrase we see. This is another powerful statement. There are two different ways we see the word apostle in the Bible. One is the title like you see here. He’s an apostle, just like the original 12. There are a limited number of people that fall into this category of use. I’m of the belief that this title is reserved for these 13 men.

Then there’s another way to use the term. Instead of an office or a title, we can see apostleship as a character trait. The gifting of the apostles is a way of seeing someone as a sent one that has been called by God and sent to a place for a specific purpose of spreading the gospel.

Not everyone has this kind of gifting to be certain. Going out and starting something new for the sake of the gospel takes a special breed of individual. Paul here is using the term apostle in both ways. He was called by God to the office of apostle and with the gifting of apostleship. And he takes both of these realities very seriously.

The Message

If we circle the runway one more time, we’ll focus on the second part of what’s found in the first 13 or so verses of the book of Romans. That is the message he’s about to share. And simply put, that message is the gospel of God.

The gospel of God is kind of a unique way of saying this. Normally it’s the gospel of the kingdom in Matthew or the gospel of Christ in most of Paul’s other writings. But here it’s the gospel of God which is intended to show us that all things originate from God and this is his one and only plan. There’s no plan B. There is no other option. The gospel of God is that he would send His Son Jesus for us. It’s that simple.

This gospel will be the primary focus of the entire book of Romans. And this message of the Gospel of God is for all those in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints. This designation shows us the gospel here is for the believer.

We tend to think of the gospel as the tool we use to share our faith with those around us. We act as if the gospel is something unbelievers need in order to be able to believe. And while that’s true, it’s only half true. The gospel is the only tool God gives us to deepen our faith and grow us as his disciples.

So if the church you lead or attend is focusing on discipleship and your primary tool in discipling isn’t the gospel of God, then according to Paul, you’re doing it wrong.

The man is Paul. The message is the gospel of God. Next week we’ll land the plane with the mission of the gospel.

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