The Story of God’s Explosive Grace

If you are going to do an in depth study on a Biblical subject, which of the following should be at the top of the list? End times Christian life Heaven Salvation Apologetics

The Book of Romans is the core of the New Testament, and Romans is the core of the core of Romans

As stated before in our study, Romans is the single greatest document ever. There exists nothing greater. Why? Because this letter is the most highly developed part of the Bible explaining how Christ’s sacrifice is the basis whereby man can be declared righteous before God. Having said this, our current study of chapter is the core of the core of Romans. In these eleven verses is the explanation of the teaching of justification, the act by which God declares and clothes the sinner with His own righteousness.

There are other great passages in Scripture on the teaching of salvation:  Ephesians  Philippians  Hebrews However Romans is especially significant. We will get to the “why” shortly.

Understanding three key terms in Romans

1. Law (7 times used) 2. Justified / righteousness (9 times used) 3. Faith / believe (9 times used)

The term Law (Torah in Hebrew and Nomos in Greek) can mean several things…  The Torah – first five books of Moses – Romans 3.21  Old Testament – I Corinthians  The Ten Commandments  613 Old Testament laws  A Principle – Romans 3.27;

 The Ten Commandments (and other moral laws)  Ceremonial  Health  Civil

Paul must establish that he has not invented some new religion contradictory with the Old Testament. The Law was the centerpiece of Judaism and must be addressed. In chapter 4, Paul will prove that salvation has always been faith based and not law based. He will cite both Abraham and David to prove his point. Hence, Christianity is not a new religion but a fulfillment of the Old Testament.

In round numbers, Islam is about 1,400 years old. Muhammad began preaching in 610 AD. The difficulty for Mohammad was to connect it with something that goes back to the beginning so that it looks authentic. So Islam agrees that the Bible is the true revelation of God and embraces Adam, Moses, Joseph, and Jesus. Then they make the claim that the Bible of the Jews and Christians has been corrupted and that they have the true Scriptures. This is sort of like the eighth season of the Dallas television series. The program killed Bobby Ewing off in one season then wanted to bring him back the next. No problem, so they made the entire prior season a dream and the audience bought it. People will buy anything.

What does Paul mean by the Law in this passage? Does he mean just the Ten Commandments? Or does he mean all 613 laws? The exact meaning has been debated. The short answer is that it can refer to any grouping of laws in the Old Testament that one believes if he or she follows that they will receive salvation.

Islam teaches that all people are sinners (Quran 16,61) and that salvation can be attained through observing the Five Pillars of Islamic practice: 1) the belief that Allah is the only god and that Muhammad is his messenger; 2) performing the five daily prayers; 3) fasting throughout the month of Ramadan; 4) charity, giving to the poor; 5) the pilgrimage to Mecca at least once in a lifetime, if one can afford it. By performing these works, a Muslim hopes that at the judgment day the recorded good deeds will exceed the bad ones, and so he or she will reach the paradise of material and sensual delights.

The one little Greek word that sparked a revolution

TENSETERMUSEDSTRONGSGREEK Noun7G1342 dí-kai-os Noun33G1343 di-kai-o-sún-ē Verb15G1344 di-kai-ó-ō In the context of Biblical use:  Righteous: That which conforms to the standard of God’s holiness and His character.  Righteousness: The quality of being righteous  Justified: To be judicially declared righteous

Catholicism confused Justification with Sanctification: Because of a failure of the Church to understand this aspect of Christian theology known as Soteriology, darkness overshadowed Christianity and turned the good news into bad news like all the other religions. TERMPROCESSTENSE JustificationYou were savedPast SanctificationYou are being savedPresent GlorificationYou will be savedFuture

Biblical faith is best understood with the acronym BOS Believe Obedience Submission

Believe (verb) and faith (noun) are the same root word in the New Testament. The simple meaning is to accept with your mind a set of information to be true. In Christianity it means that one accepts as true that Christ is God incarnated and that He paid for the sins of the world through His crucifixion and resurrection. And that though believing this to be true, one receives forgiveness and becomes saved.

17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ. Romans You believe that God is one. You do well; the demons also believe, and shudder. James 2 The kind of faith the Bible speaks of is that kind of faith that starts with believing facts to be true and then moves one to action. For example, if you believed that a bomb was in the same room that you and your family were in, and set to go off in one minute, your belief would turn into the action of doing everything in your power to evacuate the room as fast as humanly possible.

 In Christ – Romans 3.22  In Jesus – Romans 3.26  In Him (God 4.3) – Romans 4.5  In Christ Jesus – Galatians 2.16  In Christ – Galatians 2.16  In Jesus Christ – Galatians 3.22  In Christ Jesus – Galatians 3.26  In the Lord Jesus – Ephesians 1.15  In Him (Christ Jesus our Lord 3.11) – Ephesians 3.12  In Christ – Philippians 3.9  In the working of God – Colossians 2.12  In the truth – II Thessalonians 2.13  In Christ Jesus – Timothy 3.15  In God – I Peter 1.21

Getting down to the core of Romans by asking eight questions

If you were to die and stand before God, and He asked you, “Why should I let you into My heaven?” What would you say?

21a. God has now made it know how man can be declared right and righteous before Him and it is totally apart from following the OT Law. 21b. This is not something new, the same truth is weaved throughout both the Torah and the rest of the Old Testament. 22a. This being declared righteous is appropriated by faith and is for all people of all time who take the step of believing in Christ. 22b. This places all people on an equal playing field.

23. Every human has committed acts of sin and therefore falls short and misses the mark when measuring one’s life and behavior to the standard of God’s glory. God’s glory is His beauty and magnificence emulating from His goodness, righteousness, and holiness. In the context of what is being said, attaining to this “glory” seems to be that which would be required for a person not to need God’s declaration of righteousness, but to make heaven via their own glory. But again, all fall short.

25a. Since the explanation incorporates the work of Christ at Calvary as just stated, this is what we need to add. The Father displayed Christ publically on the cross to atone for sin, which mandated Christ’s blood, and requires faith to acquire this justification. The cost was the cross. For the first time in eternity, the perfect unity, fellowship, and intimacy between the Father and the Son was broken. As the earth turned dark for three hours, Christ was paying for what it would take man an eternity to pay.

25b. Let’s discuss those who lived before the cross? God could have destroyed all humans in the past because they were sinners. But because God is patient, He knew the cross was coming and would give past sinners before the cross who had exercised faith, this wonderful gift also. 26. He would credit justification to them based on the future atonement of the cross. This means God is both righteous and the One who declares the sinner righteous who exercises faith in Christ.

27. Let us discuss how this issue of justification interplays with boasting and bragging. The short answer is it is totally gone! On what basis? Of being justified by good works? No! Since, it is based on faith in Christ, no one can brag, you can’t brag when you have not earned something but were given it as a gift. 28. Again, let’s be absolutely clear! Being declared righteous by God is by faith in Christ and His finished work on the cross. It has nothing to do with keeping the Law.

29. What the above shows is this. God cares for the Gentiles also and provides the same means of salvation for them and not only His chosen people the Jews. 30. What is the evidence for this? The fact that God declares both groups righteous who place their faith in Him and trust Him for salvation.

31. Heavens no! The Law is God’s perfect standard. Any other means of saving people from their sins would have required lowering the standard of the Law so that non-perfect people could make it. It would be like lowering the requirements to get into college for any one with straights F’s. God’s way allows sinners to enter heaven without lowering the requirements of the Law, hence the Law is established because it is not lowered nor compromised.