JESUS-DEPENDENCE
AS RELATED TO ROMANS 1

Paul states in Romans,

"For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God, or give thanks; but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures." (Rom 1:18-23).

In this section of Scripture the Apostle Paul deals with the issue of the claimed athiest. Basically Paul states that there is no such thing as an athiest. Paul proves this by stating that God reveals Himself to man in three ways: First, from faith to faith According to Rom 1:17 which is one on one aggressive evangelism. The Apostle Paul writes,

"For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith as it is written, ‘But the righteous man shall live by faith.’"

Second, inside of man himself apart from man according to verse nineteen:

"For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because that which is known about God is evident within them, for God made it evident to them."

Finally, outside of man through what has been made so that man is without excuse according to verse twenty.

"For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse."

The fact of this statement by Paul I document completely in Section 10 titled, "The Literal Historical Reliability of Genesis." Paul states clearly in verse twenty-one that the claimed atheist knows God. This is why the claimed atheist is called a fool in the Bible. The Biblical definition of a fool is someone who professes a lie, knows it is a lie, but proceeds to profess and live out the lie anyway.

One never needs to argue over the issue of the existence of God, because Paul clearly tells us in Romans that every man is separately aware of this reality. To argue with someone over the issue would be to waste his time, your time, and God’s time because in truth it is never really the issue, but rather an excuse for a deeper issue of the claimed atheist's heart.

In the rest of the chapter of Romans one, Paul goes on to talk about what will happen to a person if he refuses to acknowledge Jesus in his life any longer. Besides leading to perversion in such forms as homosexuality, other qualities of the flesh will also be manifested as follows,

"And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper, being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, malice; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice; they are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful; and, although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them." (Rom 1:28-32).

How does this apply to us as believers? When we are having a problem with lets say lust or anger, the solution to our problem is not to try and stop lusting or restrain our anger or go into some kind of religious self-strife. The first step is for us to go to Jesus through worship and praise and in spirit and truth and ask Him to show us what the problem of lust and anger are rooted in. If Jesus then were to show us that it is rooted in a lie we are living out or an area of disobedience in relation to His Lordship, then according to Romans Chapter one the solution is to reacknowledge Jesus’ Lordship over our lives in that area of our lives and then to willfully choose to walk in the truth. If we do that we will find that we have Jesus’ restraining power again in our lives to control our intellect and feelings, the soul; and our appetites and desires, the flesh in the area of lust and anger, or any other possible problems of the flesh.

Jesus’ restraining power over our flesh is released in our lives when we walk in obedience to Jesus’ personal Lordship over our lives. When we step out from under Jesus’ personal Lordship over our lives, we also step out from under His restraining power in our lives, and what we are in truth without His restraining power through the Holy Spirit manifests itself in one or more of the above qualities of the soul or flesh.

Walking in the Spirit, then, according to Romans chapter one, is acknowledging Jesus in all our thoughts and ways and then submitting to His revealed truth and Lordship to us personally individually over those thoughts and ways.

In Romans chapter 7, the Apostle Paul describes what it is like to try and live the Christian life in the energy of the soul and flesh. Paul states,

"For that which I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate." (Rom 7:15).

Paul continues,

"For the good that I wish, I do not do; but I practice the very evil that I do not wish. I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wishes to do good. For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man, but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind, and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death?" (Rom 7:19, 21-24).

Paul states in this passage that his mind and heart are in agreement with the law of God. This is because when Paul received Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord, according to Ezekiel, Paul received a new spirit and a new heart which are in agreement with God’s nature and will. The problem, though, is, even though our spirits are recreated in Christ’s likeness, our souls and flesh are not recreated new until the Resurrection. that means that as long as we are on this side of heaven, even though we are joined again with the Lord through our spirits, yet our soul and flesh are still in bondage to sin.

Paul states about the flesh, ". . . the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the Law of God, for it is not even able to do so." (Rom 8:7). Paul says the flesh, the soul and body, is in total opposition to God. Not only is it in opposition to God, but even if we wanted to bring it into submission to God, Paul explains we could not.

Paul says in the above passage that with his heart and mind he really wants and tries to walk in the ways of God, but he finds that as he agrees with his mind and wills with his heart to obey God, that the appetites and desires of his body are stronger than his ability to resist and the flesh wins out. As a result he cries out in frustration, "Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death?" (Rom 7:24). Paul realizes that his flesh is a bigger problem than he is able to handle in his own strength and that if left to himself, he will never find the victory.

What is Paul’s problem?

1. First, Paul has his eyes on himself, the one who is the problem.

2. Second, Paul is looking to himself, a finite source, for the solution to his problems.

3. Third, Paul has his eyes off of Jesus, the only one who has the answer to his problems.

After Paul, like ourselves, had spent an unspecified period of time trying to bring his flesh into conformity with what he believed at the time was the way Jesus wanted him to behave, he became enlightened by the Holy Spirit to what his solution was. Paul expresses this solution in the last verse of Romans 7, "Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the Law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin." (Rom 7:25). In this verse of Scripture Paul states, after concluding that the answer was not in himself, that the answer to his problem is Jesus. Jesus is the only one who can bring his flesh into conformity with what Paul already knows in his heart and mind is right. Paul writes in the Epistle of Philippians about the resurrection of the body,

"For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ; who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory, by the exertion of the power that he has even to subject all things to Himself." (Phil 3:20-21)