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Romans
Contributed by Dennis Davidson on Jan 31, 2011 (message contributor)
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1. A Call, A Gospel, & A Task
Contributed on Jan 31, 2011
In Paul’s initial address in the letter he seeks to establish who he is & what he is about. He is God’s man & everything he is & does revolves around God
ROMANS 1: 1-7 "A CALL, A GOSPEL, AND A TASK" In the preface to his commentary on Paul’s letter to the Romans, Martin Luther wrote: "This letter is truly the most important piece in the New Testament. It is purest Gospel. It is well worth a Christian’s while not only to memorize it word for ...read more
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2. God's Universally Known Standard
Contributed on Apr 4, 2011
The lack of the written Law is not the problem, the issue is sin. All have inner knowledge of God's law & some have the external law. It is not so much which law you have, the one written in everyone's inner being or the one written in God's book.
ROMANS 2: 12-16 GOD'S UNIVERSALLY KNOWN STANDARD [James 1:22-24 / Galatians 1: 6-12] The principle stated in Romans 2:11 that "there is no partiality with God" would shock the Jews. They considered themselves worthy of special treatment by God. Does God's impartiality exclude His taking into ...read more
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3. The Encouragement Of The Faithful
Contributed on Feb 7, 2011
There is always a common bond between those who faithfully serve Christ. Their sharing in grace-gifted service for the Gospel of Christ, gives mutual encouragement be it by distant learning or close fellowship.
ROMANS 1: 8-13 THE ENCOURAGEMENT OF THE FAITHFUL [Ephesians 4: 1-16] Having introduced himself, Paul now gives a general introduction common in his letters. He was writing to the Church at Rome because he had for a long time been touched -fortified- by their deep commitment to Jesus and ...read more
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4. Our Debt To The World
Contributed on Feb 14, 2011
This message explains the Chrisitan's debt of sharing the Gospel with an unbelieving world.
ROMANS 1: 14-15 OUR DEBT TO THE WORLD [Psalm 116:1-19] In Psalm 116 (1-2) the Psalmist says "I love the Lord, because He hears my voice and my supplications. Because He has inclined His ear to me, therefore I shall call upon Him as long as I live." Then for the next seventeen verses he ...read more
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5. The Gospel Of God’s Salvation
Contributed on Feb 21, 2011
These two verses contain life transforming truth. To understand and positively respond to this truth is to have your life and eternity completely altered.
ROMANS 1: 16 & 17 "THE GOSPEL OF GOD’S SALVATION" In these important words we have the theme of the letter to the Romans which is the content of the Gospel. Paul has finished his preliminary remarks and now sounds the trumpet call of the Gospel of God. These two verses contain life ...read more
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6. God’s Imprint On Mankind
Contributed on Feb 28, 2011
God has made every person responsible for responding to the knowledge of Him place within every person & within creation.
ROMANS 1: 18-23 THE UNIVERSAL KNOWLEDGE OF GOD God’s Imprint On Mankind [Acts 17: 23-28] God has placed knowledge of Himself within every person that has ever been formed in a womb. Knowledge of God is also plainly evident in His creation. So God has made every person responsible for ...read more
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7. The Reasoning Of Fallen Man
Contributed on Mar 7, 2011
The willful rejection of God from His due place in life leads persons who were created to worship their Creator into worshiping the creation.
ROMANS 1: 21-23 THE REASONING OF FALLEN MAN [1 Corinthians 1: 18-31] Our text continues to expose the dark side of human nature as the reasoning for God's settled wrath against fallen man continues to build. Mankind's suppression of the truth is seen in their rejecting the clear imprint ...read more
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8. Exchanged For Truth
Contributed on Mar 14, 2011
When man's rebellion against God grows strong, he determines to go his own way. God will allow man to have his own way but turns him over to the results of following his own way.
