A Resurrection Summer Bible Study
Copyright © 2014 Church of the Resurrection of Illinois Editorial: Kevin Miller, Trevor McMaken, Meghan Robins Assistance: Andrea Sorensen Design: Devon Phillips Commentary excerpt from Romans: God’s Good News for the World by John Stott. Copyright © 1994 by John Stott. Used by permission of InterVarsity Press, P.O. Box 1400, Downers Grove, IL 60515, USA. www.ivpress.com
Why read Romans? 1. It answers the most important questions of life “What is wrong with this world? Why is there so much pain? Why do people treat each other so badly? And if there’s a God, what is God doing about that?” Every thinking person asks these questions, or ones like them.
2. It gives the heart of the Christian message Nowhere is the basic Christian message explained so clearly or so fully. Martin Luther said, “It is impossible to read or to meditate on this letter too much or too well.”
3. It can change your life The adjective “life-changing” probably gets thrown around too freely in Christian circles, but it definitely applies to this book. In the fourth century, it changed the life of Augustine, a brilliant scholar and playboy who was still miserable inside. He read Romans 13:13-14, and it changed his life (“…not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy. Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the flesh”). He became a committed Christian, a bishop, and a great theologian. In the sixteenth century, it changed the life of Martin Luther, a German monk who was trying desperately to please God. When he read Romans 1:17 and learned that the just person lives by faith, he said it felt “as though I had been born again.” Romans can change your life today. Join us as we study it together. -Fr. Kevin Miller 1
What do I need to know before I start? Who wrote this letter to the Christians in Rome? Paul, a man who had arrested Christians and hauled them into court and jail, then was converted (from Judaism) and became one of Christianity’s first and greatest missionaries. He wrote letters that make up almost half of the New Testament “books”.
When? In the year 57, about 25 years after Jesus rose from the dead. It would be like writing a letter today about something that happened in 1989. Paul probably sent the letter to Rome in the care of Phoebe, a deacon (Romans 16:1-2).
Why? Reason #1: Paul had never visited the young Christian church in Rome, the sprawling capital of the Roman Empire. But he knew many people in the church--in chapter 16, he lists 26 people by name. He wrote because he wanted to go to Spain, the far western edge of the Roman world. On his way, it made sense to stop in Rome, “to visit you while passing through and to have you assist me on my journey there, after I have enjoyed your company for a while” (Romans 15:24). Reason #2: to explain to sophisticated city people, “Here’s my message. Here’s the good news I risk my life to tell others.” As Philip Yancey put it, “In Romans, Paul brilliantly sets down the whole scope of Christian doctrine, which, at that time, was still being passed along orally from town to town. Paul wanted to convince those demanding hearers that Christ held the answers to all of life’s important questions.”
What should I look for? • First “what we believe,” then “how we live.” In the first 11 chapters, Paul spells out “what we believe”: what’s wrong with this world and how God rescues us from that in Christ. In the final 5 chapters, Paul explains how those beliefs change the way we live. • Most of the Christians in Rome had come out of pagan backgrounds, not Jewish ones. So Paul explains how a faith that began among Jews works for non-Jews. And he lays out how Jews and Gentiles, even though they are so different, can live peacefully together in a church. 2
Big Questions Paul Answers in Romans Week 1: What is the basic problem of human life? Week 2: What is God’s way of rescuing us from this? Week 3: If it’s by faith, why not just keep sinning? Week 4: If it’s by faith, why even have God’s commandments? Week 5: If it’s by faith, what about people who are moral? Week 6: So what? What difference does this make in how I live? Week 7: If we live by faith, how do I handle someone with less faith? Week 8: How do we help other people hear this good news?
