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PRECEPT STUDY

ROMANS PART 1 - LECTURE 3

The Setting and Overview of Romans

INTRODUCTION. Not too long ago I was on a plane—that’s kind of a common occurrence in my life these days—but I was on a plane. I asked them if they would please give me an empty seat next to me because I find that my time is so crammed with responsibilities. Many times when I get on a plane I have writing to do, correspondence to answer or something to read and I just needed a little breathing space. I got on a plane and I sat down on an aisle seat and next to the window was a businessman. He looked at me and smiled and I smiled at him and opened my Bible and began to study but at the same time praying and saying, “Father, if you want me to witness to this man, if this is of You, if this is going to be profitable then you just open the door.” And as the plane took off—I love to take off on a plane—I just lean back and it reminds me of walking in the Spirit—you know the aerodynamics of the Spirit that take over—that gravity pull of the flesh—so I just lean back and enjoy it each time. We got in the air and he began to take to me. And as I began to in that conversation, look for God’s opening to share the gospel of Jesus Christ He threw the door open. And as I talked to this man—oh yes, he was a Christian—oh yes he did go to church occasionally—oh yes he did believe in God—but more and more as I probed I found out that there was no righteousness in his life. There was a knowledge of the Truth of the person and the work of Jesus Christ, but there was no changed life to show that the gospel had really taken root in his life. So I laid my Bible on the empty seat between us and I kept saying to him (and I’m trying to remember his name—he’s on my prayer list and I’ve just forgotten it) and I kept saying, “But look at what it says here. But look at what it says here. But look at what it says here. But look at what it says here.” And we were just flipping all over the Word of God. Before I got off the plane, I looked at him and said, “I just want you to know that I believe that this has been a divine appointment. I do not believe that it is any accident.” And he says, “I believe the same thing also.” And I said, “And I want you to know and I want to tell you in all gentleness you are lost. You don’t have a true Christianity. You are lost and you are dying and you are going to go to hell. And you are going to be one of those people that stands before God and says, “Lord, Lord.” And He’ll say, “But I never knew you because you do not do the will of the Father who is in heaven.” He was not offended at all—God’s taught me how to say it gently—how to tell a man or a woman that they are going to hell in a gentle way…But God’s taught me how to say it and he was not offended. I wrote him a letter and he wrote back and he said, “You know, I have been thinking very much about our conversation,” and he says, “I have started to read the Word of God to see if what you are saying is really true about me and you’ll hear from me.” We have in our hands in the Book of Romans the most concise, precise, thorough explanation of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And what I want to do in this lesson is to give you an overview of this whole Book. I want to give it to you in such a way that you will remember it and never forget it so that if you ever find yourself at any time able to share the gospel of Jesus Christ, you will know at least one book of the Bible and I know many of you because of who you are and because of your hunger for the Word you know far more…but for those of you who are new to studying the word of God that you will have one book of the Bible that you will know how to handle in an accurate way and in a thorough way so that you can show a person the righteousness of God that is revealed from faith to faith that belongs to every true child of God. And I’m going to show it to you in such a way that if you will cooperate with me in this lesson you’ll see why you have to cooperate later on—but if you will cooperate with me in this lesson I promise you that years later you will know every segment division of Romans in a practical way so you can flip open that book and explain the gospel to a person wherever they are in their understanding of Jesus Christ. So that’s what’s coming but before we go there what I want to do is I want to put Romans in the perspective of the whole New Testament.

