“THE
BOOK OF ROMANS”
Part 2 of 8
WHY DID PAUL
WRITE HIS
LETTER TO THE ROMANS?
Paul
wanted to let the Christians at Rome know that he was on his way there.
He
writes Romans around 57 AD and this is before God told Paul around
61AD, (Acts
23:11) that he would send him to Rome. At the time of writing the Book
of
Romans Paul did not feel sure that he would get away from Jerusalem
alive (Rom
15:31). As a result it seemed a very good idea to get down on paper a written explanation of the true nature of
the gospel of Christ according to God’s doctrine through Paul.
After all,
as the apostle to the Gentiles, it was only fitting that he leave a
written
copy in the world’s capital on the nature and gospel of Christ. Of
course, as
we have seen, Rome and the Roman Catholic ‘church’ has been the most
violent
and deadly to Christians for two thousand years and therefore Paul
sends God’s
sword direct into the eye of Satan who sits and has his own ‘church’ in
Rome.
THE
BACKGROUND TO THE
ROMAN EPISTLE
It
was the common Jewish belief of the finality of Moses and his laws as
the final
expression of the will of God. There was Jewish insistence that
Gentiles who
would become Christians must be circumcised and keep the Laws of Moses.
Indeed,
Christianity had its foundation taken from the Jewish religion and
powerful
Jewish leaders were determined to keep it so. Circumcision was the
physical
rite which stood as the initial ceremony in the Jewish naturalisation
of
Gentiles.
PAUL’S MAIN
THEME AND
INSISTENCE - THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD
All
men are sinful and the law is the cause. Man’s acceptance with God does
not
depend on man trying to keep God’s laws – he can’t. Why? They are pure
and holy
and man is not. God’s laws bring out the sin in man.
So
God solved the problem by becoming a man, Jesus Christ, to fulfil the
law on
man’s behalf. Entry into heaven can only be by perfect obedience to
God’s laws.
Man can’t do it, so Christ did it on behalf of all men. We get into
heaven
by the obedience of Christ. Man’s acceptance with God does not
depend on
what man has done, but on what Christ has done for him.
IMPORTANCE
OF ROMANS
The
eternal question that man has always had, is best summed up by Job in
the Old
Testament, when he says “How then
can man be justified with God? or how can he be clean that is
born of a woman? Job 25:4 . Paul’s
epistle to the Romans leaves us in no doubt.
Romans is a reasoned
argument that
outlines salvation on how to get the right-eousness of God.
Romans
tells us how to get right with God, that is, how to have right
standing with God.
God
gives Paul the most skilful and surgical of words that leaves no-one in
doubt
on how to get to heaven. Like the rest of the King James Bible, the
book of
Romans, as written in the English (that means no Greek of Hebrew
needed), is a
legal document that can stand the scrutiny of any courtroom in the
land.
TERMS OF ROMANS
These
are salvation words, strong words and Bible words. No wonder
the world
hates them. No wonder the New King James Version wants to water them
down:
Justified,
righteousness, redemption, propitiation,
the law, sin, grace, faith, imputed righteousness, flesh, spirit,
justification, redemption, propitiation, remission, imputation,
impartation, regeneration,
reconciliation, spiritual circumcision, adoption, sanctification,
resurrection,
glorification, temptation, reformation, restitution, visitation,
salvation,
predestination.
CHAPTER
SUMMARIES
“Jesus
Christ – The
Righteousness of God”
C1-C3 All
are sinners
C1 = The
obvious ‘bad’ sinners
Man’s
blatant and sinful mockery of
God. The universal and open
ungodliness & unrighteousness of
all
C2 =
The
hidden ‘good’sinners
Hypocrisy & self-righteousness
All have judged - especially the Jew
C3 =
All
have sinned
Jews & Gentiles are all sinners
The law exposes sin
The law of faith is the answer
Justification
C4-C5
Justification
C4
= Abraham’s faith
Justified without works
Imputed righteousness
C5
= Adam vs Christ
Christ died for the ungodly
We are justified by his blood.
C6-C8
Subduing the flesh
C6
= Daily struggle with sin
We are to be servants of righteousness
C7
= Dead to the law
The
law is holy
Our natures of flesh are evil
C8
= No condemnation
Comfort if walking after the Spirit
C9-C11 Israel
C9
= Israel
Paul’s heaviness & sorrow for
them
C10
= Israel
Paul’s desire they be saved
C11
= Israel
Not been cast away
C12-C15
Service
C12
= Living sacrifices
Christian behaviour
C13
= Higher powers
Our duty towards government
C14
= Weak in faith.
Our duty towards weaker brethren
C15
= Christian love
We are not to please ourselves
C16 Salutations
& warning
C16
= Salutations
Rome’s idol is their belly
**** ****
Harley
Hitchcock
www.
AustralianBibleMinistries
.com