Romans 1:16. For I am not ashamed of the gospel. In stating the theme of the gospel as the good news that Christ died for our sins, Paul makes a bold claim that he is not ashamed of that news. He may have had our Lord’s warning in the back of his mind (Luke 9:26). Someone might well ask why Paul could have been ashamed of the gospel. Perhaps he would be ashamed to spread the gospel because of the fierce persecution for those who had come to believe in this message. As a Jew, Paul could have been ashamed of the gospel because the Jews abhorred it as subverting the law. As an educated man he might have been ashamed because to the wise Greek the gospel was sheer foolishness. He may have been ashamed of the gospel of Christ because, by the pagans, Christians were branded as atheists, a brand no Pharisee could tolerate. This atheism was not a theoretical denial of the existence of the gods (Greek asebeia), but was a practical refusal to recognize pagan deities as truly God (Greek atheos). For those whom the Romans considered to be "Christian atheists," the consequences were severe, perhaps forced labor in mines or even capital punishment.

Although for these and other reasons Paul could have been ashamed of the gospel of Christ, there is never a hint in the Pauline corpus that he ever was ashamed. Quite the contrary (cf. Romans 9:33; 10:11; II Timothy 1:8, 11–12, 16). It is the power of God unto salvation. Paul now gives the reason why he is not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. It is the power of God, the great and admirable mystery which has been hidden with God from before the foundation of the world. The gospel, through the agency of the Holy Spirit of God, does what no amount of mere human reasoning or argumentation can do. The gospel compels men to face the reality of their own sin and guilt, the inevitability of divine judgment, and the need for a perfect substitute to make atonement for sin, if man is to survive at all. The gospel is the dynamite (Greek dinamis) which blasts away self-complacency, self-delusion, and sinful self-reliance. This nothing else can do, for nothing else is in itself the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth.

To the Jew first. Paul has deliberately proclaimed that the gospel is for everyone. He did so because there were many Jewish believers who thought the gospel was not for the heathen, the Gentile. Paul says no. The gospel is for all, it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone, without distinction of age, sex, race, or condition. But faith is the key to receiving the gospel and the gospel is to be proclaimed first to the Jew.

From the days of Abraham the Jews have always been highly distinguished from all the rest of the world in many and great divine privileges. They are the royal family of the human race. They are the rightful heirs to the Promised Land. They are the chosen nation of God. They were given the oracles of God. They had a covenant with Jehovah God. It was through the Jews that Christ Jesus came. Originally the preaching of the gospel was addressed to them exclusively (Matthew10:5–6). During His ministry on earth Jesus Christ was a minister to the circumcision only (Romans 15:8). The spread of the gospel was to begin in Jerusalem, the center of Judaism (Acts 1:8). Paul did not forget that the gospel was to be first directed toward God’s chosen nation, Israel, but the words and also to the Greek indicate that Paul was well aware that the message of the gospel is a universal message, for everyone needs it. It is not for just the Jew or the Roman citizen, it is not just for the wise, but it is for the heathen and the Roman slave as well. The gospel is open to all, it is for everyone, but there is a condition or restriction put on that everyone. That restriction is faith. The gospel is for all who believe. It is efficacious to everyone that believeth.

Romans 1:17. For therein links verse 17 with verse 16; "for in it," that is in the gospel, is the rightness of God revealed. This explains why the gospel is the power of God.

The gospel is "dynamite" because through it the righteousness of God is revealed. Righteousness is that aspect of God’s holiness which is seen in His treatment of His creatures. Simply, righteousness is how God treats us. Jesus Christ is our righteousness. He is how God treats us. We are unrighteous, unholy, and unlovely. Yet Christ died for our sins (I Corinthians 1:30).

How is righteousness obtained? From faith to faith. Righteousness is received by faith in Christ Jesus and is in turn revealed in faithful living. Thus, in answer to the question, "How are the righteous to live?" Paul quotes Habakkuk 2:4, "The just shall live by faith." This faith implies more than mere acceptance of Christ’s righteousness for salvation. It implies a life style that is characterized by faith and righteous living. It was this truth that excited Martin Luther and initiated the Protestant Reformation (1:18).

