(News, April 11, 2022)
Paul’s Letter To the Romans
This spring we started a verse-by-verse study of the book of Romans, which contains some of the Bible’s greatest doctrine, most practical application and most wonderful truth. Between January and April we looked at Paul’s defense of the Gospel, chapters 1 to 4. After a break for Easter we are now looking at chapters 5 to 8, where Paul applies the Gospel to our spiritual lives. We’ll finish the book in the spring of 2023.
Part 2: April 24, 2022 to July 3, 2022
Romans 1-8: Righteousness from God – Yay!
April 24, 2022
Title: But How are the Benefits?
Text: Romans 5:1-11
Worship: God and Sinners Reconciled
Key Sentence: The benefits of justification are glorious, both now and in the future
Outline:
I. Peace with God (Romans 5:1)
II. Rejoicing in Hope (Romans 5:2-4)
III. Love Poured Out (Romans 5:5-8)
IV. Saved from Wrath (Romans 5:9-10)
V. Rejoicing in Reconciliation (Romans 5:11)
Romans 5:1–11 Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
2Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. 3Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4and endurance produces character, and character produces hope,
5and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. 6For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— 8but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
9Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. 10For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.
11More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.
May 1, 2022
Title: Death in Adam, Life in Christ
Text: Romans 5:12-21
Worship: Eternal Life in Christ
Key Sentence:
Outline:
I. Introduction
II. Death reigns in us through Adam
A. Adam was Disobedient
B. Adam’s Disobedience Results in Condemnation for Those He Represents
C. This Condemnation Brings Us Death
III. Life reigns in us through Christ
A. Christ was Obedient
B. Christ’s Obedience Results in Justification for Those He Represents
C. This Justification Brings Life
Romans 5:12–21 Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned— 13for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law. 14Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come.
15But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man’s trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many. 16And the free gift is not like the result of that one man’s sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought justification. 17For if, because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ.
18Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. 19For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous. 20Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, 21so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
May 8, 2022
Title: Walk in Newness of Life
Text: Romans 6:1-14
Worship:
Key Sentence: Life in Christ is incompatible with ongoing sin
Outline:
I. The Objection: Grace means we can keep on sinning. Romans 6:1
II. The Response: Walk in Resurrection Life. Romans 6:2-11
III. The Application: Let Not Sin Reign. Romans 6:12-14
Romans 6:1–14 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?
2By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? 3Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. 5For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.
6We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. 7For one who has died has been set free from sin. 8Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. 10For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. 11So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
12Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. 13Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. 14For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.
May 15, 2022
Title: The Outcome of our New Slavery
Text: Romans 6:15-23
Worship: The Gift of Eternal Life
Key Sentence:
There is a wonderful contrast between our old slavery and our new slavery
Outline:
I. Slavery leading to death or righteousness (Romans 6:15-16)
II. Slaves of sin or obedient to the teaching of righteousness (Romans 6:17-18)
III. Leading to more lawlessness or to sanctification. (Romans 6:19-20)
IV. The fruit of death or eternal life (Romans 6:21-22)
V. Sin earns death, but life is the gift of God. (Romans 6:23)
Romans 6:15–23 What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! 16Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness?
17But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, 18and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness.
19I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification. 20For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness.
21But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. 22But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life.
23For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
May 22, 2022
Title: Two Kinds of Death
Text: Romans 7:1-13
Worship: Set Free in Christ
Key Sentence: Flee the death that kills you to embrace the death that sets you free.
Outline:
I. The death that sets you free (Romans 7:1-6)
II. The death that kills you (Romans 7:7-13)
Romans 7:1–13 Or do you not know, brothers—for I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law is binding on a person only as long as he lives? 2For a married woman is bound by law to her husband while he lives, but if her husband dies she is released from the law of marriage. 3Accordingly, she will be called an adulteress if she lives with another man while her husband is alive. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law, and if she marries another man she is not an adulteress. 4Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God. 5For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death. 6But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code.
7What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.” 8But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the law, sin lies dead. 9I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died. 10The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me. 11For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. 12So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good. 13Did that which is good, then, bring death to me? By no means! It was sin, producing death in me through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure.
May 29, 2022
Title: The Wretched Christian
Text: Romans 7:14-25
Worship: Thanks be to God
Key Sentence: I want to do good, but I do not do the good I want, because sin dwells in me
Round 1: Romans 7:14-18a
Round 2: Romans 7:18b-20
Round 3: Romans 7:21-23
Resolution: I Cry to Christ
Romans 7:14–25 For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin. 15For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. 16Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. 17So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. 18For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh.
For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. 19For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. 20Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.
21So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. 22For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, 23but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.
24Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? 25Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.
June 5, 2022
Title: The Mind Set on the Spirit
Text: Romans 8:1-11
Worship: Life in the Spirit
Key Sentence: Righteous in Christ, we find life and peace in His Spirit.
Outline:
I. We are set free in Christ Jesus.
II. The mind set on the Spirit is life,
III. Because to have the Spirit is life.
Romans 8:1–11 (DSV) There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 2For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. 3For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in the flesh, 4in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
5For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. 6For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace. 7For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. 8Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
9You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. 10But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. 11If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.
June 12, 2022
Title: “Abba, Father!”
Text: Romans 8:12-17
Worship: Abba, Father
Key Sentence: It’s a privilege to be adopted, intimate sons and daughters of God.
Outline:
I. We receive the Spirit’s help (Romans 8:12-14)
II. We cry out to the Father by the Spirit. (Romans 8:15-16)
III. We are suffering and glorified heirs. (Romans 8:17)
Romans 8:12–17 So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. 13For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. 14For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.
15For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” 16The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God,
17and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.
June 19, 2022
Title: Patient Groaning (Romans 8:18-25)
Text: Romans 8:18-25
Worship: Longing in Hope
Key Sentence: The future we long for fulfills not only us, but all of creation.
Outline:
I. Present suffering and future glory (Roman 8:18)
II. Creation’s present, patient, suffering (Romans 8:19-22)
III. Our present, patient hope (Romans 8:23-25)
Note: She Waits
Romans 8:18–25 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.
19For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. 20For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope 21that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. 22For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now.
23And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. 24For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? 25But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.
June 26, 2022
Title: God Knows What’s Good for Us
Text: Romans 8:26-39
Worship: Working for Our Good
Key Sentence: In all things God is working his will for our good.
Outline:
I. Praying for our good (Romans 8:26-27)
II. Working for our good (Romans 8:28)
III. Achieving our good (Romans 8:29-30)
Romans 8:26–30 Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. 27And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.
28And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.
29For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. 30And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.
July 3, 2022
Title: If God is For Us
Text: Romans 8:31-39
Worship: If God is for Us
Key Sentence: If God is for us, nothing can harm us.
Outline:
I. If God is for us (Romans 8:31-32)
II. If God justified us (Romans 8:33-34)
III. If Christ’s love is with us (Romans 8:35-39)
Romans 8:31-39 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? 33Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. 34Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.
35Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? 36As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” 37No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
