INTRODUCTION: In this portion of Romans, we start to see the intersection of two realities—decretal realities and covenantal realities. This will come to full flower in the next chapter, but we see it begin here. God is utterly sovereign, and rightly understood, this means that when He chooses to use created instruments to accomplish His …
The Gospel Stone/Romans 38
INTRODUCTION: If Christ is the stone, then the message of Christ is the message stone. People confess with their mouth and are saved, and people stumble over the words of grace and are lost forever. Preaching the stone is therefore a preaching of a gospel stone, and not a gospel cushion or pillow. The stone, …
The End of the Law/Romans 37
INTRODUCTION: We have already seen that Christ is the foundation stone and the stumbling stone, depending. For the one who believes, He is the foundation of all. For the one who does not believe in Him, He is the rock of offense. THE TEXT: “Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is, …
The Stumbling Stone/Romans 36
INTRODUCTION: Why is the issue of faith and works so complicated? The answer is that it is not—it is the sinful human heart that is complicated. Because of that, we take something straightforward—trust God in all things—and tie it up into knots. But the issues outside the heart are simple. They binary. Either you will …
Saving the Remnant/Romans 35
INTRODUCTION: In order to understand Scripture rightly, we have to understand the flow of redemptive history. God’s revelation to us is progressive, and it unfolds over centuries. If we treat the Bible as the book that fell from the sky, we are going to have a terrible time comprehending it rightly. The works of God’s …
Bad Puppet!/Romans 34
INTRODUCTION: We now come to some hard words, whether they are hard to understand or simply hard to take. And as we seek to be faithful to what God has given us here, we have to be mindful of Peter’s caution—there are places in Paul’s epistles where it is not safe for ignorant or unstable …
Jacob Have I Loved/Romans 33
INTRODUCTION: We come now to the central lesson of all evangelical religion. We come now to the glorious revelation of the sovereign grace of God, as revealed in the gospel, and only through the gospel. We come now to the promises, which are great and precious. THE TEXT: “Neither, because they are the seed of …
Not All Israel Is Israel/Romans 32
Introduction It may not be immediately obvious, but it appears as though the apostle Paul painted himself into a corner. He began to wax a little too eloquent at the end of chapter 8, showing how absolutely nothing can separate the elect of God from the love of Christ. Who can lay a charge against …
Refugees and Apostles
INTRODUCTION: As we seek to live our lives as faithful Christians, informed by the Word of God, we soon discover that it is not a simple process. It is not as though the Spirit gave us a rule book, in outline form, fully indexed. He gave us laws, principles, stories, and parables, strewn across various …
Never Trust a Theologian . . .
Yesterday at church I saw a bumper sticker on a friend’s car that summarizes a lot of things wonderfully. “Never trust a theologian who hasn’t been executed.” Of course if we understand the spirit of the thing, we would not just limit ourselves to men like Cranmer, burned at the stake, but could also include …