Romans Class Session One

(Notes from Peter Heins on a 5 session class taught by Ken Burford)

Background--
Paul wrote Romans when he had never been to Rome, which was unlike his other writings, although he talks about his plans to go there
Paul had nothing to do with starting the church in Rome—Acts 2:10 some were there from Rome, so it is conceivable that they found their way back there at some point
Romans is a treatise on the gospel of Christ with Galatians in the background. Romans is an extension of Galatians, so we need to read Galatians to understand Romans better.
Romans can be viewed as “deep stuff” and it can be virtually ignored to our detriment

Hebrews 5:11—6:3
Typically people view Romans as for the mature, yet Romans is foundational, and if you don't get it you will not ever get mature—it is the milk!
Romans deals with these foundational things mentioned here: repentance from dead works and faith in God

Casey Moser (scholar who died in mid 70s) had a saying, “if you get Romans, God gets you.” You got to get these things to get the gospel.

(It is good to read Romans in a more literal version, like ESV or NASB)

Romans 1:1-17
Here is Paul's thesis statement
The basis of the gospel
◦ Revealed from God—Scripture
◦ Rooted in history, in a man: Jesus (vs.3), and His resurrection (Morrison's book Who Moved the Stone)
◦ What is the faith?
▪ The obedience that comes from faith
▪ Faith is focused on the believer, and “the faith” is referring to the content of the gospel
▪ Does it matter what you believe or is it good to just believe in something? According to the gospel it does.
▪ What you trust matters, and whether you trust, matters more than the degree—Jesus mentioning the example of the mustard seed
· Example: weak faith in a strong bridge or strong faith in a weak bridge
· You don't need to have great faith as much as needed to trust in the right thing—like the example, enough faith to put one foot in front of the other.
· Faith grows with experience, where we trust God and continue to believe with the next step—if you are not willing to take the step you have no faith!
▪ Verse 6 faith is belonging to Jesus
· “I got saved...” really?! From what?
· From what and for what purpose have you been saved?
◦ Romans answers those questions
▪ Vs.17 righteousness of God—Romans is about understanding righteousness, and it is not something you should understand after many years of becoming a Christian but very early on.
· Righteousness of God
◦ “Self-Righteousness” – a negative connotation because we use it of people who are arrogant
◦ Yet most people can have a self-righteous concept of righteousness because we don't understand that righteousness comes from God
· Habakkuk 2:4 quote
· Habakkuk 3:17-19 is the faith Paul is talking about
◦ It is easy to have faith when everything is fine and dandy, but what happens when it is all taken away.
◦ Like our three heroes thrown into the fire: it takes faith to go into the fire, but even more to trust God even if He does not save you from the fire.
Vs.18-32
“wrath of God” – right away we see what we're saved from
Paul will talk about three groups of people
◦ Here talking about people without the revealed, inspired word of God—relating to God through nature, much like any native religion. We can relate this back to Paul's speech in Athens (Acts 17).
▪ What does God expect us to figure out about Him, even without the Bible?
· That there is a God, that He exists
· That God is powerful, merciful, loving, creative, generous
· You learn about the unpredictable calamities
· God expects us to seek Him, to acknowledge Him, and give thanks to Him
▪ What are the fundamental issues here?
· 1. Honor/Respect (fear—Proverbs 1:7) and 2. Be thankful
· You find someone without those two things you find a lot of other things messed up
· God expects us to get those two things, and people can figure out that without the Bible
▪ God only gave Adam and Eve one command and they blew it.
▪ If you acknowledge the creator of the universe, and you realize what He has given you, you become grateful and want to say thank you however you can
▪ So God holds us responsible

Romans 2:1-12
Here we have God, man, and their own sense of a moral code
We make moral judgments all the time, and even if you don't keep the Bible, you have that code
Will anyone match up with their own moral code?
We can forget the Ten Commandments, the Sermon on the Mount, and we will be condemned by our own moral code
If God were to send us to hell, would He be fair? Yes, because we have not kept even our own moral code.
Vs,13--20
Vs.24 just like the name of Jesus is blasphemed among those who do not believe in him because of those who say they do
God, man, revealed law God expects us to obey—man has not been able to keep that either
In all cases man falls short
Today innocent people even go to jail, even guilty people can get off, yet with God you will be brought to judgment, and you will not get off if He finds you responsible!