Romans 1:4 Themes and Topics

For all of you who have been baptized into union with Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is no room for "Jew" and "Greek"; there is no room for "slave" and "freeman"; there is no room for "male" and "female"; for in union with Christ Jesus you are all one.

John answered, "Master, we saw a man driving out demons with your name, and we told him not to do so, for he does not go with us." Jesus said to him, "Do not try to stop him, for the man who is not against you is for you."

John said to him, "Master, we saw a man driving out demons with your name, and we told him not to do so, for he was not one of our followers." But Jesus said, "Do not tell him not to do so, for there is no one who will use my name to do a mighty act, and be able soon after to abuse me. For the man who is not against us is for us. read more.
For whoever gives you a cup of water to drink, on the ground that you belong to Christ, I tell you, will certainly not fail to be repaid.

So if God had given them the same gift that we received when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I, to be able to interfere with God?" When they heard this, they made no further objection, but they gave honor to God, and said, "Then God has given even the heathen repentance and the hope of life!"

Some people came down from Judea and began to teach the brothers that unless they were circumcised as Moses prescribed, they could not be saved. This created a disturbance and a serious discussion between Paul and Barnabas and them, and it was agreed that Paul and Barnabas and some others of their number should go up to Jerusalem to confer with the apostles and elders about this question. The church saw them off upon their journey, and as they traveled through Phoenicia and Samaria they told of the conversion of the heathen, and caused great rejoicing among all the brothers. read more.
When they reached Jerusalem, they were welcomed by the church, the apostles, and the elders, and they reported how God had worked with them. But some members of the Pharisees' party who had become believers got up and said that such converts ought to be circumcised and told to obey the Law of Moses. The apostles and elders had a meeting to look into this matter. After a long discussion, Peter got up and said to them, "Brothers, you know that in the early days God chose that of you all I should be the one from whose lips the heathen should hear the message of the good news and believe it. And God who knows men's hearts testified for them by giving them the holy Spirit just as he had done to us, making no difference between us and them, but cleansing their hearts by faith. Then why do you now try to test God, by putting on the necks of these disciples a yoke that neither our forefathers nor we have been able to bear? Why, we believe that it is by the mercy of the Lord Jesus that we are saved just as they are." This quieted the whole meeting, and they listened while Barnabas and Paul told of the signs and wonders which God had done among the heathen through them. When they finished James made this response: "Brothers, listen to me. Symeon has told how God first showed an interest in taking from among the heathen a people to bear his name. And this agrees with the predictions of the prophets which say, " 'Afterward I will return, and rebuild David's fallen dwelling. I will rebuild its very ruins, and set it up again, So that the rest of mankind may seek the Lord, And all the heathen who are called by my name, Says the Lord, who has been making this known from of old.' In my opinion, therefore, we ought not to put obstacles in the way of those of the heathen who are turning to God, but we should write to them to avoid anything that has been contaminated by idols, immorality, the meat of strangled animals, and the tasting of blood. For Moses for generations past has had his preachers in every town, and has been read aloud in the synagogues every Sabbath." 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. They were the bearers of this letter: "The apostles and the brothers who are elders send greeting to the brothers of heathen birth in Antioch, Syria, and Cilicia. As we have heard that some of our number, without any instructions from us, have disturbed you by their teaching and unsettled your minds, we have unanimously resolved to select representatives and send them to you with our dear brothers Barnabas and Paul, who have risked their lives for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ. So we send Judas and Silas to you, to give you this same message by word of mouth. For the holy Spirit and we have decided not to lay upon you any burden but this indispensable one, that you avoid whatever has been sacrificed to idols, the tasting of blood and of the meat of animals that have been strangled, and immorality. Keep yourselves free from these things and you will get on well. Goodbye." So the delegates went down to Antioch and gathered the congregation together and delivered the letter; and when they read it they were delighted with the encouragement it gave them.

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, about his Son, who was physically descended from David, read more.
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.

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. 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.

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. read more.
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. 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.

So as we have been made upright by faith, let us live in peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have been introduced through faith to the favor of God that we now enjoy, and let us glory in our hope of sharing the glory of God.

For he is himself our peace. He has united the two divisions, and broken down the barrier that kept us apart, and through his human nature put an end to the feud between us, and abolished the Law with its rules and regulations, in order to make peace and create out of the two parties one new man by uniting them with himself, and to kill the feud between them with his cross and in one body reconcile them both to God with it. read more.
He came with the good news of peace for you who were far away and for those who were near;

No one can deny the profundity of the divine truth of our religion! "He was revealed in flesh, He was vindicated by the Spirit, He was seen by the angels, He was proclaimed among the heathen, He was believed in throughout the world, He was taken up into glory." Verse Concepts

He is a likeness of the unseen God, born before any creature, Verse Concepts

Simon Peter answered, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God!" Verse Concepts

In the beginning the Word existed. The Word was with God, and the Word was divine. It was he that was with God in the beginning.

and decisively declared Son of God in his holiness of spirit, by being raised from the dead??esus Christ our Lord, Verse Concepts

and the patriarchs, and from them physically Christ came??od who is over all be blessed forever! Amen. Verse Concepts

For it is in him that all the fulness of God's nature lives embodied, Verse Concepts

which will be brought about in his own time by the blessed, only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, Verse Concepts

He is the reflection of God's glory, and the representation of his being, and bears up the universe by his mighty word. He has effected man's purification from sin, and has taken his seat on high at the right hand of God's Majesty, Verse Concepts

On his clothing and his thigh he has this title written: King of kings and Lord of lords. Verse Concepts

The apostles gave their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus with great power, and God's favor rested richly upon them. Verse Concepts

We are witnesses of everything that he did in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. Yet they put him upon a cross and killed him. But God raised him to life on the third day and caused him to be plainly seen, not by all the people, but by witnesses whom God had designated beforehand, that is, by us, who ate and drank with him after he had risen from the dead.

and decisively declared Son of God in his holiness of spirit, by being raised from the dead??esus Christ our Lord, Verse Concepts

But you, by the fixed purpose and intention of God, handed him over to wicked men, and had him crucified. But God set aside the pain of death and raised him up, for death could not control him.

But you disowned the Holy, Righteous One. You asked to have a murderer released for you, and killed the very source of life. But God raised him from the dead, as we can testify.

Paul went to it as he was accustomed to do, and for three Sabbaths he discussed the Scriptures with them, explaining them and showing that the Christ had to suffer and rise from the dead. "Jesus," he said, "of whom I am telling you, is the Christ!"