Latest / Reformed Thinking / Not Ashamed of the Gospel: God’s Power to Save (Romans 1) | John D. Barry et al.

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Not Ashamed of the Gospel: God’s Power to Save (Romans 1) | John D. Barry et al. · Reformed Thinking

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  You ever walk into a movie theater like 30 minutes late?
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  You know? You sit down, the action
• 0:05
  sequences are in full swing, people on screen are crying, and
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  you lean over to the person next to you and whisper in the dark.
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  Wait, who is the bad guy here? Like why is she so mad at him?
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  Yeah, you see the events happening, but without the
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  opening credits and you know the first act, you lack all the
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  context needed to make sense of the plot.
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  Right, you are totally lost. That is a very accurate
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  description of how many people experience reading the book of
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  Romans. They drop right into Chapter 8
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  or Chapter 12 and they see these massive theological conclusions
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  happening on the page. Yeah, but they are completely
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  lost regarding the setup. You really need the opening
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  scenes. You do.
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  Well, welcome to Reformed Thinking today.
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  Our mission is a massive deep dive into the source material.
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  We're specifically looking at the Faith Life Study Bible notes
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  on the very first chapter of Romans, and we were looking
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  right at you, the listener. Yeah, the goal today is to
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  extract the core theological Nuggets from this incredibly
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  dense text, and we're doing that through a reformed Westminster
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  Confession perspective. We want to put you right in the
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  sandals of a 1st century reader. Right.
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  To set the right expectations for this deep dive into the
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  source material, we should note that this letter touches on some
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  pretty intense cultural issues. It does, yeah.
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  Things like sexuality, idolatry, and societal collapse.
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  So our goal today is not to debate 21st century politics.
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  Instead, we want to look objectively at what Paul's text
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  and the Faith Life Study notes actually claim.
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  Yeah, we are going to examine the historical and theological
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  data objectively. We want to allow the ancient
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  texts to speak for itself, you know, without injecting modern
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  partisan sides. Sounds good.
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  So let us get right into those opening credits before we look
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  at the message itself. You really have to ask, you
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  know, who is the man delivering? It write the messenger.
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  Yeah, the text tells us Paul, who was formerly known as Saul
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  of Tarsus, wrote this letter in the mid 50s AD.
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  He was writing from Corinth during his his third missionary
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  expedition. And his goal was not just to
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  drop a theological textbook on them.
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  He was actually planning to deliver financial relief to
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  believers in Jerusalem. Right.
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  The idea was to promote unity among the Jewish and Gentile
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  churches, and right out of the gate, Paul describes himself
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  with three specific titles. Yeah, he calls himself a slave
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  of Christ Jesus, Then he calls himself an apostle, and finally
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  he says he is set apart. Let's unpack that resume a bit.
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  Well, looking at Paul's background gives us a
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  magnificent view of God's Providence.
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  I mean, the Westminster Confession teaches that God
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  ordains whatsoever comes to pass.
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  He executes his decrees through secondary causes.
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  Right? And we see that vividly in
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  Paul's life. God sovereignly prepared his
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  entire background so he would be uniquely suited to preach to
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  Gentiles which were the the non Jewish populations of the Roman
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  Empire. Yeah, Paul grew up in Tarsus,
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  which is located in modern day Turkey.
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  And Tarsus was not some backwater village.
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  No, not at all. It was a major intellectual hub.
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  It was known for its schools of Stoic philosophy.
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  Growing up there be like growing up in Cambridge or Boston today,
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  you know, you just absorb the intellectual air.
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  So he is a Jewish man raised strictly in the traditions of
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  his ancestors, but he is breathing Greco Roman air from
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  childhood, and he is a Roman citizen by birth, which is a
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  massive detail. Oh, it is huge.
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  Citizenship was incredibly hard to get if you were not born in
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  Italy. It gave you immense legal
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  rights. Right.
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  Things like the right to a fair trial and you were exempt from
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  degrading punishments like crucifixion.
