ROMANS (Letter 45, Larry Crabb’s 66 Love Letters)
Think Hard And, At The Same Time, Let Your Imagination Soar
How can I, a lost and guilty sinner, stand before a just and holy God?
We must recognize our lingering inclination to think we’ve arrived, to believe that we have lived in such a way that obligates God to bless us.
Brokenness and dependence must define our journey.
Many people, including too many of God’s followers, continue to relate with others for their own purposes.
When God’s enemy seems to be winning in the world or in the church or in our life, we should not be troubled.
The God of peace will soon crush Satan under our feet.
ROMANS: ROMANS – From Ray Stedman
Click here for entire Bible Summary from Ray Stedman
The Message of Romans
· This is the book that lit the fire in Martin Luther’s heart and brought about the Protestant Reformation, changing the history of Europe, as well as the world.
· This is the book that struck home as John Wesley sat in a little chapel in London listening to Luther’s Prelude to the Epistle to the Romans. Wesley said his heart was strangely warmed as he heard the truths of Romans set forth. There followed, through him, the great evangelical awakening that saved England from the fate of France and arrested the decay of English life, completely altering the history of the world again.
· A church in Montana was once regarded as the most liberal church in the city of Great Falls. The pastor was in Chicago on one occasion, and he went into the Moody Church to see what fundamentalists were saying. He wanted to find something to criticize. He listened to Dr. Ironside teaching the book of Romans, and his heart was captured by that message. Afterward he talked with Dr. Ironside, who gave him a copy of his lectures on Romans. This man read the book on the train back to Montana, and by the time he reached Great Falls, he was a transformed man. He went into his pulpit and began to proclaim the truths of the book of Romans and the church was transformed. I have, therefore, had the experience of seeing a completely liberal church transformed to an evangelical testimony in the space of a few years by the power of the book of Romans.
It contains almost every Christian doctrine in some form, and is a panorama of the marvelous plan of God for the redemption of man.
· The first eight chapters are doctrinal explanations of what God is doing with man; how he redeems the total man – body, soul and spirit.
· Chapters 9-11 illustrate this for us in the nation Israel.
· And 12-16 is the practical section in which all these mighty truths are applied to human situations.
Chapter 1 – Paul’s theme – the righteousness of God which is revealed in the gospel. The condition of a rebellious people who display their hatred towards God and their suppression of the truth of God by flagrantly disobeying him, observing no standard, living as they please, and doing what they like. The result is a moral decay, and a perversion of the natural drives of life. Even the sexual drives become perverted, so that men give themselves to men, and women to women, as this chapter describes. This is exactly
what is taking place in society today.
Chapter 2 – So here we a the picture of humanity. “Do-your-own-thing” people are on one side, looking at the moral, respectable people and saying, “Look at the hypocrites. I wouldn’t touch them with a ten-foot pole.” And all the “moral and respectable” people are looking at these others and saying, “Look at that immoral crowd. We don’t want anything to do with them.” But God, turns the spotlight on humanity, says, “You are all equally guilty.” There is no difference.
Chapter 3 – verse 23, For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
Romans 3:19-20 – Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be
silenced and the whole world held accountable to God. Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the
law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin… for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
{Rom 3:23b J.B.Phillips} – “everyone falls short of the beauty of God’s plan”
There are three phases of redemption – justification, sanctification, and glorification
Chapter 4 illustrates the meaning of justification.
Chapter 5 – sanctification
Chapter 12 – glorification
Justification is a permanent, unchangeable thing; God does in the spirit is to implant his Holy Spirit there. It is far more than forgiveness of sin, although it includes that; it is a position before God as though we never had sinned at all.
Paul illustrates this in Chapter 4 with Abraham and David, who were both justified on this basis. No religious hocus-pocus, no attempt to obey an unreachable standard, would be adequate in God’s sight. It was to be simply by faith; these men believed God about his Son.
Unfortunately, many Christians stop right there. They think that is all salvation is about – a way to escape hell and get to heaven. But there is more to the human life than the spirit; there is also the soul and the body.
Chapter 5 – Paul sets forth for us the way God works to deliver the soul (our mind, our emotions, and our will).
Chapter 6 – It begins to show us how. Here Paul declares that God, through the death of Jesus, not only died for us, but we also died with him. That is a great truth. When God says he set us free from the life of Adam and linked us to the life of Christ, he really did.
Chapter 7 – When we finally learn that there is nothing we can do for God, but that he intends to do everything through us, then we come into deliverance.
Chapter 8 – Here Paul shows us that while we are still in this life the body remains unredeemed, but the fact that the spirit has been justified, and the soul is being sanctified is a guarantee that God will one day redeem (glorify) the body as well.
Chapter 9 – The sovereignty of God, magnificently treated.
Chapter 10 – He links the sovereignty of God with the moral responsibility and freedom of man.
Chapter 11 – When we freely admit, in practice, that without Christ we can do nothing, then we shall learn that we can do all things through him who strengthens us.
The doxology at the close of Chapter 11, Verse 33: Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How
unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out!
Chapter 12 – Verse 1, Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and
pleasing to God-this is your spiritual act of worship. When you give yourself to Him, you will find your life being changed in all your relationships. Life will be changed in relation to other believers.
Chapter 13 – When you give yourself to Him, it will affect your relationship to mankind in general, and to all society.
Chapter 14 – When you give yourself to Him, your attitudes toward the weak will be entirely opposite to what it was before you were a Christian.
Chapter 15 – When you give yourself to Him, your attitude toward the lost will be entirely different. There will be a burning passion to reach them, for a quite different reason than you ever could have had before.
Chatper 16 – Verses 25-27, Now to him who is able to establish you by my gospel and the proclamation of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery hidden for long ages past, but now revealed and made known through the prophetic writings by the command of the eternal God, so that all nations might believe and obey him-to the only wise God be glory forever through Jesus Christ! Amen.
ROMANS – David Jeremiah (Understanding the 66 Books of the Bible)
Key thought: Because we could not become righteous by our own efforts, God provided justification for us by grace through faith in Jesus Christ.
Key Verse: For if by the one man’s offense death reigned through the one, much more those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Chist. Romans 5:17
Key Action: We must receive the abundance of God’s grace which saves us and enables us to reign in life through Christ Jesus.