Reference: Romans, Epistle To The
Easton
(3.) This epistle was probably written at Corinth. Phoebe (Ro 16:1) of Cenchrea conveyed it to Rome, and Gaius of Corinth entertained the apostle at the time of his writing it (Ro 16:23; 1Co 1:14), and Erastus was chamberlain of the city, i.e., of Corinth (2Ti 4:20).
(4.) The precise time at which it was written is not mentioned in the epistle, but it was obviously written when the apostle was about to "go unto Jerusalem to minister unto the saints", i.e., at the close of his second visit to Greece, during the winter preceding his last visit to that city (Ro 15:25; comp. Ac 19:21; 20:2-3,16; 1Co 16:1-4), early in A.D. 58.
(5.) It is highly probable that Christianity was planted in Rome by some of those who had been at Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost (Ac 2:10). At this time the Jews were very numerous in Rome, and their synagogues were probably resorted to by Romans also, who in this way became acquainted with the great facts regarding Jesus as these were reported among the Jews. Thus a church composed of both Jews and Gentiles was formed at Rome. Many of the brethren went out to meet Paul on his approach to Rome. There are evidences that Christians were then in Rome in considerable numbers, and had probably more than one place of meeting (Ro 16:14-15).
(6.) The object of the apostle in writing to this church was to explain to them the great doctrines of the gospel. His epistle was a "word in season." Himself deeply impressed with a sense of the value of the doctrines of salvation, he opens up in a clear and connected form the whole system of the gospel in its relation both to Jew and Gentile. This epistle is peculiar in this, that it is a systematic exposition of the gospel of universal application. The subject is here treated argumentatively, and is a plea for Gentiles addressed to Jews. In the Epistle to the Galatians, the same subject is discussed, but there the apostle pleads his own authority, because the church in Galatia had been founded by him.
(7.) After the introduction (1:1-15), the apostle presents in it divers aspects and relations the doctrine of justification by faith (1:16-11:36) on the ground of the imputed righteousness of Christ. He shows that salvation is all of grace, and only of grace. This main section of his letter is followed by various practical exhortations (12:1-15:13), which are followed by a conclusion containing personal explanations and salutations, which contain the names of twenty-four Christians at Rome, a benediction, and a doxology (RO 15:14-ch. 16).
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of Phrygia, and Pamphylia, of Egypt and the district of Africa about Cyrene, visitors from Rome, Jews and proselytes,
After these events, Paul, under the Spirit's guidance, resolved to go to Jerusalem, and to revisit Macedonia and Greece on the way. "After I have gone there," he said, "I must see Rome also."
After traveling through those districts and giving the people a great deal of encouragement, he went on to Greece where he stayed for three months. Just as he was going to sail for Syria, the Jews made a plot against him, and he made up his mind to return by way of Macedonia.
For Paul had decided to sail past Ephesus, so that he would not have to lose any time in Asia, for he was hurrying to reach Jerusalem, if possible, by the day of the Harvest Festival.
Just now I am starting for Jerusalem, to take help to God's people.
I want to introduce to you our sister Phoebe, who is a helper in the church at Cenchreae.
Remember me to Asyncritus, Phlegon, Hermes, Patrobas, Hermas, and the brothers who meet with them. Remember me to Philologus and Julia, to Nereus and his sister, and to Olympas, and all God's people who meet with them.
My host, Gaius, the host of the whole church, wishes to be remembered to you. Erastus, the city-treasurer, and our brother Quartus wish to be remembered to you.
by whom we have been ransomed from captivity through having our sins forgiven.
Erastus stayed in Corinth. I left Trophimus sick at Miletus.
Hastings
ROMANS, EPISTLE TO THE
1. Time, occasion, and character.
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"Pass no more judgments upon other people, so that you may not have judgment passed upon you.
And while they were gazing after him into the sky, two men dressed in white suddenly stood beside them, and said to them, "Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up into the sky? This very Jesus who has been caught up from you into heaven will come in just the way that you have seen him go up to heaven."
Then the apostles and elders with the whole church resolved to select representatives and send them with Paul and Barnabas to Antioch. They were Judas who was called Barsabbas, and Silas, both leading men among the brothers.
So the delegates went down to Antioch and gathered the congregation together and delivered the letter;
This girl would follow Paul and the rest of us, crying out, "These men are slaves of the Most High God, and they are making known to you a way of salvation." She did this for a number of days, until Paul, very much annoyed, turned and said to the spirit in her, "In the name of Jesus Christ I order you to come out of her!" And it came out instantly. read more. But when her masters saw that their hopes of profits were gone, they seized Paul and Silas, dragged them to the public square, to the authorities, and brought them before the chief magistrates. "These men," they said, "are Jews, and they are making a great disturbance in our town.
