Text- Romans 1:18-32
Title- Building a Doctrinal House
Romans 1:18-32 18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, 19 because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. 20 For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. 21 For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. 22 Professing to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures. 24 Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, so that their bodies would be dishonored among them. 25 For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. 26 For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural, 27 and in the same way also the men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their desire toward one another, men with men committing indecent acts and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error. 28 And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper, 29 being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice; they are gossips, 30 slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, 31 without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful; 32 and although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them.
I. Doctrine of Revelation
a. Special Revelation
b. General Revelation
II. Doctrine of Man
a. Created in the Image of God
b. Marred by Sin
Here is a picture of a bicycle. A bike is a fairly simple machine. It has wheels, pedals, brakes, a place to sit, a place to steer, and a few chains and gears to help it move. When all the parts are working together in harmony you end up with a bike that is functional. When you re-arrange the parts, or leave a few out, or bend some out of shape you might have something that looks kind of like a bike, but it doesn’t really work, and it falls apart the first time it’s tested.
Theology is a lot like that simple machine. It is made up of different doctrines- the doctrine of Man, the doctrine of God, the doctrine of revelation,- and each of these parts fits together to form an efficient and working belief. If you remove a doctrine, or bend it out of shape, or put it in the wrong place, you might have something that looks like Christianity, but it will fall apart the first time it’s tested.
One of the reasons that theologians and scholars are so fond of the book of Romans is that it provides us with such a great collection of doctrinal truth. So many pieces of the puzzle are found in this book, and in a great working order.
We all understand that knowledge is cumulative. We don’t start out knowing it all, although there are a few years between 12 and 19 when you think you know it all. We grow and develop in our understanding of things. It starts in kindergarten and then 1st grand and 2nd grade and so on.
If you don’t learn the things you are supposed to learn in 2nd grade, you need to be held back a year until you catch up. That’s because the stuff they teach in 3rd grade builds on the stuff you learn in 2nd grade. 3rd grade will be a lot harder. If you get too far behind it will be hard to ever catch up.
Our knowledge and understanding of theology is the same way. It is cumulative. Each doctrine builds on the last doctrine. Each theological idea is interconnected with the others. If we don’t have a clear understanding of the basics, it will screw up the rest of our theological framework.
Theologians love constructing theological houses. I have a shelf full of “systematic theology” books in my office. What I want to do for us as we study the book of Romans is to create our own theological house. As we interact with new doctrines we will put them in their proper place.
This isn’t something that I will be able to do as fully as I would like to during the sermon time, so I will also be leading a SS class on Romans for the next few months. We will take that time to go deeper, ask tougher questions, and make sure that our theological house is sturdy and whole. Whether your theological house just needs a little remodel, or if you need a total rebuild, I urge you to join me for that deeper time of study.
I want to lay the foundation of our doctrinal house and begin to construct one wall today.
The foundation of all our theological understanding is grounded in the doctrine of revelation. This is the most important building black in the whole thing. Without God revealing Himself to us, we could not know anything about redemption and salvation, and God’s love. Without God revealing Himself to us, we would be lost. As we can see in the first few verses of our text today. Look at 18-20 with me…
The doctrine of revelation is usually divided into two parts, special revelation and general revelation. They both reveal something about God to us. They both are ways in which God teaches us something about Himself. The first one we will talk about is seen here in these verses, its general revelation.
General revelation is God revealing Himself through His creation. Verse 20 describes it as, “For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made”.
When you go camping and stop and sit in awe of God’s creation you are experiencing general revelation. When we stop and think about just how small we are and how big the universe is it teaches us something about God. When we look at all the different varieties of plants and animals here on earth it shows us how creative, and loving God is. When we see the seasons, the tides, and the movement of the earth we can see how powerful God is. When we realize how perfectly balanced the earth is in relation to the sun, in a perfect orbit, with the ideal climate for sustaining life, we can see how God is in control.
God has made Himself know throughout all his creation. It didn’t just happen by accident. There is clearly intelligent design behind our world. Sometimes you wonder how people could miss it, it’s so obvious.
