Reference: Romans, Epistle to The
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(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 Libya around Cyrene, transient dwellers from Rome, Jews and proselytes,
After these events had been brought to a close, Paul under the guidance of the Spirit decided to pass through Macedonia and Greece on his way to Jerusalem, saying, "After I have gone there I must see Rome too."
He passed through those districts and by continuing to talk to them encouraged the people. He then went on to Greece where he stayed three months. Just as he was about to sail for Syria, he changed his mind and returned by way of Macedonia, because a plot against him had been laid by the Jews.
For Paul's plan was to sail past Ephesus, so as not to lose any time in the province of Asia; for he was eager, if possible, to reach Jerusalem by Pentecost.
But just now I am on my way to Jerusalem to help God's people.
Now I introduce to you our sister Phoebe, who is a deaconess in the church at Cenchreae,
Remember me to Asyncritus, Phlegon, Hermes, Patrobas, Hermas, and the brothers who are associated with them. Remember me to Philologus and Julia, to Nereus and his sister, and to Olympas, and all God's people who are associated with them.
Gaius, my host, and host of the whole church here, wishes to be remembered to you. Erastus, the treasurer of the city, wishes to be remembered to you, and so does our brother Quartus.
by whom we possess the ransom from captivity, which means the forgiveness of our sins.
Erastus stayed in Corinth; I left Trophimus sick at Miletus.
Hastings
ROMANS, EPISTLE TO THE
1. Time, occasion, and character.
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"Stop criticizing others, so that you may not be criticized yourselves.
And while they were gazing after Him into heaven, two men dressed in white suddenly stood beside them, and said to them, "Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up into heaven? This very Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven will come back in just the way you have seen Him go up into heaven."
Then the apostles and elders in cooperation with the whole church passed a resolution to select and send some men of their number with Paul and Barnabas to Antioch. These were Judas, who was called Barsabbas, and Silas, leading men among the brothers.
So the messengers were sent out, and they went down to Antioch, called a meeting of the congregation, and delivered the letter.
This girl kept following Paul and the rest of us, shrieking, "These men are slaves of the Most High God, and they are proclaiming to you a way of salvation." She kept this up for a number of days. Because Paul was so much annoyed by her, he turned and said to the spirit in her, "In the name of Jesus Christ I order you to come out of her." And that very moment it came out. read more. But as the owners saw that the hope of their profit-making was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them to the public square, before the authorities, and brought them to the chiefs of the police court. They said, "These men are Jews; they continue to make great disturbance in our town
After flogging them severely, they put them into jail, and gave the jailer orders to keep close watch on 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 issued an edict for all Jews to leave Rome. So Paul paid them a visit,
After spending some time there, he started out again, and by a definite schedule traveled all over Galatia and Phrygia, imparting new strength to all the disciples. Meanwhile, a Jew named Apollos came to Ephesus. He was a native of Alexandria, a learned man, and skillful in the use of the Scriptures. read more. He had been instructed about the way of the Lord, and with spiritual fervor he was speaking and was accurately teaching some details about Jesus, although he knew of no baptism but John's. He started speaking courageously in the synagogue, but when Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him home with them and more accurately explained the way of God to him. Because he wished to cross to Greece, the brothers wrote and urged the disciples there to welcome him. On his arrival he rendered great service to those who through God's favor had believed, for he successfully refuted the Jews in public and proved by the Scriptures that Jesus was the Christ.
After these events had been brought to a close, Paul under the guidance of the Spirit decided to pass through Macedonia and Greece on his way to Jerusalem, saying, "After I have gone there I must see Rome too."
After these events had been brought to a close, Paul under the guidance of the Spirit decided to pass through Macedonia and Greece on his way to Jerusalem, saying, "After I have gone there I must see Rome too."
After these events had been brought to a close, Paul under the guidance of the Spirit decided to pass through Macedonia and Greece on his way to Jerusalem, saying, "After I have gone there I must see Rome too."
After these events had been brought to a close, Paul under the guidance of the Spirit decided to pass through Macedonia and Greece on his way to Jerusalem, saying, "After I have gone there I must see Rome too." So he sent off to Macedonia two of his assistants, Timothy and Erastus, while he stayed on for a while in Asia.
So he sent off to Macedonia two of his assistants, Timothy and Erastus, while he stayed on for a while in Asia.
