Archive for the 'Romans' Category

JT Interviews the Apostle Paul

Published on August 20, 2010 in Romans. 0 Comments

Read Romans 7:7-13 aloud – - then use this excellent post from Justin Taylor to help you meditate on the passage.

Paul, thanks for taking some time to help me think through what you’re getting at in Romans 7:7-13. Let’s start with your intended audience here. Who are you talking to?

Those who know the law.

Is the law still binding on them?

The law is binding on a person only as long as he lives.

Well, since they’re alive it sounds like they are still bound to the law. But maybe I’m misunderstanding. Can you give an example of this principle from everyday life?

Sure. A married woman is bound to her husband while he lives.

You gave the initial principle as “the law is binding on a person only as long as he lives,” which had one person and a law. But now you’ve introduced two persons, bound to each other by a common law. I think I’m tracking with you. So when does that “binding” cease to exist?

If her husband dies, then she is released from the law of marriage.

And what happens if she is unfaithful while she is bound to her husband and under the law of marriage?

If she lives with another man while her husband is still alive, she will be called an adulteress.

The rest here.

How the greatest paragraph ever written was used to deliver a hymn writer from suicidal depression

Published on March 25, 2010 in Depression, Piper and Romans. 1 Comment

If you struggle with depression – - and, what an awful battle that can be – - consider reading The Hidden Smile of God: The Fruit of Affliction in the Lives of John Bunyan, William Cowper, and David Brainerd (The Swans Are Not Silent), but, first read this post and Romans 3:21-26.

John Piper told this story this as part of a sermon on Romans 3:21-26, what some theologians say is the greatest paragraph ever written.

Most nights as I tuck Talitha into bed she says, “Sing me a song.” The one we sing most often is one of my favorites by William Cowper,

God moves in a mysterious way
His wonders to perform;
He plants his footsteps in the sea,
And rides upon the storm.

Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take;
The clouds you so much dread,
Are big with mercy and will break
In blessings on your head.

Judge not the Lord by feeble sense,
But trust him for his grace;
Behind a frowning providence
He hides a smiling face.

His purposes will ripen fast
Unfolding every hour;
The bud may have a bitter taste,
But sweet will be the flower.

Deep in unfathomable mines
Of never-failing skill,
He treasures up his bright designs
And works his sovereign will.

Blind unbelief is sure to err
And scan his work in vain;
God is his own interpreter,
And he will make it plain.

What Talitha doesn’t know, but may learn some day is that, in 1759 when Cowper was 28 years old, he had a total mental breakdown and tried three different ways to commit suicide. He became convinced that he was damned beyond hope. In December, 1763, he was committed to St. Alban’s Insane Asylum, where the 58-year-old Dr. Nathaniel Cotton tended the patients. By God’s wonderful design, Cotton was also an evangelical believer and lover of God and the gospel.

He loved Cowper and held out hope to him repeatedly in spite of Cowper’s insistence that he was damned and beyond hope. Six months into his stay, Cowper found a Bible lying (not by accident) on a bench in the garden. First he looked at John 11 and saw “so much benevolence, mercy, goodness, and sympathy with miserable men, in our Saviour’s conduct” that he felt a ray of hope. Then he turned to Romans 3:25, our text for today. This was a key turning point in his life.

Immediately I received the strength to believe it, and the full beams of the Sun of Righteousness shone upon me. I saw the sufficiency of the atonement He had made, my pardon sealed in His blood, and all the fulness and completeness of His justification. In a moment I believed, and received the gospel.

In June, 1765, Cowper left St. Alban’s and lived and ministered 35 more years – not without great battles with depression, but also not without great fruit for the kingdom, like the hymns, “There is a Fountain Filled with Blood,” “O for a Closer Walk with God!” and “The Spirit Breathes upon the Word.”