BOOK CATEGORIES OF NEW TESTAMENT. And what I want to show you as you look at the New Testament we find that the books general fall into three categories. There are the historical books which are the four gospels and Acts. And then there are the epistles and those are the Pauline Epistles and the general epistles—now by “general” epistles we mean epistles that were written by other people. If you’ve studied How to Study your Bible Precept Upon Precept you know that an epistle is a letter. And then the third category of New Testament books is the apocalyptic or the visions and it’s just one book and it’s the Book of Revelation. Now when we look at the epistles and this is what we want to look for just a minute, we see Paul's journey epistles—the epistles that Paul wrote during his first, second or third missionary journeys and we have touched on those already. And then we see his prison epistles. Now his prison epistles were written while he was incarcerated or while he was under a house arrest in Rome and this was his first imprisonment. Some people believe that Paul was only in prison one time, but I think a thorough study of Paul’s epistles you will see that there were two imprisonments. The first imprisonment is described in Philippians where Paul says it is more needful for him to remain here than to go home although his heart’s desire is to go home and the Lord has revealed to him that he is going to remain here on earth. In 2 Timothy which is his personal epistle we find Paul saying that God has shown him that the time of his departure is at hand. So I believe there were two imprisonments of Paul. We find then his pastoral epistles and those were the epistles written to Timothy and Titus and 2 Timothy was written at the very end of his ministry just before he was decapitated. And we feel that he was decapitated in Rome. And then we find the general epistles and these are Hebrews and James, 1 and 2 Peter and 1, 2 and 3 John and the Book of Jude. And then as I said the visions or the Book of Revelation and apocalypse. Now if you want to look at it in another way—these are charts from Irving Jensen’s work—Irving Jensen is the man that God used the most significant way in my life because he is the one that God used to show me really how to study the word of God. I got a hold of his book, Independent Bible Study, when I was on the mission field and I began to devour that thing and try and figure it out—not that it was that complicated, it’s just I’m a little slow—and began to put these things into practice. So I would say that if you wanted to go back to the man that God used the most to bring Precept Upon Precept into existence it would be Dr. Irving Jensen and I would suggest that you get his three books of overlays and charts that cover the survey of the Old and New Testament and then cover the Old Testament and then over the New Testament. But this is the progressive editions of Paul’s epistle to the canon of the New Testament—and by the canon of the New Testament we mean those books that they felt were to be included in the word of God as part of the word of God. You see that he has his travel epistles and we see that Romans is written on the third journey. And the main subjects of his travel epistles, Irving Jensen feels, is salvation at the present and in the future. So when he’s talking about salvation I want you to understand that salvation is not just the day that you get saved, but there is a salvation from the penalty of sin and that happens on the day that you get saved but there’s a salvation from the power of sin and that is day by day as you live walking in the Spirit and not by the flesh. And then some day there is a present tense salvation from the presence of sin and that’s when you get your brand new body. Now I’m going to give you all that later so don’t worry about it. But the general purposes in these books was evangelizing. Then you move to Paul’s prison epistles and those written during his first Roman imprisonment and you have that the main subjects—now this is the main subjects—are Christ and the Christian life. And the general purpose of that is edification. These were all written to churches. Then you move down to the pastoral epistles. And 1 timothy and Titus were written during Paul’s release from prison—in that interim period between his first imprisonment and his second imprisonment. They were written to Timothy and Titus who were two of his traveling companions and two to whom he turned over his ministry. These are individuals—these are written to individuals and their main subjects are the Church and its workers and the purpose of these is to establish the people in the way the Church life is to be handled. And then in the second Roman imprisonment we find him writing 2 Timothy and that’s his personal farewell. If you have not taken our 2 Timothy course I cannot tell you how great it is—I just love that book.

