Episode Transcript
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Let's turn to our attention to Romans, Chapter Fifteen, and will continue are
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reading through this portion of God's word. This is the closing of Paul's letter
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and I'm going to begin reading it
Romans Fifteen, verse fourteen, and I'll
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read through verse sixteen. Pose so
fourteen through sixteen. I myself am satisfied
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about you, my brothers, that
you yourselves are full of goodness, filled
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with all knowledge and able to instruct
one another. But on some points I
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have written to you very boldly by
way of reminder, because of the grace
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given me by God, to be
a minister of Christ Jesus to the gentiles
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in the Priestly Service of the Gospel
of God, so that the offering of
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the gentiles may be acceptable sanctified by
the Holy Spirit. You may be seated
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as Paul closes the letter to the
Roman church. These few verses, he
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does a couple things. One thing
he does is he characterizes what has come
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before he explains to them or reminds
them. This is how I've been writing
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to you. The other thing Paul
does is he begins to talk about why
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he's been writing, not just sort
of the character or quality of his writing,
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but the reasons they are behind it, and he'll extend that discussion on
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into the next through the rest of
well, through the rest of the of
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the book, but especially Chapter Fifteen. That will focus on his ministry as
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as an apostle, and we'll talk
about that some today. But as we
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begin, I want you to think
first about these words. Very boldly Paul
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says on some points, I have
written to you very boldly. Could have
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said boldly right adds the very of
course, to emphasize that. I wonder
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if you know people who speak boldly. I think there's probably at least two
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kinds. There are the kind of
people who speak boldly, who are brash,
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their unsympathetic. They don't was they
speak. They don't really speak to
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you, they speak at you.
It's like everything they say has caps lock
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on. There's no sort of downs, it's all up, all loud.
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These kind of bold people are they
think of themselves as bold, but what
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they really are is obnoxious. They
perceive themselves as challengers, as disruptors,
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as revolutionaries. Is People that think
outside of the box, but really everyone
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around them those they're just loud mouth
fools, obnoxious people that are pushing their
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weight around. This is one kind
of bold speaker. It's it's bold in
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a way, but it's really a
lot of other things, not nice things.
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The other kind of bold speakers the
kind that Paul is, the kind
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of speaker who's judicious in what they
say, understands balance priorities and yet at
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the same time, isn't weak in
the knees when it's time to say something
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hard, when it really matters.
He knows how to say it, how
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to say it very strongly, how
to say it right. This, of
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course, is a boldness that is, I'm given to him by the Holy
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Spirit himself. Paul writes with his
own personality, is own character, traits
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and all of that, his own
a education, but ultimately it's the spirit
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of God who inspires these words in
the book of Romans, and God himself
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who speaks very boldly at certain times
throughout the letter. It's a holy boldness
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that looks friend or foe in the
face and is willing to speak the truth
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no matter what. Well, God
sometimes says very, very hard things.
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You can go to bookstores or libraries
and find things like hard sayings of the
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Bible, which sometimes means difficult to
understand and other times means difficult to accept.
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On there said in a hard way, but God is never hard without
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warrant, I'm he's never unsympathetic,
he's never uncaring to the listener. When
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God speaks, he always speaks with
wisdom, with truth, with proportion.
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So there are times when the spirit
of God, like a wind, will
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move softly and quietly and other times
when the spirit of God, like a
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wind, will move like a gale, will move strong and and fast,
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with great power. What Paul says
here is that that has happened in this
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letter. That's why I mean he's
characterizing the quality of his riding. He
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says there are places, if you've
been listening, that are maybe surprising.
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Perhaps there have been places in Romans, if you have been listening along to
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this series or if you've read the
book before, and I hope you'll read
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it many, many times over the
course of your life, places that are
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surprising, places that sting, places
that are very bold. But I want
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your mind you here. We're not
here to be literary analysts. It's not
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enough to know that Paul has spoken
strongly and sort of noted in the margins
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strong speech and then walk away right, that's not that's not enough. For
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example, a child who merely notices
how strongly their parent is speaking to them,
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but fails to hear the words they're
saying or to obey and respond,
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will find themselves in trouble. I
notice, mom, that you're very upset
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right now. Wow, right,
it's not enough to just simply note it.
