Bible Study on Romans Session 6

Saint Paul’s Letter to the Romans;

A Bible Study Based upon the Homilies of St John Chrysostom (SJC)

Study Guide – October 23, 2018 – Romans 1.28-2.16 – Homily 5

Prayer before reading of the Holy Scriptures: Shine within our hearts, loving Master, the pure light of Your divine knowledge, and open the eyes of our minds that we may comprehend the message of Your Gospel. Instill in us also reverence for Your blessed commandments so that, having conquered sinful desires, we may pursue a spiritual life, thinking and doing all those things which are pleasing to You. For You, Christ our God, are the light of our souls and bodies, and to You we give glory, together with Your Father who is without beginning and Your all holy, good and life giving Spirit, always now and forever and to the ages of ages.

Chapter 1, Verses 28-32

  • This is not just about sex. SJC “So that Paul might not appear to be referring in veiled terms to his Roman audience by dwelling so long in his discussions on the unnatural lust of male for male, he then passed over to other forms of sin.” (Pg 69, #1)
  • Sin is caused by judgment, not ignorance
  • Ego and pride are greater risk. SJC “For when the sinner thinks haughty thoughts about his sins, it is even worse than the sinning itself…such a man will not be able to repent in the future.” (Pg 70, #4)
  • Sin is not accidental per se. SJC “This is the mark of those who have every purpose of sinning and are eager to do so; it does not characterize those whose chariots are driven from their course and overturned.” (Pg 70, #5)
  • Greater evil is to know holiness and yet choose evil

Chapter 2, Verses 1-11

  • The greater your influence, the greater your blame.
  • Escaping punishment now is not a reflection of the future. SJC “In this world one man is punished while another escapes ….it is not the same in the life hereafter.” (Pg 72, #12)
  • The judgment of God – WE will be judged by how/what we judge. SJC “For simply to sin is not the same thing as falling into the same evil act again after you have punished another who has committed that sin.” (Pg 73, #18)
  • Our penalty will be worse if we remain unrepentant. SJC “For just as God’s long-suffering is the basis of salvation for those who make the proper use of it, so is it the price of passage to greater vengeance for those who have looked on it with disdain.” (Pg 74, #20)
  • Ultimately we condemn ourselves. SJC “God manifests His goodness so that you may be set free from your sins, not so that you may add to them…For when your heart has not grown softer because of God’s goodness, nor is it turned by fear of Him, what could be harder of heart than such a person?…For God did everything he could and equipped you with the power to distinguish what was good from what was not. He showed you that He is long-suffering, that He called you to repentance and threatened you with the dreadful day because he was in every way drawing you to convert yourself. But if you continue to be stubborn and unyielding, ‘you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath and of the revelation and of the just judgment of God.” (Pg 74-75, #21-25)
  • Paul turns to speaking about good works to avoid staying too long on fear
  • Blessings from good works are greater than earthly blessings because they will have glory and honor.
  • Paul hints to non-Jews entering the Church in speaking about those who do not have the law. “There is no partiality”
  • Jews (and cradle Orthodox) at more risk because we have more. SJC “So it is that wiser and more powerful we are, by so much more are we punished if we sin.” (Pg 77, #32)
  • There was also no extra advantage to the Jews (and cradle Orthodox) SJC “Punishment and reward depend on deeds, not on circumcision or uncircumcision.” (Pg 78, #38)

Chapter 2, Verses 12-16

  • Ignorance is bliss – without the law to accuse, there is less punishment.
  • Paul urges us to humility instead of thinking we are better off. SJC “Gentiles are objects of admiration because they did not have the law and yet still showed forth everything the law enjoined.” (Pg 82, #51)
  • Without the law, conscience and reason are enough. SJC “Before God gave the law, human nature fully enjoyed His providence.” (Pg 83, #56)
  • We judge based on overt sin, God will judge secret sin. SJC “If the secret sin of any one of us were revealed today only to those here in the church, how would the one who is guilty pray that he might perish and the earth gape open for him rather than that he have so many witnesses to his wickedness? What will we suffer on judgment day, when everything is brought before the eyes of the whole world, when those we know and those we do not know are looking on in a theater so vast and bright?” (Pg 84-85, #62)

Life Application – We should feel pain when we sin, not when we are punished

  • Offending God is more serious than being punished – “We are in such a miserable state that, unless there were the fear of Gehenna, we would not quickly choose to do anything good. Therefore, even if for no other reason, we would be deserving of Gehenna on this account, namely, because we fear Gehenna rather than loving Christ. But the blessed Paul does not feel this is the case, but quite the opposite. It is because we feel otherwise that we are condemned to Gehenna. At least, if we were to love Christ as we ought to love Him, we should have known that to offend the Christ we love will cause greater pain than the pains of Gehenna. But because we do not love Christ as we ought to love Him, we do not know how great this punishment is. And this is what most grieves and makes me moan.”  (Pg 85, #65-66)
  • God never stops trying to save us – “He went to Jeremiah and to Micah along with all the others, not so that He might burden us, but so that he might offer a defense for what He was doing. And along with the prophets, he went around Himself to those who had turned away from Him because He was ready to render to them an account. he wished to ask them to enter into a discussion with Him and to draw those who had turned a deaf ear to His appeals into a conversation with Him….And after all that, we slew the prophets. We stoned them. We did them other cruel wrongs beyond counting. What did He send in place of these? ….. But He sent His own Son in person. After the Son came, he too was killed. Yet this did not quench God’s love, but kindled it into a brighter flame. And God continues to beseech us, even after His Son was slain. He continues to entreat us and to do everything to turn us to Himself.” (Pg 86, #68-70)
  • God did not abandon us – “He continued to threaten us with Gehenna and He continued to promise us the Kingdom, so that he might attract us to Himself in this way. But we still continue to remain in our callous and unfeeling frame of mind. What could be worse than this savage and brutal cruelty? it a human being were to have done the things that God has done, would we not, time and time again, have become slaves to such a man? Will we turn away from God when He treats us in this way? O, how rash and unfeeling we are! We live our whole lives through in sin and wickedness. If we ever do some slight and insignificant good, like unfeeling house slaves, we examine it with a mercenary spirit and we are precise in computing the reward if our good action has some recompense coming to it.” (Pg 86-87, #71-72)

Send-Off – God will never stop loving us “He has no need of any of us; even so, He does not stop loving us. We stand in the greatest need of what is His; even so, we do not cling to His love. To Him we prefer wealth, human friendships, and bodily indulgence. We value power and glory above Him who values nothing more than He values us. For God had one only begotten and true Son. yet he did not spare Him because of us. But we value many things above Him. Would there not be good reason for the punishment of Gehenna, even if it were twice, three times, or countless times as grievous as it is? For what could we say when we value the precepts of Satan above the laws of Christ, when we neglect our own salvation so that we may value the works of wickedness above Him who took upon Himself every suffering on our account?” (Pg 88-89, #79-80)