Romans 1-8: The Natural World

Christianity is a Theism worldview that focuses on the belief in one personal and relational God that created all that exists (Hiles, & Smith, 2015). God created man in his likeness to care for all that has been created, to know and worship God, and to love and obey God (Diffey, 2015). Man is to rule and have dominion over the earth, be fruitful and multiply, filling the earth (Genesis 1:28). Christians rely on the support of the Holy Bible to guide them in the word of God. The Bible consist of four basic acts, the Creation, the Fall of Humanity, Redemption, and Restoration (Diffey, 2015). Christians believe that God sent his only Son to die on the cross for their salvation. In this paper will be a focus on the Christian worldview discussing God, humanity, Jesus,

Our identity is in Him, we have been given a choice to follow that path he has provided for us or to choose to be pawns to the evil all around us. When we choose to follow God, we are then filled with the Holy Spirit. (Romans 7:25) “For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live.” Your body may die but we will live on forever if we are filled with the Holy Spirit.” (Romans 8:13) As we fill our hearts and minds, we find our gifts and our identity in God and in nothing

(Diffey, 2014) Humanity was created to know and worship God. Being made in His likeness means that humans have been created with both spirit and body, also possessing many of God’s attributes. Some of these attributes are creativity, love, logic, reason, and a sense of right and wrong. God also gave humanity the privilege to care for and have dominion over earth, which gave humanity value and a higher purpose. (Herring, 2008) Soon after God’s perfect creation, sin entered the world, bringing about the Fall and introduced pain, suffering, and death to the world. (Gen. 3: 6, 14-19) The Fall is the root cause of human problems and caused humanity’s departure from God’s wisdom. (Diffey, 2014) Humanity has the capability to love because we are made in the image of Christ, however, humanity’s nature is flawed and sinful by nature. (Diffey, 2014) All of humanity has sinned, and fall short of God’s glory. (Romans 3:23 NIV) It is because this that we need a Savior.

result of this behavior toward God is a culture that God has given up to its own sinful desires and debased mind. (Rom. 1:21-28) I believe this is why the issue of homosexuality is so prevalent in our culture today. Paul says that when people refuse to acknowledge God that God will give them up to the desires of their flesh to perform shameful acts that are contrary to nature. Warren Wiersbe explains it this way: “The result of this self-deification was self-indulgence; and here Paul mentions a vile sin that was rampant in that day and has become increasingly prevalent in our own day; homosexuality.” Name any other prevalent sin in the culture today and chances are it is included in Paul’s list at the end of Romans chapter one. Our culture

Second, we see the culture and how it can be effected both by our sin and by Christian living. Romans, 1: 21-23 puts on display a culture who has forsaken him for the sake of living in their own sin, “For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged

It all began with Adam and Eve, if they had never sinned then this world would know no sin. Since they sinned we naturally to this day have a culture full of sin. Culture appears to be the reflection of human’s relationships. As people reject God, the cultural guidelines begin to decay. Social rules were broken when people started to live in a world of corruption. “…their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another…” (Romans 1:26-27). It is natural for a human to “fit in” with the world rather than stand out for Christ. When one person convinces another of something, then it begins a snowball effect and everyone wants to be a part of it, creating a sin-filled

Humanity was originally created in the likeness of God, to walk in his presence; they were made distinctly human with the ability to reason. Humanity knows love because they are made of love, in the image of God who is love. (1 John 4:16) After the Fall, humans are no longer pure enough to walk in His presence and are punished for the sins they have committed. The purpose of humankind changes from caring for the earth and all its inhabitants; to spreading the word of the Lord. The Christian Worldview recognizes that humankind is sinful by nature because Adam and Eve, God in his graciousness sent His only son to die on the cross to atone for those sins.

Paul expresses an equality of human beings as those he equally owes a duty and a debt to preach the gospel. As mentioned before, some cultures of mankind arose from the refusal to glorify and acknowledge God with purity and righteousness. As a result, they developed cultures of darkness, shamefulness, and foolishness. Furthermore, such cultures of humanity caused their people to lose moral attributes and to grow wicked, selfish, and cruel (Romans 1).

The purpose of this book is meant to create a foundation for Christian lifestyles. It addresses the origin of Christian values, and portrays the evolution of Christian worldviews throughout history. It briefly explains the biblical narrative and develops ideas in which Christians are able to live out their faith and deal with other worldviews existing in our world today.

When the fall of man occurred in the Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve partaking in the act of eating the forbidden fruit, the nature of humans changed forever (Chapter 4, Christian In the Beginning of Wisdom). Genesis 2 speaks of the environment changing, and also the characteristics of man and woman. Now men and women had their own hardships and roles to each other. Man was now made for physical hard work, and a woman’s body changed to allow hardships during childbirth. The woman was now under the headship of her husband, which was not so in the beginning (Chapter 4, The fall).

Paul tells us of the culture that God expects of humans, he says God wants humans to live happy and righteous lives in honor of Jesus Christ. Humans should live in the culture of Christ. Treating others well in our deeds. Living a Non-Judgmental life, we are not to judge others. We are to help

God created all people as equals. As a believer in God, I serve him through service to others and my community. I take on responsibilities of helping others in my community, volunteering, and donating goods. At all times I abide by these principles: worship only God, respect people, be humble, be honest, live a moral life, be generous with time, practice my views, do not criticize, judge, or condemn, do not hold a grudge, and forgive others. I believe it is right to resist temptation while knowing that evil lurks around. I believe one-day God will return and seek judgment for his people. To live morally and ethically divine is obligatory to have eternal life. As a person and professional, I understand and acknowledge that not all human beings embrace the same views as me and I respect the views of others.

At one point in time, everyone lived as a sinner. But God chose to save them through grace. Believers should respond in good works.

The Bible begins with the scripture, “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth” Genesis 1:1. This scripture defines the introductory theme of the Bible, God is the creator and God over everything. God assigned positions to entities and defined their functions. Then the main characters of the Bible are introduced when God creates humans. God created people in his image, meaning every individual on earth has been created with God’s imprint regardless of their ethnicity or culture. With the creation of Adam and then of Eve the second theme of the bible, relationships, is introduced. God made the Garden of Eden as a place for Him to spend time in relationship with humans. This illustrates the physical type of relationship God had intended to have with humans. In addition, creating Eve as a partner for Adam God established the relationship of marriage (Duvall, Hayes, 2012). Unfortunately it didn’t take long before another main character is introduced and a resounding theme began. Satan stepped on the scene in the image of a serpent and easily tempted Eve to rebel against God ushering in sin, a separation from God, and death into the world. God offered the world hope when he revealed the serpent will ultimately be crushed and defeated by Eve’s offspring (Duvall, Hayes, 2012).

The Bible is the ideal source of the picture of reality. The Bible serves as the “corrective lens” that redirects our gaze in this marred world to our Creator and Savior. Because the Bible is the Word of G-d, Who is all-knowing and all-powerful, we can completely rely on it to direct our worldview (cf. Proverbs 30:5,6; Psalm 12:6). As we discover more about a truly Biblical worldview, our relationship to and responsibility in this world become clearer. To better explain this, we will use Romans 1-8 as a course to illustrate 1) the importance of conforming to a Biblical worldview, and 2) what that Biblical worldview