By
1.
INTRO:
1.1.
AUTHORSHIP:
The authorship of the book of Romans has never been seriously contested
as being written by the apostle Paul.
The very first word in the gospel is his name, “Paul,” for he
immediately takes credit for the writing of the book. The book contains the very thoughts and
theology of Paul which are characteristic of every other letter which is
attributed to him, and thus it must be said that no one other than the apostle
Paul could have written the book. No
writer in the early years of the history of the church questioned Paul’s
authorship of the book, either. One
author has written that no other book in the entire Bible has its authorship
more certain than the book of Romans.
1.2.
PURPOSE: Paul had prayed often that the Lord would use
him in Rome, for he had the desire that he might come to Rome, as he writes in
Rom. 1:11, “11 For I long to see you in order that I may impart some
spiritual gift to you, that you may be established.” Rome, the capital of the Roman Empire, was the
most influential city in the world at the time of Paul’s writing. The Romans
had built such an extensive system of roads that
Paul wrote all of his other epistles in
order to deal with particular problems within the churches, problems of
doctrine as well as lifestyle. However,
since Paul had not started the church(s) in Rome and did not personally know
the people in the church there, and because of his great desire to have a
ministry with them, he did what he could do, he wrote a general epistle to
them. As with all of Paul’s epistles,
and especially with this one, the epistle was written to have the widest of
circulation, so that all of the churches could benefit by his apostolic
teaching.
We do not know who started the church in
Paul’s purpose in writing the letter
seems to be to take the opportunity to uplift and edify the church with solid
apostolic teaching, that which they probably had never received, and, then he
had planned to later come and personally visit the church and continue what he
had begun teaching them in the letter (see Rom. 1:13-15).
For the Romans, Paul lays out an
elaborate foundation upon which all Christian doctrines have been built. He speaks of virtually every Christian
doctrine, and his purpose is primarily seen to be to give a complete
understanding to Christians of that which salvation through Christ consists.
Paul explains the relationship between law
and grace, Judaism and the Old Covenant, and Christianity and the New
Covenant.
There was a large population of Jews
living in
·
The natural descent from Abraham and the observance of
the Law secured them favor with God;
·
The blessing inherited from the Messiah’s reign were
only for the Jews;
·
Salvation can be gained as a result of one’s
works;
·
That the blessings of the Jews afforded a ground of
hope that they would escape the judgment of God destined for those who reject
Jesus as Messiah.
“The Righteousness of God” is a
reoccurring theme which Paul uses in the book, as he explains how it is that
salvation can only come by faith through grace, and not by the works of the
Law.
The book of Romans answers more of the
hard questions concerning God, man, the existence of evil, the means of
salvation, the means of righteous living, etc. than any other book in the
Bible. John MacArthur lists some of the
questions that are answered by the book of Romans:
“What
is the good news of God?
Is
Jesus really God?
What
is God like?
How
can God send people to hell?
Why
do men reject God and His Son, Jesus Christ?
Why
are there false religions and idols?
What
is man’s biggest sin?
Why
are there sex perversions, hatred, crime, dishonesty, and all the other evils
in the world, and why are they so pervasive and rampant?
What
is the standard by which God condemns people?
How
can a person who has never heard the gospel be held spiritually
responsible?
Do
Jews have a greater responsibility to believe than Gentiles?
Who
is a true Jew?
Is
there any spiritual advantage to being Jewish?
How
good is man in himself?
How
evil is man in himself?
Can
any person keep God’s laws perfectly?
How
can a person know he is a sinner?
How
can a sinner be forgiven and justified by God?
How
is a Christian related to Abraham?
What
is the importance of Christ’s death?
What
is the importance of His resurrection?
What
is the importance of His present life in heaven?
For
whom did Christ die?
Where
can men find real peace and hope?
How
are all men related spiritually to Adam, and how are believers related
spiritually to Jesus Christ?
What
is grace and what does it do?
How
are God’s grace and God’s law related?
How
does a person die spiritually and become reborn?
What
is the Christian’s relation to sin?
How
important is obedience in the Christian life?
Why
is living a faithful Christian life such a struggle?
How
many natures does a Christian have?
What
does the Holy Spirit do for a believer?
