Romans

The book of Romans.

2. God’s Righteous Judgment

James Jordan:

All men come under judgment, but in the Old Covenant Gentiles could be saved if they trusted God and followed His ways apart from the Law, while Jews were saved if they trusted God and followed His ways revealed in the Law. Moreover, the faithful Noahic Gentile believer had a true inward circumcision, while the faithless Jew had negated his own outward circumcision (chap. 2). In other words, as far as salvation was concerned, the Jew had no special place in the Old Covenant order.

So then, why did Jews exist? They were set aside to minister the oracles of God as priests to the nations (3:1-8). These oracles of God were the Law-Word of the Old Testament. Apart from a living faith-relationship to God, however, the Law-Word only killed men by condemning them. The living faith-relationship, which existed provisionally in the Old Covenant, has now arrived in its fullness because of the work of Jesus Christ. This faith-relationship establishes the Law-Word in a sphere of life instead of death (3:9-31).

6. Dead to Sin, Alive in Christ

The flesh has to die because sin is in embedded in it. Baptism looks forward to the full death and resurrection where the sinful body is replaced with a glorious purified body. But resurrection as a process can already begin, a little bit, insofar as we can present ourselves to God to be used for righteous ends and not sinful ones. The end of sanctification is eternal life.

8. Life Through the Spirit

If we suffer with Christ, then we are heirs with Christ. We can be adopted as sons of God. This implies incredible celestial glories and powers that are hardly imaginable to us. The saints will reign. However, we see this not just in the glorious possibilities of heaven that our hearts long for, but also in real time, right here and now, the way that the love of God flows through us inevitably creates the source of all new happiness and true wealth in this world, as the greatness inherited from the first Adam decays over millennia from sin and the curse. More and more the only goodness left comes from Christ.

12. Living Sacrifices and Love

Romans 11-12 is helpful here - after talking about the grafting of gentiles, the ethnic inheritance of the Hebrews, of the Mystery of Israel, Paul talks the body must be sacrificed to God, it must be kept holy. God's plan? Riches for the world! (I see it happening, I see it happening all around. Very postmil verse from Paul here). It's ambiguous how much Paul is talking about individual souls and entire nations here. They are intermingled - members of one another. But essentially, as Christians, our holiness as individuals, taking responsibility for our individual bodies being presented in worship to God, works to purify our nations - the root working its way out to the branches - ultimately, Christ being the root of all new humanity. So we need to not be arrogant towards other peoples or other people in the church because we are all members of a new body, a new corporation, a new city, a new kingdom. This new body is one where sexual and status desires are somewhat irrelevant. But it obviously doesn't eradicate our desires! Our body longs for every kind of goodness, the kinds of goodness that only the summit of a nation provide, and even beyond! It's insatiable, really. So how do we honor our flesh and not torture it while still disciplining it in light of the highest corporation? By testing, and testing is painful but also fun.

The mercies of God - the bowels of God! We are God's nerves and the prickles in his heart. So we shouldn't be syn-schematized with the aeon, but be renewed in our mind and be testing to discern God's thelema for us, so we know what's good. and that's how we figure out what we are meant to do and what we are gifted for, because we have each been given different kindness from God. Sadly to me I must be cautious with high flying thoughts but instead always be moderate because that serves Christ's body more, according to how much faith I have.

14. Judgment and Weaker Consciences

Some people have weaker consciences. We must do everything out of faith and love, so we must be very careful and gentle not to provoke people who are concerned about displeasing God with a given action, even if in truth they are perfectly free.

4: It's not our job to micromanage other Christians in their obedience to Jesus.

5: Christians are free to practice holy days or not practice holy days. As long as they do what they do to honor Christ.

10-12: It is easy for us to look askance at how other people live their lives. But we must be concerned about how God will judge us.

We will appear before the judgment seat of God, which is the judgment seat of Christ. Christ, we know, is merciful to the humble but will relentlessly punish the proud and those who have despised his people.

Are you preparing yourself to give an account to God for every word, every deed, every day of your life? Number your days.

'So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.' Psalm 90:12

'O Lord, make me know my end and what is the measure of my days; let me know how fleeting I am!' Psalm 39:4

He wil lbe measuring whether you have followed those two great commandments: You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

You must keep an account of that. Times where you have despised your brother leave their mark on the world and God will see; likewise, he will see where love has bound everything together.

23: We must do everything in faith because that is where our spiritual power comes from. Doubts cause us to drift, lose all our power and love -- all doubt leads to sin. The only way to act rightly is in total faith in God's love and mercy towards you, which helps you become more and more aware of his providential arrangement of all things for you day to day, so that your acts can be ordered rightly.

You can always have disagreements with other Christians in good conscience. What you can't do is disagree with the love of God.

15. Christ the Hope of All

1-3: We live to please ourselves but God calls us to work towards pleasing our brothers. Being charitable towards their weakness is the least that we can do, not to torment them for being uncertain or misguided about some things. What further can we do to please those who God has placed next to us?

4: Scripture exists for us to be encouraged.

Many people feel burdened by scripture and run away from it. This is a sign that Satan has blinded them. Reading through scripture or having scripture read to you should make you feel like you are beginning to float off the ground, as the words from God crack open all the bad ideas you've been having and sweep them away with a great wind, the breath of something greater. Stuck with your own thoughts is being cooped up in a sad dark suffocating cellar. Going through a few chapters of scripture should blow the dungeon's door of its hinges and haul your heart up into the hills, into the clouds of heaven. All you have to do is hear those words with a heart of faith and love. But if your spirit's all askew, if you aren't ready to actually believe it, there's nothing that will get through and there will be no joy in it.

It's so simple what God wants: for us to be in harmony with each other. Our peace is his glory. And he is ready to give us all the encouragement and hope and peace of mind that we need to do that. It's all right there, ready to be taken, in the words of scripture and in the fellowship we have with Christ through his people, and almost no one wants to seize ahold of it!

7: When we welcome one another, we glorify God. We must not forget the way that we were welcomed - unclean, strangers and enemies of God. So we must be ready to welcome anyone - those who are unclean, foreigners, and enemies to us. But especially, especially we must welcome and love those who hope and believe in God.

8: Christ fulfilled all the promises given to the patriarchs by being a servant to the house of Israel. But he also came to give hope to all nations on the earth.

14: Paul was satisfied that they had what it takes to love one another. 2000 years later, after countless wars and corruption and schisms, the church in Rome still preaches that Christ is lord. The work of a minister in whatever city they are should be to train them up to love and instruct one another. You want them to still be proclaiming Christ and loving one another millennia later.

15: Delivering the gospel is priestly service

20: Interesting that Paul did not want to build upon another's "themelion" or foundation. How could that inform how we perceive church traditions and denominations? How we think of missions work? What's the value of building on another's foundation vs. starting straight from the gospel and building from there?

27: The saints receive the spiritual gifts of God and will rule with Christ over the earth, and the faithful from any nation may receive this spiritual inheritance. So, it is fitting that the newcomers send in material aid to the needy Christians. We should be fascinated how this turns on its head the typical idea of missionary aid. Evangelical mission organizations rarely request that new converts send in money back to the poor of the home church's community -- to do so might be seen as sleazy or cultish.

16. Salutations and Final Instructions

Interesting that we the church have Satan crushed under our feet. My father drew attention to the way Roman soldiers' sandals were designed for trampling. Good cultural detail.