Romans
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The Church in Rome was expanding rapidly and boasted a remarkably diverse congregation, made up of both Jewish and Gentile believers. Thus, Paul felt a natural inclination to visit them, similar to his previous visits to other largely Gentile communities. However, even though Paul’s ministry was primarily directed at the Gentiles, he began to observe a complacency emerging within the Gentile group that had only previously been noted among Jewish believers. As a result of the apostles’ criticisms aimed at the Jewish believers and their adherence to the traditional customs, the Gentiles started to believe that with the Jews having…
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Writing to a mixed audience of believers in Rome, comprising both Gentiles and Jews, Paul addresses the claim the Jews had long made: that their adherence to the Law of Moses guaranteed them access to God. However, with the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross, the Gentiles, who were never actively pursuing righteousness, obtained it through faith. Israel spent generations pursuing righteousness through the law but failed to attain it because they sought it through works rather than faith. The tragedy was not that they lacked dedication, but that they were looking in the wrong direction. What then shall we…
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Paul expresses his anguish and pain for his own people, the chosen race, the seed of Abraham, who cannot perceive that the culmination of every promise of God is found in Christ. As a Pharisee, he grew up immersed in the teachings of the law, which were his bread and butter; day in and day out, he analyzed the laws and relied on their adherence to ensure safe passage into God’s kingdom. But now, he feels ousted from his own community for the sake of the Good News he discovered on the road to Damascus when he finally met the…
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Paul, addressing the believers in Rome and having guided them through the realities of sin, the law, and the Spirit, now brings forth one of the most important truth in all of Scripture. He proclaims that those who belong to God are embraced by a love that cannot be separated from Him by anyone or anything. However, he also warns his readers by confronting us with some uncomfortable truths about our true nature and the distance we still have to travel in fully realizing what God has bestowed upon us. Adopted to Sonship For those who are led by the…
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Reiterating to impress upon his audience, Paul emphasizes that there is no condemnation for those who place their faith in Jesus and His sacrifice on the cross, which draws us closer to the Father. What the Law could not achieve, God sent His obedient Son to accomplish on our behalf, allowing us to return to Him. And so he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.Romans 8:4 (NIV) Our Inability to Forgive Others If…
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Most of us instinctively think of rules as the solution to bad behavior. More laws, stricter enforcement, clearer boundaries — thinking that this is how you fix a broken society or a person. Paul thought the same way once as he was, by his own account, a man of impeccable legal credentials, zealous and disciplined. And then he discovered that the law he had devoted his life to, could diagnose his condition perfectly — but could do absolutely nothing to cure it. Legally Bound For example, by law a married woman is bound to her husband as long as he…
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After establishing that we are buried with Christ and raised to a new life, where our sins are covered by His grace, Paul addresses a crucial question. This question likely came to the minds of his readers in the early church in Rome and still resonates with modern believers: If grace covers everything, what’s stopping us from continuing in our sinful ways and coming to God later in life to receive His grace? Many people believe that Paul is giving a license to sin by emphasizing the power of grace. In his response, Paul breaks down the true nature of…
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Back in the Garden, Adam’s sin opened the door to death, and each one of us walked through it. But Paul emphasizes that just as death came to all through one man, life has now come to all through another. And not just equal life—greater life. Grace that exceeds the damage, justification that outlasts the fall. The question is no longer what Adam cost us; the question is what we will do with what Christ has given us. Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all…
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Every love we have ever known has had a condition buried somewhere within it — spoken or unspoken. But Paul confronts us with something our experience has not prepared us for: a love that moved toward us precisely when we gave it no reason to. Not after we repented but while we were still sinners. That is not how love is supposed to work — and yet, that is exactly the point. Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this…
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Faith is an integral part of our walk with God. Without faith, we simply cannot sustain our relationship with Him. It is faith that God looks at, not our righteous acts, adherence to laws, practices of rituals, or participation in religious ceremonies. Only faith matters, and this was the point that Paul wanted to drive home to his audience. “There is no one righteous, not even one;there is no one who understands;there is no one who seeks God.All have turned away,they have together become worthless;there is no one who does good,not even one.”Romans 3:10-12 (NIV) There is No One Righteous…
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Addressing the Jewish believers in his letter to the Roman church, Paul points out that those who claim to uphold the law are often the very ones breaking it. Their over-reliance on the law and the hypocrisy in the way they follow it were causing others to turn away from God. Paul reminds them that if the heart is not aligned with God, then outward symbolic acts like circumcision, which the Jews held onto dearly especially after returning from exile in Babylon, become meaningless and are tantamount to blasphemy. You who boast in the law, do you dishonor God by…
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In his letter to the church in Rome, Paul warns believers against judging one another, especially new believers who are coming into the body of Christ. He reminds them that as humans, we are prone to err and therefore have no basis to stand in judgment over another person. Only God is positioned to judge us, and we will not escape His judgment if we create barriers that keep people from coming to Him through our judgmental attitude. The irony is that sometimes we condemn in others the very same things that we ourselves struggle with in different ways. But…
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Ever since Paul’s life was transformed that night on the road to Road to Damascus, his ministry, by and large, had been among the Gentiles. Just as Peter and the other apostles chose to present the case for Jesus as the Messiah among the Jewish communities, Paul—though a lifelong Pharisee steeped in Jewish rituals— chose a different path. Whether by choice or calling, he devoted himself to traveling to distant regions and islands, proclaiming the good news and the hope that comes with it. Although he was well known—perhaps even infamous—among the Gentile followers, he remained relatively unknown among the…
The Jordan Valley 