Grace Over the Power of the Law – Romans 7
We have been set free from the law and walk in the new way of the Spirit. The law is holy, righteous, and good, but it can’t make us holy, righteous, or good. Even though we struggle in the fight against sin (which is powerful), thanks to Jesus, his grace is stronger. The focus shifts from the power of sin (Romans 6) to the powerlessness of the law. […]
Grace Over the Power of Sin – Romans 6:12–23
This week in Romans 6:12–23, Paul reminds us that because of what Christ did, we are not slaves to sin and our passions anymore. Instead, we have a new master, a master Paul calls Obedience, Righteousness, and finally, God. And what a gracious master God is! Under this new master, we have become obedient from […]
Grace: New Life In Christ – Romans 6:1–11
Paul offers a sustained argument debunking the outrageous idea that by saying that “when sin increased, grace abounded all the more,” he was suggesting that we should “continue in sin that grace may abound.” His chief argument is that the old, sinning, self has died giving rise to a new righteous life. Sinning is incompatible […]
Grace: Abundant and Abounding – Romans 5:12–21
Paul uses a “how much more” logic to show us how much better the free gift of righteousness is than the sin that necessitated it. We have a better Man than ourselves. We are not saved by our understanding of the law or our ability to keep it, but by Christ’s act of obedience at the cross. In […]
Grace: Peace With God & Assurance of Hope – Romans 5:1–11
In Romans 5:1–11, we learned that justification leads to a restored personal relationship with God. In Jesus, we are reconciled and can rejoice in our past redemption, even our present sufferings and our future in glory. Our past is redeemed by the blood of Jesus. Our present is increasingly becoming more like Jesus, and our […]
The Promise Rests On Grace – Romans 4
This week Paul offered Father Abraham as an example of how to obtain righteousness with God—through Christ by faith alone. We learned that Abraham’s faith was counted to him as righteousness BEFORE he was circumcised. God made a promise to and covenant with Abraham to redeem the world—both the circumcised AND the uncircumcised—and it would […]
God’s Saving Grace in the Death of Jesus – Romans 3:21–31
A jeweler puts a diamond on a black velvet background in order to highlight the stunning beauty of the diamond shining all the more brightly against the dark background. The gospel is the same way—it shines at its brightest when seen against the backdrop of the condemnation of sin and death that we deserve. Knowing […]
None is Righteous – Romans 2:1-3:20
No one gets a pass. Not the flagrantly immoral and not the private idolater. This is Paul’s argument so far: God judges each person—Jew or Gentile—according to his works. The standard for judging those works is God’s righteousness, explicitly stated in his laws. Both Jews and Gentiles have failed to keep God’s righteous standard. What […]
God’s Wrath on Unrighteousness – Romans 1:18–32
In God’s mysterious grace, the starting point for hope is to face our desperate, hopeless condition. Our problem is the stain of sin, which we can never scrub away. Sin of exchanging the glory of God for a love of ourselves—that terrible exchange, which trickles down into a hundred other fruits of wickedness. But there […]
The Gospel Reveals God’s Righteousness – Romans 1:1–17
This week we heard the “Overture to Romans” (Paul’s introduction in Romans 1:1–17). As in a musical before the curtain rises, the overture sets the mood and introduces motifs that are developed later in the play, and you hear familiar melodies from each scene or episode.