3
Week 1: Romans 1:1-3:20 What is the basic problem of human life? Study 1
Scripture
Commentary
Read Romans 1:1-32
“Nothing keeps people away from Christ more than their inability to see their need of him or their unwillingness to admit it. As Jesus put it: ‘It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.’ . . . He did not mean by his epigram about the doctor that some people are righteous, so that they do not need salvation, but that some people think they are. In that condition of self-righteousness they will never come to Christ. For just as we go to the doctor only when we admit that we are ill and cannot cure ourselves, so we will go to Christ only when we admit that we are guilty sinners and cannot save ourselves . . . It is significant that the first of the ‘twelve steps’ of Alcoholics Anonymous is : ‘We admitted we were powerless over alcohol - that our lives had become unmanageable.’ Our Christian duty is rather, through prayer and teaching, to bring people to accept the true diagnosis of their condition in the sight of God. Otherwise, they will never respond to the gospel.” p. 67, Romans: God’s Good News for the World by John Stott
Reflection
1. Paul’s description of human sinfulness is vivid. Can you identify a behavior in verses 29-32 that you took part in recently? 2. How can recognizing yourself as one of Paul’s guilty sinners change the way you act today? 4
Study 2
Scripture
Commentary
Read Romans 2:1-29
“Paul uncovers in these verses a strange human foible, namely our tendency to be critical of everybody except ourselves . . . We work ourselves up into a state of self-righteous indignation over the disgraceful behaviour of other people, while the very same behaviour seems not nearly so serious when it is ours rather than theirs. We even gain a vicarious satisfaction from condemning in others the very faults we excuse in ourselves. Freud called this moral gymnastic ‘projection’, but Paul described it centuries before Freud . . . This device enables us simultaneously to retain our sins and our self-respect. It is a convenient arrangement, but also both slick and sick.” p. 82, Romans: God’s Good News for the World by John Stott
Reflection
1. What specific behavior were you condemning the last time you criticized someone? 2. In light of this passage, can you identify your own tendency to the negative behavior that you criticized? When was the last time you engaged in it personally?
5
Week 1: Romans 1:1-3:20 What is the basic problem of human life? Study 3
Scripture
Commentary
Read Romans 3:1-20
“...how should we respond to Paul’s devastating exposure of universal sin and guilt, as we read it at the end of the twentieth century? We should not try to evade it by changing the subject and talking instead of the need for self-esteem, or by blaming our behaviour on our genes, nurturing, education or society. It is an essential part of our dignity as human beings that, however much we may have been affected by negative influences, we are not their helpless victims, but rather responsible for our conduct. Our first response to Paul’s indictment, then, should be to make it as certain as we possibly can that we have ourselves accepted this divine diagnosis of our human condition as true, and that we have fled from the just judgment of God on our sins to the only refuge there is, namely Jesus Christ who died for our sins. p. 104, Romans: God’s Good News for the World by John Stott
Reflection
1. If the world and all the people in it really are as sinful, broken, desperate, and in need of saving as Paul describes, how does that affect the urgency you have to share the good news of God’s grace with them? 2. How can viewing yourself in light of your own sinfulness change the way you communicate Christ to those around you?
6
Week 2: Romans 3:21–5:21 What is God’s way of rescuing us from this? Study 4
Scripture
Commentary
Read Romans 3:21-31
“...it is vital to affirm that there is nothing meritorious about faith, and that, when we say that salvation is ‘by faith, not by works’, we are not substituting one kind of merit (‘faith’) for another (‘works’). Nor is salvation a sort of cooperative enterprise between God and us, in which he contributes the cross and we contribute faith. . . The value of faith is not to be found in itself, but entirely and exclusively in its object, namely Jesus Christ and him crucified. To say ‘justification by faith alone’ is another way of saying ‘justification by Christ alone’. Faith is the eye that looks to him, the hand that received his free gift, the mouth that drinks the living water. ‘Faith...apprehendeth nothing else but that precious jewel Christ Jesus.’ As Richard Hooker, the late-sixteenth-century Anglican divine, wrote: ‘God justifies the believer - not because of the worthiness of his belief, but because of his (sc. Christ’s) worthiness who is believed.’” p. 117-118, Romans: God’s Good News for the World by John Stott
Reflection
1. When was the last time you received a truly unexpected gift? How did it make you feel? 2. Does it surprise you to read Stott’s statement that salvation is not “a cooperative enterprise between God and us, in which he contributes the cross and we contribute faith?” What is surprising about it?
