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Weekly Bible Reading Resource Schedule |
Dear Bible Reader,
We will be going through Romans one chapter a week. It will take 4months. Please email me at gbcsec@gmail.com any comments.
You can do this Bible Reading on your own or with your family or friend. May God bless you and enlighten you as you read His Word.
Below are introductory passages by Pastor Frank, please read it first, then readthe chapter in Romans,
then email me with the answers and anyquestions. God bless you as you work through Romans.
| Date | Title | Note |
| 01/04/2009 | Romans 1 | Paul's letter to the Romans is sometimes called the "fifth Gospel" next to Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, because it lays out the meaning of the Gospel of Christ with such clarity and breadth. Even though this letter was written to a young church, it could very well have been written to all churches of all times because it's message is so timeless. When reading the first chapter, look carefully at the first six verses (1:1-6). These verses lay out the central message of the entire book, namely, that Jesus was descended physically from the lineage of David (from Israel) but by the Spirit he was declared in the resurrection to be the Son of the living God (1:4). As such, Jesusis the Savior not only of the Jews but of all people, to anyone who yields to the Spirit and believes in Jesus as the risen Christ. This is why Paul was called to preach to Gentiles (non-Jews) as well (1:5).The entire book will seek to explain how the good news of Jesus saves both Jews and Gentiles by the Spirit and by faith in Christ rather than by good works, something that the Jews prided themselves for having as people of God's law. Good works are needed as a result of faith but it is faith in Christ that saves. Paul's strategy in thefirst three chapters is to argue that Jesus alone saves all peoples because all are sinners who cannot possibly save themselves. Chapterone focuses on the Gentiles, on evidences of their captivity to sin,on how even nature implies a witness against them. Even though they didn't have the Jewish Scriptures to condemn them, even the nature around them implied a condemnation of their behavior. Paul will turn his attention to the Jews in ch. 2 and 3, but the focus of attention in ch. 1 is the Gentiles (that's us!). |
| 01/11/2009 | Romans 2 | As we saw in Romans 1, the theme of Romans is the Gospel of Christ asthe one risen from the dead by the Spirit of God to offer new life toeveryone who believes (see 1:4). Romans 1 also begins Paul's argumentthat all are sinners and are in need of salvation through faith inChrist. Chapter 1 mentions that even nature bears implicit witness ofGod to the "pagans" (Gentiles or non-Jews), and implies that they aresinners in need of salvation. Chapter 2 then directs attention to theJews. Paul anticipates that his Jewish readers are applauding hiscondemnation of Gentile sinners in chapter 1, so in the very firstverse of chapter 2 Paul directs the charge against the Jew as well.Read this verse carefully and note how it criticizes those who passjudgment on the pagan sinners while doing some of the same sins("because you who pass judgment do the same things"). This entirechapter is directed to the Jews to show them that they who have God'sholy law are sinners too and also in need of salvation through Christ,for God does not show favoritism (v.11). All are condemned whetherthey have God's holy law or not (v.12). Many Jews were proud that theyobserved the ritual of circumcision at birth, but this lacks valuesince the larger law of God is still broken (vv.25-27). The climax ofthe chapter is in the last two verses (vv.28-29) that the trulyreligious person has a transformed heart, a changed life. Paul impliesthat such a changed life is only possible by faith in Christ.
Question to consider: Sometimes we meet people who don't follow Christbut still feel they are fine because they were baptized as infants orlive a morally good life. How does Romans 2 help us here? |
| 01/18/2009 | Romans 3 | In Romans chapter 1, Paul supports the Gospel of Jesus as the divineSon raised from the dead for the salvation of all humankind (1:4). Inthat chapter he stressed that the Gentile "pagans" were sinnersbecause they suppressed the truth implied in the witness of nature toGod. In chapter 2, Paul notes that the Jews who criticized theGentiles are also sinners because they transgressed the holy law ofGod. In chapter three Paul concludes his argument by noting that ALLare sinners and fall short of God's glory (3:23). The Jews had theadvantage of having God's revealed word given to them (3:1-2) but theysinned nonetheless. Their unfaithfulness, however, did not nullifyGod's faithfulness but only served to reveal it more clearly (3:3-8).God responded to the sin of Israel and of the Gentiles by bringingjustice or reconciliation through Jesus' death and resurrection(3:21-26). In the light of Jesus' sacrifice, there is no boasting inworks but a faith in God's free gift of justification (right relationwith God) through Jesus (3:27-31).
