The Manhood Talks | Foundation & IdentitySample

Day 11 | Romans 2:1-4 | On Trial

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Hello men. Kris here with you again. Welcome back to The Manhood Talks. Today we stand trial. We witnessed the fall and the curse; we saw man’s failure and God’s plan. Now we haven’t seen the details yet, but that plan is our ticket to redemption — to the restoration of our humanity and our manhood.

This is crucial to understand. See at this point, you might be asking — why are we going through this whole story? Why don’t we just skip to the end and explain how to be a good man? You know — faith, courage, strength, love. Get to the goods and we’ll just do it.

Here’s the thing. We could talk courage right now — and discuss integrity, honesty, loyalty, responsibility — the character of a good man. But just talking about it won’t make us good. Talk all you want — it won’t change who we are. And we are broken. Our foundations are corrupted. And trying to add good character to a broken soul — is like adding fresh paint to cover rotted beams and a cracked foundation. It may look good at first — but it won’t last.

You can try it. Go ahead. Go be a good man. Be faithful, true, honest, loyal, brave — all of it. Good luck.

Now when someone does do all that and gets it right, the Bible calls it righteousness. Righteous means doing right in God’s sight, and having a right standing with God. There’s just one problem. Apart from God, you can’t do it. You may think you can — and that’s why we’re in court. Here in Romans, Paul is going to put our righteousness on trial.

Back in chapter 1, Paul tells us, “I am not ashamed of the gospel.” And he explains why: “For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed.”

In other words, the gospel is about more than just living forever. It’s about righteousness — how to be right with God. And for us, it explains how to be a truly good man.

The gospel begins in verse 18 — with the wrath of God. That’s right, wrath… “against all the godlessness and wickedness of people...”

Now to be clear, God’s wrath is not the same as man’s wrath. Think of it this way: Is there a difference between what makes a good man angry — and what makes a wicked man angry? Absolutely. See God is truly good, and because He is good, wickedness makes him angry. That’s wrath.

And with that introduction, we enter the courtroom. Allow me to paint the picture for you. The first two groups to enter the court are the godless and the wicked. The godless sit in the back — convinced this kangaroo court doesn’t matter because the Judge is just a man-made fable. Then the wicked step in at the defendant’s table, with guilty written all over them. And one more group walks in — the religious. These guys are ready to pass judgment on everyone else so they step right into the jury box — self appointed. And you can sit with whichever group fits you best.

Okay so I made up the courtroom part — but if you see it, Romans makes a lot more sense. See Paul is the prosecutor, and he makes his case one group at a time. For the godless and God-deniers, Paul tells us, “what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them.”

Just look at creation — God’s invisible qualities are clearly seen. Did you know that for the simplest living cell to come into existence — without Creator — it would require 600 billion atoms to form into a machine with a hundred thousand precision moving parts. With that, they would have to form a DNA strand of amino acids that just began speaking the most complex coding language known to man — in spite of the fact that that language did not previously exist — and in that newly invented language — accidentally store the blueprints and processes necessary to recreate the entire machine. All that in one try. Seriously, and that is just the first step of evolution without a Creator. Good luck.

Listen back in college — I was agnostic. Basically I said that you can’t prove God. But the honest truth is — that was my excuse — in case I ever faced judgment day. But Paul tells us mankind is “without excuse.”

Next up, Paul turns to the wicked. Verse 28 says they didn’t think it was worthwhile to know God — so God gave them over to a depraved mind. They’re full of envy, strife, lies, malice. They invent ways of doing evil. And Paul says they knew they were breaking God’s law. They know they’re guilty.

Now take a look around the courtroom. The excuses of the godless are empty. The guilt of the wicked is obvious. And just then Paul turns to the jury box. The religious are looking pretty smug, ready to pass judgement. But in chapter 2, verse 1, Paul turns on the religious:

“You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge another, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things” (Romans 2:1).

In a shocker, Paul nails the religious — all the judgmental hypocrites, all those trying to prove their goodness by following God’s law. In chapter 2, Paul takes them down. Read the whole thing — it’s awesome.

Now this part may surprise you but the Bible consistently tells us that we cannot be righteous by following a set of rules — not even God’s rules (Romans 3:20). The law — God’s law — can’t make you good. It can only show you how bad you are. And judging others only makes you arrogant. Remember this — Christianity is not following a set of rules — it’s following Jesus.

Now the godless gotta like this part — Paul calling out the hypocrites. So Paul is quick to clarify that the unfaithfulness of the hypocrites does not nullify God’s faithfulness. Not at all. Even if every human is a liar — God is still true (Romans 3:3).

So the godless, the wicked, and the religious — all stand accused. And the verdict comes in Romans 3:10:

“There is no one righteous, not even one;

there is no one who understands;

there is no one who seeks God.

All have turned away,

they have together become worthless;

there is no one who does good,

not even one” (Romans 3:10-12).

So that’s it. Everyone is guilty. Everyone. In verse 19, every mouth is silenced, and the whole world held accountable to God.

So if we’re so wrong, how on earth do we get it right? What does it take to be a good man? For that we need the gospel. God has revealed a way to be righteous. We’ll come back to that tomorrow.

For now, I want you read today’s Bible passages in Romans, and in your journals, write down your thoughts on these questions:

For Thought & Discussion:

Question 1: What does it take to be a truly good person?

Question 2: Are you a good person? Why?

Read Romans 2:1-4

All verses are quoted from the NIV