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  Precisely. And he was completely fluent in
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  Greek, highly educated in Greco Roman customs.
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  We even see evidence of his education in Greek philosophy.
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  Really. How so?
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  Well, when he speaks to gentile audiences, he quotes thinkers
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  like Aratus, Menander and Epimenides.
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  He knows their literature. He knows how they think.
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  Wow, that is wild. Yeah, and the good news he
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  preaches is not some novel invention.
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  It fulfills the promises given through the prophets in the Holy
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  Scriptures, specifically the Septuagint that was the Greek
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  translation of the Old Testament that his Roman audience would
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  have known really well. I look at Paul's intense
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  sovereign preparation like a like a master Craftsman
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  selecting the absolute perfect tool for a highly specific job.
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  I like that analogy. Yeah, the Craftsman does not
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  just grab a random piece of metal.
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  He forges a tool with the necessary weight and shape
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  required to strike the blow. But help me reconcile this
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  tension here. OK, what tension?
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  Paul introduces himself as a slave with 0 rights, right?
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  Showing absolute humility. But in the very same breath he
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  claims to be an apostle, which means he is commissioned
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  directly by Christ with supreme, unquestionable authority over
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  these churches. Like authority equal to the
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  original 12. Those two concepts seem entirely
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  at odds. I mean to a modern reader they
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  do seem contradictory, but in the 1st century Roman world the
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  concept of patronage clarifies this.
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  A slave had no personal rights, yes, but a slave who represented
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  a high-ranking master carried the full weight and backing of
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  that masters household. Oh, I see.
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  Yeah. So if the Emperor's slave showed
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  up in your town with a letter, you bowed to the slave, not
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  because the slave was great, but because the Emperor was great.
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  That makes total sense. So Paul's authority flows
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  directly from the subject of his message.
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  He can command the churches because he is entirely
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  subjugated to the true King. You hit the nail on the head.
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  Awesome. And the third title he uses is
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  Set Apart. The notes point out the Greek
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  word here is apheresa. It means chosen for a specific
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  function before birth. Yeah, it's very similar to how
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  God spoke to the prophet Jeremiah in the Old Testament.
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  So it is not that Paul decided one day to volunteer for this
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  job. God separated him for this task
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  before he even drew his first breath.
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  And that connects directly to the core of the gospel itself.
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  You know, the message Paul was commissioned to carry the gospel
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  is not some self improvement program.
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  It is a royal announcement. And the notes make that very
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  clear. The Gospel centers entirely on
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  Jesus Christ. The text highlights 2 distinct
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  natures here. Right.
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  First, Jesus is a descendant of David.
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  This confirms his humanity and his status as the appointed
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  ruler in the Jewish lineage. Second, he is the Son of God.
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  Yeah, and through his resurrection from the dead,
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  which was demonstrated by the might of the Holy Spirit, Jesus
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  was declared as the Messiah and the judge of the world.
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  The phrase Son of God carries immense theological weight in
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  this context, doesn't it it? Does it refers to the unique
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  intimate relationship between Jesus and God the Father?
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  Obviously. But it also functions as a royal
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  title. Right, like in the Old
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  Testament. Exactly.
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  Davidic kings were referred to as God's sons in a covenantal
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  sense, but Jesus is the ultimate fulfillment of that.
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  The resurrection is presented as the absolute basis of Christian
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  hope. So from a Reformed perspective,
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  the resurrection is a public legal vindication of Jesus's
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  divine authority and his completed work.
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  The Father accepted the work of the Son, and the resurrection
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  was the receipt of that transaction.
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  That is a great way to put it. It brings to mind a royal
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  coronation. Like a Prince is technically
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  royal by birth, he possesses the royal bloodline his entire life,
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  but the coronation is the public declaration of his rule to the
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  entire nation. Yeah, the coronation makes it
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  public. The notes point out the Greek
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  word translated as declared is harizo, meaning determined or
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  appointed. I always want to make sure I
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  understand the mechanics of these terms.