Romans 1:18. For the wrath of God is revealed. God’s attitude toward the sin of mankind is not one of tolerance. He does not simply hold man accountable for what may be reasonably expected of him in view of man’s nature as a sinner. If God did, His holiness and purity would be soiled by complicity with our guilt. God hates man’s sin. His wrath is a holy aversion to all that is evil. Wrath is as essential to divine righteousness as love and mercy are. God could not be free from wrath unless He were also free from all concern about His moral universe.

Against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. Ungodliness has to do with religion, our relation to a sovereign God. Unrighteousness has to do with morality, our relation to our fellowman. Ungodliness is sin against the being of God. Unrighteousness is sin against the will of God. Man is both a religious sinner (he is ungodly) and a moral sinner (he is unrighteous). The unrighteous man lives as if there were no will of God revealed. The ungodly man lives as if there were no God at all. God’s wrath is against both.

Who hold the truth in unrighteousness. The word hold (Greek katechoµ), carries the meaning of "hold down," "keep back," or "suppress." Those who are unrighteous and ungodly restrain the truth of God’s righteousness. The meaning of this word is clearly seen in the way it is used in Luke 4:42, "And when it was day, he (Christ) departed and went into a desert place: and the people sought him, and came unto him, and stayed him, that he should not depart from them." Paul contends that the heathen have had the righteousness of God revealed to them, yet they suppress the truth of His righteousness for they are ungodly and unrighteous.

Romans 1:19–20. The apostle now anticipates the question: "If these ungodly men do not have full knowledge of God, are they then really lost?" The key word in Paul’s answer is the first word of verse 19, Because. Paul will now present two lines of argument which will prove that the condemnation of the sinner does not rest upon the depth of his knowledge of God but upon what use he makes of that knowledge. That which may be known of God is manifest in them. Paul’s first reason that the heathen are lost (or any man who willingly suppresses the knowledge of God) is because of the revelation of God in nature. Man has a sufficient knowledge of God to make him responsible to God. That knowledge arises from the fact that the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen (cf. Psalm 19:1). Man’s mind is capable of drawing obvious conclusions from effect to cause. To the animals below us the phenomena of nature may just be a spectacle before their eyes, but make no impression on their minds. But to man, they have a language, a communication. They awake wonder, awe, a basic idea of God and His righteousness. Even his eternal power and Godhead. Nature does not simply give the impression that God is an abstract principle but a real person, the Supreme Person, transcendent above His creation and not part of it. The testimony of nature alone is sufficient to lead man to an understanding of the personal, righteous nature of God, so that they are without excuse.

2. The heathen have clearly rejected God. 1:21–23.

Romans 1:21–23. Paul’s second line of argument is that the heathen are lost because of the revelation of God to the conscience. They glorified him not as God. As if the natural world around us isn’t enough, God has planted in the heart of every man the knowledge that there is a righteous God. Though the heathen knew that He was God and deserved to be glorified, they willfully chose not to glorify Him as God. They did not ascribe to His person the holiness, perfection, and sovereignty which are His alone. Neither were thankful. To add injury to insult, the heathen accepted the good things of nature from the hand of God, but were not thankful for them. But became vain in their imaginations. In order to suppress the witness of the ordered structure of the universe, and the innate testimony of the conscience, fallen man had to develop a reasoning process of imagination. This reasoning is described by God as vain because the whole structure of man-made philosophy is devoid of divine truth and therefore invalid. Thus, by suppressing the truth of God and believing their man-made falsehood, they plunged their foolish heart deeper into darkness. When they exalted their human reasoning and paraded their wisdom before their peers, they acted as fools. The foolish heart is not one deficient in intelligence but one deficient in the moral understanding of who God is.

Laboring under the handicap of this extreme deficiency, the heathen changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image. By creating a god suitable to their own fallen conception of deity the heathen have violated the first commandment. They have devised their own concept of divinity and placed it above the one true God. Made like corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things. More than just conceptualizing what they thought God ought to be, the heathen actually created animal-like images of their concept of God. In so doing they violated the second commandment.

The apostle has thus given two reasons why the man without God is lost and deserving of condemnation:

1. because of the revelation of God in nature (vss. 19–20); and
2. because of the revelation of God in their conscience (vss. 21–23).

The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all who suppress the truth of these two witnesses. To the heathen who does not suppress this fundamental light, the Lord Jehovah grants additional enlightenment of His person. But whoever is guilty of suppressing the available truth about God does not receive light unto salvation.