After beating them severely, they put them in jail, and gave the jailer orders to keep close watch of them.
There he found a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, who had recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had ordered all Jews to leave Rome. Paul went to see them,
After spending some time there, he started out again, and traveled systematically through Galatia and Phrygia, reassuring all the disciples. A Jew named Apollos, a native of Alexandria, came to Ephesus. He was an eloquent man, skilful in the use of the Scriptures. read more. He had had some instruction about the Way of the Lord, and he talked with burning zeal and taught painstakingly about Jesus, though he knew of no baptism but John's. He spoke very confidently in the synagogue at first, but when Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him home and explained the Way of God to him more correctly. As he wanted to cross to Greece, the brothers wrote to the disciples there, urging them to welcome him. On his arrival there he was of great service to those who through God's favor had become believers, for he vigorously refuted the Jews in public, and showed from the scriptures that Jesus was the Christ.
After these events, Paul, under the Spirit's guidance, resolved to go to Jerusalem, and to revisit Macedonia and Greece on the way. "After I have gone there," he said, "I must see Rome also."
After these events, Paul, under the Spirit's guidance, resolved to go to Jerusalem, and to revisit Macedonia and Greece on the way. "After I have gone there," he said, "I must see Rome also."
After these events, Paul, under the Spirit's guidance, resolved to go to Jerusalem, and to revisit Macedonia and Greece on the way. "After I have gone there," he said, "I must see Rome also."
After these events, Paul, under the Spirit's guidance, resolved to go to Jerusalem, and to revisit Macedonia and Greece on the way. "After I have gone there," he said, "I must see Rome also." He sent two of his assistants, Timothy and Erastus, to Macedonia, while he stayed on for a while in Asia.
He sent two of his assistants, Timothy and Erastus, to Macedonia, while he stayed on for a while in Asia.
He sent two of his assistants, Timothy and Erastus, to Macedonia, while he stayed on for a while in Asia. Just at that time a great commotion arose about the Way. read more. A silversmith named Demetrius was making large profits for his workmen by the manufacture of silver shrines of Artemis. He got the workmen in that and similar trades together, and said to them, "Men, you know that this business is the source of our prosperity, and you see and hear that not only in Ephesus but almost all over Asia, this man Paul has persuaded and drawn away numbers of people, telling them that gods made by human hands are not gods at all. There is danger, therefore, not only that this business of ours will be discredited, but also that the temple of the great goddess Artemis will be neglected and the magnificence of her whom all Asia and the world worship will be a thing of the past!" When they heard this, they became very angry, and cried, "Great Artemis of Ephesus!" So the commotion spread all over the city, and by a common impulse the people rushed to the theater, dragging with them two Macedonians, Gaius and Aristarchus, Paul's traveling companions. Paul wanted to go before the people himself, but the disciples would not allow it. Some of the religious authorities also, who were friends of his, sent to him and begged him not to venture into the theater. Meanwhile the people were shouting, some one thing and some another, for the meeting was in confusion, and most of them had no idea why they had come together. Some of the crowd called upon Alexander, as the Jews had pushed him to the front, and he made a gesture with his hand and was going to speak in defense of them to the people. But when they saw that he was a Jew, a great shout went up from them all, and they cried for two hours, "Great Artemis of Ephesus!" At last the recorder quieted the mob and said, "Men of Ephesus, who in the world does not know that the city of Ephesus is the guardian of the temple of the great Artemis, and of the image that fell down from the sky? So as these facts are undeniable, you must be calm, and not do anything reckless. For you have brought these men here, though they have not been guilty of disloyalty nor uttered any blasphemy against our goddess. If Demetrius and his fellow-craftsmen have a charge to bring against anyone, there are the courts and the governors; let them take legal action. But if you require anything beyond that, it must be settled before the regular assembly. For we are in danger of being charged with rioting in connection with today's events, though there is really nothing about this commotion that we will not be able to explain."
where he stayed for three months. Just as he was going to sail for Syria, the Jews made a plot against him, and he made up his mind to return by way of Macedonia.
where he stayed for three months. Just as he was going to sail for Syria, the Jews made a plot against him, and he made up his mind to return by way of Macedonia.
where he stayed for three months. Just as he was going to sail for Syria, the Jews made a plot against him, and he made up his mind to return by way of Macedonia. He was accompanied by Sopater of Berea, the son of Pyrrhus, Aristarchus and Secundus, from Thessalonica, Gaius of Derbe, Timothy, and Tychicus and Trophimus, from Asia.
