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Advent HOPE Sabbath School

Norman McNulty: The Book of Romans

Norman McNulty

Romans 1:1-16 “Introduction to Romans”

We are beginning a study through the book of Romans and we are going to be going through this book every Wednesday night until we get through probably the first 8 chapters.

We may take a class or 2 to look at some of the themes from the rest of the book, but really the meat of the book is in the first 8 chapters.

So I'm glad to see all of you here tonight.

Let's go ahead and have a word of prayer and then we'll get into the study.

Father in heaven, we thank you for bringing us here this evening and we pray that as we begin a study in this most powerful book that you would bless us and open our minds to this special truth.

Well I'm excited about studying the book of Romans.

The book of Romans is probably 1 of the most powerful books in the Bible.

So obviously I have a love for prophecy, so Daniel and Revelation are pretty high on my books that I like to study, but Romans is especially powerful, and we are going to go through pretty much verse by verse through the 8 chapters.

And what I'm gonna start with here is just an overview or an outline or the big picture of the Book of Romans.

So the setting of the Book of Romans, Paul wrote this while he was in Corinth.

We believe it was written, I believe, around 58 to 60 AD.

And he was addressing especially the Christians who had migrated to the city of Rome.

And by this time in the history of the world, Rome was the leading city of the world.

So, Paul had a special burden for the people at Rome and when he wrote the epistle to the Romans, he had not yet been able to travel to that city, and so this was sort of a letter to the Romans to say, hey, this is the gospel, and I hope I can come and preach it to you in person eventually." And what we end up getting is probably the most theological exposition of the gospel that is in the Bible.

It's a legal and theological exposition that is unmatched in any of the other epistles that Paul writes.

And the only other book that Paul wrote that comes similar to Romans is the book of Hebrews, which is also a very powerful book and that has a different message or a different target audience which is specifically the Hebrews in Jerusalem.

So let's go ahead and look at some of the big picture here.

What's interesting is Paul wrote this towards the middle of the first century, and Rome had become the leading center in the world.

And at that time, pagan Rome was the prophetic kingdom of the world if you will.

So Paul is writing this book and it's directed at the prophetic center of the kingdom of this world.

And remember, if you remember the image from Daniel 2, you have the head of gold and silver and brass, iron, and feet of iron and clay.

And the mind of Babylon still existed all down through the kingdoms because the head is where the mind is.

And So from the very beginning of this book, the concepts in the book of Romans counter the mindset of Babylonian thinking.

So that's an interesting point to be made about the book of Romans.

Romans is written to counter Babylonian thinking.

And what's very interesting is we know that Papal Rome succeeds Pagan Rome as the next kingdom of this world.

And it continues to have the Babylonian mind.

And it was Romans 1, let me get the right verse here, Romans 117, that Martin Luther heard audibly when he was climbing the steps in Rome and he heard the the words, the just shall live by faith, and he realized that what he was doing was meaningless.

And that 1 verse, the just shall live by faith, started the Protestant Reformation against Rome.

So here the book of Romans is designed to counter spiritual Rome.

And obviously the Protestant Reformation did its work and papal Rome received the deadly wound in 1798 and yet when you study Revelation 17, papal Rome's gonna come back to life.

And it's the message contained within the book of Romans, specifically the gospel of Jesus Christ, which is the same as the everlasting gospel in Revelation 14 that counters spiritual Rome in the last days.

Romans is absolutely crucial, it's absolutely vital to our understanding of being God's last day people.

And we're gonna see that as we go through this book.

So that sort of sets the big picture and I'm not going to get into the details too much ahead of time, we'll just get it to them when they come.

If you're planning on coming every week, keep reading through the first 8 chapters several times each week and then you can start to plug in concepts.

As far as the big picture, Paul starts off in chapter 1 with an introduction up through verse 17.

Specifically the first 6 verses, he essentially defines in big picture outline what the gospel is.

Then he gives a welcome and introduction to the Romans, and then he says this is what the gospel is again in verses 16 and 17.

And then he actually starts to get into the theology of the book starting in verse 18.

And it's interesting, and we'll get there.

Paul starts off really by putting an emphasis on the wrath of God that's gonna be poured out against the wicked.

And he shows who the wicked are in the last half of chapter 1 and he describes the wickedness of the wicked in Rome.

But then in chapter 2 he says, oh by the way hey you Jews, if you're breaking the law you're gonna get the wrath of God also.

So now he's saying the playing field is leveled for everyone.