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You have to note it and then
respond properly. Right, we are
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to be listeners, not merely,
and here is not merely observers of God's
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word. So how are we to
respond to Romans? How are we to
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read Romans? What are we supposed
to do with all of these deep and
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wide lessons, in particular the bold
reminders that he's spoken to us? Some
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people will be tempted to turn the
book into a kind of theological puzzle.
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Maybe you've seen children's games where it
has connect the dots. Right, you
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don't looks like a random, random
dots on a page, but the news
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you draw from one to two to
three to five to thirty, all of
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a sudden there's a elephant on a
ball or something like that. Some people
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try to treat Romans that way,
or indeed the whole Bible. They think
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of it as sort of a series
of theological dots, and our job is
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to know the Bible really, really
well so that we can trace it out
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and see Jesus and go there.
We did it. Good job us,
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but that's not the point, of
course. Right Paul wants us to go
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much further. Our goal is not
just to see the picture that emerges,
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that's of course important, but to
respond to it. Paul speech, that
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is to say God's word, has
a purpose and he tells us what that
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purpose is. Here Paul says that
his theology, his doctrine, the things
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that he has been saying, has
been in done in service to his mission.
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Paul's theology is done in service to
Paul's mission and as one, and
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it's essential for us to understand that. The mission is that second thing I
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mentioned. He says, I've spoken
to you these things very boldly. By
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Way of reminder here is why?
Because of the grace given to me by
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God to be a minister of Christ, Jesus to the gentiles. So He
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is Paul saying something has happened to
me that means that I need to do
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this. You can see it's already
affecting him. Personally. But he goes
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on and explains a little bit.
To Be a minister of Christ Jesus to
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the gentiles, he is to go
into the world and show them this,
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but not just so that they can
see it, he says, in the
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Priestly Service of the Gospel of God, so that the offering of the gentiles
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might be acceptable, sanctified by the
Holy Spirit. Essentially, Paul sees himself
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as a priest in the Old Testament. He is not a priest. There
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aren't any more pre after Jesus came. Hebrews tells us this. He was
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the once and and final priest.
But Paul Fashions himself, or describes himself
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like an Old Testament priest in the
way that they brought sacrifices to God holly
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and acceptable to him, as an
offering of praise and Thanksgiving, for example.
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Paul sees his job to go and
bring the gentiles to God as an
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offering to him. But Paul knows
that that can't happen by his own work
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and his own will. They have
to be sanctified by the Holy Spirit,
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sent by an apostle who has been
sent by Jesus Christ in the service of
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the Gospel of God. If we
have time, will think about this more
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later and we'll definitely consider it more
in the following week at least, if
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not weeks. But my point right
now, at the moment, is just
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for you to see this, this
point, that Paul is connecting the dots,
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not just to connect the dots,
but to connect it to something.
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He's doing, something God is doing, a mission of God himself through his
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apostle to the world. The doctrine, in other words, has an effect.
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You can't separate the two things.
So let's think about these things.
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Let's make sure that we're listening to
God in the way that he wants to
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be heard, and consider what Paul
is saying in three parts. First,
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I want to note that he simply
wants us to be thankful for what is
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God has already given to us.
Second, he wants us to not be
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above reminders and third, he wants
us to do here and listen to theology
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in the larger context of mission.
This is how we read Romans. That's
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the answer to that question. How
does Paul characterize what he's doing? How
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are we like the Romans to hear, hear the book, to apply,
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it were, to be thankful for
what God has already given. We're to
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not be above reminders and we're to
hear and listen to the theology and apply
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it in the larger context of God's
mission in the world. So first,
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being thankful for what he's already given. God is already given. Paul begins
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the passage by affirming two things about
his listeners. He's he are three things
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actually. First of all, he's
satisfied with their current faith. You see
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that? He says, I am
myself satisfied about you. He's he's happy.
