Romans by Ben Foust (2022)

Paul longed to meet the believers in Rome and preach the Gospel to them. Paul was not ashamed to share the good news although he had reasons to feel shame as the Gospel was a scandal to the Jews and foolishness to the Gentiles. The Gospel was offensive to everyone! But Paul was the opposite of ashamed because knew the shameless love of Jesus and was willing to be a fool for Christ.

Paul shares the bad news--that no man is good enough to earn his way to approval and acceptance by God, who is perfect--even one sin disqualifies you from heaven and qualifies you for eternal judgment. This is in keeping with Him being a just God. While this is bad news, understanding and accepting it leads us to God's good news, that He has made a way for us to have these sins covered and paid for, through Jesus' sacrifice on the cross.

Paul says God has made Himself know to people, but people try to ignore and even suppress this knowledge. God has revealed His existence and nature through creation, particularly the nature of man, displaying intelligent, intricate design. If we will move toward, not away from this revelation, we will not only find a cogent explanation for why we are the way we are, but we open the door to a personal relationship with our creator.

Paul warns against human judgement and self-righteousness, calling attention to our hypocrisy and God's mercy for all. Paul reflects on God's righteousness.

In Romans 3 Paul argues that no person can claim righteousness before God--that even one sin renders them "guilty," and in fact, sin permeates people's lives. Paul says though you can be declared innocent or "justified" before God, not by being good enough, but by appropriating Jesus' payment for those sins--justification based on Jesus' righteousness, not our own. This approach gives us a way to constructively deal with our true guilt, not trying to deny the guilt or fix the guilt.

Paul raises the example of Abraham as he makes his case for justification through grace alone, not through the law. Paul shows that even righteous Abraham was only able to stand before God on the basis of faith, with God crediting it to hi as a gift, not an earned wage. While God offers this gift to all of us, we have to receive the gift by asking God for it.

Paul wraps up his extensive logical argument for God's offer of salvation, not through good works, but through receiving the gift of forgiveness through Jesus' payment on the cross. He finishes with a joyful celebration of all the good things that come to those who accept this gift, primarily peace with God. This peace opens the door to full, open access to God and hope for the future. All people who have received this gift should rejoice in these truths and fully explore them.

The book of Romans is the Good News of God about the essential issue of mankind. God has done something so that we can come to Him and have a right relationship with Him, in this life and the next. The Gospel is about Jesus, sent from the Father, born into the human race, evidenced by miracles, died on the cross and rose from the dead, and provided the way for all people to be reconciled to God.

Paul argues that people often suppress the truth about God and forge their own way. Paul uses the example of sexual ethics to illustrate this point. As controversial today as it was then, this presents a difficult dilemma for Christians. Yet the passage resolves the dilemma by teaching that all people are in the same boat as those who need God's grace. Christians have no standing for self righteous judgement, but rather are to bring the gospel to the world with humility and love.

Paul describes the fall of man and the consequences of human sin. Despite this, Jesus wants to forgive us and transform us to be new creatures- giving us a new identity in Him.

Paul explains that because we are dead to sin through Christ's crucifixion, we are also made alive through His resurrection. The implication of this truth is that we can live a new life under grace.

Paul explains that although we are under grace, we should not go on sinning. Despite the pretense of freedom, we are slaves to what we do and who we obey, so we should aim to be slaves of righteousness.

Paul explains that the Law is good because it exposes the sins and evil of humanity. However, if we have died with Christ then we have died to the Law and are now living under Grace. Instead of being bound to the Law, we are now bound to Christ.

Paul explains the failure we experience when we try to follow the Law of God out of our own will-power. Instead, Paul points us to live under God's grace, where we are free from the requirements of the Law. \r\n

Paul describes the battle between setting our minds on the flesh versus setting our minds on the spirit.

This section of Romans emphasizes that spiritual growth comes from our personal relationship with God, not from a formulaic set of actions that we perform.

In this section of Romans, Paul instructs us to walk in accordance to the Spirit in the context of suffering. He describes different lenses to view our suffering through, which will let God near to us and allow the Spirit to help us through our trials.

Paul mourns for Israel and emphasizes God's sovereign decision to now work through the believers of Christ and not the nation of Israel, because they have rejected the Messiah. \r\n

Referencing many Old Testament scriptures, Paul explains Israel's place in God's post-Christ plan.

As one of his first calls to action in the book of Romans, Paul urges us to worship the Lord. When we worship the Lord with our lives and are close to Him, we are slowly transformed to be like Christ.

Paul compares the believers to a body, making clear that each individual is uniquely important to the body of Christ.

Paul lays out guidelines for how Christians should relate to others in love, including our enemies. Humility is the foundation of this way of relating.

Instead of paying back evil with evil, Paul commands Christians to pay back evil with good so that others may come to know Christ better.

In the midst of a tumultuous political environment, Paul commands the Roman Christians to obey their government.

When morally grey areas pop up, Paul calls on Christians to rely on their conscious and allow others to do so as well.

Paul urges the Jews and Gentiles to accept one another due to their mutual reconciliation to Christ. In our modern day, this same passage should urge Christians to seek unity with one another.

In the closing verses of Paul's letter, we can catch a glimpse of what was going on in the early Church at the time.