Good News Gut Punch
By Michael Lennox
“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.” Romans 1:18-25
Have you ever been literally punched in the gut? Those of us unfortunate enough to have experienced this sensation know a couple things. First, you literally cannot prepare yourself for the reverberating pain that you are going to experience. It is radiating, sharp discomfort that seems to last and last. Action movies don’t do justice to the toll even a minor injury like this can take on the body! Second, it will stop you in your tracks. You have no choice but to confront the pain that you are experiencing and let it sink in before you can move on.
There is a reason we use the term “gut punch” to describe impactfully powerful information that is relayed to us. It should cause us to have the same reaction as being literally punched. We have to stop what we are doing, confront the painful statement or idea, let it sink in, and adjust our actions, thoughts, or behaviors accordingly.
Paul starts his letter to the Romans off with quite the gut punch and tells readers from the church in Rome very bluntly that God is the Creator and he has revealed Himself to all people through His creation. He goes on to say that anyone who denies this fact has no excuse for the wrath and consequences of denying God’s existence, His power, and His authority. And make no mistake, there will be consequences! God gives all humans free will to choose to seek after Him rather than forcing us to be robots that serve him blindly. Because us humans are imperfect, we often choose to seek after and prize created things over the One who created them. So what is the consequence of that choice to reject God? As we read in Romans 6:23, the price of rejecting God is eternal separation from Him and from everything good for eternity in Hell.
Yikes! You might be thinking to yourself: “Not such an uplifting devotional! I want to be encouraged! I want to feel good about myself!” The reality of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is that we have to first face the harsh realities of our brokenness and the mess of the world before we can get to the encouraging stuff. The truth is that the world and everyone in it is terribly broken. We see this all the time through awful things like loneliness, cheating, death, war, broken political systems, and so much more. And if we are honest with ourselves, we know that even if we are “generally good people” we still make mistakes and do things like lie, cheat, steal, lose our temper, or hurt other people.
The Bible calls this brokenness sin. God, the Creator of the universe and all things in it, is perfect and without any sin. He created everything to be perfect like Him. But, the first humans - Adam and Eve - believed lies served to them by Satan & chose to rebel against God. Ever since that choice of rebellion, sin & death have reigned in the world and infect everything and everyone. That same sin created a rift between the now imperfect humans and perfect God. We read elsewhere in Romans that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23) and this same sin that separates us from God makes it impossible for us to live in relationship with Him.
BUT GOD in His rich mercy did not leave us to the effects and devastation of sin. He offers us hope for a future and to be made completely clean of our sin and restored into a relationship with Him. He did this by sending his one and only Son Jesus to live a perfect life that we could never live, die in our place on a cross, and rise again to life after 3 days, defeating sin and death. We learn throughout the Bible that the ultimate consequence of sin is death. A price had to be paid to satisfy the demands of sin. Thanks be to God that price was paid by Jesus once and for all! All of us now have the opportunity to live in freedom!
How do we receive that hope? How do we live free from the effects and consequences of sin? The Bible tells us that “if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9) and elsewhere: “if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved” (Romans 10:9)
In this passage of Romans, we learn that there are 3 things we will find in every human heart:
The Knowledge of God through his creation [v. 19]
The tendency for us to put other things in God’s place and love them more than Him (often referred to as idolatry: the worship or love of something in the place of God) [v. 23]
Stubbornness and the tendency to reject God’s call to repent (a term meaning to “turn away” from sin) and serve Him [v. 24]
We are left at the end of this passage with the opportunity to reflect and wrestle with the gut punch here: God is creator of all things and if we try to deny or reject that, there will be consequences. The question is what will you do with that? Will you take the time to let the gut punch cause you to pause and take stock to consider God’s call? He is offering you freedom from sin and hope for a future, but it is up to you to take the next step to receive his free gift of grace. Taking that step of faith is scary, but it is also eternally rewarding and full of joy.
REFLECTION
Have you truly considered the Good News of Jesus before? Is there anything that you have questions about regarding the Gospel? If so, write those things down now so you can talk with a leader or friend about them.
Be honest with yourself: how have you rebelled against God? What sins have you kept to yourself? What things have you placed before God in your heart? Write down some thoughts.
Fill in the following truthfully: “If I’m honest with myself, I have placed __________________________ before God in my life and in my heart”. Share with a trusted friend or leader and ask them to pray with you.
Those of us who have committed our lives to Jesus still need the Gospel daily just as much as those who have yet to commit their lives to Jesus. We fall short and sin every single day and need to be reminded of the truth and power of the Gospel. In order to have that reminder, we need to understand the Gospel message. Take some time to write out the Gospel in 5-7 sentences. Use Scripture references. Post your written Gospel reminder somewhere where you will see it often.
Spend some time in prayer with the following in mind:
Confess any sins or idols in your life to God and pray for forgiveness and strength to forfeit anything in the way and surrender to God fully
Thank God for his incredible love, mercy, and grace
Think about whatever you filled in the blank and consider during prayer how you can make adjustments to let God be in the rightful place in your heart.