Expound: Romans 1:24-2:29 - Part A

The righteousness of God is actually the righteousness whereby God converts a sinner. He gives to you, he imputes to you his righteousness.

You don't earn it, you don't try to approach it, you don't try to do good works in order to get it, you receive it. The full news of salvation, the good and the bad, ultimately shows us God's goodness. Today on Connect with Skip Heitzig, Skip shares how the gospel reveals God's incredible power and love.

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Visit connectwithskip.com slash offer to give online securely today or call 800-922-1888. Now, we're in Romans chapter one as we join Skip Heitzig for today's message. I remember the first time I went to the city of Rome. I had longed to go there for years.

It was a lifelong dream. You know, Rome, the eternal city, has been inhabited I think almost for 3,000 years. There were so many sites I wanted to take in and when I saw it, it really truly was spectacular. It's a modern city.

Ruins are still there though. The Colosseum, the Forum, many of the fountains, the place where Paul was incarcerated. It's a thrill to go there. Paul the Apostle also wanted to go but for a very different reason than Skip Heitzig. He had an agenda on his mind and he announced in chapter one that he had wanted to go there and planned to go there on many occasions but was hindered.

And eventually he does go there as we saw last week but not like he planned. He went as a prisoner. So God made sure that all of his expenses were paid by Caesar and he became a prisoner taken on a grain ship from Caesarea and sailed to Rome where he stood trial before Caesar Nero. Now, I wanted to go to Rome. Paul wanted to go to Rome. Probably you wouldn't mind going to Rome but it's difficult for us to really understand the kind of anticipation and stirring in the hearts of ancient people when they thought of Rome. Rome in the ancient world was the center of the world.

It was the center of civilization. Interestingly, it had become by the time Paul writes this a center of Christian faith. And we say it's interesting because it's a church that though Paul writes to it, Paul never had gone there.

Paul never established a church in Rome like in so many other places. And we saw last week that probably a church was started as a result of the visitors to Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost when the church was born in Acts chapter 2. Because there's a listing of all of the various groups of people from around the world that had been at the feast in Jerusalem. And it says, visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes or converts to Judaism.

So there were people from all over the world. They saw the Holy Spirit and heard the Holy Spirit poured out in that city. They went back to Rome, no doubt started some kind of a Bible study, some kind of an evangelism group, whatever. But by this time a church has been established and is growing. Now by the time the apostle does go there in the 28th chapter of the book of Acts, he will be placed under house arrest.

He will give home Bible studies from that place and the gospel will be firmly established even more. We, last week, I purpose, I told you to go through chapter 1 and 2 with you. We made it through chapter 1 verse 23.

So I didn't make it. But we always say it doesn't matter because we always pick up where we left off and we mosey on from there and stop when the clock has run out and then pick it up the next week. But eventually we are going to make it, God willing, if the Lord does not come back before then, we'll make it through the entire book. There is a theme.

I don't want you to lose track of the theme we announced last week. The theme of the book of Romans is the righteousness of God revealed in the gospel of Christ. The righteousness of God revealed in the good news, the gospel, the good news about Jesus Christ. Now I told you last week that when Martin Luther was an Augustinian monk and he heard that phrase, the righteousness of God, it really bothered him. Because he took it to mean, not having really studied the book of Romans yet, he took it to mean that God is ready for us to live. God is righteous and nobody can approach that kind of level of righteousness. So in God's righteousness, he's going to judge the world. Then he read the book of Romans as he studied it and he came to that beautiful section here in Romans chapter one, the just shall live by faith.

He says the righteousness of God is actually the righteousness whereby God converts a sinner. He gives to you, he imputes to you his righteousness. You don't earn it.

You don't try to approach it. You don't try to do good works in order to get it. You receive it. So he confers his righteousness whereby when you believe in him you are made right with God. That's the idea of righteousness.

You are made right with God. So it is a term, the word righteousness, found in this book no less than 60 times. Righteousness. I know that sounds like an old-fashioned word.

You may want to translate it right. It is being right with God. In right standing before God.

That's the idea and it is used some 60 times. I know we ended in verse 23 but I did, I want to go back kind of overlap just a little bit to underscore this idea of the righteousness of God and the gospel of Christ. So look again at verse 16, for I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. It is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes.

For the Jew first and also for the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed. So the righteousness of God is revealed in the gospel of Christ.

That's the theme. It is revealed from faith to faith as it is written the just or the righteous or those who are right with God or right before God the just shall live by faith. So eternal life is not earned, it is received. It is given by God as a free gift.

It is not a fee, it is for free. It is not produced by us, it is received by us and produced by God. Now beginning in verse 18, that theme is introduced. Remember what I told you last week that the book of Romans can be divided into four distinct sections. Section one the wrath of God, section two the grace of God, section three the plan of God, section four the will of God.