Issue: Explore the difference between boasting in self and faith inJesus to save us. |
| 01/25/2009 | Romans 4 | After making his case that all have sinned (both Gentile and Jew) andall are saved by the Christ who was raised from the dead in the powerof the Spirit (3:23; 1:4), Paul now centers on Abraham as the keyexample of one who is justified by grace through faith rather than byworks. In verse 3, Abraham is said to have believed God and it wasreckoned to him as righteousness (Gen. 15:6). In other words, Abrahamwas in right relation with God by taking God at his word. It was notby Abraham’s good works that he was accepted by God, it was Abraham’strust in God’s saving deeds. Good works followed Abraham’s faith butit was his trust in God for salvation that allowed him to enjoy aright relation with God. Paul’s choice of Abraham was important. Jewsconsidered themselves children of Abraham by virtue of the fact thatthey are born Jewish. Paul, however, wishes to say that being childrenof Abraham by birth means nothing if we do not believe in God forsalvation the way Abraham did. Also, Abraham was blessed to become thefather of many nations. Referring to Abraham also allowed Paul toimply that Gentiles can be included in salvation too if they trust inGod for salvation the way Abraham did. So Paul writes of the Jews (the“circumcised”) and the Gentiles (the “uncircumcised”) that Abraham “isthe father of all who believe but have not been circumcised, in orderthat righteousness might be credited to them. And he is also thefather of the circumcised who not only are circumcised but who alsowalk in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham had.”(4:11b-12). Obedience to law cannot save us because the law “bringswrath” (4:15) or shows us how far we fall short of God’s glory. Also,obedience to the law cannot spiritually revive us or raise us from thedead. Only faith in God’s mercy and redemption can give us access tosuch saving power. This is why Paul says that Abraham believed in theGod “who gives life to the dead and calls things that are not asthough they were” (4:17b). Only Jesus’ death and resurrection canbring us that right relation with God that leads to life eternal, forJesus “was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to lifefor our justification” (4:25).
Question: What are some of the ways in which we try to gain acceptancefrom God by works? |
| 02/01/2009 | Romans 5 | Paul starts with his key conclusion, namely, if faith alone justifiesus, then Christ alone justifies us, because faith takes the focus awayfrom self and places it on the sufficiency of Christ: “Therefore,since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with Godthrough our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access byfaith into this grace in which we now stand” (5:1-2). We will never bedisappointed if we trust in Christ. The Holy Spirit within given to usthrough faith in Christ is the guarantee that faith in Christ will notdisappoint: “And hope does not disappoint us, because God has pouredout his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us”(5:5). Up until this point, Paul has stressed the accesses of sin,namely, the fact sin has been excessive and universal. Now Paul wantsto stress that the grace given to us in Christ and the gift of theSpirit is even more excessive and overflowing to save: “But the giftis not like the trespass. For if the many died by the trespass of theone man [Adam], how much more did God's grace and the gift that cameby the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many!”(5:15). When humans responds in sin to God, God responds with an evengreater abundance of grace and love to convert and to transform them!
Question: How does the Spirit guarantee that faith in Christ will notdisappoint? |
| 02/08/2009 | Romans 6 | In chapters 1 - 5, Paul has weaved an intricate argument that God has metthe human excesses of sin with the infinitely greater excess of grace. Godoutdid human rejection with a much more excessive show of mercy. Paul wasaware that some of his readers may now be thinking that if God meets humansin with a much greater abundance of grace, then sinning is something thatwe can take lightly. It can simply provide God with the occasion to showthat much more mercy! Paul counters this reasoning with an astounding"absolutely not!" (v-2). We should never think this way. Paul's reasoning isthat our commitment to Christ has involved a death and a resurrection. Wehave died to sin (or to the self-centered self) and we have been born anewto a life centered on Christ. This born again experience is enacted anddeepened in baptism (vv.2-14). It's what baptism symbolizes: the baptismaltank is a tomb into which the self-centered self is being buried. But it isalso a womb from which a Christ-centered self is born. Paul then uses theanalogy of slavery to make the same point. Sin is never to be taken lightlybecause it's a form of slavery from which Christ delivers us. Our new lifecan never be identified with sin because it is now centrally devoted toChrist or to God (vv.15-22).