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  Sure. Does Hariza imply Jesus somehow
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  became the Son of God at the resurrection?
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  Or is it the undeniable public proof of who he always was?
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  It is strictly the public proof the resurrection did not alter
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  Christ's divine nature. I mean, the second person of the
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  Trinity is eternal. OK, that clarifies it.
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  Rather, the resurrection vindicated his claims before the
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  watching world. He was declared with total
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  certainty to be who he claimed to be.
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  And if the resurrection proves Jesus is not just a local Jewish
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  teacher, but the actual King of the world, then suddenly his
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  jurisdiction covers all nations. Right.
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  And if his jurisdiction covers all nations, including Rome,
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  someone has to serve them. The royal decree.
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  That is the mandate Paul is executing.
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  Which moves us right into verses 5 through 15.
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  Paul states his mandate is to bring about the obedience of
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  faith among the Gentiles for the benefit of Christ's character
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  and reputation, which the text calls his name.
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  Yeah, Paul is writing to the believers in Rome, the absolute
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  center of the known world, and he calls them Saints.
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  The notes highlight the Greek word hagiyoi, meaning holy ones
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  set apart. To a modern ear, a St. is, you
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  know, someone in the same glass window.
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  But hagiyoi was a term previously reserved exclusively
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  for Israel. It was used for the Temple for
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  things strictly separated for Yahweh.
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  And now Paul applies it to Gentiles living in the Pagan
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  capital of the world. It is a massive theological
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  shift. Imagine an exclusive Country
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  Club that has kept the same families for 1000 years.
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  Suddenly the gates are thrown open to people off the street
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  and they are given the identical title as the founders.
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  That is wild. That is what calling Gentiles
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  hoggy, or I felt like to a Jewish reader.
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  Yeah, and at that time, false teachers were trying to divide
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  the early church. They were demanding that
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  Gentiles adopt distinctly Jewish practices to be considered full
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  members of the community. Like what kind of practices?
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  Well, they wanted them to take on circumcision, Sabbath
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  observance, and specific dietary restrictions.
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  You know those false teachers. Building extra requirements is
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  like someone constructing a toll booth on a bridge that was meant
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  to be completely free. Oh, that is a great analogy.
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  Yeah, the King opened the bridge to the Gentiles, and these
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  teachers are standing there demanding a toll of dietary laws
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  before anyone can cross. But Paul undercuts them
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  entirely. He does.
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  He greets the Romans with grace and peace from God our Father.
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  By repeatedly calling God our Father, Paul levels the playing
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  field completely. The ground is flat at the foot
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  of the cross. I love that Paul also expresses
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  gratitude for their trust. And the notes say he uses the
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  Greek word pistus, and he mentions his own priestly
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  ministry utilizing the word latru.
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  This is fascinating because latru was used in the Greek Old
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  Testament to describe Israel's priestly duties in the Temple.
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  Really. So Paul views preaching the
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  Gospel to Gentiles as a priestly act.
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  He is offering up the believing Gentiles as an acceptable
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  sacrifice to God. Yeah, he desires to import a
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  spiritual gift to strengthen their resolve using the word
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  storage of, and to enjoy mutual encouragement.
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  But he notes he had been prevented from visiting them
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  until now. Right, the study notes mentioned
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  he was either hindered by Satan or forbidden by the Holy Spirit.
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  And I'm really glad you brought up that delay.
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  Why is that? Because there is a theological
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  tension there. Through a Reformed lens of God's
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  absolute sovereignty, how should a believer understand the
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  difference between demonic opposition and divine
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  redirection when their plans fall apart?
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  That is a tough one. Yeah, I mean, if Satan walks the
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  road, isn't God still in control of that road?
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  This raises A vital question regarding Providence.
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  In Reformed theology, we recognize that God is sovereign
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  over all things, including the actions of evil beings, right?
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  Satan may place a roadblock in our path out of malice,
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  attempting to hinder the spread of the gospel.