7
Week 2: Romans 3:21–5:21 What is God’s way of rescuing us from this? Study 5
Scripture
Commentary
Read Romans 4:1-25
“But the God we are to trust in is not only the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; he is also the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification (verse 25). This verse’, writes Hodge, ‘is a comprehensive statement of the gospel.’ It is indeed. Its parallelism is so well honed that some think it was an early Christian aphorism or credal fragment.” p. 135, Romans: God’s Good News for the World by John Stott
Reflection
1. Why does it matter that we share the same faith as Abraham? 2. How would you re-word verse 25 to explain it to a child?
8
Study 6
Scripture
Commentary
Read Romans 5:1-21
“The costliness of the gift is clear. Verses 6 and 8 say only that ‘Christ died’. But verse 10 clarifies who ‘Christ’ is by saying that God reconciled us to himself ‘through the death of his Son’. Formerly God had sent prophets, and sometimes angels. But now he sent his only Son, and in giving his Son he was giving himself. Further, he gave his Son to die for us. ...For what is written is that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us (verse 8), and whenever sin and death are coupled in Scripture, death is the penalty or ‘wage’ of sin (6:23; cf. 5:12). This being so, the statement that ‘Christ died for sinners’, that though the sins were ours the death was his, can mean only that he died as a sin offering, bearing in our place the penalty our sins had deserved. This helps us to understand the costliness of the gift.” p. 144-146, Romans: God’s Good News for the World by John Stott
Reflection
1. In the first chapters of Romans, we reflected on the depths of our own sin. Here we see the depths of God’s love. Imagine now all of your individual sin being transferred onto Jesus on the cross. What do you see? 2. Now imagine all of the sins of every person who has lived, is living, and will live being carried by Jesus on the cross. What does Jesus do with it all?
9
Week 3: Romans 6:1–7:6 If it’s by faith, why not just keep sinning? Study 7
Scripture
Commentary
Read Romans 6:1-14
“Verses 3-5 contain references to the death, burial and resurrection of Christ, and to our participation with him in all three events. For the basic theme of the first half of Romans 6 is that the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ are not only historical facts and significant doctrines, but also personal experiences, since through faith-baptism we have come to share in them ourselves. So we read that we were baptised into his death (verse 3b), and that we were therefore buried with him through baptism into his death (verse 4a) in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, that is, through a glorious display of his mighty power, we too may live a new life (verse 4b), in fact ‘the new resurrection life’ of Christ, which begins now and will be completed on the day of resurrection.” p. 174, Romans: God’s Good News for the World by John Stott
Reflection
1. Is there a particular sin that you have kept in your life as a Christian or let sneak in? What lies have you told yourself to justify this sin? 2. According to this passage, how does your baptism affect your understanding of sin in your life?
10
Study 8
Scripture
Commentary
Read Romans 6:15-23
“So, in practice, we should constantly be reminding ourselves who we are. We need to learn to talk to ourselves, and ask ourselves questions: ‘Don’t you know? Don’t you know the meaning of your conversion and baptism? Don’t you know that you have been united to Christ in his death and resurrection? Don’t you know that you have been enslaved to God and have committed yourself to his obedience? Don’t you know these things? Don’t you know who you are?’ We must go on pressing ourselves with such questions, until we reply to ourselves: ‘Yes, I do know who I am, a new person in Christ, and by the grace of God I shall live accordingly.’ ” p. 187, Romans: God’s Good News for the World by John Stott
Reflection
1. What has been the wages of the sin in your life up to this point? What has been the effect of the free gift of righteousness in your life up to this point? 2. What are some ways that you can contemplate throughout the day to remember that you were baptised into Jesus and that your identity is in him?