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There's other places in the Bible where
he's clearly not happy, and he
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speaks very boldly. He says to
the glaciers, for example, who is
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but which shoe? Oh, glacians. Right. So that's very different from
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I'm satisfied about you guys. You're
doing a good job, you're doing well.
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Okay. He says he's satisfied with
them, and for a few reasons.
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First, he says they are filled
with goodness. Oh, I wish
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you'd come say that about our church. That's what a wonderful description. Right,
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to be filled with goodness. Now
to be filled can have a kind
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of physical sense, right to maybe
a sponge filled with water, for example.
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But goodness is not a physical thing
really. I mean it can manifest
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itself in physical ways, but really
it's a spiritual fruit and invisible fruit that's
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born and expresses itself physically. But
when Paul says that were filled with goodness,
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he has not a physical sense to
this. As one dictionary puts it,
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this word that's used here can be
used to mean thoroughly characterized by something.
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Right, that you are filled with
something means that you were thoroughly characterized
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by something. So, for example, remember what Jesus says about the Pharisees.
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It's the opposite of being filled with
goodness, he says. Outwardly you
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appear righteous, but within you are
full of hypocrisy and lawlessness. This is
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how their lives were characterized. They
looked one way, but they were really
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another. But Paul says the Romans
were the opposite it of this. Their
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lives are not characterized by hypocrisy.
The lives of the Roman Christian church was
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not characterized by lawlessness. Know,
they were full of goodness. They're like
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a tree that's full of good and
ripe fruit. Let me pause just a
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moment to remind us that it's okay
to speak positively about people's spiritual states if
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it's true. It's okay to say
you're a very wonderful person or you're very
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kind. Sometimes I think that we
are a little hesitant because we have a
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good doctrine of sin. We know
that sin manifests itself so deeply and so
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a completely in us. But what
Paul recognizes is one of the great truths
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that he's spoken about in Romans.
When we're united to Christ, the spirit
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works in us and produces good things, and it's wonderful to recognize that,
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to praise God for it, to
even remind and encourage other people. They're
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like a tree that is rich and
full of ripe fruit. Does that mean
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that every single branch is perfect?
Does it mean that there isn't a worm
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anywhere or that there isn't a little
bit of mold or some disease somewhere in
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the tree, that it's not at
risk of dying in some other way?
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Well, of course not, but
it's still ripped, rich and full of
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good fruit, and that's what Paul
says about them. He says you're full
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of goodness, you're characterized by this
and I'm satisfied about this. I'm happy
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about this goodness. To quote John
Murray, Systematic Theologian at Westminster Seminary,
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theological seminary, and one of the
founders of the OPC, he does scribed
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it this way. He said goodness
is that virtue opposed to all that is
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mean and evil and includes uprightness,
kindness and beneficence of heart and life.
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That's what they were full of.
Now to the fulness of to being full
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of goodness, Paul adds knowledge.
Murray defines this as understanding the Christian faith
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and particularly related to the capacity for
instruction. They know the Bible, they
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know Jesus, they have an understanding
of who he is and what he's done.
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If you go back in Romans and
look at the various theological and exegetical
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arguments Paul is making, you see
some of the things that he assumes about
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their knowledge and you get a sense
for the kind of knowledge that they have.
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Even as he brings to them these
various reminders, they know what the
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Christian faith is about, so much
so that they're able to instruct one another
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in it. So he says to
them, okay, I'm telling you these
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things and I'm speaking very boldly,
but hey, I don't want you to
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think I'm I don't want you to
think that I think you don't know anything.
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This is essentially what he's saying.
I don't want you to think that
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I think everything is rotten and terrible
in your church. No, you're full
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of goodness, you're full of knowledge, you're able to instruct another one another,
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and all this, I'm honestly really
satisfied. This is good. This,
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by the way, of course,
is language of an authority. Right.
