We have endless grace! So why not endlessness in the sin department? This is foolishness. This would be like being granted from a prison cell to turn around and lock yourself up again in the name of freedom!

“I’m free to do what I want.”

Why do we do this to ourselves? Sin is fun until it’s over. It appears to give us freedom until it locks us down. Sin is the opposite of freedom. So stay free! We then become slaves of righteousness, who aim our hearts to Him. Are you living in freedom? Sin pays out death. Every time. Know that He forgives endlessly, but choose to embrace the freedom He gives and live that way!

Faith is enough because God makes it enough. We trust Him because He can be trusted. Therefore no matter what happens to us or what we face, we are okay… by faith!

He is faithful and proves that by dying for us. When we were at our worst, far from Him, He gave His life to draw us near. He is love and that is how He shows it!

Sin is a disease that came from one person and infected us all.

Yet grace is more than an antidote or chemo – it is the answer! He makes us good by imparting His righteousness to us by Himself. There are two paths: one of grace and one of condemnation. Which path are you on? Which one has the benefits you want?

Would you rather earn it or be given a gift? Even those of us who are achievers would still likely love someone to gift us something. Debt paid off? Why thank you! What a gift! Why would you begrudge a gift like that?

This is at the heart of what Paul is pointing out at this juncture of the argument. He needs to point out that we can’t pay for righteousness, we can’t earn it. Yet he starts by showing that Abraham didn’t earn it either – as it would appear many believed at the time. Was circumcision something that earned them a right to God or was it a gift that marked what God did through Abraham’s faith? This faith is counted as righteousness, he concludes. Yet those who believe outside of the promise of circumcision are still given access by the simple fact that Abraham received the mark AFTER he had been credited righteousness by faith. He didn’t earn the mark and the mark meant nothing to his righteousness, but was a sign of had already occurred.

So, if faith was the main point, then what has changed? Nothing! We can’t earn this, but accept the gift by faith. Abraham held faith that God would give him a nation, despite his age or the age of Sarah, despite fact that it took 25 years (he was old when the promise was given and 100 when it came to be!). He had faith and trusted. So now we hold faith that one day He will return. One day this world will no longer be our home. So we live differently. We focus our hearts on the things of Him. We are sealed by faith. We don’t earn it, it is freely given – and our lives are a response to His goodness.

God is faithful. Always. We are not faithful. This is true. Our faithlessness does not make God unfaithful. He is God. He has welcomed us into His world, His way. He is good. We can trust this. We can’t be justified by our works, for they are not good. Further, we shouldn’t do evil so that good may come. That doesn’t make any sense.

This is a remarkable truth and something for us to consider. In some ways, this is what it means: Even though followers of Jesus have let us down and have fallen short, we still stand account before our God for our decisions and life before Him. You are not comparing your faithfulness to John P Elder or Mike B Pastor (I have no one in mind here). You are compared to God plain and simple. You can’t be good enough to match Him. He is God. He is faithful even if His followers are not. I am afraid there are many who will stand in His presence one day with excuses based on the church and/or His followers missing the mark and He will simply remind them “I am enough.” “I am faithful.”

There is no one righteous – not even one! Sin has separated us from what we were meant to be in Him (v23), but Jesus set us free. By faith, we now follow Him as the guide and way for us to follow. Are you in?

God’s wrath will surely come, we see that in chapter 2. What now feels like freedom will one day be shown to be wrath as the judgment of sin falls. We often judge but are guilty of the same sin ourselves.

While the next set of verses suggest that those who do good will have eternal life and those who do evil will be judged, one must wait for who defines good and evil! While you may feel you are good enough, remember that you, as a judge, are ill equipped to determine right from wrong. You are wandering and your conscience is seared. Paul then makes the case that Greeks die without the law but know they need something. This condemns them. Jews have the law and their conscience is unsettled for they know they’ve fallen short.

The end of the chapter is a masterful showing that an outward appearance is of little good, circumcision, if the heart is not right. Our conscience condemns us so we need help!! We aren’t good and can’t be good in the sense we need to be. Watch this argument unfold!

