Romans 5:12-17 ‘Death in Adam, Life in Christ’ Pt.1 (AKA The Big Parenthesis)

TEXT
Rom 5:12
Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned--

• Sin came into the world because Adam sinned – notice he doesn’t say Eve here for some reason! And death only came because of sin.
• Note that this supports a literal view of Genesis…if sin came into the world by one man, then Adam was indeed one man, not a whole race of men.
• Note also that it says death spread to all men because all sinned. It doesn’t say because ‘all were born of Adam’. Again, this reminds us we are judged based on the sin we do.
• However, since he is setting Adam up as a type of Jesus, we need to realise that the reason he can say ‘all sinned’ is because we were born of Adam. That is, we sin because we are sinners. We inherit our sinful nature, and therefore we sin.

Rom 5:13
(For until the law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law.

• And here starts the big parenthesis, which ends at the end of verse 17! The parenthesis obviously deals with the immediately previous statement, which is that death spread to all men, because all sinned!
• When it says that sin is not imputed when there is no law (which there wasn’t until Moses), it does not mean that people did not sin before the law. It just means that there was no specific accounting of sin. You couldn’t break the law because there wasn’t one. But you could still fall short of the glory of God!

Rom 5:14
Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who had not sinned according to the likeness of the transgression of Adam, who is a type of Him who was to come.

• Even without the law, death reigned (ie. people died) because of sin. Even people who didn’t do exactly what Adam did sinned in different ways and fell short of God’s perfect standard.
• Paul introduces the idea that Adam was a type of Christ. We start to see that they were very similar but completely opposite.

Rom 5:15
But the free gift is not like the offense. For if by the one man's offense many died, much more the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abounded to many.

• The ‘free gift’ is God’s righteousness, as explained in previous chapters.
• Adam’s offense caused many (read ‘everyone’) to die, because the wages of sin is death. This sets up a ‘lineage’ of sorts, where everyone who is born of Adam (ie. everyone) is born into a lineage where death reigns. The opposite is Jesus, who started a lineage of life. All who are born into Jesus become heirs of this life.

Rom 5:16
And the gift is not like that which came through the one who sinned. For the judgment which came from one offense resulted in condemnation, but the free gift which came from many offenses resulted in justification.

• So we have two sides – one side that everyone is born into at physical birth which offers judgment and condemnation, and the other is a gift which results in us being right with God.
• Note that the free gift came from many offenses. Indeed, there were many sins that led to the crucifixion of Christ. But good intended them all for our infinite good!

Rom 5:17
For if by the one man's offense death reigned through the one, much more those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.)

• Ah! The end of the parenthesis. Here we see one of Paul’s favourite types of arguments – if such and such, then so much more Such and Such! In this case, we have that we recieved death from Adam, a mere man, and then so much more we have life through Jesus Christ, who was so much more than a mere man! If we think of how completely death reigns in us before Christ – it is fairly dominant. No-one can escape it, we all experience it in our relationships and pretty much daily we are reminded of it. Furthermore, it affects everything, causing decay and suffering. Then, life through Christ is much more dominant than this, because we receive it from One who is much more powerful! This will of course be ultimately true in heaven, where life will be eternal and blissful, but the firstfruits of this life we have now, and we should be living it!

SUMMARY
Paul sets up the binary opposition of Adam and Christ. In Adam we receive death through sin. We become heirs of Adam at birth and with that we are lumped with these unwanted ‘gifts’. However, Jesus came and we can be born into His line, where the gift is the righteousness of God – and this gift is so much more powerful than sin and death, because Jesus is much more powerful than Adam!

WHAT DO I LEARN?
Is my life a testimony to the fact that Jesus is more powerful than Adam? Do I reign in life through Jesus Christ? Or do I turn back to the ‘gifts’ of my old ‘father’? I want to live life as if Jesus has given me infinite grace and righteousness. Why? Because He has!

Romans 5:6-11 ‘Christ In Our Place’

TEXT
Rom 5:6
For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.

• I love this phrase - ‘without strength’. We had nothing going for us. There’s no possible way we could help ourselves. The whole point of the first 3 chapters or so was to say that everyone sinned, and now he says that we had no strength. There’s no way to defeat it.
• But God loved us and therefore came and died for the ungodly. The ungodly! Those who hated Him and had rejected Him.

Rom 5:7
For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die.

• I always think of movies and stories where there is an ultimate sacrifice of one person’s life for the rest of the characters in the story, or for one special character. And how terrific this sacrifice is! And yet, it is always, as far as I can remember, for a group of people that love and support the person who sacrifices themself. This makes sense to us. If you love a person and they love you back, then if needs be you may have to make the ultimate sacrifice. Not many people are willing to go through with this, which is why it is such a good story when it happens.

Rom 5:8
But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

• However, this story is not at all the story of God and man. For we were not supporters or lovers of God. In fact, though He loved us immensely, we turned away from Him, spat in His face and embraced things that He had made with the word of His mouth. Moreover, we rebelled against everything He stood for and against everything He had prepared naturally. We have seen this in previous chapters. In place of ‘sinners’ in this verse, I like to read ‘haters of God’, because that’s what sin is. And yet, the beauty of it all is that it was in this state, that Christ came and died a horrible death to save us. Surely we couldn’t turn that down…

Rom 5:9
Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him.

• This always interests me – the distinction between justification and being ‘saved from wrath’. For indeed, they are distinct, though the come in the same package. For if we are justified, then it’s as if we have never sinned, and God could not justifiably pour out His wrath on us! Thus, through faith we are justified, and reconciled to God, and thus we also are saved.

Rom 5:10
For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.

• Again, the two parts of Jesus’ work are seen in tandem here – the death and resurrection. We are reconciled and justified by His death, and saved by His life. I heard a good analogy one time, which was to do with this type of thing, although slightly different. It went like – if you saw a beggar on the streets with dirty clothes and no food, you might take him in. You might be kind enough to take his clothes off him. But that would not be very nice on its own! You would then proceed to give him new, nice clothes. Clean clothes. And you would feed him and give him rest as well. The same as this, with Jesus’ death our sins and dirt are taken from us, but in His resurrection, we are given new clothes – cleanness and a new way of life.

Rom 5:11
And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.

• And what should this lead to? Joy! We should be immensely joyful in the face of all of this. A Christian life without joy means there is something deeply wrong. In the previous section we saw that the Christian glories in tribulation, and now we see that Christians have joy constantly availing them because of the new life they have in Christ.

 

SUMMARY
Paul offers encouragement to believers in the face of God’s wonderful love for us – in that while we were still sinners, haters of God, Christ died for us. How much more then, since we are now His children who love Him, will He save us? Nothing is too hard or beyond God. And He is on our side more than ever. This leads him to conclude that we should be rejoicing!

 

WHAT DO I LEARN?
How easy it is to forget that God is near! How easy it is to forget that God is working for my good! How easy it is to mistrust His promises on the basis that I am no good! And yet, while I completely hated Him He came and died for me. Nothing can hold Him back now!

Romans 5:1-5 ‘Faith Triumphs in Trouble’

NOTES
Paul seems here to move from the objective facts of justification and faith to the more subjective workings of those in our lives. He focuses more on the individual, and his relationship with God.

TEXT
Rom 5:1
Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,

• Note that peace with God here is not conditional on anything except having been justified by faith. This peace he speaks of then is not inner subjective peace – calmness and serenity etc, but an objective peace. We are literally reconciled to God because of our justification through faith, and so He has no war with us anymore.
• Notably, this peace is offered to us through the Lord Jesus Christ.

Rom 5:2
through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

• Grace is God’s undeserved favour. Now, to a certain extent, everyone receives some of God’s grace, or all of us would be dead already. However, it is not this grace that this verse speaks of. It speaks of grace in which we stand. When we stand we aren’t moving. We’re going nowhere. So unless the grace moves, we’re going to be in it forever. So in effect this verse says that through Jesus we have access into God’s grace in which we can stand and never have it taken away from us! This also then is a ‘positional’ statement – it’s not necessarily that we always feel this grace or live accordingly, but rather that we are objectively standing in it.
• ‘Rejoice in hope of the glory of God’ is one of those statements that sounds really nice and which we pass over pretty quickly without grasping the true significance of it. First note the use of the word ‘hope’, which we will come back to. We rejoice through Jesus Christ in hope of the glory of God. Hope here doesn’t mean ‘hope’ as we use it today. It is not uncertain. Hope is looking forward to something yet to be unveiled, but something we know will be unveiled. And what do we hope in? Our future in heaven? All the nice things God will do for us? The salvation of the world? The reformation of our culture? Yes, all of these things, but none of them. It is the glory of God that we hope for. It is His glory that we must seek at all times, and His glory that we want to know. But we can’t know His glory, or hope for it, without Jesus Christ, and reconciliation to God.

