Romans

The book of Romans teaches us so much about so many aspects of the Christian life. Regarding the natural world, human identity, human relationships, and culture, Romans one through eight teaches us about these prospectives from a biblical stand point and how to incorporate them into our everyday life.

In Romans, many answers about human life, the natural world and mankind in relation to God can be found. Paul wrote this letter to build the case for the deadliness of sin and the absolute necessity for true righteousness, the righteousness that comes by faith through Jesus Christ. The people in Rome were on two ends of the spectrum. On one end you have the utter depravity of the heathen and on the other side you have the religious man, represented by the Jew in this text. Paul reveals the truth that the human race as a whole is guilty before God whether pagan or religious. Romans chapters one and three give a clear description of the state of the natural world. God created the Earth for man to enjoy in abundance and for mankind to be in direct and intimate fellowship with Him. He created man with a conscious whereby we could discern God’s presence and handiwork in everything including our own selves. “God made sure in His wisdom that everything that could be known about Him was revealed in man because God Himself has shown it to man” (1:19). In this way God says that man is without excuse. When mankind sinned through the disobedience of Adam, we were separated from God. This caused the natural world and mankind to spiritually die and exist in a state of sin. This state of sin brought about every manner of wickedness.

Our human identity is both found in knowing Christ and knowing our true nature. We are made in God’s image, so when we are joined to our Father in spiritual union through His son Jesus again we find who we are as people because we have fellowship with Him who made us. We see that we are not righteous whatsoever and that we don’t seek...