God also reveals Himself in a general way through His providential care. Acts 14:17 says… 17 and yet He did not leave Himself without witness, in that He did good and gave you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying your hearts with food and gladness."
God sends rain on the wicked and the righteous. He takes care of all His creation. He holds the universe together by His power and His providence. Without God caring for us, all humanity would be in trouble.
Finally, general revelation can be seen in that in-born sense of God that can be found in every human being. We all have an innate sense of the need for God. Some have referred to it as a “God-shaped hole” that everyone has. We try to fill it with religion, or work, or education, or other things, but only one thing fits. God created us that way.
Acts 17:26-28 26 and He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation, 27 that they would seek God, if perhaps they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us;
What great imagery here. When you look at the other religions of the world you can see people desperately groping for God. They are searching, longing, desperate to find something to fulfill their need for a restored relationship with Him. Unfortunately people too often look for God’s love in all the wrong places.
Look at verses 21-23 with me…
People knew God, they had that inborn sense of a creator, but because of sin, they were unable to worship the true God. Instead, what happened? They became foolish and they started to speculate about what God was like. General revelation didn’t bring us closer to God. Instead people began to create images and idols to worship. They made little models of birds and cows and bugs and bowed down and worshiped those things.
Skip down to verse 24-25…
God created us with the capacity to know Him. He created this world as a loud testimony to His character and nature. But sin got in the way. General revelation should be enough to bring us to a knowledge of the creator, but it doesn’t. We keep exchanging truth for a lie and worshiping the creation, rather than the creator, over and over again.
General revelation isn’t enough to save us from our sin and connect us back to God. It isn’t enough to bring us into right relationship with Him. We need something more to help us break free from our clouded minds and slavery to sin.
That’s where special revelation comes in. Special revelation is where God reveals Himself to us in a specific, special way. Special revelation has two primary forms. First, the Bible. If we head back up to verse 2 Paul first mentions this special revelation…
Romans 1:1-2 Paul, a bond-servant of Christ Jesus, called as an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, 2 which He promised beforehand through His prophets in the holy Scriptures,
2 Peter says…
2 Peter 1:20-21 20 But know this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation, 21 for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.
2 Timothy 3:16-17 16 All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; 17 so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.
God spoke to us. God moved certain men throughout the course of human history to record for us all that God has been doing to reconcile man back to Himself. We believe that the Bible isn’t just a collection of human ideas. It isn’t just some guys idea of what God is like. It is a direct revelation of God Himself.
God isn’t far away. He hasn’t removed Himself from His creation. He didn’t just leave us to spin out of control once we messed up. He is present, and active, and He has spoken to us.
That’s why Christian are people of the Book. We are grounded in the Bible. It is our foundation. Without it, we would all be bowing down to a golden ladybug or something.
You can see why this doctrine of revelation is our foundation. It is how we know what we know about God. How do we know that our belief is right? Because God told us so. It isn’t something that we created; we are simply following the instructions.
When we are witnessing, this is a good starting point. The verses that I shared about the nature of scripture are helpful. If you believe in God, the only question left to ask is, what does God have to say to us. The Bible is the most coherent, reliable, authentic, and accurate religious book out there. The others don’t even come close.
Again, this doctrine is just so foundational. Just think about what might happen if this doctrine gets warped, or forgotten, or replaced. The problem is that this doctrine has come under significant fire in recent years. And not just from the secular world. There are even some Christian groups who have cast doubt on the accuracy and reliability of the Bible. They have made it out to be more of a subjective, human originated book. They have stripped it of its truth and authority and importance in our lives.
Some claim that it is nice to hear stories about Jesus, but you have to make your own truth, and your own version of right and wrong. We can’t be such sticklers for following its teachings and commands.
Hopefully you understand a little bit better why the Bible is so important to me. I think you can see why I want to make the teaching of the Word of God first and foremost here. That’s why I wanted our new mission statement to begin with the words, grounded on God’s Word.
Special revelation isn’t just found in the written word, it is also displayed in the revealed word. John 1:1 says..
John 1:1-4 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. 4 In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men.
