God's Story Is Our Story: From Acts to New CreationSample

When Paul was writing to the church in Rome, he had never visited it but hoped to soon. His letter is a summary of what the gospel is. He presents Jesus as the fulfillment of the Jewish scriptures. But, his message would have been shocking to anyone who read it in the ancient world.

People might think that the pagans of the Roman world would not be accountable to religious ideas of the Jewish people in Palestine. But, Paul says that everyone is accountable not for what they don't know, but for what they know and reject. Paul argues that everyone has seen enough evidence of God's existence from the created world and yet has rejected seeking God and instead worshiped what they thought would make them happy apart from God. Everyone knows they should be good and yet everyone has violated their own conscience. We know we are guilty.

But in case we thought that means the Jewish people are innocent, Paul says that they were accountable for living up to the law that God had given them. They did not keep the ten commandments and were not faithful to the covenants.

So, Paul says that everyone stands before God guilty for rejecting the truth that we knew about God. But, Paul says that the answer to our guilt before God has been answered in the person of Jesus Christ. We cannot work our way back by doing good things, because we were meant to only do good things. Any good act is just doing what we were supposed to do. It is only by grace ( a gift or undeserved favor) that we can be made right with God. We take hold of that grace only by faith in what Jesus has done for us. This is God's only answer to humanity's greatest dilemma.