Romans 1:16-25
Chapter 1
Forgiveness and Punishment: Program
For I am not ashamed at all of this Good News; it is God’s power, saving those who believe, first the Jews, and then the Greeks.This Good News reveals the saving justice of God; a justice that saves solely through faith, as the scripture says: The upright one shall live by faith.
For the wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and injustice, of those who have silenced the truth by their wicked ways.
Guilty Humanity
For everything that could have been known about God was clear to them: God himself made it plain,
because his invisible attributes—his everlasting power and divinity—are made visible to reason through his works since the creation of the world. So they have no excuse,
for they knew God but did not glorify him as they should; nor did they thank him. On the contrary, they lost themselves in their reasoning, and darkness filled their minds.
Believing they were wise, they became foolish:
they exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal human beings, birds, animals, and reptiles.
Because of this, God handed them over to their own desires; they engaged in shameful acts and dishonored their bodies.
They exchanged God’s truth for a lie; they honored and worshiped created things instead of the Creator, to whom be praise forever, Amen!
Commentaries
Forgiveness and Punishment: Program.
Paul seems eager to share the Gospel with the Romans. He is not ashamed, nor does he feel powerless or self-conscious about proclaiming it. He affirms that it is “a divine power for salvation to everyone who believes” (16). The Gospel reveals, manifests, applies, and makes effective this initiative of salvation from God. The only condition for receiving it is faith, trusting in God, and following Jesus as Messiah. Thus, the Gospel offers salvation and life.
Guilty Humanity.
Paul begins by presenting the other side of the Gospel. The ‘proclamation’ is also a “denunciation.” The Gospel that reveals God’s saving justice also shows its opposition to everything that conflicts with it, revealing the “wrath of God.” He first speaks of the pagan world around him, to which he was sent to evangelize; then he addresses his own people, the Jews, to whom he has tirelessly proclaimed the Gospel, most of whom oppose and resist it. This is the introduction to the “Gospel of salvation”—the central theme of the Letter—and this presentation of “the wrath of God” can’t be understood without the proclamation of salvation that Paul is the messenger of. Let us remember that for the Apostle, “the wrath of God” is always expressed through his love.