ROMANS
CHAPTER 1
The gospel is the power of God unto salvation through Jesus Christ—Wrath of God rests on those guilty of murder, homosexual practices, fornication, and other sins if the guilty do not repent.
Note: While this was one of the later writings of Paul it is considered to be a great consolidation and overview of all of the teachings from Paul so it was placed first in the New Testament.
1 PAUL, [ The
writer. ] a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle,
[ He states his authority. He composes this letter sometime between 55 and 57 AD. He composes this letter probably as the last of the letters that we have, even though it comes here first in the presentation in the New Testament, because the letters are ordered by length, not by chronology. Paul is writing here to a group of saints in Rome that he's never met. The other letters that we have are letters that Paul wrote to people that he knew addressing very specific problems that they had. There were originally 66 epistles and 44 authors of those epistles. Paul happens to be the author of most of those texts. ] separated unto the gospel of God, the plan put forward by our Father in Heaven, so it is God's plan. 3 Ne 27:10,13; Moroni 10:33. ]
3 Concerning his son Jesus Christ our Lord, [ Paul is trying to discuss the gospel and reach out to people who didn't grow up in the Jewish faith, he introduces a Christian vocabulary to them, asn so it's kind of a work in progress and that's part of what I think makes it a little bit difficult, is the way that his approach and vocabulary are so unique and personal to him. ] which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh;
4 And declared to be the son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead:
[ Thus proving that he was the son of God. The reason we celebrate Christmas is because of the resurrection, because with out the resurrection his birth essentially means nothing. ]
5 By whom we have received grace and apostleship, for obedience to the faith among all nations, for his name:
[ Have you ever wondered what it would have been like for these small groups of Christians, who in the beginning were just learning and trying to do their very best to understand what they were supposed to do and to try to follow the Savior and his teachings? The world was so big to them, there were strong religious ties and yet they moved forward. By the time Paul wrote his epistle to the Roman church members who were a diverse group of Jews and Gentiles, the church of Jesus Christ had grown far beyond a small band of believers from Galilee. About 20 years after the Savior's Resurrection, there were congregations of Christians almost everywhere the apostles could reasonably travel, including Rome, the capital of a powerful empire. Still, compared to the vastness of the Roman Empire, the church was small and often the object of persecution. In such conditions, some might feel ashamed of the gospel of Christ, but of course not Paul, he knew and testified that true power, the power of God unto salvation is found in the gospel of Jesus Christ. The other interesting thing here is that Paul is not setting down to write scripture, as we have it canonized here, no he is just sharing a message, as specific message designed for a specific group of saints. ]
7 To all that be in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints:
[ The faithful members of the church his attended audience. When we reach this point in the New Testament, we're kind of shifting gears from stories
and narratives as presented in the gospels and then in the book of Acts to collections of epistles, to letters that are written to specific people at specific times and places with specific problems. There is beginning to be a transition on the Church, like in the early days of the LDS church. Even into my younger years you would usually get a member of the First presidency or at least the quorum of the twelve at your stake conference. Then it was ever other one, then or now it is really kind of rare that you do. So the church is growing and as a result the apostles are not walking daily with the saintes and must now start to teach using epistles. ] Grace [ Greek is charis and it means loving kindness. This grace that comes is a loving kindness from our Savior Jesus Christ. And that's going to be so vital as we read the rest of Romans because Paul's emphasis to the saints is you need to be more like the Savior. Where is your grace or where is your loving kindness that is intended to be given to others? The grace, the loving kindness that's being given by Jesus Christ in this statement and through his atoning sacrifice we can never repay. ] to you and peace from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ.
8 First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world.
9 For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his son, that without ceasing I make mention of you always in my prayers;
10 Making request, if by any means now at length I might have a prosperous journey by the will of God to come unto you.
11 For I long to see you, that I may impart unto you some spiritual gift, to the end ye may be established;
13 Now I would not have you ignorant, brethren, that oftentimes I purposed to come unto you, (but was let hitherto,) that I might have some fruit among you also, even as among other Gentiles.