Key Words for Today’s Sermon

Published on March 21, 2010 in Romans and Soteriology. 0 Comments

Today, D.V., I will be preaching on what some theologians argue is the greatest paragraph ever written (see this post on who suggests it’s the greatest passage ever).

Here is some of the day’s vocabulary:

Atonement – The work of Christ necessary to pay the price for sin. The center of Christ’s atoning work is that that he paid the penalty for his people on the Cross.

Justification – God’s legal declaration that sinners are righteous. It does not mean that we are made righteous. Rather, it is a declaration.[1]

Mercy Seat – The covering of the Ark of the Covenant. The Ark contained the 10 Commandments and was the central symbol of God’s presence with Old Testament Israel. The included picture is from the Holman Bible Dictionary.[2]

Propitiation – The turning away of wrath by an offering.[3]

Redemption – Deliverance at a cost or release by payment.[4] As a slave buying freedom.[5]

Salvation History – The true story of how God is unfolding his plan to redeem His people and His creation. We often summarize the big picture or meta-narrative of the Bible with the words: Creation, Fall, Creation, Consummation.

[1] See R.C. Sproul, Romans: The Righteous Shall Live by Faith, St. Andrew’s Expositional Commentary (Wheaton: Crossway, 2009), 97-104.

[2] C. Brand, Draper, C., England, A., Bond, S., Clendenen, E. R., Butler, T. C., & Latta, B. , "The Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary," (Nashville: Holman Bible Publishers, 2003).

[3] Leon Morris, "Atonement," in The Evangelical Dictionary of Theology, ed. Walter A. Elwell (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1990), 888.

[4] Morris, The Apostolic Preaching of the Cross, 40-55.

[5] Douglas Moo, Encountering the Book of Romans, Encountering Biblical Studies (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2002), 83.

The most important paragraph ever written!

Published on March 19, 2010 in Romans. 2 Comments

Sunday I am preaching Romans 3:21-26.  This is generally considered to be the center of the book of Romans and the superlatives with which theologians have spoken of it are truly incredible.

“The chief point, and the very central place of the Epistle, and of the whole Bible.” Martin Luther

Leon Morris (commentary on Romans, 173) wrote that this is, “possibly the single most important single paragraph ever written”

John Piper preached that this paragraph perhaps contains, “the most central or important words in the Bible.”

So, why not take the time to read Romans 3:21-26 aloud several times.

But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a [mercy seat] by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.(Ro 3:21-26)."  (ESV, I changed “propitiation” to “mercy seat.”)

*****

In preparation this week, I reviewed Andy Naselli’s notes, The Heart of the Gospel: The Most Important Paragraph Ever Written, on this passage and listened to one of two sermons he preached (Part I and Part II).  Of course, N.T. Wright, Schreiner, Moo, Morris, Piper, Luther, and Moo were also crowded onto my desk.  Andy was in good company.

Looking at this map will help you understand part of Paul’s reason for writing Romans

Published on February 21, 2010 in Missions and Romans. 0 Comments

“I hope to see you in passing as I go to Spain, and to be helped on my journey there by you, once I have enjoyed your company for a while (Romans 15:24).

Whether or not you accept that Paul wrote Romans from Corinth, he evangelized Corinth and that area, and when you look at this map you can easily see Paul’s missions strategy.  If he traveled to Rome, as we know he did, then he could hope to solidify the church in Rome and use this as an outpost to reach Spain.

Extended as they were, the boundaries of the Roman Empire would then make it possible for the Gospel to burn throughout the known world.

Romans map showing Paul's strategy

*I added the red stars and labels to this map.  Otherwise, it is a scan of a page from the Hammond Atlas of the Bible, the current edition is shown below.

See also, The Miracle that Was Paul

Theology and Missional Living

Published on February 8, 2010 in Apologetics and Romans. 0 Comments

Sunday (D.V.) I will remind our people that time in Romans should motivate us to be missional: to always be living to further the cause of Christ.  We are all about spreading the Gospel for God’s glory and our joy.