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Paul speaking as a minister, as
an apostle, he's speaking as one
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who has been charged to oversee their
spiritual health, and he's saying to them.
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This is good and I'm happy about
this. But at the same time,
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and this brings us to point two, Paul wants them to remember,
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remember certain things they he doesn't want
them or us, to be above reminders.
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But before we get to that,
I want you to, I want
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us to apply a little bit and
think about what Paul is saying to the
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Romans and ask ourselves if this is
true of us. They've been instructed in
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the things of faith, in the
word of God, and that's a good
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thing, but we want to ask
ourselves. Does this apply to us?
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We must be careful that we don't
apply to ourselves what doesn't belong to us,
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either as a church or as individuals. And let me talk to you
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on that level. If your life
is not characterized by being full of goodness
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or full of knowledge, if you're
full of ignorance or lawlessness, then don't
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let their concu commendation be an example
to you. And you sort of excuse
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yourself as if the Roman the goodness
in the Roman church sort of automatically applies
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to you. Perhaps it does,
perhaps it doesn't. Each of us have
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to examine our own lives, our
own doctrine, our own knowledge of God
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and His grace and ask ourselves,
am I living in light of these things?
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Is My life characterized by knowledge,
the knowledge of God and the things
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that he has said? Is My
life characterized by goodness? And if not,
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then of course we pray for growth. We ask God to help us
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to put away the old things,
to help us to grow in the knowledge
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of grace, to take hold of
the new things, and to do so
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trusting in Jesus, who is our
goodness, our righteousness, our knowledge and
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our wisdom, and but if we
do see these things in ourselves, if
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we do say, well, of
course I'm in perfect and of course I
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have significant struggles in various ways,
but at the same time I do see
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God's grace in my life, the
things that I have learned, the ways
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that I have grown, then we
ought to give a praise to God for
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it, thank him and ask him
for more. Well, now on to
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the reminders. The sanctification of God's
spirit leads to further sanctification of God's spirit,
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and that means that a Christian that
is truly being sanctified, that the
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old man is dying away the new
man is continually being renewed and strengthened.
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That kind of person is never going
to be above hearing reminders. A Christian
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who's really operating, thinking and feeling
as a Christian is never going to say
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well, Hey, I already heard
about justification by faith alone. That doesn't
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matter to me anymore. I've moved
beyond that or sanctification or the work of
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the spirit or God's law or any
of the things that we've addressed in Romans,
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any of things God spoken to us
here, or in the rest of
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the Bible for that matter, the
Christian who knows the depth of their sin
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and knows how good and Holy God
is. It's never going to be above
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reminders, is never going to Balk
God, the bold speech of God.
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Just the opposite. Mature Christians draw
their good works from the Treasury of Christ's
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work in them. They know how
weak they are, they know how important
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reminders are and they don't Balk when
the master comes to tell us about himself.
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Think about it, just at a
natural level for a moment. Do
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Pro basketball players ever rise above throwing
free throws over and over and over and
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over again? No. Do professional
musicians ever sort of stopped playing their scales?
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No, some professional musicians. That's
all they do in practice is just
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play scales, just go over fundamentals. If that's true in so of a
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human and natural level for just natural
skills, how much more so for the
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things that need to that the hat
that require our own souls to be changed,
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a much more dramatic change and improvement
and growth? What are the fundamentals
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of the Christian faith? Well,
we read them in places like the apostles
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creed, the nicene creed, the
Westminster shorter catechism or larger CATISM, catechism,
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confession of faith and of course we
find these fundamentals throughout every page of
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scripture. May you never go beyond
them. In a sense, you never
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want to get beyond I believe in
God, the Father, Almighty maker of
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Heaven and Earth. You never want
to sort of grow out of that right.