11
Week 3: Romans 6:1–7:6 If it’s by faith, why not just keep sinning? Study 9
Scripture
Commentary
Read Romans 7:1-6
“We are now in a position to sum up the contrast contained in verses 5-6. It is an antithesis between the two ages, the two covenants…, and so, since we have been personally transferred from the old to the new, between our pre- and postconversion lives. In our old life we were dominated by that terrible quartet - flesh, law, sin, and death (verse 5). But in our new life, having been released from the law we are slaves of God through the power of the Spirit (verse 6). The contrasts are striking. We were ‘in the flesh’, but are now ‘in the Spirit’. We were aroused by the law, but are now released from it. We bore fruit for death (verse 5), but now bear fruit for God (verse 4). And what has caused this release from the old life and this introduction to the new? Answer: it is that radical double event called death and resurrection. We died to the law through the death of Christ (verse 4a); now we belong to Christ, having been raised from the dead with him (verse 4b).” p. 196-197, Romans: God’s Good News for the World by John Stott
Reflection
1. What tangible ways have you seen this transition in yourself from life under the law to life in Christ? 2. How would you describe the role the Holy Spirit plase in that transition for you?
12
Week 4: Romans 7:7–8:39 If it’s by faith, why even have God’s commandments? Study 10
Scripture
Commentary
Read Romans 7:7-25
“Here then, are the three devastating effects of the law in relation to sin. It exposes, provokes and condemns sin. For ‘the power of sin is the law’. But the law itself is not in itself sinful, nor is it responsible for sin. Instead, it is sin itself, our sinful nature, which uses the law to cause us to sin and so to die. The law is exonerated; sin is to blame. The teaching of this paragraph is well summarized in the question of verse 7 and the affirmation of verse 12. Question: Is the law sin? (verse 7). Affirmation: So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous and good (verse 12). That is, its requirements are both holy and righteous in themselves and also good (agathos), meaning ‘beneficient in their intention’.” p. 204, Romans: God’s Good News for the World by John Stott
Reflection
1. What are some of the laws in the Bible that you have struggled with, and what light does this passage shed on those struggles for you? 2. Do you resonate with Paul’s dilemma in verse 19? How do you see it playing out in your life?
13
Week 4: Romans 7:7–8:39 If it’s by faith, why even have God’s commandments? Study 11
Scripture
Commentary
Reflection
Read Romans 8:1-17
“But before our rescue is possible, the body of sin must be done away with...The ‘body of sin’ should certainly not be rendered ‘the sinful body’ (RSV), implying that the human body itself is contaminated or corrupt. That was a gnostic notion. The biblical doctrines of creation, incarnation and resurrection all give us a high view of our body as the God-intended vehicle through which we express ourselves. Perhaps then the body of sin means ‘our sin-dominated body’ or ‘the body as conditioned and controlled by sin’, because sin uses our body for its own evil purposes, perverting our natural instincts, degrading sleepiness into sloth, hunger into greed, and sexual desire into lust. Others suggest that ‘the body of sin’ means ‘the sinful self ’ (REB), our fallen, self-centered nature, sōma (body) being used as a synonym for sarx (flesh). This seems to suit the context best.”...By pneuma (spirit) in this passage Paul means not the higher aspect of our humanness viewed as ‘spiritual’, but rather the personal Holy Spirit himself who now not only regenerates but also indwells the people of God. This tension between ‘flesh’ and ‘Spirit’ is reminiscent of Galatians 5:16-26, where they are in irreconcilable conflict with each other. p. 175, 222-223, Romans: God’s Good News for the World by John Stott
1. How does Paul describe the role of the Holy Spirit in this passage? Does his description fit with your experience of the Holy Spirit? 2. What implications does this passage have for your day-to-day struggle with sin?
