SpiritualHelp.iPrance.ca   Daily Bible Study

 Daily Bible Study  March 16&17, 2002 


Scripture and Commentary

Online Bible courtesy of Gospelcom.net
See Romans 1 in the New King James Version
See Romans 1 in the New American Standard Bible
 

Commentary on Romans Chapter 1

One of the telling aspects of Paul's understanding of Salvation is in how he sees his own relationship to Jesus Christ.

Romans 1  (NKJV)
5  Through Him we have received grace and apostleship for obedience to the faith among all nations for His name, 
6  among whom you also are the called of Jesus Christ;

As I read this, my picture is that Paul is an obedient servant, sent to call others into the same obedience.

When we begin our Christian journey, we seek freedom for our souls.  In   John chapter 8 (Worldwide English translation)
31   Jesus said to the Jews who believed in him, `If you obey my word, you are truly my disciples. 
32   And you will understand the truth and the truth will make you free.'
 

How does being a servant set us free?

So by becoming a Servant, we become Free?  As my pastor would say, "How does that work?"

Romans 8:  (NIV)
20  For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope; 
21  because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. 
22  For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now.

and we read further in Romans 6:16  (NIV)
Don't you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey - whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness?
 

How Many Roads are there to walk down

Romans 1:17  For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, "The just shall live by faith." (NKJV)

Romans 1:24  Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves,
25  who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. 
26(a)  For this reason God gave them up to vile passions.  (NKJV)

Here Paul makes a solid distinction between the believers and the unbelievers, which is a theme that continues through Romans.

  • The believer lives by faith
  • The unbeliever lives in the lusts of his or her heart.

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    God's purpose is to bring all believers to a life of faith.  It is my understanding that the believer can choose to turn away from God, and when he does this he is no longer assured of a place in the book of life.  This will be a subject of another day's study.
     


    Introduction to Romans Study, summary and other scripture references.



    Romans is a primer on the relationship of the Believer to The Lord Jesus Christ.

    Today we are starting a study of the Book of Romans.

    On of the issues we want to be aware of is the Controversy between two doctrinal positions.  On the one hand we have the Calvinist and on the other we have the Arminian.

    I encourage you to use your resources to study these issues, and to approach them with an open heart.

    Through this study, you will probably characterize me as a Wesleyan-Arminian.  However, it is my desire to be open to as direct an understanding of the Scriptures as possible.

    Note that on different days, the placement of the commentary on the page will vary.  Sometimes, I will use the left pane and sometimes the right pane.



     

    Summary of Today's Study:

    1.  Christ sets us free to be His servants
    2.  There are only two ways to go, either a life of faith, or a life characterized by living in the lusts of our flesh  (and as we will see later on, in bondage to forces that oppress and destroy.)

    3.  We did not go into the catalog of sins in verses 26-32.  If we did, of course, we would be accused of homophobia, hate-mongering and bigotry, among other things.  This would be true even if we pointed out that this was solely the truth of Scripture and not our bias against certain persons.
        First, it is a fact of life that many of us work side by side with homosexuals and lesbians, as we do with all other kinds of sinners.  Christ calls all of them to salvation.
        Second, Christians are called to pray for every kind of person.  It takes love to persist in prayer.  The real measure of love is to pray for someone and to listen to their needs without continually preaching at them.
     

    Other Scriptures to Study:

    Matthew 11: 28-30  (NIV courtesy Gospelcom.net)
     
     
     
     
     


    Scripture is taken from several versions of the Bible.  We encourage you to familiarize yourself with various versions, because we believe that being well studied in the scripture will enable us to rightly divide the word of truth.  This commentary is copyright Rick Galbraith, March 16, 2002.  It is my "daily devotions," my own study of the Scriptures, and you are invited to share it with me.