Sunday School | Romans Part II

Introduction

Try to edit that out too. See how quiet Sylvia is being? She's so good. Xander's being quiet. Chris Conrad's being quiet. Okay. You guys, up here I have a handful of copies of Romans. This is last week and also this week. Ginny wants a Romans. This is Romans, Romans. If you weren't here last week or if you can't stand the fact that there were mistakes in it last week, I fixed all the mistakes. Oh, now they're all coming. So Romans is up here. Come and grab them. Xander, happy. Tay Tay, grab what you need. No. We don't want it. Okay. Oh, I knew that. I should have made more. I will make more. And as always, we will have every week will be in this box every week. So we're almost sold out. Grab one more. Oh. Oh. Oh, you guys can fight for it. I'll have more next week and every week. What? That rum is gone. Yeah. Sorry. I should have made more. Forgive me. Okay. So would you do me a favor and stop talking? There's so much I want to do today. Okay. So here's what we're to do. They're gone. Okay. So I will have more Romans next week. So here's what we're going to do. I told you guys we're going to do one week at each book of the Bible. But as you might not have been surprised, Romans gets two. Okay? Romans is just too good.

The Structure and Approach to Romans

So here's what I want you to think about. Last week, we looked at Romans at the highest level. We just kind of did this like 30,000 feet. I wanted you to see the structure of the thing, kind of this kind of three-part division throughout Romans, number a of things I wanted you to get. But today we're going go a little bit of a deeper dive. It's still a rush. It's still a mad, mad rush, but we're just going to look at the first section. We're going to look at the theology. I don't know if you guys are National Park fans, but I am. Kelly and I have been to several, but not as many as I want to. There are some, like Zion, if you've ever been to Zion in Utah or Yosemite. In some ways, Zion is like a mini Yosemite or Yosemite Junior. But like the Yosemite Valley or the Zion Valley, it's possible to take like a bus up through the valley. And I want you to think of Romans basically one through eight as something like the Valley Of Yosemite National Park. Okay? It is just filled with beauty, filled with treasure. And it's what we're going to try to do here is I want to take you want to be your tour guide up through Yosemite Valley this morning. What that means is we're all in a bus, and I'm just going to point at things and say, hey, look for this right here. When you get to chapter one, I want you to notice this. When you get to chapter two, look over here. You're going to want to do this. But then your job is to get off the bus and then to go hike that peak. Right? If you're in Zion, I want you to go hike Angel's Landing or I want you to go up through the Narrows. And so I'm just going to point things out. We're going to hit them and run. Hit them and run. Hit them and run. But if you will pay attention and take notes on this and kind of engage on this, then when you actually get off the bus and hike up the valley yourself, I think you'll have a little bit of a better sense of what it is you're looking for as you go. All right? DFP, how's that? Does that land for you? All right. Dan is my national park buddy. He's been to every park? All in the Continental U. In the Continental U. S. It's like lots and lots and lots of national parks.

Romans Chapter 1-8 Overview

So here's what we're going to do. Romans one. We're going to fly back. We're just pointing to things as we go through. Okay? Chapter one, it begins, and it's not really theology. Well, there's a little bit of theology. But Paul, what he's going to do is he's going to say, I want to be with you, in verse 11. I long to come and to be with you. I don't want you to be unawares that I plan to come, but I haven't been able to. I've been prevented. That's what we're saying about how the reason he writes this thing, he writes this letter, because he can't have the trip. It's good news for us that the trip doesn't happen because the non-trip produces the letter that is the treasure.

But that's all kind of opening introduction. When he starts to finally get into like really the Gospel message, it's around verse seventeen, eighteen. So watch verse 17. He's gonna say this. This is like a thesis statement for the book. For in the Gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written, the righteous will live by faith.' He's quoting Habakkuk, which nobody has even ever read before. But that's his thesis statement. Romans one seventeen is like that's the thesis. Okay? So note that millions of things are going flow out of that idea. And then he begins this case against mankind. So you can think of Romans, especially in chapters one, two, and into three, as a prosecutor's statement. He's making the case that mankind is guilty before God. You might summarize Romans like this. You need righteousness because you don't have it. And these first several chapters he's making this blistering case against man. Okay?

