“Therefore having been justified by faith…”

Now that is a cool way to start off somewhat of a conclusion to what Paul had been talking about in the previous 4 chapters. Chapter 1 starts off his “Hello. How are you doing?” section to the Roman church, stating the crux for the entire book of Romans “I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. 17 For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith” (Romans 1:16-17). So the rest of chapter 1-3:1-20 talks about the universal state of condemnation. It explains how the enitre human race is degraded and they are inexcusable for the sin that they commit (Rom. 1:18-2:13), how the Gentiles (or everyone that hasn’t been born a Jew) know their guilt through their conscience (Rom. 2:14-16), how the Jews know their guilt through the Law (Rom. 2:17-29), and finally how the Law and doing good things do not justify you from your sin (Rom. 3:1-20).

Romans 3:10-18 10 As it is written: “There is no one righteous, not even one;
11 there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God.
12 All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.”
13 “Their throats are open graves; their tongues practice deceit.” “The poison of vipers is on their lips.”
14 “Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.”
15 “Their feet are swift to shed blood;
16 ruin and misery mark their ways,
17 and the way of peace they do not know.”
18 “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”

If it were left to us, we would leave God in the dust and never give a second thought to Him. Hear me when I say this: WE-CAN-NOT-SEEK-GOD-BY-OURSELVES. It is impossible to “follow” God without God seeking us first (Phil. 1:6). I am going to say it. If you even think that you can “follow” God without a saving knowledge of Him, your dead and lost in your sins. It is a show. It becomes about, “If I don’t go to church then people are going to look at me differently when I do go back.” Here is an American saying, “I go to church because it is good for my family.” I go to the Bear in Ankeny for meetings with the High School Band Staff during our Marching season but that doesn’t make me an alcoholic or even one that goes there for a beer. Since when did going somewhere make us an associate or advocate for what they stand for on the inside. People like this upset me greatly because they cause people that I care deeply about turn their backs on God because of their “social clubs” they create. It causes these people who turn their backs on God to exclaim statements such as this:

“It’s not to say that a community of believers getting together to fellowship is inherently wrong, but the absolutely political atmosphere that always emerges is. People get together in camaraderie and end up attempting to claim what power they never had, the power to define God’s will. The power to decide which religion is more holy. They take it upon themselves to define right and wrong, which is simply a judgment they were never meant to make.”

This is not a community of believers, but a “social club”! This is what I remember when I use to perform in front of the Rotary Club in Oskaloosa when I was in High School. I group of politicians that discuss everything under the sun except what is really important. This type of community of believers that this High School student writes about above is exactly what Romans 1:18-3:20 talk about. They have everything that they need to really live a life that pursues God except one thing. The one thing that matters the most. They don’t have God. They have a warped view of what God is, but they haven’t a clue who God is. I am sorry but when I read what this High School student wrote, I was almost sick to my stomach the rest of the night and am now almost beside myself in disgust for any “community of believers” that would nurture this type of out come in anybody. I did not go to school to be a Youth Pastor to have a “community of believers” ever cause anyone come to this type of a conclusion.

More Later.