14
Week 4: Romans 7:7–8:39 If it’s by faith, why even have God’s commandments? Study 12
Scripture
Commentary
Read Romans 8:18-39
“Secondly, we...groan inwardly (23b). The juxtaposition of the Spirit’s indwelling and our groaning should not surprise us. For the very presence of the Spirit (being only the firstfruits) is a contrast reminder of the incompleteness of our salvation, as we share with the creation in the frustration, the bondage to decay and the pain. So one reason for our groaning is our physical frailty and mortality. Paul expresses this elsewhere: ‘Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling [meaning probably our resurrection body]... For while we are in this tent [our temporary, flimsy, material body], we groan and are burdened….’ Our groans express both present pain and future longing. Some Christians, however, grin too much (they seem to have no place in their theology for pain) and groan too little.” p. 242, Romans: God’s Good News for the World by John Stott
Reflection
1. What areas of pain in your life do you need to lean into and “groan” about? Invite the Holy Spirit to intercede for you as face your pain. 2. List out some of your greatest fears, and then place them into verses 38-39 as a reminder of your role as a conqueror over fear in Christ.
15
Week 5: Romans 9:1–11:36 If it’s by faith, what about people who are moral? Study 13
Scripture
Commentary
Read Romans 9:1-33
“Many mysteries surround the doctrine of election, and theologians are unwise to systematize it in such a way that no puzzles, enigmas or loose ends are left. At the same time, in addition to the arguments developed in the exposition of Romans 8:28-30, we need to remember two truths. First, election is not just a Pauline or apostolic doctrine; it was also taught by Jesus himself. ‘I know those I have chosen,’ he said. Secondly, election is an indispensable foundation of Christian worship, in time and eternity. It is the essence of worship to say: ‘Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to your name be the glory.’ If we were responsible for our own salvation, either in whole or even in part, we would be justified in singing our own praises and blowing our own trumpet in heaven. But such a thing is inconceivable. God’s redeemed people will spend eternity worshiping him, humbling themselves before him in grateful adoration, ascribing their salvation to him and to the Lamb, and acknowledging that he alone is truly worth to receive all praise, honour and glory. Why? Because our salvation is due entirely to his grace, will, initiative, wisdom and power.” p. 268, Romans: God’s Good News for the World by John Stott
Reflection
1. What have you been taught about the doctrine of election? Are you comfortable with Stott’s assertion that it will always ultimately be a mystery? 2. Have you ever felt like God sometimes acts unfairly? Re-read this passage in light of that feeling, asking the Holy Spirit to enter into that struggle with you.
16
Study 14
Scripture
Commentary
Read Romans 10:1-21
“The essence of Paul’s argument is seen if we put his six verbs in the opposite order: Christ sends heralds; heralds preach; people hear; hearers believe; believers call; and those who call are saved. And the relentless logic of Paul’s case for evangelism is felt most forcibly when the stages are stated negatively and each is seen to be essential to the next. Thus, unless some people are commissioned for the task, there will be no gospel preachers; unless the gospel is preached, sinners will not hear Christ’s message and voice; unless they believe these truths, they will not call on him; and unless they call on his name, they will not be saved (verse 1), he must surely have had them specially in mind when developing his evangelistic strategy in these verses.” p. 286-287, Romans: God’s Good News for the World by John Stott
Reflection
1. Who was the person in your life who told you the good news of Jesus Christ? Take a moment to pray for him or her and thank God for that person's faith. 2. As you read Paul’s case for evangelism, who comes to your mind as someone who needs to hear the Gospel? Pray for him or her.