Paul, a slave of Jesus Christ, called as an apostle, set apart to declare God's good news, which he promised long ago through his prophets in the holy Scriptures, read more. about his Son, who was physically descended from David, and decisively declared Son of God in his holiness of spirit, by being raised from the dead??esus Christ our Lord, through whom we have received God's favor and been commissioned in his name to urge obedience and faith upon all the heathen, including you who have been called to belong to Jesus Christ??7 to all those in Rome whom God loves, who are called to be his people; God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ bless you and give you peace.
First I thank my God through Jesus Christ about you all, because the news of your faith is spreading all over the world. As God is my witness, whom I serve in my spirit in spreading the good news of his Son, I never fail to mention you when I pray, read more. and to ask that somehow by God's will I may some day at last succeed in reaching you. For I long to see you, to convey to you some spiritual gift that will strengthen you; in other words, that you and I may be mutually encouraged by one another's faith. I want you to understand, brothers, that I have often intended to come to see you (though thus far I have been prevented) in order to produce some results among you, as well as among the rest of the heathen. I owe a debt both to Greeks and to foreigners, to the cultivated and the uncultivated. So, for my part, I am eager to preach the good news to you at Rome also.
So, for my part, I am eager to preach the good news to you at Rome also. For I am not ashamed of the good news, for it is God's power for the salvation of everyone who has faith, of the Jew first and then of the Greek. read more. In it God's way of uprightness is disclosed through faith and for faith, just as the Scripture says, "The upright will have life because of his faith." For God's anger is breaking forth from heaven against all the impiety and wickedness of the men who in their wickedness are suppressing the truth. For all that can be known of God is clearly before them; God has shown it to them. Ever since the creation of the world, his invisible nature??is eternal power and divine character??ave been clearly perceptible through what he has made. So they have no excuse, for, though they knew God, they have not honored him as God or given thanks to him, but they have indulged in futile speculations, until their stupid minds have become dark. They called themselves wise, but they have turned into fools, and for the splendor of the immortal God they have substituted images in the form of mortal man, birds, animals, and reptiles. So God abandoned them, with their heart's cravings, to impurity, and let them degrade their own bodies. For they had exchanged the truth of God for what was false, and worshiped and served what he had created, instead of the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen! That is why God has abandoned them to degrading passions. Their women have exchanged their natural function for one that is unnatural, and men too in the same way have disregarded the natural function of women and been consumed with passion for one another, men for men, acting indecently, and experiencing in their own persons the inevitable penalty of what they have done. And just as they refused to recognize God any longer, God has abandoned them to unworthy impulses and indecent conduct. They revel in every kind of wrongdoing, wickedness, greed, and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, quarreling, deceit, and ill-nature. They are gossips, slanderers, abhorrent to God, insolent, overbearing, boastful, ingenious in evil, undutiful, conscienceless, treacherous, unloving, and unpitying. They know God's decree that those who act in this way deserve to die, yet they not only do it, but applaud any who do.
Therefore you have no excuse, whoever you are, if you pose as a judge, for when you pass judgment on someone else, you are condemning yourself, for you, who sit in judgment, do the very same things yourself. We know that God's judgment rightfully falls upon those who do such things as these. read more. And do you suppose, when you sit in judgment upon those who do such things and yet do them yourself, that you will escape the judgment of God? Do you think so lightly of his wealth of kindness, forbearance, and patience, and fail to see that God's kindness ought to induce you to repent? But in your obstinacy and impenitence you are storing up wrath for yourself on the Day of Wrath, when the justice of God will burst forth. For he will pay every man for what he has done. Those who by persistently doing right strive for glory, honor, and immortality will have eternal life, but self-seeking people who are disloyal to the truth and responsive only to what is wrong will experience anger and fury, crushing distress and anguish, every human soul of them that actually does what is wrong??he Jew first, and the Greek also; but there will be glory, honor, and peace for everyone who does right, the Jew first, and the Greek also, for God shows no partiality. All who sin without having the Law will perish without regard to the Law, and all who sin under the Law will be judged by the Law. For merely hearing the Law read does not make a man upright in the sight of God; men must obey the Law to be made upright. When heathen who have no Law instinctively obey what the Law demands, even though they have no law they are a law to themselves, for they show that what the Law demands is written on their hearts, and their consciences will testify for them, and with their thoughts they will either accuse or perhaps defend themselves, on that Day when, as the good news I preach teaches, God through Christ Jesus judges what men have kept secret, Suppose you call yourself a Jew, and rely on law, and boast about God, and can understand his will, and from hearing the Law read can tell what is right, and you are sure that you can guide the blind, enlighten people who are in the dark, train the foolish, teach the young, since you have knowledge and truth formulated in the Law??21 why, then, will you teach others and refuse to teach yourself? Will you preach against stealing, and yet steal yourself?