3. The heathen have clearly become reprobate. 1:24–32.

Romans 1:24. Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness. Ungodliness and unrighteousness have a definite terminal point and that is idolatry. The word wherefore indicates that the retribution to follow finds its ground in the antecedent sins and is therefore justifiable. Because the heathen participated in idolatry, God gave them up to uncleanness. As seen by Paul’s usage of this term elsewhere (cf. II Corinthians12:21; Galatians 5:19; Ephesians 5:3; Colossians 3:5; I Thessalonians 4:7), uncleanness means sexual aberration by which they would dishonor their own bodies between themselves.

Romans 1:25. Who changed the truth of God into a lie, Suppression of the truth which God gave to the heathen became the basis for their idolatry and thus they worshiped and served the creature more than the Creator. They degraded themselves in that which they worshiped and exalted those things created to a higher position than the One who created them.

Romans 1:26–27. For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections. These vile affections (Greek patheµ atimias) were passions of infamy. The apostle goes on to explain that their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature. Sexual perversion always accompanies idolatry. And likewise also the men … burned in their lust one toward another; men with men. Homosexuality is likewise the result of idolatry. Although today the world seeks to popularize and legitimize homosexuality, nevertheless it is despicable to God and condemned by Him. Increased homosexuality is a sign of the soon return of the Lord (II Timothy 3:2). God never overlooks this blatant misuse of the body and consequently those who have engaged in this perversion receive in themselves that recompense of their error which was meet.

Romans 1:28. God gave them over to a reprobate mind. The word reprobate means "unapproving" or "undiscerning." Since they had suppressed the truth of God revealed to them, the heathen did not retain God in their knowledge and consequently, for the third time in almost as many verses, the apostle records that God gave them up (or over) to what they wanted all along. When He did so, the results were disastrous. The effects of their abandonment result solely from the corruption of the human heart; this cannot be blamed on God.

Romans 1:29–31. Being filled expresses (by the Greek perfect tense) that the heathen were not simply tainted by the catalogue of sins that follow but were in fact saturated with them. Thus the ugly character traits listed as the result of abandonment by God include: unrighteousness, or injustice (Greek adika) fornication, wickedness (Greek poneria), covetousness (Gr pleonexia, grasping for more than is needed), maliciousness (Greek kakia, intending evil toward others), … whisperers, Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, Without understanding, covenant-breakers, without natural affection … unmerciful. This gallery of iniquity was not only true of the first-century heathen world but reads much like our newspapers today.

Romans 1:32. Who knowing the judgment of God … do the same, … have pleasure in them that do them. The heathen world is not unaware of God’s displeasure with these activities. Therefore, fully cognizant of the consequences of their sin, they continue to defy the Lord God of heaven and take great pleasure in keeping company with those who do the same.

Paul’s conclusion is that the heathen are never without a witness to the presence and personality of God. They have the witness of nature and the witness of their own conscience. However, the heathen have deliberately suppressed these witnesses to the truth and have consistently opted for a lie in place of the truth. They have chosen the course of idolatry, which is always accompanied by debauchery. Thus, God has revealed His wrath from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth of God. In addition, God has given them up to idolatry, to passions of infamy, and to an undiscerning and unapproving mind. Are the heathen lost? Yes, the entire heathen world is lost, deserving condemnation, desiring evil, and desperately wicked.

B. The Need of the Moralist. 2:1–16

 

1. Condemned by his own judgment. 2:1

 

Romans 2:1. Therefore thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judgest. In the last chapter Paul painted a picture of the deplorable condition of the heathen. The apostle knew, however, that there would be a whole class of men who would say "amen" to what he had said about the heathen. These were the self-righteous moralists. So Paul expands his argument to show that all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men (1:18) includes the moralist as well as the debauched heathen. The moralist is inexcusable when he judges the heathen for sin but is blind to his own sin. He only condemns himself when he condemns another. For thou that judgest doest the same things. It is obvious that the moral man was not involved in the sexual deviations of the heathen, else Paul could not call him a moral man. But he was inwardly living in an identical manner as the heathen was living outwardly. Perhaps the moral man did not commit adultery, but did he lust? Our Lord put them in the same category (Matthew 5:27–28). Maybe the moral man did not steal, but did he covet? Stealing and covetousness are listed together in Mark 7:22. Perchance the moral man did not commit murder, but did he hate? The Bible says if you hate your brother you are guilty of murder (I John 3:15). No one dares judge another while he is doing the same thing because he is then condemned by his own judgment.

