How Sin Begins and Ends, 1:18-32.
In this section, we learn how God has forbidden all sin. We learn that sin appears when men forget God and become enemies of God. When men separate themselves in this way, their minds and hearts begin to work in wrong ways and to make them think incorrectly. This leads them to forget the true glory of God. Then men begin to make gods for themselves, which are not really gods at all. These men soon become unclean and immoral. Last of all, they begin to do things they never should do. When people do these things, they deserve to die.
Romans 1:18-32
18 God’s punishment is being revealed from heaven against all sin and ungodliness of people who use sin to hide the truth. 19 What can be known about God is plain to them, because God made it plain to them. 20 Since the beginning of the world, the unseen qualities of God – His unseen power and His divinity – could be clearly seen and understood from what God made. They have no excuse. 21 Because, even though they knew God, they didn’t give God the glory that He should have. They weren’t thankful, either. Instead, their thinking became nonsense and their foolish hearts became dark. 22 They acted as if they were wise, but they became fools. 23 They exchanged the glory of an undying God for something else – idols that look like men, birds, animals with four feet, or reptiles. All these die. 24 So, God handed them over to the sinful desires of their hearts. They became sexually unclean, degrading their own bodies with one another. 25 They exchanged God’s truth for a lie. Instead of worshiping God, the Maker, they worshiped and served something which was made. (God is praised forever. Amen.) 26 This is why God handed them over to immoral, unnatural drives. Even their females exchanged their natural sexual drives for unnatural ones. 27 In the same way, males stopped feeling natural sexual drives for females and burned up in their lust for one another – males with males. They do what is shameful, but they must receive in themselves the consequences for this error. 28 Also, since they didn’t want to allow God to stay within their circle of knowledge, God handed them over to worthless thinking, to do things they should never do. 29 They are filled with all kinds of wrong, with evil, greed, and depravity. They are full of jealousy, murder, fighting, tricks, malice, gossiping, 30 slander, hatred for God, insults, pride, boasting, and new ways to do evil. They don’t obey their parents. 31 They always break promises. They are stupid and heartless. They show no pity for others. 32 They know that what God said is right that people who practice such things deserve death – but they do them anyway. And they even encourage others who are practicing the same things.
[18] God is revealing in the Bible what sin is and how He is going to punish all sin. When men sin, they hide the truth about God.
[19-20] Men are capable of knowing God because God has made Himself plain to men. He showed Himself to men clearly so men could understand God. He showed Himself by what He created. No man has ever failed to see this amazing creation. Men in every country have seen God’s eternal power and His divinity (His being God). Since all men everywhere have seen what God has made and have known that no man could ever have made all these, then they must know that there is a God. Therefore, no man can say as an excuse for his sin, “I did not know there was a God.”
[21] Since all men have known God, why are we not all His followers and His children? Because, even though we did know His power and Divinity, two failures ruined us: Mankind did not give glory to God for what He had created, and they did not give thanks to Him. Instead of thinking right and living in light and truth, they began thinking bad things and their hearts became evil (without light).
[22-23] Although they thought they were being wise, they began doing foolish things and living very unwisely.
One of the foolish things they did was this: They forgot about the glorious God who created all things and who can never die. In His place, they made idols – false gods – of wood and stone. They made them to look like men, birds, animals, and reptiles. But these have no glory, and they all die. Instead of the highest Being of the whole world, they worshipped the lowliest beings. Instead of worshipping the One who never dies, they worshipped beings who always end in death.
[24-27] When men exchanged the truth of God for false gods, God pulled back from them and let them do what they wanted to do. They gave themselves to many kinds of sins. These included sexual sins which lowered their bodies to be like animals. Without God’s helping them, they went deeper into strange sexual sins which were unnatural. Women had sex with other women. Men had sex with other men. Such things were shameful and resulted in many evils among humankind.
[28-32] After this kind of effort and after turning away from God, God turned them loose to thinking thoughts that were worthless. They began to do things that should never be done and were filled with all kinds of wrong. In verses twenty-nine through thirty-one there is a list of all the wicked things they did. Read this list carefully and imagine such a place to live where all these things are done. It is hard to imagine that, when people know how wrong these things are, they go ahead and do them anyway. They know that such doers deserve death. Still they continue in doing them and encourage others to do the same evil things.