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  However, God permits that roadblock because it aligns with
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  His perfect overarching plan. Ah.
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  So this is the concept of primary and secondary causes.
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  Yes, Satan's hindrance as a secondary cause meant Paul spent
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  more time ministering in the eastern part of the empire.
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  This delay only built up Paul's eagerness to preach in Rome,
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  which actually led to the writing of this very letter.
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  Oh wow, so God used the malice of the enemy to produce the most
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  famous theological thesis in history.
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  God takes the roadblock and uses it to pave a highway.
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  He really does, and that highway leads directly to verses 16 and
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  17, The grand thesis of Romans. Yeah, Paul declares he is not
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  ashamed of the gospel because it is God's ability.
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  The notes point out the Greek word is dynamis, where we get
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  the word dynamite. It is the active, explosive
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  ability of God to deliver people from sin and final judgement,
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  which is the word satoria. And this deliverance goes to the
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  Jew 1st, and also to the Greek in the gospel.
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  The righteousness of God is revealed.
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  Paul clinches his argument by quoting the Old Testament
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  prophet Habakkuk, saying the righteous by faith will live.
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  The phrase the righteousness of God carries immense weight here.
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  It refers to two things simultaneously.
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  First, it refers to God's own intrinsic righteousness
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  manifested in his saving work. Because God is perfectly just
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  and must punish sin. And second, it refers to the
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  righteous status granted to those who have faith.
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  This section is the beating heart of the Westminster
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  Confession. Justification by faith alone.
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  So believers are granted a right standing before God, not through
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  their own works, not through their own merit, but solely
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  through trust in Christ. That is it, God's standard of
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  perfection is met by Christ and that perfection is imputed or
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  credited to the believers account.
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  It makes me think of a courtroom.
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  You have a judge who looks at a clearly guilty defendant.
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  The evidence is overwhelming. Right, everyone knows he did it.
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  The judge does not just wave a magic wand and ignore the law.
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  That would make him an unjust judge.
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  Instead, the judge legally satisfies the law.
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  He acquits the defendant by pulling out his own checkbook
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  and paying the massive fine out of his own bank account.
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  That is a great picture of it. But the gospel goes even further
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  than that. The judge does not just pay the
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  fine and send the criminal back to the streets.
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  He legally adopts the defendant as his own child right there in
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  the courtroom. That is the righteous status
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  Paul is talking. About it is an incredible
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  reality. But there is a phrase in the
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  text I want to examine. If the gospel completely unites
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  Jews and Gentiles, leveling the playing field, why does Paul
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  still maintain the Jew first chronological and covenantal
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  priority? Yeah, that trips up a lot of
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  reasons does. That recreate the very hierarchy
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  he was trying to dismantle. It do not create a hierarchy of
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  value. It is actually a timeline of
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  historical redemptive action. God made specific binding
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  covenants with Abraham, Moses and David.
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  He entrusted the scriptures to the Jewish people.
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  The Messiah arrived through the Jewish lineage.
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  Therefore, the message of the Messiah's arrival had to be
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  announced to them first, fulfilling those specific
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  ancient promises. Oh, I see.
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  Even Jesus himself preached to the lost sheep of Israel during
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  his earthly ministry. Yeah.
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  And once fulfilled, the doors were flung open to the entire
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  world. To truly appreciate the scale of
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  this miraculous rescue operation, one was fully grasped
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  the terrifying reality of the alternative.
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  Right. Why do we need this
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  justification so desperately, exactly?
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  Well, we need it because the alternative is catastrophic.
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  Verses 18 through 23 detail general revelation and human
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  rebellion. They do.
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  Paul writes that God's righteous judgement, his wrath, is
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  revealed against the immorality of those who actively suppress
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  the truth, the Alathea. The text asserts that God's
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  divine attributes, his Theodos, are obvious through creation,
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  leaving humanity without excuse. Instead of honoring God or
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  giving thanks, humans became fools.
