Category: Bible Study

• Several years ago George Barna did a survey on the religious attitudes of Americans and their level of commitment. Here’s what he found out. He started with a question for- non-Christians age 16-29. He asked, “Do you know at least one person who is a committed Christian?” 85% said they did.  Then asked if these committed Christians lived any different, only 15% said yes.  Only 15% of proclaimed Christians behaved differently than their non-Christian friends.
• So Barna did some more research. Here’s what he found.  
• Barna started with this question: “Have you made a personal commitment to Jesus Christ that is still important?”
  • Age 18-41: 65%
  • Age 42+: 73%
• That’s encouraging. These are people who say, “I’ve made a commitment to Jesus and it’s still important to me.” Around 70% of the country says they’ve made a commitment to Jesus. 
• Barna dug deeper to see  if these “committed Christians” have a Christian world view. That’s a little difficult to measure, so they asked if they agreed to these eight statements. How would you answer them?
  • 1. Jesus lived a sinless life.
  • 2. God is the all-knowing and all-powerful creator of the universe and still rules today.
  • 3. Salvation is a gift from God and cannot be earned.
  • 4. Satan is real.
  • 5. The Bible is accurate in all of the principles it teaches.
  • 6. Christians have a responsibility to share their faith
  • 7. Unchanging moral truth exists.
  • 8. Such truth is defined by the Bible.
• The results?
  • Age 18-41: 3%
  • Age 42+: 9%
• Here is what this means: Almost 70% of Americans say they’ve made a personal commitment to Jesus, but less than 10% say they believe what the Bible teaches.
• There has been an issue that many Christians have struggled with almost as soon as the Church began .When we accept Jesus Christ into our lives, does he come as Savior or as Savior and Lord? Everybody wants a Savior but it not everyone wants a Lord and Master. No wonder…Many followers of Jesus genuinely struggle in living out their Christian faith consistently and authentically. We can belief those 8 things but how are we living that out?
• Tonight we began chapter 12 of Romans this is where Paul begins getting very practical in living the Christian life. 
• Romans 12:1
• Therefore, brothers and sisters, in view of the mercies of God, I urge you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God; this is your true worship.
  • What does the therefore tell us?
    • It tells us to look back to what was written earlier.
    • Everything Paul as written in those first 11 chapters… Everything God has done to bring about the saving of men and women all to bring about our justification by faith in Jesus by way of His grace and mercy.  
    • Based on all that here is how we should respond as followers of Jesus.
  • What are we to keep in view to motivate us?
    • God’s mercy, all that God has done in the gospel for our salvation.
  • What does God want from us according to this verse?
    • He wants our bodies…For the Christians the Lord has already redeemed our spirit.  God wants to commit all we are to Him. He wants our worship and this means our bodies as well. It shows how important it is to use the body to the glory of God.  But we are free to determine to which Master we will present our body to.
  • What part of us has not been redeemed yet and is the source of many temptations?
    • Thus our bodies must be constantly and consciously offered up to God as part of our sacrifice and worship.
  • What is the difference and what is the same between the sacrifice today compared to the Old Testament sacrifices?
    • We are to be living sacrifices that is the main difference the holy and pleasing is the same. O.T. sacrifices were to be without blemish we are to be holy. Not only are we set apart to God, but we are to be ethically and morally holy.
  • Why would the sacrifice of our living bodies be pleasing to God?
    • It is pleasing to him just because it is living and holy. Such a sacrifice is a delight to God’s heart.
  • When we offer our bodies as a living sacrifice, what it considered?
    • this is your spiritual act of worship. The word we translate  “Spiritual” can also be translated reasonable put them together this is what  we should do which is logical and smart in light of what God has done for us. 
    • The point is that all Christian living is worship offered up to God. Public, corporate worship is special and must not be neglected, but that is not the only part of the Christian life that may be called “worship.” Christians must do everything “for the glory of God” (1 Cor. 10:31), and whatever is done for his glory is an act of worship.
• Romans 12:2
• 2 Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may discern what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God.
  • How do we go about offering our bodies as living sacrifices?
    • To start with we offer our bodies by refusing to be conformed to this world, and instead allowing ourselves to be transformed by the renewing of our minds. The verb tense in the Greek tells us it is not one time act but an ongoing process. We need to keep this up continually.
  • What does Paul means by the pattern of this world?
    • He means living a worldly life of this age being affected by the ethics and spiritual aspects of the fallen world, this world that has been existing under the power of Satan when sin entered it.  In the Galatian letter Paul says were are rescued by Christ from the present evil age.  We are rescued from it but yet we still live in physically.
  • How do we accomplish not conforming?
    • By being transformed, “transform” would refer to a deep and abiding change the Greek word Morphe. Again this is an ongoing process.
  • What must happen for us to continue to transform according to God’s will?
