E408: Reading Romans Intro Ch 1

Benjamin Lee: All right, we are back. I posted an episode on my on the I Can Do podcast, the one you're listening to now. I'm also going to put this on my Bible with Benjamin Lee podcast as well, if I'm able to, about my USA memory championship. I'm going after that. That will be July 18th. I've been doing a lot of studying, a lot of preparation. I've also come to the realization that I'm going to need Full year. I'm gonna do this one this year and then Lord willing plan on doing it next year as I dive into it even more There's a website called memory leagues memory league comm I believe and there's different games. It's gonna take a lot of work. So I'm still working through that making Mind maps using my Roman Roman room Roman palaces room palaces as well going through some modules to And part of the reason is to just to improve. And so I was thinking today, I'm recording this on a Saturday. I am teaching the Book of Romans for the next six months, started in April, almost halfway through now in May. And I also now want to have some active recall. And active recall is one of the best ways to study and to really embed what we are learning. So what I do want to do is to resume recording episodes. These episodes are going to be five to seven minutes and I want to walk through the book of Romans. And so this is going to be something a little bit different, but I think this would be a great journey for me and for you and to study God's word, to learn more about the gospel of Jesus Christ for the I Can Do podcast. I do have a whole other series as well. ⁓ that's ready or almost ready. It's called Top 10 Takeaways from CEOs. I've had a number of CEOs on this podcast. And so I think I may dive into that as well. But you're going to be hearing a lot more from the Book of Romans as I go through the Book of Romans. And this certainly will help me. And hopefully this will help you with your faith. Maybe you don't believe Jesus is the Son of God. Maybe there's something here. I know there is because the Word of God is powerful. that will get you to consider and to ponder more about God, more about His Son, Jesus Christ. So what I want to do, I want to start in Romans chapter one, and I want to read the first seven verses. Paul, a bond servant of Christ Jesus, called as an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy scriptures, concerning his son who was born of a descendant of David according to the flesh. who was declared the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead according to the Spirit of holiness, Jesus Christ our Lord, through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles for His name's sake, among whom you also are the called of Jesus Christ. To all who are beloved of God in Rome, called as saints grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. So I want to give you some background information about the book. Whenever you read a book in the New Testament, any letter that Paul wrote or someone else, there's always a purpose behind the letter. And so within the letter, we get a lot of information that will help us to understand why Paul was writing to the people that he was writing to. So number one we see, and you can see this a lot too as you study the New Testament books or epistles, the first seven verses here really give a nice outline of what this book is gonna be talking about and what Paul is gonna be discussing. He emphasizes the gospel of God in verse number one. He's gonna talk a lot about the gospel. In fact, he's gonna give a more full explanation of the gospel of Jesus Christ in the entire book of Romans. In verse 9, as we'll get to, he's going to talk about the gospel of his son. He's eager to preach the gospel in verse 16 or verse 15. And then he says that he's not ashamed of the gospel. And he explains why in verse 16. For it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it, the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith. as it is written, but the righteous man shall live by faith." Romans 1 verse 16 and 17 could be described as really the thesis statement, really the launching point of the entire book. Paul is going to be emphasizing the gospel of Jesus Christ. We know that it was Paul who wrote this according to Romans 1 and verse number 1. At the end of the book in Romans chapter 16, let me turn over there. In Romans chapter 16 and verse 22, it says, I, Tertius, who write this letter, greet you in the Lord. So Tertius would have been Paul's assistant, someone who wrote his words down, but these words came from the apostle Paul, who was inspired by the Holy Spirit. We know that Paul, is an ⁓ apostle of God. He was set apart for the gospel of God. We read about his conversion stories in Acts chapter 9, chapter 22, and also chapter 26, all in the book of Acts. And we know that he's going to be emphasizing Jesus in the gospel of Jesus Christ. His audience is given to us in verse number seven, to all who are beloved of God in Rome, called as saints. So he's writing to saints. He's writing to believers. He's writing to Christians. So his audience are Christians who are in Rome. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. One quick side note in verse number seven. Saints are people who were alive. A person doesn't become a saint after they die. These were saints already because they had been called by the gospel and they had been set apart to live holy and righteous lives. We get more details in chapter 16 about some of the people that he's writing to. In verse number one, Phoebe is mentioned, ⁓ Prisca and Aquila in verse number three. There are many others all throughout this last chapter in Romans chapter 16. Mary in verse number six, Urbanus in verse number nine, Paul says, our fellow worker in Christ, and so many more. Rufus in verse 13. choice man and the Lord also his mother and mine. So Paul gives us some additional details about who these individuals were. In verse 5 he mentions a Pepinitis, also greet the church that is in their house, greet a Pepinitis, my beloved, who is the first convert in Christ from Asia. So that gives us some more detail about who he was writing to at this time. Paul did not establish the church ⁓ in Rome or the churches that were in Rome. ⁓ There are some questions about who was the first one there or who preached the gospel there first. We know in Acts chapter 2 and verse number 10 on the day of Pentecost, in Acts 2, and let me turn over there, in verse number 10, Acts chapter 2 and verse number 10. that there were visitors from Rome, in verse number 10, who heard the gospel and who may have also obeyed the gospel at that time. We also know that Priscilla and Aquila were in Rome for a period of time, in Acts chapter 18, and then they were commanded to leave, along with all the Jews, to leave Rome for a period of time due to Claudius and that ⁓ instruction or command that he gave for the Jews to leave. They are back here where Paul is now writing to them along with a number of other disciples as well. He mentions in verse 16, greet one another with a holy kiss. All the churches of Christ greet you. So he's writing to saints and with any letter it's important to understand what's the purpose. Well we know that there are Gentiles that he is writing to. This is evident as Paul is going to lay out in the first three chapters that all have sinned, both Jews and Gentiles have sinned. ⁓ We know that he's also going to be writing to the Jews as well. One of the themes that he's going to emphasize is both to the Jew first and also to the Greek in Romans 1 and verse 16. We're going to see this same language in chapter 2 and verse number 10, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. We're going to see in chapter 3 that all have sinned. both Jews and Gentiles alike have sinned. During this time, the things that were happening in the culture would have a direct impact upon the people of God. And Paul is going to be writing the book of Romans to help them to maintain the unity that they have in Christ. There is no boasting for Jewish Christians. There's no boasting for Gentile Christians because we all have nothing to boast about. It is only because of what Christ has accomplished. And so Paul is going to be emphasizing here this relationship that they have. The Gentile Christians, the Jewish Christians, during this time, people would view themselves and others based upon what groups or social status that they were a part of. We know that the Jews often viewed the Gentiles as being inferior as well. And so the reason why Paul goes into such an explanation of the Gospel is to give them a more detailed explanation of the gospel that there's no room for anyone Jew or Gentile to boast. And so that's going to be important as we go through this book as well. In Romans 3 and verse number 29, he says, Or is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also. Since indeed God who would justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith as one. So Paul's going to be addressing and talking more about the gospel, helping the saints to maintain the unity, understanding that no one has any room to boast, whether you're a Jew, whether you're from the descendant of David or Abraham, or whether you are a Gentile. So I can see already I'm almost at 12 minutes, so I'm going to stop here and I will continue to make these a little bit shorter so we can process recall and remember what we're going through in the book of Romans. Thank you so much. Take care and God bless.