FOUNDING OF CHURCH AT ROME/HISTORICAL SETTING. Now what we want to do is look at the historical setting of Romans. We want to look at the historical setting of Romans. The first thing that I want to do is to talk to you about the founding of the church at Rome. There’s no record of who founded this church. There’s no record. Peter did not found the church at Rome. He was not the one that established the church at Rome as far as we know. Some people will say that, but there’s no record of it. If you would go to Acts 2:10 however you get a glimpse in how that church might have come into being. In Acts 2 we have the account of the day of Pentecost. Pentecost was one of the feasts—the annual feasts that the Jews celebrated. At the feast of Pentecost what God was doing—the priest on that day would come out and take two loaves of bread and he would wave them before the people. And when God inaugurated this feast way back in the Book of Leviticus under Moses, He inaugurated it and had them perform certain things in order to show them a truth. It prophetically spoke of something that was to come and that something that was to come (now watch) the two loaves of bread represented, I believe, Jew and Gentile in one body—Jew and Gentile in one body. Ephesians 2 says Paul was given to the church to reveal the mystery of Christ. And the mystery of Christ was this: Jew and Gentile in one body. That mystery was explained in Ephesians 2 and 3. Now, when you read Romans to whom is Romans written? Who does he address in that Book? You tell me. He addresses Jew and Gentile who are part of the (what?) the Church. See the Church is comprised of people who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. And when they come to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, the middle wall of partition that separates (I’ll make my body the middle wall of partition) that separates the Jew from the Gentile is the Law and the ordinances of the Law. It was the Law and the ordinances of the Law that set the Jews apart and made them distinct from all the other people on the face of this earth. If a Gentile wanted to believe in Jehovah they had to come under the Law and if they were a male they had to be circumcised and they had to keep the ordinances of the Law. But when Christ died—through His death He brought Jew and Gentile together in one body. And you are going to understand that more and more as we go along. So the day of Pentecost symbolically was going to point to this day when the Holy Spirit would come and indwell people. The indwelling of the people was what constituted the Church because before Pentecost the Holy Spirit would come on people and leave people. In the inauguration of the New Covenant God said in Ezekiel 36, “I will put My Spirit within you.” You remember in John 14 Jesus said, “It’s expedient for you that I go away. If I do not go away the Comforter cannot come. ” He is with you now but He shall be (where?) in you.” So Pentecost is the inauguration of the Church—the Holy Spirit indwelling Jew and Gentile (probably Jews at that time at the beginning at the day of Pentecost) indwelling Jews and then eventually indwelling Gentiles and putting them together in the Church. Acts 2:7 it says, 7 They were amazed and astonished, saying, “Why, care not all these who are speaking Galileans? Now this is the apostles speaking in other tongues. The word for “tongues” in verse 4 is GLOSSA. The word GLOSSA means languages. It’s HETERO GLOSSA so they are speaking in other languages. Now verse 6. 6 And when this sound occurred, the crowd came together, and were bewildered because each one of them was hearing them speak in his own language. And yet they were Galileans. And it says in verse 8, 8 “And how is it that we each hear them in our own language to which we were born? 9 “Parthians and Medes and then he names all these languages and then in verse 10 you drop down and it says, and visitors from (where?) Rome, both Jews and (what?) proselytes, now a proselytes then was a Gentile that had come over to the Jewish religion but they had come in such a way that they were not an esteemed Gentile in the sense anymore because they had adopted Jehovah as their God. So what do you have? You have visitors from Rome. On the day of Pentecost hearing the message delivered by Peter and some of them obviously believing because in that day there were thousands added to the Church. Well they were there because they were believers and it was the day of Pentecost, but they went back to their home. Where was their home? Their home was (what?) it rhymes—there home was Rome. So when they went home to Rome they took the gospel of Jesus Christ in all probably with them. This is the way we suppose that that church started. Now possibly Priscilla and Aquila were part of the original group of believers. It could be that they were saved before they ever met Paul in Corinth. Do you understand? When they were expelled by Claudius from Rome it could be that they had already been saved and therefore went to Corinth and had in common the gospel of Jesus Christ, were strengthened in that gospel, taught more by Paul and then went back. Go to Romans 16 and let’s look at this passage. Romans 16:3, 5. We know from this verse that Paul writes the epistle to the Romans that Priscilla and Aquila (don’t ever pronounce words the way I say them—I have no idea—I don’t know phonetics so always check them out.) Romans 16, 3 Greet Prisca and Aquila, my fellow workers in Christ Jesus, 4 who for my life risked their own necks, to whom not only do I give thanks, but also all the churches of the Gentiles; 5 also greet the church that is in (what?) their house. So we know they were expelled but that ban was lifted after Claudius died and they were allowed to go back to Rome. We know Priscilla and Aquila started out in Rome and in all probability they were saved. They went to Corinth when the decree came for the Jews to leave. They met Paul were developed in their faith and then when the ban was lifted they moved back to Rome. So Paul is writing and he is looking forward to seeing Priscilla and Aquila.