How
intimate is a Christian’s relationship to God?
Why
is there suffering?
Will
the world ever be different?
What
are election and predestination?
How
can Christians pray properly?
How
secure is a believer’s salvation?
What
is God’s present plan for
What
is His future plan for
Why
and for what have the Gentiles been chosen by God?
What
is the Christian’s responsibility to Jews and
What
is His future plan for
1.3.
CONTENT AND IMPACT: Coleridge
calls the book of Romans, “the profoundest book in existence.” The book
of Romans has also been called the greatest and the most influential literary
work that ever was written. Luther
wrote, “This Epistle is the chief book of the New Testament, the purest
gospel. It deserves not only to be known
word for word by every Christian, but to be the subject of his meditation day
by day, the daily bread of his soul....
The more time one spends on it, the more precious it becomes and the
better it appears.”
The book of Romans has impacted more
people on this earth towards salvation than any other book in the Bible. Understanding the truth in the book of Romans
has also been responsible for every “genuine” revival which the church has
experienced in history. The book of
Romans was used to convert Martin Luther, John Wesley, and many other of the
great men of God who spurred great periods of revival in their day, and through
Martin Luther and his conversion the Protestant reformation itself was born. As people have read the book they have been
solidly converted, and as churches and ministers have taught the book of Romans
revival in the church has often followed.
1.4.
DATE AND PLACE OF WRITING: We know that Paul wrote the book from the
city of
2. VS 1:1 - “1 Paul, a
bond-servant of Christ Jesus, called as an apostle, set apart for the
gospel of God,” - Paul
introduces himself as a bondservant and apostle of Jesus Christ
2.1.
With the first word of the epistle being, ‘Paul,’
there should be very little speculation as to whom had written the book.
2.2.
“Saul” changed his name to ‘Paul’ after
becoming a Christian. Suddenly and
without explanation, in the book of Acts, Luke records that “Saul” was
also called ‘Paul,’ and thereafter Luke refers to him as ‘Paul’.
2.3.
The name ‘Saul’ means: ”The Requested One- the Man in Demand.” The name ‘Paul’ means: “Little,” and thus some say that he
changed his name to ‘Paul’ because of his new-found humility in becoming
a Christian. Others say that Paul gave
himself a Roman name in order to have more accessibility to Gentiles in
preaching the gospel. Perhaps both are
right.
2.4.
Jesus said that the greatest in the kingdom of God
would be the servant of all, and in beginning his epistle Paul immediately
condescends and describes himself as ‘a bond-servant of Christ Jesus.’ Though the word for ‘bond-servant’ could have
been translated ‘servant,’ it is believed by most commentators that
Paul’s description of himself as a ‘doulos’ (‘bondservant’)
refers to a much deeper and complete submission of himself to the Lord, such as
the term ‘bond-servant,’ or ‘slave,’ depicts.
2.5.
A slave in Paul’s day had absolutely no rights
whatsoever. He could not marry on his
own, hold any property, and he had no legal rights at all. The slave’s master could beat him at will and
even kill him if he felt like it. A
slave owner could have relations with a female slave that he owned. If the master allowed a female slave to have
any conjugal visits, and the woman became pregnant, the master could do
whatever he wished with the child that was born, for it did not belong to the
slave. Paul made himself a slave for
life to Christ Jesus, and he did not consider his life as dear unto himself,
but constantly did his master’s bidding.
2.6.
The Greek word, ‘Christ,’ here is the word for
the Hebrew word “Messiah,” the one who is the hope of Israel and
prophesied to come to the Jews in the Old Testament writings at least 338
times. The name ‘Jesus’ is a
combination of two words, the first being God’s name, and it means “Yahweh
saves.”
2.7.
Paul writes that he was ‘called as an apostle.’ In the Greek it literally means, “called
apostle” or “called an apostle.”
The word ‘as’ is in italics since it is not in the original
language but was added in this translation in order to convey the sense of the
meaning of the phrase. Paul met Jesus on
the road to Damascus as he went to find and persecute Christians, and the Lord
called him at that point to go and preach the gospel to the Gentiles.
2.8.
