Studies in Romans

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Summary of ContentsOPENING REMARKS: 1:1-17BAD NEWS : Universality of sin and its condemnation 1:18 - 3:20GOOD NEWS : A gospel that changes our relationship to God 3:21- 5:21HOW TO GROW AS A CHRISTIAN : 6:1- 8-39

Sanctification 6:1-23The Place of the Law 7:1-25Life in the Spirit 8:1-39

A SHORT DETOUR : Questions concerning Israel 9:1-11:36HOW A CHRISTIAN OUGHT TO LIVE : 12:1-15:13 In our various relationships 12:1-13:14 Dealing with the ‘weak’ and the ‘strong’ 14:1-15:13PAUL’S GENTILE MINISTRY, POLICY AND PLANS : 15:14-33GREETINGS AND CLOSING DOXOLOGY : 16:1-27

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Studies in RomansOpening Remarks Part 2

Chap.1v1-17

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Opening Remarks 1v1-17His Reader’s Credentials v6-71. God set his unfathomable love upon them. Human love has limits, we can measure it but the love of God is beyond measure. Its like dropping a submersible exploration machine into the ocean. It can go down to great depths but eventually it reaches its limit. It cannot safely go any deeper. And there is still much more ocean below it which is beyond its ability to explore. It has reached its limit. God’s love is limitless.

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Opening Remarks 1v1-17His Reader’s Credentials v6-7

2. ‘Called of God’. The call of God is not a kind of hopeful pleading, “is anyone there?” Rather those who hear his voice find it irresistible. They are drawn to God as a sheep is to its shepherd, [John 10.14-16] or as iron filings are to a magnet.

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Opening Remarks 1v1-17His Reader’s Credentials v6-7

3. ‘Saints’. The idea behind the word saint is that of separation. Separation from the world and its values and love of sinning and separation to God and to his values and love for holiness.

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Opening Remarks 1v1-17Paul’s Goal Unpacked v8-17

1. The Wisdom of his Approach. Paul almost always begins his letters with praise. His goal is not to demolish people’s lives but to build them up, to applaud what is praiseworthy. “Your faith is being reported all over the world”. This is a good example to follow.

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Opening Remarks 1v1-17Paul’s Goal Unpacked v8-17

2. He reminds them they are prayed for. v103. He wants to help strengthen them. v114. He wants to be encouraged by them. v12 Paul views ministry as two way traffic the believers can help him and he them.

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Opening Remarks 1v1-17Paul’s Motivation for Mission v14-15

1. Under obligation. “I am bound both to Greeks and non Greeks, both to the wise and the foolish” v14. The word “bound” can be translated 'debtor‘. Paul tells us he is a man under strong obligation to communicate the gospel. Cf 2Cor. 5.14 “the love of Christ constrains me”. Cf. Jer. 20.9. “But if I say, "I will not mention him or speak any more in his name," his word is in my heart like a fire...I am weary of holding it in; indeed, I cannot”.

Now that is a constraint or obligation that lies upon every Christian. We are all bound men and women.

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Opening Remarks 1v1-17Paul’s Motivation for Mission v14-15

2. The gospel is for the whole world. “Greeks and non Greeks, wise and foolish” v14Paul is ready to preach the gospel to the most cultured and the most uncultured, to those with giant intellects and to intellectual pygmies. Later he makes it clear that, all men are sinful and in need of the gospel. There are no class divisions before the judgement seat of God. All men, without exception, need God’s salvation.

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Opening Remarks 1v1-17The Gospel in a Nutshell v16-17Many people before buying a book look inside the dust cover and read the few sentences that explain the plot or the content of the book.

Similarly, these two verses touch on themes that will be explored in greater detail in the course of the epistle. They contain important ingredients. The gospel in a nutshell.

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Opening Remarks 1v1-17The Gospel in a Nutshell v16-171. A Gospel to be proud of.The gospel was ridiculed in the intellectual and philosophical climate of the day [Acts 17:18]. It centred upon a man who was born in a stable in a third-rate province of the Roman Empire. Jesus had received no formal university training. Many of his followers were common social misfits.

