Includes a suggested introduction to the lesson, text outline and highlights, discussion questions for your group, illustrations you can share, and spiritual life applications. A video version of this overview is available on YouTube at:

INTRO:
???DISCUSSION QUESTION???
Several years ago, a well-known pastor asked this question; it might be a good one for you to open your lesson with this week:

“If you could have only one book of the Bible, which one would you choose, and why?”

That’s a pretty interesting question, with lots of good answers, right? You and your group can talk about it, and you could probably get some good input. The Psalms is my personal “favorite” book; it’s my “daily bread.” And there’s no wrong answers here; how can you go wrong with any book of scripture? But I think the case could be made that the Book of Romans might be one of the very best choices, as it gives us both the most comprehensive explanation of the Gospel in all the word of God, gives us in-depth theology — quotes extensively from the Old Testament too — but then in the latter chapters, it gives us some of the most practical, every day applications for our lives that are found in all the Bible as well. I think you could definitely make a case that Romans might be that book.

And the good news is: we are beginning a 13-session study of this book of Romans this week!

CONTEXT:
Romans was written by the Apostle Paul, to Christians at the church at Rome — hence the name of this letter. Unlike many of the letters he wrote to churches he had planted or visited, Paul had not yet been to Rome — but as he indicates in the first chapter, he hopes to come and minister there soon. In Chapter 15:25-26, Paul mentions while writing this letter that he is heading to Jerusalem with an offering from Greece for the poor saints at Jerusalem, so scholars believe he wrote Romans near the end of his 3rd Missionary Journey, possibly from Corinth, around 56-58 A.D., just before he goes back to Jerusalem, where he is arrested, and, ironically, ends up being taken to Rome as a prisoner, where he does indeed end up being able to share the gospel there for some time (Acts 28:16, 30-31) just as he had hoped!

As we mentioned in the introduction, Romans 1-11 contains the most detailed explanation of the theology of salvation through faith in Christ in the whole Bible. Then Chapters 12-16 have some of the most practical instructions on personal conduct, holiness, Christian citizenship, and more. We’ll study all these things and more over the 13 lessons this quarter.

Paul begins this letter with a typical introduction of himself as a bondservant (slave) of Jesus Christ, the promised Messiah who rose from the dead — and he says he is writing to God’s people in Rome (:7). He says he has been praying unceasingly for them, and “longs” to see them. This brings us to our focus passage for this week, beginning in :13 with Paul saying he wants to come see them so he can preach the gospel there. Our passage for this week talks about the power of the gospel, and also the need for the gospel because of man’s sinful rejection of God.

OUTLINE:

I. The Saving Power of the Gospel (:13-17)
II. The Condemning Witness of Creation (:18-20)
III. The Foolish Exchange of Idolatry (:21-25)

TEXT: Romans 1:13-25

I. The Saving Power of the Gospel (:13-17)
:13 “I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that often I have planned to come to you (and have been prevented so far) so that I may obtain some fruit among you also, even as among the rest of the Gentiles. 14 I am [a]under obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish. 15 So, for my part, I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome.16 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 to faith; as it is written, ‘But the righteous man shall live by faith.’” (NASB 1995)

In :13-15 Paul tells the Romans, I’ve wanted to come and preach to you for some time, so I can get some “fruit” among you. By “fruit” of course he means he wants to see some people saved.

This leads to :16, which is perhaps the key verse in this section: “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.” Paul says the gospel is the saving power of God. People get saved when His people share the gospel.

And he adds: “to the Jew first and also to the Greek.” In other words, this is for everyone! Jews are saved when the gospel is shared with them. Greeks/Gentiles get saved when the gospel is shared with them. The way that people get saved is when the gospel is shared, and they believe.

Verse 17 goes on to say “in it” (the gospel) the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith.” In other words, someone who has faith, shares it with someone who hears it, and puts their faith in it. Paul’s saying, this is how people are saved. He quotes Habakkuk 2:4, “but the righteous will live by his faith.” As he will go on to make very in the rest of Romans, we are NOT saved by any good works or religious deeds, but just by FAITH: putting our trust in Jesus, and what He did on the cross for us. But he emphasizes here in Romans 1, that the gospel is the vehicle, the means, for people to hear and believe. When we share the gospel, people can be saved!