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That's how we're to understand these things. May you never stop believing and
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grounding your life in the firm conviction
that you were made to glorify God and
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enjoy him forever. These fundamentals aren't
stepping stones so that we can move to
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something else. There the foundation on
which everything grows out of, and so
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we constantly go back again and again, and that's what Paul says he's been
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doing here. He says I've brought
I've spoken to you boldly. Know I've
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written to you very boldly by way
of reminder. So what kind of things
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does Paul have in mind? I
have to admit this has been a very
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fun thing for me to do this
week and I would really encourage you to
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do this, to go back,
read through Romans and try to discern for
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yourself where are the bold places,
where are the places where Paul has spoken
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extra strong extra forcefully. I want
to share with you some of my reflections
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on that, not all of them, but I think we have to start
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with chapter one, Verse Sixteen.
Paul says, for I am not ashamed
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of the Gospel, for it is
the power of God for salvation to everyone
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who believes, to the Jew first
and also to the Greek. When somebody
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says I'm not ashamed of X,
you know you're about to hear something pretty
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strong. He's saying I'm willing to
take it. I'm willing to take embarrassment,
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I'm willing to take a shame,
I'm going to willing to take shame.
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You can't embarrass me on this point. Say what you will, do
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what you will, but the Gospel
is the power of God. I'm not
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going to send you off to this
place or that place. I'm not going
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to tell you anything else, because
the Gospel is the power of God.
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For what? For Salvation for WHO, for everyone who believes, to the
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Jew first and also to the Greek. A lot of times people think about
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Romans as being the great book about
justification by faith alone, and it is,
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but I think it we would be
more right to say it's about this
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in particular. It's about justification,
to be sure, but it's also about
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sanctification. It's also about glorification for
everyone who believes. We've just spent I
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don't know how long, months and
months, thinking about all of these relationships
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between the Jewish Christians and the and
the Greek Christians. Why? Because of
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this. Because the Gospel is the
power of God for salvation for everyone who
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believes. Paul doesn't care about the
attacks, the embarrassments, the slandering,
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the imprisonment, the mocking, the
beatings, whatever he says. I'm a
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Minister of the Gospel for this reason
and I'm going to do whatever it takes.
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I'm not ashamed. I think we
have to start there, because that's
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where Paul starts and is where he
ends in it, where he's where he
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keeps coming back over and over and
over again as he givens to develop that
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point. He says, I think, very boldly, in chapter two,
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verse one. Therefore, you have
no excuse, Oh man, every one
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of you who judges, for in
passing judgment on another, you condemn yourselves.
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Skipping down to verse five, he
says, because of your hard and
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impenitent heart, you are storing up
wrath for yourself. On the day of
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Wrath, when God's righteous judgment,
when we will be revealed. Unfortunately,
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there are many, many churches that
say they teach the Gospel as the power
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of God for salvation, and yet
refuse to say the things that support that
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truth, that makes sense of that
truth, that contextualize that truth, and
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that includes talking about sin, talking
about wrath, talking about judgment. Paul's
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not afraid. He speaks very boldly. He looks us in the eye and
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says, if you are standing apart
from God and standing on your own righteousness,
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you're storing up wrath for yourself and
there's no get out of jail free
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card on this. How can you, who judge other people, who know
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how to determine right from wrong,
how do you think you will get away
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from God, who judges all things? It's a very bold passage. He
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says no one gets a pass and
and then he goes on to through various
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arguments, condemned both Jews and gentiles
equal opportunity condemn and it's because, not
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because he's in the mean spirited,
but it's because the law of God,
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he says, applies to us all, all of us all of us are
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under obligation to obey him and all
of us don't. That's the hard and
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bold truth that he says, and
because of that we all come under the
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righteous judgment of God. It's a
big and bold surprise in Chapter Three Twenty
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one, when he says, when
he says that the righteousness of God has
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been manifested apart from the law.
He says no one is righteous, no,
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not one, but a righteousness is
available to us through the righteousness of
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God. Everyone is running around in
the world trying to do these works of
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righteousness or not. Either way,
he says, you're condemned. Either way,
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it's game over for you, because
the righteousness of the law can't justify
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you. It's impossible. Well,
now what? How can I stand before
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God as a innocent person? Then? How can I have righteousness in life?
