In Romans 1:17 the Apostle Paul stated that within God’s Holy Gospel is revealed THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD. The reason for this is to show those who would spend eternity with Him (God) and His Son the manner in which they must conduct themselves during this life in order to do so. The Apostle Peter sums up the Lord’s requirements for salvation in two statements: “As He Who has called you is holy, be ye holy in all aspects of life” (1 Pet. 1:15); “Be ye holy for I (God) am holy” (1 Pet. 1:16). If we are to join God and Jesus in paradise we must qualify to receive that incredible blessing. We do that by being like the man Jesus Christ (1 Jn. 2:6) Who had to qualify to be God’s Messiah and to sit on His (God’s) throne with Him in heaven. God and Christ will share that throne until time for Christ to return to earth to take control of His inheritance (the universe). He will not be alone, for those who had “walked as He walked” during their earthly tenures and had became joint-heirs with Him (Rom. 8:17) will rule and reign with Him forever. At that point Jesus will have received His own throne and His Very Elect saints will join Him on His throne (Rev. 3:21). Read God’s Very Elect: Future Caretakers of the Universe and The Kingdom of God. Key words–Caretakers and Kingdom respectively.

Beginning in verse 18 Paul suddenly changes directions and speaks to the other members of the church at Rome who are quite different from the saints he has been addressing. In verse 17 he noted that the Word of God revealed God’s righteousness. Now he is addressing those who obviously were not students of God’s Word. Because God’s Word reveals godliness and righteousness, the church people Paul now addresses are most definitely neither godly nor righteous because they “hold the Truth (God’s Word–Jn. 17:17) in unrighteousness,” meaning that they were not obeying it. Nothing has changed.

What the apostles wrote was directed to all church people from that time until today. What they wrote applies to this final church era as described in Revelation 3:14-20. He says in verses 19 and 21 that God’s character (which we must manifest during our life’s “walk” in order to be saved) is revealed to the church in His Truth (Scriptures). Like their religious ancestors who “KNEW GOD,” the vast majority of church people today have rejected His Biblical way of life and have become vain (self-governing), causing their hearts (minds) to grow dark. Because they have rejected God’s “light of the glorious Gospel” (2 Cor. 4:4), He has given them up to their vile thoughts and desires (vs 26), allowing them to develop reprobate minds (vs 28). Professing themselves to be wise, they have become fools (vs 22) and have “turned the Truth of God into a lie” (vs 25). In verses 23 through 27 and 29-31 we are shown the various sins they have chosen to commit. Not only have they turned against God while remaining in His church, they take pride in recruiting others to join them, KNOWING THAT LIVING THAT LIFESTYLE MAKES THEM WORTHY OF DEATH (vs 32). Why? Because their false prophets have convinced them that they can manipulate God’s Word to mean what they want it to mean and “not surely die” (Gen. 3:4). The series titled Who Are God’s People? and “My People Who are Called by My Name” (key words People and Called respectively) reveal how this two-bodied church came to be and how it continues to prevail in today’s “Christian world.”

In chapter two of Paul’s letter to the church at Rome he chastises those who in the church who point an accusative finger at sinners while doing the same things. In verse five Paul makes a statement that has been deliberately passed over for 2000 years. Here we are told that if we continue to sin after undergoing conversion we “treasure up” (accumulate) sin until the Day of Judgment. Those who sin and repent on a continuous basis will pay the price for each and every sin they have committed during their lives in that God does not automatically forgive our sins when we ask Him to do so. As Second Chronicles 7:13 tells us, He waits to see if, after we confess and repent of them, we “TURN FROM OUR WICKED WAYS” AND OBEY HIM. Read more about Divine Forgiveness in the series bearing that name. Key word–Divine. As Paul says in Romans 2:3, those who do such things will not escape the judgment of God. Note in 2:4,5 that those who repent, then sin again are not fooling God. In His eyes, they do not actually repent, but have “unrepentant hearts,” meaning that they repent with their lips while knowing that they are going to sin again, and again, and again. Their hirelings tell them that this is part of the “Christian walk.” They then lay the blame of Adam’s sin gene transferal miracle. In verse 24 Paul tells false repenters that, because of their hypocrisy, the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles.

In 3:1,2 Paul makes it clear that it is by the “oracles of God” (the Holy Scriptures) that we know what we need to know about attaining eternal life. Beginning with verse four he launches into a teaching on Justification. For the Gospel Truth concerning that important subject, read The Justification-Salvation Confusion. Key word–Justification. There are several other series in which Justification is discussed. I recommend them all. L.J.