Rom 5:3
And not only that,
but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance;

• And that’s not all! All of these great things, and that’s hardly the beginning!
• We glory in tribulations – glory has something to do with truth. Glory is seeing something great for what it really is. Thus, the glory of God can be seen in the cross. The cross isn’t ‘shiny’, but it is glorious because it is the truth of who God is, and that is Great. Paul is saying that we can glory in tribulations, that is, we can reveal the truth about us, and we can see how great God has made us.
• John Macarthur has some good things to say about the words used in this and the next verse. Tribulations, according to Macarthur, is a word used for pressure, like pressing olives or grapes. They push us. Note that these are not the normal tribulations of every day life, these are special tribulations that God brings about for our development – we can see that in the context because Paul is talking about things we have through Christ Jesus.

Rom 5:4
and perseverance, character; and character, hope.

• Perseverance is like endurance. Without this ‘pressure’ we can’t know how long we will last under pressure! The more perseverance we have, the more we can hold. This is beneficial for a life doing God’s work!
• Character is apparently more literally translated ‘proven character’, since the word used is often translated ‘proof’. The word was used of testing metals to determine their purity. This is what God does to us – burns away the impure and leaves the pure. We all want that!
• The end result is hope. Now, I find this quite interesting, given that Paul says two verses previous that we already hope in the glory of God. That is, after being justified we immediately have hope in the glory of God…and yet the result of years of hard trials and perseverance is that hope! Maybe someone will be able to tell me why this is like it is. My idea at the moment is that the hope in verse 2 is a hope that we have of our future, and in verse 4 the hope is a hope that is fully realised in our hearts. This is a personal hope, a subjective hope. But in the end it is the same hope. We see this more in verse 5….

Rom 5:5
Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

• Hope does not disappoint. Well, in our experience, hope is one thing that is likely to disappoint. Having hope in anything is a quick way to be disappointed, and disappointment is one of the worst things to go through (for me anyway). However, Paul says here that hope does not disappoint. Remember what hope he is talking about – Hope in the glory of God.
• Why does this hope not disappoint? Because it turns out He has already given us a foretaste of the fulfilment of that hope. He has poured out His love in our hearts to the point of overflowing. This is why the trademark of a Christian is love. If we don’t have love, there is no evidence that His love has been poured out in our heart – which it has!
• This love is poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, one of His many many functions. If we deny that love and let it grow cold then really we are grieving the Holy Spirit!
• Pauls point is that we can hope and not be disappointed in the glory of God, because a part of it is already made manifest in our hearts – that is, the love of God. By knowing the Holy Spirit better and better, and walking in the Spirit, then the glory of God becomes more and more real to us. And all this because of God justifying us by faith through the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ!

 

SUMMARY
Paul focuses in on some of the personal benefits of faith – hope and love! He shows that we can glory in tribulations because they effect hope in us, which doesn’t disappoint because we already have the deposit, which is love in our hearts.

WHAT DO I LEARN?
Love is very important. Tribulations are necessary and beneficial, and I should glory in them! More and more I want to reveal my true character by letting God strip away all that is impure and sinful.

Romans 4:19-25 ‘Abraham Justified By Faith’ Pt.2

TEXT
Rom 4:19
And not being weak in faith, he did not consider his own body, already dead (since he was about a hundred years old), and the deadness of Sarah's womb.

• Still talking about Abraham’s faith here. Paul goes on to say what we summarised in the last section – Abrahams faith was not weak. That is, it wasn’t faith in the completely obvious – it was faith against hope. He was already 99 when he had a son, and Sarah was 86 – well beyond birthing age! Beyond that, Sarah was barren anyway, which meant she could never have kids even when younger. But see that it says Abraham did not ‘consider his own body’. The physical didn’t even enter his calculations – God said it, it must be true! That is faith.

Rom 4:20
He did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God,

• See that faith brings glory to God. How does it do this? Well when we have faith we are looking beyond the purely physical, we look beyond ourselves and our own futile logic and see His glory and His truth. That is what kindles the faith in us. By having faith we are giving Him that glory that He inherently has.

Rom 4:21
and being fully convinced that what He had promised He was also able to perform.

• How often we lose it at this stage! We know God’s promises and we ‘trust’ them, but we don’t actually realistically physically expect Him to actually come through with them! And when He does, so often we attribute the result to our own hard work!

Rom 4:22
And therefore "it was accounted to him for righteousness."

• With this much more grounded definition of faith in place, Paul again asserts that this faith was accounted to him for righteousness. What does this mean? Righteousness comes through a faith which says yes to God through the stormiest of circumstances, the most unbelievable of promises and the longest of waiting times. If we have that faith – inspired by His glory – then it is accounted to us for righteousness!

Rom 4:23
Now it was not written for his sake alone that it was imputed to him,

Rom 4:24
but also for us. It shall be imputed to us who believe in Him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead,

• In these two verses we see that God is sovereignly directing the paths of men – and indeed, inspiring the human authors of the Bible. In no other way could the account of Abraham’s justification by faith being meaningful to us be explained. That is, here Paul says that Abraham was just ‘imputed’ righteousness for his own sake, but also so that we would have an example of what justification means. Thus, God is looking 2000 years into the future while He is sitting in the tent with Abraham, promising Him a son (with Sarah laughing outside). And He inspired the author of Genesis to include that very statement so that we, 4000 years later, may benefit. To me, this is a clear claim of inspiration of scripture.
• Paul draws the parallel here. Whereas Abraham had faith in God’s promise to him, we are to believe in Him who raised our Lord Jesus from the dead. That is His promise to us. Faith in this remarkable (and completely physically unbelievable) act – faith against all hope, and faith that outlasts all trials, will be accounted to us for righteousness.

Rom 4:25
who was delivered up because of our offenses, and was raised because of our justification.

• ‘delivered up because of our offenses’ – Jesus was crucified because of our sin. He could only die because He took our sin upon Himself. Note that ‘delivered up’ is an active word. That is, Jesus wasn’t walking around and then found Himself crucified one day – no, it was the very plan of God, and the action of God the father to deliver him up to men. However, this death was not enough.
• ‘raised because of our justification’ – the fact that Jesus rose from the dead implies that he is able to justify us, because He is completely just. That death held no power over Him means that He had no sin – He had completely dealt with it and thus He had justified us. It proved that He is just, and the justifier of the ungodly.

 

SUMMARY
Paul concludes his assessment of Abraham’s justification by faith by first broadening the understanding of what faith really is – what it stands against and endures. He then remarks that if Abraham was justified so, then surely we are too, since God is the author of history and makes things happen not only for their own time, but also for the future. He finally draws the parallel of Abraham’s belief in God’s promise, and our own belief in God’s promise of justification through His glorious Son.

 

WHAT DO I LEARN?
I am again in awe at the complexity and beauty of God’s plan of redemption, and that 2000 years before coming to earth He would make a promise to a man in order to explain to us what faith is. Also, I am again seeing how closely knit the death and resurrection of Jesus were – how often we focus on His death without His resurrection!

Romans 4:13-18 ‘The Promise Granted Through Faith’ Pt.1

TEXT
Rom 4:13
For the promise that he would be the heir of the world was not to Abraham or to his seed through the law, but through the righteousness of faith.

• God made a promise to Abraham that he would be the father of many nations, and that from him a saviour would come – not because of the law but because of his faith. In fact, the law didn’t come til much later.

Rom 4:14
For if those who are of the law are heirs, faith is made void and the promise made of no effect,

• Why is the promise ineffectual if by the law?

Rom 4:15
because the law brings about wrath; for where there is no law there is no transgression.

• Because the law brings about wrath – ie. the law can only show up mistakes and therefore the promise is ineffectual. Through the law, nothing can be gained, only fault shown. Another way to say this is to say that without the law, there is no transgression – that is, you can’t trespass on someone’s property if they haven’t said it’s wrong to do so. You can’t go beyond the law and break it if it doesn’t exist.
• Of course, the law is written on our hearts as well!

Rom 4:16
Therefore it is of faith that it might be according to grace, so that the promise might be sure to all the seed, not only to those who are of the law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all

• So that God could give His promise to everyone, it had to be by grace – what a wonderful plan!
• It means that we can be Abraham’s sons as well – that is, we can be of the same faith as Abraham, we can belong to his promise.