Will you warn men against adultery, and yet practice it yourself? Will you pretend to detest idols, and yet rob their temples? Will you boast of the Law and yet dishonor God by breaking it?
What advantage is there then in being a Jew, and what is the use of circumcision? A great deal, from every point of view. In the first place, the Jews were intrusted with the utterances of God. read more. What if some of them have shown a lack of faith? Can their lack of it nullify the faithfulness of God? By no means! God must prove true, though every man be false; as the Scripture says, "That you may be shown to be upright in what you say, And win your case when you go into court." But if our wrongdoing brings out the uprightness of God, what are we to say? Is it wrong in God (I am putting it in ordinary human terms) to inflict punishment? By no means, for then how could he judge the world? But, you say, if a falsehood of mine has brought great honor to God by bringing out his truthfulness, why am I tried for being a sinner? And why not say, as people abuse us for saying and charge us with saying, "Let us do evil that good may come out of it"? Such people will be condemned as they deserve! What does this mean? Are we Jews at a disadvantage? Not at all. We have already charged Jews and Greeks all alike with being under the control of sin. As the Scripture says, "There is not a single man who is upright, No one understands, no one searches for God. All have turned away, they are one and all worthless, No one does right, not a single one! Their throats are like open graves, They use their tongues to deceive; The venom of asps is behind their lips, And their mouths are full of bitter curses. Their feet are swift when it comes to shedding blood, Ruin and wretchedness mark their paths, They do not know the way of peace. There is no reverence for God before their eyes!" Now we know that everything the Law says is addressed to those under its authority, so that every mouth may be shut, and the whole world be made accountable to God. For no human being can be made upright in the sight of God by observing the Law. All that the Law can do is to make man conscious of sin. But now God's way of uprightness has been disclosed without any reference to law, though the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it. It is God's way of uprightness and comes through having faith in Jesus Christ, and it is for all who have faith, without distinction. For all men sin and come short of the glory of God, but by his mercy they are made upright for nothing, by the deliverance secured through Christ Jesus. For God showed him publicly dying as a sacrifice of reconciliation to be taken advantage of through faith. This was to vindicate his own justice (for in his forbearance, God passed over men's former sins)??26 to vindicate his justice at the present time, and show that he is upright himself, and that he makes those who have faith in Jesus upright also.
Then what becomes of our boasting? It is shut out. On what principle? What a man does? No, but whether a man has faith. For we hold that a man is made upright by faith; the observance of the Law has nothing to do with it. read more. Does God belong to the Jews alone? Does he not belong to the heathen too? Of course he belongs to the heathen too; there is but one God, and he will make the circumcised upright on the ground of their faith and the uncircumcised upright because of theirs." Is this using faith to overthrow law? Far from it. This confirms the Law.
who was given up to death to make up for our offenses, and raised to life to make us upright.
Do you not know, brothers??or I am speaking to men who know what law is??hat law governs a man only as long as he lives? For a married woman is bound by law to her husband while he lives, but if he dies, the marriage law no longer applies to her. read more. So if she marries another man while her husband is alive, she is called an adulteress, but if her husband dies, she is free from that law, and can marry someone else without being an adulteress. So you, in turn, my brothers, in the body of Christ have become dead as far as the Law is concerned, so that you may belong to another husband, who was raised from the dead in order that we might bear fruit for God. For when we were living mere physical lives the sinful passions, awakened by the Law, operated through the organs of our bodies to make us bear fruit for death. But now the Law no longer applies to us; we have died to what once controlled us, so that we can now serve in the new Spirit, not under the old letter. Then what shall we conclude? That the Law is sin? Certainly not! Yet, if it had not been for the Law, I should never have learned what sin was; I should not have known what it was to covet if the Law had not said, "You must not covet." That command gave sin an opening, and it led me to all sorts of covetous ways, for sin is lifeless without law. I was once alive and without law, but when the command came, sin awoke and then I died; and the command that should have meant life in my case proved to mean death. The command gave sin an opening and sin deceived me and killed me with it. So the Law itself is holy, and each command is holy, just, and good. Did what was good, then, prove the death of me? Certainly not! It was sin that did so, so that it might be recognized as sin, because even through something that was good it effected my death, so that through the command it might appear how immeasurably sinful sin was. We know that the Law is spiritual, but I am physical, sold into slavery to sin. I do not understand what I am doing, for I do not do what I want to do; I do things that I hate. But if I do what I do not want to do, I acknowledge that the Law is right. In reality, it is not I that do these things; it is sin, which has possession of me. For I know that nothing good resides in me, that is, in my physical self; I can will, but I cannot do what is right. I do not do the good things that I want to do; I do the wrong things that I do not want to do. But if I do the things that I do not want to do, it is not I that am acting, it is sin, which has possession of me. I find the law to be that I who want to do right am dogged by what is wrong. My inner nature agrees with the divine law, but all through my body I see another principle in conflict with the law of my reason, which makes me a prisoner to that law of sin that runs through my body. What a wretched man I am! Who can save me from this doomed body? Thank God! it is done through Jesus Christ our Lord! So mentally I am a slave to God's law, but physically to the law of sin.
