"This he knows is the way to bring all religion to a mere lifeless formality, and effectually shut out the power of godliness, and every thing which is spiritual, and to have all true Christianity turned out of doors" Dr. Jonathan Edwards

"If the Gentile be found to act according to the spirit and design of the law, his acting thus uprightly, according to the light which God has afforded him, will be reckoned to him as if he were circumcised and walked agreeably to the law." Dr. Adam Clarke

The rite of circumcision was the emblem by which the Jews relationship with Abrahamic covenant was recognized. However, to wear the emblem does not necessarily make you an heir to the promise!

I would suggest that the same is true with regard to much of what is called modern Christianity.

Or are we clinging to the notion that we have some kind of claim to prerogatives and perquisites?

If we look toward history we will find that Adultery was a most common crime in Israel.

How often do we tell others how to live their lives while standing in the same ditch?

By profession I am a soldier and take pride in that fact, but I am prouder to be a father.  General Douglas MacArthur

Our hope is the indwelling of the Holy Spirit that sets us free lest we too become the hypocrites of the faith putting the Bible under our arm to use as a seven-day deodorant pad.

Like the Jew, we too let our opinion of ourselves wax great!

Ignorance of the law is no excuse!

We can see here that Paul argues that the very privileges that the Jews boast of will hold them to a stricter standard. If we extend this to all of God's people we could say that those who have grown up in Christian families may have learned what God's word says. However, if our lives to not reflect this we are no better than the heathen.

The secrets of men. The majority of our human lives lies hidden from our fellow-men, but when the judgment comes every secret shall be made known to all.

Medical science finds in our chromosomes various codes that sometimes bring with it a weakness toward specific diseases, maladies or the like.

So even though the Gentiles were not the possessors of the law (didn't have a God's written word) they knew in their innermost being its very precepts.

I suspect that we, like Israel, become fooled into thinking that because we own a Bible, read it, and perhaps even study it, that we have somehow become something!

This verse becomes the logical extension of the previous verse referring to God's impartiality. There is much debate by the Biblical scholars as to the exact intention of the word "law."

What a stark contrast to the previous verse. From affliction and distress to blessing. Peace as opposed to tribulation. Approbation to honor.

The recompense for sin is clearly given upon everyone. Sin has and effect that cannot be thwarted just like gravity. We might think we have eluded its effects but nevertheless it holds us fast. The first instance of the Jew mentioned in this chapter heads the list since they were blessed with greater privileges by knowing God's law having abused greater mercies.

The word repentance occurs 24 times in the New Testament!  How many times does it appear in our hearts?

Don't do as I do, do as I say! Sound familiar?  Is this not the real grist of our fallen nature that began with Adam, "the woman you gave me made me do it."  We are quick to neener, neener, neener everyone else while hiding that secret deep in our heart that will one day be brought into the light for everyone to see.

Do we really believe that the judgment of God really falls upon us?  We tend to have a greater respect for gravity than for God Himself.  Is the law of gravity more real than the "Law of Sin and Death" because scientist can see demonstrations of its existence?  Yet the same God created both! The problem is we tend to ignore the evidence of the damage that our own sin brings into our lives. Yet Christ stands ready to mightily forgive! 

It is the nature of our fleshly heart to be inventors of evil! A hard truth but nevertheless true.  The more we deny it the harder our walk!  Why?  Because when we deny the truth of Scripture, we call the God who wrote it a liar!  I suspect that is why the Apostle John mentions this in his epistle.  Thankfully we have the Holy Spirit to guide us in learning to agree with God so that we may step into the light of His Grace and find not only forgiveness but the renewing of our mind!

A poisonous morsel in her teeth she chewed,
And gorged the flesh of vipers for her food.

Receiving in themselves that recompense, etc. - Both the women and men, by their unnatural prostitutions, enervated their bodies, so that barrenness prevailed, and those disorders which are necessarily attendant on prostitution and sodomitical practices.  Dr. Adam Clarke

There is much more here that meets the eye. A quick look at the history of the day gives us the impression that what really is happening in Rome is that the women have become the men!

Changed the truth of God into a lie - In the place of the true worship of God, they established idolatry.  In various places of Scripture idols are termed lies. Isa 44:20; Jer 10:14; Jer 13:25.  The true God was known among the primitive inhabitants of the earth, those who first became idolaters literally changed the truth of God into a lie: they did know the true God, but they put idols in his place.  Dr Adam Clarke

Gave them up — This divine abandonment of men is here strikingly traced in three successive stages, at each of which the same word is used (Rom 1:24, Rom 1:26; and Rom 1:28, where the word is rendered “gave over”). “As they deserted God, God in turn deserted them; not giving them divine (that is, supernatural) laws, and suffering them to corrupt those which were human; not sending them prophets, and allowing the philosophers to run into absurdities. He let them do what they pleased, even what was in the last degree vile, that those who had not honored God, might dishonor themselves” [Grotius] as cited in A Commentary on the Old and New Testaments by Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset and David Brown.

Here is a place in Holy Scripture that gives exacting refutation to the idea that man climbed out of the tree and began worshiping a stick and then worked his way up to worshiping God. We did not evolve but rather declined or degenerated.  What kind of "Sonlight" do we seek?  Do we wish to bask in the glorious glow of the incorruptible God or would we rather recline in the tanning booth? According to this writ we are prone to the latter. Is this really our "free will" choice or rather the choice of the depraved?

Professing themselves to be wise - This was the common boast of the philosophers of antiquity.  The very word by which they chose to be called, “philosophers,” means literally “lovers of wisdom.” (Barnes)  This is also our boast of today.  How many of us think that we know?  A short walk through the halls of our institutions of national government reveal 565 opposing opinions.  The reality is that as humankind we don't care much about right, we just want to win the argument.  This boasting about our wisdom is not a new thing!