Rom 4:17
(as it is written, "I have made you a father of many nations") in the presence of Him whom he believed--God, who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did;

• In addition to fathering at least two physical nations (the Palestinians and Jews), Abraham is father to many people from nations all around the world by his faith.
• God gives life to the dead, in both a spiritual and physical sense, and calls things into being which up to that point had not even existed in thought. This is mind-boggling, because you try to imagine something that has never existed in any form similar to what you imagine! It is quite hard or probably even impossible. People are modifiers. We create by modification. We discover. But we do not create from nothing. But we are created from nothing.

Rom 4:18
who, contrary to hope, in hope believed, so that he became the father of many nations, according to what was spoken, "So shall your descendants be."

• Remember that Abrahams faith was not a measly faith that he accepted God because of a good life and because that was the ‘thing to do’. Rather, God called him away from home to a strange land that he did not know about, told him to trust that he would bring him a son and make him into a great nation and then to top it off, asked him to have enough faith to sacrifice that son when he finally received him. Thus the phrase ‘contrary to hope’ is but a small taste of what Abraham was experiencing. He was not an extraordinary person, in that he still had the same human flaws as all of us. His faith was extraordinary at times though!

 

SUMMARY
Paul continues his example of Abraham, focussing on the promise of God to him – which led to our redemption through the blood of Christ. He received this promise by faith rather than by the law, which came after, and so should we. It also makes the point that faith is not always easy – in fact often it is against hope that we must have hope.

WHAT DO I LEARN?
I must remember that it is in the hardest of times that God is calling me to have faith – to put complete trust in Him. Sometimes the ‘hardest’ of times don’t represent particularly sad or turbulent times, but conclusions that we come to that carry weight, or things that are hard to give up but we know we must. Not all these things are bad things that we need to give up, but God is calling us to greater things – He is calling us to Himself.

Romans 4:9-12 ‘Abraham Justified Before Circumcision’

TEXT
Rom 4:9
Does this blessedness then come upon the circumcised only, or upon the uncircumcised also? For we say that faith was accounted to Abraham for righteousness.

• Paul again anticipates his Jewish audience and asks the question – if Abraham was made righteous by faith, then since he was circumcised, then do we have to be circumcised. To this question, he asks the question – was Abraham justified while circumcised or before?

Rom 4:10
How then was it accounted? While he was circumcised, or uncircumcised? Not while circumcised, but while uncircumcised.

• In fact, it was before Abraham was circumcised (as God commanded) that he is said to have been justified (in Gen 15:6). This then proves that righteousness is apart from both works and traditions/obedience.
• This carries through to today – there is no need for going to church, getting baptised, taking communion or doing anything else of either good or traditional nature as far as justification is concerned. Justification happens before any of those.

Rom 4:11
And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had while still uncircumcised, that he might be the father of all those who believe, though they are uncircumcised, that righteousness might be imputed to them also,

• Circumcision was merely a seal of the righteousness of faith, that is, it was an outward show of the promise that God had given, and his acceptance of it. It was what sealed Abraham into his new life. For us, perhaps a similar idea is baptism. It is a public declaration of our faith which in some way constrains or seals us to move forward and grow with God.
• Abraham is the father of all who believe – even though there were those who believed before him, in some ways Abraham is our father because it was through him that Jesus came.

Rom 4:12
and the father of circumcision to those who not only are of the circumcision, but who also walk in the steps of the faith which our father Abraham had while still uncircumcised.

• Paul here makes it plain again that it is believing and walking in the steps of faith that brings us into the family, into the promise – not circumcision or an outward show or ritual.
• Interesting that he uses the phrase ‘walk in the steps of the faith’ – rather than just ‘have the faith’. It implies that having faith is a process as well, and as James says, having faith without works is dead. This is a nice balance.

 

SUMMARY
Paul extends his argument to religious forms and rituals, ie. circumcision. His argument is then that we are justified by faith alone – apart from both works and rituals (even if those rituals are in obedience to God). He is in no way denigrating the importance or need for circumcision amongst the Jews, but he is stressing that it plays no role in the act of justification, which is the promise that Abraham received. It is rather a seal of acceptance, much like baptism these days.

WHAT DO I LEARN?
I need to learn to rest on the forgiveness and grace of God for justification and all things – God loves us and by His grace He gives us what we need, through no merit of our own, and through no observance of rituals, traditions or even obedience. Traditions remind us of who He is and make us familiar with Him, and obedience stems from a willing and pure heart, but the initiation is always His unending grace. Thankyou God!

Romans 4:5-8 ‘David Celebrates The Same Truth’

Text
Rom 4:5
But to him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness,

• Why does Paul say ‘does not work’ here? Why doesn’t he just say – to him who believes on Him…Why does he add that he doesn’t do any work? Well I think he is trying to make a point to the stubborn Jews. He is trying to make a point that we have to give up the idea that we should be working towards justification. Faith lays aside works completely and says ‘I can’t do it!’
• Note that this does not mean that faith and works do not go hand in hand (as explained in James). It means that our attitude must be one of complete self-denial and turning away from our own self-righteousness. We need to give up working!

Rom 4:6
just as David also describes the blessedness of the man to whom God imputes righteousness apart from works:

• Paul brings on another Old Testament example, another of the great men of Judaism. David. David had no reason to believe his works got him anywhere, given his act of adultery and subsequent murder (I mean, who among us can say they’ve physically done that! – I don’t actually want to know…). He knew he had sinned greatly, and so he knew that any righteousness he had was imputed to him by God. This means that it was freely given or set upon him. It was definitely apart form works.

Rom 4:7
"Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven,
And whose sins are covered;

• The quote in this verse and the next is from Psa 32:1 and Psa 32:2 – written after his sin with Bathsheba.
• Interesting that he should use the word covered, which is what happened in the Old Testament when the sacrifices were made – God said he covered their sins by the blood of the animal (and so were ready to be completely taken away through the real efficient blood of Jesus). Our sins are no longer covered, they are separated from us as far as the east is from the west. They are completely forgotten. But David was obviously looking forward to the time when God would not merely cover but take away

Rom 4:8
Blessed is the man to whom the LORD shall not impute sin."

• The LORD does not impute sin to those He has forgiven, but His righteousness. All is from God. Nothing is of ourselves. David knew this intimately. Paul then has concluded that both Abraham and David, two of the most important Jewish fathers, had received justification and righteousness not by their works but from God through faith. And it is a blessing!

 

SUMMARY
Paul moves onto the second of his two Old Testament examples (before going back to the first), David. He shows that David receives righteousness from God alone and not by his own works, since he writes so right after a well-known and terrible sin.

WHAT DO I LEARN?
Blessed is the man to whom the LORD shall not impute sin! Thankyou oh my God of wonder and love!

Romans 4:1-4 ‘Abraham Justified By Faith’

Initial Considerations

• Paul is talking to Jews in Rome and so his reference to historical Scriptural characters would be quite illuminating and essential. Similar to when he goes to the Greeks and talks to them from the point of view of philosophy, creating a common bond – so for the Jews he talks about the patriarchs and such (Abraham and David anyway)
• He is basically continuing his thesis of justification by faith and not works, but showing how that is played out in the Old Testament.

Text
Rom 4:1
WHAT then shall we say that Abraham our father has found according to the flesh?

• Why does Paul choose to use Abraham as an example? Well Abraham was really the initial patriarch from whom all Jews come from. So what was true of him must be true of all Jews (see Jhn 8:39). Also, if Paul can show that God meant for righteousness to be by faith right from the start, even for the Jewish Patriarchs, then it would contrast with contemporary Judaism, making clear that justification was indeed by faith.
• So Paul asks the question – what did Abraham ever get by doing good things? Remembering that Abraham was a pinnacle of righteousness for the Jews.

Rom 4:2
For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God.

• Paul then brings back his earlier statement that if we are justified by works than we can boast. If Abraham was then justified by works then he would have something to boast about. Now the Jews may have agreed with this, given they probably thought he should be able to boast!
• However, he could not boast before God. If all our righteousness is as dirty rags (Isa 64:6), then even if we do more good things than everyone else then we still have no reason to boast to God. 

Rom 4:3
For what does the Scripture say? "Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness."