ILLUSTRATION
Blaise Pascal was an amazing mathematician, publishing a groundbreaking essay on geometry when he was just a teenager, among other things. But as brilliant as he was, Pascal had no purpose. He was lonely, frequently ill, and depressed.
But when Pascal was 22, his father badly fractured his leg. Two brothers by the name of Deschamps came to set the bone, and they ended up living with the Pascals for three months. While they were there, they shared the gospel with Blaise Pascal. By the time they left, Pascal decided that he would become a Christian, and while there is more to the story, it ended up changing his life. (Josh Hawley, Manhood, pp. 152-153)

This is just an example of what Paul is talking about here in Romans 1: when we are not ashamed of the gospel, and share it, people can hear and believe.

???DISCUSSION/APPLICATION QUESTION???
“Can you tell of a time when you shared the gospel and someone believed?”
(The most recent time for me was a few months ago in the Chinese ministry here at Trinity. A young Chinese woman was in attendance that morning, and I preached on John 14:6, that Jesus is “the way, the truth, and the life.” And on my way home that afternoon someone from the ministry texted me to say that this young woman believed on Jesus while I was preaching, and told some of them afterwards. She was baptized a few weeks later, and is still attending, memorizing scripture, and growing in her faith. But it just reminded me again: when we share the word, people can hear and believe, and be saved!)

You/your group can share your own experiences. Hopefully you’ll encourage each other with your stories, to continue to share the gospel — and maybe encourage some of us to share the gospel more often than we have!

Paul says this is why we shouldn’t be ashamed of the gospel, because it’s God’s plan for how people will be saved: “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.” (Romans 10:17) People get saved when they hear God’s word and believe. That’s why Romans 10:14 says: “How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher?” By “preacher” there it doesn’t mean a vocational pastor. It just means someone who shares the word, like those two brothers did with Pascal. People have to hear the word to have a chance for the power of the gospel to be unleashed.

This is why we must share the gospel. It’s God’s plan for how people will be saved. People are not going to be saved because we update our facilities, or put in a new coffee bar, or dress and talk in a more modern way. (Some of those things are not wrong in themselves.) But people will only be saved one way: by hearing the gospel, so that they can have an opportunity to believe it. BUT WE HAVE TO UNDERSTAND: WE’VE GOT TO SHARE THE GOSPEL, FOR PEOPLE TO HAVE A CHANCE TO BELIEVE IT. We don’t know who will believe when we share. Sometimes it’s unlikely people like Blaise Pascal, of all people! Or the Apostle Paul! Or some unlikely person we’ve known. So we need to share. “Scatter it like seed,” like Jesus tells us in Matthew 13’s Parable of the Sower. Just like in that parable, some of that seed is going to find good soil, and a person will believe and be saved. That’s the saving power of the Gospel.

II. The Condemning Witness of Creation (:18-20)
:18 “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, 19 because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. 20 For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.” (NASB 1995)

Verse 18 says that God’s wrath is poured out from heaven on the unrighteousness of men. Our sin is cosmic rebellion against God, and it demands punishment. R.C. Sproul said: “When I sin I am challenging the authority, the dignity, the holiness, the power of God. It is an act of cosmic rebellion. It is an act of cosmic treason.” (“Cosmic Treason,” ligonier.org) And God, who is perfectly just, must punish sin.

Now Paul anticipates an argument which we often hear: “But what about people who don’t know to believe in God?” They say it’s not fair for God to judge them. This is what he addresses in :19 and following. He says, God has made Himself known to everyone in the world “through what has been made.”

This is what is known as “General Revelation.” “Special Revelation” is when God speaks a very specific, detailed way, through a vision, or through scripture. But “General Revelation” refers to how God makes Himself to everyone in a general way — especially through “nature” or His creation. (Thus some call it “Natural Revelation.”)

Psalm 19:1-4 refers to this General Revelation of God in His creation: “The heavens are telling of the glory of God; and their expanse is declaring the work of His hands. 2  Day to day pours forth speech, and night to night reveals knowledge. 3 There is no speech, nor are there words; their voice is not heard. 4 Their line has gone out through all the earth, and their utterances to the end of the world.” (NASB 1995)

That great Psalm says, “there is no ‘speech,’” per se, but the message (“line, utterances”) of God’s creation that witnesses to His existence and attributes go all over the world. Everyone can see them. There is no excuse.