So he sent off to Macedonia two of his assistants, Timothy and Erastus, while he stayed on for a while in Asia. Now just about that time a great commotion arose about The Way. read more. A silversmith named Demetrius, by manufacturing silver shrines of Artemis, was bringing in great profits to his workmen. He called together his workmen, and others engaged in similar trades, and said to them: "Men, you well know that our prosperity depends on this business of ours, and you see and hear that, not only in Ephesus but all over the province of Asia, this man Paul has led away a vast number of people by persuading them, telling them that gods made by human hands are not gods at all. Now the danger facing us is, not only that our business will lose its reputation but also that the temple of the great goddess Artemis will be brought into contempt and that she whom all Asia and all the world now worship will soon be dethroned from her majestic glory!" When they heard this, they became furious and kept on shouting, "Great Artemis of Ephesus!" So the whole city was thrown into confusion and with one impulse the people rushed into the theatre and dragged with them two Macedonians, Gaius and Aristarchus, Paul's traveling companions. Paul wanted to go into the assembly and address the people, but the disciples would not let him. Some of the public officials in Asia, who were friendly to him, also sent word to him, begging him not to risk himself in the theatre. So they kept on shouting, some one thing, some another, for the assembly was in confusion, and the majority of them did not know why they had met. Some of the crowd concluded that it was Alexander, since the Jews had pushed him to the front, and since Alexander had made a gesture of the hand as though he would make a defense before the people. But as soon as they saw that he was a Jew, a shout went up from them all as the shout of one man, lasting for two hours: "Great Artemis of Ephesus!" At last the city 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 heaven? So, as this cannot be denied, you must be quiet and do nothing rash. For you have brought these men here, although they are not guilty of sacrilege or of abusive speech against our goddess. So then, if Demetrius and his fellow-workmen have a charge against anybody, there are the courts and the judges; let them go to law. But if you require anything beyond this, it must be settled in the regular assembly. For we are in danger of being charged with rioting for today's assembly, as there is not a single reason we can give for it."
where he stayed three months. Just as he was about to sail for Syria, he changed his mind and returned by way of Macedonia, because a plot against him had been laid by the Jews.
where he stayed three months. Just as he was about to sail for Syria, he changed his mind and returned by way of Macedonia, because a plot against him had been laid by the Jews.
where he stayed three months. Just as he was about to sail for Syria, he changed his mind and returned by way of Macedonia, because a plot against him had been laid by the Jews. He had as companions Sopater, the son of Pyrrhus, from Berea, Aristarchus and Secundus from Thessalonica, Gaius from Derbe, Timothy, and Tychicus and Trophimus from the province of Asia.
Paul, a slave of Jesus Christ, called as an apostle, set apart to preach God's good news, which long ago He promised through His prophets in the holy Scriptures, read more. about His Son, who on the physical side became a descendant of David, and on the holy, spiritual side proved to be God's Son in power by the resurrection from the dead -- I mean, Jesus Christ, our Lord, through whom we have received God's favor and a commission as an apostle in His name to urge upon all the heathen obedience inspired by faith, among whom you too as called ones belong to Jesus Christ -- to all those in Rome who are God's loved ones, called to be His people: spiritual blessing and peace be yours from God our Father and from our Lord Jesus Christ.
to all those in Rome who are God's loved ones, called to be His people: spiritual blessing and peace be yours from God our Father and from our Lord Jesus Christ. First, through Jesus Christ I thank my God for you all, because the report of your faith is spreading all over the world. read more. Indeed, my witness is God, whom I serve in my spirit by telling the good news about His Son, that I never fail to mention you every time I pray, always entreating God that somehow by His will I may some day at last succeed in getting to see you. For I am longing to see you, to impart to you some spiritual gift, that you may be strengthened; in other words, that we may be mutually encouraged, while I am with you, by one another's faith, yours and mine. Furthermore, I want you to know, brothers, that I have often planned to come to see you (though until now I have been prevented), in order that I may gather some fruit among you too, as I have among the rest of the heathen. To Greeks and to all the other nations, to cultured and to uncultured people alike, I owe a duty. So, as far as I can, I am eager to preach the good news to you at Rome, too.