The word ‘apostle’ means “one sent out.” There are several people mentioned in the New
Testament as apostles besides the twelve and the apostle Paul, and there are
many opinions about whether there are two different levels of apostles, and
whether or not there are modern day apostles.
I think that if there are modern day apostles, then they are not of the
same level of apostle as the twelve and Paul.
The scriptures teach that to be considered one of “The Apostles”
(capital ‘T’) such as the 12 apostles, it was required that one see Jesus
Christ personally after His resurrection, that He be instructed
personally by the Lord, and that he be able to perform miracles. Paul met these criteria. He met the Lord personally on the road to
2.9.
Paul’s office as an ‘apostle’ gave him the
authority that required the attention and obedience of the Romans, as well as Christians,
who read this letter. What an apostle
taught was infallible and inspired by God and thus authoritative over our lives
as God’s people.
2.10.
Paul saw his entire life as ‘set apart for the
gospel of God.’ He knew that he had
been set apart for the preaching of the gospel from birth. He could see the Lord’s hand preparing him at
every turn in his life.
3. VS 1:2 - “2 which He promised
beforehand through His prophets in the holy Scriptures,” - Paul tells us that the gospel of Jesus Christ
was promised beforehand in the scriptures
3.1.
Paul calls the Word of God ‘holy Scriptures,’
which denotes to us the worth with which God’s Word had to Paul. Paul wrote to Timothy in 2 Tim. 3:16 about
God’s Word being completely inspired and innerant and thus being the source for
building us up in all areas of our faith, “16 All Scripture is inspired by
God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in
righteousness; 17 that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good
work.”
3.2.
Since every Word of God is ‘holy,’ we
Christians ought to have a tremendous reverence for God’s Word in our
lives. We ought to cherish it and make
the best use of it in our life. We also
ought to tremble when our life contradicts what the scripture says we should or
should not be doing in our life, and repent of our sins when we find that we
have missed the mark of God’s holiness as revealed in the scriptures.
4. VS 1:3 - “3 concerning His Son,
who was born of a descendant of David according to the flesh,” - Paul tells us that Jesus Christ was a
descendant of King David
5. That the
Messiah was predicted in the Old Testament scriptures to be the natural
descendant of David was predicted in scriptures such as:
5.1.1. Isaiah
11:1-5, “11:1 Then a shoot will
spring from the stem of Jesse, And a
branch from his roots will bear fruit. 2
And the Spirit of the Lord will rest on Him,
The spirit of wisdom and understanding,
The spirit of counsel and strength,
The spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. 3 And He will delight in the fear of the
Lord, And He will not judge by what His
eyes see, Nor make a decision by what
His ears hear; 4 But with righteousness
He will judge the poor, And decide with
fairness for the afflicted of the earth;
And He will strike the earth with the rod of His mouth, And with the breath of His lips He will slay
the wicked. 5 Also righteousness will be
the belt about His loins, And
faithfulness the belt about His waist.”
5.1.2. Jer. 23:5-6,
“5 “Behold, the days are coming,” declares the Lord, “When I shall raise up
for David a righteous Branch; And He
will reign as king and act wisely And
do justice and righteousness in the land.
6 “In His days
5.2.
Jesus Christ was born a ‘descendant of David
according to the flesh’ through the lineage of his mother. Joseph was not the father of Jesus, however
he too was a direct descendant of David’s, for the genealogy is given for
Joseph in the first chapter of Matthew.
The lineage of Joseph was given by Matthew because of the fact that
though Jesus was not Joseph’s son, one who would sit as king upon the throne of
Israel would have to be a direct descendant through the blood line of the
father. Mary, Jesus’ mother, was a direct descendant of David as the genealogy
given in the first couple chapters of Luke tell us and prove.
5.3.
Jesus was the Son of God since God was the Father of
Him, not Joseph. The idea of Jesus’
sonship to the Father cannot be removed from the idea of His pre-existence from
all eternity. Paul wrote concerning
Jesus in Phil. 2:6-8 , “6 who, although He existed in the form of God, did
not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied Himself, taking
the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. 8 And being
found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the
point of death, even death on a cross.”
6. VS 1:4 - “4 who was declared
the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead, according to the
Spirit of holiness, Jesus Christ our Lord,” -
Paul tells us that Jesus Christ was declared the Son of God with power
by the resurrection from the dead
6.1.
The resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead was a
declaration made by God to all men that Jesus was the only and unique Son of
God from all eternity. His resurrection
did not make Jesus the Son of God, it merely verified His teaching concerning
Himself that He was the Son of God. This
declaration by God was only made for the sake of mankind because all of heaven
has always known that Jesus is the Son of God from all eternity. Before His death, in John 10:18 Jesus told
His disciples that He had power to lay down His life and power to raise it up
again. This does not contradict the
scriptures that say that the Father raised Jesus from the dead since what the
Father does, the Son also does.
6.2.
Unlike the rest of mankind, Jesus was born sinless and
because of this fact plus the fact that He never sinned His entire life, He
could not be held in the grave or die, and therefore was resurrected from the
dead. In Psalm 16:10 we learn that it
was prophesied in the Old Testament hundreds of years before Jesus’ birth that
He would not decay in the grave, “10 For You will not leave my
soul in Sheol, Nor will You allow Your Holy One to see corruption.”
6.3.
Paul says that Jesus Christ is ‘our Lord,’ as
this is both His title as well as the position that He is to have in every
person’s life. Jesus said that His title
is Lord, and that He is indeed Lord in John 13:13, “13 “You call Me Teacher
and Lord; and you are right, for so I am.”
6.4.
Jesus is never called or referred to as a ‘Spirit,’
so the ‘Spirit of holiness’ must not refer directly to Him. Also, it is unlikely that the ‘Spirit of
holiness’ refers simply to His inner character which was holy and
pure. The ‘Spirit of holiness’
refers to the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity. Jesus Christ walked in holiness and purity
every second of His life, never having sinned, and He was able to do this
because He walked in the power of the Holy Spirit. After His baptism, it is written that Jesus
began His ministry and walked in the power of the Holy Spirit, just as Christians
can walk today. Walking filled with the
Holy Spirit, Jesus never sinned, and in Rom. 6:23, Paul writes that it is sin
that causes death, “23For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is
eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
6.5.
In Phil. 2:10, Paul wrote that every knee would bow at
the name of Jesus since He is the exalted Lord and Master over all creation.
7. VS 1:5 - “5 through whom we
have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of
faith among all the Gentiles for His name’s sake,” -
Paul writes that it is through Jesus Christ that he and the other
apostles had received grace and apostleship
7.1.
When Paul says that through Jesus Christ he has
received ‘grace,’ he is not speaking of the ‘grace’ that would be
necessary for him to be an apostle of Jesus Christ. Rather, Paul means that just as any other
Christian, he has been saved through the grace of God, and since being saved,
God has continued to pour out His grace upon him.
7.2.
‘Grace’ is undeserved merit and favor from God,
it is God giving to us not what we as sinners deserve, but rather what He
because of His love and mercy desires to give unconditionally to us. Through the Law no one could be saved,
besides God gave us the Law in order to show us that we could not keep the Law
and that we must therefore only be able to be saved through His grace.
7.3.
Paul says He also received His ‘apostleship’
through Jesus Christ as he recalls his having been called and chosen for this
purpose by Jesus Christ. Paul’s road to
7.4.
Paul saw his calling to preach the gospel to the
Gentiles as the opportunity to ‘to bring about the obedience of faith among
all the Gentiles.’ The ‘obedience’
is ‘faith’ in God and His Word which one gains at the moment when he or
she is saved. Likewise, ‘faith’
produces ‘obedience’ to God and ‘obedience’ to God is the result
of ‘faith.’
7.5.
Paul’s motive for being faithful to his calling as an
apostle to preach the gospel to the Gentiles was that he did what he did, ‘for
His Name’s sake.’ Being such a
debtor to God and His grace Paul loved the Lord and wanted to honor and serve
the Lord with all of his life.
7.6.
The term ‘the obedience of the faith’ which Paul
uses in this verse should remind us as Christians that having come to Christ by
faith that our lives will never be the same.
Paul wrote the following about what occurs in a person’s life after
becoming saved in 2 Cor. 5:17, “17 Therefore if any man is in Christ, he is
a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.”
7.7.