• This verse is very important. The Scripture comes from Gen 15:6 where Abraham had just believed God’s promise to make him into a nation as countless as the stars. Of course, it implies much more than just belief in this promise. It implies belief throughout his life since God had tested his faith (and in his continuing faith in the future – for instance when he obeyed God to sacrifice his son Isaac, before God provided the sacrifice Himself).
• Belief here means faith. Note that faith is not a work. Faith is not something we do or work at. Neither is it faith that saves us. Indeed, it is the blood of Christ that saves us through faith. Faith is like the rope that pulls us through – without it we can’t be saved, but it does nothing on its own.
• Accounted was a legal or financial term. It means to take something from one person and credit it to another person. In this case, God took His own righteousness and credited it to Abraham through faith.
• Interestingly, we get the picture here of righteousness as sort of like an object that can be moved and credited. That is, righteousness exists. This supports the idea that sin is merely an absence of righteousness, as darkness is an absence of light. That is, light exists, but darkness doesn’t have substance.

Rom 4:4
Now to him who works, the wages are not counted as grace but as debt.

• Under the law of works, anything we do is not added up to our tally (as so many religions would have us believe), rather, the ‘good’ things are merely lost, and the bad things are counted against us. We can only ever amount to debt under works because any good we do is not really good at all (again see Isa 64:6). Without the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and His transformation, we are not capable of fulfilling the law.
• For this reason, we need grace, but works will never attain us grace – because grace can’t be attained! The definition of grace is that it is given.

 

SUMMARY
Paul makes strong his thesis that justification is by faith alone without works by going back to the very beginning of the only religion that could in any way compare to Christianity and saying that even that religion should be based on faith, and was based on faith before being distorted. Thus, old testament saints were justified through faith just as we are today.

WHAT DO I LEARN?
More and more I keep seeing the theme coming through that there is nothing I can do or say or think or feel to earn God’s grace, forgiveness and righteousness. Nothing is of ourselves – and this carries through as Christians as well – every day is a complete surrender to Christ and God’s will and doing our best just to get out of the way!

ROMANS 3:27-31 'Boasting Excluded'

TEXT

'Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? Of works? No, but by the law of faith.' (Romans 3:27)

• Paul introduces the 'law of faith' which is his way of setting up a logical construct to explain the difference between faith and works. To him, the two were laws which could be followed - one leading to life and the other to death.
• Boasting is excluded if salvation is by faith...for no-one can claim that they did anything special to receive the salvation. Even faith itself is given by God and we merely accept. If salvation were by anything else, then there could be reason to boast, which would detract from God's glory.

'Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law.'(Romans 3:28)

• Since God's glory cannot be diminished, the conclusion is that we are justified (made right in God's sight) by faith - and that nothing we do has any effect upon it.

'Or is He the God of the Jews only? Is He not also the God of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also,'(Romans 3:29)

• If justification were by deeds, then the Jews who have the law must be treated differently to the Gentiles who didn't. However, God is God of both Jews and Gentiles so the fact that we are justified by faith makes God fair.

'since there is one God who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith.'(Romans 3:30)

• Justification by faith affirms the unity and non-partiality of God. The Jews knew and affirmed that there was one God - and thus logically He ruled the Gentiles as well, and so this must have made sense.

'Do we then make void the law through faith? Certainly not! On the contrary, we establish the law.'(Romans 3:31)

• The question on the Jews' minds would have been then - is the law all for nothing? Is the law useless and have we all been duped all this time? Paul is quick to say no! In fact, the Gospel establishes the law. He has already stated that the law is useful for pointing out sins, and 'stopping the mouths' of people who always have excuses. He now states that the Gospel establishes the law - because it fulfils the original point of the law - to point out our flaws (but now we see that we can be saved from those flaws!), and also, the Gospel shows us that we can now obey the law. That is, without a transformed life through Jesus' blood and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, we are incapable of obeying the law, but it is now possible (since we are set free from sin). It's like he's saying that the law was the ingredients but the Gospel is the ingredients put together and baked so that we now have a cake. It is fully established.

SUMMARY

Paul concludes that justification by faith is the fairest and most logical way for God to save us. Justification by works leads to boasting, which diminishes God's glory, and also leads to disparity between Jews and Gentiles, which detracts from the fairness and oneness of God. He also confirms that the law is fulfilled and established through the Gospel, which is God's entire plan of redemption.

WHAT DO I LEARN?

This passage makes it clear that there is nothing I can boast in of myself to either Christian or non-Christian. There is no special quality that I have that makes God love me more, there is nothing that I have done that has set me apart from the rest of humanity. I may boast in Jesus Christ, because He deserves all praise - but to even think for one moment that I am above any non-Christian, even the wildest or roughest out there, is sheer ignorance and arrogance. I need to talk to everyone in love and understanding, like a former prisoner who has been set free through no doing of his own, would speak to his fellow inmates.

ROMANS 3:21-26 'God's Righteousness Through Faith'

TEXT

'But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets' (Romans 3:21)

• Paul finally gets to the part I'm sure he's been wanting to get to all along - the Righteousness of God. And he immediately makes it clear that it is apart from the law, which he indicated before.
• He also adds that this righteousness has been witnessed, or predicted by the Law and the Prophets (the Old Testament). This has been God's plan all along!

'even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference;'(Romans 3:22)

• The righteousness that we can have is of God, not ourselves. It is in fact HIS righteousness that we are permitted to have.
• It is revealed to us through faith in Jesus Christ - that is, all we have to do is believe in Jesus!
• For there is no difference - this continues into the next verse. The 'for' comes from the 'all who believe' phrase. That is, faith in Jesus reveals God's righteousness to everyone, since everyone is the same under sin, so that everyone has the same opportunity for His righteousness.

'for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God' (Romans 3:23)

• one of the most famous verses in the Bible - it changes the focus from the sins we do to who we are - people who cannot attain to the perfect glory of God. It sets it in stone that we can never by our own means attain that glory, since God is God. We must therefore accept His righteousness.

'being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,' (Romans 3:24)

• justification (being declared righteous, as in a court of law) is free by His grace. It is all from God - it is only by His love and giving what we don't deserve. It is a free gift.
• redemption is the buying of slaves and setting them free. Jesus payed for us with His blood and then set us free from sin.

'whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed,' (Romans 3:25)

• Jesus' blood was the propitiation for our sins. This idea comes from the Old Testament, where the sacrifices covered the sins of the Israelites if God accepted it. In fact, it was the blood of the animal that was the 'propitiation', which means that it satisfied or appeased God. Jesus was the ultimate Lamb of God, the ultimate sacrifice, the ultimate propitiation.
• through faith we can receive this propitiation.
• Jesus' propitiation for our sins demonstrated God's righteousness. This implies that God was acting righteously (and not only lovingly) when He sent His son. This is because previously, God had passed over the sins of His people (through the animal sacrifices), while looking forward to the lasting sacrifice of Jesus. He would not have been righteous to pass over their sins without providing the real sacrifice of Jesus.

'to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.' (Romans 3:26)

• only one who is just can be a justifier. And it is only through our trust in Him that we can be justified by Him who is just!

SUMMARY

Paul, after arguing that everyone is in the same condition under sin, with nothing special about anyone to save them or qualities to make God pick them for salvation (remember he is talking mainly to Christians), finally reveals that we need God's own righteousness, which He freely gives us if we believe and trust in Him. He further affirms that God was acting righteously by sending His son, and confirms that salvation in the Old Testament was likewise through the propitiatory blood of Jesus.

WHAT DO I LEARN?

I am just in awe of the awesome and beautiful long term plan of God for redemption of a hopelessly lost race.

ROMANS 3:1-8 ‘God’s Judgment Defended’

TEXT

‘What advantage then has the Jew, or what is the profit of circumcision?’ (Romans 3:1)

• After a scathing critique of the Jews, Paul recognizes that some will have various objections, especially from the misguided notion that Paul was attacking the very foundation of Judaism. So Paul asks this very question – if the Jews are no better than the Gentiles, what advantage was it to have the law and circumcision?

‘Much in every way! Chiefly because to them were committed the oracles of God.’ (Romans 3:2)

• He offers that the Jews had many advantages (and in fact in 2:1-16, he makes it clear that these advantages are what they will be judged by). Primarily, they had the law, the very words of God. They knew who God was, and what He expected. That is a huge advantage!

‘For what if some did not believe? Will their unbelief make the faithfulness of God without effect?’ (Romans 3:3)

• Now Paul turns to the promises of God to Abraham (and Isaac and Jacob). Since his thesis is that only those who have faith will receive the promises of God (rather than just by birthright into Israel), then the obvious question is – God promised these things to all Israel, but you’re saying that not all of Israel will receive the promise! To this Paul maintains that God’s promise to the nation of Israel remains as a whole, but those who have no faith will not experience this blessing.