So, as far as I can, I am eager to preach the good news to you at Rome, too. For I am not ashamed of the good news, for it is God's power for the salvation of everyone who trusts, of the Jew first and then of the Greek. read more. For in the good news God's Way of man's right standing with Him is uncovered, the Way of faith that leads to greater faith, just as the Scripture says, "The upright man must live by faith." For God's anger from heaven is being uncovered against all the impiety and wickedness of the men who in their wickedness are suppressing the truth; because what can be known of God is clear to their inner moral sense; for in this way God Himself has shown it to them. Forever since the creation of the world, His invisible characteristics -- His eternal power and divine nature -- have been made intelligible and clearly visible by His works. So they are without excuse, because, although they once knew God, they did not honor Him as God, or give Him thanks, but became silly in their senseless speculations, and so their insensible hearts have been shrouded in darkness. Though claiming to be wise, they made fools of themselves, and have transformed the splendor of the immortal God into images in the form of mortal man, birds, beasts, and reptiles. So God has given them up to sexual impurity, in the evil trend of their heart's desires, so that they degrade their own bodies with one another, for they had utterly transformed the reality of God into what was unreal, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen. This is why God has given them up to degrading passions. For their females have exchanged their natural function for one that is unnatural, and males too have forsaken the natural function of females and been consumed by flaming passion for one another, males practicing shameful vice with other males, and continuing to suffer in their persons the inevitable penalty for doing what is improper. And so, as they did not approve of fully recognizing God any longer, God gave them up to minds that He did not approve, to practices that were improper; because they overflow with every sort of evil-doing, wickedness, greed, and malice; they are full of envy, murder, quarreling, deceit, ill-will; they are secret backbiters, open slanderers, hateful to God, insolent, haughty, boastful; inventors of new forms of evil, undutiful to parents, conscienceless, treacherous, with no human love or pity. Although they know full well God's sentence that those who practice such things deserve to die, yet they not only practice them but even applaud others who do them.
Therefore, you have no excuse, whoever you are, who pose as a judge of others, for when you pass judgment on another, you condemn yourself, for you who pose as a judge are practicing the very same sins yourself. Now we know that God's judgment justly falls on those who practice such sins as these. read more. And you, who pose as a judge of those who practice such sins and yet continue doing the same yourself, do you for once suppose that you are going to escape the judgment of God? Do you think so little of the riches of God's kindness, forbearance, and patience, not conscious that His kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? But in your stubbornness and impenitence of heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath, when the justice of God's judgments will be uncovered. For when He finally judges, He will pay everyone with exactness for what he has done, eternal life to those who patiently continue doing good and striving for glory, honor, and immortality, but wrath and fury, crushing suffering and awful anguish, to the self-willed who are always resisting the right and yielding to the wrong, to every human soul who practices doing evil, the Jew first and then the Greek. But glory, honor, and peace will come to everyone who practices doing good, the Jew first and then the Greek; for there is no partiality in God's dealings. All who sin without having the law will also perish apart from the law, and all who sin under the law will be judged by the law. For merely hearing the law read does not make men upright with God, but men who practice the law will be recognized as upright. Indeed, when heathen people who have no law instinctively do what the law demands, although they have no law, they are a law to themselves, for they show that the deeds the law demands are written on their hearts, because their consciences will testify for them, and their inner thoughts will either accuse or defend them, on the day when God through Jesus Christ, in accordance with the good news I preach, will judge the secrets people have kept. Now if you call yourself a Jew, and rely on law, and boast about God, and understand His will, and by being instructed in the law can know the things that excel, and if you are sure that you are a guide to the blind, a light to those in darkness, a tutor of the foolish, a teacher of the young, since you have a knowledge of the truth as formulated in the law -- you who teach others, do you not teach yourself too? You who preach that men should not steal, do you steal yourself? You who warn men to stop committing adultery, do you practice it yourself? You who shrink in horror from idols, do you rob their temples? You who boast about the law, do you by breaking it dishonor God?