People who had known God by His creation chose to ignore Him. They made other lesser beings to become their gods, even though they know that they die. This causes their minds and hearts not to work correctly. They begin to practice worse and worse sins, even though they knew how wrong they were. So sin begins with ingratitude and ends in death.
Romans 2:1-11
2 1 Therefore, if anyone condemns someone else, you are without excuse, sir, because when you condemn someone else, you are only condemning yourself. You are always doing the same things that you are condemning! 2 We know God is right when He condemns people who always do such things. 3 But, mister, you are judging people who practice such things – yet you are doing the same things! Will you escape God’s condemnation? 4 Do you look down on the wealth of God’s kindness, tolerance, and patience? Surely you know that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to a change of heart. 5 But your heart is hard and unchanged. You are storing up punishment for yourself on the Day of punishment when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed. 6 God will pay back each person according to the way that person lived. 7 Eternal life will go to those who, by patiently doing good things, are looking for glory, honor, and life with no end. 8 But, punishment and anger will go to those who are following wrong, by being selfish and not obeying the truth. 9 There will be trouble and pain for every human being who does evil. This is true, first for a Jew, then also for a non-Jew. 10 Glory, honor, and peace will belong to any person who is doing good – for a Jew first, then also a non-Jew. 11 God treats everyone alike.
All Men Will Be Judged by God, 2:1 – 3:8.
With all the sin in the world (as revealed in chapter l), how can we explain what will happen to all these sinful men? The Word of God speaks in detail of a coming judgement when God will bring all men before the throne of Jesus Christ to be judged for their deeds. You may find this described in the following passages: John 5:27; Acts 17:31; 2 Timothy 4:1, 8; Hebrews 12:23; 1 Peter 4:5; and Romans 2:16.
[1-4] After telling how sin had arisen and grown in the hearts of men (Romans 1:21-32), Paul here shows us how God will deal with all evil men. But first he states how self-deceived men can be without knowing it. The list of sins in the last chapter (verses 21-32) causes men to declare how terrible it is to commit such things. But sometimes people who say evil things about evil men are at the same time the people who do the same evil themselves. They think that by condemning others they will take blame away from themselves. Paul says it will not be so. If you are guilty of sin and blame others, God Himself will condemn you for what you find wrong in other people. He asks the question, “Will you escape God’s condemnation?” Some will reply, “Yes, because God has not ever punished me for my evil deeds.” But Paul answers, “Just because God gives you kindness, tolerance, and patience does not mean that you are escaping your punishment for your sin.” Men must not count God’s delay of punishment as proof that He will never punish. God delays giving us what we deserve in the hope that we will repent and change our hearts and our behaviour.
[5-6] If a man does wrong, is not punished, and thinks that he has escaped the consequences of his evil deeds, he is only revealing that his heart is wicked. By continuing to sin, such a man is merely adding more and more punishment in the day when every deed of man will be revealed before God. God sees every evil deed and records them in His book. Read Revelation 20:12: “I saw dead people – important and unimportant. They were standing in front of the throne. Books were opened. And another book – the Book of Life – was opened. The dead were judged from the things which had been written in the books, according to the way they had lived.” This is the Day of Judgement referred to in the listed Scriptures above. God will give back to each person according to the way that person lived. It will be good to good men and evil to evil men. In the next verses, Paul shows in detail how this will be.
[7-11] If men patiently do good to others and are seeking after glory and honour and eternal life (life that will never end), they will be given what they seek: eternal life. But if men live in selfishness and do not obey what they know is right and true, those men will receive punishment from God with trouble and pain.
Some will say, “But God likes our people more, and He will not give anger and pain to us!” They are wrong. God will judge all men by their deeds. God will judge Jews, and He will judge non-Jews. All men will be judged and treated alike without any favouritism to any special group.
Romans 2:12-16
12 All people who sin without law will be destroyed without law. All people who sin with the law will be judged by the law. 13 The people who only listen to the law are not right with God, but the people who obey the law are the ones who are made right with God. 14 Sometimes non-Jews (who do not have the law) naturally obey things of the law. So, they are their own law (even though they don’t have the law). 15 Their actions show that the law is written in their hearts. Their consciences prove this is true, because their thoughts sometimes accuse them and sometimes even excuse them. 16 On that Day, God will use this Good News of mine to judge the secret things of men through Jesus Christ.