Missions was a major part of why Paul wrote Romans .  He wanted to establish a base in Rome, so that he could eventually make his way to Spain.  Once he reached Spain, Paul would have planted churches like a belt across the breadth of the Roman Empire.  With this accomplished, the Gospel would spread like a fire north into Europe and south to North Africa.  Whether or not Paul made it to Spain, we know this is what happened.

Here, John MacArthur illustrates how pastors and theologians should remember the mission.  MacArthur is best known as a preacher and student of the Bible, but this is an amazing account of how he shared his faith over a 50 year time period.

HT: Unashamed Workman

Lloyd-Jones on the greatest danger to the soul

Published on February 7, 2010 in Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Romans and Soteriology. 0 Comments

Can you imagine, realizing on judgment day, that you were mistaken about your salvation and now all that waits is eternal torment without a second chance (Matthew 7:21-23)?  I’ve talked more than once to our people about what scares me most as a pastor.

David Martyn Lloyd-Jones (on Romans, vol 2, page 98) makes a similar point:

“. . . There is nothing, surely, which is more dangerous to the soul than what we may call a glib believism. 

And you see how this affects all our ideas of evangelism.  If we are so anxious to get people ‘through’, as we say, instead of leaving the Holy Spirit to do His own work, we tend to say, ‘But look here, it is simple – - here, you see, the Scripture says if you believe you are saved.  Do you believe?  Yes.  Very well, you are saved, it is all right’.  But it may be all wrong!  It may be terribly all wrong!  And it can be an exceedingly dangerous thing to say that to a soul, and to give people the impression that because they have said they believe and accept, all is well.  There is a sense in which we have got to say that to them, but we must not stop at that.  We must go on – - we must say, ‘All your good living and all your works can never save you.  You have got to see that, and you have got to admit that to yourself and to God.  You have got to see that you can only be saved by the Lord Jesus through the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit will act upon you.  He will bring into birth a new man within you; He will implant a new principle of life in you, and that will begin to manifest itself’.  In other words, we must never stop at just believing – - we must always emphasize regeneration – - the re-birth – the new man.  Otherwise it seems to me we are leaving souls in a very dangerous position.

2 Corinthians 13:5

If you have questions about your salvation, then you really need to talk to your pastor or another mature Christ SOON.  If you don’t have a pastor, then find a Bible believing, Christ-centered church.

Where should you start when sharing the Gospel?

Published on January 21, 2010 in Apologetics, Quotes and Romans. 1 Comment

David L. Turner:

In evangelism and apologetics the Christian should not attempt to prove the existence of God to the unbeliever.  The unbeliever, if he is honest with himself, knows this already.  The Christian should proclaim the gospel, God’s appointed dynamic for turning the lost to himself.

In an article, “Cornelius Van Till and Romans 1:18-21: A Study in Presuppositional Apologetics,” GTJ 2:1 (Spr 81).

The New Green Religion

Published on January 20, 2010 in Romans. 0 Comments

At our church, one of the things we have seen Paul stress in the first chapter of Romans is that people are inherently aware of God.  Even those who deny God, are only suppressing something that is stitched deeply into their being.  As a result of this awareness, people are forever worshipping something.

In the article I link to here, Al Mohler, interacts with the new religion of worshipping the environment.  (And, for the record – - Christians ought to be very concerned about the environment).

The human species is inherently and resolutely religious. The Bible and the Christian tradition affirm this truth, even as we know that the religious impulse can so easily transform itself into idolatry.

Even the most cursory of world culture’s will indicate the religious fervor that characterizes humanity. The only observers who seem shocked by this universal phenomenon are the secularists and the prophets of secularization theory who were absolutely certain that religious faith and religious fervor would disappear in the modern world.

