1. Paul’s Letter to the Romans
Romans - Its Place in the Story of Redemption
-its location in the cannon is appropriate since it lays the foundation for the relationship of man with God.
-it brings out our position before God in responsibility and in grace
-the letter teaches the total depravity of man –He must have the righteousness of God since he has none of his own.
-our sins are forgiven
-sin, the old nature is condemned
-it deals with the special promises made to the Jews
-it also establishes the principles of Christian practice, the morality that is the fruit of the light and revelation that is given by Christianity.
-it views the Christian as in this world, we are viewed as justified and having life in Christ but not viewed as risen with Him
-refer to outline handout.

2. Job’s 4000 year old Question.
Job, one of the earliest patriarchs of Old Testament times asked: “Truly I know that it is so: But how can a man be in the right before God?” Job 9:2
Paul answers this question for the young Christian church in Rome. It is the central issue that he addresses in the letter he sent to them in the spring of 57 AD from Corinth.

3. -many dependent on the welfare of the state.
Rome in 100AD
-4 million people.
-159 “holidays” a year.
-many dependent on the welfare
of the state.
-environmental issues were
prevalent, the Tiber was polluted with raw sewage.
-there were several major theatres with capacities of 50,000
-the Circus Maximus had seating for 250,000.
-in a 117 day period there were 4,941 gladiatorial fights to death.
-there were many pools, baths and handball courts…
-sexual perversion and promiscuity were prevalent.
-Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, 25 because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.
- For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; 27 and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.
-And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. 12 The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light. 13 Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying.
14 But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof.
-mention Suetonius and The Twelve Ceasars - their depravity.

4. The Writing of Romans – who was involved?
-authored by the Holy Spirit.
-dictated by the apostle Paul from Corinth in 57 AD.
-written by Tertius.
-couriered to Rome by Phoebe.
-written to the church in Rome, and at least 15 men and 8 women specifically named, as well as several families and house churches.
-he specifically mentions four women who worked hard for the Lord and one who was as a mother to him.
-his love for these believers is evident.
-approximately 7 years later some of these saints would be executed in the most gruesome way!
-Quotation from Tacticus as quotes in The Early Church by W.H.C. Frend pg 41
-on July 19, 64 a vast fire devastated 50% of the City of Rome. Many died and were left homeless. Suspicion fell on emperor Nero who was believed to want to rid the city of the squalor that was in plain view of his palace. Nero pinned the blame on the Christians. “Nero fastened the guilt and inflicted the most esquisit tortures on a class hated for their abominations, called Christians by the populace. Christus, from whom the name had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilatus, …An arrest was first made of all who confessed; then, upon their information, an immense multitude was convicted, …. Mockery of every sort was added to their deaths. Covered with the skins of beasts, they were torn by dogs and perished or were nailed to crosses, or were doomed to the flames. These served to illuminate the night when daylight failed. Nero had thrown open his gardens for the spectacle, and was exhibiting a show in the circus, while he mingled with the people in the dress of a charioteer or drove about in a chariot. [because of this extreme torture] there arose a feeling of compassion; for it was not, as it seemed, for the public good, but to glut one man’s cruelty, that they were being destroyed.

5. The First Sentence of the Letter.
The First Sentence of the Letter.
Jesus Christ our Lord through whom we have received grace … to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations, … Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. (1:4-7)
The Last sentence of the Letter
Now to him who is able to strengthen you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ…to all nations, according to the command of the eternal God, to bring about the obedience of faith— 27 to the only wise God be glory forevermore through Jesus Christ! Amen. (16:25-27)
Notice what features in both bookends:
-Jesus Christ our Lord (the Person central to our faith and focal point of our message)
-to bring about the obedience of faith (the goal for the good news we bring to those around us)
-[the message is to] all the nations. ( The scope of our responsibility - the message is beyond those around us but to all nations – the basis of missions.)
First Sentence
-Grace and peace are emphasized.
-the relationship with God our Father is established. [not God our King]
Last Sentence
-the eternal God – the non-material entity who brought us into relationship with Himself through the sacrifice of His Son.
-a microburst of praise fills Paul’s heart – how about yours and mine?