What special privilege, then, has a Jew? Or, what benefit does circumcision confer? They are great from every point of view. In the first place, the Jews are entrusted with the utterances of God. read more. What then, if some of them have proved unfaithful? Can their unfaithfulness make null and void God's faithfulness? Not at all. Let God prove true, though every man be false! As the Scripture says, "That you may prove yourself upright in words you speak, and win your case when you go into court." But if our wrongdoing brings to light the uprightness of God, what shall we infer? Is it wrong (I am using everyday human terms) for God to inflict punishment? Not at all! If that were so, how could He judge the world? But, as you say, if the truthfulness of God has redounded to His glory because of my falsehood, why am I still condemned as a sinner? Why should we not say, as people abusively say of us, and charge us with actually saying, "Let us do evil that good may come from it"? Their condemnation is just. What is our conclusion then? Is it that we Jews are better than they? Not at all! For we have already charged that Jews and Greeks alike are all under the sway of sin, as the Scriptures say: "Not a single human creature is upright, No one understands, no one is searching for God; They all have turned aside, all have become corrupt; No one does good, not even one! Their throats are just like open graves, with their tongues they have spoken treachery; the poison of asps is under their lips. Their mouths are full of bitter cursing. Their feet are swift for shedding blood, Ruin and wretchedness are on 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 spoken to those who are under its authority, that every mouth may be stopped and the whole world be held responsible to God. Because no human creature can be brought into right standing with God by observing the law. For all the law can do is to make men conscious of sin. But now God's way of giving men right standing with Himself has come to light; a way without connection with the law, and yet a way to which the law and the prophets testify. God's own way of giving men right standing with Himself is through faith in Jesus Christ. It is for everybody who has faith, for no distinction at all is made. For everybody has sinned and everybody continues to come short of God's glory, but anybody may have right standing with God as a free gift of His undeserved favor, through the ransom provided in Christ Jesus. For God once publicly offered Him in His death as a sacrifice of reconciliation through faith, to demonstrate His own justice (for in His forbearance God had passed over men's former sins); yes, to demonstrate His justice at the present time, to prove that He is right Himself, and that He considers right with Himself the man who has faith in Jesus. So where has human boasting gone? It was completely shut out. On what principle? On that of doing something? No, but on the principle of faith. For we hold that a man is brought into right standing with God by faith, that observance of the law has no connection with it. Or is He the God of Jews alone? Is He not the God of heathen peoples too? Of course, He is the God of heathen peoples too, since there is but one God, who will consider the Jews in right standing with Himself, only on condition of their faith, and the heathen peoples on the same condition. Do we then through faith make null and void the law? Not at all; instead, we confirm it.
who was given up to death because of our shortcomings and was raised again to give us right standing with God.
Do you not know, brothers -- for I speak to those who are acquainted with the law -- that the law can press its claim over a man only so long as he lives? For a married woman is bound by law to her husband while he lives, but if her husband dies, she is freed from the marriage bond. read more. So if she marries another man while her husband is living, she is called an adulteress, but if he dies, she is free from that marriage bond, so that she will not be an adulteress though later married to another man. So, my brothers, you too in the body of Christ have ended your relation to the law, so that you may be married to another husband, to Him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God. For when we were living in accordance with our lower nature, the sinful passions that were aroused by the law were operating in the parts of our bodies to make us bear fruit that leads to death. But now we have been freed from our relation to the law; we have ended our relation to that by which we once were held in bonds, so that we may serve in a new spiritual way and not in the old literalistic way. What are we then to conclude? Is the law sin? Of course not! Yet, if it had not been for the law, I should not have learned what sin was, for I should not have known what an evil desire was, if the law had not said, "You must not have an evil desire." Sin found its rallying point in that command and stirred within me every sort of evil desire, for without law, sin is lifeless. I was once alive when I had no connection with the law, but when the command came, sin revived, and then I died; and so, in my case, the command which should have meant life turned out to mean death. For sin found its rallying point in that command and through it deceived me and killed me. So the law itself is holy, and its specific commands are holy, right, and good. Did that which is good, then, result in death to me? Of course not! It was sin that did it, so that it might show itself as sin, for by means of that good thing it brought about my death, so that through the command sin might appear surpassingly sinful. For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am made of flesh that is frail, sold into slavery to sin. Indeed, I do not understand what I do, for I do not practice what I want to do, but I am always doing what I hate. But if I am always doing what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is right. Now really it is not I that am doing these things, but it is sin which has its home within me. For I know that nothing good has its home in me; that is, in my lower self; I have the will but not the power to do what is right. Indeed, I do not do the good things that I want to do, but I do practice the evil things that I do not want to do. But if I do the things that I do not want to do, it is really not I that am doing these things, but it is sin which has its home within me. So I find this law: When I want to do right, the wrong is always in my way. For in accordance with my better inner nature I approve God's law, but I see another power operating in my lower nature in conflict with the power operated by my reason, which makes me a prisoner to the power of sin which is operating in my lower nature. Wretched man that I am! Who can save me from this deadly lower nature? Thank God! It has been done through Jesus Christ our Lord! So in my higher nature I am a slave to the law of God, but in my lower nature, to the law of sin.
