Fallen.

Today i've decided to shift gears and venture off into the book of Romans, with Paul who wrote this letter to present the gospel to those in Rome. This book mainly focuses on the salvation of believers, and how God justifies sinners through God's righteousness. It can be split into two separate parts, Romans 1-8 which talk about salvation and evangelism, and then Romans 9-16 which touch upon sanctification as well as edification. Just reading through the first chapter, i know we're going to be in for a ride.

Paul first introduces himself, encourages the city, and then explains the overall reason for writing. He encourages the people of Rome to continue to live by example and be encouraging to one another by their faith as a reflection of Christ (v.12). As we are called to live out our faith, it's a lifestyle, and we should always be working out our salvation and glorifying him. We are never to be ashamed of the gospel (v. 16-17) because it is apart of who we are; besides why would you be ashamed of such good news?

Going through the first chapter, there was a lot of juicy text to sink my teeth into, and right from the get go, Paul immediately confronts us and tells us about our sin. That's how the gospel starts, we as humans have fallen from God's glory and have failed, thus breaking the relationship and connection between us and God. Because of this, God has become angry at what we've done.

Paul addresses the many problems we have. We have become wicked (v. 18), we have ignored God's commands to be righteous, we do not give thanks (v. 21-23,25), we commit sexual immorality (v. 24), we lust, we've fallen away from God's intentions as man and woman with the sin of homosexuality (v. 26-28), the list goes on, but ultimately we have chosen the temptations of worldly desires over our eternal and perfect God.

²⁸ Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done. ²⁹ They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, ³⁰ slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; ³¹ they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy. ³² Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them. - Romans 1:28-32

Paul ends the chapter with the passage above. When I read it, i could feel how angry God was, I saw all the sins in our lives that we've committed against Him, I was convicted of so many things, the list never ends, and I read with this anger (i guess you could say) in my tone, knowing that this is something we face in today's society. That we must shake and cut off these things from our lives if we want to strive for righteousness.

verse of the day: Romans 6:23

²³ For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.