As he does, a few things to watch for. He's going to constantly be He's talking to Jews, then he's talking to Gentiles. He's talking to Jews, and then he's talking to Gentiles. And though that middle section chapters nine, ten, and 11 is really about the Jewish problem, how does this stuff relate to Israel, the tension, the distinctions between Judaism and Gentile ism permeates the whole book. He's constantly so just watch how many times he'll he's talking to the Jews and he switches to the Gentiles. Watch watch the Jew-Gentile thing. You'll see that as you go.

But then I want you to see something really important that you could easily miss or misunderstand. Okay? Go up to two thirteen. As in the midst of his case against mankind, against the Jews and against the Gentiles, he's making the case that there's something wrong with all of us pervasively. Those that grew up with the law, those that grew up with their ancestors running around naked in the woods, pagan, doesn't matter. Like something is wrong. But watch what he says. This is very important. In two thirteen he says:

For it is not those who hear the law who are righteous in God's sight. Who are those that hear the law by the way? This is back to the Jew-Gentile thing he says. It's not those who hear the law, but it's those who obey the law who will be declared righteous.

And then you can see him immediately begin to talk about the Gentiles who do not have the law, that do the things required by the law, dah, dah, dah. Okay? All this stuff. You could walk out of that and think, Oh, okay, the Jews think that they're redeemed simply because they know the 10 Commandments. They've been circumcised. Their father is Abraham. They're in the club. And Paul is saying, that's not how that works. And then he says, it's those who obey the law who will be declared righteous. And it might be that there are Gentiles and it might be that there are Jews that are like, oh, okay, I get it. It's not because you're in the club. It's because you're a good little boy. Okay? I want you to hear this. I'm going read it five times. No, no, I'll give you three times because we don't have that much time. Listen to this. Okay?

It is not those who hear the law who are righteous in God's sight. It is those who obey the law who are righteous in God's sight. It is those who obey the Law who will be declared righteous. It is not those who hear the Law who are righteous in God's sight. It is those who obey the Law who will be declared righteous.

Now really quick we are going to skip this whole argument, get to his conclusion, and I want you to listen to this. He says in three twenty by the way back in chapter two what he said is it's not those who hear the Law who are righteous in God's sight. It's those who obey the Law who will be declared righteous. And in three twenty he says,

Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law. Rather, through the law we become conscious of sin.

He set up a theory in chapter two. Sure, no problem. Just live a perfect life and you get us marching to heaven when you die. No problem. And then he spends the next chapter and a half saying, you know that will never happen. Right? You know that if you think that you're going to earn heaven by your obedience, good luck. It is going to be very, very difficult. Okay? You could read chapter two and think, oh, so Paul is teaching works righteousness. And to a certain extent, he is. He's teaching the theory that all you have to do is get everything right all day, every day, and you're golden. And then we realize, ah, I don't think that's going to work very well. And his conclusion is, No one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the Law. Rather, through the Law we become conscious of sin. This is an enormously important understanding for Paul. To the extent that we grew up thinking that all I have to do is be good. Be good, do good. Many people believe in a gross error that the core message of Christianity is be good, do good. And Paul is saying with perfect clarity, it's never going to happen. It's never going to happen. And as soon as he says, no one will be declared righteous by observing the law, rather, through the law we become conscious of sin, that's when he goes into what I would say is the most important paragraph in the entire Bible, three twenty one. But huge contrast. It was never going to work. Your plan is destined to fail. But there's another plan. And that other plan, notice the preposition. It says, But now a righteousness from God. That word from is enormously significant. It does not say a righteousness to God. Every other faith system, the inclinations of your heart, is that your job is to run around doing good things, being good, and then say, See, I did all these good things and I offer to you my goodness. And Paul is saying your hands are empty. It doesn't work that way. It can't work that way. The Gospel is not about a righteousness that we offer to God. It is about a righteousness that God gives to us. It is from him and to us. But now a righteousness from God apart from law. You didn't earn it. You didn't manufacture it. It is a foreign righteousness outside of yourself. It is an imputed righteousness credited to you. This whole thing is like everybody's wrong about everything. Right? Paul is saying it is completely different from what you think. It is imputed. It is foreign. It is credited. It's a gift. And your way of doing it, your idea that you can earn this and that you never had a chance. And he's gonna spend the rest of this book proving that case. Okay? So notice what he's doing in chapter two, how it connects to chapter three, and the case that he's building. Good enough? And the bus keeps rolling.