    • The renewing of your mind…the Greek indicates that the change in view is not something we do or can do for ourselves, it is something that is done to us. The Lord is going to work on us. Also Paul is giving us a command which means we have a responsibility of desiring to change and consenting to this transformation.
  • So how do we renew our minds?
    • Consider That…
    • Our mind is the faculty by which the soul perceives and discerns, it is the seat of intellectual and moral judgment.  It makes a difference what we put in our minds  and what we open our minds to.  Paul writes in- Romans 8:5 5 For those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit have their minds set on the things of the Spirit.  This is important for us to understand…Trying harder is not the key to spiritual growth and maturity.  Making a list of Christian rules and trying to keep them is not the key to spiritual growth.  
    • The place to start may not be with our performance… but with  our thinking. Paul writes in-  Colossians 3:1-3 So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. 3 For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
    • Renewing our mind is the work of the Holy Spirit but… we have a responsibility to set our minds on the things of God.  The Lord will do His part. Philippians 2:13 13 For it is God who is working in you both to will and to work according to his good purpose.  But the Lord will not override our free will. 
    • What can help the renewing of our minds?
      • At the heart of this renewing of our mind should be this desire to know, love and enjoy Jesus Christ.
      • We need to avail ourselves to those things that set our hearts and minds before Him. This would include our intake of God’s Word thru reading, study, discussion, hearing it and seeking to apply it.  It would also include our worship and prayers and interactions with other believers.   We also need to understand that renewing our minds will always involve a battle.  Satan will do all he can to discourage from renewing our minds but according to Paul we have the power in Christ to take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. (2 Cor. 10:4-5)
  • What is the result of renewing of our mind?
    • Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
  • Are we confronted with several choices in life in regard to how to act and to live, how do we know what is God’s will?
    • If we are being transformed by the  renewing our minds we can  take our options and test them against  God’s Word and be  able to discern the  will of God from the  false and the  wrong.
  • How is God’s will defined or described?
    • his good, pleasing and perfect will.
  • What do these words mean?
    • Good- “good” in the sense of morally right sense God is  Good. Pleasing- that which is acceptable or pleasing, … pleasing to God. The phrase “to God” does not appear here, but it is used in v. 1 with this same word and should be  understood  that  way here too. 
    • Perfect-Carries the  idea of completeness.  The Lord want us to not  have  just  part  of  His will but all of  it… God’s will,  will always honor Christ.
• TAKE AWAY
  • What does God want from us?
    • According to this text A relationship The Lord wants our heart totally- 100%. He wants to love us and be loved back by us… worship. The Lord is looking for those who will trust Him with everything they are and everything they have. Including our very bodies.
  • Is it possible to be conformed to this world and to present our body to God at the same time?
    • No!  So we need to stop being conformed to the world.
  • Transforming begins where?
    • In our minds… by the way the Holy Spirit is  involved  in this too
  • Where does our behavior originate from?
    • Our Mind so to change our behavior we need to renew our mind in  our relationship to Jesus  Christ and in His Word
  • Are we willing to be transformed and renewed?

Romans 11:17-36

• Where we left off last week:
  • God Promised a Remnant of Israel
• Take Away from last week:
  • God has not given up on the Jews
  • Paul thinks the Jews will respond to the gospel in the future
  • Every Jew will not be saved
  • The Jews will not be saved differently than anyone else
  • To be saved one must respond faithfully to the gospel
• Romans 11:17-21
• 17 Now if some of the branches were broken off, and you, though a wild olive branch, were grafted in among them and have come to share in the rich root of the cultivated olive tree, 18 do not boast that you are better than those branches. But if you do boast—you do not sustain the root, but the root sustains you. 19 Then you will say, “Branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in.” 20 True enough; they were broken off because of unbelief, but you stand by faith. Do not be arrogant, but beware, 21 because if God did not spare the natural branches, he will not spare you either.
  • How many olive trees is Paul talking about?  Two a cultivated olive  tree and an  wild olive  tree 
  • What does the cultivated olive tree represent? See Jeremiah 11:16-17 & Hosea 14:5-6
  • Jeremiah 11:16-17
    • The Lord named you a flourishing olive tree, beautiful with well-formed fruit. He has set fire to it, and its branches are consumed with the sound of a mighty tumult. 17 “The Lord of Armies who planted you has decreed disaster against you, because of the disaster the house of Israel and the house of Judah brought on themselves when they angered me by burning incense to Baal.”
  • Hosea 14:5-6
    • I will be like the dew to Israel; he will blossom like the lily and take root like the cedars of Lebanon. 6 His new branches will spread, and his splendor will be like the olive tree, his fragrance, like the forest of Lebanon.
  • This is picture of Israel, the Jews.
  • Who does the “wild” olive shoot represent?
    • The Gentile Christian 
  • What happened to allow this wild shoot to be grafted into the olive tree?
