Romans 01 Round Two: Good News, Bad News

Want a fresh lens for Romans that’s honest about our condition and bold about grace? We open the letter with Paul’s sweeping vision: the gospel is not advice or self-help, but God’s power to save. Set in Rome around AD 57, this message was crafted to be read aloud, passed along, and lived. We frame the stakes, trace the flow of the chapter, and keep the spotlight on the core claim of Romans 1:16–17—righteousness revealed by faith from start to finish.

We walk through the opening greeting, Paul’s longing to visit, and the cultural setting that shaped how early churches heard these words. Then we face the hard turn: why the good news begins as bad news. Creation testifies to God’s power and character, yet people trade the Creator for idols and drift into disorder—of worship, desire, and community. Paul’s catalog is deliberately wide: sexual brokenness, envy, violence, deceit, pride, promise-breaking, heartlessness. The point isn’t to single out a group; it’s to show that all of us fall short of holy love and need rescue that we cannot engineer.

From there, we name what makes the gospel unique. Positive thinking can’t clear guilt or create new hearts. Grace can. The resurrection-backed news about Jesus offers pardon, power, and a new way to live. We talk honestly about sexual ethics as part of a larger vision of holiness, while refusing moral high ground that the text does not grant. The standard is perfection; the invitation is faith. And that’s why Paul refuses shame—because the gospel doesn’t flatter us, it transforms us. If you’ve ever wondered how Romans ties together sin, salvation, and hope, this clear walkthrough will ground you for the journey ahead.

Listen now, share it with a friend who’s curious about Romans, and leave a review so more people can find the show. Subscribe for tomorrow’s dive into Romans 2 and join the Bible Breakdown Discussion group to keep the conversation going.

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The More We Dig. The More We Find.

Scripture quotations taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation (NLT).
Copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation.
Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome And Series Context
• 1:41 Why Romans Matters And Overall Theme
• 4:55 How Paul’s Letters Worked
• 7:43 Setting: Rome, Timeline, And Audience
• 10:48 Key Idea: The Creator Came For Us
• 13:19 Reading Romans 1:1–7 Greeting
• 16:44 Paul’s Longing To Visit Rome
• 19:13 The Key Verse: Romans 1:16–17

