Latest / Reformed Thinking / Not Ashamed of the Gospel: God’s Power to Save (Romans 1) | Warren W. Wiersbe

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Not Ashamed of the Gospel: God’s Power to Save (Romans 1) | Warren W. Wiersbe · Reformed Thinking

0:00
Welcome to Reform Thinking. So I want you to imagine
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something for a second. Picture yourself as a missionary
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back in May of 1738. OK, setting the scene.
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Yeah, and you are sitting in this room in London and you are
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just, I mean, you are utterly, hopelessly depressed, man.
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That is a rough place to be. It really is.
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You just sailed across the Atlantic Ocean, right?
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You survived these brutal storms, spent months in the
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colonial wilderness of Georgia trying to convert the indigenous
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tribes, and what you failed? Is completely struck out.
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Miserably, you returned to England completely broken and
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you write this sentence in your journal that shows like a
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devastating level of self-awareness.
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You wrote, I went to America to convert the Indians, but oh, who
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shall convert me? Wow, that is a brutal admission
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for someone who, you know, dedicated his entire life to
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religious work. I mean, he was ordained, he was
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highly educated, he was doing all the external actions a
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religious person is supposed to do, but internally he realized
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he possessed absolutely nothing of substance.
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So this man, John Wesley, he goes to a religious meeting on
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Aldersgate St. In London on May 24th, and he
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notes in his journal that he went very unwillingly.
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He really did not want to be there.
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Not at all, but at 8:45 in the evening, someone at the front of
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the room starts reading from Martin Luther's commentary on
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the opening chapters of Paul's letter to the Romans.
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Oh, that is a huge moment. It is, and Wesley writes that as
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he listened to that explanation, he felt his heart strangely
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warmed. In that precise moment, he
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finally trusted Christ alone for salvation.
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Which is just incredible. And the trajectory of his life,
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and really the trajectory of England, shifted overnight.
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It highlights this fascinating domino effect, you know?
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Yeah, how so? Well, Wesley's realization
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sparked the Wesleyan revival, which just swept across the
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British Isles and altered the course of Western history.
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But if we trace the dominoes backward, Wesley was listening
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to Martin Luther's commentary. And what caused Martin Luther to
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write that commentary? What altered Luther's life
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centuries earlier? It was one single phrase from
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Romans chapter one verse 17, which is the just shall live by
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faith. That phrase is what pulled
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Luther out of a crushing system of religious guilt.
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Yeah. Luther was this Augustinian monk
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who is driving his superiors crazy.
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He would spend hours in confession trying to remember
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every single minor infraction he had committed.
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Just agonizing over every little thing.
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Exactly. I mean, he understood the holy
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standard of God, and he realized his own massive shortfall.
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He's sleeping on freezing stone floors, whipping himself,
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starving himself, just trying to generate enough righteousness to
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appease a holy God. And then he reads Romans.
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Yes, and the text argues that righteousness is not something
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you generate, it is something you receive by faith.
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I think about the religious systems Wesley and Luther were
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trapped in like a like an impossible treadmill.
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Oh, I like that analogy. Yeah, they cranked the speed up
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to an absolute Sprint and they elevated the incline to the
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maximum level. They are running until their
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lungs burn and their legs give out trying to reach heaven, but
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they are glued to the same spot. They are completely exhausted.
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Right. And then Paul's letter to the
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Romans reaches over and pulls the plug on the treadmill.
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The text says You cannot run there, you have to step off the
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machine entirely and receive the finish line as a gift.
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That captures the psychological relief perfectly.
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And think about the historical weight of this single document.
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It is massive. Two massive historical movements
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in the Western world, the Protestant Reformation in the
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16th century and the Wesleyan Revival in the 18th century.
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They were burst from the same biblical text written in the 1st
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century. Just staggering to think about.
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Paul wrote it in 1856, Luther analyzed it 1500 years later.
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Wesley heard Luther's analysis 200 years after that.
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Truth possesses A compounding lasting ripple effect across
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centuries, but. You know, that raises a massive
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question for me. Why this specific letter?
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What do you mean? Well, we are doing a deep dive
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today into Warren W Weirsby's commentary on the 1st chapter of
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Romans and the mission for the listeners understand how a piece
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of correspondence from the ancient world continues to spark
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mass revivals. There are thousands of ancient
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texts. We have the writings of
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Aristotle, Plato, the Stoics. Why does Romans cut through the
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noise so effectively? Because Romans offers an
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airtight logical progression that dismantles human pride.