So there is no condemnation any more for those who are in union with Christ Jesus. For the life-giving law of the Spirit through Christ Jesus has freed you from the Law of sin and death. read more. For though it was impossible for the Law to do it, hampered as it was by our physical limitations, God, by sending his own Son in our sinful physical form, as a sin-offering, put his condemnation upon sin through his physical nature, so that the requirement of the Law might be fully met in our case, since we live not on the physical but on the spiritual plane. People who are controlled by the physical think of what is physical, and people who are controlled by the spiritual think of what is spiritual. For to be physically minded means death, but to be spiritually minded means life and peace. For to be physically minded means hostility to God, for it refuses to obey God's law, indeed it cannot obey it. Those who are physical cannot please God. But you are not physical but spiritual, if God's Spirit has really taken possession of you; for unless a man has Christ's spirit, he does not belong to Christ. But if Christ is in your hearts, though your bodies are dead in consequence of sin, your spirits have life in consequence of uprightness. If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead has taken possession of you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give your mortal bodies life through his Spirit that has taken possession of you. So, brothers, we are under obligations, but not to the physical nature, to live under its control,
So, brothers, we are under obligations, but not to the physical nature, to live under its control, for if you live under the control of the physical you will die, but if, by means of the Spirit, you put the body's doings to death, you will live. read more. For all who are guided by God's Spirit are God's sons. It is not a consciousness of servitude that has been imparted to you, to fill you with fear again, but the consciousness of adoption as sons, which makes us cry, "Abba!" that is, Father. The Spirit itself testifies with our spirits that we are God's children, and if children, heirs also; heirs of God, and fellow-heirs with Christ, if we really share his sufferings in order to share his glory too. For I consider what we suffer now not to be compared with the glory that is to burst upon us. For creation is waiting with eager longing for the sons of God to be disclosed. For it was not the fault of creation that it was frustrated; it was by the will of him who condemned it to that, and in the hope that creation itself would be set free from its bondage to decay, and have the glorious freedom of the children of God. We know that all creation has been groaning in agony together until now. More than that, we ourselves, though we have in the Spirit a foretaste of the future, groan to ourselves as we wait to be declared God's sons, through the redemption of our bodies. It was in this hope that we were saved. But a hope that can be seen is not a hope, for who hopes for what he sees? But when we hope for something that we do not see, we wait persistently for it. In the same way the Spirit helps us in our weakness, for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit itself pleads for us with inexpressible yearnings, and he who searches our hearts knows what the Spirit means, for it pleads for God's people in accordance with his will. We know that in everything God works with those who love him, whom he has called in accordance with his purpose, to bring about what is good. For those whom he had marked out from the first he predestined to be made like his Son, so that he should be the eldest of many brothers; and those whom he has predestined he calls, and those whom he calls he makes upright, and those whom he makes upright he glorifies. Then what shall we conclude from this? If God is for us, who can be against us?
Then what shall we conclude from this? If God is for us, who can be against us? Will not he who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all, with that gift give us everything? read more. Who can bring any accusation against those whom God has chosen? God pronounces them upright; who can condemn them? Christ Jesus who died, or rather who was raised from the dead, is at God's right hand, and actually pleads for us. Who can separate us from Christ's love? Can trouble or misfortune or persecution or hunger or destitution or danger or the sword? As the Scripture says, "For your sake we are being put to death all day long, We are treated like sheep to be slaughtered." But in all these things we are more than victorious through him who loved us.
