- Romans overview (video): Part 1, Part 2
- What is Romans?
- Romans contains letters from Paul to the churches of Rome.
- The church of Rome had existed for a long time and was made up of Jews and Gentiles. Emperor Claudius had banished the Jews from the church for 5 years. When the Jews returned there was a split between Gentiles and Jews in how they should follow Jesus and practice their faiths. Paul’s letters were an attempt to explain his faith and unite the Jews and the Gentiles into one faith worshiping Jesus. Paul hoped the Roman churches could become a staging ground to enable Paul to expand the church into Spain and beyond.
- Romans is structured as follows:
- Books 1-4: Revealing God’s Righteousness
- Books 5-8: Creating a New Humanity
- Books 9-11: Fulfilling God’s Promise to Israel
- Books 12-16: Unifying the Church
Romans 3
What are the advantages of being a Jew?
- God gave supernatural instructions to the Jews – they received these instructions before anyone else so that all the nations could be blessed.
- See Acts 7:38, 1 Peter 4:11 – the Word is passed from them to the world.
- The ancestors of the Jews includes the Messiah, Jesus Christ.
Israel’s unbelief or unfaithfulness doesn’t cancel God’s promises in the Old Testament.
- God keeps His promises.
God did not agree to fulfill His promises to all Jews – God said He will fulfill all His promises even if individual Jews cannot receive these promises due to lack of faith (Psalm 51:4).
- God is bigger than any man’s sin or unfaithfulness.
- We can always repent to receive His promises.
We can’t continue to live in sin, even if we delude ourselves into thinking it brings attention to God.
- The Jews were convinced that their animal sacrifices would make up for their ongoing sins.
- This is a similar argument that many atheists make: “I can sin my way through life and just accept Jesus as my savior on my deathbed”.
The Jews were asking: “if my lie amplifies God’s truth why should I be punished?”
- Because you committed a sin by lying – the condemnation is deserved.
- It’s not true that “the more you sin the more you can be forgiven”.
- It is not possible to avoid judgement if you commit sin. The Jews were attempting to justify their sins as a way to glorify God.
- There is no one who does good – this includes both Jew and Gentile. This means God is going to judge everyone.
- This is why we ALL need Jesus Christ as our Advocate.
- For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard. (Romans 3:23).
- God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for our sins, enabling us to become righteous.
There is only one God who makes everyone right by faith – both Jew and Gentile.
