The Bible Archive: Study, Think, Decide, Act.
The Romans Issue
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| Studying Romans |
| We begin with the knowledge and understanding that we will rely on the Lord for guidance in this study. It's been my hope for a while to have some in-depth Bible studies in the Archive, but I have encountered several problems.
Firstly, when it comes to an actual book study, I really haven't been able to write out my thoughts in that sort of “article” format. Normally, I would just pin up one of the outlines I've worked out, but that has been looking horrid. All in all, it offers no real lea...
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| God\'s Slave |
The Book of Romans--Part 2 (v1-2) A Slave of Christ
Let us continue this next section by leaning on the Lord for guidance and understanding in this study.
We left off making some preliminary commentary on the righteousness
of God defended in the book of Romans, or in other words, how God is
justified or declared right. Before we enter the courtroom of the book
of Romans, let us look at some peripheral details of the letter itself.
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| Early Chapters |
The Book of Romans Part 3 (1:3,4) Son of God with Power
Once more, we continue our study
with the knowledge that we are leaning on the Lord Jesus for
understanding and guidance. Blessed Lord, speak what you will...I know
that the readers are immensely well versed in the subject we are
undertaking and pray that I merely can have some fruit among them.
Amen.
In my zeal, I realized too late that in my previous post
I dove right into verse 3. Today, we touch on the first (and a
comparatively minor) difficulty in the book of Romans, found in v...
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| The Just Shall Live |
The Book of Romans Part 4 (1:8 - 17): Living by Faith
Continuing
our topic at hand we will see three things in particular today: 1)
Edifying each other in the church; 2) What does it mean to not be
ashamed of the gospel of God; and 3) What does it mean when Paul writes
that "The just shall live by faith"?
Still in Paul's introduction, we start to see the basis for his
letter and yet also the great care he takes in executing the letter to
the Roman believers. We'll see this great care repeated in the final
chapter, but for now we see...
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| God\'s Revelation |
The Book of Romans Part 5 (1:18-32) Progression of Rejection
We broach today's subject with our continued reliance on the Lord for guidance and wisdom in our studies.
This portion may very likely be one of the most powerful passages in
scripture delineating the wrath of God and also often misused. It has
been used to show how God hates homosexuality and also used to support
that men can be saved by looking at creation. I've seen this portion
used for teaching that the only way to preach the gospel is to start
with creation. It has been used to i...
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| God\'s Revelation |
The Book of Romans Part 6 (2:1-16) Being a Good Person
Although the person Paul is addressing has changed,
the argument is still continuing underneath the same thought flow. The
thought-flow being how God is found just, in this particular case, by
the fact that He judges. God's righteousness, it said in chapter one
was seen in the fact that He judges all unrighteousness.
In the previous chapter, Paul showed God's progressive judgment of men
who suppress the knowledge of God within them, ultimately reveling in
their own darkness and reject...
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| God\'s Revelation |
The Book of Romans Part7 (2:16-3:1) The Jews Treachery
We left off
seeing the thought flow of this first major theme, namely that the
grossest-sinner-and-unbeliever is in the same exact boat as the
moral-and-upright-unbeliever. This category of moralist includes, of
course, the Jew (as aforementioned). The Jew stood on the side of God
judging the sins of the people around him, clamoring at the evil found
therein.
This Jew found comfort, Paul would point out, on the fact of the Law
and the special relationship the Jew had with God (v17). ...
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| The Condemnation is Just |
The Book of Romans Part 8 (3:1-9) Crime and Poetry
This portion in Paul's argument is coming to its pinnacle. Paul has
deftly drawn the reader into the court-room where God is the wronged
party and His defense is being offered. Paul started the argument by
highlighting the point that God is righteous in that He judges.
Not missing the beat, Paul quickly illustrated how
God judges the guilty heathen—no mention of hidden counsels or any such
thing of the so...
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| Hope |
The Book of Romans Pt.10 (3:18-25) Mans Doom and Gods Answer
Now, it would be important to realize that I did not say, "men are not sinners".
That would have been foolish and completely inconsistent with the
thrust of the passage. I am simply saying that the poetic passage is
not a point by point listing of the utter depravity of man but rather a
descriptive illustration of how all of mankind, both Jew and Greek, are sinners (Rom. 3:9).