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  And the notes specified that fool has moral connotations
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  here. It indicates a rejection of God,
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  not a low IQ. They exchanged God's splendor,
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  His daksa, for idols made in the likeness of earthly creatures.
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  The concept of general revelation is crucial for
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  understanding human accountability.
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  Creation itself displays God's sovereignty and His divine
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  nature. So the failure of humanity to
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  acknowledge God is not due to a lack of intelligence or a lack
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  of evidence. No.
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  The text portrays it as an active, willful suppression of
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  what they inherently know to be true.
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  The notes specifically link this exchanging of glory for images
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  to the Old Testament event of Israel worshipping the golden
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  calf at Mount Sinai. Yeah, they took the infinite,
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  invisible holy God and reduced him to a localized, manageable
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  physical beast that they could control.
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  Idolatry is always an attempt to shrink God down to a size we can
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  manage. Suppressing the truth is like
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  like a person trying to hold a giant air filled beach ball
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  underwater. Oh, I know that feeling.
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  You can do it for a little while, but it takes constant,
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  exhausting effort. Your arms shake, you get tired,
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  and eventually the truth forces its way to the surface.
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  It demands to be seen. You have to actively fight to
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  keep it hidden. That is a really vivid way to
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  put it. But addressing the Reformed
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  doctrine of total depravity, we have to clarify something.
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  If humans are entirely corrupted by sin, as the Westminster
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  Confession teaches, how can they possess enough accurate natural
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  knowledge of God to be justly left without excuse?
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  Total depravity is a widely misunderstood concept.
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  It does not mean humans are as bad as they could possibly be,
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  nor does it mean that rational faculties are completely erased.
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  The intellect still functions. People can build rockets,
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  compose symphonies, and construct massive bridges.
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  When a person looks at the intricacy of the stars or the
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  sheer complexity of biological life, their mind naturally
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  infers a creator. So they see it.
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  They see it, however, their moral corruption causes their
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  will to hate the implications of that Creator's authority over
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  them. They love their sin more than
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  they love the Creator. So the knowledge of God visible
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  in creation is sufficient to condemn them, because it proves
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  they knew the truth and intentionally rejected it.
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  Yes. However, that general knowledge
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  and nature is not sufficient to save them.
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  You cannot learn about the cross of Christ by looking at a
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  sunset. Salvation requires the specific
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  special revelation of the Gospel.
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  And because humanity rejects the general revelation, God responds
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  with the chilling judgement. We arrive at the judgement of
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  abandonment in verses 24 through 32.
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  The notes explain that God responds to this willful
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  rebellion by giving people over to their sinful desires.
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  The Greek word parody dumi is used three times here.
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  God hands them over. He allows a moral decline into
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  illicit sexual activity at Catharcia.
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  The text notes behavior contrary to nature, which the study Bible
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  states refers to homosexual activity reflecting Jewish and
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  Old Testament attitudes regarding the created order.
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  And humanity develops A debased mind incapable of moral
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  discernment, leading to a long, tragic list of vices.
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  They know God's requirements. He have an innate sense of right
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  and wrong. But they continue anyway.
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  And. Because of that, they deserve
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  the penalty of death. The notes say this alludes to
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  eternal separation and the sentence given to Adam in the
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  garden. Looking objectively at the
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  text's explanation, we see a specific definition of God's
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  wrath in the present day. Yeah, we often think of divine
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  wrath as fire falling from the sky, like Sodom and Gomorrah.
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  Here the text presents wrath as God removing his restraining
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  hand. He simply steps back and allows
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  people to have what their sinful desires demand.
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  The study Bible Commentary points out the cultural and Old
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  Testament roots of Paul's statements regarding sexual
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  ethics, noting that Paul grounds his argument in the creation
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  account of Genesis. We are just reporting the text
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  position here. A society that rejects the
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  creator will eventually reject the design of the creation
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  itself. The result is a debased mind
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  entirely cut off from objective moral reasoning.