Jesus Christ is the most complete, fullest revelation of God that human eyes have ever seen. The reason that Christmas is such a blessed time is because it marks the arrival of God here with us. God took on the form of a man and walked with us and loved us, and healed us, and died for us.
God had revealed Himself to humanity in some important ways in the OT, but through Christ we see the ultimate revelation. In the OT they saw a piece of the picture, but they new that there was more to come. We can see the rest of the story, but we know that there is still more yet to come.
Ok, so the foundation of our doctrinal house is revelation. God speaking to us. Without a firm trust in God’s word, they rest of our house will fall apart. The doctrine of man, the doctrine of God, the doctrine of salvation, and all the others are rooted in the doctrine of revelation.
The second doctrine that we will begin to look at today is the doctrine of Man.
From God’s word we can know a couple of basic things about mankind. First, man was created in God’s image. Genesis is very clear that we were created by God and in His image. We were created in a state of original holiness.
From Genesis we also know that man chose to rebel against God and sin. This sinful state is passed on to everyone who is in the family of Adam- in other words, everyone.
We were originally created to have fellowship with God, but sin messed that up. Look at Romans 1:26-28…
We wanted to do things our own way, and God has let us do what we wanted. He gave us that measure of free will, and we managed to hang ourselves on it. Sin messed us up. It changed us. Instead of being focused towards God, we are bent in on ourselves. We are focused on pleasing our own lusts and desires. We have become marred by sin.
Just look at the description of sinful humanity that Paul gives in verses 29-32…
Yep, that sounds like us. The worst part is that, even though we should know better, even though we have the in-born sense of morality, we ignore it, do our own thing, and then condone it when other sin too. After all, it’s no fun to sin alone. We are much more comfortable in our sin if we can get a group of people in on it with us. Pretty soon our evil begins to seem almost normal and acceptable. But it isn’t.
This passage teaches us a lot about How God communicates with us, and how incapable we are of responding to Him on our own. Paul will have a lot more to say on this topic throughout the book. In chapter 3 he talks about how no one is righteous. In 3:23 he says, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”.
In chapter 5 he explains how death came through Adam, and life comes through Jesus. In chapter 7 he describes that ongoing struggle with sin that we as believers face.
This is an important understanding for us. Paul wants us to see how helpless and lost we are on our own. This understanding of the total, complete, pervasive depravity of mankind will dovetail perfectly with what Paul has to say about salvation in the chapters to come.
Paul wants us to understand completely that salvation is not something that we can work for, or earn on our own, or attain apart from God. He wants us to come to the realization that we are broke, and that only God can fix us. We are bad, and only God is good. We are dead, and only God came bring new life. We are slaves to sin, and only Jesus Christ can set us free.
If there is some confusion or doubt about this, then the need for salvation will evaporate. If there is something that we can do on our own to save ourselves, then we don’t fully need God. If we think that we have enough good left over to keep from the sin that separates us from God, we are wrong.
An honest understanding of our own sin and helplessness is a key aspect to the doctrine of Man. All mankind is separated from God by sin and in need of His help.
Can you start to see how the doctrine of revelation and the doctrine of man work together? Without the doctrine of Revelation we wouldn’t understand just how messed up we are as humans and how serious our need for a savior is. We would be forming idols, worshiping false gods, and encouraging others to do the same.
So now that we know we are bad, what do we do about it? Fortunately we already know the answer. We know that it isn’t so much about what we need to do, as what God has already done for us. We know that our salvation has been handed to us as a free gift. All we need to do is confess with our mouth and believe in our hearts. All we have to do is say, I really believe that Jesus Christ is the revelation of God, and his death pays my penalty.
Next week we will talk more about the penalty. We will talk about God’s righteous judgment. Paul continues to build his case against humanity and Drive us to a state of helplessness that will cause us to cry out to God for salvation.
That’s some meaty stuff isn’t it. I know there is a lot here, but a clear understanding is just so important. We have to make sure that we have our foundation down so that the rest of the house will go up straight.
I’m so grateful to God for revealing Himself to us. I’m so glad that He hasn’t left us in the dark. The Bible is so precious. May it always be our guide and our foundation.
