Tag: Romans 1

Two Sides of Divine Justice

On By rcannata7In Biblical Literacy, God's Word, Walk of obedience1 Comment

Romans 1:16–18 (ESV) For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. 17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.” 18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.

Romans 1:17 and 1:18 mark a pivotal transition in Paul’s letter. Verse 17 concludes the thesis statement of the entire epistle, while verse 18 initiates Paul’s extensive, sobering diagnosis of humanity’s true condition.  We must be careful, though, because the artificial chapter and verse divisions (added centuries later) often cause readers to treat verse 17 as a triumphant conclusion and verse 18 as the start of a completely separate topic. Paul’s original readers would have experienced this as one continuous, seamless thought. In fact, verse 18 begins with the conjunction “For” (gar in Greek), directly connecting it to verses 16–17.

Paul deliberately uses parallel language to force a direct comparison. Both the righteousness of God and the wrath of God are actively being revealed (apokalyptetai).  Verse 18 explains why the Gospel in verse 17 is necessary in the first place. Without the reality of divine wrath against truth-suppression, the revelation of saving righteousness loses its urgency and meaning.

Divine wrath in Paul’s theology is not an emotional temper tantrum or an arbitrary outburst of divine frustration. It is God’s holy, settled, and judicial opposition to moral evil. The bright light of saving grace in verse 17 shines with breathtaking clarity only against the pitch-black backdrop of divine judgment in verse 18. Without verse 18, salvation (v. 16) has nothing to rescue humanity from.

How can a Holy God reveal both righteousness and wrath without contradicting His own nature? Because both flow from the exact same source: God’s absolute, unyielding moral justice.

When we look at the culture around us, and inspect the hidden corners of our own hearts, we witness humanity in an active state of suppression. Paul writes that people “suppress the truth in unrighteousness” (katechontōn, literally “stifling” or “holding down” the truth like a coil).

Listening to a Tim Keller sermon recently, he reminded me of a subtle shift happening in modern Christianity: churches are increasingly giving in to cultural pressure and scrubbing the word SIN from their vocabulary. In its place, we find gentler substitutes like “mistakes,” “brokenness,” or “bad habits.” While comfortable, these terms reshape our diagnosis into an internal psychological wound or a social misstep rather than a spiritual crisis. By contrast, Paul’s diagnosis in Romans 1 is far more severe. He defines sin as cosmic treason—the deliberate suppression of known truth, the refusal to offer God praise and gratitude, and the idolization of self-autonomy. When we soft-pedal sin, we rob humanity of the truth. Without a biblical framework for sin, we remain blind to our deepest reality: that our fundamental issue is not that we are flawed, but that we are in active rebellion against a holy Creator.

God’s truth is not secretive or hidden. Creation itself screams His eternal power and divine nature so clearly (Psalm 19) that humanity is left anapologētous, without a legal defense in the court of heaven. Yet, in our natural state, we choose to stifle what we know about God to preserve our own illusion of self-autonomy.

Humanity’s core problem is not a lack of intellectual information; it is a posture of self-sovereignty. We refuse to honor Him as God or give Him thanks. As a result, our thinking becomes futile, our foolish hearts are darkened, and we exchange the glorious, immortal Creator for decaying, created idols.

God’s justice in verse 18 responds to this rebellion judicially: He gives humanity over to the very choices they insist on making. But God’s justice in verse 17 offers a miraculous remedy: at the cross, God satisfied the full penalty His own justice required, allowing Him to remain entirely just while gifting a righteous legal standing to anyone who trusts in Jesus.

To understand Paul’s gospel is to realize that faith (pistis) is not merely intellectual assent to a set of spiritual facts. In Romans 1:5, Paul defines his whole apostolic mission as bringing about the “obedience of faith” (hypakoē pisteōs) among all nations. In the 1st-century Roman context, when an emperor took power, heralds declared a “gospel” (euangelion) demanding political allegiance from the empire’s subjects. Paul boldly hijacked that imperial vocabulary. He proclaimed that true, cosmic authority does not belong to Caesar or to the individual self. It belongs to Jesus Christ, the crucified and risen King.

To step into the grace of Romans 1:17, you must stop the truth-suppression of Romans 1:18.  You cannot receive the gift of God’s saving righteousness while actively sitting on the throne of your own life. Real faith is an act of joyful submission, a complete surrender of your self-autonomy to the King who bought you with His blood.

So, is there a specific area of your life (relationships, career, habits, finances) where you are holding down God’s clear truth to maintain control or pursue self-autonomy? What is one practical step of surrender that Jesus is asking you to make right now?

The Power of God

On By rcannata7In God's Word, Walk of obedience1 Comment

Romans 1:16–17 (ESV) – For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. 17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.”

Paul was writing to the church in Rome—the imperial capital where military conquest, status, and intellectual philosophy drove identity. In a place where the cross was a symbol of total public disgrace, Paul states that he is not ashamed of the Gospel.