‘Certainly not! Indeed, let God be true but every man a liar. As it is written:

"That You may be justified in Your words,

And may overcome when You are judged."’ (Romans 3:4)

• This is from Psalm 51:4. Paul’s message is that even if no-one believed the truth about God, it would rather mean that all men are liars and God is true. What men say has nothing to do with how true something is.

‘But if our unrighteousness demonstrates the righteousness of God, what shall we say? Is God unjust who inflicts wrath? (I speak as a man.)’ (Romans 3:5)

• Now Paul is anticipating their disagreement with his view of God’s judgment (which is how this most affects the Gospel). He asks the question – if our own evil shows up God’s holiness all the more, then is God unjust in inflicting wrath on us? If our evil makes God look better than how can he judge us for making Him look better? He asks this question from the viewpoint of a man without the Spirit – all ‘logic’ and no truth.

‘Certainly not! For then how will God judge the world?’ (Romans 3:6)

• He answers his own question with an emphatic ‘no’! If God condoned sin, then He could not judge the world for He would not be righteous. In which case, our sin would not show His righteousness all the more!

‘For if the truth of God has increased through my lie to His glory, why am I also still judged as a sinner?’ (Romans 3:7)

• Some people were saying that the Christian message actually set people free to sin, or condoned sin. Paul has the same answer to this question as before – if sinning increases His glory, then why are we judged?

‘And why not say, "Let us do evil that good may come"?--as we are slanderously reported and as some affirm that we say. Their condemnation is just.’ (Romans 3:8)

• Paul makes it clear that we are set free from sin, not to it. The Gospel implies repentance and leading a Christ-like life – not being set free to sin as much as you want.

SUMMARY

Paul anticipates disagreement from the Jewish audience over his critique of the Jews and his emphasis on faith rather than physical descent or circumcision. He defends the advantage of being a Jew in that they received the Law (for which they were responsible for obeying now), defends the accuracy of God’s promises to the nation and defends God’s righteousness in His judgment of sin, even though our sin shows up His righteousness more greatly. In effect, he silences three arguments before they start.

WHAT DO I LEARN?

I need to remember not to take grace lightly – grace does not mean freedom to sin, but freedom from sin and its power. Also, if the Jews were committed the oracles of God, surely we with the Bible in a hundred different translations and the Spirit indwelling us must have so much more responsibility to share that Word which brings life!

ROMANS 2:17-29 ‘The Jews Guilty as the Gentiles’

TEXT

‘Indeed you are called a Jew, and rest on the law, and make your boast in God,’ (Romans 2:17)

• The Jews were God’s set apart people who received the law (which they were quite boastful of)

‘and know His will, and approve the things that are excellent, being instructed out of the law,’ (Romans 2:18)

• they know His will: this must allude to His perfect will (since each of them can’t personally His will for their lives properly!)
• approve the things that are excellent: this contrasts with 1:32 ‘approve of those who practice them’. At this point, the Jews reading the letter are probably starting to feel proud of themselves, having differentiated themselves from the ‘they’ and ‘them’ of 1:18-32). However this also teaches us to approve of what is excellent – how often do we shy away from the good things because of fear of ridicule?
• The Jews were instructed from the law of God, which gave them both a privileged position (see 3:2), but also an excuse for false superiority over the gentiles.

‘and are confident that you yourself are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness,’ (Romans 2:19)

• The Jews were very sure of themselves as a guide to those who had no light (law), ie. The gentiles.

‘an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of babes, having the form of knowledge and truth in the law.’ (Romans 2:20)

• the ‘babes’ could be recently converted gentiles into Judaism, or even the young Jews who were taught very early in the ways of Judaism.
• Form of knowledge: why the word form here? Maybe they had the structure of knowledge – the way knowledge and truth were supposed to be displayed, but not its fullness. Or maybe it means that outwardly they showed knowledge and truth, but inwardly they didn’t understand it. This is the first hint in the passage that Paul is going to put them in the same boat as the ‘others’ of chapter 1.

‘You, therefore, who teach another, do you not teach yourself? You who preach that a man should not steal, do you steal?’ (Romans 2:21)

• So with all this knowledge and privilege do you follow what you say? Are you a hypocrite?

‘You who say, "Do not commit adultery," do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples?’ (Romans 2:22)

• Apparently it was common practice to steal idols from pagan temples and sell them for profit (which is against the law – Deut 7:25). Without going back to Scripture, this may have seemed like an honourable thing to do. One could argue that stealing the idols meant less idol worship and the money could be used for the poor or in God’s temple. However, God knew that those who did such things would be doing it for self-gain, and that instead of merely decreasing idol worship, it instead made the Jews look bad to their pagan counterparts. How much do we do this ourself? We judge others for their religion and whenever we can (when in our power) we ‘piously’ take away their ability to practice such things. We must search our hearts for our motives here – of course we don’t want this idol worship going on, but we must go about things the right way – the Scriptural way, and that is the way of love.

‘You who make your boast in the law, do you dishonor God through breaking the law?’ (Romans 2:23)

• The Jews knew the law so well, but failed to recognize its real meaning so many times (just look at the Pharisees during Jesus’ ministry!)

‘For "the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you," as it is written.’ (Romans 2:24)

• this comes from Isaiah 52:5. It is a real kick in the stomach for the Jews, who have now in some way been placed below the Gentiles because they are the cause of sin in gentiles…who don’t even have the law! This is a wake up call strategy employed by Paul to make sure his audience is now listening with open ears. He doesn’t want anyone to get through past here still thinking they are good enough to not need the Gospel.

‘For circumcision is indeed profitable if you keep the law; but if you are a breaker of the law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision.’ (Romans 2:25)

• the Jews had an ingrained belief that circumcision was necessary for salvation (apparently even Christian Jews).
• how was circumcision profitable? It reminded them of their obedience and convenant with God, which indeed beneficial.
• If they disobey the law, then the circumcision means nothing because all it is is a reminder to do the law!

‘Therefore, if an uncircumcised man keeps the righteous requirements of the law, will not his uncircumcision be counted as circumcision?’ (Romans 2:26)

• If the impossible happened, and someone lived a perfect life without ever being circumcised, then it matters not whether he was circumcised or not since he has kept the law regardless.

‘And will not the physically uncircumcised, if he fulfills the law, judge you who, even with your written code and circumcision, are a transgressor of the law?’(Romans 2:27)

• it’s not who has the law that’s important, but who does it. Note that fulfills means that EVERY part of the law must be obeyed to the fullest.
• Him who fulfills the law will judge those who haven’t. Ie. Jesus will be the only judge!

‘For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh;’ (Romans 2:28)

• Here Paul makes it clear that even in OT times, Judaism was of the heart, not of the flesh. So people were still saved by faith (see chapter 4) rather than by works.

‘but he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the Spirit, not in the letter; whose praise is not from men but from God.’ (Romans 2:29)

• Part of being spiritual is receiving praise and reward from God rather than men. Ie., not looking for glory and fame on the earth, neither respect nor admiration from men, but rather seeking to do God’s will and glorify Him at all times – ready to receive our reward in heaven.

SUMMARY

Paul focuses his previous argument (1:18-32) onto the Jews now, first building them up so they start listening, and then pulling them down seemingly below the Gentiles (though of course they are equal in the grand scheme of things). He tells them they have all the privileges of the law and yet though they teach others well, they don’t teach themselves, or they do not do what it says. In effect, gentiles blaspheme because of the Jews and the hypocrisy that abounds. This is all on the way to concluding that everyone has sinned.

WHAT DO I LEARN?

It reminds me that hypocrisy is one of the most hated things of Christianity – how many times I have heard people that have been turned away by hypocrisy! I need to be extremely careful that I do not become like the Jews that Paul speaks to – that I don’t just teach others from behind our ‘perfect’ wall, but that I share with them in our common experience (as Paul says in 1:12), and teach them who Christ is. I need also to realize that doing the Word is the end, not just understanding it.

ROMANS 1:18-25 ‘God’s wrath on Unrighteousness Pt.1’

TEXT

‘For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness,’ (Romans 1:18)

• wrath is a settled judgment, not revenge or temporal anger.
• ‘suppress the truth’ indicates they know it but deny it in favour of pleasure

‘because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them.’ (Romans 1:19)

• they know the truth and ‘what may be known of God’, since God shows it through nature.

