Today, I am reading and commenting on  Romans 1-3.

After introducing himself and laying out his desire to visit the believers in Rome, Paul lays out his theology.  I find it interesting that he segues into it from talking about the faith of the believers in Rome.  Paul tells us that the gospel, the good news, is the power of God which brings salvation to everyone who believes.  The gospel reveals the righteousness of God, a righteousness which exists solely through faith.  That leads Paul to write that God’s wrath against wickedness is being revealed.  In particular, God’s anger is directed at those who suppress the truth in order to hide their wickedness.  Paul tells us that they suppress the truth because God has made His eternal power and divine nature plain to be seen and understood from what He made.  When it comes to knowing God we have no excuse.  One thing that struck me as I read this is that while Paul says “they” about those who knew God but chose not to glorify Him as God, he really means all of us, a point he makes later when he references where David in Psalms said that everyone has sinned, that all have turned away from God.  Paul writes that we exchanged the truth about God for a lie and instead of serving and worshiping God we worshiped and served created things.  So, since we did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, which He made plain in His creation, He gave us over to our depraved minds, leading us to do that which ought not be done.  If we condemn others, we judge ourselves because we have made the same mistake.  Just like those who we see wallowing in wickedness, we too rejected knowledge of God, but somehow, through His grace, we have been led to repentance.  We are in position to condemn others because we are just as guilty.  Our salvation results from our faith.  That faith will be credited to us as righteousness, and God will work through that to cause us to good works.  We have nothing to boast about because everything we do of value comes because God reached through our depraved minds and redeemed us.  It is through God’s grace that we gain understanding and learn to love, have mercy, and live with fidelity.  Before God’s grace we were full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, and malice, with God’s grace we learn to love and have mercy, and gain understanding.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.