And then as he goes on, he introduces the concept of the gospel in chapter 3, and he introduces the concept of righteousness by faith.

The question is left, well that's great, but How is it possible?

In chapter 4 he says, well, here's your example, Abraham.

He was a righteous man who lived by faith.

And by the end of the chapter he says, and by the way, it's for you too.

And then chapter 5 shows us that Adam had an effect on everybody but Christ's effect on the human race can be greater if we choose.

And then chapter 6, 7, and 8, they don't...

So make sure you don't miss our studies on Romans 6, 7, and 8, if nothing else.

You don't wanna miss most of the chapters, in my opinion.

Let's go ahead and go to chapter 1 now and get started in the actual meat of the book of Romans.

Starting in verse 1, Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated under the gospel of God.

So in verse 1 it's indisputable Paul is the author of Romans.

But the next phrase, he is a servant of Jesus Christ.

And this gives us an important understanding of the gospel.

Because Paul, who is a servant of Jesus Christ, and he separated into the gospel of God, there's a connection between being a servant of Jesus Christ and proclaiming the gospel of God.

Well, if you look at the meaning of the word servant, a servant is also a slave, Which means that if you're a slave to someone you do whatever they say.

And so Paul is qualified to give the gospel message because he has given his life to God as a servant or as a slave.

So Paul is completely dedicated to the gospel of Jesus Christ.

And the concept of being a servant of God is crystal clear in chapter 6 of Romans.

But if you want to know what it means to be a servant of Jesus Christ, the concept of being dead to sin is reiterated several times.

So when, and then you have Romans 7 which basically shows the experience of being a slave to sin.

So Paul is a servant of Jesus Christ and that qualifies him to give the gospel of God.

And just making a practical application, when you look at the 3 angels' messages, the first angel's message describes the everlasting gospel being given to every nation, kindred, tongue, and people.

If we're going to give that everlasting gospel to all the world, we like Paul need to be servants of Jesus Christ.

And God is looking for a group of people who will give the 3 angels messages which includes the everlasting gospel and He wants us to be servants as well.

What's interesting is when you look at Revelation 7 the 144, 000 are described as the servants of God who are sealed in their foreheads.

So, in its most basic sense perhaps, the book of Romans is going to give us an understanding of how to become part of the 144, 000.

Paul was a servant of Jesus Christ and if he had lived in our day he would be, according to the Bible, eligible to be among the 144, 000.

And he is giving this gospel in the hopes that the power of the gospel will help others to also have that experience.

So Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle.

Now this is interesting, who called Paul to be an apostle?

And it's interesting that when Judas left the 12, he of course committed suicide, and after the death of Christ they cast lots to replace Judas.

That was an act that the disciples did in and of themselves, but Paul was called of God.

Now obviously I'm not saying bad about the replacement for Judas, he was a godly man.

But what's interesting is that Paul was chosen of God to be an apostle, separated under the gospel of God.

And then verse 2, pretty straightforward, which he had promised to for by his prophets in the holy scriptures.

Romans 1:17-32 “The Wrath of God”

Good to see you here at prayer meeting and we are continuing through our study on the book of Romans and we will go till about 745, 750 and then have prayer of our study this evening.

So why don't we go ahead and bow our heads for a word of prayer and we'll get into our study for tonight.

Father in heaven, we thank you for bringing us together this week for another prayer meeting.

You know that we all have challenges and trials in our lives and I pray that we would trust in you and that you would help us and that we would draw closer to you through the experiences of life.

And I also pray now that you would be with us as we study your word.

Help us to have a deeper understanding of your will for our lives.

Alright, so last week we got through the first 16 verses of Romans chapter 1.

Romans chapter 1 is an introduction to the book up through verse 17.

And then in verse 18, he starts to lay the foundation for where he's trying to go.

We'll just summarize a few key points from our study last week in the first 16 verses of Romans chapter 1.

And we saw that the first 6 verses Paul gives a summary of what the key points of the gospel of Jesus Christ are.

Namely, that he is a servant of Jesus Christ and all those who live according to the gospel will also be servants of Jesus Christ, which is 100% devotion to our Master, our Lord, Jesus Christ.

We also saw that this gospel was promised in the Old Testament, and the first verse that promises the gospel is Genesis 3 15 and Romans 1 verse 2 is a reminder of that.

And then we see in verse 3 that Paul says the gospel of Jesus Christ or The gospel of God is about Jesus Christ, who is the Son of God, who is also our Lord, and He was made of the seed of David according to the flesh.