Question: How has the church today used grace to take sin lightly? |
| 02/15/2009 | Romans 7 | This chapter has in my view been very much misunderstood. First, verses 1 -6 are not written by Paul to teach on the subject of marriage or divorce.These verses are a continuation of the discussion of chapter 6 about ourfreedom from (and opposition to) sin. Paul is still making the point thatone cannot take sin lightly (still live under its power) after becoming aChristian because becoming a Christian means dying to sin and rising to anew life centered on Christ. In verses 1 - 6, he uses the requirements ofJewish civil law on marriage as a further illustration of this point. Justas in Jewish civil law a former marriage has to be broken by death before anew marriage can occur, so also one has to die to sin in becoming married toChrist (thus, we cannot live a life dominated by sin any longer). Second,Paul says that we are dead to the law (v-4). This doesn't mean that we haveno relation to the law after becoming a Christian but rather that we are nowimmune to the negative effect that the law has on those who are bound by sin(see verse 5 and verses 7 - 23). Third, the constant failure to obey the lawdiscussed in verses 18 - 20, therefore, is not a description of theChristian life but of life under the negative effects of the law on humanityviewed apart from God's grace. For one thing, the Holy Spirit is notmentioned in this struggle (a strange omission if the struggle is aChristian one; see Galatians 5). The struggle Paul describes is ratherbetween good intentions and a carnal nature captive to sin (vv- 14 - 20).The final line of the chapter is a summary of who Paul is in himself apartfrom Christ. The chapter ends with the victorious cry that Christ alone ishis deliverance from the life of the body under slavery to sin and death."What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?Thanks be to God-through Jesus Christ our Lord!" (vv- 24 - 25).
Question: How does Paul's description of the sinner's struggle with sindiffer from our struggle today as Christians? |
| 02/22/2009 | Romans 8 | Chapter 8 can be seen as the meat of the entire book, because itdescribes the substance of the freedom in Christ that has beenprovided to us by grace, namely, the life in the Spirit. Chapters 6and 7 established the fact that the excessive grace poured out by Godthat “out did” the excessiveness of sin cannot be used as an excusefor more sinning. He argued that excessive grace liberates us from thepower and slavery of sin so that we can enjoy the freedom of life withGod (how can we possibly think in this light that grace can be used tofinance more sinning??). Now Paul pauses in ch. 8 to define morethoroughly the nature of this excessive grace as the abundant gift ofthe Spirit. Verse one sets the tone: The “law” of the Spirit of lifehas set us free from the “law” of sin and death. The term “law” hereis a “fundamental principle.” A translation could be the “way” of theSpirit of life leads to freedom from the way of sin and death. He’sdescribing a fundamental point of departure and a path. Verses 5 to 16define these two paths. The Spirit leads to freedom and life while sinleads to bondage and death. To attempt to use excessive grace as anexcuse to sin is to contradict it (and show that you do not have it).Another way of saying this is that the excessive life of the Spirit isa wonderful journey into Christ, into sharing in his life,resurrection, and future glory. Verse 9 makes it clear that belongingto the Spirit means belonging to Christ. Sin was falling short ofGod’s glory (3:23) while the path of the Spirit will restore us oneday to the glory of the risen Christ (8:17-18). 8:23 shows us thatthis glory has not yet been perfected in us. We still carry burdens ofsin and death even as we enjoy the firstfruits of the Spirit. But thevictory is assured in this difficult journey into Christ. This isbecause God has called us and is committed to use every thing thathappens to us (even the trials) to accomplish his loving purpose ofconforming us to Christ’s image through the power of the Spirit(8:28-39).
