Dead to Sin, Alive in Christ

Romans 6:1-14

Welcome back to the book of Romans, the most comprehensive and detailed explanation of the gospel in the New Testament, the good news of salvation through Jesus. What have we learned so far? At the beginning of this book Paul spends a few chapters making the case for the universal need for salvation. Everyone has sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, as it says in chapter 3. No one can approach God on their own. There is no hope of our good deeds somehow outweighing our bad ones, as the Muslims believe. No one will ever be good enough to satisfy a perfectly holy God. Our only hope is to humbly receive the salvation that he offers us, with Jesus having paid the penalty for our sin through his death on the cross. God’s own righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. This free gift that we don’t deserve is called grace.

The Gift is Not Like the Trespass

Romans 5:12-21

At the beginning of our study in Romans, we looked at Romans 1:16-17: “I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed…”  One of the main things Paul was doing was explaining the gospel to the Romans.  The message of the gospel isn’t just the death of Jesus, His resurrection, and us receiving the gift He gave on the cross.  The gospel message is simple but it’s multi-faceted, like a diamond.  In Romans, Paul is showing us the many facets.

Saved from Wrath

Romans 5:1-11

 

Good morning!  We’ve got more good news from Romans today.  God is good. 

We’ve gone through four chapters in Paul’s letter to the church at Rome.  We’ve talked about the introduction and theme of this letter which is the righteousness which comes from God rather than from anything we do.  It’s summed up in Romans 1:16-17:

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile.  For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed--a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.”  —Romans 1:16-17

Exhibit A: Abraham

Romans 4:1-25

Welcome! Today we continue our journey into faith and the gospel through the book of Romans, focusing on Chapter 4. After learning the bad news of our sin and separation from God through Romans Chapter 1, 2, and the first part of 3, we finally learned the good news:

But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. – Romans 3:21-24

Righteousness Through Faith?

Romans 3:20-31

Good morning!  We’re continuing in our series on the book of Romans.  Today, we’ll finish up the end of chapter 3.  Even though we’re in the same chapter, we are turning a page compared to the last three weeks.  In those passages, we were confronted with humankind’s need for salvation.  All people need saving, Jewish people, non-Jewish people, lawless and lawful, everyone needs saving.