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OK, unpack that a bit. Most philosophies or religious
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texts start by giving you a list of things to do to improve
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yourself. Romans starts by proving you
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cannot improve yourself. It strips away all the
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complicated self-righteous systems human beings build.
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Yeah, it really goes. The letter was carried across
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the Roman Empire by a deaconess named Sister Phoebe.
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She physically carried the scroll from Corinth to Rome, and
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contained in that scroll is the most terrifyingly precise
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diagnosis of the human condition ever written.
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It is an active courtroom proceeding where humanity itself
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is put on trial. Spot on.
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It really is a trial. Before we walk into that
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courtroom, though, we have to look at the guy holding the pen.
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If I am Martin Luther or John Wesley and I am staking my
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eternal destiny on this document, I need to know why I
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should trust the author. That is a fairpoint.
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If we look at Paul on paper, he seems like the least likely
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candidate to write a manual for the capital of the known world.
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He is writing to believers in Rome, a city he has never
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visited. He has to introduce himself and
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present his credentials. And he presents those
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credentials in a way that is completely upside down to the
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culture. He uses three titles in his
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introduction. A slave of Jesus Christ, an
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emissary or apostle, and a preacher of the good news.
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We have unpacked that first title.
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He calls himself a servant, but Wheresby points out the Greek
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word Paul used his doulos, which translates to a literal bond
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slave. Which is a heavy word.
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To our modern ears, that is jarring, but in the Roman Empire
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it was a cultural shock of massive proportions.
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Historians estimate there were upwards of 60 million slaves in
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the Roman Empire. Society ran on slave labor. 60
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million. That is a staggering number.
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And a slave was not viewed as a human being with agency.
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A slave was viewed as a piece of property.
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They had no rights. They could be bought, sold or
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killed at the whim of their owner.
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So here is Paul, writing to the apex of human civilization, a
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city obsessed with status, dominance and military might,
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and he introduces himself by voluntarily taking the lowest
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possible social rank. He willingly enslaves himself to
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Christ. I keep thinking about this like
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a modern resume. If you were applying for a
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leadership role or trying to influence the most elite
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boardroom on earth, you do not put willing property at the top
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of your LinkedIn profile. No, you definitely do.
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Not You lift your degrees. You list the companies you have
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conquered. Paul flips the script entirely.
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He argues that true authority comes from absolute total
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submission to God. And Paul had a resume he could
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have bragged about before his conversion on the road to
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Damascus. He was a Pharisee.
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The elite of the elite. Right.
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The Pharisees were the intellectual and religious elite
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of the Jewish nation. The word Pharisee literally
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means separated one. They were separated to the
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strict observance of the Jewish law.
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So they were were highly educated, rigorous and
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respected. Yes, and Paul points out that he
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shifted his entire separation. He used to be separated to the
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law. Now he is separated to the
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gospel. But he makes sure the Romans
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understand this gospel is not some new trendy philosophy he
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dreamed up in the desert. Rome loved new philosophies, but
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they also respected antiquity. If something was ancient, it
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carried weight. Wow I see so Paul roots his
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message firmly in the Hebrew scriptures.
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He points all the way back to Genesis 3.15 to the prophets.
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Like Isaiah, he tells them this is not a novel invention.
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This is an ancient promise fulfilled.
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He also grounds the whole thing in physical historical reality.
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He references the physical lineage of Jesus through the
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family of King David, and he points to the bodily
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resurrection. He demands that the Romans treat
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his message as historical fact, not spiritual myth.
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Which was a big deal back then. Massive The Greeks and Romans
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had hundreds of myths about gods coming down to earth, doing
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supernatural things and returning to Mount Olympus.
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But those stories happened in some vague, mythical past.
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Right, like Once Upon a time. Exactly.
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Paul argues against that. He insists this happened in
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their actual timeline. Jesus was a real man, born into
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a specific royal family, died a physical death under a Roman
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governor, and experienced A literal bodily resurrection that
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was witnessed by hundreds of people.
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OK, so he establishes his authority through submission and
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he proves his message is grounded in verifiable history.
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But I am stuck on the relationship the.
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Pastoral side of things. Yeah, he did not plant the
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churches in Rome. He's never met the majority of
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these people, yet he writes to them with this intense pastoral
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affection. He tells them he prays for them
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constantly. He expresses a massive amount of
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concern. He loves them and the text
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highlights a fascinating dynamic.
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He feels an intense, crippling debt to them.
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Let's look at the wording we're be highlights, Paul says he is a
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debtor to both Greeks and Barbarians.
