This passage ends with the jarring condemnation, “the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.”  Work and pray that this is not true in your case.

shall he reap.  Paul tells us here we don’t only reap, we store up. 

We should fear the day when we’re faced with what we’ve stored.

James warns us that as a man sows, so shall he reap.  Paul tells us here we don’t only reap, we store up.  We should fear the day when we’re faced with what we’ve stored.

Being religious is not the same as being good.

There was a time when we read this passage, and said, “I can’t see how it could really get that bad.”  Now we say, “I can’t see how it got that bad.’  Our descent into sin is real and clear, and we really need a Savior.

The first part of the Gospel presentation is sin.  We are sinful and need to be saved.  In this passage, Paul demonstrates the mess we are in, and how we got there.  God gave us free will, and no matter how bad our choices will be, He lets us make them and face the consequences.

Ashamed of the Gospel?  It is the power of God to salvation.  It reveals His righteousness and is attained by faith.  How could we be ashamed of what has done so much for us?  We say with Paul, “I am not ashamed of the Gospel.”

We know Romans as Paul’s doctrinal masterpiece; the book that makes clear how salvation works.  For Paul, it was his introduction to the Roman Church.  To the saints in Rome, it was a letter from the famous Christian thinker, Paul, clarifying some difficult concepts.  It is also the inspired Word of God.  This week we begin our journey through the book of Romans with an introduction.

I complained to God that our new building, as it stands now, is just an empty shell, and useless.  The phrase seemed to echo in my mind.  This week we will look at three of the seven churches of Revelation: Ephesus, Sardis, and Laodicea, and see Christ’s warnings to churches that were in various stages of becoming empty shells of a church.

There are times that test your faith.  You find yourself thinking you just can’t do it God’s way in this situation.  Perhaps the greatest statement of wisdom in Proverbs is to trust God rather than leaning on your own understanding.