Romans Chapter 4 and 5

Alright. Chapter four. What he's going to do in chapter four, this is very interesting, he's going to say, I'm not making this up. He's saying Abraham knew this. He's going to say David knew this. He picks two of the most significant men, maybe you could pick Moses. He's going to save some Moses stuff until chapter 10. But he's basically picking Abraham and David, and he says, look what Abraham said. And he quotes this famous line from Genesis. He says, Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness. And he goes on and he unpacks that a little bit. And he says, listen, David says the same thing. Don't stone me as a heretic. You should have noticed this. If you were a good reader of the Hebrew Scriptures, you would have seen this. And I'm only showing you what they were saying the entire time. He proves it from Abraham. He proves it from David. Now, what is remember I said this a few minutes ago. He's talking to two audiences the whole time. Right? What are the two audiences through our Romans? Jews. Jews and Gentiles. Jews and Gentiles. So right now we just made a super Jewish case. Right? Abraham, David. And how do you make a Gentile case for this? It's not like he's gonna be like, you know, some pagan philosopher or some rock worshiper. You know, he can't do that. So he still wants to talk to the Gentiles. And so watch what he does. It's so brilliant. Abraham is like literally, he's the father of the Jews. But watch what he's gonna do next. He says in verse nine, four nine, Is this blessedness only for the circumcised, I. E, for the Jews, or also for the uncircumcised, I. E, the Gentiles? We've been saying that Abraham's faith was credited to him as righteousness. But he says, hey, do you remember when that happened? Remember when that happened to Abraham? Under what circumstance was it credited? Was it after he was circumcised or before? And he says,

It was not after, it was before.

Do you realize the implication of this? Basically, he's like listen, what he's saying? He's saying, Abraham, the father of the Jews, when he came to this understanding of an imputed righteousness, was more Gentile than he was Jewish. He was uncircumcised at the moment that happened. And then his conclusion here down in verse 11 is, So then he is the father of all who believe but have not been circumcised, in order that righteousness might be credited to them. And he is also the father of the circumcised, who are not only circumcised but walk in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham had before he was circumcised.

Paul is such a brilliant and interesting and clever argument. He's intensely interested that the Jews would recognize that they need a Messiah because their knowledge of the law is not sufficient to save, and that the Gentiles can have a Messiah even though they are not part of this covenant community. They can be brought in. It just permeates he's always back and forth between these things.

Questions and Clarifications

Okay, I know we're going quick. How are doing? Found the big as you go back through, this is what you're looking for in chapter two. Watch for in chapter three. Watch for in chapter four. Questions, comments, anybody need something before we go on? Taylor.

What's the verse of reference for chapter four? Let's see. For chapter four I would maybe highlight if you're doing this a whole bunch of things. So verse one, verse six, verse nine. Verse one is what did Abraham discover? Verse six is David says the same thing. And then verse nine is where he gets into this whole thing of it's for the circumcised and the uncircumcised because Abraham was uncircumcised when the party began. Cool, cool? Anybody else? We good? All right.

Romans Chapter 5: Sin and Federal Headship

What happens in chapter five? Check this out. This is don't know. This is definitely top three this is definitely top five weirdest things that happen in the Book of Romans. Maybe but it's up there. Okay? Go five twelve. He's building this case and he says this. And it's so strange, it's so not obvious that Paul interrupts himself mid thought and doesn't pick up his thought for quite some time. Paul does this relatively often. Sometimes Paul's communication is like these big long things. And sometimes he'll start to go hang on a second. And then he goes back over here and he kind of unpacks the thing. That's what he does here, and so it's confusing. But look what happens that is such a show stopper for Paul. Go to five twelve. He says,

Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men because all sinned,

and then he interrupts himself. Whenever you say, therefore, because of this, also that, he says because of this, he says—

He never gets to the also that.

He stops his train of thought. The reason he stops his train—this could be an entire Sunday school class. We're going do this quick. When he says Because all sinned, do you know what he means? Therefore, right, death into the world through one man, death through sin, death came to all men because all sinned. What do you think that means? Okay, Jew and Gentile what, Nancy? I did. Saw I can read your lips. Yeah, I just need somebody to play. What do you think it means when he says because all sinned?