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We have to understand the cultural snobbery of the 1st
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century Greeks, and by extension the Romans who absorbed Greek
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culture, viewed anyone who did not speak their language or
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share their philosophy as an uneducated barbarian.
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Just looking down their noses at everyone else.
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Very much so. The word barbarian actually
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comes from the Greeks mimicking the sound of foreign languages.
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They thought it just sounded like bar bar bar.
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Oh, wow, really? That is fascinating.
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Yeah. If you are not Greek or Roman,
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you were lesser. Paul shatters that elitism
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completely. He insists the good news is a
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debt owed to all human, regardless of their cultural
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status or education. I am having a hard time wrapping
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my head around that kind of debt.
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I understand feeling indebted to a bank that loaned me money, or
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feeling a debt of gratitude to a person who saved my life, sure.
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But how can a human being feel a genuine obligation to people
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they have never laid eyes on? It comes down to the nature of
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the Commission Paul received. When Christ stopped Paul on the
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road to Damascus, he did not just grant Paul salvation, He
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handed them a stewardship. A stewardship of the message.
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Right. Paul was entrusted with a
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message meant for the nation's When you are handed something of
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infinite value that belongs to other people, you are in debt to
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those people until you deliver. It OK, that makes the logic
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click into place. It's like holding the only known
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cure to a global pandemic. That is a great way to think
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about it. If you are sitting in your house
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with the one vial of medicine that can cure a deadly disease
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sweeping across the continents, you owe it to the sick.
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You are a debt to them, regardless of whether you know
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their names or speak their language.
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Exactly. Your possession of the cure
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creates A moral obligation to distribute it.
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And Paul had a ready mind to deliver that cure.
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He tells the Roman believers he's eager to visit them.
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This was not a tourist hoping to do some sightseeing at the
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Coliseum or check out the Aqua Ducks.
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He. Had a job to do.
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He was coming as a soul winner, but we cannot skip over the
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massive irony of his travel plans.
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Oh, the travel plans are wild. He prayed for a prosperous trip
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to Rome. He explicitly asked God to grant
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him a safe, successful journey to the Capitol.
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He did, and God answered that prayer, but in a way that
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completely dismantled any chance for human boasting.
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Yeah, things did not go as expected.
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Not at all. Paul did not arrive in Rome on a
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luxury ship with a massive entourage of adoring fans.
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He arrived in chains, He was arrested in Jerusalem, falsely
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accused by a mob, stuck in a cesarean prison for over 2
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years, endured A literal shipwreck where the boat was
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torn to pieces in a storm, and finally arrived in Rome as a
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prisoner of the emperor chained to a Roman guard.
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It is a stunning picture of divine sovereignty.
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God honors prayers, but he often orchestrates the fulfillment in
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ways that strip us of our own agenda.
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Paul's imprisonment was the precise vehicle God used to
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bring the gospel directly into Caesar's own household.
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As a prisoner awaiting trial before Nero, Paul was chained to
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members of the elite Praetorian Guard.
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Talk about a captive audience. Literally he had a captive
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audience with the highest ranking military officials in
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the Empire, people he never would have met as a traveling
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St. preacher. That brings us to a statement
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that requires some serious unbacking.
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Paul is bringing a message about a crucified Jewish Carpenter
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into the most intimidating alpha dog city on the face of the
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earth, and he states I am not ashamed of the gospel.
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That is a wildly bold claim considering what Rome valued.
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Right, because they valued strength.
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Absolute military might. They respected conquering
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generals, highly disciplined legions, and sheer physical
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dominance. They look down on the Jewish
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nation as a conquered, subjugated people.
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So the cross would be a stumbling block.
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Completely the idea of worshipping A savior who allowed
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himself to be crucified, which was the most degrading,
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humiliating form of execution ever designed, specifically
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reserved for slaves and rebels. That message would seem like
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absolute lunacy to the Roman elite.
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It would sound like a terrible joke.
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You want us, the rulers of the known world, to worship a man
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who was executed by our own provincial government?
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Spot on. But Paul looks at Rome and he
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sees right through the marble facades, the grand temples, and
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the military parades. He knows that despite all their
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outward strength, they are inwardly rotting.
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Wisby brings in some brutal quotes from philosophers of that
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era to pre this point. Oh yeah, Seneca, who was
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actually a tutor to the Emperor Nero, called Rome a cesspool of
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iniquity. Juvenile.
