Roman Reality Check
Have you ever gone to a fair or a festival and seen an artist hard at work? There is a good chance that artist is doing a caricature portrait. It’s a picture of you, but it is highly exaggerated to bring out your most notable feature. Kind of like a political cartoon. Sometimes those pictures are funny, sometimes they reveal something about how others see you. Perhaps you don’t think your nose is that pointed, or your ears that large or your smile that toothy….but there it is, in all its exaggerated glory. You can never unsee it.
We started the book of Romans in our Wednesday night service. In the early chapters, Paul forces the reader to acknowledge three truths:
We are a sinner.
Our works will never be acceptable before God.
A just and holy God must punish all sin.
And then he list all the sins we might overlook….
Starting at 1:29 to 32 (GW translation)
Their lives are filled with all kinds of sexual sins, wickedness, and greed. They are mean. They are filled with envy, murder, quarreling, deceit, and viciousness. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, haters of God, haughty, arrogant, and boastful. They think up new ways to be cruel. They don’t obey their parents, 31 don’t have any sense, don’t keep promises, and don’t show love to their own families or mercy to others. 32 Although they know God’s judgment that those who do such things deserve to die, they not only do these things but also approve of others who do them.
Yeah… their, they, them…. not me….but if you start to pint a finger, chapter two starts this way…
No matter who you are, if you judge anyone, you have no excuse. When you judge another person, you condemn yourself, since you, the judge, do the same things.
What are we left with….a consciousness that we are not only guilty, but what drives us crazy in others is probably the very same sin we struggle with….we see in the mirror the law holds up a caricature that emphasis our sin. God is love, and we love to focus on that, but God is also righteous, holy and just. God hates sin. Every sin. Our big sins and our little sins. The ones we know we do, the ones we overlook, The one we think we got away with. The verdict is guilty and the sentence is death.
Yet this same just God forgives sin! How can that be?
That answer is Jesus Christ.
Jesus was paid the price for our sins. On Him, our punishment was placed.
That is the Gospel, given to all.
I invite you along on our journey through Romans.
Let’s acknowledge our sin
Let’s praise a Holy God
Let’s fall upon the mercy of Jesus Christ.
See you Wednesday my friends
-Pastor Dan