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  It is a dark. Reality.
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  I read God giving them over and I picture a doctor in a
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  hospital. The doctor has an erratic
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  patient who is screaming, fighting the nurses and
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  demanding they stop giving him life saving medicine.
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  The doctor warns him, tells him the consequences, but the
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  patient refuses to listen. Eventually, after exhausting all
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  warnings, the doctor steps back, honors the patient's demand, and
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  removes the IVU. The patient gets what he wants,
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  but the result is fatal. That is a terrifying picture,
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  but it fits. How does a society functioning
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  with a debased mind view itself? Do they realize they lack moral
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  discernment, or do they ironically believe they're
• 19:59
  highly enlightened? The tragedy of the debased mind
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  is its absolute certainty of its own wisdom, The tech states,
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  claiming to be wise. They became fools.
• 20:09
  A debased mind does not feel broken to the person possessing
• 20:12
  it. It feels liberated.
• 20:14
  They believe they have cast off archaic restraints and achieved
• 20:16
  enlightenment, all while spiraling into the behaviors
• 20:19
  that bring about their own destruction.
• 20:20
  So societal decay does not look like people walking around sad
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  about their sin. Not at all.
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  It looks like people throwing parade to celebrate it.
• 20:27
  They applaud the things that the innate moral law condemns.
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  We have covered an immense amount of ground today.
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  We started with Paul's sovereign calling, prepared before his
• 20:36
  birth to carry the specific message to the Gentiles.
• 20:39
  Yeah, we analyzed the good news of Christ's vindication through
• 20:43
  the resurrection, proving he is the King.
• 20:45
  We unpack the grand thesis of justification by faith alone,
• 20:50
  the reality that a right standing before God is a gift
• 20:53
  received by trust, not a wage earned by human effort.
• 20:57
  And we looked at the stark contrast of humanity's active
• 21:00
  rebellion, the exhausting suppression of obvious truth.
• 21:04
  And the resulting moral abandonment, where God simply
• 21:06
  hands humanity over to its own destructive desires.
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  When you look at the entirety of this chapter, the contrast is
• 21:13
  staggering. The light of the Gospel shines
• 21:15
  brightest against the dark backdrop of human rebellion.
• 21:18
  You cannot appreciate the magnitude of the rescue
• 21:21
  operation until you understand the sheer depth of the ocean you
• 21:24
  were drowning in. There is a, well, a really heavy
• 21:26
  way to think about it. Which is why we ask you, the
• 21:29
  listener, to consider why this matters in your daily life.
• 21:33
  Understanding the depths of human rebellion and the
• 21:35
  terrifying reality of a debased mind makes the pure grace of
• 21:39
  justification infinitely more valuable.
• 21:42
  Knowing what we deserve, you know the penalty of death
• 21:44
  inherited from Adam makes being declared righteous simply by
• 21:47
  trusting in Christ and absolute comfort.
• 21:50
  We are not earning our way across the bridge.
• 21:52
  The toll has been paid entirely by the King.
• 21:54
  We are justified by his merit, not our own.
• 21:58
  As we conclude, I want to leave you with a final thought to Mull
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  over. Let's hear it.
• 22:02
  The text states that ancient people exchange God's glory for
• 22:05
  statues of animals and humans. They worship the creation rather
• 22:09
  than the Creator. In our modern, sophisticated
• 22:12
  world, we might not bow down to literal golden calves or wooden
• 22:16
  statues, but what invisible idols are we actively placing on
• 22:19
  our own altars? What created things, be it a
• 22:22
  career, societal approval, wealth, or political ideologies
• 22:25
  are we actively worshipping? In what areas are we suppressing
• 22:29
  the truth of God's authority in our own lives to maintain
• 22:32
  control? That is definitely something to
• 22:34
  sit with. Thank you for joining this deep
• 22:36
  dive into the source material on reformed thinking.
• 22:39
  Remember the next time you feel lost in the theology, just
• 22:42
  remember to check the opening credits.