The Blessed Hope Podcast -- with Dr. Kim Riddlebarger

Episode Synopsis:
The church in Rome was predominately Gentile–made up of recent converts from Greco-Roman paganism to Christianity.  Such Gentiles knew little if anything about the Old Testament, nor its central figures, Abraham, Moses, and David.  They knew that Jewish Christians cared about dietary restrictions, as well as circumcision–a surgical procedure which seemed bizarre to former Gentile pagans.  They knew the Jews revered the law of Moses–which they claimed to be the very commandments from God.  Gentiles ate things Jews did not.  They touched things Jews regarded as unclean.  As new Christians, Gentiles were learning about the evils of idolatry and the importance of rejecting the libertine sexual ethics and practices of Roman life in favor of a biblical sexuality.  But they were also learning about Moses, Abraham, the law, and the covenants God made with Abraham and Moses.  
Paul has been clear in the opening chapter of his letter to Rome.  “You Gentiles may not have known who Moses was, nor why the commandments God gave to Israel through him at Mount Sinai were so important, but you do know what is right and what is wrong because God has made it plain to you through the created order, which, until coming to faith in Jesus, you tried to suppress in unrighteousness.  You may claim ignorance, but you knew deep down inside that the things you were doing lead to death."  
But Paul is not finished.  Even as he exposes Gentile godlessness and the futility of exchanging the truth of God for pagan nonsense, you can almost hear the Jewish Christians in Rome cheering Paul on.  Eyewitnesses of bad Gentile behavior and victims of Gentile oppression, Jewish converts, of course, were thrilled to hear Paul “give it to them good.”  “About time someone called out the Gentiles for their sinful and immoral practices.”
But as the second chapter of Romans unfolds, Paul shifts gears and raises the uncomfortable reality of Jewish hypocrisy.  “OK, you Jews who criticize the Gentiles, do you do the same things they do?”  “How can you judge the Gentiles when you are no better.”  The truth is, God is going to judge all people according to their works–Jew and Gentile.  The blessing/curse principle will apply to all humanity.  Those who do good will receive God’s blessing, while those who do not keep God’s commands will face him on the day of judgment.  Yes, Paul has good news to proclaim, but there can be no good news until we realize that we are sinful, law-breakers, and deserving of God’s wrath whether we be Jew or Gentile.
For show notes and other recommended materials located at the Riddleblog as mentioned during the Blessed Hope Podcast, click here:  https://www.kimriddlebarger.com/

Episode Synopsis:
What happens to those who know right from wrong but choose to follow their own path even though their conscience and the Word of God warn them not to go that way?  No, lightning does not strike them, nor does the ground open up beneath their feet and swallow them whole. They don’t keel over dead.  According to Paul, what does happen to those who willingly exchange the truth of God for a lie and who willfully suppress the truth in unrighteousness is far more consequential than it seems at first glance.  In exposing Gentile sinfulness, Paul warns of how God gives such people over to the consequences of their sin.  If this is the path they persist in taking, well then, God will let them follow it to the end—an end, Paul says, that is deserving of death.
While it is common for Christians to emphasize those sexual sins that figure prominently in Paul’s vice list in Romans 1:18–32 (and indeed they do), the sins mentioned here by Paul are universal to all of Adam’s fallen race and include things we might consider “little” or insignificant sins—envy, gossip, and disobedience to parents.  The point of this list is to show the Gentile Christians in Rome that despite the fact that they know neither Moses nor the law of God, their sins are self-evident and condemn the entire human race.  No one will be able to stand before God on Judgment Day and claim, “But I did nothing wrong.”  And “if I did something wrong,” it is certainly not worthy of eternal condemnation.  But since God is holy and cannot look upon sin, Paul’s vice list makes clear the sobering fact that all of us are sinners who have sinned against God and whose hearts are filled with sin and darkness.
Those who don’t think this is fair are those who compare themselves to their neighbor, some of whom are better than they are, while some are worse.  But God does not measure us by our neighbor; he measures us by his perfect holiness, which he demands of all his creatures.
The dreaded phrase “God gave them over” reminds us that we cannot stand before God on the Day of Judgment and plead ignorance or claim that our sins really are not that big a deal, deserving of such severe punishment.  “I didn’t kill anyone.”  Maybe not with my hands, but I’ve done it countless times in my heart, and so have you.  Although the phrase “God gave them over” has an eerie finality about it, we also ought to consider that the process of letting sinners feel the weight and consequences of their sins just might be the means by which God is preparing people to come to faith and repentance.  The conviction of sin is a work of the Holy Spirit.  The conviction of sin is actually a good thing—because we realize that we need to be delivered from the guilt and power of sin. Much better to feel the conviction of sin than to be allowed to continue uninterrupted on our chosen path to destruction.
For show notes and other recommended materials located at the Riddleblog as mentioned during the Blessed Hope Podcast, click here:  https://www.kimriddlebarger.com/