CHURCH AT ROME CONSISTED OF JEWS AND GENTILES. Now the church at Rome consisted of Jew and Gentile. This is the next thing I want you to see. We looked at the founding of the Church at Rome, now I want you to see that the Church at Rome consisted of Jews and Gentiles. Now this is very important to your understanding of the book because what’s going to happen is Paul is going to show how the gospel relates to Jew and to Gentile. So all the way through the book as you read through that book you’ve got to ask yourself, “What is he dealing with—Jewish principles or Gentile thinking? What is he dealing with?” And this will help you understand the book. An understanding of the Book of Romans as a whole is absolutely vital is you are really going to grasp what Paul is saying in this book—I believe it’s essential to understanding the book. And I believe that to do as I did in my early days – when we went to Mexico as missionaries I was a brand new child of God—only 1½ years old in the Lord—well I guess I was about 2 years old. We ended up in Mexico and I began working with these teenagers and I was leading them to Christ and there was no one there to teach them. So I said to the Lord, “Lord if you want me to teach them I’ll do it.” Somebody has to teach them because I’ve known the importance of the Word of God ever since I got saved. So I began teaching them and I began teaching them the Book of Romans. I had some commentaries on Romans. I had Barnhouse on Romans—good thing I had good commentaries. But I didn’t know how and I just looked at little fill-in-the-blank Bible studies and that wouldn’t do. Somebody said, “Look, just get in a book of the Bible and plod through that book. Well I got in Romans and I plodded. And I found out what 1 meant and then I found out what verse 2 meant and then I found out what verse 3 meant….and I taught it that way. And then I found Irving Jensen. And Irving Jensen explained the importance of understanding the whole structure of a book—understanding the occasion of that book—understanding the author’s purpose in writing the book—the theme of that book and the structure of the book because all of that governs your interpretation of singular passages in a particular book. So it is vital for you to understand as you read this book that the Church at Rome consisted of Jews and Gentiles and Paul’s message to the Romans takes this into consideration.

There was a Jewish community in Rome as early as the second century BC when Pompey invaded and captured Syria and Judea. He loosed some Jews that were held captive on his ships and they took up residence in Cilicia and Cilicia is where Tarsus is and who came from Tarsus—do you know? Paul came from Tarsus. Other captured Jews Pompey took back to Rome as slaves and this was in 61 BC and later many of these slaves were given their freedom. In 59 BC Cicero refers to the size of the Jewish community in Rome so we know this from writings that we have records of. In AD 19 the Jews were expelled from the city by a decree of the Emperor Tiberius, but we know they returned in greater numbers several years later—they really liked it. And then in AD 41-54 during the rule of Claudius were expelled also but the Jews returned later and we know that from Acts 16. So it was written to Jews and Gentiles obviously Gentiles because the Romans lived there.

WHEN AND WHERE WAS ROMANS WRITTEN? Alright, when and where was Romans written? You already should be able to answer that. When was it written? You tell me. When was Romans written? On his third missionary journey. And he wrote it—there’s a debate—he either wrote it about 56 or 58 AD. When he wrote this epistle Timothy and some other men were with him—some other men whose names I can’t pronounce. So let’s go to Acts 19 now this is one passage I did not give you when I was teaching you because I told you I would be giving it to you later and we would look at it at this time. In Acts 19:21 it says, 21 Now after these things were finished, Paul purposed in the Spirit to go to Jerusalem after he had passed through Macedonia and Achaia, saying, “After I have been there, I must also see (what?) Rome.” Now why did he write the epistle to the Romans? Because he was going to visit them on his way to (where?) Spain. How do you know that? He says so. Where does he say so? In chapter 15 of what book? Romans—good. 22 And having sent into Macedonia two of those who ministered to him, Timothy and Erastus, he himself stayed in Asia for a while. So we know that Timothy and Erastus was with him. Now go to chapter 20 and we want to look at verse 2. 2 When he had gone through those districts and had given them much exhortation, he came to Greece. Now what city is in Greece? Athens and what’s the other city that we know Paul was at? Corinth. Where did Paul write Romans from—where have I told you? He wrote it from Corinth. 3 And there he spent three months, It just says he went to Greece but we know it’s Corinth from another reason. 3 And there he spent three months, and when a plot was formed against him by the Jews as he was about to set sail for Syria, he decided to return through Macedonia. 4 And he was accompanied by … Gaius of Derbe, and when I say Gaius, what ought to go off? Little lights because of Romans 16—Romans 16:21 21 Timothy my fellow worker greets you, now this is significant because as he’s writing we know Timothy is with him. As we go back to Acts we know that Timothy is with him when he is making his plans to go to Rome. He says and so do Lucius and Jason and Sosipater, my kinsmen. 22 I, Tertius, who write this letter, greet you in the Lord. So we know that although Paul wrote the letter, he dictated it to Tertius and Tertius wrote it. Verse 23. 23 Gaius, host to me and to the whole church, So he was staying with Gaius. greets you. Erastus, the city treasurer greets you, and Quartus, the brother. So he was staying with Gaius and it was written from the house of Gaius.