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And he says in Verse Twenty One
righteous but now right, the righteousness
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of God has been manifested apart from
the law, the righteousness of God.
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He just drives through faith in Jesus
Christ for all who believe, or skipping
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two, verse six of Chapter Five, for while we were still weak,
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at the right time, Christ died
for the ungodly. Now to chapter eight,
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verse one, on the structure of
this argument, on the real historical
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reality of our fallen nature, of
our inability to see, to do anything
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that's right, to think things that
are right, to feel that are as
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things that are right, are constant
exchanging the glory of God for the glory
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of the things that he have been
made and then being saved out of all
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of that through Jesus. Here's what
he says in Chapter Eight. If you
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have been saved in Jesus, if
you have received a righteousness that is apart
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from the law and is from God, then there is therefore now no condemnation
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for those who are in Christ Jesus. That is amazing. That is an
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extremely bold thing to say, that
wicked, sinful people can stand before a
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perfectly holy, righteous God and have
no condemnation, that you, with all
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of your sins and all of your
filth and all of that, the Yuckiness
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that you despise and you hate,
the things that drag you down and pollute
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you, that you can go and
stand before a holy God and know that
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you won't be condemned. How is
that possible? Because we're not righteous in
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ourselves, because God forgives our sins, washes all of that away and gives
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us a righteousness in Jesus Christ,
so that, therefore, there is now
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no condemnation for those who are in
Christ Jesus. He says many, many
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wonderful things, and I think some
of the boldest things come out at the
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end of the chapter when he says, what shall we say to these things?
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He's he sounds, I don't know, at a loss for words in
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a way. In light of all
of this goodness and all of this grace,
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in this wonderfully rich salvation that God
has given us, what do we
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say? Well, how about this? He asks a bunch of questions as
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a way to sort of express his
lack of words but at the same time
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try to get at it, he
says. And hear this Christians, if
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God is for us, who can
be against us? He who did not
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spare his own son but gave him
for us all? How will it not
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also, how will he not also, with him graciously give us all things?
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Who shall bring any charge against God'll
let God's elect. It's God who
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justifies. Who is to coop condemned? Christ Jesus is the one who died.
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More than that who was raised,
who is at the right hand of
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God and is interceding for us?
WHO shall separate us from the love of
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Christ? Shall Tribulation, no or
distress, no persecution, famine or nakedness,
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or danger or sword, as it
is written? For Your Sake,
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we are being killed all the day
long. We are regarded as sheep to
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be slaughtered. No, in all
these things, we are more than conquerors
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through him who loved us. For
I am sure that neither death, nor
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life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come,
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nor powers, nor height, nor
depth, nor anything else in all
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creation, will be able to separate
us from the love of God in Christ,
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Jesus, Our Lord. Who doesn't
want to hear that reminder? Speak
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boldly to us, Oh spirit of
God, condemn our sins and bring us
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to life in Jesus Christ. What
more could we ask for? Indeed,
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it's all things to receive that doubt. For the sake of time, I
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think I have to stop here,
but I want you to continue reading,
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rereading through these places. Paul speaks
strongly, boldly about the ingrafting of the
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gentiles, the place of Love in
the body of Christ. But we need
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to move on, if for the
moment. Finally, this third point.
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How do we hear these things?
First, we praise God for the work
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that he's already done, the goodness
and knowledge that we have. We repent
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and for what we are lacking and
go to him and seek him and in
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that spirit we don't put ourselves above
reminders. No, instead, we praise
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God for them, we accept them, we receive them for the Gospel,
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that is the power of God into
salvation. But it's not just a hearing.
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Remember, it has to be applied
and it's applied in faith. These
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doctrines, if we hear them,
can never just sort of float around up
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here in a kind of mental abstraction. How could they be that? They're
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historical. First of all, they're
things that have happened in history. Jesus
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Christ is not an abstraction. He's
the incarnate born of God, born of
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Man, of woman, person.
He touched people, people touched him.