???DISCUSSION QUESTION???
“What are some ways you can see God’s attributes, power, and nature, in His creation?”
(Examples of these are virtually innumerable. A couple of my favorite are:
— The immensity of the universe. Tim Keller told how as a young man he was confronted with these facts: “If the distance between the Earth and the sun, which is 92 million miles, was the thickness of a piece of paper, then the diameter of our galaxy would be a stack of papers 310 miles high.” Our galaxy is enormous. And scientists believe that there may be 300 billion GALAXIES of that size or more! It is incomprehensibly immense, which testifies the greater immensity and eternal nature of the God who created it all with a word!
— To switch gears from immensity to intricacy, the DNA that every one of has is one of the most powerful evidences of God.

ILLUSTRATION
Anthony Flew was for many years an ardent atheist, who often debated theists. But he shocked the world when he announced in 2004 that he now believed in God. In his book (2007) There Is A God, Flew writes:
“When the mass media first reported the change in my view of the world, I was quoted as saying that biologists’ investigation of DNA has shown, by the almost unbelievable complexity of the arrangements needed to produce life, that intelligence must have been involved.” He goes on to write:
“The philosophical question that has not been answered in origin-of-life studies is this: How can a universe of mindless matter produce beings with intrinsic ends, self-replication capabilities, and coded chemistry?” (Anthony Flew, There Is A God, pp. 123-124)

We could literally spend the entire lesson just quoting examples of God’s witness to us through His creation. A book I’d recommend that is full of these kinds of examples is Reflections on the Existence of God, by Richard E. Simmons III.

But the point is, God’s self-witness to the world through His creation is everywhere, and the weight of that witness is enormous. So as Paul writes at the end of :20, “They are without excuse.” The Greek word for “without excuse” is “an-apologetos.” “Apologeomai” means “to argue a case.” The “a” (“alpha privative”) means “NOT.” In other words, “they don’t have a case to argue”! This word was used for years before the New Testament of trying to defend a case in court while lacking an adequate defense! It’s so obvious from Creation that there is a God.

But despite all this overwhelming evidence, still men choose to reject belief in God and go their own way. What happens when they do?

III. The Foolish Exchange of Idolatry (:21-25)
:21 “For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. 22 Professing to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and [g]crawling creatures.
24 Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, so that their bodies would be dishonored among them. 25 For they exchanged the truth of God for [h]a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.” (NASB 1995)

So what happens when men reject the God they see in Creation? They turn in another direction, as we see here in :21-25.
It says “they did not honor Him as God OR GIVE THANKS.” This is significant. Ingratitude is at the heart of the rejection of God.
Owen Strachan (Reenchanting Humanity, p. 188) says: “Paganism … begins with willful ignorance, but also with ingratitude.” Tommy Schreiner says: “The fundamental sin is the failure to glorify God and give thanks.”

This is why God repeatedly instructs us in His word to give thanks” “In everything give thanks” (I Thess. 5:18) and so on. Because gratitude is central to the Christian faith. Ingratitude is the key component Paul identifies here that leads to paganism. Thus one of the most important ways we can stay on track in the Christian life is to make sure we are thankful. When we constantly give thanks, we are continually recognizing God as our Provider. It’s hard to stray if we are constantly doing that. But on the other hand, being ungrateful is a good way to get off track spiritually. Romans says here this is one of the basic problems of all mankind. It starts with ingratitude to God.

So if they don’t glorify or thank God, what do they do instead?
Verse 23 says “they exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image …”.
“Exchanged” allasso, from “allos,” which means “other.”
God made us to worship Him: “the glory of the incorruptible God.” Instead these people worship something “other.”

For what? “an image.” Jesus used this word in Matthew 22:20 of the “image” of Caesar on the Roman coin. It’s the picture of a man. Paul said instead of the living God, they worship images of:
men, birds, four-footed animals, and “crawling creatures.”
ILLUSTRATION OF THIS WORD
This week we took our grandkids to the zoo, and we went to the Herpetarium” — that’s the building that has snakes & lizards! That comes from the Greek word “herpeton” in this passage, which means a reptile or serpent. These are the things men choose worship instead of God: images of these things.