16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: [ The mark to which we are to aim for. Sin in the Hebrew in the old testament, and greek in the new testament comes to us as an old archery term. It means you shot an arrow and you missed the mark. Where as repentance means in both Hebrew and greek ath yo are going to take aim again, and try to do better than you did before. So here if you do not know what the mark is then you do not know where to aim. Paul is giving us the mark. ] for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.
[ Here he means Gentile. ]
17 For therein is the righteousness of
God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith. [ What does it mean to live by faith? We have hope, we believe all that God has taught us, we keep the commandments all the time, no matter what. Faith in what? In God the Eternal Father and in his son Jesus christ. If we live by faith how do we act? We are positive and happy even in our trials, because we know that God is watching over us, letting have the trails that will make us stronger, those that will teach us. It is faith in Jesus Christ that moves us toward a change of character. If ye love me ye will keep my commandments. The commandments are there then to teach us how to live, and if we live them, do them we will become more like him, as that is how he lives, how he thinks. This is really a follow up to the previous verse, if we really believe then we will live by faith and do. See Alma 13:16. ]
18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness;
[ Means to hold down. They know the truth but do not live it. It's kind of hiding or suppression of the truth is the sense that's at stake, and then he goes on to say that there's something about God that's obvious, something about God that's kind of hidden in plain sight, something about his nature, something about his eternal power, something about his attributes that we have been suppressing and hiding from ourselves. Or We've exchanged the truth about God for a lie. We take what should have been obvious and we turn it upside down and everything that should have clear becomes fuzzy. It is our own doing. See vs 25. We're doing something that's harming ourselves and other people and there's a sense in which we don't quite see how we're doing it or why even though we still bear responsibility for having done it. So what is the truth that Paul is discussing in this context? Paul says, they exchange the truth of God for a lie, they served the creation or the creature rather than the creator. We make the law about us and whether we are loved rather than about God and joining him in the work of love. It's that kind of shift in the purpose of the law and what we use the law for that's at stake in the lie that we're telling ourselves. In our creation is the gift of life and to acknowledge God as creator is to acknowledge that we are gifts to ourselves from God, that we aren't in charge, we aren't in control, God is, and that our lives are themselves a gift. A kind of original expression of God's own love and to deny the creator is to deny the gift that He gave to us as His creation. What is it about God that we've been suppressing? What is it that we've been hiding from ourselves? So what are we afraid of? If we look at Romans 5:6. ]
19 Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them.
[ The only way to know who God is; is through his scriptures, by living and keeping his word. Those who know and understand the gospel. Paul is trying to bring forward the idea that if you know and understand the gospel, and choose to not live it then there are going to be some problems for you. (See vs 20) God did not come to save us in our sins but rather from them. ]
20 For the invisible [ Eternal - 2 Cor. 4:18. ] things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, [ Greek translation would be closer to translated "achievements" or "accomplishments" so, what Paul is saying is that since the Creation of the earth God has manifested himself to man in the things He does. ] even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse: [ Once you know the gospel and do not live it will have no valid excuses. ]
21 Because that, when they knew God, [ When the spirit testified to them. ] they glorified him not as God, [ Even though they knew the scriptures they did not glorify God. They chose not to follow him and keep his commandments. ] neither were thankful;
but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. [ Or they were more interested in satisfying their own desires and passions than following God. ]
22 Professing themselves to be wise, [ When you do not accept God as God. ] they became fools,
[ When you set yourself up as greater than God, smarter than God, then you are a fool. If you do not use God as your standard then you will ultimately fail. Climb the ladder only to realize it's leaning against the wrong wall. When we in our lives are trying to answer the wrong question and then wonder why we can't get the right answer. Then when it comes to difficult times or when when difficult things happen, when trials hit, when something hard comes, you're, "What did I do wrong for this to happen to me? What did I do to make you so angry at me that you allowed this thing to happen?" OR - If I think that God's law is all about deserving love because of the good things I have done to EARN God's love, then when good things happen, I'll own them and claim them and take credit for them and say that I DESERVE them, which will ruin them instead of treating them as a gift, but when also the flip side is when bad things happen, which also happens all the time. When bad things happen, I'll assume it's because I deserved that too, and if good things happen, I'll think I'll deserve it, and that ruins them. ]
23 And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image [ Idols. Or when we make God into something that he really is not, because that is what suits our own fancy. In a way we do this today when we say that the laws of God need to change because times are different now, and God does not understand our day. The laws were written for a different time and God needs to catch up with the way things are now, therefore his laws need to change, and if they have not changed already they shortly will (things like gay issues of those who believe that they will soon be able to be married in the temple, as we have seen the black now hold the priesthood...) so we are just ahead of our time in living the way that we do. Idolatry is the primary manifestation of this reversal of love of God. Instead of worshiping God, we end up worshiping some reflection of ourselves in the things that we want or the things that we make. We make the law about whether or not we are loved, rather than making the law about whether we love others. That's the very notion of idolatry then where my relationship with the God is about me getting what I want. That's what makes it an idol. Whereas if my relationship to God is about doing what God commanded regardless of what I want, that's actual worship, and again, you can see the same dynamic, where if my obedience is about me getting what I want, again, that's about whether I'm loved rather than whether or not I love. ] made
like to corruptible man,
[ Idols will break and decay, they have no power or intelligence, they are nade and really goverened by man, not the other way around.
