Bible Study Series - Romans Chapter 1

The Epistle of Paul written to the Romans

Written by the Apostle Paul to the Romans from Corinthus, sent by Phebe the servant of the church located in Cenchrea.

After reading this amazing epistle from the Apostle Paul as he was moved by the Holy Spirit, we come to a real eye opener of the messages that are conveyed to us from God. The book is dedicated to all the Saints Both Jew and Gentile detailing the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ as was revealed to our Apostle Paul.

I love this Epistle as this gives us a deep insight of what the Gospel really is, and really does challenge many modern doctrines and will force holders of modern religious doctrines to rethink about what they have been taught contrary to the word of God.

It is not certain when this letter was written but the majority of scholars believe it was written between the periods of 55AD-58AD. At the time Pagan Rome was still in power ruled by the Caesars, the diverse culture and ethnic groups consisting predominantly of Pagan Gentiles and Jews (Judaism and Christian) who had been integrated into the Pagan Rome Empire.

Let’s begin!

Romans Chapter One

Paul starts out by addressing the target audience, and mentions in verse 5 that by the Lord Jesus Christ, through him we have received Grace and Apostleship; for the obedience of faith among all nations, for his name.

In verse 15 Paul states he is ready to preach the gospel to all who are in Rome, be it Jew or Gentile.

Romans 1:16 – he states that he is not ashamed to preach the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto Salvation to everyone that believes. Through the power of God, that whosoever believes will be saved.

Romans 1:17 – makes the statement that “The Just shall live by faith”. This was delivered to the people in the Old Testament Prophet Habakkuk.

Habakkuk 2:4 “Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him: but the just shall live by his faith”

About the People who don’t believe

Verse 18 we learn that the Wrath of God abides on all unbelievers and the wicked. Those who chose not to believe will face the Great White Throne Judgement, where sentencing will occur according to their works.

Revelation 20:11 “And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them. ¹² And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.¹³ And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works.¹⁴ And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. ¹⁵ And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.”

Verses 19-20 reads that God has shown himself to them, by the invisible things of him to the creation of the Universe and the Earth is clearly shown even by his eternal power of the Godhead. When we look around at our natural surroundings it is clearly evident that all things have been created by a supreme intelligent force. A good and very interesting topic is the mathematical theory called Fibonacci sequence or numbers, those who specialise in this field are convinced that this mathematical phenomenon exists all things of nature and the principal of the golden ratio is of divine origin and that in no way this had occurred out of nothing or evolved. God is also manifest in them, in other words we are made in his image, and we are his likeness.

Because of these things, they are without excuse.

Verse 21-23 indicates that when they knew God by the evidence of his creations, they did not glorify him as God, they were not thankful either; instead, they became vain in their imaginations and their foolish hearts was darkened. They profess themselves to be wise, but became fools in their unbelief. Instead of Glorifying God they chose to corrupt the uncorruptible image of God into corruptible images of birds, beasts and creeping things; in other words they created themselves idols to worship in vain.

Verse 24-28 says for that reason, God gives them up to uncleanness; he gives them over to the lusts of their own hearts, they changed the truth of God into a lie and worshipped and served themselves more than the Creator, the Almighty, who is blessed forever. Amen.

For this cause God gave them up to their vile affections: just listen to the words God is using to describe these people; it’s very strong and expresses how God truly views the actions of these sinners, it’s not just bad it’s vile!

Describing how their women changed their natural use of themselves which is against nature: I’m tempted to list what these acts are but I want to keep this study a “G” rated as possible, but I’m sure most of you who read this can figure out the kinds of acts and behaviours that we see on the internet and X-rated material that would go against nature spoken of here.

Likewise the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lusts toward one another working to that which is not proper or appropriate, and receiving in themselves compensation of their error which was meet. The word “meet” used in the KJV bible means “fitting” or “Proper”.

So there we can see homosexuality as the subject of their actions; they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, so what does God do? God gives them over to a reprobate mind to do those things which are not convenient.

Does God make them do these things? No! God is not the author of sin and confusion.

James 1:13 “Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man:”

1 Corinthians 14:33 “For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints.”

Throughout these verses it is clearly telling us that these people rejected God and are following their own lusts according to their own desires.

But what about the verse where it says God gives them over to a reprobate mind? The term “reprobate” in biblical terms is to be “morally depraved” or “wicked”. God gives them over to a morally depraved mind; this does not mean God makes them act that way.

Let’s see if I can come up with an example, as we are born we are not born in sin we just have the nature to sin as passed down to us through Adam. A “normal” unsaved person usually has what is called moral boundaries, let’s just say there are lines that this person wouldn’t cross, this person is likened to the majority of us. Honestly speaking, we are not born mass murderers nor have the tendency to just punch someone in the head; we have a line that we do not cross.

You see, the father is in heaven constantly calling to this “normal” unsaved person, drawing them to him. However, this person decides he doesn’t want to listen and rejects God, and the more times he keeps rejecting God and follows the desires of his own heart; God will eventually reject him and gives him over to his own foolish desires, gives him over to his reprobate mind. The reason why we don’t cross that line is because the law is written in our hearts this is our moral compass.

When God gives us over to a reprobate mind, he puts us outside this line; every time we chose to follow our foolish hearts we get further and further away until our behaviour becomes so wicked we have little regards for other life. Hopefully this explanation makes sense.

Verses 29-30 gives us a list of what these vile reprobates are capable of doing, we read among them such things as being filled with:

• All unrighteousness
• Fornication
• Wickedness
• Covetousness
• Maliciousness
• Full of envy
• Murder
• Debate
• Deceit
• Malignity
• Whisperers
• Backbiters
• Haters of God
• Despiteful
• Proud
• Boasters
• Inventors of evil things
• Disobedient to parents
• Without understanding
• Covenant breakers
• Without natural affection
• Implacable
• Unmerciful

This is quite a broad but definitely not an exhaustive one describing these reprobates.

The final verse of this chapter states that they who know the judgement of God and the penalty for these actions is death, not only do they continue to do these things but approve those who practice them as well.

Conclusion

What an amazing Chapter, we learn a wealth of knew things being taught here, it touches on believers and states that the just; shall live by faith.

However, the main emphasis of this chapter is clearly directed at the unsaved. In a matter of fact, if any unsaved person who is not pricked in the heart or is convicted of their sinful nature; by reading the words in this powerful chapter, would indicate that you are in danger of being in the reprobate zone and God has given you over to your sinful, wicked, vile lusts of your own heart.

So this chapter is a chapter about self-examination, you need to ask yourself questions like, do I do any of these things?

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