Dan. He's talking original sin. He's talking original sin? That Adam sinned and that sin therefore gets imputed to all. That's exactly right. Okay? And here's the thing. Dan is a little too smart. Okay? What you're supposed to say is that everybody does bad things, right, which we do. But that is not what Paul means. What Paul means is what Dan said. Okay? And Paul knows this is an enormously outrageous thing to say. If I were to say to you, everybody sins, does anybody have a problem with that? Has anybody watched the news? Has anyone been outside? Has anyone been married? Like, like, we all know this. That is not what Paul is talking about. As he goes on and he makes this case, and I won't I won't fully make his case. He is claiming that when Adam sinned, Jan Fier sinned. That's what he is saying. He's saying when Adam sinned, you sinned. That you were in some sense present and are in some sense culpable for what we're going to get theological here—your federal head did. And he's going to unpack this for the rest of this section from 05:12 on. He's building the case for what we call federal headship. That what your representative Adam did is imputed to you. Death entered the world by one man, one sin. He's going say it over and over and over again. I won't say it. You can read it. When you get there, like put down some weird thing about federal headship and then go slow when you get there. Okay? You are guilty because of what Adam did.

The Significance of Federal Headship and Christ

Okay? Now, here's what you have to understand, though. Before you say, that's stupid and that shouldn't be the way the world works, And I don't like the concept of federal headship. Slow down, slow down. Don't do that. Do not rule out federal headship because federal headship is your only hope in all the world. What Paul is going to say is what your representative does impacts you. And if your federal head sins, he brings death to all. But you can trade teams and you can have a new federal head. And what he does will also be credited to you. Just as the death of Adam was credited to you, the life of Christ can be credited to you. And if you want to deny the possibility that your representative can impute something to you based on his actions, then you are necessarily saying that the righteousness of Christ can also not be credited to you. This is huge stuff. This is massive deep theology. That's what he's doing in chapter five. So when you get there, you might want to slow that down and really trace through what is he saying? What did Adam do and how does it impact me? And how does that parallel to what Christ has done and how that impacts me? And if we understand this, then we would find the urgent imperative of life is to jump on team Jesus, where his work can be credited to you.

People ask the question, well, what makes you think that Jesus is the only way? We talked about this just this week at Feast, that Jesus is the only way. Well, I don't know. Maybe that nobody else ever died for me, that nobody else has the capacity to die for billions, that nobody else is qualified to be a new federal head, that nobody else rose from the dead and is exalted as king over all things, that nobody else loves his enemies and mercifully welcomes? Like, who is his competition? Who offers anything remotely parallel to what he has? And what Paul is addressing here is the idea of federal headship. You've already got one. His name is Adam. That did not work out too well. And by the way, if you don't like it, if you're not happy with the idea that you get blamed for Adam, listen, you've added so much to the list, it's kinda ridiculous. Okay? Like, sure, we're gonna blame you for Adam and about 9,000,000,000 other things besides. And if you are in Christ, he will erase all of it. Not just Adam's, but everything you've added to it. And he will forgive you all the way back. This is what we're offering. That's what chapter five is about.

Romans Chapter 6: Grace and Living Righteously

Alright. Let's keep going. Chapter six. Romans in a blitz. In Romans six, he's going to ask the same question twice. Do you know what it is? What is the question of Romans six? He asks something like 85, 900,000,000 questions in Romans. Okay? But in Romans six, it's really the same question. Gives it a double tap because it's a massive thing. Robin?

Imputed righteousness to us, can we just go ahead and say? Exactly right. Exactly right. So look at it. Look at it in verse one. Romans six one, what shall we okay. After he's basically beat into our heads for these, up through chapter five, he's like, it's an imputed righteousness. It's a gifted righteousness. You can't earn it. You don't have to do anything for it. It's not about your goodness. It's a gift. It's foreign. It's imputed. It's yours. The logical conclusion is, oh, hang on a second. You're telling me I've got a get out of jail free card so I can do anything I want? And then maybe not only that, but what if God gets credit for being so gracious, I could give him even more credit for being even more gracious by doing even more wicked things. He would look good. I would have fun. Okay? That's what saying. Right? So in six:one he says,

What shall we say then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase?

By no means. Then he says it again down in six fifteen.

What then shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace?