ROMANS 1: 24-28 (32) EXCHANGED FOR TRUTH / THE TRUTH EXCHANGE As God put a homing device in migratory birds so that they know to fly to warmer weather when the temperature gets too cold, so He has put within man the homing device so that they should fly to Him away from evil. But God also ...read more
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9. Abandoned To A Depraved Lifestyle
Contributed on Mar 21, 2011
When people reject God's ways or God's truth, the only way remaining is the way of sin & selfishness. As people get further involved in sin, their sin inhibits their willingness & ability to form right judgments about life.
ROMANS 1: 28-32 ABANDONED TO A DEPRAVED LIFESTYLE This section addresses the havoc that occurs in human relationships and in society because of mankind's suppressing of the knowledge of God (1:18). We have discovered previously in our study of Romans chapter one that people who crave ...read more
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10. Repentance Is Proven In Life
Contributed on Mar 28, 2011
Until a person recognizes that he stands guilty & condemned before God & that he is a sinner who does not meet God's standard of righteousness, there is no possibility of salvation. Only repentance that causes one to be severed from sin in a daily obedien
ROMANS 2: 1-11 REPENTANCE IS PROVEN IN LIFE (The Judgment of Visible Verifiable Deeds) [Luke 18:9-14 / Matthew 16:27] Every person comes with a basic knowledge of good and evil built into them or nothing could be agreed upon in society. That's why any ethical or moral person would heartily ...read more
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11. Our Always True God
Contributed on Apr 17, 2011
Should evil be done because God can bring good out of it? No, before God a good end does not justifies an evil means or method. For God is always true & He cannot be faithful to the unrighteous no matter who they are or how they think.
ROMANS 3: 1-8 OUR ALWAYS TRUE GOD Most Jews believed that their possession of the law, circumcision, and an outward profession of relation to God, would provide salvation or acceptance before God for them. Paul has just demonstrated that these securities on which most Jews relied are false ...read more
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12. Guilty As Charged
Contributed on May 2, 2011
The route of personal righteousness is clearly marked, "no road to heaven this way." For we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.
ROMANS 3: 9-20 GUILTY AS CHARGED Men like to believe that they are basically good, but fallen natural man is under sin. In other words, all men are sinners, both by character and by conduct. Men may not be equal in their sinning but we are all condemned as sinners. Each and every person, ...read more
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13. God’s Righteousness Through Faith In Christ
Contributed on May 16, 2011
Man can be made right with God, but not on his own terms or in his own power. We can be saved only by the provision of God’s grace. Only by the cross of Christ can man find God’s justification & righteousness.
ROMANS 3: 21-26 GOD’S RIGHTEOUSNESS THROUGH FAITH IN CHRIST [Job 9:2-20] All human beings, of every race and rank, of every creed and culture, the immoral and the moralizing, the religious and the irreligious, are without any exception sinful, guilty, inexcusable and will be speechless before ...read more
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14. Justified By Faith
Contributed on May 23, 2011
Justification by faith humbles man by excluding all grounds of boasting. Justification by faith also provides opportunity for all mankind to be saved but still upholds the value of the Law which we have all broke.
ROMANS 3: 27-31 JUSTIFIED BY FAITH Praise God for His offer of forgiveness through faith in Jesus Christ! Those who don’t take God up on His offer don’t truly see themselves as sinners in need of salvation. They make boasts such as: My good actions outweigh my bad. I’m ...read more
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15. Righteousness Is Apart From Works
Contributed on Jun 6, 2011
Abraham was righteous before God. But what was the grounds of Abraham's righteousness, faith or works? The answer of Jewish tradition was works, but Scripture says Abraham's righteousness was by faith. Paul proves that the doctrine of justification by fai
ROMANS 4: 1-8 RIGHTEOUSNESS IS APART FROM WORKS In the preceding paragraph (3:21-31) Paul has been proclaiming a righteousness from God, and therefore valid before God, because it does not in any way depend on human merit. He stated that the Law and the Prophets, or Holy Scripture, had already ...read more
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16. The Father Of The Faithful
Contributed on Jun 20, 2011
Through this passage one can understand that Abraham was justified before he was circumcised and before the Law was given. Circumcision and legal obedience are not necessary conditions of justification
ROMANS 4:9-15 THE FATHER OF THE FAITHFUL Paul has proven that Abraham was not justified nor forgiven on account of his good actions. But what was the nature of the Covenant made with Abraham? Was the promise made on the condition of faith, or on the condition of circumcision, which was the ...read more
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17. Faith In God’s Promises
Contributed on Jun 27, 2011
The Bible makes clear the fact that man’s faith & God’s grace are both involved in salvation. For the promise of God’s salvation belongs to the realm of grace & faith, not works.