    • Verse 17 Some (many) branches were broken off
  • Why were these branches broken off to begin with?
    • Because of unbelief but not all the branches were broken off…the Gentile shoot was grafted in among them indicating that those branches not removed were Jewish Christians believing Jesus to be the Messiah.
  • Who would the “root” represent?
    • See Revelation 22:16 Jesus Christ
    • Rev 22:16; 16 “I, Jesus, have sent my angel to give you this testimony for the churches. I am the Root and the Offspring of David, and the bright Morning Star.”
  • What attitude should be avoided by the grafted in branches (Gentile Christians)?
    • Superior attitude…That somehow I am better then these broken off branches…God must see me as more value then they.
  • What keeps any branch connected to the tree?
    • Faith and belief in Jesus Christ
• Romans 11:22-24
• 22 Therefore, consider God’s kindness and severity: severity toward those who have fallen but God’s kindness toward you—if you remain in his kindness. Otherwise you too will be cut off. 23 And even they, if they do not remain in unbelief, will be grafted in, because God has the power to graft them in again. 24 For if you were cut off from your native wild olive tree and against nature were grafted into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these—the natural branches—be grafted into their own olive tree?
  • What are we to consider?
    • kindness and severity of God…How do we continue in God’s kindness? Be being faithful…by continuing to trust in Christ
  • What can God do with the branches that do not persist in unbelief?
    • God is able to graft them in again. 
• Romans 11:25-27
• 25 I don’t want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers and sisters, so that you will not be conceited: A partial hardening has come upon Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. 26 And in this way all Israel will be saved, as it is written, The Deliverer will come from Zion; he will turn godlessness away from Jacob. 27 And this will be my covenant with them when I take away their sins.
  • What is the mystery that Paul is revealing?
    • We Gentile Christians should not be conceited at all because God is using the hardening of the Jews until the full number  of Gentiles as responded to the gospel
  • How should we understand verse 26,
    • …and in this way all Israel will be saved?
      • Should we take all to mean every Jew that is living at that time? Or take all to mean a large number of Jews, those who will respond to the gospel?  Or is all Israel all the Jewish and Gentile who respond to the gospel?
      • If this is speaking only to the Jews then Paul is saying after the number Gentiles has been fulfilled then the all of the Jews that will respond, will. I really don’t think it means every Jews will be saved. But a large number is what Paul as in mind  here.
  • The redeemer in verse 26 & 27 is Jesus Christ.
• Romans 11:28-32
• 28 Regarding the gospel, they are enemies for your advantage, but regarding election, they are loved because of the patriarchs, 29 since God’s gracious gifts and calling are irrevocable. 30 As you once disobeyed God but now have received mercy through their disobedience, 31 so they too have now disobeyed, resulting in mercy to you, so that they also may now receive mercy. 32 For God has imprisoned all in disobedience so that he may have mercy on all.
  • The unbelieving Jews are considered what by God?
    • But because of God’s choice, they are what? Unbelief places them as enemies of God but yet choice is to love them and continue to seek salvation.
  • Who is God extending mercy to?
    • The Gentiles by way of the gospel which included the hardening of the Jews and He will extend that same mercy to the Jews
  • Are all disobedient to God?
    • Who is saved apart from God’s mercy? No one
  • Are the Jews still loved by God?
    • Is God still faithful to His promises? 
• This final section is called a “doxology.” A doxology is a hymn of praise to God. Paul is praising God for all he does
• Romans 11:33-36
• Oh, the depth of the riches and the wisdom and the knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments and untraceable his ways! 34 For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor? 35 And who has ever given to God, that he should be repaid? 36 For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever. Amen.
  • Are God’s ways higher than our ways?
  • Have we done anything to deserve the salvation and mercy of God?
  • How should we respond to what God has done for us?
• Take Away:
  • Has God given up on the Jews?
  • What does God desire for the Jews? What does God desire for the Gentiles?
    • Repentance and faithful response to Jesus Christ
  • Can Christians be cut off from salvation?
    • But they are not cut off because of indiscretion or momentary moral lapses but for unbelief
  • Our Salvation is truly a precious thing- a free gift- don’t take for granted

Romans 11:1-16

• How well do you take rejection?  Have you ever been rejected when you asked someone for a date?  
• Has God been rejected? How does God take rejection? At the end of chapter 10 it sure sounds like the Jews have continually rejected him.
• Romans 10:20-21 20 And Isaiah boldly says, “I was found by those who did not seek me; I revealed myself to those who did not ask for me.” 21But concerning Israel he says, “All day long I have held out my hands to a disobedient and obstinate people.”
• Day after day, year after year, generation after generation, God tried to call his people to himself and have a relationship with them. And how did his people respond? They kept disobeying God and arguing with him.  What the Jews reject and the Gentiles accept… that is the gospel and the work of Christ.
