Romans 1 Study Notes

1:17 The righteousness of God was the core of Paul’s message. Martin Luther came to better understand God’s grace as he studied this verse in the original Greek rather than in the Latin translation. It forever changed his view of God. God’s righteousness can be understood in several ways. First, God always does what is right and can be said to have righteousness as one of his attributes (Dt 32:4; Ps 119:142). Second, since God always does what is right, his actions or activities are sometimes identified as his righteousness (Is 45:8; 46:13; 51:5-6,8; 56:1). Third, God’s righteousness is as a gift from him to us, justifying us in his sight. “Justification” is a courtroom term signifying that a judge declares a person to be “right” or “just.” Augustine wrote, “The righteousness of God is that righteousness which he imparts in order to make men righteous” (Spirit and the Letter, chap. 16). In the gospel, God reveals his righteousness (his nature, his activity, and his gift of right status) by faith. In the course of this letter, Paul will explain how God is able to declare sinners to be righteous because of Jesus’s work on the cross. From faith to faith emphasizes that the entire process of being declared righteous comes to us from start to finish by faith.

1:18 All people need the gospel because they are under God’s wrath, which stems from his holy revulsion to sin. Paul wrote this letter from the Greek city of Corinth—a city full of idolatry and immorality. Humankind originally knew God and fellowshiped with him (Gn 3:8a). The history of the world and of the OT reveals a subsequent regression and loss of moral knowledge. Since the garden of Eden, people have been unrighteous, and they have suppressed the truth.

1:19 God as Creator has disclosed himself in creation. “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the expanse proclaims the work of his hands” (Ps 19:1; cp. Ac 14:15-17). People also have an innate capacity for God as well as a moral conscience. God is at work to show himself in the world, yet the world is in rebellion against him.

1:20 Humanity’s problem is not that they don’t know the truth. The history of the human race discloses a determined effort to oppose the will of God. People are without excuse for their idolatry and practical atheism.

The term dunamis can mean power, might, strength, or ability; the related verb dunamai means to be able (210 uses in the NT), and the adjective dunatos means possible. The synonym exousia means power or authority and usually refers to derived authority, whereas dunamis normally refers to inherent power.

Various kinds of power are described by the term dunamis. In 1:16 dunamis refers to the gospel that has been infused with God’s power so people can be saved. Dunamis is also used to refer to God’s omnipotence (1:20), to the Son’s power (1:4), and to the Spirit’s power (15:13,19). In 8:38 dunamis, translated powers, is used as a way of referring to demons. Finally, dunamis is used as one of the words for miracles (15:19).

1:21 Because of human willfulness, people’s knowledge of God became clouded and their thinking became darkened. Without contact with God, the human heart loses contact with reality, misses the purpose of one’s existence, ignores God, and becomes ungrateful. People are supposed to glorify God as God but instead find all sorts of created objects to worship. Part of the wrath of God is revealed in humanity’s loss of intelligent thinking.

1:22 A classic example of human foolishness is found in Is 44:9-20 where human cleverness ends in stupidity.

1:23 Many people think that the history of religion developed along an evolutionary model. In this view, humanity originally held animistic beliefs and then progressed to polytheism, to tribal deities, and then to a single creator God. From there we progressed to a vague philosophical monotheism in the Enlightenment, and finally we are now embracing atheism in the age of science. But this is not true to the early history of religion. Instead of starting in polytheism, the Bible says humanity started with knowledge of the one true God and then declined into polytheism as humans were separated from God and fractured from one another. Paul warns that loss of knowledge of the true God resulted in the worship of images resembling mortal man. Even in the modern age we have seen dictators worshiped as gods, and the Bible says this sin will be repeated climactically in the end times (2Th 2:3-12; Rv 13:1-18).

1:24 Because they rejected the truths of God revealed in creation, God punished the Greco-Roman world by delivering them to the desires of their hearts. A similar scenario played out in the life of King Ahab of Israel, who continually rebelled against God (1Kg 16:29-33). As a judgment, God permitted a lying prophetic spirit to deceive Ahab to his doom (1Kg 22:22-23). The ancients were enmeshed in polytheistic idolatry, and in their devotions to their false gods they practiced all sorts of immorality.

1:25 The loss of the knowledge of God in the mind and heart leads to an exchange of the truth for a lie. Something created is served and worshiped rather than the Creator, and judgment is the result (Ps 81:12; Ac 7:42).

1:26-27 Lesbians and homosexuals often argue that this verse only prohibits sexual abuse of children, or else they say that natural sexual relations are not violated when men and women who are born with a tendency for homosexual desires (as they claim) practice homosexuality. But Paul clearly says sexual relations between members of the same sex are unnatural, and the Bible elsewhere strictly prohibits all homosexuality (e.g., Lv 18:22). The Creator intended male and female to be joined in marriage (Gn 2:24). As an example of the sort of sexual perversion Paul would have been aware of in his day, the emperor Nero castrated a boy named Sporus and married him. Such disgraceful passions result in appropriate penalty.

1:28-32 In v. 24 God is described as delivering society to impurity, in v. 26 to degrading passions, and in v. 28 to a corrupt mind. The mind becomes (Gk) adokimos (disqualified), an untrustworthy guide in moral choices because people have rejected knowledge of God. Verses 29-31 contain a list of vices similar to ancient vice lists. Pagan moralists often lamented the loss of virtue in their societies. Paul’s list of sins was no darker than what other writers of that time reported. All sin is serious. Lesbian and homosexual practices may seem particularly objectionable, but any of the twenty-one sins listed (cp. Gl 5:19-21) cut people off from the life of God and bring spiritual death. When society applauds others who practice these sins, it has lost its moral compass. Ancient philosophers warned about the social effects of popular plays. Murder and immorality were so common on stage that people no longer reacted when they occurred in daily life. Modern entertainments have a similar effect on minds and the values that guide behavior.