Condemned according to truth. 2:2–5.

Romans 2:2. The judgment of God is according to truth. When God judges it is always according to truth or in accordance with the facts. The moralist may attempt to hide the facts, but God always exposes them. The searching eye of God always ferrets out the truth.

Romans 3–4. And thinkest thou this, O man … that thou shalt escape the judgment of God? Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and long-suffering. Since the judgment of God is according to truth, it is foolhardy for the moralist to believe that God will judge the heathen and not him. Since he does in his heart what the heathen does in his life, the moralist must withstand the same judgment as the man he condemned. To put ourselves in the position of the moralist would mean to despise God’s goodness (Greek khreµstoteµs, literally, kindness), forbearance (Greek anocheµ, the willingness to tolerate the intolerance of others), and long-suffering (Greek makrothymia, patience which forgives until there is no more hope of repentance). The goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance. In judging others, the moralist has completely missed the truth that the purpose of God’s goodness is to lead to repentance. It never occurs to the moralist that he personally needs the goodness of God just as the heathen does. He is unaware of his need for repentance.

Romans 2:5. But after thy hardness and impenitent heart. After years of glossing over his personal sin and guilt, the pride of the moralist will not allow him to have a change of mind (Greek metanoia) which is repentance. Thus his pride and sinful heart stockpile the wrath of God so that in the day of wrath, the day of God’s righteous judgment, the Lord God will deal as justly with the moral man as he does with the heathen.

References Cited by Kroll:

Barnhouse, Donald Grey. Exposition of Bible Doctrine Taking the Epistle to the Romans as the Point of Departure. 10 vols. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1952–1963.

Barth, Karl. The Epistle to the Romans. Trans. by E. C. Hoskyus. London: Oxford University Press, 1933.

Bruce, F. F. The Epistle of Paul to the Romans. In the Tyndale New Testament Commentaries. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1963.

Calvin, John. Commentaries on the Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Romans. (Published 1539). Trans. and ed. by John Owen. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1947.

Denny, James. St. Paul’s Epistle to the Romans. In the Expositor’s Greek New Testament. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, reprinted, n.d.

Erdman, Charles. The Epistle to the Romans. Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1925.

Godet, Frederic. Commentary on St. Paul’s Epistle to the Romans. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, no date

Haldane, Robert. Exposition of the Epistle of the Romans. London: Banner of Truth Trust, reprinted, no date

Hodge, Charles. Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, reprinted, 1950.

Ironside, Harry. Lectures on the Epistle to the Romans. New York: Loizeaux Brothers, 1951.

Liddon, H. P. Explanatory Analysis of St. Paul’s Epistle to the Romans. London: Longmans, Green & Co., 1899.

Lloyd-Jones, D. Martyn. Romans. 6 vols. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1970.

Luther, Martin. Lectures on Romans. Trans. by Wilhelm Pauck. Philadelphia: Westminster, 1961.

McClain, A. J. Romans: Gospel of God’s Grace. Chicago: Moody Press, 1973.

Moule, H. G. G. Romans. In The Expositor’s Bible. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, n.d.

Murray, John. The Epistle to the Romans. 2 vols. In the New International Commentary on the New Testament. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1959–1965.

Newell, William R. Romans Verse by Verse. Chicago: Moody Press, 1938.

Plumer, W. S. Commentary on St. Paul’s Epistle to the Romans. New York: Randolph & Co., 1870.

Shedd, W. G. T. A Critical and Doctrinal Commentary on the Epistle of St. Paul to the Romans. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1967.

Steele, David N. and Curtis C. Thomas. Romans: An Interpretive Outline. Philadelphia: Presbyterian and Reformed, 1963.

Stifler, James M. The Epistle to the Romans. Chicago: Moody Press, 1960.

Thomas, W. H. Griffith. St. Paul’s Epistle to the Romans. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1946.

Vine, W. E. The Epistle to the Romans: Doctrine, Precept, Practice. London: Oliphants Ltd., 1948.

Wuest, Kenneth. Romans, In The Greek New Testament. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1956.

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