OCCASION OF THE LETTER. Now what was the occasion of the letter? What provoked this letter? Well, while we are at this end of Romans let’s look at Romans 15:24. Paul is writing and he is saying, 24 whenever I go to Spain—for I hope to see you in passing, and to be helped on my way there by you, when I have first enjoyed your company for a while—So we know the occasion of the letter was to let the Romans know that Paul was coming. When he came what did he expect? He expected them to help him financially get to Spain. And you see something that is a biblical principle here. And that is that the Church is responsible for the furtherance of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Although those in Rome would not go to Spain, they could send the gospel to Spain by sending Paul to Spain. Now he planned to visit on the way to Spain after he was going to go to Jerusalem to minister to the saints and to give them a contribution. Look at verse 25. 25 but now, I am going to Jerusalem serving the saints. 26 For Macedonia and Achaia have been pleased to make a contribution for the poor among the saints in Jerusalem. What’s he saying? “You’re going to minister to the saints in Spain. They got to minister to the saints in Jerusalem.”And he is saying, “I’m going to take a collection to Jerusalem. When I get to Rome I want to take a collection to Spain and you can help me on the way.” Now he was arrested in Jerusalem as you know. He was sent to Caesarea, then he went to Rome and he arrived in Rome about AD 61. So he’s saying, “I want to come to you,” and as we know he did come but he came in a different way than he ever thought he would come. He came as a prisoner. Now another occasion of the letter—that was just another history lesson thrown in. He wanted to let the Romans know he was coming, but he also had a means of delivering this letter and that was by Phoebe. And we look at Romans 16 and we read this: 1 I commend to you our sister Phoebe, who is a servant of the church which is at Cenchrea; 2 that you receive her in the Lord in a manner worthy of the saints, and that you help her in whatever matter she may have need of you; for she herself has also been a helper of many, and of myself as well. So Phoebe is going and since Phoebe is going he wants them to receive her but he’s also using Phoebe as his mail carrier to take this letter to Rome.

IMPORTANCE OF THIS LETTER. Now what’s the importance of this letter? This letter was so valuable—the letter to the Romans was so valuable that it was copied and sent to other churches without the sixteenth chapter. They dropped the sixteenth chapter. Why did they drop the sixteenth chapter? Because it was so extremely personal to the specific church at Rome—so they copied it and dropped the sixteenth chapter. Rome’s copy was treasured and survived the persecutions. Clement the foreign secretary of the Roman Church was well acquainted with it and he quoted it often in his letters. So he would write exactly what Paul said when he wrote letters to other people. At the beginning of the second century, Paul’s letters circulated as a collection called the Corpus Paulinium—the Corpus Paulinium. Now what we saw was we saw that most of the New Testament epistles are written by Paul. Chester Beatty found a papyrus in 6 in Egypt which contained ten of Paul’s epistles plus the one to Hebrews. Romans is Paul’s gospel—what he preached and what he lived by—and I want to ask you a question. What’s your gospel? What do you preach and do you live by it? Well, let’s look at this gospel.

THEOLOGICAL SETTING. If you want to understand the gospel you have to understand the theological setting of Romans. So let me give you the theological setting of Romans. All this may seem technical and in a sense it is, but I promise you in the long run it will pay off if—so you ‘hangeth thou in there o baby.’ Opposition to Paul’s doctrine or teaching was coming basically from two groups and you need to understand this because you’ll understand why Paul says what he says in the Book of Romans. It came from the Judaizers first of all. Now who were the Judaizers? The Judaizers were a group of Jews who had supposedly believed the gospel of Jesus Christ—believed that Jesus was the Messiah—had supposedly received Jesus Christ as their Savior but felt you were saved by grace but you were maintained by the Law. So what they did was they took the Gospel of Grace and they added to it the Law of God. They were not willing to let go of the Old Testament Law. The Judaizers came along and they thought that Paul was a heretic. Now the word “Law” is used an unbelievable number of times in the Book of Romans. And what Paul has to do is Paul has to show the relationship of the gospel of Jesus Christ to the Law—to the Old Testament Law and you’ll see him explaining it all throughout the book in various places.