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A Roman satirist called it a filthy sewer into which the
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dregs of the empire flood. These are their own writers,
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describing their own society. They possessed the strongest
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army in the world, capable of conquering any territory they
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marched into, but they could not conquer their own moral decay.
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So they were strong on the outside, weak on the inside.
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They were a collapsing nation internally and that is why Paul
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is not ashamed. He declares the Gospel is the
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literal dynamic force and ability of God unto salvation.
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The Greek word he uses for ability there is dunamis, from
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which we get the word dynamite. The explosive ability of God
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unto deliverance. Deliverance is the key concept.
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The Romans viewed their emperor as a savior.
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They viewed their physicians as saviors.
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If a legion rescued A besieged city, that was salvation.
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But Paul redefines the whole thing.
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He argues true deliverance is an internal rescue from the penalty
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and the grip of sin. Rome's legions could conquer a
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continent, but they were completely powerless to conquer
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the human heart. Only the Gospel possessed the
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ability to accomplish an internal reconstruction.
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There is a specific phrase Paul uses here that causes a lot of
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confusion, so I want to get your analysis on it.
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He says this message is to the Jew first.
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Why does he specify that? It sounds like favoritism.
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It is a common point of confusion, but no, it is not
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about favoritism or one ethnic group being inherently better
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than another. OK, that makes sense.
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Paul spends a huge portion of this letter, specifically
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chapters 2 and three, proving that there is absolutely no
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difference between Jew and Gentile when it comes to being
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condemned by sin. Every single person is jetty to
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the Jew First reflects the historical timeline of the
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message spreading. So it is just chronological.
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Yes, Jesus was born a Jew, and during his earthly ministry he
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ministered primarily to the Jewish nation.
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The first apostles were Jewish. The message originated in
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Jerusalem and spread outward from there.
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So chronologically and geographically, the gospel went
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to the Jewish people first and then to the Greek and Roman
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world. It is a statement of historical
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fact, not a statement of higher value.
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OK, so Paul has laid out the cure.
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He has established that he is carrying the righteousness of
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God, which is received by faith, and it has the explosive ability
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to deliver anyone. But before a cure makes any
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sense, the patient has to realize they have a fatal
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disease. If I walk up to you on the
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street and hand you a heavy dose of chemotherapy, you will reject
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it. You will think I'm crazy.
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But if we go to the hospital and the doctor put your X-ray on the
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light board and shows you a massive tumor, suddenly that
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chemotherapy is your most prized possession.
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Which brings us to the courtroom.
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Romans chapter one, verse 18. This is where the tone of the
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letter shifts drastically. Paul brings the gavel down.
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The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all
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ungodliness and unrighteousness of men.
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This is heavy. Weirsby points out that human
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history, according to Paul's argument, is not a story of
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evolution. It is a story of devolution.
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We need to define those terms clearly within this context.
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The popular secular narrative is evolution in a moral and
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religious sense. What does that look like?
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It is the idea that humanity started low as ignorant
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primitives worshipping thunderstorms, trees and animals
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and slowly climb the intellectual ladder, eventually
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reaching sophisticated monotheism or enlightened
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philosophy. The idea that we started in the
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mud, figured out how to build fire, and eventually built her
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way up to morality and ethics. That is the narrative.
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But Paul argues the exact opposite.
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He states humanity started high in the beginning.
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We started with a clear, undeniable knowledge of the one
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true God, but because of sin, humanity sank lower than the
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beasts we devolved. It is a massive, ongoing
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downward spiral. And the mechanism behind this
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downward spiral is a concept that is very central to Reformed
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theology. The text says humans actively
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suppress or hold down the truth and unrighteousness.
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This is a major strike against the comforting idea that humans
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are born as neutral blank slates, just innocently
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wandering around looking for truth.
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We're not neutral at all. No, the theological claim here
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is total depravity. People do not lack the truth.
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They actively, fiercely fight against it.
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The analogy I keep coming back to you for suppression is
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holding a beach ball underwater. Have you ever tried to do that
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in the swimming pool? Oh yeah, it pops right back up,
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right? You take this massive beach ball
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full of air and you push it under the surface.
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It takes constant, exhausting, deliberate physical effort to
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keep it down. The natural state of the beach
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ball is to burst to the surface. It wants to float.
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That captures the dynamic perfectly.
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The reality of God is the beach ball.
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It is obvious it naturally wants to surface in our consciousness,
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but humanity uses all its intellect, all its philosophy,
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all its scientific theories and all his excuses to force that
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reality beneath the surface. And why do we do that?