Man gives them their power. ] and
to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things.
24 Wherefore God also gave them up [ Because they use there agency and they want to sin and continue to sin God gives them up to that sin. He does not take away their agency. ] to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves:
[ Here he is taking about their character again. Is this not what is going on today? People do what they want to do and justify it with each other. It is through the lust sof the flesh that Satan gains control. ]
25 Who changed the truth of God into a lie, [ Gods rules, Gods commandments, Gods restrictions. When we change the truth of God then we in essence are creating a new God aren't we? You are dishonoring God by dishonoring his word. They are quick to say that God's scriptures are not really true, they might have been ok at one point but we live in an enlightened age. So that what might have been ok at one point is no longer valid. ] and worshipped and served the creature [ "Creature" - your own desires appetites and passions. The flesh. You serve the creature. These are direct references to Ex 20:3,4,7. "No other Gods before me", "Thou shall not make unto thee any graven image"; "thou shall not take the name of God in vain". Or you are not to make unto yourself your own God. "Thou shall not make unto thee any graven image - Ex 20:4". This might be your own education, your own philosophies, your own desires or appetites, your own passions. When you want to justify them over what God has said then you are making another God. ] more than the Creator, [ The one who created them, the real God. ] who is blessed for ever. Amen.
26 For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature:
[ Homosexuality as an attribute of their character. ]
27 And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, [ Homosexual relations. “Of the adverse social effects of homosexuality none is more significant than the effect on marriage and home. The normal, God-given sexual relationship is the procreative act between man and woman in honorable marriage. . . .
“. . . where stands the perversion of homosexuality? Clearly it is hostile to God’s purpose in that it negates his first and great commandment to ‘multiply and replenish the earth.’ If the abominable practice became universal it would depopulate the earth in a single generation. It would nullify God’s great program for his spirit children in that it would leave countless unembodied spirits in the heavenly world without the chance for the opportunities of mortality and would deny to all the participants in the practice the eternal life God makes available to us all. “A man may rationalize and excuse himself till the groove is so deep he cannot get out without great difficulty. But temptations come to all people. The difference between the reprobate and the worthy person is generally that one yielded and the other resisted. And if the yielding person continues to give way he may finally reach the point of ‘no return.’ The Spirit will ‘not always strive with man.’ (D&C 1:33.)” (Kimball, Miracle of Forgiveness, pp. 80–86.)] and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet.
