During this season of Epiphany, we celebrate the "appearing"/"revelation" of Jesus as the Son of God and the savior of the world. At my church, we not only are celebrating this season during our regular services, but we also are going through the Book of Romans---Paul's great letter in which he declares "For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, 'The righteous shall live by faith.'" (Romans 1:16-17, ESV)---during our Bible study hour.

Today's study included a discussion of much of the "setup" that is found in Romans 1:18-3:20. In chapter 1, Paul talks about the descent of humanity: how people rejected the glory of God and how God responded by "giving them up" to their sins. One thing that I noticed is that vv. 26-27 have been used as fodder for arguing how bad our society has become, but vv. 28-32---which discuss the final step of descent---list sins that we feel pretty comfortable in practicing! And, if the hearer/reader feels comfortable with the "they" of 1:18-32, he gets nailed by Paul in chapter 2: "Therefore you have no excuse, O man, every one of you who judges. For in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, practice the very same things." (2:1, ESV) Paul continues to charge that "all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin" (3:9, ESV), ending his setup with the powerful verses "Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin." (3:19-20, ESV)

The good news, though (as you probably know and will never tire of hearing), comes in the verses which immediately follow. God's righteousness has been "manifested" (has "appeared") for everyone:

But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus... (3:21-24, ESV)

Paul, the "chief of sinners" (1 Timothy 1:15), points us not to the righteousness of our own under the Law (which is only "filthy rags"; Isaiah 64:6), but rather to the righteousness of God that is given to us by His grace. Paul points us to Jesus, just as John the Baptist pointed his disciples and others to Jesus ("Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!"; John 1:29-34), Andrew pointed his brother Peter to Jesus (John 1:40-42), Philip pointed Nathaniel to Jesus (John 1:43-45), Mary pointed the servants at the wedding feast to Jesus (John 2:1-5) and someone in each of our lives pointed us to Jesus at some time.

Thank God for the appearing of Jesus and for those who have pointed us to Him!