And I gave you those divisions last week. He begins in verse 18 by saying for the wrath of God is revealed. That's the first section of the book. After the introduction the preamble comes the first major theme, the wrath of God is revealed.

Okay so this is going to help you when I tell you about the audience that he is writing to. Paul is writing in his mind to an audience that he can see in his mind comprised of three different groups of people. Group number one, you're out and out pagan. Now I know that's sort of an ancient term, it is even seen as an offensive term, but did you know the word pagan was devised by the Christians in the fourth century to describe Romans? Unbelievers, gentile, largely gentile unbelievers, non-Jewish unbelievers. So he writes to the the pagan world, that's one group. The other group that Paul is writing to are the moralists. The moralists aren't quite pagans, they may be Jewish, they may be gentile, they have some higher standard of living than the pagans do. And then the third group are the religionists. And the religionists are people who trust in their religion, their self-righteousness.

I do this, I do that, I keep these rituals, I keep these regulations, my father and mother raised me this way. And based upon their background and their religious upbringing, mostly Jewish people, Paul writes, so to pagans, to moralists, and to religionists. And he begins by addressing the pagans, then he goes on to the moralists in chapter 2 verse 1, then around verse 17 of chapter 2 to chapter 3 verse 16, right around there he speaks to the religionists. Then he writes to everybody and he says that the whole world may be guilty before God, that every mouth may be stopped. So what he wants to do is show you and I, whether you are a garden variety pagan, or just a moralist person, moral upbringing, high standard, or you're a very devout religious person apart from Christ, you're all condemned. There is no hope apart from the righteousness of God in the gospel of Christ.

So he paints a very dark picture to begin with. The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness. He wants you to know why the righteousness of God is necessary. And here's why the righteousness of God is necessary. The righteousness of God is necessary because the unrighteousness of humanity is a reality. Because we are unrighteous and there's nothing we can do to be right before God, the only hope is for God to impute to you, give to you, His righteousness. So that's the picture that he paints. And he's very, very upfront about the judgment. If you're familiar with Romans 1 and 2, it's like, wow, boom, boom, he's punching you in the spiritual face. And the reason he is doing that isn't to make you feel bad, but to make you see that God is good. And he's so good that he takes a paganist or a moralist or a religionist once they admit that there's no hope and says, you know what, there is hope. I'm going to give you a righteousness you can earn by yourself.

I will confer it on you. Remember, Paul said he is a debtor, right? I'm a debtor both to the Greeks, the barbarians, the wise, the unwise. I owe it to the world to tell them the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.

So he tells the whole world the truth. What would it be like if you had a postal worker, a mail carrier, a mailman, or a mail woman? Well, I'm sorry, that didn't quite come out right, but a mail-delivering person who only wanted to deliver good tidings. Just good news, just happy news. So your mail carrier sees that your house is going to be foreclosed because you have an envelope and on the outside it says, notice of foreclosure.

That's stamped on the front and then your name is on the address and the post carrier says, you know, I'm not going to deliver this letter. I'm going to throw it away because it's going to make the person who owns a home feel really sad, feel really bad. I don't like making people feel sad. I only want to deliver happy news, so I'm going to throw it away.

Well, he or she is not being faithful to their calling. Or if the doctor said, yeah, you know, the radiologist's report is positive and you have a month to live, your cancer is so advanced. But I don't want to tell the patient that, it's going to make him cry.

So I'm going to pat him on the back, tell him to take two aspirin and go home because I want to make him feel good. Paul is not that kind of guy. He is a debtor. I owe it to people to tell them the whole truth. So here's why God's righteousness is so necessary because man's unrighteousness is such a reality. And so he paints that dark picture.

Here it is. For the wrath of God is revealed, verse 19, because, and we read a few of these verses and then stopped, because what may be known of God is manifest, shown, revealed in them, for God has shown it to them. For since the creation of the world, His invisible attributes are clearly seen, they're unmistakable, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so they are without excuse. The apostle was talking about something we call general revelation. God has revealed Himself generally to the world, by the world itself, by the world itself. You look around, you look around at the universe, the earth, the biosphere, the cosmos that we live in, it looks like a finely tuned place that we are in, and so you concur by looking around.

This design must have had a designer. There must be a God, a God who loves people and has ensured that they can live in this environment. One will lead you to the other, and Paul is saying it has. God has revealed Himself generally. And I even quoted last week that psalm, Psalm 19, where David said, the heavens declare the glory of God.

The firmament shows His handiwork. Day into day they utter their speech. Night into night night into night they reveal knowledge. There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard. So the idea is there's not a person on the planet that has an excuse.

