Yes, suffering. Nobody likes it. We’d much rather avoid it, and instead focus on the uplifting ideas of salvation and triumph in the Spirit. Well, I’ve got bad news for you—part of the Good News of the Gospel is that suffering plays an essential role in our salvation. So yes, what Paul proceeds to tell…
We now come to Romans 8—the point Paul has been building up to throughout his entire argument. So pay attention… Now, Romans 7:7-25 is, to say the least, quite the bummer, full of pain and frustration, and that whole “I don’t do what I want to do, and I do what I don’t want to…
The late Christian music pioneer Keith Green had a song entitled “Romans VII.” It was on his album, So You Want To Go Back to Egypt? If you were a Christian kid in the late 70s or early 80s, you know who Keith Green is, and you know how powerful and amazing he was. The…
Romans 6:1-7:6 really act as a unit—it is a shame that whoever put in chapter breaks, put the beginning of chapter 7 where it currently is. What we find here is Paul’s specific answer the question, “What is going to keep one from sinning if you get rid of the Torah? If you get rid…
We now come to Romans 5:12-21, a section, ironically that is often used by young earth creationists to argue for the historicity of Adam. The argument basically goes like this: Since Paul refers to Adam, and since Paul is inspired by God, and since God cannot lie, therefore there must be a historical Adam. Since…
In our journey through Romans, we now come to a different section of Paul’s argument. We must always remember, though, what Paul has been arguing up to this point: Both Gentiles and Jews are sinful Having the Torah doesn’t give the Jews any special advantage with God when it comes to righteousness Both Gentiles and…
Here we are now at Romans 4. Let’s do a quick recap, so we can always keep in mind the flow of Paul’s argument. Paul has argued: All Gentiles are sinful and deserve God’s wrath (Chapter 1) All Jews are sinful and deserve God’s wrath (Chapter 2) Having Torah doesn’t give Jews any special advantage…
In my last post, I gave the analogy of the Torah being like a medical report that diagnoses cancer. As welcomed and vital as that medical report is, only a fool would think that because he has the medical report, that somehow that medical report will cure the cancer. Such is in the same case…
As we move on to Romans 3, we need to remember that Paul is in the process of building an argument. He is ultimately going to get to the question, “How does the righteous person live?” But in order to get to that point, Paul has to first explain what is it that makes that…
After that opening salvo of Romans 1:18-32, one thing would be sure: Paul’s fellow Jews would be saying, “Preach it, brother!” (For that matter, given the topic in Romans 1:18-32, a whole lot of Evangelicals share that very sentiment). After all, what Paul put forth was the standard Jewish view of the Gentile world. Every…