He died the death of a common criminal and the social stigma of that clung to his memory. And so the gospel was a stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to the Gentiles. But when Paul Spoke of the gospel his face glowed with pride.

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Opening Remarks 1v1-17The Gospel in a Nutshell v16-172. A Gospel of salvation.First salvation delivers us from a fourfold bondage. Secondly salvation delivers us to a threefold freedom:

1. Man needs to be delivered from the guilt of sin.

2. Man needs to be delivered from the penalty of sin.

3. Man needs to be delivered from the power of sin

4. Man needs to be delivered from the pollution of sin

1. It delivers us to a new relationship with God.

2. It delivers us to a new power for living.

3. It delivers to us a new hope: the hope of glory.

Delivered from Delivered to

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Opening Remarks 1v1-17The Gospel in a Nutshell v16-173. Salvation is all about God’s powerSeneca, the Roman philosopher, recognised all men needed salvation. But he saw in terms of 'a helping hand'. Man was not quite capable of saving himself, he needed ‘a bit of help’. In contrast, Paul's gospel is not an encouragement to self-effort. He does not say, ‘Do your best and God will make up the difference’. He does not say, ‘If you score 80% and God will throw in the remaining 20%’. Rather, he is saying that the gospelis God's powerful way of saving us.

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Opening Remarks 1v1-17The Gospel in a Nutshell v16-173. Salvation is all about God’s powerPaul knew what picture the word 'power' would conjure up in the Roman mind. The achievements of the Roman legions were legendary. But the achievements of the gospel eclipsed those of the Roman war machine. God's power is creative and not destructive; it does not suppress, it liberates. This transforming power is likened in 2Cor 5:17 to God's power at work in creation.

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Opening Remarks 1v1-17The Gospel in a Nutshell v16-174. A Gospel for allThis plan of salvation, though beginning with the Jew, does not end there. The risen Jesus commissioned his disciples to take the gospel to ‘the uttermost parts of the earth’ [Acts 1:8]. Some in Paul's day believed the gospel was only for the Jews. Others that it was only for the Gentiles, that the Jews had no need of it because they were already in God's fold.

Paul will shortly show that the need of the Jew is as real as that of the Gentile, that the need of the religious man is as great as that of the irreligious.

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Opening Remarks 1v1-17The Gospel in a Nutshell v16-175. A Gospel revealed by God.

Man is created with the gift of deductive reasoning. He knows that ifhe drops a glass on a concrete floor it will break. When he attempts to apply this reasoning to the realm of religion - he concludes, ‘I must do something to earn God's favour!’ But the gospel is not the fruit of human deduction but of divine revelation.The word ‘revelation’ means 'unveiling'. The gospel contradicts man’s thinking. It is not something which man could ever have predicted or produced. Gospel truth only beginsto make sense to us as God reveal it to us.

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Opening Remarks 1v1-17The Gospel in a Nutshell v16-176. It provides a righteousness from God. The gospel reveals – ‘a righteousness from God’. This phrase has been misunderstood by many. It caused Martin Luther great agony of soul. He thought Romans taught that the gospel revealed God's righteous character and demanded anunattainable standard. He wrote, ‘I saw it and I wished always that God had not made the gospel known, because this fuller revelation of therighteousness of God seemed to me utterly hopeless and helpless, and I did not know what to do with myself; the righteousness of God blocked the way.’

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Opening Remarks 1v1-17The Gospel in a Nutshell v16-176. It provides a righteousness from God. What is the righteousness Paul speaks of? It is a gift that comes from God a righteousness that satisfies God’s holy standards. It is a righteousness that enables man to meet with God's approval. The purpose of the gospel is to make us righteous in God’s sight, to make us acceptable to him. And God himself provides us with the veryrighteousness that he demands. That is the glory of the gospel!

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Opening Remarks 1v1-17The Gospel in a Nutshell v16-177. This righteousness is accessed by faith.And God gives the faith which enables a man to clothe himself in the righteousness of Christ [Eph. 2:8]. Faith is not the cause of our salvation. Faith is, to use Calvin's expression;‘the bucket that we lower into the well of salvation’.

Faith is God's means of equipping us to make salvation our own.

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