Studying His Word and His Works

Listen to the study here: Romans 16:1-27

Read here: Romans 16

Review

• Calvin on the theme of Romans: “Man’s only righteousness is the mercy of God in Christ, when it is offered by the Gospel and received by faith.” Romans 1:17 and elsewhere.
• IMPORTANT: Paul wrote the letter to the saints (1:7), and the letter is about the gospel, which is a reminder we need to preach the gospel to ourselves daily. 
• Luther: Simul iustus et peccator = At the same time, righteous and a sinner! Romans 3:23-25
• In Ch. 1-3 Paul shows us our unrighteousness, and God’s wrath against that, and then switches to Christ’s righteousness as our covering, the propitiation of our sins (Romans 3:25) as the final sacrifice for sin, fulfilling the promise to Abraham, who had faith before any works
• Faith being “counted” or “credited to our account” as righteousness is mentioned 11 times in Chapter 4! If “none are righteous” as Paul wrote in Romans 3:10, then this saving faith must be a gift from God.
• Ch. 5, We now have peace with God, access to God, and hope, because of what Christ did for us while we were weak(v. 6), sinners (v. 8), and enemies (v. 10). Christ did this “at the right time,” (v. 6), connecting Christ’s work on the cross and God’s plan of redemption to real history (not just a myth or legend).
  • Atonement(5:6-11): Jesus satisfying God’s wrath for us through His sacrificial death on the cross.
• Ch. 5 and 6 describe federalism, this idea of one man making a difference, for righteousness (Jesus) or wickedness (Adam). 
• Ch 6 ended with lots of words pointing to the new road we are now on with Christ, the sanctification road.
  • Service is the key word, “slaves” used 8 times
  • “Present yourselves”(5), “Leads to”(5)
• Sproul: “our regeneration, our rebirth was the work of one Person, God. It was not a joint venture; but from the moment we take our first breath of regenerated spiritual life, it  becomes a joint effort.” the work of one Person is what salvation is about. The joint venture is what sanctification is about. Ch.6 ends and we continue into Ch.7 describing what this “sanctification road” looks like to walk down. We were on the sin road that leads to death, but now we are on the grace road that leads to eternal life.
• Chapter 8 is describing the assurance we have as Christians in salvation. Deus pro nobis – God for us. It is a reminder of God’s sovereignty over our salvation, and God’s infinite wisdom, in the creation, fall, redemption plan he has for not just us, but the whole world. Ultimately, God, not us, foreknows, predestines, calls, justifies and glorifies. There are many verses (Romans 2:4, John 3:16, etc) that point to God’s patience with everyone, His love for everyone, that none should perish (2 Peter 3:9), so I believe there is some free will in there somewhere, perhaps an ability to answer the call, or not. But, even if we answer the call, it is God who initiated. Even if we are crying out for God, “feeling our way to Him” like Acts 17:27 says, we are only doing this because He has already called. We are MORE THAN CONQUERORS, not on our own of course, but “through Him who loved us” from before time began. 
• Chapter 9 continues on the point of election, which, if you think about it, Paul has been discussing since Romans 1:1 when he said he was “set apart”. Paul continues to hammer the point that it is God’s free will, not ours, that matters most. It’s good to keep in mind the complexity of God, as he is not just electing, but he is doing a bunch of things simultaneously and eternally. He is electing, foreknowing, predestining, calling, justifying, glorifying, answering prayer, “giving them over to a debased mind” (Romans 1:28-32) while also being kind as a means to lead people to repentance (Romans 2:4), showing mercy to some and hardening others (9:18). It’s like God is working on an eternal and therefore infinite scale, but also an instantaneous and therefore infinitesimal scale. Pastor John Macarthur, who went home to Jesus recently, described this as a parallelism, God’s sovereign election running alongside the “whoever believes in Him will have eternal life” of John 3:16. It is Euler’s “every instant,” of God initiating, so the saved are always indebted to Him. And it’s also Paul’s “unceasing anguish” for the lost in 9:2, something we should ask God to give us, too. And something that clearly shows that God predestines us to a team, His team, and we are working with Him to save sinners. He’s just team captain and MVP. He gets all the glory!
