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Study Romans

capital i f your church is like most, the preacher will read a few verses from the Bible, and then expound on those few verses with a half hour or more of his own words. You're not likely to even hear the entire Bible taught from the pulpit, even if you attend faithfully all your life! Personal study is the way to go if you want to understand scripture. Romans is the one book in the Bible to study, if you want to understand the whole Bible. In Romans, the apostle Paul gives a lesson in introductory Christianity. It is as if you were in college and taking your first course in your new major, Christianity, and Romans is the textbook. The book can be summarized in three words, which are "Righteousness from God". The book can easily be segmented into these parts:

Introduction chap 1 through verse 17
No One is Righteous chap 1:18-3:10
Justification by Faith chap 3:11-5
The First Anticipated Question chap 6-8
The Second Anticipated Question chap 9-11
Encouragements and Instructions chap 12-15

Introduction

The introduction contains mostly comments not germane to the lesson in this book until the end at verses 16 and 17 where a "righteousness from God" is mentioned, and there is a quote from the Old Testament - "The righteous will live by faith" (Habakkuk 2:4). To feel the significance of these phrases we need to know the book of Romans, so let's get right to it.

No one is righteous

Often we have a difficult time to learn something new, because an old erroneous thought gets in the way. That's what this section is about: getting the erroneous thought out of the way. And the old erroneous thought is: If I'm good, God will let me into heaven. To convince you that you actually don't deserve to be in heaven with Christ, Paul approaches the problem gradually by getting you to admit that there are indeed scoundrels in the world who indeed deserve to be condemned. (1:18-32) Then he brings to our attention some people that are not quite as bad as the worst scoundrels, but they are deserving of condemnation as well. Eventually we see, by the same logic, everyone deserves condemnation. This section culminates in the verse 3:10 which says "there is no one who is righteous". You are supposed to get the message: You are not righteous, either. This is an important point which also appears twice in the Old Testament (Psalm 14:1-3, Psalm 53:1-3). See also 1John 1:8&9. No one gets right with God without admitting that he/she is a sinner.

Paul points out that the law then, is not to show us how to earn righteousness, but to show us we need righteousness. Chapter 3 verses 19 and 20 are very important: "Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, that every mouth may become guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin." Now we know the purpose of the law. No where else in scripture is this said more clearly.

Justification by faith

This is the center of the book. The most important part is chapter 3 verse 21 and 22:

"But now the Righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God which is through faith in Jesus Christ to all and on all who believe."

The phrase "witnessed by the Law and the Prophets" is included so that you know that this is not a new idea, but was always taught in scripture, though never so clearly as in the book of Romans. To phrase it another way: Here is a righteousness revealed; which is from God, which is not related to the law, and is given to you who have faith in Christ. Verses 23 through 26 clarify with more details: This applies to everyone since everyone is a sinner, it is by God's grace, it is paid for by the blood of Jesus. Verse 27: there is no boasting of course, because I did not earn, but I received a gift. Verse 28 and 29: It is the same for everyone. Verse 31: "Do we then make void the law through faith? Certainly not! On the contrary, we establish the law." In my words: My previous erroneous thought was that I earned merit through the law. Now that I have grace through faith, I'm not throwing away the law, but rather my erroneous idea about it. Now I know what the law is for. SPEND SOME TIME WITH THESE VERSES!

Chapter 4: Paul demonstrates with the examples of Abraham and David that this is not a new idea, but one that was taught in the Old Testament.

Chapter 5: More elaborating!

The first anticipated question

Since my works don't earn my righteousness, should I just go ahead and sin? After all, I avoided sin because I thought I would be judged as a result!

In chapter 6 Paul gives a non-exhaustive list of reasons why not to sin.

Chapter 7: Here is a picture of a person who is struggling to win merit under the law and has not yet received Christ.

Chapter 8: Here is a picture of a person having received Christ. Verse 1: " There is therefore no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit." The phrase "who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit" is descriptive of you, not prescriptive. You just learned that works do not earn you merit, remember? So if you are thinking "All I have to do is walk according to the Spirit so that I won't deserve condemnation" then go back to No one is righteous and start over. Note verse 2: "For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death." The "law of sin and death" is the Mosaic law which cannot earn you merit, and "the law of the Spirit of life" is this new principle of receiving grace through faith in Christ.

The second anticipated question

But wait: Aren't the Jews God's chosen people? Paul's answer to this is that God is sovereign - He always gets His way. In answer to the question "Why does he still find fault? For who has resisted His will?" (9:19) Paul does not reply to the question directly. If he had perhaps we wouldn't have the endless free will vs. predestination debates. I think the two are not mutually exclusive, but don't ask me about it. "How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out!" (11:33).

Encouragements and instructions

The last section is typical of Paul's letters as he first gives a lesson and follows it with "now then, how are we going to respond and live?". The last section is not otherwise logically connected to the preceding lesson.