Introduction
Perspectives, standards, dispositions each of these make up a portion of how people view, relate, and respond to the world around them. Is there a right way for a Christian to view the world? What does the Bible say about how I relate with others and view myself? How does one respond to the influences of the culture? The Christian must look work out the answers to these questions through the grid of Scripture. Though not a book written for systematic theology, Paul addresses each of these questions as he walks through God’s wrath, righteousness, holiness, and redemption in his letter to the believers in Rome.
The Natural World
God created the world and everything in it to ultimately …show more content…
However, God sees people differently. Mankind was created in the image of God. We were made in the likeness of the perfect holy One (Gen. 1:26-27). Each and every person is carefully crafted by God and is wonderfully made (Ps. 139:13-14) Yet, sin demolished the relationship we had with God. Now, separated from God, men are slaves to sin (Rom. 5:18-19). The entire human race is hopelessly identified as slaves. But God, still pursuing a relationship with His creation, made a way to redeem His people. Jesus’ death on the cross was not a historic event, rather a glorious redemption of an enslaved people. Sin and death were defeated and by faith the human race could be emancipated. Paul masterly illustrates the change in identity in the sixth chapter of his letter to the Roman church. The semblance between death and life, old and new life, slavery and freedom culminate in the beautiful pronouncement “consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus” (6:11). Continuing the thought Paul later explains Holy Spirit testifies that we are God’s children (8:16-17) . No longer are we known as a slave but a child of the King of …show more content…
3:11-18). This has led us to the culture of today. Man has exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator (Rom. 1:25). Man has not changed; the same sins present when Paul wrote to the Romans are the same ones being practiced today: lesbian and homosexual activity, greed, envy, murder, strife, pride, slander and hate toward God. But this is not the way Christians are called to live. “We are simply called to arrange our lives around Jesus and His cross in whatever culture we have been placed. He has providentially marked off the time and boundaries in which we live to show forth the recreating power of life experienced by faith in