• The Judaeizers taught this—you might want to write these two things down—you must keep the Law to be saved. In Galatians Paul deals with this very much in his little epistle to the Galatians. And in Galatians 1:6 he says 6 I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting Him (God) who called you by the grace of Christ, for a different gospel; 7 which is really not another; only there are some who are disturbing you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. Now listen, you say we don’t have Judaizers today…yes we do—yes we do. Those that will come along and tell you, “Yes you are saved by grace but if you are really going to be spiritual then your hair will be a certain length, your skirts will be a certain length, there will be a list of things you don’t do—I don’t smoke and I don’t chew and I don’t go with girls that do. There will be a list of do’s and don’ts that you will follow because only that way can you be spiritual. This is a legalism that comes along—So the Jews were coming along and saying that you have to keep the Law to be saved. And you can see this—just write it down. In Galatians 2:16 he says, 16 nevertheless knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the Law but through faith in Christ Jesus, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the Law; since by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified. And you’re going to understand that –you’re going to see it time and time again in Romans—but you’re going to see the capstone of it all in Romans 8 when you get to verse 2, etc. And then in Galatians 3 and you will see it in verse 3. 3 Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, Okay you say you got saved by grace—having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? So you can write down Galatians 3:2-3, 21. Are you perfected by the flesh? See? Is the gospel something that just saves you from the penalty of hell but then for you to be saved from the power of sin you do it by getting a hold of that flesh and by bringing that flesh under control. Is that the way you do it? Well Paul’s going to answer that question so beautifully in the Book of Romans. Galatians 5. Have you ever heard that you can fall from grace? Have you ever heard somebody say, “See you’ve lost your salvation because you’ve fallen from grace—the Bible teaches you can fall from grace.” Well that’s not what he’s saying—you have to understand the whole context of Galatians. Galatians 5:4 4 You have been severed from Christ, you who are seeking to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace. 5 For we through the Spirit, by faith, are waiting for the hope of righteousness. What is he saying? He’s saying this: that there’s salvation either by grace or by (what?) Law. If it’s by grace, it can’t be by Law. If it’s by Law it can’t be by grace. Where does he say that? He says it in Romans 4. He points it out again in Romans 4 so clearly and you’re going to see that and you’re going to see him dealing with this over and over and over again. Why is he having to deal with this in the Book of Romans? I mean they are just Gentiles aren’t they? No the Church is comprised of (what?) Jews and Gentiles. Not only that but when the Jews got saved they would follow Paul and go in where Paul had led Gentiles to Jesus Christ and try and persuade them that they must come back under the Law. But remember we saw in Paul’s life that all of this had been settled at the Council at Jerusalem. As you look at this you’ll find out that the Judaizers want to do one more thing. And that is what is a sign that you are keeping the Law? What is the sign of the Old Covenant? Circumcision. So they are wanting people to be circumcised. So they will be saying, “You must be circumcised to be saved,” and you can just right down Acts 15:1. Now as you read through Romans what you are going to have to do is constantly ask yourself this question: How does Paul deal with the possible influence of Judaizers in Rome? And where does he deal with this? And it will help you understand Romans. He got the opposition from the Judaizers who kept the Law. But over here now were also the antinomians. The antinomians came from the Gentile ranks. They believed in Jesus Christ—forget that Law—man it’s by grace! It’s all of grace! It’s so much grace that you can sin that grace might abound. And Paul says, Shall we sin that grace might abound God forbid! He says that in Romans 6. So he’s dealing with the antinomian group. Now nomanis was the word for law—so they were anti-nomanis—they were antinomian—it means against the Law. These were the people that called themselves the spiritual ones. They were going to walk by the Spirit and not by the Law. So they called themselves the spiritual ones. They thought that these outward restrictions of the Law were just totally wrong and that they could do anything that they wanted. Now what does Paul have to prove? Does the gospel make me lawless? Does the gospel is it so egrace(??) that I can live anyway that I want? No, Paul has to deal with that. And what he’s going to show is this. That the gospel makes a person not lawless but righteous as he fulfills the Law by the Spirit but not by the flesh. And he’s going to show that to you. I just can’t wait to have you see the whole thing all the way through—it’s great. So when you read Romans you want to ask yourself: Is he dealing here with the antinomians? Is he showing how the gospel contradicts that antinomian philosophy, teaching or heresy or whatever you want to call it?