[12-16] What about people who sin but do not have the laws of God to show them sin? Sin destroys people, whether they know the law or not. Wickedness brings disaster and death upon all who do it, with or without the law. If people who know the law go ahead and sin anyway, they too will die and be judged by the law. Sin kills, whether we know the law or do not know the law.
Simply hearing the law does not make people right with God. Obeying the law makes people right. So if one hears the law and then does wrong anyway, his hearing is worth nothing.
Can God justly condemn the Gentile who sins without the law? Yes, because his conduct demonstrates that he is not totally ignorant of God’s will even though he doesn’t have “the law”.
The summary of this whole passage is this: On that final Day of Judgement at the end of the world, this gospel of Jesus Christ and His teachings will judge the secrets of men’s hearts, whether they have done evil or good, and Jesus Christ who died for them will be their Judge.
Romans 2:17-28
17 You call yourself a Jew. You depend on the law of Moses. You brag about being in God. 18 You know what God wants. You choose what is better, because the law teaches you. 19 You have persuaded yourself that you are a guide to blind men, a light for people in darkness, 20 a master over uneducated people, and a teacher of those who are not mature, because in the law, you have all knowledge and truth. 21 So, you teach others, but surely you teach yourself. You tell others, “You must not steal!” but do you steal? 22 You say, “You must not commit adultery!” but do you commit adultery? You hate false gods, but do you rob temples? 23 You brag about being in the law, but are you bringing shame on the law of God by not obeying it? 24 This is written: “They say evil things about the name of God among the people of the world because of you.” Ezekiel 36:20 25 True, being circumcised is important, if you always follow the law. However, if you don’t obey the law, it is as if you had never been circumcised. 26 Therefore, if a man who is not circumcised obeys the things that the law says are right, God will regard his uncircumcision as if it were circumcision! 27 The man who is not physically circumcised, but who obeys the law, will condemn you. You are circumcised and you have the law written down, but you don’t obey the law. 28 Being Jewish is not just what is on the outside. Circumcision is more than flesh. No, being a Jew depends on what is on the inside. True circumcision is circumcision of the heart performed by the Spirit, not the written code. This person has praise from God, not men.
[17-20] There was much pride among Jews who thought themselves to be more holy and religious than non-Jews. Paul wrote this section to describe how they felt about themselves. They were not really like this in God’s eyes, but in their own eyes. So Paul is telling them how they see themselves so that he can show them they are not really what they think they are. “You Jews,” he says, “think you have the right name before God. You have self-confidence because you have the law God gave to Moses. You tell others proudly about your law. You are sure you know right from wrong as God sees it. You recognize what is good because your law tells you what is good. You know how to help people who can’t see right from wrong. You are better than unlearned people because you know more than they do. You are teachers of immature people who don’t act grownup. In fact, you have all knowledge and all truth because you know the law! You Jews surely must be most blessed of all men and the most righteous people of all the earth!” At least that is how the Jews saw themselves. And that is how they thought God saw them.
[21-24] But Paul, himself one of the Jews, said, “You are wrong. Why is it that you Jews teach other people about God but you don’t teach yourselves? You tell all the world that they ought not to steal. But do you steal? You warn all men that they should not take another man’s wife. But are you faithful to your wife? You Jews know that idols are false gods and not really God at all. But you Jews go to their false-god temples, not to worship but to steal the gold offered to the gods of the non-Jews! And how do the non-Jews feel about that? They say evil things about your law because of the way you behave – after you have tried to tell them how to behave. And even the name of God Himself is a shameful name because of your actions. You are proud of how much righteousness you teach from your law, but your evil behaviour causes your non-Jewish students to hate both your law and your God.”
[25-27] Then Paul gave the Jews one example of the way they miss the whole meaning of the law and the way God wanted them to be. This example has to do with their ceremony called circumcision. God had commanded Abraham and all his descendants that when a male child was born, his foreskin was to be cut off in a special religious ceremony. This was a very important commandment. It was later repeated to all the Jews in the laws of Moses. The Jews considered it very important. They believed that if they followed this law of God, then God would bless them and count them as His special people. In most of this understanding of circumcision, they were right. But Paul showed them next that they missed the whole point.
In verse twenty-five, he says that if they did not obey the rest of the law, it is just as if they had never been circumcised. No Jew would ever imagine that his male child could be born without being circumcised. That would be unthinkable! But they thought nothing of disobeying the laws of stealing, or of adultery, or of stealing from the temples of the idols. So Paul asked the question, “What good is your circumcision by the law if you break many of the other commandments of the law?”