So the very first thing that Paul points out about the gospel, which is good news, is that Jesus Christ was made of the seed of David according to the flesh.

And we saw that the reason why that is good news, we find in Romans 8, 3 and 4, that because Jesus was made of the seed of David according to the flesh, the righteousness of the law can be fulfilled in us.

That's good news, because all of us have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

And we see that Jesus is the son of God, with power according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection of the dead.

And then we see that with the gospel we receive grace and apostleship and the purpose for receiving the grace of the gospel is for obedience to the faith.

And then we went through and 1 of the verses that kind of jumped out to me was verse 8, where the faith of the Christians in Rome was spoken of throughout the whole world, and we look forward to the time when our faith will be spoken of throughout the whole world.

And the power of the gospel is powerful enough to produce a people whose faith will be spoken of throughout the world.

And then we get Down, he kind of gives an introduction.

I look forward to coming and meeting you in person, but now I'm gonna preach the gospel to you here at Rome.

And so in verse 16, well, this is where we'll pick up the meat of our study tonight.

We got into verse 16 last time, but this is where we'll pick it up this time.

So verse 16, Paul, after he gives his introduction, he says, for I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, For it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first and also to the Greek." Now we mentioned this last week, but when Paul says he is not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, The first question you might ask is, well, why would Paul need to say that he's not ashamed of the gospel?

And perhaps it's helpful to look at the context of the time that he was writing.

But if you look at what he said earlier, he says, I'm a servant of Jesus Christ.

And if you're a servant of Jesus Christ, we talked about this last week, another word for servant is slave.

And if you're a slave to someone, humanly speaking, that invokes this idea of shame, that you are a slave below someone else.

But what Paul is saying, you know what, I'm not ashamed to be a servant of Jesus Christ.

I'm not ashamed to be a slave to Jesus because if he's my Lord, what he gives me is salvation.

And that obviously is good news for those of us reading the the gospel here in the book of Romans.

But obviously there's more to it than that.

He's not ashamed of the gospel of Christ and he says why?

And it's the power of God unto salvation.

And so What we see in the gospel is that the gospel has power to save how many?

Everyone that believes to the g-first and also to the Greek and 1 of the things that we're going to see as We transition into the concept of the wrath of God in verse 18 is that salvation is for everyone.

God is no respecter of persons and he will also pour out his wrath on all those who don't believe the gospel.

So God is no respecter of persons And what Paul is trying to say is the gospel is powerful enough to save everyone who believes.

And we will get deeper into the concept of what it means to believe when we get to Romans chapter 4 when the Bible says Abraham believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness.

I mean because James chapter 2 says the devils believe and tremble but that doesn't mean they're saved.

And Paul just mentions it in passing here but if you study Romans 4 we'll get into that about what does it mean to believe?

And obviously, the word power comes from the Greek word dunamis, which is similar to dynamite, so The gospel of Jesus Christ isn't just a feel-good story that doesn't change anything.

It's something that drastically alters its surroundings, just like dynamite does when it explodes.

So those are, we kind of went through all that last week.

And then verse 17, verse 17 says, for therein is the righteousness of God revealed.

When Paul says therein, what is he referring to?

So yes, it's the verse before and what's in the verse before?

So in the gospel of Christ is the righteousness of God revealed.

So the good news of the gospel reveals the righteousness of God.

Now what about the righteousness of God being revealed is good news.

It says it's revealed from faith to faith as it is written, the just shall live by faith.

Now let's take a moment to step back here.

And how right doing is God, or how righteous is God?

And so the gospel of Jesus Christ reveals the righteousness of God, which is perfect.

So what Paul is saying here is the gospel of Christ is the power of God unto salvation, and it reveals the righteousness of God.

So, if you just take a look at that 1 phrase, It's not just righteousness, it's the righteousness of God that's being revealed in the gospel.

And where is the righteousness of God revealed?

If you read the rest of the verse it says from faith to faith and then Paul gives the illustration of how the righteousness of God is revealed from faith.

He says as it is written the just shall live by faith.

So the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith.

As it's already been written, the just shall live by faith.

So then the question is, based on verse 17, where is the righteousness of God revealed?

So Paul sets the stage here in chapter 1.

It's the power of God unto salvation, which means in order to be saved we need to experience the gospel.

And the gospel is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith as it is written, the just shall live by faith.

So those who are just living by faith reveal the righteousness of God.