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:00

Welcome to the Bible Breakdown Podcast. Every day, we take one chapter of the Bible, dig deeper, and discover that the more we dig, the more we find. You can find out more at the BibleBreakdown.com. Now let's grow in God's Word together. Well, hello, everybody. Welcome back to the Bible Breakdown Podcast with your host, Pastor Brandon. Today, Romans chapter one, man. This is going to be really, really good. And if I could give this one a title, it would be The Good News Begins as Bad News. The good news begins as bad news. This is a first for the Bible Breakdown Podcast because up until now we've been going over the Gospels, Acts, Old Testament books. This is the first letter or epistle, which means letter, that we are really going to cover. And it's going to be really, really good. And I can't wait to get into it. But as always, before we do that, if you like what we're doing here, make sure you like, share, and subscribe to YouTube. If you are doing the pay the podcast, you are my favorites. Make sure you leave us a five-star review. Also, share all of this, follow us, do all the good things. And make sure you are going to the Facebook page, uh the or the group, rather, the Bible breakdown discussion as we go through all of this and just growing and learning together. Now, if you're listening to this on the podcast, this is kind of lost on you, but the reason why I'm stumbling a little bit more than normal is because I'm trying a different setup a little bit. And so kind of bear with me as I do this because I'm really excited too. The book of Romans is one I have been looking forward to us talking about for quite a while now. And so we're going to jump into this because as always, on the first chapter of every new book, we take a moment, kind of orient you with what's going on so you can kind of find yourself within history and context so we can dive into this. So this is what's going on in the book of Romans. The Apostle Paul, as we read in Acts, he is converted to Christianity. He has this amazing encounter with Jesus on the road to Damascus, where he was going to go to try to arrest Christians. Well, now he's a follower of Christ, and he's going through all of this. And he ends up going on these different missionary journeys, three different ones. He becomes a missionary to the Gentiles. And he would go into these places and he would first go to the synagogues and reason with the Jewish people. And then he would go and he'd reach out to the Gentiles, and he would start several churches, like in Ephesus and Thessalonica and all these other places, uh, Philippi and all of this. And what he would later do, just to check in on all these churches, is he would write them letters. And these letters were meant to be read in public. And so what they would do is Paul would write these letters, or he'd have what's called an amenuensis, basically a dictator who would dictate out the letter, not the other kind of dictator. And then when they would do that, they would travel to, let's say, Philippi, and then they would stand before the church, unroll the scroll or whatever they would use, and they would read it out loud to the congregation. And then many times they would copy it down and then they would send it to another church. Well, all this would happen, and he would always write back to all these places. But there was one city that Paul wanted to go to, but he kept getting hindered. A lot of his friends would go, a lot of different things would happen. As a matter of fact, he had these wonderful friends named Priscilla and Aquila who went on ahead of him and actually started, likely started the church in Rome. And likely it was a combination between Priscilla and Aquila and possibly the Apostle Peter that started the church in Rome. But Paul had not yet gone to Rome. And at this time, it's around 57 A.D. And so the church has now started, and it wouldn't be until around 63 A.D. when Nero would start to really blame the Christians for a lot of the bad things that were happening in the city of Rome, such as the burning of Rome. So that's still a few years off. And so at this point, the church in Rome is experiencing relative peace. They're being left alone, and the church is growing. And Paul wants to go to Rome, but he hasn't yet been yet. So before he gets there, he writes a letter ahead of him in order to share this is the gospel that I'm preaching, so that when I get there, we're not starting from ground zero, but we can keep going. And what we find in this letter, because that's what this is, this was intended for him to go to, or whoever would write this or carry it, would go to the middle of the church, open up the scroll, and read this. And what we find is this is likely the message that when Paul would go into a new city, and no one had heard the gospel, anything like that, this is what he would preach over and over and over again. And so we get some of the most theologically rich, some of the most amazing, some of the most profound thoughts about Christianity and what the Holy Spirit inspired to be written down. We get it right here in the pages of the book of Romans. And so we're going to call it a book over and over again, but it's really the letter to the church in Rome. And the big idea, the overall theme for the book of Romans is this. And I wrote it down so I wouldn't forget. The most beautiful thing in all creation is that the creator came for us. The most beautiful thing in all creation is that the creator came for us. What we're going to see over the course of Romans is what we call the Romans roadmap. And it's it's these different scriptures that we can use to talk about the fall of mankind, our inability to save ourselves, Jesus coming to rescue us. If we receive him, we can have new life, how to receive him, and then how to share it. There's also great things in Romans chapter 8 that says, There is now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, and nothing can separate us from the love of God. And then one of the most famous scriptures in the entire Bible, Romans 8.28, all things work together to the good of those who love the Lord and are called according to his purpose. So all of these wonderful, rich ideas come out of the book of Romans. I I've even known this one preacher, or I'd heard of him, brother. I didn't meet this guy. He spent 16 years walking through the book of Romans. Now, for some of you who've been with us at Real Life Church, we're going through the book of Matthew, and it's taking us two years to do it. Imagine adding 14 more years. So we're like, hey, that's not so bad after all. But it's just that that's how much is in this amazing