6. They exchanged the truth of God for the lie.
The Gospel of God and The Two Major Competing World Views of Western Civilization
Theistic World View
-God is the ultimate reality and engages and intervenes in ours.
-an open box; God intervenes in our world.
-we worship God who is outside the box but who interacts with those in it.
Secular World View
-God does not exist, matter and energy is all there is.
-a closed box; it is not open to interventions from outside.
-men worship what is inside the box
Do you get this? Can you describe what is in these slides in your own words?
How can your life be significant if matter and energy is all there is? Meaning and significance are correlated.
-how do you and I evangelize today – we have to understand these two worldviews
-in Romans the message was impacting a world that was heathen and had not known Christianity.
-it is different today! Our message is presented to a post-Christian society which is antagonistic to Christ and Christ followers. It is not cool to be a Christian and the subject of this chapter deals with why this is so. We are considered hateful and intolerant because we do not endorse the LGTBQQ2.. etc, lifestyle.
-my conversation with two of my former colleagues this Fall. They were previously on the schools staffs where I was principal and eventually became high school principals themselves. The story of Keith Martin and his multimedia slide show.
They exchanged the truth of God for the lie.

7. God
The Lie
-the Big Bang!
-all matter and life has evolved through natural mechanisms, God does not exist.
-all is essentially just matter and energy, there is no spirit, soul or mind.
-All events are a result of cause and effect or random singularities.
-man is the measure of all things.
-the “God words” right, wrong, good evil, love hate…are defined by society, there is no absolute morality.
-there is no rational basis for saying something “ought to be.”
-death is the end of man and personality.
-other gods are all within the cosmos
-god is everything
-man is reincarnated
-concept of karma
Man
-In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth and all living organisms
-God sustains all activity according to His designed laws and His personal intervention in our lives.
-God is Light and God is Love. He establishes the benchmarks of all morality. He defines what is love, hate, right, wrong, good, evil, sin, righteousness…
-He tells what “ought to be” compared to what is. He saves us through the work of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
-death is the beginning of eternity with God or in hell with the devil and his angels.
When God met Adam and Eve in the garden after they had disobeyed him and eaten of the forbidden fruit, God asked them “Where are you?” Where are you??? What Box are you in?
These diagrams represent two very different world views
-worldviews involve truth claims about reality but these beliefs are often held in pre-reflective and unexamined manner, often for emotional and intellectual reasons.
-many people fail to bring their world views into critical focus.
-a Christian world view, at the deepest level, system of truth claims or assertions about reality.
-Genesis 1 is a foundation stone in our world view.
-A world view involves at least four components, origins, ethics, the meaning of life, and destiny. Our topic today deals with origins and ethics.
-Origins - in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth!
-Ethics - ”and the Lord said, behold the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil.” –conscience
-“All scripture is breathed and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.”2 Tim. 3
Meaning -“If any man will come after me, let him deny himself and follow me… For what is a man profited if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul? … For the Son of Man shall come in the glory of his father ,,,and then He shall reward every man according to his works.” Matt. 16
Destiny “For to me to live is Christ and to die is gain..to depart to be with Christ; which is far better” Phil

8. Introduction Part A. The Gospel of God Rom. 1:1-7
The Preacher of the Gospel of God (vs. 1)
The Promise of the Gospel of God (vs. 2)
The Person (s) and Work of the Gospel of God (vs. 3,4)
The Provision of the Gospel of God (vs.5)
The Proclamation of the Gospel of God (vs.5)
The Privilege of the Gospel of God (vs. 6,7)
The Purpose of the Gospel of God (vs. 5)
This letter starts out much different than any OT book and in fact different from any other book in the Bible up to this point. It starts out with one long sentence from verses 1-7. This letter is addressed to the assembly in Rome. The church is a very different entity than the nation of Israel.
Read/Quote the first 7 verses
See slide notes

9. Called to belong to Jesus Christ
“Being, Belonging, Becoming”
They hurt you at home and they hit you at school,
They hate you if you're clever and they despise a fool,
When they've tortured and scared you for twenty odd years,
Then they expect you to pick a career…
(working-class hero, John Lennon)
This is a Ministry of Education slide where it saw the importance of every student in Ontario being characterized by these properties – however they did not have the source to provide this continuum of meaning and still don’t.