• If the Letter ended with chapter 10 it would seem as if God has given up on the Jews.
• In Chapter 11 Paul anticipates a few questions from His readers… What about the Jews?
  • What’s happened to them? After all their years of disobedience has God finally washed his hands of them and turned to the Gentiles?
  • Paul will give three reasons why God has not given up on the Jews.
    • The Remnant of Israel
    • Engrafted Branches
    • All Israel Will Be Saved
• Romans 11:1-6
• I ask, then, has God rejected his people? Absolutely not! For I too am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, from the tribe of Benjamin. 2 God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew. Or don’t you know what the Scripture says in the passage about Elijah—how he pleads with God against Israel? 3 Lord, they have killed your prophets and torn down your altars. I am the only one left, and they are trying to take my life! 4 But what was God’s answer to him? I have left seven thousand for myself who have not bowed down to Baal. 5 In the same way, then, there is also at the present time a remnant chosen by grace. 6 Now if by grace, then it is not by works; otherwise grace ceases to be grace.
  • What is the first question that Paul anticipates?
    • Did God reject his people?
  • How does Paul answer his own question?
    • By no means! 
  • What does he offer has proof?
    • See verse 1 He offers himself as proof not all Israel has been rejected.
  • Why does Paul bring up the story about Elijah?
    • Verses 3 & 4 What Paul is showing is that God has never totally left the Israelites. They left him several times, but God was always faithful. Even when things looked the darkest, like in Elijah’s day, God preserved a group who remained faithful to him. Even though it looks bleak, there is still a group, a remnant of Israel that has remained faithful to God.
  • What is special about this present time remnant?
    • Verses 5 & 6 They are chosen by grace… these are Christian of Jewish decent Paul is referring to. 
  • Are they part of the remnant because of their works?
    • No because of grace. Grace is both an attitude and action on the part of God.  God’s choice is that there would be a remnant of faithful Jews.  In Elijah’s day and in Paul’s day…both based on grace…God chose to make salvation available to any who were faithful to His revealed will. It is not based on something man works out it is God’s doing.
• Romans 11:7-10
• 7 What then? Israel did not find what it was looking for, but the elect did find it. The rest were hardened, 8 as it is written, God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes that cannot see and ears that cannot hear, to this day. 9 And David says, Let their table become a snare and a trap, a pitfall and a retribution to them. 10 Let their eyes be darkened so that they cannot see, and their backs be bent continually.
  • What were the people of Israel seeking so earnestly?  We find this answer in Romans 9:31
    • but the people of Israel, who pursued the law as the way of righteousness, have not attained their goal. 32 Why not? Because they pursued it not by faith but as if it were by works
    • Romans 10:3 since they did not know the righteousness of God and sought to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness. 
  • The nation of Israel as a whole was seeking their “righteousness” right standing with God.
  • Who are the elect here?
    • Verse 7 Those Jews who responded faithfully to God’s will… for Paul‘s day it would be those Jews who believe the gospel and obey it. 
  • What happened to those who did not believe the gospel?
    • They were hardened…The Greek word for hardened means to refusal to serve. So they were hardened because of their rejection of salvation.
  • Was the rejection of most and the salvation of a few a surprise to the Lord?
    • See Verses 8 Paul quotes Isaiah 29:9 & Deuteronomy 29:4 This rejection was no surprise to God He predicted this would happen. 
  • Why would God give a spirt of stupor so they cannot see or hear?
    • This is judicial hardening based on their sin and rejection.
  • What is the quote from David asking for?
    • Verses 9 and 10 David is asking God to do punishing things to God’s enemies…God is not choosing some to judgment and others to salvation. Here it is based on how one responds to the gospel message. Rejection of the gospel brings about hardening of the disobedient . But for others God’s choosing of some according to grace will make up the remnant.
• Romans 11:11-12
• 11 I ask, then, have they stumbled so as to fall? Absolutely not! On the contrary, by their transgression, salvation has come to the Gentiles to make Israel jealous. 12 Now if their transgression brings riches for the world, and their failure riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their fullness bring!
  • Are Jews beyond recovery according to Paul?  
  • Verse 11 No they are not…their fall was not beyond recovery.  Their stumbling is seen as temporary
  • What did the Jews stumbling over the gospel bring about?
    • Think back in the book of Acts when the Church was made up of only believing Jews then persecution came what happened? The persecution came from the majority which rejected Jesus as Messiah. Many Christians left Jerusalem and took the gospel with them. It is seen over and over again in Acts, Jews reject,  gospel is  preached to Gentiles which respond.
    • Jewish rejection made possible Gentiles accepting the gospel.
  • What is Paul looking forward to here?