And what about the non-Jew who had never been circumcised? If he did what the law commanded because he had it written on his heart, then God would consider that man as if he had been circumcised, even though he was not a Jew. If he kept the law of God in his inner man, it was not important that he had no outer mark on his flesh as a sign of righteousness.
[28-29] The mark of God’s people, therefore, is not just on the outside of the body. Being a Jew should have to do with what is on the inside of man – in his heart – because that is where God looks to see the real man. The non-Jew who cuts evil out of his heart by changing his life to be good is then purified in the inner man by God’s Holy Spirit (not by a knife to cut the outer flesh). As men judge other men, they may not see the heart of the non-Jew. They may judge him only because his visible flesh has no holy mark of circumcision and, therefore, call him unrighteous. But God sees his inner purity and gives that man praise.
Romans 3:1-4
3 1 So, what does a Jew have that a non-Jew doesn’t have? What good is circumcision? 2 It is worth much in many ways! First, Jews were trusted with messages from God. 3 However, some Jews became unbelievers. Will their lack of faith cancel God’s loyalty? 4 Never! Even though every man is a liar, God will be true. This is written: “When You speak, You will be right. When You judge, You will conquer.” Psalm 51:4
[3:1-4] After all this struggle over who is better, the question was, “Is it any better to be a Jew than to be a non-Jew? Is circumcision any good at all for a Jew?” The answer was, “Yes. It was worth much in many ways.” How? Because God trusted the Jews enough to give them His messages. He gave them the law of God through Moses written on stones (the Ten Commandments) so they could read them and remember them. God sent His prophets to them to show them the right and to teach them to avoid the wrong. But some of the Jews refused to trust God and His messages and remained unbelievers in God. How did God respond to that? Did He cancel His promises? Did He take back His law? Did He destroy His covenant? No, not at all. God will always remain true and faithful. God will never break His promises, even though every man on earth should become a liar and disobedient to the law. Centuries before, the writer of the Psalms said that God will speak right and truth, no matter what men may do. And when God judges, it will be true judgement, and therefore, He will conquer, no matter how men may fail.
Romans 3:5-18
5 Now if our wrong makes God’s righteousness look better, what should we say? God would be wrong to punish us, wouldn’t He? (I am thinking as a human being). 6 Never! If that were true, how could God condemn the world? 7 But, if my lie makes God’s truth look better and gives God more glory, why am I still being condemned as a sinner? 8 Perhaps we should say, “Let’s do evil things, so that good things will happen!”? (Some people are saying awful things about us. They claim that we said this. They deserve to be condemned.) 9 What should we think? Are Jews better off? Not at all! We have already proved that all Jews and also non-Jews are under sin’s power. 10 This is written: “No one is good – not even one person! 11 No one understands. No one is looking for God. 12 All men have turned away from God and become completely useless. No one is kind – not even one person!” Psalm 14:1-3; Ecclesiastes 7:20 13 “Their throats are like an open grave. They use their tongues to trick people.” Psalm 5:9 “Like dangerous snakes, poison is under their lips.” Psalm 140:3 14 “Their mouths are filled with cursing and bitterness.” Psalm 10:7 15 “They move quickly to kill someone. 16 After they leave, people are suffering and destroyed. 17 They have not known the peaceful way.” Isaiah 59:7-8 18 “They do not fear God.” Psalm 36:1
[5-8] When we really understand this truth about God, we may make a mistake. Here is how our thinking may deceive us: When men do wrong and God still does right, then God is shown to be better than men, more glorious than ever before. So, if we make God look better when we do wrong, then God should not punish us for doing wrong. Our wrong is good for Him! Paul’s reply to this deceitful thinking is this: If what you say about God is true, then no judgement could ever be given. The greatest sinner in the world would be given the greatest reward because his sin makes God the greatest and holiest One. So men would say, “Let us do more and more evil so that God will shine more and more in holiness before all the world.” In such a judgement, both evil and good would have to be rewarded. Such a judgement would not be any judgement at all.
But some of Paul’s enemies actually said that Paul believed what they were saying about him. Paul said that is not true. He did not believe such a thing, and his enemies would be condemned because they said such untrue things, both about him and about God. They deserved to be condemned. Evil men do not glorify God by doing evil. They shame Him and will be judged guilty of evil. They will be punished as a result of God’s anger (see Romans 2:7-11). On the other hand, righteous men who give glory and honour to God will be rewarded and live forever with God in heaven.