ROMANS 4: 16-18 FAITH IN GOD’S PROMISES Paul continues his illustration of Abraham as the supreme Old Testament example of saving faith. He makes clear the fact that man’s faith and God’s grace are both involved in salvation. For the promise of God’s salvation belongs to the realm of grace and ...read more
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18. Unwavering Faith
Contributed on Jul 10, 2011
Abraham believed and followed God's promises and God credited him with righteousness. Because of Jesus' death and resurrection, we, like Abraham, can be accounted as righteous through faith also.
ROMANS 4: 19-25 UNWAVERING FAITH Salvation is not something earned. It is a free gift. It is not something deserved, it is from God's grace to all who will actively take God at His Word. In this passage there is another example which illustrates Abraham's justification by faith. God gave ...read more
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19. The Sources Of Our Hope
Contributed on Aug 8, 2011
Having been justified by faith in Jesus Christ one begins a new relationship with God. And if one has this new relationship then by God's grace they can mature in the love of God through the Holy Spirit in all the circumstances of life.
ROMANS 5: 1-5 The Sources of OUR HOPE Chapter five calls us to rejoice in what faith can do. Luther said, "In the whole Bible there is hardly another chapter which can equal this triumphant text" (Epistle to the Romans, p. 72). It is like a mountain pass from which one revels in scenery ...read more
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20. God Demonstrates His Love
Contributed on Aug 15, 2011
Christian hope is based upon the solid foundation of God's reconciling love for us. This love is seen in Jesus' death on the Cross and the shedding of His blood on our behalf.
ROMANS 5: 6-11 GOD DEMONSTRATES HIS LOVE To save us from eternal death, God had to give the very life of His Son Jesus. God sent His Son to earth as a human baby too weak to lift up His own head. He learned how to crawl, how to stand, how to run. When He had grown into a man, He ...read more
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21. Ruin Or Rescue
Contributed on Aug 21, 2011
Adam is the head of all the human race and the result of his sin is transmitted to all his descendants. Likewise, Jesus Christ is the head of all born again believers and His righteousness is transmitted to all the faithful. Just as man is condemned by
ROMANS 5: 12-21 RUIN or RESCUE Thus far the book of Romans has surveyed the extent of human sin and guilt and the glorious adequacy of God's justifying grace in and through Jesus Christ. Paul has led us down into the depths of human depravity and up into the heights of divine mercy. He has ...read more
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22. Dying To Live
Contributed on Aug 28, 2011
No Christian continues in habitual sin who has by faith died to self and received the new life of Christ. Those who have died to sin are alive to God & it becomes possible for them to live for Christ.