book. So you know how we always talk about the more you dig, the more you find? It is definitely true when it comes to this book. So we're gonna jump into it, we're gonna read it, and I cannot wait for you to see what all is here, including the theme verse. You know how we always pick one out and then we have it at the end as the theme verse for the entire book? Well, that theme, that that key verse for the entire book is found within the very first chapter of Romans. So if you're ready, you got your NLT Bible out with me, you got your cup of coffee with me. We're gonna dive into the book of Romans, starting with verse number one. Here we go. This letter is from Paul, a slave of Christ Jesus, chosen by God to be an apostle and sent out to preach his good news. God promised this good news long ago through his prophets and through the Holy Scriptures. The good news is about his son in his earthly life. He was born into King David's family line, and he was shown to be the Son of God when he was raised from the dead by the power of the Holy Spirit. He is Jesus Christ, our Lord. Through Christ, God gave him or gave us the privilege and the authority as apostles to tell the Gentiles everywhere what God has done for them, so that they will believe and obey, bringing glory to his name. And you are included among those Gentiles who have been called to belong to Jesus Christ. I am writing to all of you in Rome who are loved by God and who are called to be his holy people. May God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ give you grace and peace. That's a really long way for Paul to say, Sup. How's it going, guys? That that is that is a very common way to greet people in the Roman world. And so it was expected that you would have this long-flowing introduction to what you were gonna say and greetings. That's what Paul's saying. He's like, listen, this is what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna tell you this amazing good news that was given to us by the apostles to all of you Romans. What's up? So now that he said hello, he's gonna start doing the good news. And as we talked about, unfortunately, the good news starts with bad news. But first, let's get to the good news. He says this in verse number eight. Let me say first that I thank God through Jesus Christ for you all because of your faith in him, and it is being talked about all over the world. God knows how often I pray for you. Day and night I bring you and your needs in prayer to God, whom I serve with all my heart by spreading the good news about his son. One of the things I always pray for is the opportunity, God willing, to come at last to you. For I long to visit you so I can bring some kind of spiritual gift that will help you grow strong in the Lord. When we get together, I want to encourage you in your faith, but I also want to be encouraged by yours. So already he's saying, I'm longing to come to you. I haven't been there yet. And I love how he says, I love to come and be used by some kind of spiritual gift to be a blessing to you. Paul is actually writing this while he's at the city of Corinth. And it's later he will write back to the city of Corinth, where we get 1st and 2nd Corinthians. And in 1 Corinthians is where he writes about the gifts of the Spirit. And so no doubt he is talking to the different people at the Church of Corinth about what the spiritual gifts are and the proper ways to use them and in a uh church setting and not to. And so already he's saying, I don't know what spiritual gift God's going to need me to use, but man, I come to be a blessing and also to receive the blessing of your company as well. Verse 13, I want you to know, dear brothers and sisters, that I planned many times to visit you, but I was prevented until now. I want to work among you and see spiritual fruit, just as I have been seeing among other Gentiles. For I have a great sense of obligation to people in both the civilized world and in the rest of the world, to the educated and the uneducated alike. So I am eager to come to you in Rome, too, and to preach the good news. Here it is. For I am not ashamed of this good news about Christ. It is the power of God at work, saving everyone who believes, the Jew first, and also the Gentile. That's gonna be the key verse that we're gonna come to at the end. This good news tells us how God made things right in his sight, and this is accomplished from start to finish by faith. As the scriptures say, it is through faith that a righteous person has life. So that's this amazing moment where he talks about this is what we're gonna do, it's gonna be awesome. But now he's got to steer into the bad news so that we know why we need good news. So it's like if everything's going well in your life, let's say you're already a millionaire, like you've got all the money you need, everything is going good, and someone comes up and hands you$10. That thanks. Appreciate that. Let's move on. But then imagine you're homeless. Imagine you have literally nothing. Imagine you don't have no idea where your next meal is going to come from, and someone comes up and hands you$10. That$10 is a lifeline. It's it's hope, it's it's something. And so Paul is saying, okay, before we can understand how good the good news is, first we have to realize how bad we need it. So here we go. Verse 18, it says, but God shows his anger from heaven against all sinful, wicked people who suppress the truth by their wickedness. They know the truth about God because he has made it obvious to them. For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and the sky through everything God made. They can clearly see his invisible qualities, his eternal power, and his divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God. The first thing he says is, God has revealed himself through creation. That means you don't have to have a degree in theology, you don't have to know everything. You can just look at creation and realize there must be an intelligent mind behind this. Honestly, that's one of the greatest things. If you ever talk to someone who is an atheist, doesn't believe in God, then you ask them, Well, can you explain how the universe was created? If they're honest, they have to say no. They don't know how it was created. And that's because at some point there has to be a creator. If there was a big bang, there had to be a big banger. You know, there has to be something. And so that's what Paul is saying is when you look at creation, look at a wonderful sunset, if eventually it points back to there's got to be a creator. Therefore, no one's is without excuse to seek after God. Verse 21, yes, they knew God, but they wouldn't worship him as God or even give him