  • Also remember that Paul references almost 50 OT verses in Chapter 9 alone. He is retelling Israel’s story in many places to serve as a reminder of God’s sovereign will over nations, but also individuals like Pharoah, Moses, Jacob and Esau, etc. Some want to say election is only about nations, or only individuals, but this is another both/and. 
  • Romans 9:6 is key (I think) to understanding a lot of Ch. 9-11. We need to keep going back to this, that “not all Israel belongs to Israel.” What Paul is getting at here is that true Israel are believers, regardless of nation or ancestry.
• Chapter 10 also discusses election, as well as Macarthur’s “parallelism”, or even the “3 strands are not easily broken” analogy in Ecclesiastes 4:12. That’s more like what some of Chapter 10 is describing, because God could just yell the gospel down from heaven if wanted, but he chooses to use us, weak on our own but strong in Him. Ch. 10 describes a deep, personal bond God has with believers. Paul also describes Israel’s history of disobedience, how they did not hear the gospel, but in Ch. 11 again reminds that God preserves a remnant.
• Chapter 11 describes one tree, with branches being broken off and grafted in. One body of covenant believers, and broken branches are those who had the outward signs like circumcision (OT) or baptism (NT) but no belief, no Holy Spirit-given gift of faith, no imputation of Christ’s righteousness. Chapter 11 hints that God works through individuals of course, but also nations, and that He is not done with ethnic Israel. He used Israel’s “stumbling” to lead the gentiles to salvation, and these verses say he will eventually use the gentiles to lead Israel to salvation. Paul also reiterates that salvation is by grace, not works, that God is merciful in spite of man’s disobedience. Paul ends Ch. 11 with what Calvin called “finitum non capax infinitum,” meaning, “the finite cannot grasp the fullness of the infinite.” Stay humble, don’t think you have to figure everything out about God because you can’t! It’s also important to note that in Ch. 11, Paul is merely saying that God still has a plan for Israel. The only emphasis Paul makes in Ch. 9-11 is on their salvation, on a mission mindset, which is something modern evangelical churches should refocus on. Getting away from blind political support for Israel, and praying for and getting the gospel to Jew and Gentile in the region. 
• Chapter 12 saw a switch from mostly describing God and his character, to application for believers. To discipleship. Verses 1-2 describe the importance for Christians to turn from the world, the “spirit of the age” and present themselves to Christ. With the Holy Spirit in you now as a Christian, He WILL renew your mind, whether you like it or not, but it is a joint effort, it is clear it is not robotic, you have choices to make, to turn and present (v. 1), or not, to think with sober judgment (v. 3), or not, to do everything in verses 9-21 that you can as a Christian, or not. Verses 3-8 focused on spiritual gifts, which make us unique in the body, while verses 9-21 describe things that all Christians can be, regardless of gifts. Ch. 12 ended with a Proverbs 25:21-22 reference to smother evil with good, and a judicial system that upholds 10 Commandment based laws is one way. All three spheres (family, church, civil government) executing justice and mercy in accordance with their positions is a good thing
• Chapter 13 was about responding biblically to government and what ideal, godly government should look like. It ended by describing how we should treat our neighbors, which means both Christians and non-Christians, in agape love, which is a fulfillment of the law. 
• Chapter 14 focused on how to behave as a church body. We are dead in our sins but alive in Christ. We are not alive in our personal rules and regulations. We are not alive in gluten free eating or essential oil use or being “reformed” or “prosperity gospel followers,” etc. We are alive in Christ alone, because of Christ alone. As we walk the Christian walk in a church, there are clearly stronger arguments (meaning more supported by Scripture) and weaker ones, and we should run to the stronger ones and build weaker ones up in peace, joy and righteousness, not destroying them over non-salvation matters like food, which could destroy their weak faith even more.