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| Case Law |
XI Case Law (Romans 4)
Court in Session
In our courtroom (other articles linked below), we find the defendant's
lawyer, Paul, showing more evidence. Men are judging God (the
defendant) and bring the unjust claim that He has no say in their
actions and is in fact faulty in His ruling. Paul's argument then is to
defend God's righteousness and we have already mentioned that this
defense consists of four major movements.
The first line of defense is God's righteousness in the very
f...
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| What Belief Looks Like |
XII Effective Belief (Romans 5)
After using case-law to establish precedence in defense of
God's righteousness when He declares a sinner justified, Paul now makes the
link to the present discussion. We have a man who is in a position of total
depravity in that specific sense which we have previously established. The man
is ruined before God and although God enjoys good works the idea that a person
can use works to make their state righteous before God is completely usel...
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| Romans Five |
XIII - Justifaction's Hole? Romans 5
"Excuse me, sir but there is a gaping hole in God's righteousness."
We're back in the courtroom where Paul is defense lawyer for God. The
prosecution is Man and he's trying to prove how God is unrighteous.
"You say that God is righteous in that he justifies the sinner...but he
did nothing to the sinner's mind!"
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| New Life |
XIV. Reckon Yourself Dead (Romans 6)
Fine then, the Law came in so that lawbreaking would increase
which would mean all the more need for grace. So what does it matter? Why not
keep sinning? I mean, Paul, if God is so righteous and he is now saving sinners
by grace…why not sin so that there’s even more grace? What answer do you have
to that sin nature in all of us?
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| Articles on Early Chapters |
| The Jewish Problem | XIX. Romans: The Problem of the Jews -tmp(Rom 9:1-2)
Let me start an investigation of the third movement of Paul's defense
by directing attention to Brother Russ' series on Calvanism. There are
many discussions that may arise based on very old arguments that I
don't want to spend (too much) time discussing. Not that the
discussions shouldn't be—but rather it detracts from my purpose of
going through the book of Romans. Calvinists and Arminians would both
agree that their respective stan...
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| The Promises of God | XX. Romans: God's Word Stands -tmp(Rom 9:3-9)
The question “what about the Jew” is frighteningly important in it's
historic context. Paul immediately impresses upon the reader how
important his kinsmen according to the flesh are since it directly
impacts God's good word.
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| The Consistency of God | XXI. Romans: Why God's Word Stands -tmp(Rom 9:10-15)
These next few verses wind up being breeding ground for lots of
contention. Some have inappropriately used these verses to show that
Jacob was “saved” and Esau “damned to hell”. It seems to me that this
ignores Paul's argument at this stage of his defense of the
righteousness of God: that being, God's Word stands and now, why it
stands.
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| God\'s Mercy | XXII-Romans: Mercy vs. Harden -tmp(Rom 9:16-18)
We're considering God's righteousness and seeing how it works with
mercy specifically in the case of the Jews. Thus far Paul impressed on
us his sorrow that the Jews are not presently believers of the revealed
Christ. Paul has been showing us how important a people they truly are
and has taken us through history showing how and why God's Word of
Promise was established. We saw how they were kept from Edom's fate only by God's mercy. Let's look at this mercy.
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| Fallacious Argumentation | Fallacious Argument of Election in Romans 9
I was listening to a preacher talk about why he is a Calvinist and one of his proofs was dealing with the questions of Romans chapter nine and how his answers gel with what Paul writes. I'm not sure if that makes sense right now and I'll have to go into further detail on how he (and others) do this, but up front I think this argument is flawed.
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| Gods\' Lack of Mercy? | No Mercy For the Non-Elect? Romans 9
{ is (by common consent) a rough spot. Some go in with theological girding in place and a skewed reading is bound to occur while others go in thinking they have to walk away convinced with Something because of the foreboding rumblings in the Christian atmosphere way above them. People might look at my (rather Paul's) Pharaoh versus Israel model and think that Israel was eternally saved and Pharaoh eternally damned from the get-go. I beg to differ.
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| The Potter | Potter Works The Clay (part 2) Romans 9
It would not be inconceivable to think that Paul is using the illustration of the potter and clay in a completely new way, or at the very least, a way unimagined by the readers of the Prophets. After all, many have argued that that is exactly what Matthew did (cf. {; p>
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