17
Week 5: Romans 9:1–11:36 If it’s by faith, what about people who are moral? Study 15
Scripture
Commentary
Read Romans 11:1-36
“It is of great importance to note from Romans 1-11 that theology (our belief about God) and doxology (our worship of God) should never be separated. On the one hand, there can be no doxology without theology. It is not possible to worship an unknown god. All true worship is a response to the self-revelation of God in Christ and Scripture, and arises from our reflection on who he is and what he has done. It was the tremendous truths of Romans 1-11 which provoked Paul’s outburst of praise. The worship of God is evoked, informed and inspired by the vision of God. Worship without theology is bound to degenerate into idolatry. Hence the indispensable place of Scripture in both public worship and private devotion. It is the Word of God which calls forth the worship of God. “On the other hand, there should be no theology without doxology. There is something fundamentally flawed about a purely academic interest in God. God is not an appropriate object for cool, detached, scientific observation and evaluation. No, the true knowledge of God will always lead us to worship, as it did Paul. Our place is on our faces before him in adoration.” p. 311-312, Romans: God’s Good News for the World by John Stott
Reflection
1. Based on Stott’s descriptions, are you more prone to enjoy theology or doxology? Where do you find those played out at Resurrection? 2. What specific ministries or disciplines can you engage in this summer to strengthen both your theology and doxology? 18
Week 6: Romans 12:1–13:14 So what? What difference does this make in how I live? Study 16
Scripture
Commentary
Read Romans 12:1-8
“More important for our understanding of the transformation which Paul urges is that the fact that metamorphoō is the verb used by Matthew and Mark of the transfiguration of Jesus. And although the evangelists vary in saying that it was his skin, his face and his clothing which shone, Mark is clear that he himself ‘was transfigured before them’. A complete change came over him. His whole body became translucent, whose significance the disciples would not be able to understand, Jesus implied, until after his resurrection. As for the change which takes place in the people of God, which is envisaged in Romans 12:2 and 2 Corinthians 3:18 (the only other verses in which metamorphoō occurs), it is a fundamental transformation of character and conduct, away from the standards of the world and into the image of Christ himself.” p. 323, Romans: God’s Good News for the World by John Stott
Reflection
1. How do you see this “fundamental transformation of character and conduct” play out in your life as a Christian? Where does it clash with the values that the world offers you? 2. What are your spiritual gifts? In what context do you use them most regularly?
19
Week 6: Romans 12:1–13:14 So what? What difference does this make in how I live? Study 17
Scripture
Commentary
Read Romans 12:9-21
“Without doubt agapē-love now dominates the scene. So far in Romans all references to agapē have been to the love of God - demonstrated on the cross (5:8), poured out into our hearts (5:5) and doggedly refusing to let us go (8:35, 39). But now Paul focuses on agapē as the essence of Christian discipleship. Romans 12-15 are a sustained exhortation to let love govern and shape all our relationships. Soon Paul will write about love for our enemies (12:17-21), but first he portrays it pervading the Christian community (12:9-16). This is clear from his use of the words ‘one another’ (three times in verses 10 and 16), ‘brotherly love’ (verse 12, philadelphia) and ‘God’s people’ (verse 13). Some commentators can see in verses 9-16 only a ragbag of miscellaneous instructions, a series of epigrammatic commands with little or no connection with each other. But in fact each staccato imperative adds a fresh ingredient to the apostle’s recipe for love.” p. 330, Romans: God’s Good News for the World by John Stott
Reflection
1. If this passage is the Apostle Paul’s recipe for love, what ingredients in verses 9-16 is the Lord currently asking you to pursue? 2. In what life situations have you experienced Christian love like Paul describes here?
20
Study 18
Scripture
Commentary
Read Romans 13:1-14
“Paul now explains how it is that the neighbour-love fulfils the law. He quotes the prohibitions of the second table of the law: ‘Do not commit adultery,’ ‘Do not commit murder,’ ‘Do not steal,’ ‘Do not bear false witness’), and ‘Do not covet’ (verse 9a). To these he adds and whatever other commandments there may be, and then declares that all of them are summed up in this one rule: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself,’ as Jesus had said before him (verse 9b). Why does love sum up all the commandments? Because love does no harm to its neighbour (verse 10a). Certainly the last five sins forbidden in the Ten Commandments harm people. Murder robs them of their life, adultery of their home and honour, theft of their property, and false witness of their good name, while covetousness robs society of the ideals of simplicity and contentment. All these do harm (kakos, evil) to the neighbour, whereas it is the essence of love to seek and to serve our neighbour’s highest good. That is why love is the fulfillment of the law (verse 10b).” p. 350, Romans: God’s Good News for the World by John Stott
Reflection
1. What authorities in your life is the Lord calling you to submit to? Do you find yourself submitting to them more out of fear of punishment or as a matter of conscience (v. 5)? 2. What “neighbors” in your life are you struggling to love right now?
