16 For I am not ashamed of this Good News about Christ. It is the power of God at work, saving everyone who believes—the Jew first and also the Gentile. 17 This Good News tells us how God makes us right in his sight. This is accomplished from start to finish by faith. As the Scriptures say, “It is through faith that a righteous person has life.”
18 But God shows his anger from heaven against all sinful, wicked people who suppress the truth by their wickedness. 19 They know the truth about God because he has made it obvious to them. 20 For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God.
21 Yes, they knew God, but they wouldn’t worship him as God or even give him thanks. And they began to think up foolish ideas of what God was like. As a result, their minds became dark and confused. 22 Claiming to be wise, they instead became utter fools. 23 And instead of worshiping the glorious, ever-living God, they worshiped idols made to look like mere people and birds and animals and reptiles.
Tori's Comments:
This is a very happy section. It makes me smile.
It flats out states that the only reason God sees us as righteous is because of our faith that Jesus makes it so. That takes away so much of the weight that the Jews were carrying because of the Old Law. Even now, I feel like Christians let rules and regulations reign in their mind instead of Jesus. I know I have in the past, and still do. I am not ashamed to say Christ has made me clean.
Sorry for camping out on the first two verses, but my mind was stuck on those. What a motto for the Christian life! I am not ashamed of my Savior!
Terrie's Comments:
We are made right in God's sight by faith... end of story. Deliberately choosing to believe that He is the creator of all, that He is who He says He is, and that His word is completely true and trustworthy. Living by faith means walking a walk in life that lines up with His word because we know it is true.
What does it mean to be without excuse? To have the heavens and the earth and all the wonders of creation and refuse to acknowledge the one who created it all. It's like looking at a painting and coming up with a theory that says that the painting just appeared and then hung itself on the wall because you don't like to admit that there is a talented person out there that painted the painting, or you just don't like the artist but you love the painting so you are looking for a way to eliminate the artist completely from the painting.
If we choose to worship anything other than God, the creator Himself, then we are fools and as a result our minds become dark and confused. We are to worship God and give Him thanks for all He has done for us so we will be wise. We are to seek God to find out who He really is... not make up who we want Him to be. We should always be striving to bring our experience up to the truth of God's word instead of trying to bring God's word down to the level of our experience. That is how twisted doctrine happens.
Take our personal comments or leave them. We would love to hear what stood out to you about today`s passage and how it encouraged you. Tell us in the comments below!
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Please keep all comments respectful. We want to remember that each of us is at a different place in our walk with God. This is a place for us to share openly about what has been revealed to us as we open up Gods word and to learn from others. Please take every opportunity possible to build each other up in love :-)