‘For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse,’ (Romans 1:20)

• Invisible attributes. What are these? Well at least some of them are His eternal power and the Godhead, what are the others that we can see in nature? It is easy to see his eternal power in creation, because for God to create the Universe, which includes inherently Time (as Einstein proved), then God must exist beyond the limits of time, and not subject to it. Therefore His power (in creating the Universe) must be eternal (since Time does not affect Him). Curiously, the Godhead can be seen in nature as well. Three are three fundamental parts of the Universe (so far as we know) – Space, Matter/Energy and Time. All three are intrinsically linked (especially space and time) but all have a different role to play. In fact we see that God is much like space, for space is that in which everything has its being. Jesus is much like matter/energy for it is the representation of everything, it is physical, we can see and touch it. The Holy Spirit is much like Time, for it is He whom we experience Jesus through. We need time to experience things.
• ‘without excuse’. Paul’s reasoning is that everyone lives in nature and therefore no-one ahs an excuse to not know God..

‘because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened.’(Romans 1:21)

• This is a dark regression from glorifying God to dark and futile thoughts and emotions. It is intended to be a logical progression of what happens when we leave God out of the picture.

‘Professing to be wise, they became fools,’ (Romans 1:21)

• ‘wisdom’ on earth is foolishness, this could be alluding to Gnosticism, which was prevalent in that day, but also to those who study nature specifically to find that God didn’t create it, which goes against all intuition.

‘and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man--and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things.’ (Romans 1:22)

• we exchange the real God for anthropomorphic ‘deities’ who suit us and glorify man himself rather than the creator.
• Apparently in ancient religions there were no physical idols, but paganism brought these into existence.
• Some worshipped nature and animals

‘Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves,’ (Romans 1:23)

• This verse does not fit the nature of God without the ‘therefore’ at the start. In fact, God giving them up was really them giving God up and turning to idols. The natural progression was to dishonour their bodies because they no longer believed their bodies as sacred in the image of God.
• Note the similarity of this statement and the ‘unforgiveable sin’ – blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. Completely turning away from the things God has clearly shown and trusting in the creation instead is unforgiveable, because you don’t want to be forgiven.

‘who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.’ (Romans 1:21)

• In summary, they changed truth for a lie and served powerless creatures and wood and stone rather than the powerful Creator.

SUMMARY

God’s nature is shown in the natural world and truth is revealed there, so everyone should know, but they willingly suppressed that in favour of pleasure and worshipping ‘knowable’ stuff. They wanted to love something they could completely comprehend (don’t we all!), whereas God’s love was incomprehensible in its fullness. This rejection of God led to degeneration and immorality (as natural consequences).

WHAT CAN I LEARN?

I need to question my motives in studying science – do I glorify God or nature? Do I expose or suppress the truth?

ROMANS 1:16-17 ‘The Just Live By Faith’

RANDOM THOUGHTS:

This should be the end of the chapter. It is the final part of his introduction to the topic – the Gospel.

TEXT

‘For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek.’ (Romans 1:16)

• Gospel is the power of God unto salvation. Ie. It is powerful and can move anyone, but only through God. Although most think it foolish (trusting in works is much more believable), it is the power of God!
• For those who believe, ie. Salvation comes from believing (‘faith’), not works.

‘For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, "The just shall live by faith."’ (Romans 1:17)

• Righteousness of God revealed: so in it (the Gospel) we see God’s righteousness, both His right plan and the fact that it is justice for Him to save us! Also, the righteousness has now been revealed to us so that we can own it!
• Faith to faith: His right plan is now concluded, or completed, in His Son so the Gospel is a conclusion of a massive history of the story of redemption (although we still have glorification to go in heaven!), so faith to faith could mean from the beginning of faith to the end of faith. Also, faith to faith could imply that His righteousness is revealed individually from person to person – your faith doesn’t affect another’s faith (well it might affect it, but not create or destroy it!). His righteousness in us is a vey personal thing.
• ‘Just shall live by faith’: Habakkuk contains this phrase but with ‘his faith’ instead of just ‘faith’. This gives a more ‘continuous’ feel to the phrase – the just shall live by his faith. Every moment is a step of faith, life is lived by faith. Whereas the phrase in Romans has a more discrete air, it has the idea that to have life we need to have faith (ie. Salvation comes by faith). Both are true and work together! Justice and faith are here linked inextricably – it implies that to live justly (without fault) we need to have faith in God rather than doing those right things! (This is easy for Christians to understand, but just think how revolutionary it is!)

SUMMARY

Paul states his main topic and thesis, and shows he is unashamed of it, which implies that he is very sure of its truth and accuracy and power. The topic is that the Gospel is powerful, based on faith, for everyone, and provides ‘justification’.

WHAT DO I LEARN?

The Gospel is made powerful through God, and I must remember that when evangelizing. Praise God for His beautiful plan of redemption!

ROMANS 1:8-15 ‘Desire to Visit Rome’

TEXT

‘First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world’ (Romans 1:8)

• why thank God through Christ?
• Faith spoken of throughout world – this was good both tactically as Rome was the centre of the known world, and as a mentor, Paul would have loved it as well!

‘For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of His Son, that without ceasing I make mention of you always in my prayers,’ (Romans 1:9)

• serves with his spirit? What does this imply?
• Dedication to the Romans…why? Without ceasing he makes mention of them in his prayers…that is a lot!

‘Making request if, by some means, now at last I may find a way in the will of God to come to you.’ (Romans 1:10)

• wants to go to them but abides in the will of God and for this reason, Romans was written!

‘For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift, so that you may be established—‘ (Romans 1:11)

• The gospel establishes the already believing church. How much do we need to go back to the gospel, the true gospel, and understand it!

‘that is, that I may be encouraged together with you by the mutual faith both of you and me.’ (Romans 1:12)

• he is not an ‘overlord’ of them, but rather wants to grow with them.

‘Now I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that I often planned to come to you (but was hindered until now), that I might have some fruit among you also, just as among the other Gentiles. I am a debtor both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to wise and to unwise. So, as much as is in me, [I am] ready to preach the gospel to you who are in Rome also.’ (Romans 1:13-15)

• Paul makes the point that he must take the gospel to everyone – gentile, Greek, non-Greek, wise, unwise etc. He is indebted to all of these, not because they had done anything for him, but because Christ had.

SUMMARY

Paul continues to elucidate his purpose for the letter, stating he would go there if he could, but since he can’t he will write this letter of the gospel to ‘establish’ them. This implies the gospel is for believers and non-believers. Also shows his personal dedication to them, which is a major part of his ministry!

WHAT DO I LEARN?

Need to be absolutely devoted to those I try to reach – interested in their actual person. I should not care what status they have, what they look like, where they’re from. Also, I need the gospel still!

Romans 1:1-7

Random Thoughts:

*Why all the talk about the ‘spiritual journey’ or ‘walk with God’ when Paul was so adamant it was a race? (2 Tim. 4:7)*

Background

• Paul never visited Rome, which made it possible to write Romans!
• Paul uses historical figures (Abraham etc.) probably as a common starting point for the doctrinal work.

Text

‘Paul, a bondservant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated to the gospel of God…’ (Romans 1:1)

• Bondservant – a willing servant
• Apostle – messenger (one who is sent)
• Separated to Gospel – all his life devoted to it.

‘which He promised before through His prophets in the Holy Scriptures,’ (Romans 1:2)

• Promised the Gospel (or its method) before through the prophets (eg. Isaiah and Psalms)

‘concerning His Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who was born of the seed of David according to the flesh, and declared to be the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead.’ (Romans 1:3-4)

• Of the line of David (man) and also the Son of God
• ‘Declared’ Son of God because He was God beforehand (eg. at creation)
• With power *according* to the Spirit, through the resurrection. Why ‘according to’ here? The resurrection was the great declaration of His deity, and the great proof. Fake magicians can perform ‘miracles’ by deceiving the eye, but none claim to rise from the dead from such a brutal death. In fact, the two most telling signs of His deity were His birth and resurrection, the bookends of His life.

‘Through Him we have received grace and apostleship for obedience to the faith among all nations for His name, among whom you also are the called of Jesus Christ;’ (Romans 1:5-6)

• Through Him we receive grace – this is the first inkling of the important content of the rest of the letter.
• Obedience to the faith? Ie. Faith requires action on the part of the one having the faith.
• Grace and apostleship are all for His glory (His name!)
• ‘called of Jesus Christ’ – election implied?