By no means. And chapter six is Paul's exploration of that question. How do people who do have a get out of jail free card not become incredibly licentious? If I know that I will never stand condemned, why would I not just go and just live a riotous life? And Paul says both times what's his answer to the question? He said twice. NIV I don't know. You may have it in a translation. But what's his answer to it?

By no means.

What's ESV like?

May it never be or something?

May it never be. Okay. He's like, no, no, no, no, no, no. If you understand grace, grace actually incentivizes righteousness. I understand why you're thinking that. That makes sense. That's why I'm addressing it. This is all Paul. But he says, no, no, no. And in Romans six, he's gonna walk through why is it that Christians who rightly understand the grace of Christ do not become the most immoral, licentious people. And necessarily, the corollary to that is, what has gone wrong when we find Christians who have become the most immoral, licentious people? What did they miss? What are they misunderstanding? And if we want to take the volume down just a little bit on that and we look at our own lives, not not on a whole scale, but on any given moment, any given week, any given day, when I find myself becoming immoral, and I find myself disregarding the holiness of God, Romans six tells me what just happened. Something broke. Something gear is loose. What is the thing that should link me as a recipient of grace into me, a person who lives a righteous life?

Romans six is all about exploring the connection between my understanding and my experience of the gospel and the necessary ipso facto righteousness that follows. And when I find in my own life there's a bridge out, Romans six tells me where to look. Okay? So this is, I think, an enormously important and practical question. We're not really getting into the application yet until chapter 12, but the theological foundation for all of the application from chapter 12 on is embedded in chapter six. This is a passage worth this is a hike worth going on. Like, spend some time in Romans six. There was a hand. Robin, be nice and loud, please.

The last verse of six when I was reading it, there was a a little bit of confusion for me. It was it's talking about, you know, the fruits of unrighteousness and the fruits of righteousness that have been that God's given to us. And it says the fruit that you get leads to sanctification, and it ends in this eternal life.

Yes. The sanctification in our lives is the one leading to eternal life. Okay. Very good. Alright.

Sanctification, Justification, and Christian Life

Yes. Okay. So let's see. So I'll give I won't be able to give you a full treatment of this, but let me I'll try to dispel a particular Christian understanding that I think is false. Okay? So sanctification has friend. Sanctification has companion. Do know what the two things are that we tend to talk about? Sanctification and Justification.

Justification. Very good. Okay. So I will often draw imagine a chart. Imagine I anticipated this question. Okay? We've got this chart. Right? Vertical is righteousness and across the thing, whatever this is horizontal, is time. Okay? Here's Robin Conrad. You should have known him before she was a Christian. Incredibly evil. Okay? So wicked wicked little Robin just doing wicked Robin things. And then at a moment in time, she came to faith in Christ and God imputed righteousness to her. All of his goodness credited to her. All of her badness placed on him. And in a moment, right here, there's this thing that happens and bam, you are justified and you are righteous. Your goodness just skyrocketed in a moment in time per your justification. His goodness on you and you are like, what happened to Robin? Okay? Judicially, legally, in Christ. And at that same time, we're down here, here's a little bad robin conversion boom. What happens is this diagonal line starts slowly working its way up. Then she had a really bad month. Okay? And then it was up. And there's this trend line as you are being sanctified and you are in fact in the actual universe for all to see, you are becoming what he declared you to be. Making sense? So now there's like two robins. There's the robin who is dressed in the righteousness of Christ, perfect in the sight of the father. And then there is the robin who is increasingly but imperfectly and faultingly but genuinely approximating what Christ has already declared over you. We've justification, we've got sanctification. Everybody cool? Cool, cool, cool? Okay. Now, here's the thing. We have a very clear sense, generally in evangelicalism, that sanctification is icing on the cake but frankly irrelevant, and everything is predicated on our justification. Yes? No. That's not quite biblically accurate, okay, which I know is very disarming and very like, wait, what? I absolutely believe that we're saying by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, I'm reformed. All of those things are true. However, when we do that we have a tendency to really treat sanctification as an also ran. That is really ultimately inconsequential. And I do believe absolutely that all of our righteousness that we're actually growing into as we are changed and transformed is a result, not a requirement. Is a consequence, not a condition. Fully. However, it must be present. Right? Sometimes we'll try to do this little equation. Faith plus works equals heaven. And that's a bad equation. That's not the way the universe works. It is not faith plus works is going to cause us to be saved. It's not the right answer. But then we will sometimes solve that. Evangelicals will solve it by saying, Yeah, get rid of the works. Faith equals heaven. We're just saying, Faith alone. Woo hoo. It doesn't matter how we live. The Biblical answer is faith equals heaven plus good works. It will be present. There will be transformation. And Paul's gonna make this case more in chapter we'll get there in chapter eight. We'll unpack we'll you might unpack it. We won't unpack it. But in chapter eight, he really tries to explore, follow the argument carefully in chapter eight, and you will see that our sanctification, I. E, degree to which we are cooperating with the Spirit of God as he works out our sin, as he causes us to trust him more, as we reorder our loves, is impacting eternity. It matters. Okay? That's about as far as I can take it today and still faithful to what I'm doing. But that's a paradigm for you to, like, work out. It's complex, to be sure, but there's some categories for you. Okay? Alright. Let's keep going. So chapter six. Are you guys all right on chapter six? I know this is blitzy. Chapter seven. What's the theme of chapter seven? Do you know what it's about? Why do I get to that line? Chapter seven, if you go through oh, Katherine?

