Thursday, December 10, 2020

Paul's letter to the Romans 1:16-18 comments: the power of God to save every one that believes

 


Romans 1:16 ¶  For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. 17  For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith. 18  For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness;

 

Ashamed can mean embarrassed and disappointed at something you wish were not so. It also meant, though, bashful and modest at the time of the translation, something you held back. It confounded you, as in caused you shame.

 

Ezra 9:6  And said, O my God, I am ashamed and blush to lift up my face to thee, my God: for our iniquities are increased over our head, and our trespass is grown up unto the heavens.

 

Jeremiah 6:15  Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? nay, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush: therefore they shall fall among them that fall: at the time that I visit them they shall be cast down, saith the LORD.

 

Jeremiah 8:12  Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? nay, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush: therefore shall they fall among them that fall: in the time of their visitation they shall be cast down, saith the LORD.

 

 

Job 6:20  They were confounded because they had hoped; they came thither, and were ashamed.

 

Psalm 40:14  Let them be ashamed and confounded together that seek after my soul to destroy it; let them be driven backward and put to shame that wish me evil.

 

 Paul is not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, not embarrassed by it, not holding back, because IT is how God can save every man and woman who believes and trusts in it. The Jews were preached to first but the Gentiles, which is what is meant by Greek as the dominant culture and language of the Gentiles among whom Paul moved. The just shall live by faith is an allusion to a verse in Habbakuk.

 

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

 

He says this again in Galatians and Hebrews.

 

Galatians 3:11  But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident: for, The just shall live by faith.

 

Hebrews 10:38  Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him.

 

An important statement is made in verse 18 for the upcoming religious history of mankind that is summarized. Man knows the truth, is willfully ignorant, and is judged based on holding the truth he knows in unrighteousness. Man knows in his heart there is a God, that he did not create himself or just happened out of nothing by accident. He also has a pretty good, if general, idea of right and wrong. But mankind, you and I included, usually choose to act as if God did not exist and that we had no clue what right and wrong were. Paul is beginning a great argument on justification, the commentators say, and this is his beginning, establishing the universal, debased condition of men and women and their guiltiness before a Holy God.

 

No comments: