Today’s passage: Romans 9:30-10:4

Helpful thoughts:

• The Gentiles “not pursuing righteousness” in verse 30 is simply a reference to them not having followed the law as Israel was to do.  But all people who obtain righteousness obtain it through faith.
  • If we seek to obtain righteousness through obedience to the law, we will always fall short.
• Zeal without knowledge can be a dangerous thing.  Knowledge of the truth of the Gospel that doesn’t result in zeal can be just as bad.
• Those who choose to pursue righteousness in their own way, according to their own works are not submitting to God.  They are disobeying.  Therefore, even their “good works” are sin.

Questions to consider:

1. How does Christ’s righteousness put to our account through faith free us to do good works for the right reason?  If we were trying to earn our conversion or our salvation, what would our good works be?  Now that we are already resting securely in the righteousness of Christ, what are we enabled to do from a sincere heart?
2. Again, what is Paul’s heart for the salvation of the people of Israel?  In this social media age, people might have expected Paul to mock the Jews for not seeing eye to eye with him.  How should we treat people who don’t know Christ?  Should we openly criticize or make fun of people who disagree with us or should we be taking the Gospel to them?

Today’s passage: Romans 9:19-29

Helpful thoughts:

• In case we might think yesterday’s passage didn’t mean what it looks like it meant, today’s passage confirms it.
  • It’s not up to people to like or dislike God’s plan.  He is our holy maker, righteous and just.  He is also merciful, gracious and loving.
  • If God is righteous and everything He does is right, then who are we to object?  It is not a good place to be in to read Romans 9 and say “No” to God.
• If God had not shown patience in executing His wrath against sin, no one would be able to receive mercy.
  • Remember, no one is righteous and no one seeks after God of their own volition (Romans 3:11).  All people are bent to choose against God…under the curse of sin and of their own will.  This means no one will go to hell having wished they could have followed Christ but just couldn’t.  And all those who do desire to follow Christ are people whom God has given mercy.
• This plan of patience toward wrath in order to show mercy to others is also true of the nation of Israel.  Israel’s unbelief was used to present the Gospel to the Gentiles.
  • A specific example of this would be the account of Acts 18:5-6.  The people heard and willfully rejected the truth, then Paul went to the Gentiles.

Questions to consider:

1. This is a hard series of questions, but good to think about.  How does the eternality and sovereignty of God coincide with the finiteness and will of people?  Do we think the way God does?  Do we see time and events that way God does?  Can we reconcile these differences?  How “big” is God?
2. What all is revealed about God through all that we see and experience?  What attributes wouldn’t we see if things weren’t the way they are?  What would be true of our worship if we did not know all that there is to know about God?
3. Are there people who you have shared the Gospel with who have rejected Christ?  Who else could you go tell next?

Today’s passage: Romans 9:1-18

Helpful thoughts:

• The Apostle Paul has answered other hypothetical questions so far in the letter to the Romans.  The next hypothetical question might be stated this way, “If the Gospel is true, why have so many Israelites rejected it?”
  • The Gospel is not true or false because people either do or don’t accept it.  People do not get to decide reality.
  • The Gospel is not a failure if people do not accept it and believe.  All who are called according to His purpose will be glorified (Romans 8:28-30).
• Being a physical Jew did not make a person a follower of God anymore than being a child growing up in the church makes a person saved.
  • There is a distinction between physical Israel and spiritual Israel.
  • All who call upon the name of the Lord will be saved.
• “Jacob I loved, Esau I hated” could also be understood as, “Jacob I chose, Esau I rejected.”
  • In their sin, both Jacob and Esau had rejected God.  They both were already guilty.  In our sin, we rejected Him as well.
    • The wages of sin is death.  But God has mercy upon whom He has mercy.

Questions to consider:

1. Knowing all that Paul knew about God’s sovereign election, what was his heart still toward the lost?  What can we learn from this?  How should we think of others who do not know Christ?  What should we still be willing and eager to tell them?
2. Sometimes people can be put off by the idea of election, but what would we think of God if there was no election?  Does anyone seek for God on their own (Romans 3:11)?  Where would we be without God’s unmerited favor (Grace)?
3. What would have to be true of us to be able to find fault with God?  If we found fault with Him, who would be with sin and who would be without sin?  Who would be saving (Or condemning) who?  How do these truths result in worship instead of condemnation when we think about them rightly?

Today’s passage: Romans 8:31-39

Helpful thoughts:

• The argument from verse 32 is a “greater to the lesser.”  God already did the hardest thing. Christ’s death and suffering guarantees that God will finish what He started.  God wouldn’t waste Christ’s death on the cross by failing to fulfill it’s purposes.
• The most powerful person in the world may speak condemnation on you.  God’s power surpasses any power in this world. (Matthew 28:18, John 19:11)
• Christ has overcome the world.  In Him, we are more than conquerors. (John 16:33)

Questions to consider:

1. Who could defeat God’s plan?  Which attributes of God give us the greatest reasons to feel safe in the center of His will and purpose for our life?
2. Does this passage sound like it’s suggesting that life will be easy for Christians in this world?  Why would life ever be hard for a follower of Christ?  What kinds of responses should we expect to receive, at least occasionally, if we are being conformed to the image of Christ?
3. Earlier in this chapter, we learned that the Holy Spirit prays for us perfectly.  What does Jesus Christ do for us at the right hand of the Father when others might accuse us (Verse 34)?  If Christ already paid the penalty for all our sin, can anyone accuse us of something and see us condemned?

Today’s passage: Romans 8:26-30

Helpful thoughts:

• Our imaginations of the greatness of Christ’s return and our glorification all fall short of how wonderful it will really be.  In the same way (“Likewise”), our prayers fall short of all they could really be.
  • But no worries, because the Spirit of God prays perfectly for us on our behalf!
  • The Holy Spirit knows everything about you, inside and out.  He also knows everything about God, of course.  So, He always prays exactly what we need, as we need it, in perfect harmony with the will of God.
• The promise of verse 28 is for Christians (“Those who are called”) and the “good” is to conform us to the image of Christ, which is the “good” that is not worth comparing to all the bad of this life (Verse 18).
  • Definition of terms:
    • Foreknew – God established a relationship with you (He knew you) before the foundation of the world.
    • Predestined – God chose you to be His child.
    • Called – God’s effectual working where you were drawn into a relationship with Him.
    • Justified – You are declared, “Not guilty” and because Christ’s righteousness has been given to you, you are also declared, “Righteous” in God’s sight.
    • Glorified – You will be made to be just like Christ.  All sin will be gone.  Your heart’s desires will be completely pure. You will have a resurrection body just like Christ’s forevermore.

Questions to consider:

1. How does this passage encourage you to pray with humility, but also confidence and endearment?  Can you mess this up?  If you pray something outside of God’s will, what will happen?  What is the Spirit doing?  What will definitely come to pass?
2. How much of our salvation is God’s doing?  Why is this so important to understand and accept with all humility, especially when compared with a passage like Romans 3:10-11?  If we would struggle to “like” the idea of God’s sovereignty in our salvation, what might we need to understand or even repent of?  If someone were to say, ‘I can’t believe in a God like that,” what logical mistake would they be making?  Does God exist the way He does because we can believe in Him?
3. The all-knowing, all-powerful, loving, eternal God is praying for you and guaranteeing your safe arrival to a glorious eternity with Him…how safe are you?  This world is a wreck, and we all bare the scars in different ways and in different severities.  Some of the scars are of our own doing.  What is God doing about it?

Today’s passage: Romans 8:18-25

Helpful thoughts:

• When our full adoption is realized (When we see Jesus face to face and are made to be like Him), the cares and sufferings in this world won’t be worth trying to compare.
• Adam was given the responsibility to have dominion over the earth.  This world has not enjoyed that dominion since the fall.
  • This aspect of the fall and of God’s redemption reminds us of the layers of consequences for our sin and the layers of goodness that await us in the future.
• The Spirit’s work to give us new life and to begin the progressive work of sanctifying us gives us a taste of what’s in store in the days ahead.  This taste satisfies us like nothing this world could ever provide.

Questions to consider:

1. What kind of good things would you expect to equally offset the worst things in your life (Think like a number scale… Where -10 would be offset with a +10)?  It can be overwhelming just to imagine a day when all of the bad things (Like sin and suffering) are simply gone…so how much more do we have to look forward to if the “good” of the future is not worth comparing to the “bad” of this life?
2. When people seek to make things perfect in this world, what are they missing?  What don’t they understand?  Why won’t things ever be made right or perfect before Christ returns?  What even mars their ability to give a right definition of a perfect world?
3. How does the groaning and the hope for that day help you to navigate and persevere each day through this world which has been subjected to futility?  What are you looking forward to the most?

Today’s passage: Romans 8:12-17

Helpful thoughts:

• We are no longer bound or enslaved to our sin.
  • If a person says they are a Christian but they are living in bondage to sin…if there is no struggle for repentance and change and no growth over time, it would be right for them to doubt their salvation.
• We should interpret the idea of being led by the Spirit in the context of this passage.
  • It is contrasted with bondage to sin.  Being led by the Spirit and being obedient to the Word of God are synonymous.
  • To think of being led by the Spirit as having a holy sense of direction or special utterances would not fit in this context.
    • If a person is trying to tap into the authority of God to do, or to coerce others to do ungodly things, that is evil.
• In Roman law, adopted children were promised all the rights of naturally born children.  Those rights included inheritances that were given once the child was full grown.
  • Child of God, God has chosen to give you His fatherly love and everything that comes along with being his heir.

Questions to consider:

1. How does the idea of adoption’s full benefit coming at maturity coincide with passages like Philippians 1:6 and 1 John 3:2?  When will we reach full maturity and receive this full inheritance as God’s children?
2. If someone is trying to say they are being led by the Spirit to do something, or to say something and it does not agree with what Scripture says, what is really happening?  Why can you be confident in saying “No” to that person or those people, even to rebuke them?  Do you need special seers to know how to follow God? (2 Timothy 3:16-17, 2 Peter 1:3)
3. Considering the context of this chapter, how does verse 16 work?  How does the Holy Spirit bear witness or testify to our inner man that we are God’s children?  What changes do we see in our thinking, affections, desires and actions that give us assurance of our salvation?

Today’s passage: Romans 8:1-11

Helpful thoughts:

• Christian, Jesus Christ has suffered the just wrath of God against your sin…all of it…entirely.  There is no condemnation left for us to face.
• A transition took place near the end of chapter 7, where Paul contrasted the OT law (The rules to obey) and the law of sin.
  • Think of this law like how we would say the law of gravity…what goes up, must come down.
  • What is of the law of the Spirit will be spiritual.  What is of the law of sin will be sinful.
    • Christian, you have been set free from your bondage to sin.
• At conversion, a few amazing transformations take place:
  • The Spirit of God dwells in us.
  • Our minds begin to be governed by the Spirit (Ephesians 4:22-24).
  • We are given eternal life and promised resurrection.

Questions to consider:

1. Why is the attribute of God’s justice so important to the promise of no more condemnation?  What does God’s justice tell us about what Jesus suffered on the cross?  If we were to pay for our sin after Jesus already paid for it, what would God cease to be?  How do these truths rightly stir our hearts in love for Christ and in awe of God?
2. If you were set free from the law of gravity, what would happen to you when you jumped?  What then does it mean to be set free from the law of sin?
3. Can we accomplish transformation that leads to righteousness and eternal life on our own (Verse 7)?  Would we ever figure it out through our own cunning and righteous desires?  What has God done for us and how much of it was His doing?