Paul starts by declaring who he is in Christ. A servant, devoted to following Jesus’ way. An apostle, called to be sent and sharing the message of Jesus. He is set apart for the gospel, which fulfills the prophetic word God had been giving from early on. From this individual, the church in Rome receives this letter to help them understand their faith.

One of the most famous line in Romans is verse 16 – “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.” Paul is clearly neither afraid nor ashamed to share the message. Even if it leads to pain and embarrassment.

Paul then shows God’s wrath in a unique way. I think we expect wrath to look like fire and brimstone, but Paul shows it to be the releasing of man to have his own way. In Romans 1, the wrath God shows us is allowing us to do our thing. We want something other than what He wants, and His response is to let us. This should be sobering to us. We feel His wrath by walking away. We experience His love by doing what He wants. Keep that in mind.

Paul states that God’s wrath is being revealed (v18). Even though God is obvious when you look around (v19-20, and how could all we see and experience just happen by chance?!?!), we move God out of the place of power and serve images of Him rather than Him (v21-23). So He gives us up to get what we want. And we choose impurity and pain instead of life (v24-25).

We sacrifice truth for lie and this leads to our further wandering to get what we want when we want it (v26-27). We then are so “messed up” that we have a mind that thinks nothing like God would want. We are selfish, arrogant, etc (v28-31). We don’t stop there. We don’t just invent evil, we honor those that promote and live out evil in all areas of life (v32). This feels like today. In politics, family structures, schools, businesses, churches, etc we are far from what God wants. This is human nature. This is our way. This is our way without God. So what does God do about this? You’ll have to wait for the rest of the argument.

For all the letters (epistles), I am going to try to give some basic commentary information first. This post will cover Romans and attempt to give some thoughts to set the book up properly for us.

Having just finished Acts, we can remember the point when Paul left Ephesus and then was heading to Jerusalem while hoping to be in Rome soon. Romans 15:22ff gives us information that shows Acts 19-22 and Romans to line up. We aren’t sure when in this time frame, but at some point between his long stay in Ephesus and the journey to Jerusalem, Paul writes this letter.

Romans is an amazing piece of literature, a theological masterpiece. It had a great effect on Augustine and then on Luther and in our modern time, John Piper. Often when people start to dig into it and learn from the Spirit’s leading, they are changed and blown away by the amazing argument made in this letter.

It teaches justification, sanctification and glorification along with key verses that build the truth of the Gospel of Jesus for us. Many call this string of verses the Romans Road – 3:23 (3:10, 5:12), 6:23, 5:8, 10:9-10, 10:13 and 10:17. Romans 12:1-2 shows us how to live better now in an act of worship.

I’m excited to work through this book with you!

Paul uses the shipwreck to serve Jesus. He really is an inspiration. No matter what trouble befalls him, he is steadfast and useful in his faith. Does that describe you?

He is bit by a poisonous snake and doesn’t die. They think he’s a god, but he corrects their thinking and points them to Jesus. There are many who are diseased, but Paul heals them in Jesus’ name. After three months of this, Paul and the crew set off and finally reach Rome. The book ends with Paul under house arrest in Rome waiting to speak to the emperor.

We believe he did speak to the emperor and even goes on a fourth journey. However, we have no written record of this in the Scriptures, just bits and pieces. We will cover those as the time comes. Hope you liked Acts!

The journey does not go as expected (that is an understatement!). Clearly Luke is on this journey (note the “we” usage). The winds slow the boat down and leave everyone in a dangerous predicament for the time of year. They should have stopped, as Paul prophesies, but they all want to get going with the journey, so they set out. Note how different this is from Jonah’s story – Paul wants to go but cautions vs Jonah’s attempt to run putting them all at risk.

Like Jonah’s story, a storm arises and the ship is wrecked. After the storm starts, they ditch their cargo. After 14 days of the storm, they are without food and Paul prays over a little bread that is left and God provides them some food. There were 276 people on board and all ate enough! They finally run ashore and are stranded on the island of Malta.

Agrippa hears Paul’s whole testimony and considers what he has heard. He believes Paul has done no wrong and could be set free if he hadn’t appealed to Caesar. Finally Paul will go to Rome!