Shepherds Bible Romans Chapter 1

The Book of Romans

The book of Romans is doctrinal, and more or less the ABC’s of the
church. It is the first of seven epistles to the churches, which were
Romans, Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Phillipians, Colossians and
Thessalonians. The epistles are doctrinal and for instruction. We’ll start
oddly enough, with the last chapter of the book (16:25). Some think
this postscript by Paul is a fraud, but most know that Paul added it
more than likely after he arrived in Rome. Start with Chapter 16 verse
25.

25. Now to Him that is of power to stablish you according to my gospel,

and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the
mystery, which was kept secret since the world began,

# It is especially important to realize the depth of Paul’s teachings. He

teaches on three levels (Acts 9:1 to the Gentiles, the rulers and the
elect), and therefore Paul’s writings are even prophetic in a sense,
particularly for the elect here at the end times.

26. But now is made manifest, and by the scriptures of the prophets,
according to the commandment of the everlasting God made known to
all nations for the obedience of faith:

# Or, the spreading of the gospel to all nations, whereby they would
know what was expected of them, or their position with the Father.

# I would call to your memory II Peter 3:16 where Peter himself

warned about Paul’s in-depth writings causing confusion for some,
even to their own destruction. “To their own destruction” can be
understood as “to their own deception.”

# Now we’ll return to the beginning of Romans.

CHAPTER 1

1. Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated

unto the gospel of God.

# I want you to notice he was “called”, and you know the story how on
the road to Damascus he was struck down and called to be on apostle,
separated unto the gospel of God. In other words, he was called by the
Holy Spirit directly and given direct instructions on his apostle ship.

2. (Which He had promised afore by His prophets in the holy

scriptures,)

# The Old Testament spoke of this Word going to this world, and we
just read of it in verse 26 of Romans 16.

3. Concerning His son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the
seed of David according to the flesh;

# Or, concerning the good news that all people could partake of Jesus
Christ, our Lord.

4. And declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit
of Holiness, by the resurrection from the dead:

# By being the Firstfruit raised from the dead proved He was the Son of
God.
5. By whom we have received grace and apostleship, for obedience to
the faith among all nations, for His name:

# In other words, through faith in Christ comes all gifts of God, you
might say.

6. Among whom are ye also the called of Jesus Christ.

# Now remember Paul writes on three levels. He was sent to the

Gentiles, to the rulers (Pharisees or the lawgivers) that sat in the seat
of Moses at the time of Christ’s first advent (Matt. 23:2), and to the
true Israelite, both the lost sheep and the elect. We shall call attention
to all three levels.

7. To all that be in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints: Grace to

you and peace from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ.

# Now saints here are the “called” or chosen to be elect. Therefore, we

see he is writing specifically to the elect at the same time he brings this
good news to the Gentiles.

8. First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, that your faith
is spoken of throughout the whole world.

9. For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of

His Son, that without ceasing I make mention of you always in my
prayers;

# In other words, l’m praying for you and about you.

10. Making request, if by any means now at length I might have a
prosperous journey by the will of God to come unto you.

# Paul had been drawn here. In the book of Acts, Jesus came to him in
a dream or vision, telling him directly to be of good cheer because it
was intended to send him to Rome.

11. For I long to see you, that I may impart unto you some spiritual
gift, to the end ye may be established;

12. That is, that I may be comforted together with you by the mutual
faith both of you and me.

#He’s saying, we’re both going to gain by this. We can help each other.
Certainly Paul saw the benefit of his teaching and that of his converts
that he had sent on to Rome. Naturally, he took is pride in them.

13. Now I would not have you ignorant, brethren, that oftentimes I
purposed to come unto you, (but was let hither to,) that I might have
some fruit among you also, even as among other Gentiles.

# I have wanted to come there many, many of times and I don’t want
you to be ignorant concerning that, but I was taken elsewhere as well.

14. I am debtor both to the Greeks, and to the Barbarians; both to the
and to the unwise.

# Or, Paul was sent to all peoples to teach and warn on all three levels.

15. So, as much as in me is, I am ready to preach the gospel to you that
are at Rome also.
# The Holy Spirit had already told him he was going there, and he felt
the Father leading him to the mission that would soon take him there.

16. For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of
God unto salvation to everyone that believeth; to the Jew first, and also
to the Greek.

# Paul says, to be able to teach the gospel, I count as my highest

honor. Now I want you to note in the last phrase the expansion here:
salvation to everyone that believes and of course he means those who
really believe from the heart.

# This salvation is offered to the Jew first. Let’s examine this. You’ll
remember that the Kenites (sons of Cain) had slipped into the temple
in Jerusalem at this time and brought about the crucifixion of Jesus
Christ. They stood in the holy place calling themselves Jews, as it is
recorded in Revelation 2:9...claiming to be Jews, but were lie ing and in
fact they were the synagogue of Satan.

# Remember that before Christ’s crucifixion He said, “go not, but unto
the lost sheep of the house of Israel”. In the Old Testament, all the
covenants of God with the Adamic race from the beginning were made
through Abraham, and until Christ shed his blood for everyone,
salvation was only to Abraham’s seed or the Israelite. When Paul
explains salvation to the Jew first, he refers to true Israel and the
Greek, of course, refers to the Gentiles.

17. For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith:
as it is written, The just shall live by faith.
# In a sense here, this is faith in Jesus Christ versus the faith in Satan,
if you would have it so. In other words, those who live by faith in Jesus
Christ can attain salvation.

18. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all
ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in
unrighteousness;

# Who holds God’s truth in unrighteousness? Turn to II Thess. 2: 6-11.

6. And now ye know what withholdeth that be might be revealed in his

time.

# The “he” in this verse refers to that man of sin, the son of perdition.

7. For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only He who now
letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way.

8. And then shalt that wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall
consume with the Spirit of His mouth, and shall destroy with the
brightness of His coming.

9. Even Him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power
and signs and lying wonders,

# I’d like to mention here that in verse 3, we are told the Christ will not
come until Satan is revealed (or has appeared) and here in verse 9
again, we are told even Him (Jesus Christ) whose coming is AFTER
Satan, the one of lying wonders who comes with deception, as
described in the following verse.
10. And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish;
because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be
saved.

# In connection with this verse, remember the word “unrighteousness”

In Romans 1:18, where we were reading.

11. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they
should believe a lie:

# So again, the question: who holds the truth in unrighteousness? It is

Satan and his children, the Kenites, who have slipped in among the
true Judeans. These verses in II Thessalonians speak specifically of
Satan and those who choose to follow him and pinpoint the men in
Romans 1:18 who invoke God’s wrath.

# Let us continue now in Romans 1:19

19. Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for
God both shewed it unto them.

20. For the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are
clearly seen, being understood by the things that are mode, even His
eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:

# Here, the invisible things are those things hidden from the very
foundation of the world. It was made known to them that the Father
created this whole world, therefore they are without excuse.

# I would remind you deeper students of the falling away even before
the foundations of this world. (See App. IV.) Lucifer and his fallen
angels did turn against God (and they knew better). This is the reason
for our existence here and the necessity for Paul’s gospel to correct
and teach these people, who were not in ignorance concerning the
Father (or any of His designs), yet they followed the wicked one.

# If any wish to pursue the subject of pre-foundation, it is covered in

our study on identity: Sec. 1, Elect.

21. Because that, when they knew God, they glorified Him not as God,
neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their
foolish heart was darkened.

22. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,

23. And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made
like to corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed beasts, and
creeping things.

# Understanding this on the first level (to the Gentiles), we see here
that man made images and practiced idol worship of birds, four—footed
beasts as cattle, creeping things, etc. even as various religions do, even
today.

# Now on the third level (to the elect or the wise that understand),
“changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image”.. .image in
Greek means “a representation of”. Now don’t forget the image that
will be made in the last days (Rev. 13:18), when the false christ will
stand in the holy place causing the people to worship the image that
will be called one-worldism in our day, or this world’s political
government. Scripture tells us “for it is the number of a man.” There is
no doubt. Satan will be the false christ directing this world’s
government.

24. Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts
of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between
themselves:

# Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness”... Whom are we

speaking of here? It could not be the Israelites, because in Romans
11:1, the question is asked has God given up Israel? Is there no
difference? And Paul states, God forbid, for I myself am an Israelite
and he explains that God certainly did not give up Israel. The souls who
followed Satan and refused Christ.. these he did give up to uncleanness
and the lust of their own hearts.

# We can get a better fix on this lust of their own hearts by turning to
John 8:44. Jesus is speaking to this group and identifies them, saying,
“Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do.”
In other words, ye are of your father, the devil, the partaker there even
in the Garden of Eden. “He was a murderer from the beginning and
abode not in the truth, because there was no truth in him. When he
speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar and the father of
it.” So the lust here to dishonor their own bodies between themselves
is of the devil, the father of lust.

25. Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and
served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever.
Amen.

# They changed the truth of God into a lie, and this began in Genesis
3:4-5. They worshipped the sun and animals and Satan himself, who
said, surely the day you eat hereof, you’ll become wise, etc. The lie is
simply that Satan is man’s benefactor and should therefore be
worshipped; - or the creature served more than the Creator. We see
then a comparison in this day and age when the Kenites, that have
slipped in among the Jewish people, return to Jerusalem even at this
time and make ready for the Kenite messiah. Today’s churches teach
that the Kenites are God’s chosen people and the layman is unaware of
this delusion, or abomination as Christ termed it in Mark 13.

26. For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their
women did change the natural use into that which is against nature:

# Of course, this is talking about a sexual abuse of the body here.

27. And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman,
burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that
which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves the recompence of
their error which was meet.

# Remembering John 8:44, we see the father of this evil lust.

28. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God
gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not
convenient:

# In II Thessalonians 2:11, it says because they believe not the truth,

God has sent them strong delusions. Verse 28 of Romans more or less
says, as they rejected God, then God in turn rejected them.

# Let us consider a reprobate mind by turning to I Thessalonians 2:14-

15.
14. For ye, brethren, become the followers of the churches of God
which in Judaea are in Christ Jesus: for ye also have suffered like
things of your own countrymen, even as they have of the Jews:

15. Who both killed the Lord Jesus, and their own prophets, and have
persecuted us; and they please not God, and are contrary to all men:

# The Kenites have slipped in among the true Judeans, and we see God
has given them a reprobate mind to do inconvenient things, such as
crucifying our Lord, Jesus Christ.

# Let us return to Romans 1:29.

29. Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness,

covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit,
malignity; whisperers,

30. Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of

evil things, disobedient to parents,

# We see now that I Thessalonians certainly speaks the truth in those

14th and 15th verses.

31. Without understanding, covenant

breakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful:

32. Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such
things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in
them that do them.
# So we see then that Lucifer and his following did these things,
knowing they were contrary to God’s plan and in addition they take
pleasure in converts to their synagogue for participation in these evil
deeds.