‘For His Name’s sake’ we all ought to be
obedient to the Lord in our life! Our
greatest desire ought to be to be pleasing to the Lord who was willing to go
all of the way to the cross of
8. VS 1:6 - “6 among whom you also
are the called of Jesus Christ;” - Paul tells the
Romans at the church that they also are ‘the called of Jesus Christ’
8.1.
Every Christian in heaven and on earth has been called
of Jesus Christ, called to the salvation that He has for them, and called to
the work that He has prepared for them to carry on in their life.
8.2.
Christian, do you realize that the Lord has placed His
thoughts upon you to the extent that from all eternity He has “called you”
? Don’t ever think that the Lord doesn’t
take notice of you or that He hasn’t called out to you. Quite the opposite is true.
9. VS 1:7 - “7 to all who are
beloved of God in
9.1.
Paul states that every Christian is ‘beloved of God,’
for we are now His children and every child of His is ‘beloved’ by
Him. God only calls Christians ‘beloved,’
since the love He has for them is as His own sons and daughters. The love God has for the world is encompassed
primarily by the word “compassion.”
9.2.
Every Christian is also a ‘saint,’ or as the
Greek states here, “called a saint.”
9.3.
Each Christian is set apart by God holy unto His
purposes, and therefore God gives every Christian the name of ‘saint.’ Christians often don’t live up to the name by
which they are called, yet the name suggests how it is that they appear in
God’s sight. The name does suggest that
every Christian has been cleansed and made pure and holy by God, set apart for
His service and worship.
9.4.
Paul’s two-fold greeting of ‘grace and peace’
is characteristic of all of his writings.
There is no doubt that the order is always the same since peace from
God, which is really peace with God derived from receiving salvation through
Christ, can only come by means of His ‘grace.’ It is the ‘grace’ of God which has
brought about all the many fold blessings of God.
9.5.
The ‘grace and peace’ that Paul greets the
saints with in his letters is always that which is derived from the Father
through His Son Jesus Christ, for Jesus procured that for us.
9.6.
It ought to change the attitude that we have of the
Lord to realize that He calls us His ‘beloved.’ He treasures us and being our Father.
9.7.
I like what Gayle Erwin once stated. He said that God is really crazy about us,
and He even likes us.
9.8.
Concerning a Christian’s standing and growth in the
grace of God, Spurgeon once said, “The moment a sinner believes, and trusts
in his crucified God, he is, in the grace of God, then justified and complete
in Jesus. And if he lives till his hair
is gray, he will never be more justified, and never be more beloved, than he is
the very first moment in which he believes in God. As soon as ever I have a vital communion with
the Lamb, I am in grace. Let me live on,
let my grace grow, let my faith increase, let my zeal become warmer, let my
love be more ardent, yet I shall not be more in grace than I was before. God will not love me more; He will not have a deeper and purer affection
in His heart to me then than He has the very first moment when I turn to
Him; nor will His grace the less justify
me, or less accept me, the first moment when I come to Him with all my sins
about me, then it shall do when I stand before the throne. We never grow in the grace of election. We are always elect according to the
foreknowledge of God the Father; and in
that sense of grace there is neither growth nor retrograde. So also in the matter of justification.”
“In union
with the Lamb,
from condemnation
free,
The
saints for ever were,
And shall
for ever be.”
And they are at all times as much
justified as they are art any other time.”
10.
VS 1:8 - “8
First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, because your faith
is being proclaimed throughout the whole world.” -
Paul thanked God for the Romans because their faith was being proclaimed
throughout the whole world
10.1.
In the first section of this chapter, verses 1-7, Paul
established his official relationship with the church in
10.2.
This next section of the book, verses 8-17, contain
also the introduction to the main theme that the book of Romans contains, “The
Righteousness of God,” and how His righteousness was satisfied through the
sacrifice of His Son for the sins of mankind.
10.3.
Paul was always thankful when God’s people
demonstrated their love for God and faith in Him. Paul was very thankful for the Romans because
they had exceptional faith and that their faith was known and spoken of ‘throughout
the whole world.’ Evidently, the
Romans were having an evangelistic impact on the world.
10.4.