I am telling the truth as a Christian, it is no falsehood, for my conscience under the holy Spirit's influence bears me witness in it, when I say that I am greatly pained and my heart is constantly distressed, read more. for I could wish myself accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my natural kindred. For they are Israelites, and to them belong the rights of sonship, God's glorious presence, the divine agreements and legislation, the Temple service, the promises, and the patriarchs, and from them physically Christ came??od who is over all be blessed forever! Amen. Not that God's message has failed. For not everybody who is descended from Israel really belongs to Israel, nor are they all children of Abraham because they are descended from him, but he was told, "The line of Isaac will be called your descendants." That is to say, it is not his physical descendants who are children of God, but his descendants born in fulfilment of the promise who are considered his true posterity. For this is what the promise said: "When I come back at this time next year, Sarah will have a son." And that is not all, for there was Rebecca too, when she was about to bear twin sons to our forefather Isaac. For before the children were born or had done anything either good or bad, in order to carry out God's purpose of selection, which depends not on what men do but on his calling them, she was told, "The elder will be the younger's slave." As the Scripture says, "I loved Jacob, but I hated Esau." What do we conclude? That God is guilty of injustice? By no means. He said to Moses, "I will have mercy on the man on whom I choose to have mercy, and take pity on the man on whom I choose to take pity." So it depends not on human will or exertion, but on the mercy of God. The Scripture says to Pharaoh, "I have raised you to your position for the very purpose of displaying my power in dealing with you, and making my name known all over the world." So he has mercy on anyone he pleases, and hardens the heart of anyone he pleases. "Why, then," you will ask, "does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?" On the contrary, who are you, my friend, to answer back to God? Can something a man shapes say to the man who shaped it, "Why did you make me like this?" Has not the potter with his clay the right to make from the same lump one thing for exalted uses and another for menial ones?
Then what do we conclude? That heathen who were not striving for uprightness attained it, that is, an uprightness which was produced by faith;
But of Israel he said, "All day long I have held out my hands to a disobedient and obstinate people."
If some of the branches have been broken off, and you who were only a wild olive shoot have been grafted in, in place of them, and made to share the richness of the olive's root, you must not look down upon the branches. If you do, remember that you do not support the root; the root supports you. read more. "But," you will say, "branches were broken off so that I could be grafted in!" That is true; but it was for their want of faith that they were broken off, and it is through your faith that you stand where you do. You ought not to feel proud; you ought to be afraid, for if God did not spare the natural branches, he will not spare you. Observe then the goodness and the severity of God??everity to those who have fallen, but goodness to you, provided you abide by his goodness, for otherwise, you in your turn will be pruned away. Those others too, if they do not cling to their unbelief, will be grafted in, for God has the power to graft them in again. For if you were cut from a wild olive and unnaturally grafted upon a cultivated one, how much easier it will be to graft them upon the olive to which they properly belong! For to keep you from thinking too well of yourselves, brothers, I do not want you to miss this secret, that only partial insensibility has come upon Israel, to last until all the heathen have come in, and then all Israel will be saved, just as the Scripture says, "The deliverer will come from Zion, He will drive all ungodliness away from Jacob, And this will be my agreement with them, When I take away their sins." From the point of view of the good news they are treated as enemies of God on your account; but from the point of view of God's choice, they are dear to him because of their forefathers, for God does not change his mind about those to whom he gives his blessings or sends his call. For just as you once disobeyed God, but now have had mercy shown you because they disobeyed, so they are now disobedient in order that they in turn may experience the same mercy as you. For God has made all men prisoners of disobedience so as to have mercy upon them all. How inexhaustible God's resources, wisdom, and knowledge are! How unfathomable his decisions are, and how untraceable his ways! "Who has ever known the Lord's thoughts, or advised him? "Or who has advanced anything to him, for which he will have to be repaid?" For from him everything comes; through him everything exists; and in him everything ends! Glory to him forever! Amen.
Treat people who are overscrupulous in their faith like brothers; do not criticize their views.
but the man who has misgivings about eating, and then eats, is thereby condemned, for he is not following his convictions, and anything that does not rest on conviction is wrong.
