The Big Picture
Romans 1-8


Respond to THIS!

8:31 What, then, shall we say in response to this?


Called by Christ

1:1 Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God.


Gospel power

1:16 I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. 17 For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written:

“The righteous will live by faith.”


Available revelation

  • Creation displays God’s power and divine nature.
  • Conscience gives an inner impression of God’s law.
  • Covenant through Moses gives written requirements of God’s law.
  • Christ, through his gospel and Spirit, brings forgiveness and eternal life.

 
Three kinds of sinners

  • Rebels without restraint (1:18-32)
  • Moralism without morality (2:1-16)
  • Religion without relationship (2:17-3:8)

What shall we conclude then? Are we any better? Not at all! … there is no one who does good, not even one. (3:9-12)


Devastating diagnosis

3:19 Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God. 20 Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin.


Righteousness from God

3:21 But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. 22 This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe.


Power in Jesus’ blood

There is no difference, 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. 25 God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement [propitiation], through faith in his blood.


One God, one plan all along

  • All along God justified the wicked by counting faith as righteousness.
  • All along God chose Abraham to be father of many nations, not just one nation.
  • All along God’s chosen nation was meant to bring blessing to all nations.
  • All along forgiveness and justification would come through the Son of David.


Justified through faith

To the man who does not work but trusts God who justifies the wicked, his faith is credited as righteousness… God credits righteousness apart from works… God will credit righteousness to us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification. (Romans 4:5-6, 23-25)


Benefits of belonging (reconciliation)

  • We have peace with God.
  • We stand in God’s favor & friendship.
  • We rejoice in the hope of God’s glory.
  • We rejoice in sufferings.
  • We are flooded by the Spirit.
  • We are sure of God’s saving love.
  • We rejoice in God through Jesus.


Knowing God’s love

God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. (Romans 5:5)

God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8)



Complete in Christ

Salvation = Jesus plus nothing!
Nothing I do makes me right with God. 
“The result of one act of righteousness was justification that brings life for all men.” (5:18)

Salvation = Jesus minus nothing!
All that Jesus is and does involves me. The whole me is in union with the whole Christ. I cannot divide Savior from Ruler.


Union With Christ

  • Legal union: Jesus represents us. He is our legal head. He acts on our behalf. What he does is counted by God as ours.
  • Living union: Jesus lives in us and we in him through a living connection. He is our living head, and we are his body. His actions affect and direct our experience. His death, resurrection, and reign flow into our lives.

 

6:4 We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.

6:11 Count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.


Sin’s wages vs. God’s gift

6:21 What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death! 22 But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.


Free from the law

7:4 Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God.


Released from the law

  • Declared righteous apart from law: We are right with God through faith in Jesus, who perfectly kept God’s law on our behalf.
  • Free from law’s covenant curses: Jesus suffered the curse and canceled our debt.
  • Empowered by Spirit, not law: The Holy Spirit writes God’s law on our heart, giving us the desire and the ability to obey.
  • Old rituals replaced: Old Covenant signs give way to New Covenant reality of Christ.


Doing what I hate

7:14 For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin.

15 For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. 16 Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. 17 So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.

 

Dealing with the flesh

  • Self-indulgence: Surrender to the flesh and try to enjoy being immoral (lawless).
  • Self-improvement: Fight the flesh by trying harder to become moral (law).
  • Spirit-indwelling: Trust God’s grace in Christ to forgive you and depend on the Spirit’s power to defeat the flesh.


8:1 Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.


God’s Spirit within us

  • Spirit of freedom (8:1-4)
  • Spirit of life (8:5-13)
  • Spirit of adoption (8:14-17)
  • Spirit of expectation (8:18-25)
  • Spirit of prayer (8:26-27)

 

Spirit of life

  • Spirit’s mind is life and peace
  • Spirit is God’s life inside you
  • Spirit will raise bodies to life
  • By the Spirit, kill the deeds of the body, and you will live: abundant life now, resurrection life forever.

 

Spirit of expectation

Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ… We ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit… wait eagerly…

  • Adoption confirmed, bodies redeemed
  • Glory and freedom of God’s children
  • Creation flourishing, free from decay


NT speaks of two world-ages (aions). These overlap between Jesus’ first and second coming. God’s kingdom is “already/not yet.”


Already But Not Yet

  • Kingdom
  • Victory
  • Resurrection
  • Church
  • Status
  • Holiness
  • Prayer
  • Healing
  • Guidance
  • Encounter


Groaning together

  • The whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth. (8:22)
  • We ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly. (8:23)
  • The Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. (8:26)

Creation groans. We groan within creation. The Holy Spirit groans within us.


Spirit of prayer

And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God's will. (Romans 8:27)


God’s Spirit within us

  • Spirit of freedom (8:1-4)
  • Spirit of life (8:5-13)
  • Spirit of adoption (8:14-17)
  • Spirit of expectation (8:18-25)
  • Spirit of prayer (8:26-27)


God’s Golden Chain

  • Foreknew
  • Predestined
  • Called
  • Justified
  • Glorified

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.


Respond to THIS!

8:31 What, then, shall we say in response to this?

Остання зміна: середа 16 грудня 2020 15:26 PM