We Christians need to follow Paul’s example and always
find reasons to give thanks to God for our brothers and sisters and their lives
before God. If we did this we would end
up being less critical of them.
10.4.1.
How to put an
end to hurtful gossip: The next time
you hear a Christian gossiping about another brother or sister in Christ, you
ought to ask them if they have given thanks to God lately for that brother or
sister!
11.
VS 1:9 - “9
For God, whom I serve in my spirit in the preaching of the gospel
of His Son, is my witness as to how unceasingly I make mention of you,” - Paul tells the Romans about how that he
unceasingly prayed for them
11.1.
Paul describes his ministry as serving God in his ‘spirit
in the preaching of the gospel.’
11.2.
As a dedicated prayer warrior in behalf of the Romans,
Paul calls upon the Lord as his witness of how in prayer he ‘unceasingly’
prayed for the church(s) in
11.3.
Paul is seeking to convey to the Romans that God had
given him a special love for the Romans.
Paul demonstrates that the love he has for them is genuine in that he
prays constantly for them, and that he prays that the Lord will bring him to
them so that he can minister to them.
11.4.
By saying that he serves God in ‘his spirit,’
Paul is referring to a part of his being.
In scripture we see that people are referred to as having a body, being
possessed by a spirit (that part in which the Holy Spirit connects with the
Christian), and inhabited by a soul.
11.5.
If we really love our brothers and sisters in the
Lord, then we should demonstrate our sincere love for them through our prayers
for them. Isn’t this a demonstration of
the highest love for them?
12.
VS 1:10 - “10
always in my prayers making request, if perhaps now at last by the will
of God I may succeed in coming to you.” -
Paul tells the Romans that it appears that he is finally going to be
able to come and visit them
12.1.
Paul wanted the Romans to know that in his prayers he
asked the Lord that if it was His will that he would like to be able to come to
the Romans and minister to them.
12.2.
We see from this verses also an example of the fact
that in Paul’s prayers he also always prayed that only if it was God’s will
that his prayers might be answered. He
prays in this situation that he might be able to come to the Romans if this is
God’s will for his life.
13.
VS 1:11 - “11
For I long to see you so that I may impart some spiritual gift to you,
that you may be established;” - Paul tells
the Romans that he longed to impart some spiritual gift to them so that they
might be established in their faith
13.1.
Paul’s desire in coming to visit the Romans was that
he would be used in their life in some way in order that they might be built up
in their faith. In this verse, Paul
probably does not mean that he wanted to be used in order to distribute one of
the specific gifts of the Holy Spirit, per the lists in
14.
VS 1:12 - “12
that is, that I may be encouraged together with you while among you,
each of us by the other’s faith, both yours and mine.” - Paul tells the Romans that he knew that if he
would be able to come to the church that they would encourage each other’s
faith
14.1.
Paul was not a “super-saint” as it seems that some
supposed apostles today think of themselves.
Paul knew that in ministering to the Romans that he would also be
ministered to by them as well.
14.2.
Whenever we give out to others, we are also ministered
to, just as Jesus said in Luke 6:38 that this would happen, “38 “Give, and
it will be given to you; good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running
over, they will pour into your lap. For by your standard of measure it will be
measured to you in return.””
15.
CONCLUSIONS:
15.1.
This study through the book of Romans is going to be
an exciting adventure as we will walk with Paul through all of his doctrinal
instruction and have so many questions that we have had be answered.
15.2.
As we consider this study and how we ought to apply
the things we have discussed, it is wonderful to see the agape love which Paul
had for the Romans, and that which they had for him. It is wonderful to see how Paul expressed the
great love that he had for the people in the church by continually praying for
them and by desiring to be used by God in some way to encourage them in their
faith. Lets pray that God might create
such love and fellowship in our own midst here in the church. Lets continually pray for each other and seek
to edify each other in the things of God.
15.3.
Lets realize that as we give out to others in their
need that the Lord is going to overflow blessing in our lives as a result. Lets remember that we will reap a blessing as
we get out of ourselves and think about how to encourage others in their faith.
15.3.1.
One of the keys to being healthy mentally, have a
positive outlook on things, and being filled with joy is to take our eyes off
of ourselves and simply think about others and try to reach out to them.