ROMANS Chapter 1, Vs 1-7

My wife and I are working our way through Tom Nelson's, the teaching pastor at Denton Bible Church in Denton, TX, current sermon series on the book of Romans. You can download it for free on iTunes, just search podcasts for "Denton Bible Church". I will post my notes on his sermons (currently he is somewhere in the 20's, and the series began back in October!) as we delve into his teaching on this book.

Tommy Nelson Study- ROMANS

OVERVIEW
1. Most important book in Bible

2. Theme- How a perfect, holy God can get an imperfect man into a perfect, holy place and yet remain perfect without compromising His holiness.

3. Purpose- Paul had never been to Rome, and word on the street was that he was afraid to go to Rome because he couldn’t preach it to Rome, the height of culture, the “enlightened” philosophers, the classic “city of Man”, and hold up to Rome’s (man’s) intellectual attack on it. But Paul had wanted to go to Rome, but God had not allowed him to do so yet, thus the writing of this letter.

Chapter Breakdown by Subject:

• Ch 1-3: Condemnation
• Ch 4-5: Justification
• Ch 6-8: Sanctification
• Ch 9-11: Vindication of God’s Sovereignty
• Ch 12-16: Application
  
  CHAPTER 1: Vs 1-7 Faith’s Foundations
  

Vs 1: The Author- Paul

• A servant and apostle- one who saw and was sent forth
• Was given a message by God himself
• He is not a mystic, a thinker

Vs 2: The Source

• Promised beforehand by his prophets- not in man, but of God
• In the Holy Scriptures- purpose of the Old Testament was to show you your sin and point you to Christ
• If Moses, David, or Elijah were here, they would believe in Christ

Vs 3-4: The Focus

• Regarding His Son- Jesus- perfect humanity and deity
• He was fully man- a descendent of David
• He is also fully God
• He died and was resurrected- proving/declaring his deity- declaring = “horitzo” in Greek- translated into appointed, determined, something clearly marked out
• He showed that death has no power over him
• Thus, Jesus is the Son of David who was resurrected- He is the Messiah- he fulfilled the prophesies, thus He is our LORD

Vs 5: The Purpose

• Human salvation depends on obedience by faith and this only

Vs 6: The Scope

• God has commanded all mankind to repent- those that worship the earth, idols, other things are to abandon that way of thinking and repent of that and come to their Creator or risk being judged accordingly

Vs 6: The Recipients

• Those who were called- God summoned the Christians, they are the objects of His grace, even though he commanded all to repent, only the Christians have obeyed
• Has nothing to do with moral or intellectual superiority or any other characteristic of man

Vs 7: Benefits of Being Saved- Sainthood

• He LOVES us and because of this we are to be progressively changed in Christ throughout our lives in a process that will culminate with our resurrection to be with Him on the day of judgment to join the family of God. When He looks at us He sees His Son, and His righteousness has been imputed to us through our faith in Him alone. We are thus reconciled to God.