‘To all who are in Rome, beloved of god, called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.’ (Romans 1:7)

• The letter is to all who are beloved of God in Rome (ie the church in Rome)
• Why can Paul send grace? He can easily wish them peace, but how grace? And why isn’t the Holy Spirit mentioned? Only Jesus and God are mentioned.

Summary

It is a greeting where he identifies himself (Paul), his position and calling (an Apostle), his intent (to the Gospel of God) and justifies his purpose. He identifies his audience, and justifies his audience (called to be saints).

What Do I Learn?

Am I a bondservant? Am I separated to the Gospel?

Hosea 5:1,11,15

' "Hear this, O priests! Take heed, O house of Israel! Give ear, O house of the king! For yours [is] the judgment, Because you have been a snare to Mizpah And a net spread on Tabor." ' (Hosea 5:1)

The chapter doesn't start well for Israel. God wants Israel to hear Him. He wants their leaders to listen up. Again, they are being judged, and the reason is that they are like a trap to their neighbours. They are drawing their neighbours into evil with them. How much further from the original plan could they get? God originally drew out Abram to make a nation that could be His shining light on the world, and show His true character to the nations. And generations down the track, that same nation is snaring other nations into evil! No wonder God is upset.

We have to ask the question: how did they get to that state? You don't go from being God's special people to leading people away from God in a day. It's a slow fade, as Casting Crowns would say. Well we read further down:

'Ephraim is oppressed [and] broken in judgment, Because he willingly walked by [human] precept.' (Hosea 5:11)

They have been walking in their own understanding, doing what seems right, taking the 'wise' option. They have been dealing practically, reasonably and 'ethically', but they have NOT been dealing with FAITH and TRUST of God's way. They have not been acting obediently.

Let's not make this (very easy to make) mistake. We need to trust in God and His (sometimes impossible to understand) ways. He needs to be our axiom upon which all else is based, rather than something that fits into our natural axiom of happiness. Trust in Him, and let everything else be wrong if it must.

As I have come to expect from the many previous prophetic chapters, God doesn't let it end with Israel's judgment and destruction, and here we see the true heart of God:

'I will return again to My place Till they acknowledge their offense. Then they will seek My face; In their affliction they will earnestly seek Me.' (Hosea 5:15)

God's heart is not that any should perish, but that all should come to Him. He wants a relationship with us all. He wants us all to earnestly seek Him. But as our loving Father, He knows that sometimes the only way to provoke us to do this is to afflict us so that we come to a place of acknowledging our sin and our offense (for really that is what is!) to God. We need to come to that place, and repent, turn around and face Him and run into His arms. And we need Him to hold on to us.

Update

Hi anyone who is reading this. This post is a marker on the point that I actually caught up posting all my old devotions and thoughts. From now on, I will post as I write, so if anyone has been hanging back and not reading anything because posts were coming in at stop-start rates, you can now actually start reading. Assuming anyone wants to read anything :)

I started by tagging every post with either ‘devotion’ if it was a specific devotion based on a Bible chapter (and tagged the book name as well) or ‘thought’ if it was just  a random spiritual thought, plus any other tags I considered appropriate. However, after uploading a few, the extra tags began to fade off, and so other than the first few, all posts now are tagged just with either devotion or thought and the book name if it is a devotion. I’m not completely sure how tags work yet so that may change…

The Temple

Hello everyone, I would just like to share a little thought I had on Sunday which I thought was pretty cool.

On Saturday as you would mostly be aware we went to hear Don Carson preach about a few different things and one of the points he stated was that of 'inner-canonical threads'. These are basically sort of 'topics' that are found continually throughout the Bible and continually develop throughout redemptive history. One such inner-canonical thread is the Temple. For instance, it started out as a tabernacle with God specifying its construction and dimensions etc, and then was transformed into the Temple by Solomon according to God's design again. Then of course Jesus stated that He was the ultimate Temple when He said that the temple would be destroyed and raised again in three days. Now of course we see our bodies as Temples and in the future heaven will be like the Temple, where God's glory dwells. He also made the interesting point that only twice in the Bible were there perfect cubes: Once was the Most Holy place in the temple and the other is the New Jerusalem (the massive city in heaven where we will live). This shows that in Heaven we will be constantly living in God's intimate presence. The most holy place was only entered once a year by one person, and fearfully because that's where God dwelt. But we will live with God unhindered for eternity.

Anyway, that was the prelude. On Sunday, I think it was Noel was talking about how the temple veil was rent in two to open the way to the most holy place. Now, when that happened, God was turning His back on Jesus and there was no light. Noel said it was like we don't need the light because now we have the light of the most holy place, we have the true light of God! That got me thinking, in heaven, in the New Jerusalem, we won't need a light either! Because God is light enough for us! I just thought it was wonderful both in the sense that we can view God as enough light for us (more than enough) and also how awesome a God we have that can fit these sort of messages throughout the Bible, linking a common theme throughout thousands of years of writing in the Bible.

The Holy Spirit

I was thinking last night (in a determinedly night-ish way, which involves many obscure and seemingly random trajectories of thought), about myself. This is not unusual, if slightly self-absorbed. For some reason, my mind brought up a memory of someone calling me strange, or abnormal. Immediately (as my mind does), I conjured up a hypothetical scenario in which someone had just called me abnormal, and I responded:

‘I’m not abnormal. I’m more normal than everyone else. I’m the epitome of normal, and everyone tries to be normal together. For instance, you probably just thought what I just said was abnormal, but I’m sure most of you would think exactly the same thing in my position, some consciously, and others unconsciously, except the only difference is that since you are all conformed to this ideal of ‘normality’, that you are all too afraid to speak it. Therefore, I am superiorly normal, because I convey what is actually normal about all of us, while you all keep it in for a façade of normality. I guess, that very statement was something else you could call ‘abnormal’, but it is merely another example of my argument.’

Being very pleased with myself at coming up with something so profound, it took me a while to realize that I had contorted the meaning of ‘normal’ into something akin to ‘logical’ or ‘ideal’. In any case, the thought sparked off a seemingly random trajectory of thought about being able to capture all these moments of ‘brilliant’ thought for use in later life when I needed them. But then I thought, who can tell which of the thoughts I have are actually brilliant? So I thought perhaps there should be a system that tapes all the thoughts of the mind for later review. Ignoring the logical impracticality of such an idea, my mind went further, dreaming of capturing every single moment of life, both my inner thought, and external speech and hearing. Then of course, it hit me: it would all need to be saved in some massive program that could bring it back to you exactly when you needed it. I mean, if you got into some situation, you weren’t going to go sifting through every single thing that ever happened in your life for some fragment of an answer. So the program would need to be able to understand your situation, do a keyword search or something, and then bring back to mind some thought or previously heard message to enable you to cope with the situation, or answer the tough question, or whatever.

Then I laughed at myself. Because isn’t this what the Holy Spirit does for us? Convicts us, helps us, comforts us, directs us? Here I was, trying to think of some brilliant program which could have infinite value for everyone, and we have it already! We are just not using it to its fullest!

The Great Teacher

I was thinking about Jesus being the great Teacher. I was thinking of what that means for us. Because often we ask God to ‘show us what to do’. And I think often many of us think that the easiest way would be for Him to just plainly tell us the answer.

But what human teacher merely tells all the answers to his pupils? No, a teacher will teach more effectively by letting his students attempt to find the answer themselves, and guiding them towards it when they are heading down the wrong path. Just because he doesn’t tell them the answer doesn’t mean he doesn’t know it. In fact, that he can let them attempt to find it themselves shows more of a true knowledge of the answer, because guiding then towards it is harder than just telling them it! And when the pupils finally find the answer, it means much more to them, and they remember it far longer.

Do you not think that God may take the same approach with us? So don’t get frustrated if you ask God for answers and it takes a while and much effort to figure out. Because God is looking for dedication. And when God leads you to the answer, it will mean so much more.

Devotion

One only has so much time in life. There is a limited window of opportunity in which to exist, and hopefully more than that – to impact. This means that one can only devote themself to a limited number of things.

Devotion is a strong word. It implies complete dedication to another’s cause, to believe in the other to the utmost extent, a trust that the other has only good in mind for them, a willingness to do anything for the other, even to the point of death. To care for the other, to love the other. It necessitates the spending of large quantities of time in service to the other.

Some people are devoted to objects or actions. Some are devoted to a particular sport. They spend their time playing it, they believe in its cause, and they will give up anything to play it.