So then there is no condemnation at all for those who are in union with Christ Jesus. For the life-giving power of the Spirit through union with Christ Jesus has set us free from the power of sin and death. read more. For though the law could not do it, because it was made helpless through our lower nature, yet God, by sending His own Son in a body similar to that of our lower nature, and as a sacrifice for sin, passed sentence upon sin through His body, so that the requirement of the law might be fully met in us who do not live by the standard set by our lower nature, but by the standard set by the Spirit. For people who live by the standard set by their lower nature are usually thinking the things suggested by that nature, and people who live by the standard set by the Spirit are usually thinking the things suggested by the Spirit. For to be thinking the things suggested by the lower nature means death, but to be thinking the things suggested by the Spirit means life and peace. Because one's thinking the things suggested by the lower nature means enmity to God, for it does not subject itself to God's law, nor indeed can it. The people who live on the plane of the lower nature cannot please God. But you are not living on the plane of the lower nature, but on the spiritual plane, if the Spirit of God has His home within you. Unless a man has the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him. But if Christ lives in you, although your bodies must die because of sin, your spirits are now enjoying life because of right standing with God. If the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead has His home within you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give your mortal bodies life through His Spirit that has His home within you. So, brothers, we are under obligations, but not to our lower nature to live by the standard set by it;
So, brothers, we are under obligations, but not to our lower nature to live by the standard set by it; for if you live by such a standard, you are going to die, but if by the Spirit you put a stop to the doings of your lower nature, you will live. read more. For all who are guided by God's Spirit are God's sons. For you do not have a sense of servitude to fill you with dread again, but the consciousness of adopted sons by which we cry, "Abba," that is, "Father." The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirits that we are God's children; and if children, then also heirs, heirs of God and fellow-heirs with Christ if in reality we share His sufferings, so that we may share His glory too. For I consider all that we suffer in this present life is nothing to be compared with the glory which by-and-by is to be uncovered for us. For all nature is expectantly waiting for the unveiling of the sons of God. For nature did not of its own accord give up to failure; it was for the sake of Him who let it thus be given up, in the hope that even nature itself might finally be set free from its bondage to decay, so as to share the glorious freedom of God's children. Yes, we know that all nature has gone on groaning in agony together till the present moment. Not only that but this too, we ourselves who enjoy the Spirit as a foretaste of the future, even we ourselves, keep up our inner groanings while we wait to enter upon our adoption as God's sons at the redemption of our bodies. For we were saved in such a hope. But a hope that is seen is not real hope, for who hopes for what he actually sees? But if we hope for something we do not see, we keep on patiently waiting for it. In the same way the Spirit, too, is helping us in our weakness, for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself pleads for us with unspeakable yearnings, and He who searches our hearts knows what the Spirit thinks, for He pleads for His people in accordance with God's will. Yes, we know that all things go on working together for the good of those who keep on loving God, who are called in accordance with God's purpose. For those on whom He set His heart beforehand He marked off as His own to be made like His Son, that He might be the eldest of many brothers; and those whom He marked off as His own He also calls; and those whom He calls He brings into right standing with Himself; those whom He brings into right standing with Himself He also glorifies. What are we then to say to facts like these? If God is for us, who can be against us?
What are we then to say to facts like these? If God is for us, who can be against us? Since He did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all, will He not with Him graciously give us everything else? read more. Who can bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who declared them in right standing; who can condemn them? Christ Jesus who died, or rather, who was raised from the dead, is now at God's right hand, and is actually pleading for us. Who can separate us from Christ's love? Can suffering 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 the livelong day; we are treated like sheep to be slaughtered." And yet in all these things we keep on gloriously conquering through Him who loved us.