Even the words of “Marcus Tullius Cicero,” the Roman philosopher and politician in the waning years of the Roman Republic, (de Natura Deorum, lib. ii. c. 6) will show that they had the knowledge of one God. “There is something in the nature of things, which the mind of man, which reason, which human power cannot effect; and certainly what produces this must be better than man. What can this be called but “God?...What can be so plain and manifest, when we look at heaven, and contemplate heavenly things, as that there is some divinity of most excellent mind, by which these things are governed?”

You do not see God, and yet you acknowledge him as God by his works; Cicero.

For the invisible things of him - The expression “his invisible things” refers to those things which cannot be perceived by the senses.  It does not imply that there are any things pertaining to the divine character which may be seen by the eye; but that there are things which may be known of him, though not discoverable by the eye.  We judge of the objects around us by the senses, the sight, the touch, the ear, etc.  Paul affirms, that though we cannot judge thus of God, yet there is a way by which we may come to the knowledge of him.  What he means by the invisible things of God he specifies at the close of the verse, “his eternal power and Godhead. ” The affirmation extends only to that; and the argument implies that that was enough to leave them without any excuse for their sins.  Dr.  Albert Barnes

By their ungodliness he proves that although all men have a most clear and evident mirror in which to behold the everlasting and almighty nature of God, even in his creatures, yet they have fallen away from those principles to most foolish and stupid ideas of their own brains, in their worship of God and of what God requires of them.  Geneva Bible Study Notes

"The Word of God continues to stand in the World.  The cross of Christ, although it occurred nineteen hundred years ago, continues to stand as the great witness to the wrath of God. Similarly, the wrath of God is being revealed continuously upon those who break the laws of God in nature. It is a standing revelation" Dr. Alva J. McClain, Romans: The Gospel of God's Grace.

Our misery and ruin being the product and consequent of our iniquity, that which will show us the way of salvation must needs show us the way of justification, and this the gospel does. The gospel makes known a righteousness. While God is a just and holy God, and we are guilty sinners, it is necessary we should have a righteousness wherein to appear before him; and, blessed be God, there is such a righteousness brought in by Messiah the prince (Dan_9:24) and revealed in the gospel; a righteousness, that is, a gracious method of reconciliation and acceptance, notwithstanding the guilt of our sins. Mathew Henry (1662 - 1714)

This is probably one of the most profound verses in Scripture.  The nugget that first strikes me here is the use of the phrase "I am not ashamed."  Paul could have said he was "proud."  But then when the English language would come along we could have a wrong notion.  In our language there are two kinds of proud.  There is the pride that is the opposite of being ashamed.  Then there is the pride that is the opposite of humility.

"I am ready ... - I am prepared to preach among you, and to show the power of the gospel, even in the splendid metropolis of the world. He was not deterred by any fear; nor was he indifferent to their welfare; but he was under the direction of God. And as far as he gave him opportunity, he was ready to make known to them the gospel, as he had done at Antioch, Ephesus, Athens, and Corinth." Dr. Albert Barnes (1798-1870)

I am not a debtor because of world's favors toward me, rather I am a debtor to the world because of God's special favor toward me! I was dead in sin, foolish and disobedient and washed away my sin and declared me righteous-for no reason-that I would have no reason for boasting. Thank you God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, for saving me from my sin. I confess that apart from you there is no good thing within me. Help me today to follow you in all my ways that my path might be straight.

"One of those undesigned coincidences which strongly show that both books are genuine; compare Romans 15:23-24 with Acts 19:21. A forger of these books would not have thought of such a contrivance as to feign such a purpose to go to Rome at that time, and to have mentioned it in that manner. Such coincidences are among the best proofs that can be demanded, that the writers did not intend to impose on the world." Dr. Albert Barnes (1798-1870)

A personal attitude of the heart that comes from the Holy Spirit that creates a longing for fellowship with other believers. Here Paul wishes to visit a group of believers that have not had the benefit of the direct teaching of the Apostles. His wish is to establish (comfort and strengthen) them in the faith.

I want to call your attention first of all to that word serve. It means literally 'to serve as a priest.' It was the Greek word used in the Septuagint translation of the Old Testament to refer to the service of the priests in the temple, including the idea of worship. The same word is translated 'worship' in Philippians 3:3. This word is a commentary on what true Christian service ought to be: we serve God as priests, and therefore every act of our service should be rendered to God as an act of worship. In this light the distinction between sacred and secular disappears. The very ground you walk on is holy, and every trivial act acquires meaning. If you remember that, all your Christian service (no matter what it is) will become to you significant of that time when we shall be before the throne of God and 'serve him day and night in his temple' (Revelation 7:15). Again the same Greek word is used that Paul uses here." Dr. Alva J. McClain, Romans: The Gospel of G

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"Give me the love that leads the way, The faith that nothing can dismay, The hope no disappointments tire, The passion that will burn like fire, Let me not sink to be a clod: Make me Thy fuel, Flame of God." Amy Carmichael

The same way Paul is a "called apostle," and we are "called of Christ," we are also "called as saints." Because I belong to Christ, I am a most holy thing.  A mind boggling statement certainly not reflective of the face I shave every morning.

The fruit of the olive in its wild state is small and worthless.

"There is a striking contrast between the verbs used. As to His humanity, He was made of the seed of David, but as to His deity, He was declared. Humanity is a created thing but deity is uncreated. The human nature, or flesh of Christ, was made at a definite point in human history, but His divine nature was existing from eternity and needed only to be declared that men might see it." Dr. Alva J. McClain, Romans, The Gospel of Grace.