INTRODUCTION: We have seen that the apostle Paul continues to answer the question created by the gospel of grace. Gentiles are under sin. Jews are under sin. They are both under sin. God promised to remake the world through Abraham, and God did this by sending a final Adam. This glorious message can be twisted …
Two Lines/Romans 24
INTRODUCTION: We are now on the threshold of a vexed portion of the book of Romans. Christians have long divided over whether Paul is describing his pre-Christian life or his post-conversion life. Is the description of anguish in Romans 7 characteristic of the Christian life? Or is it a description of his experience prior to …
Our Second Husband/Romans 23
INTRODUCTION: Remember that the apostle has laid out the gospel for us, and he is now answering objections. The universal problem is set forth in the first three chapters, and then the glorious gospel in chapters four and five. Beginning in chapter six, he starts anticipating and answering objections. The first is that if we …
Ugly Babies/Romans XXII
INTRODUCTION: We come now to Paul’s treatment of the great theme of true liberty and freedom. What is the nature of freedom? We need to be especially careful with this because as Americans we are trained to believe that we understand liberty in some special way, while it appears that we have really lost an …
Three Kinds of Death/Romans XXI
INTRODUCTION: As we continue to work through this great letter of the apostle, we can see in various ways how his mind works. We see it in how he answers objections—”one of you will say to me then . . .” We also see in this passage a typical Pauline move, where he says, “These …
How to Understand the Gospel/Romans 20
INTRODUCTION: Thus far in Romans we have learned of our universal plight in Adam, whether or not we are Jews or Gentiles (1-3). We have also learned of the universal salvation for the human race that has been accomplished in the second Adam (4-5), the salvation that was promised for the world through father Abraham. …
Humanity 2.0/Romans 19
INTRODUCTION: In Adam, with Humanity 1.0, the system crashed. God could have written it off as a wasted project, but in His grace He did not. In Christ, the prototype for the next version was revealed, and subsequent human history has been the period of beta testing for Humanity 2.0. The last day will be …
The Reconciliation/Romans 18
INTRODUCTION: We have a tendency to describe our conversions as one single-faceted event. But in the Scripture, conversion to Christ is multi-faceted, and the different words we use are not synonyms. We will be considering some of those terms in the context of this passage, and it is important to note that they describe different …
Peace With God/Romans 17
INTRODUCTION: Recall that the first three chapters of Romans address the universal problem, the problem of sin. Sin afflicts the Gentiles, as we saw in chapter 1. It afflicts the Jews, as St. Paul shows in chapter 2. Sin has both Jew and Gentile in its grip—that is the argument of chapter 3. In the …
Fully Persuaded/Romans 16
INTRODUCTION: We continue following the apostle’s discussion of Abraham’s faith. We finished our treatment of Romans 4:16, knowing that Abraham was the father of believing Jew and believing Gentile alike. But what do we mean by that word believing? Abraham sets the pattern, and in this passage we learn what his faith was actually like. …