A Study Of The Book Of Romans Lesson #2 Series

Book of Romans Study

Lesson # 2

By Rev. James May

Romans 1:3-1:7

Romans 1:1 Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God,

Romans 1:2 (Which he had promised afore by his prophets in the holy scriptures,)

Romans 1:3 Concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh:

Last week we began our study of Paul’s Epistle to the Romans by saying that this book is often called “The Constitution of Christianity”. The very foundation of this constitution is found not in the will of “We the People”, but in the “Will of Almighty God”. It is God alone who established the Law, who gave that Law to men to show us how we had failed in that Law, and that the only penalty for breaking that Law is death. The Law had no mercy and had only one requirement if broken, and that was full payment for the penalty of sin.

It was by the Mercy and Grace of God alone, that a plan was set into motion and God sent his only Son, Jesus Christ, to fulfill the requirements of the Law on our behalf, and then by confessing our sin and proclaiming Jesus Christ is Lord, we have now a set of rights and promises as Christians.

Like every other constitution, the way of salvation and the plan of God for his people not only gives rights and privileges, but it pronounces and spells out rules and regulations by which every citizen must live. Since God is no respecter of persons, and all that he does puts every man and woman on a level playing field, then we all, every Christian who is Born Again into the family of God, are bound by the laws of God as put forth in the New Testament. Though we are not under the Law of the Old Testament once we accept Christ as Savior, unlike those who are lost in sin who are under that original Law and its penalty of death, we are under a new law called the “Law of Grace”.

We will be doing a considerable amount of study on all of this as we go through Romans so I won’t spend a lot of time here right now, but as we look at verse three we are reminded of the very source of our salvation. It has come only through the Grace of God through Jesus Christ, whose coming was prophesied many times in the Old Testament and then fulfilled when Jesus was born in Nazareth as the son of the Virgin Mary, and raised by both Mary and Joseph, making him of the lineage of David just as God had foretold.

Let none of us think that anything that God has given has come to us as an accident of nature, or as a series of coincidences. It was all planned long before Adam fell in the Garden of Eden, and God’s plan has been executed with precision beyond measure, and we are told that all this to come will happen the same way. Not one Jot (dotting of an I, or the smallest punctuation mark used in any language that appears above a letter in a word) and not one tittle (crossing of a t, or, in the Greek language, the very smallest of words that can be used) shall fail until all is fulfilled.

Romans 1:4 And declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead:

As the prophets had prophesied concerning the coming of Jesus, who would be the Christ, or the Messiah, he did not begin to be the Son of God when he born of the Virgin Mary. Jesus was, is and is to come, eternal God. He only took on the form of humanity and had a human nature for one purpose; to become the sacrifice that was needed for our sin, and to make a way for the resurrection from the dead for every soul that would believe in him.

The Holy Ghost is the One who brings us into a place of holiness before God. He teaches us about Christ, leads us to Christ, bears testimony in our hearts concerning Christ and the resurrection, and then, in the time of the resurrection, it is the Holy Spirit which will quicken our dead bodies to come forth with the power of the life of God in us. As he did for Jesus; so shall the Holy Ghost do for us!

Romans 1:5 By whom we have received grace and apostleship, for obedience to the faith among all nations, for his name:

Through both the Lord Jesus Christ and the power of the Holy Ghost, we have been given gifts that will equip us for whatever service God has assigned us to do for His kingdom. Our God is the God of all Grace, and the source of all Truth, and by him alone we are given what Paul calls, “Grace and Apostleship”.