    • Verse 12 Jews accepting the gospel in large numbers
• Romans 11:13-16
• 13 Now I am speaking to you Gentiles. Insofar as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry, 14 if I might somehow make my own people jealous and save some of them. 15 For if their rejection brings reconciliation to the world, what will their acceptance mean but life from the dead? 16 Now if the firstfruits are holy, so is the whole batch. And if the root is holy, so are the branches.
  • As an apostle to the Gentiles has Paul given up the Jews?
    • You might think that but that is far from the case.
  • What is Paul hoping his preaching the gospel to the Gentiles will bring about?
    • Envy in a good sense that the Jews will see what the gospel has done for the Gentile and desire to emulate in their lives.
  • Does Paul sense the difficulty of persuading his fellow countrymen?
    • Verse 14 “save some of them”
  • How is accepting the gospel, “life from the dead’?
    • Spiritually dead are made alive also those who die in Christ will resurrect to life.
  • What is meant by in verse 16 about the first fruits and the whole batch, the root and the branches?
    • Holy here means set apart or consecrated.  First fruits means there is more to come. The root and branches Abraham is considered the root and  Jewish people accepting the  gospel as  being the branches.  Some picture that what Paul is speaking about will come about in the future   that many Jews will respond to the gospel. The branches holy and connected to the root will have opportunity to respond to the Gospel.
• TAKE AWAY
  • Has God given up on the Jews?
  • Does Paul think the Jews will respond to the gospel in the future even though many rejected Jesus?
  • Does this mean every Jews will be saved?
    • No
  • Will the Jews be saved any differently than anyone else?
    • No they must respond to the gospel in faith 
  • To be chosen for grace what must we do?
    • respond faithfully to the gospel of Christ

Romans 10:14-21

• Margaret has four daughters. Each daughter has a brother. How many children does Margaret have?
  • Anticipating the wrong answers and the objections, you can have an argument ready to present the answer
  • Paul takes time here in the last part of chapter 10 to anticipate some questions that will be thrown his way regarding Israel and their rejection of Christ
  • There is a concise and almost abrupt quality to the writing
    • It may well be that what we have here is the notes of some address which Paul was in the habit of delivering to the Jews to convince them of their error
  • In the previous passage, Paul has been saying that the way to God is not the way of works and of legalism, but of faith and trust. The objection is; but what if the Jews never heard of that? It is with that objection that Paul deals; and, as he deals with it in its various forms, on each occasion he clinches his answer with a text from the OT
• Romans 10:14-15
• 14 How, then, can they call on him they have not believed in? And how can they believe without hearing about him? And how can they hear without a preacher? 15 And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written: How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news.
  • The first objection is; you cant call on God unless you believe in Him. You can’t believe in Him unless you hear about Him. You can’t hear about Him unless there is someone to proclaim the good news. There can be no one to proclaim the good news unless God sends someone to do so
  • What’s Paul’s answer to that objection?
    • He quotes Isaiah 52:7
    • “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring the good news.”
  • He says basically that Isaiah described these very messengers long ago
• Romans 10:16
• 16 But not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, Lord, who has believed our message?
  • The second objection is that Israel did not obey the good news, even if your argument is true. 
  • What do you say to that?
    • Again, Paul turns to Isaiah to say that Israel’s disbelief was only to be expected, because in despair Isaiah said:
      • Lord, who has believed our message? (Isaiah 53:1
    • It is true that Israel did not accept the god news from God, and in their refusal they were simply running true to for; history was repeating itself
• Romans 10:17-18
• 17 So faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes through the message about Christ. 18 But I ask, “Did they not hear?” Yes, they did: Their voice has gone out to the whole earth, and their words to the ends of the world.
  • The third objection is really just a restatement of the first
  • What if they never got the chance to hear the good news
    • Paul now goes to Psalm 19:4 to say, “Yes they did.”
    • Their voice has gone out to the whole earth, and their words to the ends of the world
  • You can’t say that Israel never got the chance to hear; for scripture plainly says that God’s message has gone out to all the world
• Romans 10:19-20
• 19 But I ask, “Did Israel not understand?” First, Moses said, I will make you jealous of those who are not a nation; I will make you angry by a nation that lacks understanding. 20 And Isaiah says boldly, I was found by those who were not looking for me; I revealed myself to those who were not asking for me.
  • The fourth argument is pretty much, what if Israel didn’t understand? 
  • The meaning is basically “What if the message was so difficult to grasp that even when Israel did hear it, they were unable to grasp its significance?
    • This is where the passage is considered to become really difficult to interpret, but Paul’s answer is basically
    • Israel may have failed to understand, but who didn’t?
      • The Gentiles.They grasped the meaning of this offer, even when it came to them unexpectedly and unsought
    • Paul quotes two passages
      • Deuteronomy 32:21, “I will make you jealous of those who are not a nation; I will make you angry by a nation that lacks understanding
        • God says that because of Israel’s disobedience and rebellion, He will transfer His favor to another people and they will be forced to become jealous of a nation which has no nation
      • Isaiah 65:1, “I was found by those who were not looking for me; I revealed myself to those who were not asking for me.”