Again Isaiah says, "The descendant of Jesse will come, The one who is to rise to rule the heathen; The heathen will set their hopes on him." May God, the source of hope, fill you with perfect happiness and peace in your faith, so that you may have overflowing hope through the power of the holy Spirit. read more. For my part, as far as you are concerned, my brothers, I am convinced that you are already full of goodness of heart, endowed with perfect knowledge, and well qualified to instruct one another. But, just to refresh your memories, I have written you pretty boldly on some points, because of the favor God has shown me in making me a minister of Christ Jesus among the heathen, to act as a priest of God's good news, to see that the heathen are an acceptable sacrifice, consecrated by the holy Spirit. So as a follower of Christ Jesus I have reason to be proud of my work for God. For I will venture to speak only of what Christ has accomplished through me in winning the heathen to obedience, by word and action, by the force of signs and marvels, and by the power of the holy Spirit, with the result that I have completed the preaching of the good news of Christ all the way from Jerusalem around to Illyricum. In all this it has been my ambition to preach the good news only where Christ's name was unknown, so as not to build on foundations other men had laid. As the Scripture says, "They who have never been told of him will see, And they who have never heard will understand!" This is why I have so often been prevented from coming to see you.
This is why I have so often been prevented from coming to see you. But now there is no more work for me in this part of the world, and as I have had a great desire for many years to come to see you, read more. when I go to Spain I hope to see you on my way there, and to have you see me off on my journey, after I have enjoyed being with you for a while. Just now I am starting for Jerusalem, to take help to God's people. For Macedonia and Greece have determined to make a contribution for the poor among God's people in Jerusalem. They determined to do it, and they really are indebted to them, for if the heathen have shared their spiritual blessings, they ought to do them a service in material ways. So when I have finished this matter, and seen this contribution safely into their possession, I will start for Spain, and come to you on the way, and I know that when I do come to see you, I will come with Christ's fullest blessing. I beg you, brothers, for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ, and of the love that the Spirit inspires, join me in most earnest prayer to God for me.
I beg you, brothers, for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ, and of the love that the Spirit inspires, join me in most earnest prayer to God for me. Pray that I may escape from those in Judea who are disobedient, and that the help I am taking to Jerusalem may be well received by God's people,
Pray that I may escape from those in Judea who are disobedient, and that the help I am taking to Jerusalem may be well received by God's people, so that, if it is God's will, I may come with a glad heart to see you and enjoy a visit with you. read more. God who gives peace be with you all! Amen.
Remember me to my dear Epaenetus, who was the first man in Asia to turn to Christ.
To him who can make you strong by the good news I bring and the preaching about Jesus Christ, through the disclosure of the secret kept back for long ages but now revealed, and at the command of the eternal God made known through the writings of the prophets to all the heathen, to lead them to obedience and faith??27 to the one wise God be glory forever through Jesus Christ. Amen.
Morish
This may justly be called the fundamental epistle of Christian doctrine. Its value and importance are seen in that its doctrine lays in the soul a moral foundation by the presentation of God in qualities or attributes which the state of things existing in the world appears to call in question. Thus God is justified in the eyes of the believer, and this being the case, the purposes of His love are made known to him.
In looking at all that is around us in the world, everything appears to be out of order: the presence and domination of sin, a broken law, and the corrupt and violent will in man, all call in question the righteousness of God; while the scattering of God's people Israel raises the question of His faithfulness to His promises.
Now in Christ all this finds its full and complete answer. The Son of God, by whom all were created, has Himself come in the likeness of sinful flesh, and, by offering Himself a sacrifice for sin, has completely vindicated God's righteousness, while revealing His love. At the same time the man, or order of man, that has sinned against God has been judicially removed by His death from before the eye of God, so that God can present Himself to man in grace.
The moral perfection of the offerer of necessity brought in resurrection, in which all the pleasure of God's grace in regard to man is set forth in righteousness; and Christ risen is the deliverer who is to come forth from Zion to turn away ungodliness from Jacob. Thus God's faithfulness to His covenant is established in Zion. God is proved to be faithful and righteous: we have here the first elements of the knowledge of God.
But it way be desirable to open up the epistle a little in detail. After the introduction, in which the fact may be noticed that the glad tidings are said to be concerning God's Son, a picture is given us of the moral condition of man in the world, whether heathen, philosopher, or Jew. In the heathen we see the unchecked development of sin (Rom. 1). In the philosopher the fact that light in itself does not control evil (Rom. 2); and in the Jew that law is proved to be powerless to bring about subjection to God, or to secure righteousness for man. The conclusion is that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God
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When the confusion was over, Paul sent for the disciples and encouraged them. Then he bade them goodbye and started for Macedonia. After traveling through those districts and giving the people a great deal of encouragement, he went on to Greece read more. where he stayed for three months. Just as he was going to sail for Syria, the Jews made a plot against him, and he made up his mind to return by way of Macedonia.
