Sin is a very unpopular word these days. But I’ve read enough about repeated human failure this year to be hungry for a solution. Come on Paul, what have you got?
Everyone to be judged by their deeds
Romans 2:1-16
Circumcision alone is insufficient
Romans 2:17-29
The advantages of being a Jew
Romans 3:1-8
All humankind are sinners
Romans 3:9-20
Justification by faith
Romans 3:21-31
Abraham as an illustration
Romans 4:1-26
Results of justification
Romans 5:1-11
Adam and Christ contrasted
Romans 5:12-21
In chapter 2, verses 17-24, Paul sums up his complaint against Jewish people who insist that their way is best. Ok you Jews - you think you’re the light of the world, you think you’ve got the wonderful Law form God, do you obey it yourselves? No you don’t! THat’s the problem. Everyone fails.
In chapter 3 Paul heaps up a list of quotations to show that everyone is evil. No one is good, not one.There is nobody found to be righteous. And just when we’re despairing, he says, but there is a righteousness that exists, that the Law and the Prophets foretold. It comes through Jesus, and it is “apart from the law” (3:21) so that anyone, Jew or Gentile, can accept it.
So how does it work, this new righteousness? It means we are justified by our faith, not by what we do. Paul quote Abraham as an example of a man who was clearly acceptable to God. We all agree? Abraham was God’s friend? Yes?
Aha! Where was the Law then? The Law had not yet been given! So how come Abraham was God’s friend? How come he was acceptable to God? He couldn’t keep the Law because it didn’t yet exist. So Abraham was justified by faith. And if it worked for Abraham, it’ll work for us.
In Chapter 5 Paul begins to tell us how. He talks about Jesus’ sacrificial death, how remarkable it was, and how it has reconciled us to God. Everybody else who’s ever lived, ever since Adam, has slipped up, failed, let God down, blown it. But now has come someone who has not failed, not slipped, not let God down, and not blown it.
Everyone to be judged by their deeds
Romans 2:1-16
Circumcision alone is insufficient
Romans 2:17-29
The advantages of being a Jew
Romans 3:1-8
All humankind are sinners
Romans 3:9-20
Justification by faith
Romans 3:21-31
Abraham as an illustration
Romans 4:1-26
Results of justification
Romans 5:1-11
Adam and Christ contrasted
Romans 5:12-21
In chapter 2, verses 17-24, Paul sums up his complaint against Jewish people who insist that their way is best. Ok you Jews - you think you’re the light of the world, you think you’ve got the wonderful Law form God, do you obey it yourselves? No you don’t! THat’s the problem. Everyone fails.
In chapter 3 Paul heaps up a list of quotations to show that everyone is evil. No one is good, not one.There is nobody found to be righteous. And just when we’re despairing, he says, but there is a righteousness that exists, that the Law and the Prophets foretold. It comes through Jesus, and it is “apart from the law” (3:21) so that anyone, Jew or Gentile, can accept it.
So how does it work, this new righteousness? It means we are justified by our faith, not by what we do. Paul quote Abraham as an example of a man who was clearly acceptable to God. We all agree? Abraham was God’s friend? Yes?
Aha! Where was the Law then? The Law had not yet been given! So how come Abraham was God’s friend? How come he was acceptable to God? He couldn’t keep the Law because it didn’t yet exist. So Abraham was justified by faith. And if it worked for Abraham, it’ll work for us.
In Chapter 5 Paul begins to tell us how. He talks about Jesus’ sacrificial death, how remarkable it was, and how it has reconciled us to God. Everybody else who’s ever lived, ever since Adam, has slipped up, failed, let God down, blown it. But now has come someone who has not failed, not slipped, not let God down, and not blown it.
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