Question: Does God really work everything towards the good ofconforming us to Christ (8:28)? Can there be exceptions to this rule?Romans 8:28 says ALL things! Discuss this. |
| 03/01/2009 | Romans 9 – 11 | Ordinarily, I go chapter by chapter in Romans. But chapters 9 – 11must be read as a unit in order to be understood. This overall sectionin Romans is one of the most misunderstood sections of scripture. Thebest way to understand it is to realize that Paul’s inclusion of bothJew and Gentile under the category of “sinner” (3:23) (a common termused by Jews to characterize Gentiles) and Paul’s conviction that Godnow deals with both without difference or favoritism sounded to Jewishears as though Paul was presenting God’s promises to Israel as havingfailed. Paul’s first response is to make clear the fact that on onelevel, God’s promises have not failed, because Israel has a richheritage that will continue to bear witness to the nation and toothers (9:1-5). The second response is that God’s Word has not failedbecause there will always be a people that will respond positively toit. This was the case from the beginning. Not all heirs of the promisewere physical Jews: “it is not the natural children who are God'schildren, but it is the children of the promise who are regarded asAbraham's offspring” (9:8). The heirs could even be uncircumcisedGentile sinners! This sounded heretical to Jewish ears! But Pauldoesn’t think so. God has always chosen freely who should be heirs ofthe promise without being bound to culturally-determined laws relatedto birthright or bloodline (9:10-13). God will even use those whoresist his will (like Pharaoh) to accomplish his purposes (9:14-18).Disobedience doesn’t thwart God’s plan, he uses it to accomplish hisplan of mercy! God is like the potter who molds the clay according tohis desire (9:19-21). Many have difficulty with this latter text. Itis taken Jeremiah 18:1-10. If you’ll study Jeremiah 18 you’ll realizethat the Potter is claiming the right to mold the clay according towhether or not it repents or disobeys, a radical idea in the face of anation that claimed privilege based on bloodline and nationalidentity. Paul alludes to this passage in Romans 9 with a similaridea: it is not national identity or human effort that determineswhether or not a people are heirs of the promise. Israel was not ableto fulfill the law through either! Furthermore, the text about Jacoband Esau in Romans 9 was really about the nations of Israel and theEdomites (symbolic of non-Israelites). It was customary then to see anation as represented in its founder. In the Old Testament times,Israel (Jacob) was favored and the non-Israelites (symbolized by theEdomites or descendents of Esau) were not. But at the time Romans waswritten the tables had been turned! It was the Gentiles who had favorand the Jews who were being judged! At the time Romans was written itwas “Esau I love, Jacob I hate!!” (Of course, God doesn’t “hate” as wedo, this text is a poetic expression, symbolic of favor or disfavor).Paul’s point is that God has a strategy in history that has neverfollowed the course of human merit but always the course of God’s willand mercy. Paul’s point is also that God is sovereign. If God favoredthe Jews and not the Gentiles in the Old Testament times, he is withinhis rights to do the opposite now. The fact that Romans 9 is talkingabout a shifting strategy in history and not an eternally unchangingdecree means that the predestinarians (Calvinists) have completelymisunderstood this text! My case is proved by the conclusion to Paul’sentire discussion in chapter 11. In reference to God’s changingstrategy in history concerning Jews and Gentiles, Paul concludes thatthe Jews received mercy when they inherited the land as a result ofGentile disobedience (11:30; see Deut. 9:5) but now the Gentilesreceive mercy because of Jewish disobedience to the Gospel (11:31). AsI said above, human disobedience doesn’t thwart God’s merciful plan(anymore than obedience merits it). God uses the disobedience tofulfill his plan of mercy). |
| 03/08/2009 | continues ...
Romans 9-11 | Paul then concludes: “For God has boundall men over to disobedience so that he may have mercy on them all”(11:32). In other words, each side (symbolized by Jacob and Esau)indirectly blesses the other by rejecting mercy! When each siderejects mercy, God turns mercifully to the other. All are then shownto be disobedient so that God can have mercy on all, not on the basisof what they had earned or deserved, but on the basis of his will andthe gift of his Son. Righteousness does not come by the law but byGod’s mercy (10:1-13). The preaching of the good news is the means ofshowing mercy (10:16-21). Indeed,
Who has ever given to God, that God should repay him?For from him and through him and to him are all things.To him be the glory forever! Amen. |
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