Smith
Romans, Epistle to the.
1. The date of this epistle is fixed at the time of the visit recorded in Acts 20:3 during the winter and spring following the apostle's long residence at Ephesus A.D. 58. On this visit he remained in Greece three months.
2. The place of writing was Corinth.
3. The occasion which prompted it,,and the circumstances attending its writing, were as follows:--St. Paul had long purposed visiting Rome, and still retained this purpose, wishing also to extend his journey to Spain. Etom. 1:9-13; 15:22-29. For the time, however, he was prevented from carrying out his design, as he was bound for Jerusalem with the alms of the Gentile Christians, and meanwhile he addressed this letter to the Romans, to supply the lack of his personal teaching. Phoebe, a deaconess of the neighboring church of Cenchreae, was on the point of starting for Rome, ch.
and probably conveyed the letter. The body of the epistle was written at the apostle's dictation by Tertius, ch.
but perhaps we may infer, from the abruptness of the final doxology, that it was added by the apostle himself.
4. The origin of the Roman church is involved in obscurity. If it had been founded by St. Peter according to a later tradition, the absence of any allusion to him both in this epistle and in the letters written by St. Paul from Rome would admit of no explanation. It is equally clear that no other apostle was like founder. The statement in the Clementines --that the first tidings of the gospel reached Rome during the lifetime of our Lord is evidently a fiction for the purposes of the romance. On the other hand, it is clear that the foundation of this church dates very far back. It may be that some of these Romans, "both Jews and proselytes," present. On the day of Pentecost
carried back the earliest tidings of the new doctrine; or the gospel may have first reached the imperial city through those who were scattered abroad to escape the persecution which followed on the death of Stephen.
At first we may suppose that the gospel had preached there in a confused and imperfect form, scarcely more than a phase of Judaism, as in the case of Apollos at Corinth,
or the disciples at Ephesus.
As time advanced and better-instructed teachers arrived the clouds would gradually clear away, fill at length the presence of the great apostle himself at Rome dispersed the mists of Judaism which still hung about the Roman church.
5. A question next arises as to the composition of the Roman church at the time when St. Paul wrote. It is more probable that St. Paul addressed a mixed church of Jews and Gentiles, the latter perhaps being the more numerous. These Gentile converts, however, were not for the most part native Romans. Strange as the: paradox appears, nothing is more certain than that the church of Rome was at this time a Greek and not a Latin church. All the literature of the early Roman church was written in the Greek tongue.
6. The heterogeneous composition of this church explains the general character of the Epistle to the Romans. In an assemblage so various we should expect to find, not the exclusive predominance of a single form of error, but the coincidence of different and opposing forms. It was: therefore the business of the Christian teacher to reconcile the opposing difficulties and to hold out a meeting-point in the gospel. This is exactly what St. Paul does in the Epistle to the Romans.
7. In describing the purport of this epistle we may start from St. Paul's own words, which, standing at the beginning of the doctrinal portion, may be taken as giving a summary of the contents. ch.
Accordingly the epistle has been described as comprising "the religious philosophy of the world's history "The atonement of Christ is the centre of religious history. The epistle, from its general character, lends itself more readily to an analysis than is often the case with St. Paul's epistles. While this epistle contains the fullest and most systematic exposition of the apostle's teaching, it is at the same time a very striking expression of his character. Nowhere do his earnest and affectionate nature and his tact and delicacy in handling unwelcome topics appear more strongly than when he is dealing with the rejection of his fellow country men the Jews. Internal evidence is so strongly in favor of the genuineness of the Epistle to the Romans that it has never been seriously questioned.
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Those who were scattered went from place to place preaching the good news of the message.
He had had some instruction about the Way of the Lord, and he talked with burning zeal and taught painstakingly about Jesus, though he knew of no baptism but John's.
It was while Apollos was in Corinth that Paul, after passing through the interior, reached Ephesus. Finding some disciples there, he said to them, "Did you receive the holy Spirit when you became believers?" "No," they said to him, "we never even heard that there was a holy Spirit." read more. "How then were you baptized?" he asked. "With John's baptism," they answered.
For I am not ashamed of the good news, for it is God's power for the salvation of everyone who has faith, of the Jew first and then of the Greek. In it God's way of uprightness is disclosed through faith and for faith, just as the Scripture says, "The upright will have life because of his faith."
I want to introduce to you our sister Phoebe, who is a helper in the church at Cenchreae. Welcome her as a Christian, as God's people should welcome one another, and give her whatever help she may need from you. For she has herself been a protection to many, including myself.