Okay, now, What does it mean when it says from faith to faith?

It gives you the idea that there is a progression.

And I'm just going to point out a couple of verses.

In Hebrews chapter 11, Hebrews 11 admittedly is about faith.

And we're studying about what it means to live from faith to faith.

In Hebrews 11 verse 34, Paul is talking about those who live by faith.

He talks about those who quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens." So when Paul says out of weakness some were made strong, how was it that out of weakness they were made strong?

I mean Hebrews 11 is pretty straightforward.

So people who were weak were made strong by faith.

Now let me point you to 1 other verse, Psalms 84, verse 7.

Romans 2 “God Is No Respecter of Persons”

Father in heaven, we thank you for bringing us here in the middle of the week to study your word.

We pray now that you will bless us as we study from the book of Romans.

We're going to do Romans chapter 2 this week.

And by way of review, in Romans chapter 1, Paul gives his introduction of the gospel in the first 17 verses, and then the last half of Romans chapter 2, he starts his theological exposition of the book, and he shows that the wrath of God is going to be poured out against the wicked, specifically the Gentiles.

And he lists some of the sins that the Gentiles are guilty of, And any Jew who would be reading the book of Romans could take comfort in knowing that they were not guilty of those horrible sins that the Gentiles in Rome were committing.

But then in Romans chapter 2, Paul kind of brings the hammer down on us and says, hey, you thought you weren't so bad, but actually you're on the same playing field as the Gentiles in Romans 1.

So we're going to look at that this evening.

So in Romans chapter 2, starting in verse 1, after Paul shows that the wrath of God is going to be poured out on the wicked, that those who don't believe that God is creator, who give up their bodies to live according to the lust of the flesh, and several other sins such as murder and things like that.

Then Paul says in chapter 2 verse 1, Therefore thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judgest.

For wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself, for thou that judgest doing the same things.

Now, sometimes people read Romans 2, verse 1, and they say, see, we shouldn't judge each other.

And that's an okay application, But the Bible also teaches that by their fruits you shall know them.

So if someone is out there murdering We have every biblical right to say that that's wrong And to say hey don't judge me.

You know I can do whatever I want That's not what this verse is saying.

This verse is not saying that if you see someone commit a murder to then say, well I can't judge them.

What this passage is teaching is that the Jews consider themselves to be superior, and what Paul is trying to show is, And he'll go through this in chapter 2, that whether you are a Jew or a Gentile, if you're committing the sins that the Gentiles are in Romans chapter 1, or if you're breaking the law of God in other ways, as we'll see here in chapter 2, it doesn't matter because either way, breaking the law brings you into condemnation.

So yeah, you may not be going out and committing murder, but if you're breaking the law of God in other ways, you're just as guilty.

So don't go around judging those wicked people out there if you're breaking God's law as well.

And of course, it's also not – what I'm not saying though is to say, well, hey, let's go out and judge those who aren't living up to the way we think we're living up to.

That's – clearly Paul's condemning that attitude as well.

Now in verse 2, he goes on to say, but we are sure that the judgment of God is according to truth against them which commits such things.

So now we see that, hey, there is a judgment.

So for people to say that there is no judgment, Paul is saying the judgment of God is according to truth, and we can be thankful for that because I've often been thankful that God is judge and not me because I don't know everything and I don't want to, but God can with His infinite wisdom make the right decision in the judgment.

And the other thing that we see here is when it says the judgment of God is according to truth, it gives us the idea that God's judgment is impartial.

So whether you're a Gentile or a Jew, God's judgment is according to truth.

It doesn't matter which side you're on, so to speak.

Then he gets into the issues, starting in verse 3.

Thinkest thou this, O man, that judgest them which do such things, and doest the same that thou shalt escape the judgment of God.

He set it up and he says, look, you know what they're doing is wrong.

You're judging them for it, but do you think just because you're a Jew that you'll escape God's judgment if you're doing the same thing that God's going to judge them for?

So Paul makes it clear, if you're judging others and you're doing the same thing, just as they don't escape the judgment, we won't either.

And then in verse 4, we see the concept of God's grace coming out.

Verse 4, or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance?" So let's look at this verse a little bit here.

What Paul is saying is, how can we despise the riches of the goodness of God?

Now, he's right in the middle of talking about the wrath of God being poured out, but even in the middle of talking about the wrath of God being poured out on those who break God's law, he manages to bring in the concept of the riches and the goodness of God.

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