Today we are starting a 5-week series based on some of the core principles and teachings found in the book of Romans.
Romans is probably the most systematic and developed doctrinal book of the Apostle Paul…The probable date for the authorship of Romans is about 55 AD. Romans was likely written at Corinth toward the end of Paul’s third missionary journey, just before he left for Jerusalem.
This book is full of principles about living our life in response to the grace and mercy of God (given through His Son, Jesus).
Specifically, we will spend the next five weeks learning about these subjects…
1. The Problem of Sin
2. The Rescue from Sin
3. The Pursuit of Righteousness
4. God Chooses Us
5. A Living Sacrifice
As I mentioned before, these are core principles of our faith, which makes them worthy of our study and attention. Paul is passionate about the power of the gospel, and at the very beginning of the book of Romans he says:
“I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile.”
Romans 1:16
Paul knew, as we now do, that the gospel was meant for everyone. Jew, Gentile, male, female, slave, and free … there is no partiality in the grace of the gospel. God’s grace is meant for all people’s everywhere.
And boy aren’t we grateful? Because there is no partiality in sin either. Sin does not discriminate or pick favorites, sin affects everyone … sin does not discriminate.
So, to truly understand and appreciate grace – God’s undeserved love for us – we must first understand sin.
Our first lesson this morning from Romans 1 forms our text for today’s message.
Whenever I look at this section of Romans, I just sit back and think, “Wow! What an incredible passage from Paul?” Don’t you agree?
Earlier in chapter 1, Paul just got done encouraging people and talking about the Good News of the Gospel. But now he has shifted to talk about a subject we don’t often like to hear about … and that is the subject of our sin.
Sin is something we are all affected by. Back in the very first book of the Bible, Genesis, God created a man and a woman.
He gave them free reign over almost all the garden they were placed in, with only one restriction … DO NOT eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
But even though God gave this command, even though this rule was in place, they broke it. Because the first man and woman both sinned against God by disobeying His command, every man and woman after them are impacted by the consequences of this “original sin.”
This is the reality that we are still living in today. Paul tells us elsewhere that all have sinned, no one is exempt.
But here’s what’s crazy, even amidst our sin, God has still revealed Himself.
Paul talks about this in verses 19-20 of our text for today.
“…God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.” Romans 1:19-20
No one has any excuse for not knowing God because of the ways God has revealed His invisible qualities through visible ways and means.
But even though God has revealed Himself, many in our world don’t want to have anything to do with Him. Many are still blind to Him.
It amazes me that toward the end of Jesus’ life on earth, He was brutalized and eventually put on a cross to die for sinners like you and me. It was our sins that He carried to the cross to pay our debt.
And all the while, God who is all-knowing, knew that there would be people who would see who God is, knew about His sacrificial love, and yet still turned their backs and walked away from Him.
Maybe some of us in this room and online have experienced this as well, perhaps earlier in our lives.
Perhaps we have people in our life who we have tried desperately to share how much Jesus loves them. We pray for them constantly. But yet, they still don’t seem to want anything to do with Jesus.
So, here’s the thing, in Romans 1 Paul says that God gave people over to the desires of their hearts.
“Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised.” Romans 1:24-25
What that is describing is the people who have traded the truth of God for a worldly lie. They traded the invisible power of God for powerless images and idols.
Perhaps this is the trade-off many of us still struggle with today. And when we willingly give ourselves into the hands of powerless idols, we unknowingly give the devil the opportunity to steal, kill, and destroy our faith. (John 10:10)
Interestingly, the Bible actually instructs us not to allow Satan to have a foothold in our lives. Did you catch this statement in our second lesson today? Paul said in verse 27, “…do not give the devil a foothold.” In other words, Paul is saying…
Stand Your Ground
The original word translated from Romans as foothold also means; place, ground, or opportunity, and is frequently used to describe an actual place in the New Testament where people arrive or something is happening.
Another way to think of this idea would be to use the term “real estate.”
Folks in real estate know buying and selling is all about 3 things … location, location, location. And this is exactly what the devil is looking for in our lives. He’s prowling around, biding his time, and patiently waiting for an opportunity to occupy space in our lives … he is looking for a location in our lives.
In the Genesis account I referenced earlier, (where Adam and Eve sinned against God), the devil had taken up space in the garden. He then used this space to whisper lies in their ears about who God was and what He said to them.
The strategy of the devil hasn’t changed in thousands of years. He is looking for a similar opportunity in your life today. He is after location, location, location upon which he will BUILD a case against the truth of God.
And this is one of the main problems of sin; OUR sin separates us from God and gives the devil access to our lives.
When we worship idols … we give Satan access.
When we are unable to forgive … we give Satan access..
When we lie, cheat, and steal our way to success … we give Satan access.
When we willingly give ourselves to sin, it is as if we open the door to our lives and shout, “Hey Satan, come on in!”
This invitation is obviously going to end poorly. It is NOT one that you want to willingly extend.
Instead, the apostle Paul reminds us later in Ephesians 6 about STANDING OUR GROUND and wearing the armor of God:
“Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is … against … the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” Ephesians 6:10-12
We must recognize the devil has evil plans for our lives. He wants to steal, kill, and destroy any and every Godly thing you might have done or been involved in.
So, we must learn to stand our ground, while depending on the Lord and His mighty power. We cannot give the devil a foothold, a place in our lives.
And thankfully, God knew we could NEVER win this fight on our own. We could NEVER muster up an army big enough or build a missile strong enough to win the cosmic battle of salvation.
We needed a Savior to fight on our behalf.
We needed Jesus to come and conquer sin and death.
If one of the main problems of sin is that it separates us from God, then it stands to reason that one of the solutions to our problem is to be reconciled, redeemed, and get back into a right relationship with God.
We needed to be RESCUED from sin – which we will talk more about next week.
Paul tells us in Romans 3:23 that, “all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” There isn’t a person alive today who hasn’t sinned. The scary part is that in OUR sin, in our willful disobedience, we OPEN the door wide-open for the devil. And the more we sin, the more op0en the door is.
Genesis 4 describes it like this…
“If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it.” Genesis 4:7
Sin is always crouching at our door, waiting for us, ready to pounce. Sin desires to ‘have’ you, to own you, to rule you.
There will always be another temptation … another opportunity for evil … another dark alleyway, on and on and on.
But we must STAND firm on the truth of the gospel and in the power of Christ. We cannot give ANY space to the devil in our lives.
So, my question for you today is a simple one: “Where can you eliminate, erase, eradicate sin in your life?”
What can you confess?
What can you repent of?
What can you turn away from?
What can you pull the plug on?
What relationship do you need to say goodbye to?
What idols do you need to pull down?
What’s holding you back from taking a stand against sin in your life? There is an astounding amount of power and grace and mercy in the gift of the forgiveness of your sins through your faith in Jesus Christ. Use it! For heaven’s sake use it! Amen