        • God says that, in a strange way, He has been found by a people who were not looking for Him at all
• Romans 10:21
• 21 But to Israel he says, All day long I have held out my hands to a disobedient and defiant people.
  • Finally, Pauls insists that all through history God has been stretching out hands of appeal to Israel, and Israel has always been disobedient and defiant
• Paul is laying the argument that there are certain kinds of ignorance which are inexcusable
  • There is the ignorance which comes from neglect of knowledge
    • There is a legal principle which says that genuine ignorance may be a defense, but neglect of knowledge never is
    • People cannot be blamed for not knowing what they never had a chance to know; but they can be blamed for neglecting to know things that were always open to them
    • If you sign a contract without reading the conditions, you can’t later complain if it is discovered that the conditions are different for what was originally understood. If we fail to equip ourselves for a task when every chance is given to us to equip ourselves adequately for it, we must stand condemned
    • As individuals, we are responsible for failing to know what we might have known
  • There is the ignorance which comes from willful blindness
    • We have an infinite and fatal capacity for shutting our minds to what we do not want to see, and stopping our ears to what we do not want to hear
    • A person may be well aware that some hat, some indulgence, some way of life, some friendship, some association must inevitably have disastrous results; but that person may simply refuse to look at the facts
    • To turn a blind eye may be a virtue in a few cases; in most cases, it is foolishness
  • There is the ignorance which is in essence a lie
    • The things about which we are in doubt are far fewer than we would d like to think
    • There are in reality very few occasions when we can honestly say “I never knew that things would turn out like this.”
    • God gave us conscience and the guidance of the Holy Spirit
    • Often we plead ignorance, when if we were honest, we would have to admit that in our heart of hearts, we knew the truth
  • There is a paradox in this passage. 
  • All through this section, Paul has been driving home the personal responsibility of the Jews. They should have known better; they had every chance to know better; but they rejected the appeal of God
  • HE began the argument by saying that everything was of God and that human beings had n more to do with it than the clay had to do with the work of the potter
  • He has set two things side by side; everything is of God, and everything is of human choice
  • Paul makes no attempt to resolve this dilemma; and the fact is that it cannot be resolved
  • It is a dilemma of human experience. We know that God is behind everything; and yet, at the same time, we know that we have free will and can accept or reject God’s offer. It is the paradox of the human situation that God is in control an d yet the human will is free

Romans 8:12-25

• Romans 8:12-17
• 12 So then, brothers and sisters, we are not obligated to the flesh to live according to the flesh, 13 because if you live according to the flesh, you are going to die. But if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. 14 For all those led by God’s Spirit are God’s sons. 15 For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear. Instead, you received the Spirit of adoption, by whom we cry out, “Abba Father!” 16 The Spirit himself testifies together with our spirit that we are God’s children, 17 and if children, also heirs—heirs of God and coheirs with Christ—if indeed we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him.
• Romans 8:12-13
• 12 So then, brothers and sisters, we are not obligated to the flesh to live according to the flesh, 13 because if you live according to the flesh, you are going to die. But if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.
  • What does it mean that we have an obligation?
    • The word “obligation” is a banking term referring to something owed to another person. Paul says we don’t owe our old lives one red cent.  Our obligation is to the Spirit,  We owe to the  Lord to  live a  holy life.
  • Does the fact that we have been redeemed and received the gift of the Holy Spirit guarantee our holy living?
    • This makes it possible…but it is not automatic nor is it even inevitable. Grace doesn’t make us robots. We are still free will creatures it is up to us.
• Romans 8:14-17
• 14 For all those led by God’s Spirit are God’s sons. 15 For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear. Instead, you received the Spirit of adoption, by whom we cry out, “Abba Father!” 16 The Spirit himself testifies together with our spirit that we are God’s children, 17 and if children, also heirs—heirs of God and coheirs with Christ—if indeed we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him.
  • Paul then draws on the idea of Roman adoption that we miss some meaning if we don’t understand the full context.
  • The father’s power over his family was absolute. In relation to his father, a Roman son never came of age
    • No matter how old he was, he was under the father’s power, in the absolute possession and understanding of the absolute control of his father
    • Obviously, this made adoption into another family very difficult and a serious step
    • In adoption, a person had to pass from one father to another
  • There were four main consequences of an adoption in this era
    • The adopted person lost all rights in his old family and gained all the rights of a legitimate son in his new family
      • In the most binding legal way, he got a new father
    • It followed that he became heir to his new father’s estate
      • Even if other sons were born afterwards, it did not affect his rights. He was co-heir with them, and no one could deny him that right
    • In law, the old life of the adopted person was completely wiped out
      • For instance, all debts were cancelled. He was regarded as a new person entering into a new life  in which the past had no part
    • In the eyes of the law, he was absolutely the son of his new father
      • Emperor Claudius adopted Nero so that Nero could succeed him. Nero, to solidify power, wanted to marry Claudius’s daughter, Octavia. But in the eyes of the law, even though they were not blood relatives, they were considered fully brother and sister. So, before he could marry Octavia, the Senate had to pass a new law allowing the marriage.