It's like sin and not sin and it's I do the things I want Yeah. And I don't wanna do it, and I don't do whatever. Yeah. The most one of the more famous passages in Roman because it's so linguistically such a such a do wanna call them tongue tire? What's that? What do we call them? Tongue twister? Such a tongue twister? Is is is here in chapter seven. And we're we're gonna head to that in just a minute. We're gonna get there at the end of chapter seven. As he goes through, it's all about death. Chapter seven, if you if you go through Romans seven, death, death, death, die, die, die, alive, dead, dead, dead, alive. Okay?

He says in verse four,

So my brothers, you also died to the law.

Right? Verse six,

By dying to what once bound to us. We've been released from this.

And he's going to walk through this whole understanding. Every chapter follows the previous one, but chapter seven, he's still working out the why don't I sin? If I'm under grace, shouldn't I be allowed to sin with impunity? Didn't you just say, I have full amnesty? And if I have full amnesty, can't I just live in full amnesty?

Chapter seven, he's working out his argument. He's like, No, no, listen. You died to sin. How can you live in it any longer? And now he's really going go after the doctrine of our union with Christ. We've talked about this a little bit perhaps in the past. Chapter six lays the foundation really for our union with Christ. But every good thing you have, every good thing you have is because you are united to Christ. And you are united to Christ both in his death and in his life. This is what baptism is all about. Baptism is not about water. Right? It's about union with Christ. And that's in Romans six. I didn't say this, but Romans six is the foundational chapter on baptism. In chapter seven, really double clicks on this idea that if I have died with Christ, I will not live any longer in my old world. That stuff's old. That's past tense. That's BC days for me, And I'm a new person. My life has been changed in Romans seven. I'm new because I'm aligned to him. I'm united to him. And then Paul says, and yet I still don't know what to do. Right? And you get this angst and this frustration. Theologians debate, is Paul pretending here not to be a Christian? Or is he describing the experience of a Christian?

Go to seven fourteen.

This is the most angsty, frustrated, honest depiction. In fact, I would say, I come down on the side, I believe that Paul is describing a present reality for the Apostle Paul. Some would say, that's impossible. It can't be. And I'm like, I don't think you've met a Christian before.

Here's what he says. Verse 15, we'll start.

I do not understand what I do, For what I want to do, I do not do. But what I hate, I do. And if I do what I do not wanna do, I agree the law is good. And as it is, it's no longer I myself who do it, sin the sin living in me.

I know that nothing good lives in me. That is in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do. No. The evil that I do not want to do, this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me.

So I find this law at work. When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being, I delight in God's law, but I see another law at work in the members of my body waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members.

What a wretched man I am. Who will rescue me from this body of death?

Okay. Now, it's so strong that people are tempted to say Paul doesn't mean any of that. He's describing life before he was a Christian. Okay. I think they're wrong. He's talking about present reality. He wrote Romans, for crying out loud. He knows that if we died with Christ, we won't live in our sin. He knows all of that. But he also knows what it's like to actually be a human being. And he just wants to take a fork and jam out his eyes. He's like, don't know what to do anymore. Right?