• Now, the other thing that Paul is dealing with is not only the opposition from these two opposing factors, but he’s dealing secondly with the conflict—the conflict—between the Jews and the Gentiles that have come to know Jesus Christ. The Jews had a hard time accepting the Gentiles as their brethren—as equals in the Kingdom of God. And you want to see how Paul deals with this as you read through Romans. I’m not going to tell you where—you just want to look for it. Now, the Jews are saying, “Listen, Paul you cannot teach that you are justified by faith alone! If you teach that you are justified by faith alone and apart from the Law then people are going to live lawlessly.” And Paul is going to show in his gospel that it is a gospel that produces righteousness not lawlessness. And he is going to show them that yes you can teach this doctrine but you know people that say: You can’t teach once saved—always saved because if you teach once saved—you are always saved then people will go out and live in sin? Well the question is: Is can a Christian habitually live in sin? And the answer is in Romans. And you are right—you’re right. I won’t give you the answer but you’re right. What you find then also in Romans 14 is this conflict between the weaker brother and the stronger brother. So he deals with that in Romans 14—well I don’t want to tell you where he deals with it—you can find out where he deals with it.

KEY VERSE. What is key verse of the Book of Romans? Go to Romans 1. The key verse of Romans, I believe, is Romans 1:16-17 where he says, 16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. 17 For in it (in the gospel) the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “But the righteous man shall live by faith.”

KEY WORDS. Key words—what are the key words? Well, the Key Words I believe are: gospel, righteousness—and all the words that go along with it—faith, believe, salvation, saved, law, sin, death, flesh, spirit, and one other word: all. Now why is “all” so significant? Because he wants them to see all—Jew or Gentile—all have sinned—see? The Jews are no exception.

Now let’s take a look—I’m a little bit behind time on this book—so let’s take a look at this book. I believe that what Romans presents to us is the righteousness of God which comes by faith in the gospel of Jesus Christ.

KEY THEME. I believe the key theme for all of Romans is the righteousness of God. And when I say the “righteousness of God” it’s synonymous with salvation. When I say the “righteousness of God” it’s synonymous with belief. When I say the “righteousness of God” it’s synonymous with the gospel. So the two go together—the two are inseparable.

CHART. And what we see first of all you need to get this chart down because I think it’s good.

• We see God’s righteousness which is needed by all and he shows us this in chapters 1, 2 and 3.

o He shows us in chapter 1 it is needed by the Gentile.

o He shows us in chapter 2 it is needed by the Jew and you’re going to figure that out when you get to chapter 2.

o In chapter 3 he’s going to show us it’s needed by all because all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.

• We’re going to see that God’s righteousness is provided by Christ. It’s provided by Christ—how?

o Chapter 3 through redemption.

o Chapter 4 through imputation.

o Chapter 5 through reconciliation.

• Now listen, I just have a few minutes left and so you just punch the video tape and write it all down—turn me off—they can’t turn me off here—or turn off your audio tape and get it all down.

• And then we see that God’s righteousness and this is chapters 3, 4, and 5—provided by Christ

o Through redemption in chapter 3.

o Chapter 4 through imputation—it’s imputed to our account.

o And chapter 5 through reconciliation. And you see this in chapter 5:10.

• Then we see God’s righteousness released through the Spirit. It’s provided by Christ but it’s released through the Spirit.

o Chapter 6—As we are dead to sin because we died with Christ.

o Chapter 7—As we are dead to the Law because we died with Christ and we died to the Law.

o And then chapter 8—As we live by the Spirit.

• Now what you are going to see in 6, 7 and 8 is that this is all because of our identification with Christ Jesus. So what have we seen? We’ve seen that God’s righteousness is needed by all. It’s provided by Christ. It’s released through the Spirit. And God’s righteousness, fourthly, is based on faith.

• And in chapter 9 you see that God chooses.

• And then in chapter 10 you see that man believes.

• And in chapter 11 you see we’re grafted in. Gentiles are grafted in (and you know what?) the unbelieving Jews that were cut off, when they believe they are grafted back in—grafted back in to that olive tree—not wild olive tree.

• Then we see God’s righteousness manifested in life.