  • Another image from adoption
    • The adoption ceremony was carried out in the presence of seven witnesses
      • So if the adoptive father died and there was some dispute about the right of the adopted son to inherit, one or more of the witnesses stepped forward and swore that the adoption was genuine. Thus the right of the adopted person was guaranteed
    • Paul is saying that the Holy Spirit is the witness to our adoption into the family of God
  • It was Paul’s picture that when people became Christians they entered into the very family of God. They did nothing to deserve it; God, the great Father, in his amazing love and mercy, has taken lost, helpless, poverty-stricken, debt-laden sinners and adopted them into His own family, so that the debts are cancelled and the glory inherited
• Romans 8:18-23
• 18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is going to be revealed to us. 19 For the creation eagerly waits with anticipation for God’s sons to be revealed. 20 For the creation was subjected to futility—not willingly, but because of him who subjected it—in the hope 21 that the creation itself will also be set free from the bondage to decay into the glorious freedom of God’s children. 22 For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together with labor pains until now. 23 Not only that, but we ourselves who have the Spirit as the firstfruits—we also groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for adoption, the redemption of our bodies.
  • After speaking of the glory of adoption into the family of God, Paul now comes back to the troubled state of this present world
    • He sees all nature waiting for the glory that shall be. At the moment, creation is in bondage to decay
    • The world is one where beauty fades and loveliness decays; it’s a dying world; but  it is waiting for its liberation from all this, and the coming of the state of glory
  • What Jewish thought is Paul drawing on here in this passage?
    • The idea that time is divided into two sections
      • This present age and the age to come.
        • This present age is wholly bad, subject to sin, death, and decay
        • Some day, there will come the day of the Lord. That will be a day of judgment when the world will be shaken to its foundations; but out of it there will come a new world
    • The dream of the renewed world was dear to the Jews. Paul knew that; and here he endows creation with consciousness
      • He thinks of nature longing for the day when sin’s dominion would be broken, dash and decay would be gone, and God’s glory would come
        • He says that the state of nature was even worse than the human state. Human beings sinned deliberately; but it was involuntarily that nature was subjected to the consequences of sin
        • Unwittingly, nature was involved in the consequences of human sin
        • So Paul sees nature waiting for liberation form the death and decay that human sin had brought into the world
      • It is even more true for us
        • In the experience of the Holy Spirit, men and women had a foretaste, a first installment of the glory that shall be; no they long with all their hearts for the full realization of what adoption into the family of God means. 
        • The final adoption will be the redemption of their bodies. In the state of glory, Paul did not think of people as disembodied spirits
        • In this world, every individual is a body and a spirit; and in the world of glory, the total person will be saved
        • But the body will no longer be the victim of decay and the instrument of sin; it will be a spiritual body fit for the life of a spiritual person
• Romans 8:24-25
• 24 Now in this hope we were saved, but hope that is seen is not hope, because who hopes for what he sees? 25 Now if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with patience.
  • The blazing truth that lit life for Paul was that the human situation is not hopeless
  • Earlier, in verse 19, he used a word translated as eagerly waits
    • It describes the stance of a person who scans the horizon with head thrust forward eagerly searching the distance for the first signs of the dawn breaking
    • To Paul, life was not a weary, defeated waiting; it was a vivd expectation Christians are involved in the human situation. Within, they must battle with their own evil human nature; without, they must live in a world of death and decay
      • Nonetheless, Christians do not live only in the world; they also live in Christ
      • They do not see only the world, they look beyond it to God
      • They do not see only the consequences of human sin; they see the power of God’s mercy and love
      • Therefore the keynote of the Christ life is always hope and never despair. Christians wait not for death but for life

Romans 8:1-13

• On January 6, 1941, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt addressed Congress on the state of the war in Europe. Much of what he said in that address has been forgotten. However, at the close of his address, he said that he looked forward “to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms.” We might call this part of his speech “A Declaration of Freedom.” Roosevelt went on to name those four freedoms: freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from want, and freedom from fear. These words are still remembered, even though their ideals have not yet been realized everywhere in the world.
• Context:
  • Romans 8 is the Christian’s “Declaration of Freedom,” for in it Paul declares the spiritual freedoms we enjoy because of our union with Jesus Christ. It is a freedom based on our faith in Jesus and God’s gift of the Holy Spirit. In this chapter Paul mentions the Holy Spirit nineteen times.