10. Introduction Part B. Paul’s Heart and His Mission (8-15) His Heart
-he is thankful for all of them and that their faith was proclaimed in all the world
-he prays for them
-he wants to visit them
His Mission
-he wants to act apostolically and confer on them spiritual gifts to strengthen them.
-he was looking for mutual encouragement. This shows his
humble spirit. This is critical to leadership.
-he was eager to teach them the truth of the whole gospel which goes beyond the elements of salvation.
-are we driven by the same passion and love that Paul had for the saints in Rome towards our brethren in the body of Christ. “To dwell above with saints I love, O that will be glory – To dwell below with saints I know, Well, that is another story!”
-Paul’s heart, Paul’s mission.

11. In Summary, Three Aspects of Christianity that are Unique
God is a personal God.
Jesus is the focal point of our message.
Grace is central to the gospel.
These three statements are unique to Christianity and are in contrast to world religions being promulgated in the society around us.

12. The Central Theme of the Letter-the Righteousness of God is Revealed
For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. 17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.” vs. 16, 17
He is not ashamed of the gospel –it is the power of God to salvation. It is the gospel of God, the power of God to salvation, the righteousness of God, the wrath of God….it was the apostle’s joy to put his God forward. -human righteousness does not exist –the righteousness of God is revealed! –it is perfect, divine and complete. -the thief on the cross was not fit for the Roman Empire but he was fit for the presence of God because of his faith in Jesus Christ. -vs. 17 is the thesis of this letter
-this is the theme of all that follows and the apostle was not ashamed of it nor should we be!
–the activity and revelation of God’s nature and of His will in grace towards man.
-the principle on which it is announced is faith! We believe in the gospel that reveals the righteousness of God. The righteousness of God is revealed to faith wherever faith exists.
-‘from faith to faith’ – on the principle of faith unto faith. On faith from first to last.
-it admits every believing Gentile on the same footing as the Jew who does not have any other entrance to it. They both have faith and the gospel recognized no other way in participating in it.
-The righteous shall live by faith.
Emphasis on righteous: Rom. 1:17
Emphasis on live: Heb. 10:38
Emphasis on faith: Gal. 3:11
 Quoted from Habakkuk 2:4

13. The Wrath of God is Revealed
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. 1:18 …
But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— 22 the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 3:21-23
The wrath of God is His anger against sin.  Revealed truth is different than derived truth.

14. Ch. 1:19-32 – The Gentile Proved Guilty Before God
-the general revelation of God in creation is rejected by the nations and therefore they are without excuse!
-their thinking is corrupt and they think they are wise but are fools. “The fool has said in his heart –no God.”
-they exchanged the truth of God for the lie!
-they gave up the glory of the immortal God and worshiped gods constructed in their own minds.
-they are bishops in their own kingdoms
7 Characteristics of Unbelief (19-23)
Many nominal Christian have a distorted view of God.
They have a embraced a belief system that embraces the existence of a god who demands little more than to be nice, with the central goal of life to be happy and feel good about oneself.[Moralistic Therapeutic Deism]
–I believe in God. I ‘m not a religious fanatic. I can’t remember the last time I went to church. My faith has carried me a long way. It’s Sheilaism. Just my own little voice. Sheila
-most have given themselves the authority to define who God is.
Top Songs from one week in 2011
-F kin Perfect by Pink;-Born this Way by Lady Gaga – an anthem for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered lifestyle.-F..K You by Cee Lo Green,-Tonight by Enrique Iglesias –Encourages promiscuity and includes adult language and content
-Among the top songs, two have the f-word in the title, and four others promote rampant promiscuity, including homosexuality and sadomasochism.
- Christian Smith – 6/10 interviewed expressed a highly individualistic approach to morality. Morality is a personal choice that is “entirely a matter of individual decision. Moral rights and wrongs are essentially matters of individual opinion in their view.” 1 in 3 said they don’t know what makes anything right or wrong. -Christian Smith – study Lost in Transition - moral choices are just a matter of individual taste. –the respondents –“it’s up to the individual. Who am I to say?” “I would do what I thought made me happy or how I felt. I have no other way of knowing what to do but how I internally feel.”