Episode Synopsis:
I have good news and bad news.  Which do you want first?  I gave you a hint about the good news in the previous episode, in which we took a look at the thesis statement of Romans—Romans 1:16–17.  The next time you'll hear good news from Paul—and it is really good news—is when we get to Romans 3:21, which is still a number of episodes down the road. As will become clear, the good news of the gospel must be seen against the backdrop of human sin and guilt before the holy God.  Since the vast majority of our contemporaries think that people are basically good and have the ability, if not the desire, to find favor with God, it is important to notice that Paul sees things much differently.
Which is why the bad news is really bad, and why the good news makes no sense apart from the bad.  The entire human race is estranged from God by nature and by choice.  When Paul is finished with his indictment of the human race—both Jew and Gentile—there is no one left standing.  The wrath of God is being revealed against all those who suppress the truth about God in unrighteousness.  Because unbelievers inevitably engage in this act of suppressing the truth about God, he gives them over to their lusts and passions so that things run their course and leave such people without excuse.  Because all people know that there is a God, but refuse to worship and serve him, they demonstrate that their thinking is futile and their hearts are hardened.  And they dare not stand before him on judgment day and make appeal to their goodness, character, good works, or ignorance of the truth.
Paul is clear that the Psalmist is absolutely right to affirm, “The fool has said in their heart, `There is no God.’”  As those made in the image of God, he has made us to be creatures well fitted for the world which he also created.  We are designed for this world and all of its beauties, joys, and pleasures.  This is what makes the suppression of the truth about him so foolish.  God has revealed himself to all people—that he is, that he is holy, and that we owe him our every breath.  So, when our race fell in Adam, we became a race of rebels who worship and serve created things rather than the Creator.  And as Paul is about to explain, the wrath of God is being revealed—not against the innocent who don't know better, but against a race of rebels who suppress the truth in unrighteousness.  We live as though none of this were true, or we create a god who blesses our rebellion.  But there is a tsunami on the horizon, and it is heading our way.
For show notes and other recommended materials located at the Riddleblog as mentioned during the Blessed Hope Podcast, click here:  https://www.kimriddlebarger.com/

Episode Synopsis:
Paul is eager to come to Rome to preach the gospel.  These words have long been familiar to Christians, and we understand Paul’s sentiment.  Yet, in Paul’s day, preaching the gospel was an absolutely scandalous message.  The gospel is centered on the cross of Jesus Christ.  For us, a cross is a well-known Christian symbol.  But for those in Paul’s day, the cross was a sign of shame and denigration.  It was something people abhorred and would not speak about.  The noted Roman statesman and orator Cicero spoke of the cross as so horrible that Roman citizens should never be subject to such a thing, and should never even entertain the thought of such a horrible manner of death, much less speak of it.  So why would Paul be eager to preach such a message if it was likely to repulse and offend people, rather than draw or attract them?
Paul knows that this gospel—centered in the cross of Jesus Christ—is the power of God for the salvation of all who believe.  God uses this scandalous message to call his people unto himself, create faith, and grant them eternal life.  As Paul tells the Romans, the gospel was first preached to Jews in the types and shadows of the Old Testament, and then through recounting the events associated with the messianic mission of Jesus Christ, which culminated in his suffering and death upon a Roman cross.  When the crucified Jesus was raised from the dead three days after his crucifixion, God demonstrated his power—which is of a different kind and far greater than all the military might of Rome.  Jesus is truly Lord—not Caesar nor any of the Roman gods.  So, when Paul says he desires to come to Rome to preach this message, he is trusting the power of God to do what is impossible for sinful humans: to be given new life, the forgiveness of sins, and to be counted as righteous before God.
Paul is also eager to preach the gospel because in it the righteousness of God is revealed.  Sinful men and women can be reckoned or credited as righteous by trusting in the crucified and risen Savior proclaimed by Paul.  No amount of sorrow or tears, no enlightened teacher or guru, and no amount of good works can grant this righteous status to sinful people.  The only proper response to Paul’s gospel is the empty hands of faith—the reception of this free gift of a perfect and faultless righteousness that is found in the gospel.  This is why Paul is eager to come to Rome and preach this scandalous message.
For show notes and other recommended materials located at the Riddleblog as mentioned during the Blessed Hope Podcast, click here:  https://www.kimriddlebarger.com/

Episode Synopsis:
The next time you pass a Roman Catholic hospital, school, or church named for Catholic “saints,” you ought to remind yourself that you, too, are a “saint.”  Only your sainthood is something far greater than an honor bestowed upon you by the Roman church because of your notable piety or service.  You are a saint because you are clothed in the faultless righteousness of Jesus Christ, have been called to faith through the gospel, and have been set apart by God for his purposes.  Your saintliness is grounded in nothing that you did or accomplished. Rather, the righteousness that reckons you a “saint” was earned for you—through the obedience of Jesus, his death upon the cross, and his triumphant resurrection from the dead.
Like those in Rome receiving Paul’s letter, you too will hear from Paul that you are called to belong to Jesus and are now a saint.  If you are a Gentile believer in Jesus, you are, in part, one of the multitude mentioned in Isaiah 49 who has seen the light for the nations—the salvation promised to reach the ends of the earth, granted to you by the Redeemer and Holy One of Israel.  Like those in Rome—members of a Christian church in the capital of a pagan empire—you too are serving the God of Israel, who is supremely revealed in Jesus Christ, in whatever locale you may currently find yourself.  You are a “saint” living in the midst of pagan darkness—now seeing the world around you through the lens of God’s word, as one called and set apart by God for God, who is your only source of true light and true life.
And since you are in Christ, you are both reckoned a “saint” and are also now to strive to live as the saint that you are.  Once called to faith, Paul explains, you will acknowledge who you are in Christ (holy) and then strive to put to death the old self (who you were in Adam). You begin to live as what you are—a saint—now alive in Christ.  And to those who are now such “saints”—justified by grace through faith and set apart for God’s purposes—Paul extends to you God’s shalom: “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.”
For show notes and other recommended materials located at the Riddleblog as mentioned during the Blessed Hope Podcast, click here:  https://www.kimriddlebarger.com/