Romans (Program #4) – The Source of Wickedness and the Way of Restriction

We can be protected so that for the sake of God’s interest, God’s purpose – yes, for the sake of the divine romance, we may be preserved vessels that the Lord can train, fill, and use, to fulfill His heart’s desire of a bride, a wife, for eternity.

We have a message today that includes a strong section on God’s condemnation. We know that as believers in Christ, we have been saved from God’s condemnation, so why we are going back today to see the source of wickedness and the way of restriction?…Very basically and simply, this is part of the book of Romans. But there are deeper reasons for a solid study of this portion. We get an increased knowledge of ourselves in our fallen condition; it is rather rare to find a believer who really knows, in the divine light, how fallen we were, how destitute we were, how poisoned we were by Satan. This section equips us with a higher degree of self-knowledge. This in turn should cause us to appreciate more the tremendous price God in Christ paid to redeem us. Another benefit is that it helps us to understand the nature of today’s society and to have no illusions of bringing in a utopia or of people improving in their basic nature. This also helps those who are working with young people to realize that until they are saved, and even after they are saved, there is the need for preservation and restriction. They need to be preserved, restricted, and kept by certain proper realizations so that their humanity might be preserved for God’s economy. We also need to know God in this portion: that He is a righteous God, He condemns sin, He condemns wickedness, and He expects us to agree with Him in His righteous condemnation. So these are but a few reasons for, and benefits of, studying this rather, to us, unpalatable portion of Romans. It’s part of the Word of God, it’s breathed out by God, and it’s important for us to understand it according to God.

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