thanks. And they began to think up foolish ideas of what God was like. As a result, their mind became dark and confused. Claiming to be wise, they instead became utter fools. And instead of worshiping the glorious, ever living God, they worshipped idols, made to look like mere people, and birds and animals and reptiles. So God abandoned them to do whatever shameful things their hearts desired. And as a result, they did vile and degrading things with each other's bodies. They traded truth about God for a lie, and they worshiped and served the things God had created instead of the Creator Himself, who is worthy of eternal praise. Amen. It's almost like he got carried away. He's like, Oh, praise the Lord, you know. Verse 26. That is why God abandoned them to their shameful desires. Even the women turned against the natural way to have sex and instead indulged in sex with each other. Good Lord. Men instead of having normal sexual relations with women burned with lust for each other. Men did shameful things with other men as well as a result of their sin and suffered within themselves the penalty that they deserved. And since they thought it was foolish to acknowledge God, he abandoned them to their foolish thinking and let them do the things that they should never have done. Their lives became full of every kind of wickedness, sin, greed, hate, envy, murder, quarreling, deception, malicious behavior, and gossip. They are backstabbers, haters of God, insolent, proud, and boastful. They invent new ways of sinning and they disobey their parents. They refuse to understand, break their promises. They are heartless and have no mercy. They know God's justice requires that those who do these things deserve to die, yet they do them anyway. Worse yet, they encourage others to do them too. And so what Paul is saying is, is when they left following God, when they left from acknowledging God, they went their own way. And what that meant is that meant that they went so far their own way that they even went against the very nature that God had created them with. And he clearly says that means then that instead of women marrying men and doing the things you have to do to have kids, that women went after other women. Men went after other men. We call that in our modern culture homosexuality and lesbianism. And what Paul is saying is that is contrary to the way God made us. And then he goes through all these other sins as well. It's one of the things that is very important to realize is that God is very honest about the things that he says are considered sinful things that separate us from the goodness of God. And what he's saying is in this, is one of those is the LGBTQ lifestyle. It doesn't mean he doesn't love the person, but he does despise the sin, and that sin separates us from God. Now, the goal, the primary goal of our sexuality is not heterosexuality, it is holy in our sexuality. Our goal is to be holy in our sexuality. And then we have to look to God's word and go, okay, God, when it comes to my body and my sexuality, what does your word say is holy? And he says, holiness is the heterosexual union of a husband and wife, Lord willing, for life. Anything else is a sexual brokenness that pulls us away from the divine holy standard of God. But then that's not the only one. So we're gonna pick on the sexual identity people. Now we're gonna pick on the ones he says, anything that falls from the perfect holy standard of God separates us from him, such as backstabbing, proud, insolent, all those things, all of it. I heard a guy say this one time. He said, he was in this group of people, and he said, How many of you in here would ever admit to ever lusting after someone? And after a while, people are like, Well, I mean, okay, yeah, maybe once in the fifth grade. He's like, No, no, be honest. Or, okay, yes, I lusted that one time. And then uh he said, you know that, you know, the Bible says that if you were to lust after someone in your heart, it's the same as adultery. Yeah. How many's ever lied? Yeah, yeah. How many's ever stole something? Yeah, you know, he's like, okay, well, while your own admission, you're a live lying, thieving, backstabbing, uh, adulterer. Congratulations, you know. And they're like, Well, thanks. I feel better now, you know. It's like, no, no, no. You have to realize that the holy standard of God is perfection. So you can understand that you don't reach it. So then you can reach out for a savior. So that's why the good news starts with bad news. And that's a big problem in our current culture as we get ready to finish our time. You know, there's a lot that's being said about positive mental health, and that's good. Positive self-image, that's good. Positive ideas about things, that's good. You know, thinking well of yourself, all of that is good. But the problem becomes is when we become self-deceived, when we think that we're already awesome all by ourselves, when we're thinking that we don't need a savior. You know, I'm not bad, I just haven't arrived yet. That that kind of thing. The problem with that becomes is if you are already perfect, you don't need Jesus. But the reality is when we realize that I'm not perfect, that I am flawed, that I do have issues, well, now I'm ready to receive a savior. And that's where Paul is starting. He is saying, we got to start with seeing how wretched we are. So then we can see how good the grace of God truly is. So what I want you to think about today as we finish our time is not how bad you are, but if you're a Christian and you're reading or listening to this, think about how far God has brought you. I've started like this, but by the grace of God, I may not be where I want to be, but I'm not where I used to be. And if you think about that, man, what a truly great savior we have. Let's pray together. God, thank you so much for your goodness and your mercy. Thank you, God, that the good news is for all of us. But it starts with bad news. Lord, I'm thankful for the book of Romans because we're gonna get to see how you lay out the plan of salvation, the beauty of salvation that reminds us of the fact that the most beautiful thing in all creation is that the Creator came for us. And Lord, we celebrate that today. Lord, that we may not be where we want to be, but by your grace, we're not where we used to be. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. I hope you have a good time reflecting on this in just a moment, but don't forget, God's word says this. This is the beauty of salvation in Romans 1, verse 16. I am not ashamed of the good news about Christ. Why? Because it is the power of God at work, saving everyone who believes. I love you. I'll see you tomorrow for Romans chapter two.