ROMANS 6:1-7 DYING TO LIVE [Galatians 2:20] [We now begin a new section of Romans that deal with the doctrine of sanctification or the Christlike growth of disciples.] The Bible has just declared that where sin abounded, God's grace super abounded. What wonderful news this is! It means that ...read more
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23. Becoming Alive To God
Contributed on Sep 13, 2011
When Jesus Christ was crucified on the Cross, not only was His blood shed for your salvation, but His body was broken for your deliverance. There thus are two elements in Communion. His shed blood grants forgiveness of our sin, while His broken body prov
ROMANS 6: 8-14 BECOMING ALIVE TO GOD Paul started his explanation of the believer’s death to sin by helping us understand more of the significance of the historical facts of Christ’s death, burial, and Resurrection. We learned that the true believer has been "baptized" into Christ and, ...read more
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24. The Two Masters Of Man
Contributed on Sep 18, 2011
After stating the doctrine and that we are by faith to appropriate it, he now states the practical daily experience to see whether we have made it our own or not. Doctrine truly combined with belief always has corresponding verifiable actions
ROMANS 6:12-14 THE TWO MASTERS OF MAN In the previous passage Paul has been teaching doctrine and the new man's ability to appropriate and live out that doctrine by faith in its truthfulness. After stating the doctrine and that we are by faith to appropriate it, he now states the practical ...read more
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25. Finding Freedom From Sin
Contributed on Sep 18, 2011
Because of our relationship with Christ, we are enabled to live righteously and able not to live in sin. Thanks to the grace of God we are forgiven, freed, and enabled to yield our selves to Him and His service
ROMANS 6: 15-20 FINDING FREEDOM FROM SIN The previous verses taught that each man has one of two masters. Man will serve God, or man will serve sin. Sin is the most devastating, debilitating, degenerating power that ever entered creation. Sin is the terrible, life wrecking, soul-damning ...read more
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26. The Awaken Conscience
Contributed on Oct 10, 2011
The sin nature that remains within the believer & wants to express itself in his beliefs, thoughts, and actions. There is an internal conflict in the area of sanctification that every believer faces. This inner conflict is intensified for those who seek
ROMANS 7: 7-14 THE AWAKEN CONSCIENCE A believer is to understand that his identification with Jesus Christ means that he has died to sin (6:2) and then he is to reckon or take hold of (appropriate) that as true (6:11) in his daily life. For there is a force within him will need to be deal ...read more
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27. Battling Besetting Sin
Contributed on Nov 7, 2011
Paul was being defeated by (the law of) sin, forcing him (his renewed mind) to search till God could reveal to him the way of deliverance (the Law of the Spirit). The law of sin is too strong for anyone so you must yield to a higher law if you would have
BATTLING BESETTING SIN (THE ENEMY WITHIN) ROMANS 7:15-8:2 How does one go about battling the sin which so easily besets us? Is there any way to be completely delivered from the sin that has plagued your life for years and years? A person who believes in the Lord Jesus Christ may ...read more
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28. The Hope Of Glory
Contributed on Jan 9, 2012
This concept of future glory in relation to present suffering becomes the theme of our present passage. The afflictions which we are call on to endure are not only consistent to being a child of God but may come because we are a child of God. But they co
ROMANS 8: 18-25-27 THE HOPE OF GLORY [2 Corinthians 4:15-18] The preceding verse introduced the thought of participating in the suffering of Christ so that we may participate in the glory of Christ (8:17). This concept of future glory in relation to present suffering becomes the theme of ...read more
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29. God's Overruling Sovereignty
Contributed on Jan 23, 2012
The Bible fully accepts the free agency of man, but interacting with the free will of man is the overruling hand of a sovereign God. Those that love God and follow His purpose are assured that all things are working for their eternal good.
ROMANS 8: 28 GOD'S OVERRULING SOVEREIGNTY "And we know that all things work together into good for those who are loving God, for those who are being called according to His purpose." IT'S IN THE HOLY WRIT This verse in Holy Writ I see Has very often puzzled me; And many have been ...read more
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30. Salvation’s Links
Contributed on Feb 13, 2012
God’s will for every Christian is maximum family resemblance to our Elder Brother. God seeks to order our lives to achieve this lofty purpose. Christ-likeness is the wondrous outcome which God has purposed in our salvation.
ROMANS 8: 29 & 30 SALVATION’S LINKS [Ephesians 1:4-5 / Philippians 3:8-12 ] God has just said that He works all things together for good for those who love Him, for those who are called according to His purpose. But what is this "good" that is promised? We find the answer in verse 29. ...read more