• In chapter 12 we see: Worships Spiritual Service. I beseech you that you present your bodies a living sacrifice which is your spiritual service.

• Chapter 13 we see that we are to Render What is Due. Honor to whom honor—custom to custom—but love to all.

• In Chapter 14 we see that we are not to judge another’s convictions. This righteousness that is manifested in my life doesn’t go around judging other people by their do’s and don’ts.

• Then chapter 15 it’s manifested in life by accepting one another.

• Then in chapter 16 it’s by rejecting the faults and obeying the gospel.

Now, let me show you: God’s righteousness is needed by all because in chapters 1-3 we see that we are sinners by choice. God’s righteousness is provided by Christ.

• We see in chapters 3, 4 and 5 that we are justified by Christ. God’s righteousness is released by the Spirit.

• We see in 6, 7 and 8 that we are sanctified by Christ. Sanctified means made holy—set apart.

• God’s righteousness is based on faith and in chapters 9, 10 and 11 we see that we are elected by God.

• You say, “I don’t like that doctrine.” You’ll like it when we get to it. And you’ll understand it. You’ll understand the election of God and you’ll understand the free will of man and you’ll see them put together.

• Now, isn’t that worth it?

• God’s righteousness is manifested in life and in chapters 12-16 we see that we are presented to Him.

OUTLINE. I’m going to give it to you and then I’m going to have to teach it to you later, but here is your outline of Romans that will help you share the gospel of Jesus Christ. I’m going to show you through body language the whole Book of Romans—you don’t need to write it down—you’re going to remember it. You don’t even need to write it down.

In chapter 1-3:20 we see that we are sinners. Now when you think of sinners you think of snakes in the Garden of Eden—don’t you? – a serpent? You take your arm and you crook your elbow and you crook your wrist so it looks like the head of a snake and you go like this—like a snake is about to strike. So in chapters 1-3:20 we see sinners. Now do it—do it—get with it—get your arm up there! Make it look snaky. Now I want you to say it—that’s Romans 1-3:20—sinners. But sinners get (what?) saved. Where do they get saved? At the cross of Jesus Christ. So make a cross—spread your arms straight out beside you—touch the other person on the shoulder—the cross was for all. So here are sinners—Romans 1-3:20. 3:21-5 is saved. But is that all there is to it? No. In 6-8 Sinners are (what?) sanctified. When you think of sanctify put a little halo over your head with your finger and fold your little hands like this. So what do we have? We have us (what?) sanctified. Okay? Now Romans 1-3:20 Sinners; 3:21-5 Saved; 6-8 Sanctified—don’t forget your halo. Now how does all this happen? It happens by God’s Sovereignty. And when I thought of sovereignty I thought of God folding His arms and then taking one hand and beckoning us with His finger—that’s God. So fold your hands and then take one finger and beckon—that’s good. Now here we go. Now Romans 1-3:20 Sinners; 3:21-5 Saved; 6-8 Sanctified by God’s Sovereignty 9-11 for God’s Service. So you take a tennis ball—throw it up in the air—bring your tennis racket down—and you serve it out into the world—for God’s (what?) Service and what chapters is that? 12-16. You got the Book of Romans! You got the Book of Romans! Now we’re going to review it but let’s do it one more time. Romans 1-3:20 Sinners; 3:21-5 Saved; 6-8 Sanctified; 9-11 by God’s Sovereignty; 12-16 for God’s Service. That’s it! And we’ll show you next week how wherever you are you can just flip open the Book of Romans and take them to whatever section they need. If they are a Christian and they say, “I just don’t feel like my life has any worth or any value.” You’ll flip them to (what?) God’s Service. Somewhere between 12-16…if they are sitting there saying, “You know those Christians at my church make me so mad—they are so legalistic I can’t stand them!” You’re going to know where to go in 12-16 to handle that about judging convictions and things like that. Or, they’re going to say, “I cannot believe she’s a Christian because she has rouge on her cheeks.” And you’re going to know where to take them. If they say, “Listen, I’m having such a problem overcoming sin in my life.” You’re going to know where to take them—to the passage about sanctification. You’re going to know how to show them if they are a sinner—how they get saved; if they need to know about sanctification; if they need to understand God’s sovereignty and it’s all for God’s (what?) service. Go for it—let’s pray.

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