Isaiah 44 mocks those who worship images, saying how foolish it is for someone to take half of some wood to burn a fire and bake something, and use the other half of it to make into an idol to worship! He says of that man in :19, “I fall down before a block of wood!”

ILLUSTRATION
When I was on a mission trip in India, I will never forget standing on a main street in the city of Lucknow, and watching a man walk up to a little street side temple there. The man was dressed in a modern business suit, and he walked down a long sidewalk to the temple, where the image of a monkey was sitting on a throne. This man walked up to the “monkey god,” rang a bell (which I was told later he did to “wake him up”!) and he bowed down to the monkey god. I was astounded. Here was this modern businessman, in a suit of all things, bowing down to a monkey god on a throne!

This is just what Paul is talking about here: they became “fools” (twice he uses that term: “foolish heart,” “they became fools,” “exchanging the glory of the incorruptible God for an image” in the form of man, birds, animals, and crawling creatures.

Verse 25’s “exchanged the truth of God for a lie” is literally “THE lie.” “THE lie” is that there is something better than the God of the Bible to worship. It doesn’t have to be a physical idol to be a replacement for God. It can be all kinds of things.

???DISCUSSION QUESTION???
“What are some things people ‘exchange’ to worship in place of the One True God of the Bible?”
(— The text talks about idols of man, birds, animals, & reptiles. But there are many others. John Calvin famously said in his Institutes of the Christian Religion (1.11.8) that “the human heart, so to speak, is a perpetual factory of idols.”
— money/material things are the virtual god of many people
— self is always a good candidate! We like to put the “big I” on the throne!
— Owen Strachan in Reenchanting Humanity says that neopaganism has come to replace God for many, and it “spiritualizes sexuality” — in other words, sex becomes god. This is certainly how many people today live.
— Carl Trueman in his book Strange New World tells how “expressive individualism” has come to be the new “idol” in many people’s lives today. They believe that one should be free to express whoever/whatever they think they are, and everyone must bow down to this idol and affirm it.
— many make the attention/adoration/popularity of others their god

And so on. You/your group can think of many. The point is, mankind has rejected the One True God, and tried replaced Him with something else. The sad thing is, it never works. It never ultimately satisfies: Augustine of Hippo wrote:
“You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in You.”
Only in the one true God will our souls ever find true peace and satisfaction.

CONCLUSION:


Owen Strachan writes in Reenchanting Humanity:
“Today, the absurd grows increasingly normal. Resistance seems futile. Hope for real change seems in short supply. Sinners seem too far gone for the average church to reach.
In times such as these, we need to go back. We need to remember the power of the gospel, and the importance of Biblical preaching.”

Strachan reminds us that this neo-paganism isn’t really “new.” Paul faced all these things in Corinth, a totally debauched city. I Corinthians 6 lists all the kinds of immorality the citizens of Corinth practiced — to “Corinthianize” meant to live a debauched life! — and he says those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But then he adds: such WERE some of you, but you were washed, you were changed, by the gospel of Jesus! How did this change take place? When they heard the life-changing truth of the gospel that Paul proclaimed in Corinth, that immoral city. The gospel saved and changed those in that debauched city, who heard and believed.

The power of the gospel has not changed. It will still save those who believe. But they won’t hear, and won’t be changed, unless we believe in that power enough to share it with others. So let’s not be ashamed of the gospel in our neopagan society. Let’s be as bold for the truth of God, as the pagans in our society are for their godless sin and rebellion.

Let’s ask God’s Spirit to fill us, and help us to share His life-changing gospel, with someone in our culture this week!

---

— Remember there is now a “PRINT” button at the end of the lesson on my blog, that you can hit to print out the lesson in its entirety.

— If you’ll type your email address in the “Follow blog via email” blank on my blog home page, WordPress will automatically send you next week’s lesson and you won’t have to search for it each week.

— And if you write something in the Comments on my blog or YouTube, my commitment is to pray for your and your group and any special request you make, by name this week.

Per my licensing agreement with Lifeway:

— These weekly lessons are based on content from Explore the Bible Adult Resources. The presentation is my own and has not been reviewed by Lifeway.

— Lifeway resources are available at: goExploretheBible.com and: goexplorethebible.com/adults-training

— If you have questions about Explore the Bible resources you may send emails to explorethebible@lifeway.com