28 And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, [ One of the predictable effects of using the law in this backwards way is that you end up creating these little groups of insiders within the church. Those groups are made up of insiders who eventually become the insiders versus outsiders. And one of the main things that you need to do to create your group of insiders is you have to applaud one another for what you're doing to make sure that everybody feels like they're being recognized and they really are great and they really have earned it and they really do deserve it. That's how you form the group. As long as you keep doing this you keep each other in the group. It becomes the Self-congratulation society. And it is a real danger. While it may seem pure it does divide. Because those who choose a different path or go in a different direction are shunned in a way and become hurt. Also; when someone leaves the group, you see it as a threat to yourself and so you lash out. ] to do those things which are not convenient;
[ Or he left them unto themselves, he will not destroy their agency. Joseph Smith said that God will not, and Satan cannot control the agency of man. D&C 88:32. ]
29 Being filled with all unrighteousness, [ Paul starts to provide an entire list here of those things that we need to do in order to change our character to be more like that of God's. This is a itemized list that follows from verse 17, these are the things that we need get out of our character in order to live by faith. ] fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers,
30 Backbiters, haters of God, [ So let's just say for a moment that you have the option to pick one of these to make it ok. Can God do that? Can he say that well ok this one sin is now ok - while the rest are not? No he cannot do that. This would be the same as a loving parent who has a child who is gay or lesbian and saying that they want the church to be accepting of that child in full fellowship in the church. If the church did then they have to be accepting of all of these other character traits. No exceptions. So therefore if the church accepted the gay or lesbian child, then they would also in a way be saying that the church should be willing to accept an adulterous life style, or someone who just goes around killing people. If you accept one you get them all is what Paul is trying to say here. If you think that you can call to a vote what is excepted or not, if you think that you can change the rules of God then you do not belong to a church but you belong to a club. A religion can only be a religion when it is founded on un-changeable doctrine. No unclean thing can live in the presence of God and Paul is listing here all of the unclean character traits. These are all character traits of God and they are character traits that we need to develop. 1 Ne 10:21 "No unclean thing can be in the presence of God". Alma 11:37 "You cannot be saved in your sins". Alma 40:26 "The wicked die as to things of righteousness" Mosiah 15:26-27. 2 Tim 2:13 "God cannot deny himself". Mormon 9:3-5 "Do you think that you could ever be happy dwelling with God if you are not worth of that." Hell then is anywhere that you do not belong - You would be more happy in hell if that was your lifestyle rather than living in heaven. ] despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents,
31 Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful:
[ We find a lot the same list in 1 Cor 6:9-10 when he says "Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God." ]
32 Who knowing the judgment [ From Greek translation the phrase "Who knowing the judgement of God" is "dikaioma".
The most literal translation to English would be "just-effect" or
those just acts one is to engage in according to God's dictates. The
most fair translations of the term would be "requirements",
"regulations," or "ordinances". There are those who would say that they are the victim here. Because God made me this way using that as an excuse - therefore I cannot help it, or it is because of my up bringing - So as long as long as a person is a victim they cannot progress spiritually. Because as long as you are willing to point the finger and say that I am this way because of them, or something beyond my control. So until you accept the fact that you are the one who has control, and God made you THAT WAY - to be in control, until you accept that you will always default to it is not my fault, and therefore I can really do whatever I want because I am justified, it is not my fault it is someone elses. ] of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, [ They have no excuse. Those who know what God requires them to do - and then go the complete opposite direction are worthy of death which could be 1) Phyiscal death they are worthy of phyisical death because they are not fulfilling the measure of their creation and or 2) Spiritual death well in this case they will just get whayt is due them. They cut them selves off from God so they will be dead in the spirit.] not only do the same, but have pleasure in them [ Not only do they do that which is wrong but they take pride in doing so, they find pleasure in disobedience of God's laws. Or one who acts this way will not be comfortable in the presence of God. ] that do them.
"regulations," or "ordinances". There are those who would say that they are the victim here. Because God made me this way using that as an excuse - therefore I cannot help it, or it is because of my up bringing - So as long as long as a person is a victim they cannot progress spiritually. Because as long as you are willing to point the finger and say that I am this way because of them, or something beyond my control. So until you accept the fact that you are the one who has control, and God made you THAT WAY - to be in control, until you accept that you will always default to it is not my fault, and therefore I can really do whatever I want because I am justified, it is not my fault it is someone elses. ] of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, [ They have no excuse. Those who know what God requires them to do - and then go the complete opposite direction are worthy of death which could be 1) Phyiscal death they are worthy of phyisical death because they are not fulfilling the measure of their creation and or 2) Spiritual death well in this case they will just get whayt is due them. They cut them selves off from God so they will be dead in the spirit.] not only do the same, but have pleasure in them [ Not only do they do that which is wrong but they take pride in doing so, they find pleasure in disobedience of God's laws. Or one who acts this way will not be comfortable in the presence of God. ] that do them.