- The Letter of the Romans was intended to ask for missionary support for the church of Rome.
- So Paul lays the foundations for his request: the Gentiles are lost.
- Do not glorify God.
- And need to listen to the Gospel.
We’ll look at three points
1) How God Revealed Himself to the Gentiles
2) How the Gentiles rejected this revelation
3) How did God respond to this rejection?
Humanity has proven to be wicked and perverse to both God and others, and that is why heaven (which reveals the existence of God) shows the wrath of God.
Men have suffocated (drowned) the truth of God’s self-re-unveiling in nature. The invisible God manifests himself (shown visible) through nature. This revelation shows the invisible attributes of God (eternity, power, and divinity) and, looking at it, humanity must recognize that the one who created this world is powerful, divine, and transcendental.
Therefore, the Gentiles have no defense against God, they are unforgivable. Even without having heard the gospel, because of revelation in nature, by which humanity must recognize the existence of the mighty God, every human being has no excuse.
We must abandon the myth of innocent natives. Human beings have rejected the truth of God revealed in nature and are therefore inexcusable (Romans 1:18-20). This is what Paul says in this passage and that is why he needs to preach to the heathen.
We must understand that people who have never heard of the gospel (1) are not innocent, but sinners and deprive the Sovereign God of the glory due him and (2) will suffer God’s wrath if they do not repent and believe in him Gospel; therefore, we have to do missions.
The process by which humanity has stifled the knowledge of God
First: No atheist was born (because of the image and likeness of man, which sin offended but did not destroy). The seed of God’s knowledge is in everyone’s consciousness and shines in the surrounding nature.
Second, knowing that God deserves all the glory, they rejected it; they rejected the glorification of God that is different from the nature and gratitude that is owed to him, because everything comes from Him. Does the process lead to immorality, but does it begin in the mind – in God’s rejection in their minds – is reasoning without God, null and empty reasoning. The nullity of reasoning that God’s neglected reasoning is incapable of leading us to the truth, after the mind is the heart (center of affections and wills) the next to be affected, so it affects consciousness and, subsequently, consciousness. religion (worshipping the creature and not the creator).
God gives himself to the Gentiles. It was not to pour out fire and brimstone like Sodom, but something worse. God said to the sinner, “Is that what you want? Do what you want. God’s wrath in this passage is to free sinners from their own passions. “
Hardening process: mind-heart idolatry – immorality
In this text we can also see that God’s retributive justice is proportional to sin:
They have dishonored God, God has dishonored them to each other.
They turned God’s truth into a lie to God and delivered them to the lie of homosexuality.
They did not approve of God’s knowledge of God, because they had a reprehensible mental temperament.
The biblical image of sinful man is not that of a good and innocent person, but does not know the gospel, but actively rebels against the knowledge of God and approves of those who practice immorality.
There is no “false but sincere religion. ” Ignorance of the gospel does not save or make a person excusable.
God’s righteousness is revealed in the gospel, but God’s wrath is revealed in heaven, so we must preach the gospel. Do people who don’t care about missions see men as walking trees?We don’t understand the real and terrible state they’re in.
Paul loves the lost, but what moves Paul is that God has not received glory among the heathen, that is what moves you and annoys you. Does that bother you?