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Because acknowledging the creator would mean submitting to
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the creator's authority. If God is real, I am not the
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boss. If there's a creator, he has the
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right to tell the creation how to operate.
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That is a core of it. If there is a holy God, I am
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morally accountable. So to avoid accountability, we
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push the truth underwater. We suppress it, but Paul argues
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the evidence is simply too massive to ignore.
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The evidence in creation. Exactly.
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Creation itself, the heavens, the firmament, the intricate
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design of the universe provides such undeniable proof of God's
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eternal ability in Godhead that humanity is left completely
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without excuse. You look at the stars, you look
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at the staggering intricacy of the human eye, you look at the
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finely tuned laws of physics, and you cannot honestly conclude
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it is all a random chaotic accident.
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The creation screams that there is a creator.
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Which completely refutes the modern optimistic idea that
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people are generally good, they just lack the right information
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or the right environment You. Hear that all the time.
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You really do. If we just educate everyone and
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eliminate poverty, humanity will be perfect.
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The biblical text insists humanity already possesses the
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most vital information, but aggressively rejects it.
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We do not have an information problem.
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We have a rebellion problem. I'm tracking with you.
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We are in the courtroom. The prosecution has established
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that humanity possessed the truth, and we deliberately held
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it underwater. What happens next?
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Weirsby breaks down Paul's argument into four specific
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stages of this downward spiral. Yes.
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Intelligence, ignorance, indulgence and impenitence.
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We started with intelligence, knowing God through creation,
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but choosing to suppress that truth.
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OK, So what is the next step? The next stage in the devolution
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is ignorance. And the trigger for this
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ignorance is so surprising to me.
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It is not some massive violent crime.
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The downward spiral does not start with murder or theft.
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It starts with a failure to be thankful.
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Verse 21 states because that when they knew God, they
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glorified him not as God neither we're thankful.
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When humans refuse to be grateful, their hearts darken.
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That is such a quiet sin, but so deadly.
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It really is. They are happy to consume all of
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God's gifts, The oxygen they breathe, the food they eat, the
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intellect they use to build civilizations, but they refuse
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to give him the credit. It is the ultimate form of
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cosmic entitlement. We act like we created the air
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we breathe. And human psychology dictates
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that nature abhors a vacuum. If you refuse to worship the
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true God, you do not just stop worshiping entirely.
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You are a worshipping creature by design.
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You will find something else. You will find a substitute.
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So humanity exchanges the glory of the immortal God for idols.
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They start by making gods that look like men and magnifying
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human traits, and then the devolution continues.
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They sink even lower and worship birds, beasts, and creeping
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things. Which echoes the original lie in
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the Garden of Eden. The serpent tells Eve, Ye shall
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be as God. We put ourselves at the top of
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the pyramid and then we worship the things below us.
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That leads directly to the third stage, which is indulgence.
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When you act as your own God, you make your own rules.
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And this is where we hit one of the most frightening phrases in
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the entire letter. God gave them up.
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I am hung up on this idea. That phrase gives me absolute
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chills it. Should.
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When we think of the wrath of God, we usually picture
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lightning bolts, fire and brimstone raining down from the
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sky, floods wiping out cities, active visible destruction.
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But this is a completely different kind of wrath.
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Yes, it is passive. Wrath.
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It sounds backwards to me. If I am angry as a parent, I
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intervene. I step in and stop the bad
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behavior. Are you saying the worst
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punishment isn't fire and brimstone but just autonomy?
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You hit the nail on the head. It is passive wrath and it is
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infinitely more terrifying than a lightning bolt.
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God gave them up Means God taking his hands off the
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steering wheel. Wow.
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It is God saying you want a world without my interference.
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You want to be your autonomous God and follow your own desires.
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Thy will be done. He removes his restraining grace
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and allows humanity to suffer the natural destructive
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consequences of their own rebellion.
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He lets us have exactly what we want.
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He just lets go of the leash. And what we want without his
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restraint destroys us. The human heart, left to its own
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devices, will Sprint towards self destruction.
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This is where Paul connects idolatry directly to immorality.
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The two are inextricably linked. Let's look at that link.
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Why does making a false God always lead to bad behavior?
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Why is making a wooden statue tied to moral decay?
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Because you design a God who agrees with your lifestyle.
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If you invent your own deity, you're going to design a God who
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permits your specific desires. You remove all the moral
23:11
guardrails. That makes total sense.
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Right. If you're manufactured God does
23:15
not care about purity or honesty or fidelity, then you are free
23:19
to indulge in whatever you want without any guilt.