This should be, as you're reading through it, what's supposed to happen is you Romans is meant to be an emotional roller coaster because for Paul, it is an emotional roller coaster. He begins with this blistering case in chapters one and two and into chapter three. You're supposed to completely despair. Like, I'm screwed. There's nothing I could do. What can I possibly do? And he brings you to the brink of hopelessness. And he says, but hang on because there's another plan. There's another way we can do this. And then the hope of the gospel rises. And then he starts to work out the theological implications of this throughout the book. And you understand this? You see what this means. Your mind is split. And you're trying to understand how this all works out. And then he starts talking about how in Christ we're not going to sin anymore. And now you're like, oh, shoot. I hope nobody's watching me because I agree with what you're saying, but I if you had a videotape of my life, it would be so humiliating. If you had a videotape of my thoughts, I'd throw myself off a bridge. Now you're like, maybe I better I get it. Maybe in Christianity, I get it. You just have to pretend. Just fake it. Right? Just pretend that everything's great and that your life is all in order and you're not now that you have a savior, you don't really need him that much anymore and everything's fine. And then mercifully, chapter seven breaks in and you're like, oh, thank God because, like, this is more true for me. There's something is wrong with me. Right? Do you feel the this is what he's done for us throughout this book, but he doesn't leave us there. Chapter seven sets us up for chapter eight. And you could make a case that chapter eight is the theological climax of the book. It is certainly the bridge from theology to application. Okay. So we're coming out of chapter seven into chapter eight.

And do you guys remember from looking at your document or maybe you've just seen this before? Who's the hero of chapter eight? It's the spirit of God. We are at the church of the Holy Spirit. Okay? Somebody thirty five years ago thought that that would be a good idea. Quigg. I don't know who. Right? It's true. All right? What's embedded in our name is what could be for us as a community is a sense that we understand that we don't have a chance. Theological insight is not going to work. Right? Information, which is like my favorite thing in the world, is not going to work. What is going to work is if the Spirit of God lives in you. If you go through chapter eight, you're going to see over and over and over again, he says, when we get to that point where we I get the I understand imputed righteousness. I understand what I need. I understand what he's given me. I understand the implications of this, but it still isn't working. I don't know how to do this. That's where chapter eight shows up. And over and over and over again, if you go through, the Spirit is everywhere. Chapter two, chapter four, chapter five not chapter, verse two, four, five, six, nine, nine, nine, 10, eleven, eleven, twelve, thirteen, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen. He is everywhere. Okay? So when you get to chapter eight in your Bible, just underline the Spirit, the Spirit, the Spirit, the Spirit, the Spirit, the Spirit, the Spirit, And then go back and be like, what is he saying? What have I missed all of my days? What do I have in the Holy Spirit? Because I don't know how to speak in tongues, and I don't know what else there is, so what is he talking about? Right? Follow the argument. This is, I'm telling you, it is the bridge from all the theology to how this matters in our lives is embedded in Romans eight. Romans eight is worth understanding. And it ends, of course, with the stuff that we know. We like the end of it. At the very, very end he says, well, kind of towards the thing, things like this, Romans eight twenty-eight.

But we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

For those God foreknew, he predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. Those he predestined, he called, and those he called, he justified, and those he justified, he glorified.

What then shall we say in response to this?

If God is for us, who can be against us?

He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also along with him graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against them whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies.

Who is he that condemns?

Christ Jesus, who died, more than that, who was raised to life, is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.

By the way, if you think that the words Christ Jesus is the answer to the question Who is he that condemns? You misunderstand the argument. He's not saying Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus. He's saying Who can condemn? Christ Jesus is interceding for us. Right? He's mentioning Jesus not as the answer to the condemner. He is your defense attorney. He is your protector. He is interceding for you.

Verse 35,

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?

As it is written,

For your sake we face death all day long. We are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.

No.

In all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, nor the present nor the future, nor any powers, nor height or depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

I want to ask you to do something today when you go home. Go on Google or go to YouTube and just type in these words, John Piper, Romans eight, return. There is a recording of John Piper simply reading without comment Romans eight. Pretty sure from memory. It is spectacular. He does nothing other than read the text, but he reads it I'm just telling you, just go get it. Go YouTube. John Piper. Romans eight. Go. It is simply Romans eight. But it is read so well that he makes all these things come out that you might not have seen if you just reading it yourself. You should go listen to John Piper read Romans eight. It is extraordinary.

