Lacy Evans said:
Prove it. Just prove that and I'll shut up.
The first three chapters of Romans deal primarily with the unsaved. Remember that the entire epistle is written on the theme of salvation. The first three chapters deal with the sinfulness of mankind. The first chapter addresses the sinfulness of the Gentiles. The second chapter addresses the snfulness of the Jews as well as the Gentiles. And the third chapter addresses the sinfulness of the entire world.
--All have sinned and come short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). All in the world, both Jew and Gentile, no matter who you are--you have sinned and are guilty before God. There is no talk of salvation here. It is entirely condemnation. We are condemned because of our sn.
It is so evident in every passage of the first three chapters:
Look here:
Romans 3:9-18 What then? are we better than they? No, in no wise: for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin;
10 As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one:
11 There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God.
12 They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.
13 Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips:
14 Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness:
15 Their feet are swift to shed blood:
16 Destruction and misery are in their ways:
17 And the way of peace have they not known:
18 There is no fear of God before their eyes.
This describes the condition of the unsaved; it has nothing to do with a saved person. Do the saved people in your church behave like the above?
Again in chapter one:
Romans 1:29-32 Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful: Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.
--Are these the sins characteristic of a saved person?
What does it say? "Who knowing the judgment of God that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them."
That is the statement of an unsaved person, not a saved person.
Romans 1:27 And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the
woman, burned in their lust one toward another;
men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet.
Are lesbianism and homosexuality characteristic of Christians or the unsaved?
These passages describe the condition of the unsaved. Does this convince you Lacy? In the plan of salvatioin you must convince a person that he is lost; show him his sinful condition before he is able to see his need for a Savior. Paul shows that all have sinned before he discussed the doctrine of salvation by faith (which begins from chapter 3:21).