• First, there is freedom from judgment.
  • In the previous chapter Paul wrote about his own struggle with sin. He doesn’t do the good he wants to do, instead he finds himself doing the wrong he doesn’t want to do. Sin is waging a war within him and too often he finds himself failing. So he cries out,
  • Romans 7:24
    • What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death?   But then Paul follows it up with
  • Romans 7:25
    • 25 Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!…
  • Now Paul writes…
• Romans 8:1-4
• Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus, 2 because the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death. 3 For what the law could not do since it was weakened by the flesh, God did. He condemned sin in the flesh by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh as a sin offering, 4 in order that the law’s requirement would be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
• Romans 8:1-2
• Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus, 2 because the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death.
  • Does this mean that the Christian will never have failures or will never sin?
    • No …Paul just explained his struggle with sin
  • Why is there no condemnation?
    • The reason for the lack of condemnation is found in three words – “in Christ Jesus.” Because we are in Christ Jesus we will not be condemned. In Adam we were condemned, but in Christ there is no condemnation. When we were under the law we face condemnation, but in Christ we are free.
    • Because of what Jesus Christ has done.  No condemnation at all!  The penalty and punishment was totally taken care of for those who are in a saving union with Jesus Christ.
  • How are we free from the law of sin and death?
    • The law cannot condemn you. Why? It cannot condemn you because Christ has already suffered that condemnation for you on the cross.  The law of sin and death has been replaced with the law of the Spirit who gives life.  That is where the Christian lives now. Death has been dealt a blow by the resurrection of Christ.
    • The Christian may at times sin, we can be assured that these sins do not condemn us because Christ has already died for them and we belong to Him.
• Romans 8:3
• 3 For what the law could not do since it was weakened by the flesh, God did. He condemned sin in the flesh by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh as a sin offering,
  • What was the law powerless to do?
    • To save the only way  the law saves is if you  keep it  perfectly
  • When was sin condemned in the flesh?
    • When Jesus was nailed and died on the cross
• Romans 8:4
• 4 in order that the law’s requirement would be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
  • What is the righteous requirement of the law that was met for us?
    • Sin must be punished is the righteous requirement… and for those in Christ living according to the spirit that sin has been  punished in Christ.
  • The first freedom we have is from condemnation…
  • Second, there is freedom from defeat
    • Sin and death are defeated in us thru the Holy Spirit.
    • Jesus redeeming work and the sending of the Holy Spirit which brings life enables us to overcome the  power of sin and that remains in our fleshly bodies.
• Romans 8:5-8
• 5 For those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit have their minds set on the things of the Spirit. 6 Now the mindset of the flesh is death, but the mindset of the Spirit is life and peace. 7 The mindset of the flesh is hostile to God because it does not submit to God’s law. Indeed, it is unable to do so. 8 Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
  • What is the contrast between living according to the Flesh and the Spirit?
  • Flesh
    • Mind of Fleshly Desires
    • Death
    • Hostile to God
  • Spirit
    • Mind on Spirit Desires
    • Life and Peace
    • Reconciled to God
  • Notice can the person governed by the flesh live according to the Spirit?
    • No! Because they are living  under  the law not under  grace… this doesn’t mean they can’t respond  to the  gospel and come to faith and repent.
    • But a person who exists according to the Spirit can they choose to continue to live according to the flesh? YES
• Romans 8:9-11
• 9 You, however, are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to him. 10 Now if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit gives life because of righteousness. 11 And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead lives in you, then he who raised Christ from the dead will also bring your mortal bodies to life through his Spirit who lives in you.
  • Is it possible to belong to Christ without the Holy Spirit?
    • No
  • What is going to happen to our physical bodies?
    • Eventual death 
    • Why?
      • Curse of sin   
  • How does the Spirit counter this?
    • Two ways…Brings life… makes it possible for us to live in a right way and that same Spirit that raised Christ is indwelling us
• Romans 8:12-13
• 12 So then, brothers and sisters, we are not obligated to the flesh to live according to the flesh, 13 because if you live according to the flesh, you are going to die. But if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.
  • What does it mean that we have an obligation?
    • The word “obligation” is a banking term referring to something owed to another person. Paul says we don’t owe our old lives one red cent.  Our obligation is to the Spirit,  We owe to the  Lord to  live a  holy life.
  • Does the fact that we have been redeemed and received the gift of the Holy Spirit guarantee our holy living?
    • This makes it possible…but it is not automatic nor is it even inevitable. Grace doesn’t make us robots. We are still free will creatures it is up to us.
• TAKE AWAY
  • If we are in Christ we are not under condemnation
  • We have freedom from Judgment and Freedom from Defeat
  • We have an obligation considering all the Lord has done and  is doing to being about our salvation
  • Live according to the Spirit