You live in the jungle, you live in the desert, you live by an ocean, you live up in the mountains. There's enough information in the physical world by general revelation to make a thinking person realize with great obviousness that there is indeed a God. So he says, verse 20, they are without excuse because although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God nor were thankful, but they became futile in their thoughts and their foolish hearts were darkened. In other words, at some point in pagan history, there was a deliberate refusal to acknowledge the revelation of God. And so when they did that, when they shut down that revelation, their moral capacities were darkened. They had reduced the level of God to be like people. They made images. They made God to look like images of people. They made little statues and they worship those images.

That's idolatry. So they're made in the image of God, but they're making God in the image of mankind, of humans. So they're turning away from the revelation of God and reducing God to their level.

So their morals were darkened. And notice in verse 21, it's interesting because he just sort of throws this in, but I don't want you to miss it. So when they're turning off the revelation of God, it says, nor were they thankful. Now that makes sense because if you deny God, if you start denying God and say, well, that's not God and there's no evidence of God, then pretty soon there's nobody to thank.

You've ruled God out. So you're not a thankful person. This is why, as believers, we should make it a point, a habit, to be thankful on a daily basis, to be reminded, God is good. God has given me breath. God has sustained me. And in the very least, thank you, Lord, for that. Thank you for another day. Now, some of you may roll your eyes and say, Skip, what are you in the dark? Don't you know this whole year has been a pandemic and an economic freefall? What is there to thank God about?

Well, I'm glad you asked. Let me tell you a little story. In World War II, when the 10 booms family was arrested for hiding Jews in their house and they were taken to the concentration camps, when Corrie 10 Boom, as a young girl, and her sister Betsy were placed in a concentration camp as punishment. They went from one concentration camp to another concentration camp to the worst of all, Ravensbruck, the worst that they had experienced.

And while they were in Ravensbruck, the barracks were overcrowded and flea infested. And yet, one morning, Corrie and Betsy 10 Boom, as sisters, were having their little devotional Bible study together in prayer time. And they happened to be reading that day, 1 Thessalonians, chapter 5, verse 16, 17, and 18. Rejoice evermore, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. Betsy closed her Bible, looked right into the eyes of her sister Corrie, and said, Corrie, we need to stop right now and thank God.

Corrie said, I won't do it. I refuse to thank God. I'm in a concentration camp, have you noticed? This place that we're sleeping in is flea infested, what, thank God for the fleas? That's what she said, thank God for the fleas. Yet, what they noticed, unlike the other concentration camps, is they had a certain freedom in Ravensbruck to have prayer meetings and Bible studies, and they didn't know why. Till months later, they were discovered, the reason is, the guards refused to come into their barracks because of the fleas, which awarded them a certain freedom for prayer and Bible study. What, thank God for the fleas?

Uh-huh. Nor were they thankful, but became futile or empty in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools. The word fools is a very interesting word in Greek, moros.

You know what that sounds like? It's exactly where the word comes from, morons. Professing themselves to be wise, they became morons.

And they changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man and birds and four-footed beasts and creeping things. It's ludicrous. It's even hilarious, were it not so eternally sad, how people look around at this universe and they don't get it. And they say, yeah, it's amazing how everything just so happened to be the way it is.

It's just one of those fortuitous occurrences of accidental circumstance. Really, you're telling me it just so happened that the temperature of the sun is 12,000 degrees Fahrenheit, and that the earth is 93 million miles away from the sun, giving us the temperatures that we enjoy on the earth? If the earth was as close as Venus, we would all burn up. If we were as far away as Mars, we'd all die of, we'd freeze to death.

If we were as far away as Mars, we'd all die of, we'd freeze to death. You're telling me that just so happened. You're telling me it just so happened that the earth spins on its axis 365 and a third times as it makes its journey around the sun.

Why? Why not 30 times? If it was 30 times, our seasons would be 10 times longer than they are and life couldn't be sustained on this planet. The alternate freezing and burning would be too much, but it just so happened.

And what's really wild, it just so happened that the earth is tilted on its axis 23 degrees, which gives us those four seasons that we do enjoy. That's Skip Heitzig with a message from the series Expound Romans. Now we want to tell you about an opportunity you have to take your knowledge of God's Word to a deeper level. It's never too late to start taking classes in biblical studies. Here's Calvary College student Timothy. Calvary College was an answer to prayer for me. I was at a point in my life where I longed for more of God and His Word. Calvary College was the next step in that direction. An education from Calvary College will impact your spiritual life for the rest of your life. Apply now at calvarychurchcollege.com. The Word of God has the power to change lives forever, and we want to invite you to help take the Bible-based teachings you love to more people around the globe with a gift of support today.

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Thank you. Come back tomorrow as Skip Heitzig shares why following God's will and commands nourishes your faith. Make a connection, make a connection at the foot of the cross and cast all burdens on His Word. Make a connection, a connection. Connect with Skip Heitzig is a presentation of Connection Communications, connecting you to God's never-changing truth in ever-changing times.