More often than not, a person will have a small circle of people they are devoted to. Their spouse for one. Sometimes the only one. When two people are married, it is implied that they are completely devoted to one another. They are completely dedicated to one another’s cause, they believe in the other person fully, knowing that whatever battles they face they will win. There is no doubt there. There is only assurance because of their belief in the other person’s strength. There is a willingness to do anything for the other – to spend all of their time on them, to do things they find boring or distasteful for them, or even die for them if it comes to that.

But for a Christian there is One that we devote ourselves to. And He is not finite and faulty like our spouse or our close friends. Nor does He require most of our time. He requires all of our time. He requires our lives. Every moment should be a testament of our devotion to Him. That is what being a Christian is.

This does not mean that we are not devoted to anything else. God is a wonderful God. While devotion to Him means complete dedication of all of our time, this does not mean that all of our time must be in communication just with Him. While much of our time must be spent alone with Him, we show our devotion by showing devotion to others. But let us choose those people or things we are devoted to carefully. We have limited time. It is simply impossible to be devoted to all of your friends. Impossible to be devoted to all of your favorite activities. But let us model our devotion to others on our devotion to God.

Devotion doesn’t just happen. Ever. It is a choice. It involves effort. But neither can you merely choose something or someone to be devoted to. They must choose you just as much as you choose them. Infinite effort towards a random person will not render devotion, because devotion springs only from the heart.

Devotion sounds like a soft word. It sounds mushy and gushy. But true devotion is one of the strongest, toughest things that we can show. So the challenge is to devote yourselves to worthy things or people. Devote yourself primarily to God, but those earthly things that you devote yourself to, do it with a pure heart and with all of your might.

Hosea 4:6

The plot thickens in Hosea as God delves further into the reasoning behind His temporary rejection of the Israelites, turning His focus to the priests, the spiritual leaders of the people. We see again, as we have seen time and again in the prophets (cf. Ezekiel 33), the distinction between the roles and responsibilities of those who are shepherding, watching, or otherwise in a position of responsibility, and that of the general populace. It seems very clear that God treats each differently (as is found in the New Testament also), although He treats every human the same on the base level. That is, although each person is individually responsible for their own sin and their own choices, and no person is treated differently to another, in fact those in ‘leadership’, as it were, are also held responsible for those they lead.

In this case, God makes the statement ‘And it shall be: like people, like priest.’ (Hosea 4:9a). That is, the people’s sins, which God has illustrated in a previous chapter, apply also to the priests, which not only participated in the sins, but misled people by their false role-modelling. This is a warning to us all, for we are all role-models in some sense, whether it is to little kids, our peers, new Christians, non-Christians, our church, or whoever. And we must realise that we are responsible for the image we convey to them.

However, there is a further aspect to God’s appraisal of the nation’s waywardness, not raised in the previous chapter, which is more applicable to the priests.

‘My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I also will reject you from being priest for Me; Because you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children.’ (Hosea 4:6)

It is not clear to me whether their destruction (because of lack of knowledge) was effected by themselves, God, or both. That is, I am not sure whether the ‘are destroyed for’ is literally ‘have been destroyed by’, or whether in fact it means that because of their lack of knowledge, God will destroy them – or both. I lean towards both. The first sentence seems to suggest that their lack of knowledge has brought them to the place they are in; that in fact, all their ‘harlotry’ and idolatry is a product of not knowing God, and His law. This would have been the role of the priests, to teach them, to instruct them and guide them in the knowledge and understanding of the law and God’s incredible goodness. Without knowing the glory and goodness of God, it is understandable that the populace would turn away to more ‘fashionable’ and immediately pleasing things. And so God adds, since they (the priests) have rejected knowledge, that is, consciously disregarded it, He will reject them. A tough call, but fair. Not only are they leading themselves astray, but also a whole nation of people who may otherwise have been enjoying their relationship with a loving God.

How does this speak to us? Well it speaks volumes about the importance of knowledge. Knowledge is something that is highly sort after these days, but so little in the church, where knowledge is so much more important, and much sweeter! People go to any end to find out obscure information (trust me, I know!) and spend all their lives devoted to unveiling one fact, and yet in the church we have so much information in front of our very eyes, and so many of us can’t be bothered to look at it! And the knowledge we have available to us is so much more important, interesting, valuable and transformative than any other information, you would think we would all be chomping at the bit to get our teeth into it! Furthermore, our knowledge in this so called ‘Age of Grace’ surpasses by far any of the knowledge in the Old Testament, by the pure fact that we have a relationship with Jesus, whom we can come to know intimately.

A lack of knowledge can (and inevitably eventually will) lead down the path of sin and idolatry. This is the experience of Israel. Let’s all thirst for the truth found in His word, and dig deeper and deeper into its sweet promises!

Hosea 3:3

‘And I said to her, "You shall stay with me many days; you shall not play the harlot, nor shall you have a man--so, too, [will] I [be] toward you."’ (Hosea 3:3)

Hosea is told to go take a wife that is an adulterer, and so he does. And he says this to her. Can you see the direct analogy to God with His people Israel, and the further analogy that applies directly to us? God loves us so much that even while we are in our sins, of turning away from Him to look for our pleasure elsewhere, He comes after us and takes us and says to us ‘you shall be with me for a long time – and you won’t leave me and find pleasure elsewhere.’ But how much does our flesh fight against that? It is constantly wanting to seek enjoyment in other things before God. We are like Hosea’s wife. We need to realise that our true joy lies with our Eternal Husband, who gives us all that we truly need on a daily basis, and cares for our true needs and loves us with a true Love.

Hosea 2:23

‘Then I will sow her for Myself in the earth, And I will have mercy on [her who had] not obtained mercy; Then I will say to [those who were] not My people, 'You [are] My people!' And they shall say, ['You are] my God!'’ (Hosea 2:23)

So chapter 2 is God’s analogy of Israel with a prostitute, or unfaithful wife, and the yearning for them to return, and the promise of their return in the last days (vv. 18). This story will be played out in Hosea’s own life as first seen in the first chapter. This verse (the last verse of the chapter) hit me with the phrase ‘And I will have mercy on [her who had] not obtained mercy’. What a stark picture of our own lives! Mercy has been given to us, lavished upon us, and we have not obtained it. There is nothing that we have done that could have led God to give us this mercy, in fact, we were much like the harlot of this chapter – running away from God and offering ourselves to anything that passed us by. And yet God has called us back, and washed us from our idolatry, and loved us and given us immeasurable mercy. We need to savour that.

Hosea 1:2b

Today we start the book of Hosea. This book tells an interesting story about the author, which serves as an analogy for Israel. Typically (refer to the Major prophets), the prophecies consist of serious accusations of idolatry and immorality against both Israel and Judah, followed by warnings of imminent disaster, followed by loving reinforcements of God’s grace and love in the form of assurance of future restoration. Hosea lived before the captivity of the Northern Kingdom of Israel, through the period of kings of which nearly none were any good.

God commands Hosea to take a wife, so that this analogy can take place. In fact, the words in my Bible read:

‘Go, take yourself a wife of harlotry
And children of harlotry,
For the land has committed great harlotry
By departing from the LORD.’ (Hosea 1:2b)

Now, I have read this before, and had a little problem with it, because I just never thought that God could ask someone to marry someone that he knew was impure. Especially so, since later on in the book *spoiler alert*, Hosea rejects her for her harlotry. It is a bit odd then that he rejects her after marriage, rather than declining to marry her in the first place!

However, I think it is clear (and MaCarthur agrees), that in fact the woman was pure before marriage, and God referred to her future adultery (because God exists outside of time). This also makes more sense in the higher analogy.

Given this interpretation, you still have to wonder what is going through Hosea’s mind. He still hears the words “wife of harlotry”, so he can know what to expect. I’m sure he at least half cottoned-on to the analogy (and God makes it semi-clear in the above verse), but even so, he has to put himself through the emotional turmoil of marriage and unfaithfulness.

As I write I am beginning to get the feeling that perhaps God wants all of us to somewhat feel what He feels for us. Because it is true that He bought us with His blood, and we are now His bride, and yet how often are we unfaithful? And so often I think we can transform that thought into merely that – a thought. ‘Ah yes, we shouldn’t be unfaithful, we shouldn’t turn to anything else other than God, because God is the best thing for us always...’ and so the thoughts carry on. But what about what is going on in God’s heart? What is He actually feeling? I imagine a great deal more intense emotions than what we feel when we are rejected by those that we love. Yes, the thought is a ‘correct’ thought, but sometimes I think we have to remember that God loves us with a real love, a love that we experience with our minds and our hearts. Imagine the pain that God goes through when we sin against Him. This should be incentive enough not to sin, or find our pleasure in things other than God!