21
Week 7: Romans 14:1–15:7 If we live by faith, how do I handle the person with less faith? Study 19
Scripture
Commentary
Read Romans 14:1-12
“The fourth and most satisfactory proposal is that the weak were for the most part Jewish Christians, whose weakness consisted in their continuing conscientious commitment to Jewish regulations regarding diet and days. As for diet, they will have kept the Old Testament food laws, eating only clean items (14:14, 20). In addition, either they will have assured themselves that their meat was kosher (the animal having been slaughtered in the prescribed way) or, because of the difficulty of guaranteeing this, they may have abstained from meat altogether. As for special days, they will have observed both the sabbath and the Jewish festivals. All this fits in a Jewish Christian context. Paul’s conciliatory attitude to the weak (not allowing the strong to despise, browbeat, condemn or damage them) is also in keeping with the Jerusalem Council’s decree, which had been designed precisely to restrain the strong and safeguard the consciences of the weak. Having stated categorically that circumcision was not necessary for salvation (the central theological principle in the debate), the Council not only (tacitly) gave Jewish Christians the freedom to continue their distinctive cultural-ceremonial practices, but asked Gentile Christians in certain circumstances to abstain from practices which would offend sensitive Jewish Christian consciences (e.g. asking them to avoid eidōlothyta and non-kosher meat). The apostle Paul evidently followed these guidelines in his own ministry, combining no compromise on principle with concessions on policy.” p. 356-357, Romans: God’s Good News for the World by John Stott
Reflection
1. What are areas of practice that Christians have different views on today? 2. Have you ever been in a Christian environment where people passed judgment on each other’s differing views? What was that like? 22
Study 20
Scripture
Commentary
Read Romans 14:13-23
“How should the strong behave when two consciences are in collision? Paul’s response is unambiguous. Although the strong are correct, and he shares their conviction because the Lord Jesus has endorsed it, they must not ride roughshod over the scruples of the weak by imposing their view on them. On the contrary, they must defer to the weaker brother’s conscience (even though it is mistaken) and not violate it or cause him grief and even pain because of what you eat, not only because he sees you doing something of which he disapproves, but because he is induced to follow your example against his conscience, you are no longer acting in love (verse 15a), no longer walking in the path of love. For love never disregards weak consciences. Love limits its own liberty out of respect for them. ...No-one has put it better than Rupert Meldenius, a name which some believe was a nom de plume used by Richard Baxter: In essentials unity; In non-essentials liberty; In all things charity.” p. 365, 375, Romans: God’s Good News for the World by John Stott
Reflection
1. What practical implications does this passage have about how we interact with those whose views differ from ours? 2. How do you see the essentials/non-essentials breakdown play out at Church of the Resurrection?