• Chapter 15 draws Paul’s letter to a close, keeping the focus on Christ while emphasizing the “go” aspect that began in Ch. 12, that discipleship involves missions to unreached people. But, one might argue Paul spends even more time on discipleship of fellow believers, of being the “strong man”, the man whose mind is actively being renewed in Christ. Weak don’t disciple strong in an effort to bring them down and back into the world. Strong disciple weak in humility, in prayer, through the Word and through material blessings when called for. Ch. 15 also reviews some of the Romans 1-11 attributes of God, including endurance (patience), encouragement, truthfulness, mercy, hope and peace. It reminds that the story has always been first and foremost about the faithful, not people groups(verse 8 reference to 4:16). Christ did not come to replace but to confirm the promises given to the patriarchs, to show God’s truthfulness through all history. 

• Intro
  • Key words: Jesus/Christ/Lord/God (24), greet/greeting(19) ; You/your (10); brothers/kinsmen (7); church, work (5); house, saints (4).
  • Note all the greetings and how many people Paul knew, highlighting “faith without works is dead” people. While it does seem a bit much to greet all these people, think deeper about what is going on here. This is the body of Christ. Just as your body doesn’t function well without its parts working together, the church body doesn’t work well unless the parts are connecting, relating. All of these people, important. Individuals. Husband/wife teams. Families. The strong horizontal bonds over large distances is something to remember here, something to apply in your own life. 
• Verses 1-2
  • Paul begins with Phoebe, a woman who served a church in a coastal town near Corinth. Sproul says the Greek for servant here is diakonia, which some translations render as “deaconess.” Sproul says the most generic term in the New Testament for a church worker is diakonia, a position all believers are called to. Sproul doesn’t directly say here that he is against the idea of a deaconess, but he does mention how there were no woman apostles, and also mentions restrictions placed on women in Paul’s letters to Timothy and Titus. This goes back to the idea of federalism we discussed from Romans 5. Eve was the first to sin, but Paul describes sin entering the world through one man, Adam (5:12). Biblically, the man is the head of a household as the men are the head of the church. Within that, women have a very obvious and large responsibility that can change the direction of families, of churches, and of nations. People want to make a big deal about women deacons and women pastors, but that does run counter to the natural flow of God’s design in everything He wrote from Genesis to Revelation. If the hierarchy found in Scripture was meant to be demeaning, there would be NO mention of women. Paul would not finish his long and very important letter by first honoring a woman and directing others to support her.
  • You know that when you go to church, there are some people who are incredible servants, and some who just sit and complain. That can be a man or a woman. Clearly, Paul is honoring Phoebe as an incredible servant, a standout, someone God placed in a special position to serve in amazing ways.
  • I wonder how all of that happened? More than likely, Phoebe just started showing up, started serving, building relationships. If you find yourself in a new church, or even your current church, and you’re not sure what to do, just start showing up. Be a yes man or woman, be observant, watching, listening for needs.
    • For example, what if someone said the bathroom is out of toilet paper. Well, don’t just stand there! Respond with, “oh, where’s the toilet paper, I’ll go put some more in!” There is no task that is beneath you. Stack some chairs. Or show up early and place some chairs. Join others in prayer, come early and stay late. Do you think Phoebe was mentioned by the author of a huge part of the New Testament because she showed up late and left early and ate all the food at potlucks and then complained about how there wasn’t enough dessert and didn’t bring anything herself? And never shared the gospel with anyone?  No, that is not who Paul is honoring here.
• Verse 3
  • Again, Paul could have just sent greetings to the husband, Aquila, but he includes his wife, Prisca. This is actually her nickname, her full name is Priscilla, found in Acts 18. Using nicknames suggests Paul knew them really well, and he also knows they have a home church, a good reminder that Christianity is not a building, a temple or synagogue, it’s people. We are the temple now, 1 Cor 6:19.
  • Persecution for a common cause brings people together, separates the wheat from the chaff, the believers from the lukewarm and the scoffers. Look at v. 3 again, Paul’s life was preserved by this husband/wife team. They risked their necks for Paul, meaning they were almost killed trying to protect him! That’s commitment. Jesus said that’s the greatest love a human can have for another (John 15:13).  