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You have manufactured a divine permission slip for your own
23:25
lists. You create a God in your own
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image who approves of your own sins.
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So the downward spiral accelerates.
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We go from knowing God to ignoring Him through ingratitude
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to indulging ourselves because God takes his hands off the
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wheel. And finally we hit the absolute
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rock bottom, which is Impenitence.
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This is the fourth and final stage.
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The text says God gave them over to a reprobate mind, a depraved
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mind. How bad is it yet?
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At this point, the human mind is so broken, so twisted by sin, it
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cannot even form right judgments anymore.
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Up is down. Wrong is right.
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Bitter is sweet. The compass is completely
23:59
smashed. Paul lists 24 specific sins in
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this section. It reads like a modern news
24:04
feed. He lists envy, murder, deceit,
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maliciousness, backbiters, haters of God, proud boasters,
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inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents.
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It is a heavy list. It is a comprehensive catalog of
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human ruin. It covers everything from
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violent crime to gossiping behind someone's back.
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But the absolute bottom of the barrel is not just committing
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these 24 sins, it is the very last verse of the chapter.
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What does he say? Paul says they know the judgment
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of God, they know these things deserve death.
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But they not only do them, they have pleasure in them that do
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them. They applaud the evil in others.
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They. Throw a parade for the
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rebellion. It is one thing to fail to fall
24:42
into sin in a moment of weakness and feel ashamed of it.
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It is another thing entirely to institutionalized it, to
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celebrate it, and to demand that everyone else in society
24:52
celebrate it too. That requires a totally seared
24:55
conscience. That is the ultimate proof of a
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reprobate mind. When a culture begins to reward
25:00
the very things that are destroying it, you know the
25:03
devolution is complete. And it brings us back to the
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verdict of the courtroom. Humanity is guilty.
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We are without excuse. Where's be quotes Dan Crawford,
25:12
a British missionary who spent decades in Africa.
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He said something chilling about the human condition.
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The heathen are sinning against a flood of light.
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A. Flood of light.
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Not a tiny flicker in the distance.
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A flood. The issue is not that it is too
25:25
dark to see the truth. The issue is that humanity hates
25:28
the light because the light exposes what we are doing in the
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dark. We are sinning against a flood
25:33
of light. We are holding the beach ball
25:35
underwater while standing in the middle of of a blazing
25:37
spotlight. That captures the absurdity and
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the tragedy of the human condition.
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The evidence is overwhelming. The diagnosis is terminal.
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We are completely dead in our trespasses.
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And Paul has to establish this. He does.
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He has to establish this pitch black backdrop, this total
25:54
inability of humanity to save itself, before he can introduce
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the blinding light of justification by faith In the
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upcoming chapters, the. Chemotherapy only makes sense
26:03
once you see the tumor. To recap the massive scale of
26:06
what we have covered in this deep dive, we saw Paul the
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voluntary Bondslave, bringing a message of verifiable historical
26:13
fact to the elite, arrogant city of Rome.
26:16
We broke down his unashamed confidence in the Gospels,
26:19
explosive ability to rescue the human heart from the inside out.
26:23
We look at the undeniable proof of a Creator in the firmament
26:26
leaving us totally without excuse, and we walk through the
26:29
sobering reality of human devolution, the downward spiral
26:33
that happens when we suppress the the truth, refuse to give
26:36
thanks, and force God to hand us over to our own depraved minds.
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It is a heavy, devastating diagnosis, but it is the only
26:44
way the cure of grace actually makes sense.
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As we wrap up this session, I want to leave you, the listener,
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with a final thought to Mull over.
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We talked about ancient people worshipping birds, beasts and
26:54
bugs to suppress the truth of a holy Creator.
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It sounds primitive to us. Yeah, we think we are past all
27:00
that. We look back and think, I would
27:02
never bow down to a carved wooden beetle or a golden calf.
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But what highly sophisticated modern idols do you and I
27:09
manufacture today to keep the beach ball held underwater?
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That is the real question. Is it our careers?
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Is it our political tribes? Is it our obsession with
27:17
technology and constant entertainment?
27:19
What shiny, socially acceptable substitutes are we using right
27:23
now to distract ourselves from the courtroom of God?
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The human heart has not changed a bit since 18 2D56.
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We just upgraded the materials we used to build our idols.
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We certainly did. Thank you for joining this
27:34
session of reformed thinking. We encourage you to carefully
27:37
evaluate the evidence resented today in your own life.
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See you next time.