15. Therefore God gave them up to : -the impure lusts of their hearts,
-the dishonouring of their bodies among themselves,
-exchanging the truth of God for the lie,
-serving themselves rather than their creator,
3 times God Gave Them Up -this is a result of idolatry.
 5 More Characteristics of Sin -lust of their hearts –impurity -dishonoured their bodies in illicit sexual relations -exchanged the truth of God for the lie-served the creature rather than the creator
2 Thess. 2:10,11
With all wicked deception for those who are perishing, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. 11 Therefore God sends them a strong delusion, so that they may believe what is false, (the lie)
-every second $3075 is being spent on pornography
-every second 28,258 internet users are viewing pornography
-every second 372 internet users are typing adult search terms into search engines
-every 39 minutes and new pornographic video is being created in the US – its big business
-the pornography industry has larger revenues than Microsoft, Google, Amazon, eBay, Yahoo, Apple and Netflix combined.
-it is addictive in nature

16. For this reason God gave them up to: -dishonourable passions,
-the women exchanging natural [sexual] relations for those contrary to nature.
-men turning from the natural attraction for women to being consumed with [sexual] passion for one another and carrying on with all kinds of shameless acts and reaping the consequences.
The perversion of what God set up as a beautiful thing between a man and a woman in marriage.
 -dishonourable passions, -women exchanged natural sexual relations for those contrary to nature.
-men gave up natural sexual relations with women to commit sexual immorality with men and reap the consequences. (moral and physical).
-reference notes on homosexuality
-Pew Research Center Poll – incoming freshmen (2006) – 61% embrace same-sex marriage, -78% believe that abortion should be legal, 20% had no religious affiliation, were atheist or agnostic. A UCLA study in % said getting rich was one of the most important life goals, 51% said they wanted to be famous.
-marriage is seen as a mere social construct, and thus plastic
-in % of Americans approved same sex marriage – now in 2012 it is 68%
-2009 – proportion of married adults of all ages was 52% down from 72.2 % in 1960
-2011 – Pew Research Center – the share of all US adults who were married dropped another percentage point and that new marriages dropped 5% from the previous year
-as marriage rates have fallen the number of adults living together has sky rocked – doubled since 1990
-children are now more likely to have unmarried parents than divorced ones

17. -a debased mind to do what ought not to be done.
And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to:
-a debased mind to do what ought not to be done.
They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice.
They are full of
-envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness.
23 Additional Practices of The Flesh
Correspondence Theory: there is a direct correlation between truth and reality; this provides the foundation for much of evangelical theology
Coherence Theory : truth is that which hangs together as a system of thought in superior fashion to other systems of thought –a set of ideas that do not contradict each other
Pragmatic Theory: what is true is that which works –you pursue a course of action because it achieves an end result.
Democratization Theory: truth is what the majority take it to be: there is no truth outside of what the majority determines. What is true for you is true for you is true for you. What is true for me is true for me – to –what is true for us is true for us – but not necessarily the corollary, which would be “and what is true for them is true for them.”
-in the world of Wikiality there is no truth outside of what the majority determines. 51% becomes the final arbiter of reality.
-Marshal Poe in the Atlantic Monthly –“Wikipedia suggests a different theory of truth….If the community changes its mind and decides that two plus two equals five, then two plus two does equal five.”
They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless.

18. Though they know God's righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.
-a seared conscience
Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons, 2 through the insincerity of liars whose consciences are seared, 1 Tim. 4:1,2
Many believe that searching for God is like climbing a mountain – there are many paths to the summit. The Dalai Lama endorsed this concept as well as many nominal Christians. All convictions about values are of equal validity-which says in effect that no convictions about values have any validity.
-“the process of pluralisation is where individuals are confronted with a staggering number of ideologies and faith options competing for their attention. The sheer number of choices and competing ideologies suggest that no single perspective or religious persuasion has the inside track about the spiritual realm.

19. Justice is turned back, and righteousness stands far away; for truth has stumbled in the public squares, and uprightness cannot enter. 15 Truth is lacking, and he who departs from evil makes himself a prey.
Isa. 59:14,15
If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do? Psa. 11:3

20. When the enemy shall come in like a flood , the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him. Isa. 59:19
For I know that my Redeemer lives,
and at the last he will stand upon the earth. Job. 19:25