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. Roma