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That's not abstract, it's not a
philosophy, it's not an ideology, it's
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Jesus, and so we know him. But of course that continues to be
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true. His Holy Spirit who comes
into his our lives and changes us.
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Doctrine is never meant to be a
skeleton of ideas, devoid of life,
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propped up in some sort of scientists
study of theologian to be examined and learned
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and diagrammed simply to publish another book. There I did it added to more
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to my Sev that's not the point. But it doesn't make doctrine irrelevant.
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Is it irrelevant? There is that, there is there now for no condemnation
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for you in Christ Jesus. Is
that irrelevant? Is that not make a
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difference? Of course not. The
structure, the skeleton or the outline of
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the doctrines and theology that we are
given, the structure of faith is to
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be in each of us, holding
us up, being made vital by the
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spirit working in us. And it's
in this body and in the body of
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Christ in which we live, we
work, we serve, and this is
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why Paul connects his theology directly to
mission. I have reminded you these things
401
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again. We're back in, or
at least I should be back in,
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Chapter Fifteen. I've reminded you these
things because of the grace given to me
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by God to be a minister of
Christ Jesus, to the gentiles in the
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Priestly Service of the Gospel of God, so that the offering of the gentiles
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may be acceptable and sanctified by the
Holy Spirit. For Paul Individually, as
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an apostle, he sees himself as
a preacher, he sees himself as an
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apostle assent one, one who is
to go out into the world and tell
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people about this so that sot not
so that they might write an interesting book,
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but so that they can be offered
to God, made acceptable by the
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spirit, for their salvation and for
God's praise in glory. Knowledge is connected
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with Paul's identity, with who he
is, with what he does. The
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Gospel is borne out in every part
of his life. It's borne out in
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the history of the world, it's
borne out in our personal history. Is
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As the Gospel has gone out to
us and as we have believed and as
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we have believed and have been sanctified
by the spirit, the Gospel should be
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at work within us as well,
changing us, sanctifying us, making us
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more and more like Jesus. So
this is the great theme and purpose of
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Romans. This is what Paul has
been speaking boldly about and reminding and developing
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to teach us that through faith in
Jesus Christ, Jews and gentiles become a
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part of something almost inexpressible. Freedom, life, salvation, hope, love
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joy. We join the body of
Christ, the great family of God.
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Through Jesus Christ, when we trust
in him, when we believe in him,
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we become part of the great saving
work of God. We become his
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children, through whom and to whom
the spirit itself testifies to us that we
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belong to him. This ought to
make a great difference in our lives.
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00:38:10.119 --> 00:38:16.429
If this work is in us,
we will desire these things. The spirit
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00:38:16.469 --> 00:38:21.949
of God is at work among us. He is at work in our church.
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There is goodness here and knowledge and
joy and peace and hope and loving
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00:38:30.860 --> 00:38:40.889
service and unity purity. We're not
perfect. We struggle, we have big
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00:38:42.050 --> 00:38:47.929
struggles, huge challenges, but we
know that the Gospel is the power of
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God, and so we hear it
and we are reminded of it again and
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again and again, to our great
joy. The Gospel is that Jesus Christ
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came into the world to save sinners
like us, and he saved us while
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we were yet ungodly, while we
were still sinners. He died for us
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so that we could be forgiven and
so that the very spirit of God could
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draw us close to him to give
us perfect life and eternal life. So
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how do we respond to Romans?
We hear it and believe it. We
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00:39:30.780 --> 00:39:35.019
apply it to our own lives.
We think about where we stand into real
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00:39:35.139 --> 00:39:38.530
in relation to God. We praise
him for the work that's in us and
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we look to Jesus to continue that
work. We confess God's generosity and His
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00:39:45.650 --> 00:39:51.130
grace and our sin and we confess
our sinfulness and in Christ, each and
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00:39:51.250 --> 00:39:55.679
every day we draw closer and closer
to Him who is crucified and raised for
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us. Praise God for his word. May he bless it to us.
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I'm in