• Verses 4-16
  • Paul writes to greet many others: fellow prisoners, men, women, families, and a family relationship in the body, referring to a woman in v. 13 who was like a mother to Paul. It is easy to skim over this section, but instead it is a great window into early Christian church history and the deep and strong family-like relationship. This is something to pray for in your church, and any future church you are part of. It is not something to skim over, it is something to be part of encouraging and developing in your church. And it is how you will fulfill the obligation in Christ of v. 15:1, of bearing with the weak, of discipleship. The strong man is part of building the familial structure of a church. The weak man divides. The obligation is not a burden, it is the outworking of Christ in us, a Holy Spirit response. John 10:10, the Christian life is abundant life, it is creating and building up. Satan can’t create anything, he can only steal and kill and destroy. Be part of creating abundant life in your church, repent and renew your mind when you fail to do so.
  • There is also a big “both/and” to see in these seemingly boring verses. Think about how Romans began, with Paul declaring himself a servant, AND an apostle, one who had seen Jesus and been commissioned by Jesus himself to share the gospel. So while “apostleship” carried a level of importance, at the same time Paul compares himself as a fellow worker to Prisca and Aquilla in v. 3. He lists all these people and churches and families in a way that doesn’t at all reflect hierarchical dominance, but instead reflects unity and Christian brotherhood and the humble reminder that all are sinners, equally damned, but equally saved by Christ alone. In Christ, it is possible to be both a leader (apostle) and fellow worker. That’s servant leadership. 
• Verses 17-19
  • There is only one type of person Paul says to avoid: smooth-talking deceivers. The ones bringing a false gospel, teaching in a way that is contrary to the doctrine. Paul laid out doctrine in Romans 1-11. Some key points include:
    • God’s triune nature, that Father, Son, Holy Spirit are all God.
    • That none are righteous, and subjected to God’s wrath, but God is patient, and His kindness is meant to lead us to repentance.
    • That God is both just and the justifier, giving wrath or mercy, which is ultimately His choice, not ours.
    • That the story has always been about the faithful, not about the works of men and nations.
    • That the Bible is true history. That Adam was the first man and brought sin on humanity and creation. That at the right time, Christ died, our sins imputed to him. It took a man of perfect obedience to overcome the curse brought on humanity by the first man. 
    • That God chooses us and we don’t choose God.
    • That God could have chosen to just shout the gospel from Heaven, but instead He chose to use believers to spread the gospel and build the church. 
    • That God is omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent.
    • That making disciples is one of our outward responses to salvation.
  • A good way to get into doctrine even more is to read Romans again(seriously!), plus all the OT verses Paul referenced. Another good way is to get a good systematic theology book, which has sections on the doctrine of man, of God, etc. 
  • Super important to see how well Paul knew the OT. This is the anchor of true doctrine, of Romans 1-11. This is the best way to spot false doctrines, when they contradict the story of God and man as laid out in the OT and referenced in the NT.
  • Common false doctrines include 1) Jesus was not God(Mormon, JW, Islam, Jew), 2) there was no resurrection(progressive), 3) that works are a requirement for salvation (RC), not a natural response of Christ in us, a result of being saved by faith, saved by God and not ourselves. Rescued like a dead man drowning, resuscitated with a God-breathed faith, not a man-based effort. 4) Praying to dead saints (RC and Orthodox). 
  • Be wise as to what is good and innocent as to what is evil.
    • Prioritize spending time in God’s word over things like understanding false doctrines like Mormonism, Islam, etc. If you understand Mormonism but can’t defend Christianity when it contradicts Mormonism, that would be the opposite of what Paul is encouraging here. Not that you shouldn’t study Mormonism, but that the strong man knows Scripture best, and in a discussion with a Mormon neighbor could spot false doctrine because of what he knows in Scripture. 
    • Avoid them. 2 John 10 and other places say the same thing, like don’t invite them into your house to teach. Inviting them to your house is one thing, inviting them to teach is another.