The Gospel is the active, royal “good news” that Jesus Christ has conquered sin and death through His crucifixion and powerful resurrection, establishing God’s reign and offering complete salvation to anyone who yields their trust and allegiance to Him.

In the Roman Empire, the word euangelion was an imperial term. It was used to announce political decrees—such as the birthday of Caesar, a military victory, or the ascension of a new emperor. Caesar’s “gospel” was backed by the military dynamis of the Roman legions.

Paul uses this exact Roman political vocabulary. He boldly claims that real, ultimate cosmic power does not reside in Caesar’s armies, economic dominance, or political coercion. The true dynamis that changes human nature is found in the self-sacrificial death and resurrection of a crucified Messiah.

The assertion that the Gospel is “the power of God” (dynamis theou) in Romans 1:16 is not merely a rhetorical flourish; it is the central engine of Paul’s entire theological framework. In contemporary thought, we often reduce the Gospel to a set of abstract propositions (ideas to be debated). In contrast, Paul uses dynamis to describe an effective, objective power in action. The Gospel does not merely talk about power; it is the instrument through which God releases His divine authority into the physical world.

In the original Greek, Paul does not write that the Gospel was the power of God (at conversion) or will be the power of God (in heaven). It is a present, continuous reality. The saving power (sōteria) of the Gospel operates across three distinct tenses in the believer’s life:

  • Past: Rescued from the penalty of sin.
  • Present: Rescued from the power of sin.
  • Future: Rescued from the presence of sin.

Believers never “grow out of” needing the Gospel. Sanctification requires the exact same divine dynamis as initial conversion.

In this gospel power, God reveals His divine righteousness. It demonstrates God’s perfect justice, fulfills His covenant promises, and offers an unearned, gifted legal status of right standing (justification) to sinners.

The Gospel’s saving power, revealed “from faith for faith,” is unlocked not by human performance, ceremonial rituals, or moral achievement, but purely by faith—a trust and loyal allegiance that operates from first to last.

Paul specifies the conduit through which this divine energy is unlocked: “to everyone who believes.” Faith is not a work that earns power; it is the empty hand that receives it. By making faith the sole receiving mechanism, God makes His saving power universally accessible—”to the Jew first and also to the Greek”—stripping away all human grounds for boasting or self-reliance.

What power are you trusting in each day?

the Radiance

On By rcannata7In Worship1 Comment

“Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,” (Hebrews 1:1–3, ESV)

One cool night I was gazing into the heavens with my telescope and observed some of many star clusters that are easily found even when there is a fair amount of light pollution. These clusters alone where amazing to observe, marveling at the splendor and majesty of the night sky.

Right before I packed up my equipment, I noticed a light fuzzy area appearing right above the trees in my neighborhood and quickly looked at my star chart to see that this was the star cluster called the Pleiades. I quickly turned my telescope upon them and was just awestruck and how beautiful and powerful they looked. All through this night I could not help but think about what the psalmist penned in Psalm 19…

“The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge.” (Psalm 19:1–2, ESV)

I can only imagine what the Psalmist was able to see in his day when there was so little light pollution, and the nights were very dark. The closest I have ever come to that was on a lake in California that was surrounded by mountains and far away from any cities. They sky was dazzling, and the milky way just glowed in the sky.

I sometimes wonder if Paul had this same thought in his mind when he wrote in Romans…

“For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.” (Romans 1:19–20, ESV)

Of course, what Paul was writing was a stern warning that man is without excuse and that God’s wrath is revealed from heaven against ungodliness and unrighteousness for those who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.

If in all this observable majesty were God is so easily perceived, how much more amazing is it when we read about Jesus the Christ and that He is the radiance of the glory of God, the exact imprint of his nature and it is he who upholds this universe by the word of his power. Let that sink in for a moment, Jesus, who as God humbled himself and became a man and walked among us upholds the universe by the word of His power.

I was reading a daily devotion by Skye Jethani and the last section of this devotion just fit in what I was experiencing…

“…maybe that’s what worship is. It’s what happens when God’s delight in us inspires our delight in him sparking an endless loop of joy between Creator and creature; between Lover and beloved.”1

May we gaze upon the beauty of the heavens and the earth an enter into a spirit filled time of worship and sing the words of the psalmist in Psalm 136.

“Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever. Give thanks to the God of gods, for his steadfast love endures forever. Give thanks to the Lord of lords, for his steadfast love endures forever; to him who alone does great wonders, for his steadfast love endures forever; to him who by understanding made the heavens, for his steadfast love endures forever; to him who spread out the earth above the waters, for his steadfast love endures forever; to him who made the great lights, for his steadfast love endures forever; the sun to rule over the day, for his steadfast love endures forever; the moon and stars to rule over the night, for his steadfast love endures forever;” (Psalm 136:1–9, ESV)

1 Skye Jethani · WITH GOD DAILY – A Nonsensical Gesture of Love 10.16.20