Needless to say, it hasn’t turned out that way. The theory of secularization is a shadow of its former self. Leading proponents like Peter Berger of Boston University now acknowledge that the secularization thesis was not an accurate predictor of the fate of religious belief in the modern world. The modern world is not secularized. Indeed, many of the most heated conflicts around the world today involve conflicting faiths. As Berger has commented, it turns out that a few European nations and the American intellectual elites are the exceptions, rather than the rule.

And yet, the intellectual elites are not so secular as they believe themselves to be. As it happens, their religion may not be theistic, but it is a religion all the same.

That fact is confirmed in a recent article in The Chronicle of Higher Education. Stephen T. Asma, a professor of philosophy at Columbia College Chicago, argues that the new religion of many secular folk is ecology. As Asma explains, many secular types suffer from “green guilt.”

In “Green Guilt,” he writes:

Now the secular world still has to make sense out of its own invisible, psychological drama—in particular, its feelings of guilt and indignation. Environmentalism, as a substitute for religion, has come to the rescue. Nietzsche’s argument about an ideal God and guilt can be replicated in a new form: We need a belief in a pristine environment because we need to be cruel to ourselves as inferior beings, and we need that because we have these aggressive instincts that cannot be let out.

The rest here.

Moo on whether or not those who have never heard the Gospel can be saved

Published on January 20, 2010 in Apologetics and Romans. 2 Comments

If nothing else, read the last paragraph.

Doug Moo (NIV Application Commentary on Romans, 82-83):

We do not think these verses give any grounds for thinking that salvation can be gained apart from the gospel.  Paul’s argument in 1:18-3:20 is intended to establish the reason why God has unleashed his saving power in the gospel.  Human beings are locked in sin and need to be rescued.  For Paul to introduce at this point the possibility of salvation apart from the gospel would undercut his own argument.

What, then, do we say about people who have never had a chance to hear the gospel and either accept or reject it?  Are they automatically excluded from salvation because they do not have a chance to hear?  This very question was one of my key objections to the gospel when friends of mine in college first confronted me with the claims of Christ.  The contemporary pluralistic environment has sharpened the question even further.  Influential theologians—some within the evangelical movement—are arguing that people of genuine moral commitment can be saved apart from explicit faith in Christ.  Karl Rahner, an influential Roman Catholic theologian, has coined the term “anonymous Christians” to describe such people.

While attractive for many reasons, this view simply does not square with the claims of Scripture.  Paul’s argument in this part of Romans is straight-forward: All people are under sin’s power and can escape the wrath that sin brings only by responding in faith to the gospel of God’s righteousness in Christ (See Romans 3:9, Romans 3:20, Romans 3:21-22).  To be sure, we cannot always know just how God may reveal his gospel to people.  As Paul’s own example powerfully demonstrates, the preaching of the gospel by missionaries and others is God’s normal means of making his gospel known to people.  But we must allow that God may have other ways of revealing his gospel to people that we do not know or even understand.  So, while insisting that only faith in the gospel can save, we perhaps need to be open to different ways by which people may come to know the gospel.

One final point should be made.   The problem of those have not heard takes on a slightly different complexion depending on whether one is a Calvinist or an Arminian.  The Arminian, in a sense, has the bigger problem here.  For Arminians believe that God’s prevenient grace puts all people in the position of being able to respond to the gospel.  There response is, therefore, the crucial factor.  Calvinists, by contrast, while insisting on the need for response, also claim that the ultimate cause of salvation lies in God’s election, his specific choice of certain persons for salvation.  The Calvinist can therefore argue that God will, in his sovereignty, see that every person he has chosen will also be exposed, in one way or another, to the gospel.  Having determined the end, God will also enact the means.

I must confess that I am little closer to a compelling answer to my question about those who have not heard than I was when I was first converted.  I think Scripture requires that we insist on faith in Christ as the necessary means of salvation.  And I trust utterly in the absolute fairness of the God who has revealed himself to me in Jesus Christ.  I am content to leave my questions in his hands and hope for clearer resolution in heaven.