Romans: WEEKEND RECHARGE!

September 13, 2025

Monday, September 8—Romans 2:1-11
Tuesday, September 9—Romans 2:12-16
Wednesday, September 10—Romans 2:17-29
Thursday, September 11—Romans 3:1-8
Friday, September 12—Romans 3:9-20

DAILY DEVO OVERVIEW: ROMANS 2:1—3:20 

Romans 2:1-11: The Moralistic Problem

• Even those who appear morally upright are without excuse before God. Judging others while committing the same sins reveals hypocrisy and a misunderstanding of God's holiness.
  
  
• God is patient and kind, but his kindness is meant to lead us to repentance, not to justify our moral self-righteousness. 
  
  
• God's judgment is impartial—based not on background, religion, or morality, but on the condition of the heart and the response to truth. No one can claim favoritism before a holy God.  

Romans 2:12-16: Written on Our Hearts

• Whether someone has the written law (like the Jews) or not (like the Gentiles), all are accountable to God—no one is exempt.
  
  
• Even those who’ve never read the Bible have a conscience that reflects God’s moral law, because we are made in his image.
  
  
• Our conscience is flawed by sin, but through faith in Jesus, it can be awakened and purified to serve God sincerely and freely.

Romans 2:17-29: Spiritual Superiority

• Paul challenges the assumption that being born into a religious tradition (like the Jews with the law and their customs) guarantees favor with God. Outward signs (like circumcision) and knowledge of the law are meaningless without inward obedience and transformation.
  
  
• The Jews saw themselves as teachers of the law, but they failed to live by it. Paul points out that this kind of hypocrisy causes others (Gentiles) to blaspheme God, showing that our actions impact how others see him.
  
  
• True covenant membership with God isn’t marked by external rituals but by internal change. A real child of God is “one inwardly,” marked by a heart changed by the Spirit, not by outward religious observance alone.

Romans 3:1-8: Faithless. Faithful.

• Paul acknowledges that the Jews had a unique role in God’s story—they were entrusted with the "oracles of God", meaning God’s promises and commands. This was not a mark of superiority but a call to faithful stewardship.
  
  
• Human unfaithfulness does not cancel out God’s faithfulness. God's character is consistent and true, regardless of how people respond. Our failures do not change his nature.
  
  
• Some tried to twist God’s grace by saying that sinning made God look better because it highlighted his righteousness. Paul strongly rejects this idea. God’s grace doesn’t eliminate the seriousness of sin—it magnifies God’s justice and mercy. 

Romans 3:9-20: Guilty Without Grace

• Paul makes it clear that both Jews and Gentiles are equally under sin’s control. No one is exempt or inherently good—sin is a universal condition that affects every person, regardless of background or behavior.
  
  
• Drawing from multiple Old Testament passages, Paul shows that our thoughts, words, and actions are deeply affected by sin. From our mouths to our motives, nothing is untouched by the brokenness of our fallen nature.
  
• The law serves to make us aware of our sin and silence any claim to self-righteousness. It shows us our guilt before God, but it cannot save—it simply prepares the way for our need of a Savior.

TOTAL DEPRAVITY
Total depravity does not mean that every person is as evil as they could be. In fact, sometimes people do good things, at least by our human evaluation. But total depravity says that every human act is tainted by our sinful nature and thus less than perfect…and if it is less than perfect, it is unacceptable to God. God does not grade on a curve. That’s why in God’s eyes:

Romans 3:12
…There is no one who does good, not even one.

Because of total depravity, “no one seeks God.” The word “seek” means to exert considerable effort and care in learning something, “to make a careful search, to seek diligently to learn, to make an examination.” However, we are unable to seek God on our own. 

In Ephesians 2:1-3, Paul explains that all of us are dead in our sins—we are spiritual corpses—unable to reach out to God. So, when you see something on the outside that reveals a person is seeking, be encouraged because God is at work in their heart to initiate a path to him through Jesus. 

For a fuller discussion of total depravity, see 
https://www.gotquestions.org/total-depravity.html