23
Week 7: Romans 14:1–15:7 If we live by faith, how do I handle the person with less faith? Study 21
Scripture
Commentary
Read Romans 15:1-7
“Verses 5-6 are in the form of a benediction. Paul’s prayer is that the God who gives endurance and encouragement (through Scripture, as we have seen) may give you a spirit of unity among yourselves, or, literally, ‘may give you to think the same thing among yourselves, (verse 5a). This can hardly be a plea that the Roman Christians may come to agree with each other about everything, since Paul has been at pains to urge the weak and the strong to accept each other in spite of their conscientious disagreement on secondary matters. It must therefore be a prayer for their unity of mind in essentials. For Paul’s petition is this: May...God...give you a spirit of unity...as” you follow Christ Jesus (verse 5b), literally ‘according to Christ Jesus’. This seems to indicate that Christian unity is unity in Christ, that the person of Jesus Christ himself is the focus of our unity, and that therefore the more we agree with him and about him, the more we will agree with one another. But what is the purpose of this unity of mind? It is in order that (hina) we may engage in the common worship of God: so that with one heart and mouth you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ (verse 6).” p. 371, Romans: God’s Good News for the World by John Stott
Reflection
1. Think about a time you were in a fmaily or in a group that did not have unity. What was that like? 2. How can you show someone at Church of the Resurrection the unity you have in Christ? 24
Week 8: Romans 15:8–16:27 How do we help everyone hear and obey this good news? Study 22
Scripture
Commentary
Read Romans 15:8-33
“So, Paul continues, what Christ has accomplished through him is this: from Jerusalem all the way around to Illyricum, I have fully proclaimed the gospel of Christ (verse 19b). This is Paul’s succinct and modest summary of ten years of strenuous apostolic labour, including his three heroic missionary journeys. The expression all the way around (kyklo) should probably be translated ‘in a circle’ or ‘in a circuit’. Then one can visualize, or trace on a map, the arc of Pauline evangelism encircling the Eastern Mediterranean. From Jerusalem it goes north to Syrian Antioch, then further north and west through the provinces of Asia Minor, and across the Aegean Sea to Macedonia. From there it leads south to Achaia, then east across the Aegean Sea again, and via Ephesus back to Antioch and Jerusalem.” p. 381, Romans: God’s Good News for the World by John Stott
Reflection
1. Paul’s mission was to proclaim the Gospel of Christ to the Gentiles from Jerusalem to Illycrium. What is the mission that God has given you? 2. What is the mission that God has given Church of the Resurrection?
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Week 8: Romans 15:8–16:27 How do we help everyone hear and obey this good news? Study 23
Scripture
Read Romans 16:1-16
Commentary
But the most interesting and instructive aspect of church diversity in Rome is that of gender. Nine out of the twenty-six persons greeted are women...The first is Priscilla, who in verse 3 and in three other New Testament verses, is named in front of her husband. Whether the reason was spiritual (that she was converted before him or was more active in Christian service than he) or social (that she was a woman of standing in the community) or temperamental (that she was the dominant personality), Paul appears to recognize and not to criticize her leadership...The other woman to be considered is mentioned in verse 7: Greet Andronicus and Junias. In the Greek sentence the second name is Iounian, which could be the accusative of either Junias (masculine) or Junia (feminine). Commentators are agreed that the latter is much more likely to be correct, since the former name is unknown elsewhere…The prominent place occupied by women in Paul’s entourage shows that he was not at all the male chauvinist of popular fantasy...Priscilla was one of Paul’s ‘fellow-workers’, Junia was a wellknown missionary, and Phoebe may have been a deaconess. p. 395-396, Romans: God’s Good News for the World by John Stott
Reflection
1. Who are the brothers and sisters in Christ in your life that have ministered to you and served with you that you would send greetings to? What would you say about them? 2. What would you want others to say about you?
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Study 24
Scripture
Commentary
Read Romans 16:17-27
“It is fair then to say that the major themes of Paul’s letter are encapsulated in the doxology: the power of God to save and to establish; the gospel and the mystery, once hidden and now revealed, which are Christ crucified and risen; the Christ-centered witness of Old Testament Scripture; the commission of God to make the good news universally known; the summons to all the nations to respond with the obedience of faith and the saving wisdom of God, to whom all glory is due for ever.” p. 405, Romans: God’s Good News for the World by John Stott
Reflection
1. Paul’s doxology sums up the themes of this letter and Paul’s understanding of the Gospel of Christ. Now that you have read Romans, how would you sum up how you have experienced the Gospel in your life? 2. Write your own doxology or your own testimony of the Gospel.
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