Final Reflection

Okay. Here's the final thing. Then I've got to go. That's the theology. You got it? As you go through, this is Yosemite Valley. This is the highest and the best place of Scripture. This thing, if you understand the argument that he's going through here, the enormous benefit to you will just be extraordinary. And I want you to get that. You're gonna get it better by your own personal study just slogging through it and discovering these things. Okay? But I want to do one more thing because I didn't really get to it. It would have fit better last week but I didn't have time so going to show it in right now.

Go to chapter 16. I just want you to see something here that I think is really important and I would be remiss to not highlight this for you.

Romans sixteen: one. He says, I commend to you our sister Phoebe, servant of the church in Cenchrea. I ask you to receive her in the Lord in a way worthy of the saints and to give her any help that she may need from you, for she has been a great help to many people, including me.

Do you know that means? She delivered it. She delivered the letter. So here's what happened. Paul writes the most important thing ever written by human beings, and he turns and he finds this woman Phoebe and says, Phoebe, deliver the letter. When Phoebe gets to Rome, she doesn't only just hand the mail over, but almost certainly she reads Romans. The first time Romans was ever read, was ever heard, almost certainly it was read in a female voice. Phoebe was the one that Paul handed the task to. Okay? Not only that, Paul's going to go on and he's to affirm Priscilla and Aquila, this married couple, fellow workers in Christ who risked their lives. He's going to, in verse six, affirm Mary who worked very hard for you. In verse seven, Junius we don't honestly know if Junius was male or female. There's an assumption female, but it's not a very strong assumption. Junius might have been a woman. Whoever it is, Junius and Andronicus are quote, outstanding among the apostles. That doesn't mean they were among the 12. Jesus names the apostles. But it could mean that they were among the 12 apostles. Or it could mean that in the in the repute that the apostles hold, they are highly regarded. He's gonna go back down in verse 12. Trifena and Trifosa, those women who worked hard in the Lord. Persis, another woman who worked very hard in the Lord. Rufus and his mom, who's been a mother to Paul. Nerius' sister. Romans 16 is riddled with women Paul loved. Men too, to be sure, but riddled with women that Paul trusted in ministry, that were partners in ministry, that he adored, that he loved, that he commended, to whom he entrusted this solemn responsibility of delivering and almost certainly reading Romans.

Paul believed that primary leadership in the church was reserved for men. When you read 1 Timothy, when you read Titus, it's very, very clear. In this, he's consistent with Jesus who chose 12 men to be his disciples and then affirmed 12 men to be his apostles. Paul holds to a view of ministry and leadership in the church and in the family that clearly sees that men and women have distinct and complementary roles.

Sometimes, however, that has been thought both by proponents of that understanding and by opponents of that understanding to mean that women have no role and they should just stay at home and bake us cookies. And while I'm grateful when anybody bakes me cookies, male or female, it is grossly out of step with what we see in the New Testament. It is true that God has reserved the role of presbyter or elder and therefore pastor or priest, as you will, to men. I think there's a very strong biblical case for that.

But there is no following implication that the fields for women in ministry are ripe and full. Paul's letters, Paul's ministry is full of significant women making significant contributions on the front lines of the proclamation and advancement of the Gospel. You with me? It's everywhere in his writings. This is consistent with Jesus himself. I think I showed you when we were in Luke that Jesus raised support. His ministry was funded and fueled by these women who provided for them out of their own means.

So it's just crazy to me. I think the Scriptures are reliable. The Scriptures are true. And I do think that God has called men to primary leadership in the home. I think he's called men to primary leadership in the church. That does not mean that there are not enormous, necessary, crucial roles that women can and must fill. And so if you've ever heard in a complementarian framework, which is what I'm arguing for, men and women are complementary, something that denigrates the role that women can play, I beg your mercy that you've been lied to. It's just not true.

That we are allowed, we can, we must, I think, uphold whatever restrictions God puts on any of us. The orders that God has put. And we, every one of us, must be running as hard as we can to the fulfillment of the great commission, to the blessing of the world, to the proclamation of the gospel. There is we need everybody on the field. We need everybody playing in the roles that God has assigned going after it. And I hope that anybody that has ever told you otherwise or if you've come to believe otherwise, that you might let the lessons of Romans 16 be among the things that persuade you otherwise.

Conclusion

Alright, good enough? In a blitz, that's Romans. More next week.