I am telling the truth as a Christian man. I am telling no lie, because my conscience enlightened by the Holy Spirit is bearing me witness to this fact, that I have deep grief and constant anguish in my heart; read more. for I could wish myself accursed, even cut off from Christ, for the sake of my brothers, my natural kinsmen. For they are Israelites; to them belong the privileges of sonship, God's glorious presence, the special covenants, the giving of the law, the temple service, the promises, the patriarchs, and from them by natural descent the Christ has come, who is exalted over all, God blessed forever. Amen! But it is not that God's word has failed. For not everybody that is descended from Israel really belongs to Israel, nor are they all children of Abraham, because they are his descendants, but the promise was "In the line of Isaac your descendants will I be counted." That is, it is not Abraham's natural descendants who are God's children, but those who are made children by the promise are counted his true descendants. For this is the language of the promise, "About this time next year I will come back, and Sarah will have a son." Not only that but this too: There was Rebecca who was impregnated by our forefather Isaac. For even before the twin sons were born, and though they had done nothing either good or bad, that God's purpose in accordance with His choice might continue to stand, conditioned not on men's actions but on God's calling them, she was told, "The elder will be a slave to the younger." As the Scripture says, "Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated." What are we then to conclude? It is not that there is injustice in God, is it? Of course not! For He says to Moses, "I will have mercy on any man that I choose to have mercy on, and take pity on any man that I choose to take pity on." So one's destiny does not depend on his own willing or strenuous actions but on God's having mercy on him. For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, "I have raised you to your position for this very purpose of displaying my power in dealing with you, of announcing my name all over the earth." So He has mercy on any man that He chooses to, and He hardens any man that He chooses to harden. So you will ask me, "Why does He still find fault? For who can resist His will?" On the contrary, friend, who are you anyway that you would answer back to God? Can the clay that is molded ask the man who molds it, "Why did you make me like this?" Has not the potter the right with his clay to make of the same lump one vessel for ornamental purposes, another for degrading service?
What are we then to conclude? That heathen peoples who were not in search for right standing with God have obtained it, and that a right standing conditioned on faith;
But of Israel he said: "All day long I have held out my hands to a people that is disobedient and obstinate."
If some of the branches have been broken off, and yet you, although you were wild olive suckers, have been grafted in among the native branches, and been made to share the rich sap of the native olive's root, you must not be boasting against the natural branches. And if you do, just consider, you do not support the root, but the root supports you. read more. Then you will say, "Branches have been broken off for us to be grafted in." Very well, but it was for lack of faith that they were broken off, and it is through your faith that you now stand where you are. Stop your haughty thinking, rather continue to be reverent, for if God did not spare the natural branches, certainly He will not spare you. So take a look at the goodness and the severity of God; severity to those who have fallen, but goodness to you, on condition that you continue to live by His goodness; otherwise, you too will be pruned away. And they too, if they do not continue to live by their unbelief, will be grafted in, for God is amply able to graft them in. For if you were cut off from an olive wild by nature, and contrary to nature were grafted on to a fine olive stock, how much easier will it be for the natural branches to be grafted on to their own olive stock? For to keep you from being self-conceited, brothers, I do not want to have a misunderstanding of this uncovered secret, that only temporary insensibility has come upon Israel until the full quota of the heathen peoples comes in, and so in that way all Israel will be saved, just as the Scripture says: "From Zion the Deliverer will come; He will remove ungodliness from Jacob; And this my covenant I make with them, when I shall take away their sins." As measured by the good news the Jews are God's enemies for your sakes, but as measured by God's choice they are His beloved because of their forefathers, for the gracious gifts and call of God are never taken back. For just as you once disobeyed God, but now have had mercy shown you because of their disobedience, so they too are now disobedient because of the mercy shown you, that they too may now have mercy shown them. For God has locked up all mankind in the prison of disobedience so as to have mercy on them all. How fathomless the depths of God's resources, wisdom, and knowledge! How unsearchable His decisions, and how mysterious His methods! For who has ever understood the thoughts of the Lord, or has ever been His adviser? Or who has ever advanced God anything to have Him pay him back? For from Him everything comes, through Him everything lives, and for Him everything exists. Glory to Him forever! Amen.
Make it your practice to receive into full Christian fellowship people who are overscrupulous, but not to criticize their views.
But the man who has misgivings about eating, if he then eats, has already condemned himself by so doing, because he did not follow his faith, and any action that does not follow one's faith is a sin.