• Verse 20
  • Verse 20 is a reference to Genesis 3:15, and also Psalm 110:1. God will make your enemies a footstool. Here, it says God will crush Satan under whose feet? Your feet! Going back to Romans 10, God could have just shouted the Gospel from Heaven, but instead chose to use people to spread His word. Seems like a weird way to do it, I mean, He is God, why not just do it Himself, that just seems like a lot better method. It would be more accurate, more thorough, more excellent in every way. No, instead, he chose to use people. Think of all the upbuilding Paul has been writing about lately. He is talking about being Christ-like, not neglecting and ignoring, but pulling up out of the fray to be glorified. And here we see it again, God is not going to crush Satan on his own, but he is going to have humans participate in this victory. We are to be “terrorists of bad conduct”, Romans 13:3. Remember that in America, the system is set up for “we the people” to be the rulers described in Romans 13. We are the holy terrorists, not the FBI, etc.
    • By soon, Paul didn’t know when this would happen, nor does he ever do any “date setting,” He could be referring to the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple. The Greek here is “en tachei”, the root of the word tachometer, aka speedometer. So, in speed, in quickness. A review of the Greek translation suggests that this means that when God acts, it will be exceedingly fast. Like when he only took 6 days to make the universe, 40 days for the Flood, 3 days for Christ’s death, burial and resurrection. So, when God crushes Satan under your feet, it will be “in quickness”. One and done.
• Verse 21
  • Timothy and some other countrymen send their greetings. 
• Verse 22
  • Tertius wrote the letter, not Paul! Scribes were common back then and all the way to today (secretary). Apparently, Paul had some vision problems, perhaps from his meeting Jesus in all his glory on the road to Damascus? That is speculation, but Gal 6:11 does suggest Paul had vision problems based on the “large letters” he wrote with.
  • A personal secretary like this was called an amanuensis. Leonhard Euler, the greatest mathematician ever, had an amanuensis for the last 12 years of his life due to vision problems, but he still wrote an average of 800 pages per year of original math research. Jeremiah, an OT prophet, had an amanuensis. God himself used many amanuenses to record His word!  
• Verses 23-24
  • Some more greetings are mentioned. 
• Verses 25-27
  • The OT mystery of a coming messiah has been revealed or disclosed. At that point in history, we can look back at Romans 11 to be reminded what was happening, including the hardening of Israel, the softening of the Gentiles, and the future expectation of Israel’s salvation. All the while, it has always been about the faithful.
    • Paul refers to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ. Of course, this is God’s gospel, revealed to Paul, who spent these 16 chapters making his points with a mighty arsenal of OT Scripture references. Sproul nicely summarizes “Paul’s gospel”:
      • “Without the righteousness of Christ, you and I are finished. Without imputation there is no justification, and without justification by faith alone, there is no gospel.”
      • The following are some Romans verses describing “Paul’s gospel”:
        • Righteousness of God (Romans 1:17, 3:5, 3:21, 3:22, 3:25, 3:26, 10:3)
        • Humans have no righteousness (Romans 3:10-20, 3:23)
        • God’s wrath revealed against unrighteousness (Romans 1:18)
        • Jesus’ righteous act of dying for our sins placed God’s wrath on Him instead of us. We are justified through Christ’s death, burial and resurrection (Romans 3:23-26, 5:18). Our sins imputed to Him.
        • Christ’s righteousness imputed to us is a free gift, received by faith, not works. It is a gift received from the Holy Spirit, infused in us, not something we stick our hands out to receive, but a “joint effort” immediately after that. We don’t make ourselves righteous, we are made righteous. (Romans 1:17, 3:22, 4:3, 4:5, 4:6, 4:9, 4:11, 4:13, 4:22, 5:17, 5:19(made righteous), 8:4, 9:31, 10:4).
        • The gospel is about being born again, becoming slaves to Christ’s righteousness, walking the sanctification road leading to eternal life. (Romans 5:17, 5:21, 6:16, 6:18, 6:19, 8:10, 14:17) 
      • The theme of righteousness occurs most frequently in Romans, by a long shot, compared to any other book in the Bible. About 3x more than Proverbs or Psalms, the next highest rate. 
      • The letter, which Sproul describes as Paul’s “magnum opus”, ends with the idea of soli Deo gloria, or glory to God alone, through Jesus Christ. TGBTG, or TGBTGTJC=To God Be the Glory Through Jesus Christ. 
      • And the last word, Amen, is related to Hebrew aman, meaning truth. And to that I say, AMEN!