What does First B Jackson teach about romans 1?
Drawn from the messages where it was actually addressed: the words said from the front, the passages taught, and where to hear the whole thing.
At First B Jackson, the teaching on Romans 1 begins with Paul himself. Pastor Ray has noted that the letter's opening seven verses are so packed with theological content they could almost stand alone. Paul writes as a slave of Jesus Christ, and every title he heaps onto Jesus in that greeting, from seed of David to Son of God with power, draws a deliberate line between His humanity and His divinity. The gospel Paul introduces there is not his invention. God promised it through the prophets, and Paul intends the whole letter to demonstrate that Jesus is the Messiah those scriptures pointed toward. The church at Rome was a mixed and sometimes fractured congregation, and that context shapes everything Paul writes.
Romans 1:20 makes an argument the teaching here takes seriously: creation itself leaves everyone without excuse. God's power and character are on display for anyone willing to see them. From there, Paul traces what happens when people refuse to acknowledge God. Romans 1:21 sets the pattern, a refusal to honor or thank God that leads to futile thinking and darkened hearts, and that pattern drives the rest of the chapter. Pastor Ray has described Romans 1:28, where God gives people over to a depraved mind, as a verse that frightened him more as a child than passages about hell, because it describes a condition where a person can no longer tell right from wrong. He has been careful to say this can happen to individuals and to whole cultures.
The long list of vices in Romans 1:29-32 is where the teaching presses hardest for honest self-examination. Pastor Ray walked through that list asking the congregation, including himself, to reckon with it honestly. Envy, deceit, arrogance, gossip, being untrustworthy and unmerciful: the point he kept returning to is that Paul is painting everyone with this brush. The bad news in Romans 1 is not aimed at one group. It exists, as Pastor Ray put it, before and in order to make room for the good news of the gospel that the rest of the letter carries.
Taught from Romans 1:21 · Romans 1:28 · Romans 1:29-32 · Romans 1:1-7 · Romans 1:24-26
The passage taught · Deuteronomy 6:5-7
5 You shall love Yahweh your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might.
6 These words, which I command you today, shall be on your heart;
7 and you shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise up.
World English Bible
The messages that teach on it
- February 28, 2016 Degradation on Demand Pastor Ray walks through Romans 1:24-32, showing how turning from God leads to a darkened mind, while pointing to God's mercy and grace still available to all.
- January 24, 2016 God's Good News: The Prescript of Romans Paul's letter to Rome unpacked: who sent it, who received it, and why Romans 1:1-7 puts Jesus at the center of God's good news from the very first line.
- September 2, 2015 WWW Be Right (20) A study of Romans 1 exploring grace, the character of God, and what happens when a culture turns away from Him. Taught at First Baptist Jackson.
Mentioned along the way
- January 31, 2016 Not Ashamed of the Gospel Pastor Carl walks through Romans 1:8-17, asking every believer to put the gospel into one clear sentence, and shows why that matters for sharing faith with others.
- January 31, 2016 Not Ashamed of the Gospel Romans 1:8-17 explores what the gospel really is, why Paul was not ashamed of it, and how every believer should be able to say it plainly in a sentence.