And again Isaiah says: "The noted Son of Jesse will come, even He who rises to rule the heathen; on Him the heathen will set their hope." May the hope-inspiring God so fill you with perfect joy and peace through your continuing faith, that you may bubble over with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. read more. As far as I am concerned about you, my brothers, I am convinced that you especially are abounding in the highest goodness, richly supplied with perfect knowledge and competent to counsel one another. And yet, to refresh your memories, I have written you rather freely on some details, because of the unmerited favor shown me by God in making me a minister of Christ Jesus to the heathen peoples, to have me act as a sacrificing minister of the good news, in order that my offering of the heathen peoples to God may be acceptable, consecrated by the Holy Spirit. So, as a Christian, I am proud of the things that I have done for God. For I would venture to mention only what Christ has accomplished through me in bringing the heathen peoples to obedience, by word and by work, by the power of signs and wonders, by the power of the Holy Spirit. So I have completed the telling of the good news of Christ all the way from Jerusalem around to Illyricum. In this matter it has ever been my ambition to tell the good news where Christ's name had never been mentioned, so as not to build upon foundations laid by other men, but, as the Scripture says: "They will see who were never told of Him, and they will understand who have not heard." This is the reason why I have so often been prevented from coming to see you.
This is the reason why I have so often been prevented from coming to see you. But now, as there are no more places for me to occupy in this part of the world, and as I have for many years been longing to come to see you, read more. when I make my trip to Spain, I certainly hope to see you on my way there and to be helped forward by you, after I have enjoyed being with you awhile. But just now I am on my way to Jerusalem to help God's people. For Macedonia and Greece were delighted to make a contribution to the poor among God's people in Jerusalem. They certainly were delighted to do it, and they really are under obligation to them, for if the heathen peoples have shared in their spiritual blessings, they ought to serve them in material blessings. So, after I have finished this matter and made sure of the results of this contribution for them, I shall come by you on my way to Spain. And I feel sure that when I do come to you, I shall come with Christ's abundant blessing on me. Now I beg you, brothers, for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love that the Spirit inspires, to wrestle with me in prayers to God on my behalf,
Now I beg you, brothers, for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love that the Spirit inspires, to wrestle with me in prayers to God on my behalf, that I may be delivered from those in Judea who are disobedient, and that the help which I am taking to Jerusalem may be well received by God's people there,
that I may be delivered from those in Judea who are disobedient, and that the help which I am taking to Jerusalem may be well received by God's people there, so that, if it is God's will, I may come with a happy heart to see you and have a refreshing rest while with you. read more. The peace-giving God be with you all! Amen.
Remember me to the church too, that meets at their house. Remember me to my dear Epaenetus, who was the first convert to Christ in the province of Asia.
To Him who can make you strong in accordance with the good news I bring and in accordance with the message preached about Jesus Christ, in accordance with the uncovering of the secret which for ages past had not been told, but now has been fully brought to light by means of the prophetic Scriptures, and in accordance with the command of the eternal God has been made known to all the heathen, to win them to obedience inspired by faith -- read more. to the one wise God be glory forever through Jesus Christ. Amen.
I am thankful that I baptized none of you but Crispus and Gaius,
The final greeting is mine -- Paul's -- with my own hand.
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 uproar had ceased, Paul sent for the disciples and encouraged them. Then he bade them goodbye and started off for Macedonia. He passed through those districts and by continuing to talk to them encouraged the people. He then went on to Greece read more. where he stayed three months. Just as he was about to sail for Syria, he changed his mind and returned by way of Macedonia, because a plot against him had been laid by the Jews.
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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Now those who were scattered went from place to place preaching the good news of the message.
This took place three times; then all at once the whole thing was drawn back into the sky.
He had been instructed about the way of the Lord, and with spiritual fervor he was speaking and was accurately teaching some details about Jesus, although he knew of no baptism but John's.
It was while Apollos was in Corinth that Paul, by passing through the inland districts, came to Ephesus. He found a few disciples there and asked them, "Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?" They answered him, "So far from that, we never even heard that there is a Holy Spirit." read more. He then asked, "With what sort of baptism then were you baptized?" They answered, "With John's baptism."
For I am not ashamed of the good news, for it is God's power for the salvation of everyone who trusts, of the Jew first and then of the Greek. For in the good news God's Way of man's right standing with Him is uncovered, the Way of faith that leads to greater faith, just as the Scripture says, "The upright man must live by faith."
Now I introduce to you our sister Phoebe, who is a deaconess in the church at Cenchreae, that you may give her a Christian welcome in a manner becoming God's people, and give her whatever help she needs from you, for she herself has given protection to many, including myself.
I, Tertius, who write this letter, wish to be remembered to you as a fellow-Christian.