All Men Have Sinned, 3:9-20.
[9] This part of Paul’s message is a strong accusation against all men. Paul has already proved that sin occurred in everyone (see Romans 1:18-22). Here he made the statement clearly and proves it again with writings from the Jewish prophets: All men have sinned.
Concerning the Jews. Paul asks another question similar to the one in verse one: “Are Jews better off [than non-Jews]?’ The answer to the first question was yes, but the answer to this question is no. Why are the answers different? Because the questions are different. They are similar, but not the same. The first question was, “What does a Jew have that a non-Jew doesn’t have?” (see verse 1). The second question is, “Are Jews better off [than non-Jews]?”
It is true that the Jews had more knowledge of God: They had a temple, a priesthood, a covenant, and many other favours from God. But many of them did not believe or obey God any more than did the non-Jews. So, despite their advantages in God’s favour, they were no better than the non-Jews where sin and judgement were concerned. Both the Jews and the non-Jews were guilty of sin.
[10-18] Paul here gives a frightening example to all mankind. To prove his accusation about all men being guilty of sin, he quoted from the Jewish Old Testament prophets and Psalms. He referred to seven different passages (see the text in verses 10-18). To realize how complete men’s surrender to sin is, notice these verses:
Men have sinned with their understanding (verse 11).
Men have sinned with their eyes (verse 11).
Men have sinned with their throats (verse 13).
Men have sinned with their tongues (verse 13).
Men have sinned with their lips (verse 13).
Men have sinned with their mouths (verse 14).
Men have sinned with their movements (verse 15).
With such people in the community, who would want to live among such sinful men and women? But we all live among such people, and we are like them.
Romans 3:19-24
19 We know that everything the law says it says to people who are within the law, so that every mouth must be shut. The whole world must be guilty before God. 20 So, no one will be made right with God by following the law, because, through the law, we become aware of sin. 21 Now, without the law, the way God makes people right has been revealed. The law and the prophets point toward this truth: 22 Committing oneself to Jesus Christ is what makes a person right with God. Salvation is for anyone who believes! It makes no difference who you are, 23 because everyone has sinned and is far away from God’s glory. 24 But, with God’s gracious love, we are made right with God through Christ Jesus who sets us free. And, all of this is free!
[19] Someone may raise the question, “We know there are many, many evil people, but surely they are not all like that, are they?” We all know people whom we call good people. But what we really mean is that for a day or a week, they have been good. In our dealings with them they have been good. But God is seeing men not for just a day or a week but for all their lives and in all their dealings with all men. As God sees us, we are all sinners.
If you are not convinced of this terrible conclusion, stop here to read 1 John 1:8-10: “If we say, ‘We have no sin!’ then we are only fooling ourselves. The truth is not in us. However, if we admit our sins, then God will forgive us. We can trust God; He does what is right. He will cleanse us from every evil thing. If we say, ‘We have not sinned!’ then we are calling God a liar. God’s true teaching is not in us.”
The mistake we often make is in remembering the good we have done but forgetting the evil. This allows us to call ourselves good because we forget the times when we did evil. Our sin, however, is like a bicycle tire or a woman’s string of beads. If the tire is mostly good but only has two or three holes in it, it will be flat and useless. If a woman’s string of beads is mostly beautiful but the string is cut in only one or two places, the beads cannot be worn for they will all fall off. This is what it means in James 2:10 where the writer says, “The person who ‘obeys’ the whole law and yet breaks only one of its commands is as guilty as if he broke all of the commands.”
Since these things are true, Paul summarizes his charge that the whole human race is guilty of sin. Note in these verses that he says every mouth must be shut (meaning that no one has a word of defense); the whole world is guilty before God; no one will be made right with God by the law (verse 20); and everyone has sinned (see verse 23).
[20] Paul continues to show how the law is limited in what it can do for sinners. The law did not save men to whom it was given, even the Jews. It did show them where their sins were, but it could not make them right with God.
The law is like the police in your own country. When men do wrong by violating the laws of their own place, the police come to arrest them and to show them their crime. But all the police can do is to take them away to court. The police cannot make them right again or remove the guilt of their crime. To make people right is not the work of a policeman. So it is with the law. It shows men their sin, but they must be made right in some other way than by following the law.
In the next section, Paul shows how God has made a plan to make men right with Him again.