02 The Book of Romans-The Gospel Manifesto-The Bad news

The Gospel Manifesto in the Book of Romans

Pt. 2: The Bad News, Romans 1:18-3:20

By Louie Marsh, 5-4-2025

3 Cartoons,

 

And Finally…

 

Doctor: "I have good news and bad news." 
Patient: "Go with the good news first." 
Doctor: "You have 24 hours to live." 
Patient: "What?! How about the bad news?" 
Doctor: Um... I forgot to tell you yesterday."

 

1) God wrath (anger) is stirred when I REPRESS the truth.

 

¹⁸  For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. ¹⁹  For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. ²⁰  For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. ²¹  For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. ²²  Claiming to be wise, they became fools, ²³  and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. Romans 1:18-23 (ESV)

 

2) God honors my free will by allowing me to SIN.

 

²⁴  Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, ²⁵  because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen. Romans 1:24-25 (ESV)

 

²⁶  For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; Romans 1:26 (ESV)

 

HOMOSEXUALITY IN ANCIENT ROME: The primary dichotomy of ancient Roman sexuality was active/dominant/masculine and passive/submissive/"feminized". In Roman society the freeborn male citizen possessed political liberty and the right to rule both himself and his household. "Virtue" was seen as an active quality through which a man defined himself. The conquest mentality and "cult of virility" shaped same-sex relations. Roman men were free to enjoy sex with other males without a perceived loss of masculinity or social status, as long as they took the dominant role. Acceptable male partners were slaves, prostitutes, and entertainers, Although Roman men in general seem to have preferred youths between the ages of 12 and 20 as sexual partners, freeborn male minors were strictly off-limits, and professional prostitutes and entertainers might be considerably older.

 

Same-sex relations among women are less documented. The Augustan poet Ovid takes an exceptionally keen interest, but advocates for a heterosexual lifestyle contrary to Roman sexual norms.

 

²⁸  And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. ²⁹  They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, ³⁰  slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, ³¹  foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. ³²  Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them. Romans 1:28-32 (ESV)

 

Ways We Suppress the Truth:

 

·  DENIAL

· No one’s PERFECT

· I was BORN that way.

 

Dear Dr. Roach: I read your recent column regarding identical twins where one of the two was balding while his twin was not. Within my family, there are identical twin brothers, who also were almost impossible for family members to differentiate. If their DNA genes are “identical,” now that they are adults, how can one be homosexual, while his twin is married with children?

 

Studies have shown that in identical twins, if one twin is gay (the term “homosexual” is used in clinical studies but is considered offensive, so I won’t use it further), then 30 per cent to 66 per cent of the identical twins also will be gay. As this is much higher than the overall rate in the population, this suggests some, but not absolute, genetic influence.

 

However, an adopted sibling of a gay person is also more likely to be gay (11 per cent in one study), suggesting that the familial environment also plays a significant role.

 

Some people who are attracted to the same gender can be so afraid of, or put off by, the social stigma against same-sex couples that they marry and have children with a person of the opposite sex despite being primarily or uniquely attracted to those of the same gender.

 

Some people have found that they may be attracted to a person of either gender; their choice of life partner depends more on the partner’s personality and their unique situation than on his or her biological sex.

 

Sexual identity is not a choice. We cannot choose to whom we will be attracted. I’m afraid many people fundamentally misunderstand this point.

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Dramatic confirmation that the sea ice in the Arctic has been stable for nearly two decades is contained in a recently published science paper from a team led by Dr Mark England from the University of Exeter. The finding is of course obvious to anyone who studies the data but it will inconvenience the activist cranks who continue to promote supposed reductions in Arctic sea ice as an important sign of their imaginary ‘tipping points’ and their fake climate crisis. Despite the data showing the ice has been stable over every month in the year since around 2007.

************

Living together before marriage increasing the changes of getting a divorce.

 

3) When I condemn others I’m really just condemning MYSELF.

 

¹  Therefore you have no excuse, O man, every one of you who judges. For in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, practice the very same things… ³  Do you suppose, O man—you who judge those who practice such things and yet do them yourself—that you will escape the judgment of God? ⁴  Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? Romans 2:1, 3-4 (ESV)

 

4) I must be PERFECT to be good enough for heaven.

 

¹²  For all who have sinned without the law will also perish without the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law. ¹³  For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified. Romans 2:12-13 (ESV)

 

5) I’m just as much a sinner as EVERYONE ELSE.

 

⁹  What then? Are we Jews any better off? No, not at all. For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin, ¹⁰  as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; ¹¹  no one understands; no one seeks for God…²⁰  For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin. Romans 3:9-11, 20 (ESV)

 

6) God’s answer to sin is FAITH in Jesus.

 

¹⁶  yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified. Galatians 2:16 (ESV)

 

¹¹  Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for “The righteous shall live by faith.” ¹²  But the law is not of faith, rather “The one who does them shall live by them.” ¹³  Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”— ¹⁴  so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith. Galatians 3:11-14 (ESV)