An overview of Romans 2

This transcript has been automatically generated

Good stuff. Let’s start again.

We’re on to the next heading, the effect of the gospel, chapters 5 to 8. The effect of the gospel, the conquest of sin and death. Just a quick recap where we’ve got to. The whole world, as we’ve seen, deserving of wrath, everyone without exception. But at the same time, anyone, Jew or Gentile, can be counted right, justified, righteousified.

Can have the righteousness of God counted to them by simply putting their trust in Jesus and that and that alone. And all that we’ve seen leads Paul to the awesome implication of chapter 5, verse 9. Chapter 5, verse 9. Since therefore we have now been justified by His blood, much more shall we be saved by Him. From the wrath of God.

Paul’s point is, not only do we presently have the legal declaration of righteousness from God, but that means that, that set-in-stone righteous status guarantees that in the future we will be saved from the reality of God’s wrath when it is poured out on that day of wrath. We will be saved, not just justified, that is guaranteed, but the justification guarantees that we will be saved. It’s a bit like one of those little dockets that you get, those receipts when you order something in Argos. Many of you have probably never been to Argos, it’s not your type of place. I’m looking at you, Nim Anderson.

But you get those little numbers and when the number comes up, you go to the collection point and you pick up your nasal hair remover kit that you’ve been waiting for. And while you’re waiting, you know it’s guaranteed, you know it’s absolutely coming, Because you’ve got the receipt. It’s in stock. You know the outcome of the future. A little bit like that.

We will be saved from the wrath of God. We will enjoy the reality of the glory of heaven because our righteous status is ours now. The guarantee of what will come in the future. That is, for the person who’s put their faith in Jesus, this great transfer has happened. We see in chapter 5.

We have moved from one reality, one humanity, to another. We’ve moved out of the old fallen humanity of Adam and been transformed and transferred into the new righteous humanity of Christ. And the rest of chapter 5 sees Paul showing us how we have been moved out of that domain, out of that dominion, out of that kingdom, the kingdom of Adam, into the kingdom of Jesus. But rather than me rabbiting on. I’m going to give us a chance to do some work in pairs.

And I wonder if we could answer the question in the box on the handout, which is page— what is it— 6. Is that right? Yeah. Great. Let’s go for it for a couple of minutes if that’s all right.

Okay. I wonder how we got on. I’m not going to ask us to feed back. But I imagine for most of us, we found most of that pretty straightforward. 2 distinct realms, 2 different distinct experiences.

Lots of it very straightforward, but I wonder where people wanted to put the law. That was a tricky one. Do I have nods? Yeah? Others found that difficult?

Well, here is the shock, and it’s very much connected to what’s going on in this section. Paul very much puts the law in the realm of Adam. Now, we may not feel the shock of that. Well, no, it’s tricky because there’s— It’s tricky. It’s not straightforward, but certainly to start off with, the law appears to be in the realm of Adam.

The Mosaic Law, that wonderful pristine provision of the righteous character of God displayed to his people, that is placed in that realm of Adam, which is the same realm as we find sin and death. It’s a real shock. Those transferred to the realm of Jesus are released from the law. We see in this section. So, for example, at the end of chapter 6, verse 14, you are not under law but under grace.

Or could somebody read the first half of chapter 7, verse 4?

Like Christ and brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ. Yeah. Somebody else read the first half of chapter 7, verse 6, the same idea. But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive. So, died to the law, released from the law, no longer under the law, and you can imagine the objection, what?

What, Paul? I mean, you really are against the Old Testament, aren’t you? You are surely taking away the law of God, the holy law of God, from God’s people. Surely this is a key piece of evidence that proves that Paul’s Gospel is this nuvo, new, different gospel that contradicts the Old Testament.

If we know our Old Testament Law at all, surely we would see that the Law is God’s great instrument for restraining sin, or so we might suppose. Blessings and curses were promised to God’s people under the Law. You know the dynamic in Deuteronomy 28 and Deuteronomy 30, and summarised in Leviticus 18:5: obey life, Obey the law and see life. Disobey and see death. That’s the dynamic.

Surely the great solution to sin and death is the law. The law offers righteousness and life, if you can do it. But now you’re giving people life for not keeping the law. You’ve just removed the incentive to avoid sin and live righteously. It’s going to be chaos.

This gospel of grace of yours, Paul, seems like somebody taking away all the rules from children and giving them chocolate every time they mess up. Paul, you seem to be doing the very same thing. In chapter 5, verse 21, you say that as sin increased, grace abounded all the more. As sin increased, grace abounded all the more. You seem to be saying that it’s great when we mess up because it displays God’s grace.

You seem to be removing the incentive to live righteously. Well, this is the dilemma. What happens when you remove the law? As Paul is proposing? Well, option 1 is that people are liberated to sin.

That’s the first option on our handouts.

And that would seem to be the obvious outcome of what is happening. The world would go wild with sin. As Paul puts it in chapter 6, verse 15, what then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? That’s the accusation.

If your Gospel, Paul, is so big on forgiveness, and now you’ve removed the incentive to live righteously, what is the point in doing good? You are promoting moral chaos. And again, just imagine if this was actually true, if that was actually what happened, if God’s Gospel promoted sin. It would make the God of the Gospel an immoral monster, it would make Him a negligent parent, a careless God who approves of abuse, who smiles at oppression, who gives His tick of approval to greed, who likes stealing, who encourages cheating and lying and so on. Paul speaks so positively about the realm of Jesus that God has rescued people for, but surely it can’t be that good a place if it means being involved in the presence of a God who’s like that.

You see the dilemma and the tension. Imagine the law as a sword that has been given to God’s people in the Old Testament. With this sword, they were able to fight sin, and so obey God, and have eternal life. That’s the theory. But with Paul’s Gospel, this sword has been taken away from people, and now they’ve got nothing to fight sin with, and it results in disaster.

So is that what removing the law does? Does it liberate people for sin? The other option, which is our second heading, is that people are liberated instead to obey. Paul’s answer, of course, is that what he is doing in the Gospel is not to liberate people to sin. Removing the law does not cause this situation, actually the very opposite, it liberates people finally to live righteously.

You see, Paul says that the law is, in and of itself, a good and righteous thing. That’s clear, isn’t it, as you read it? It reflects the pure moral character of God. That’s obvious. But actually, it didn’t help sinful man fight sin.

In fact, sin used the law against me, Paul says. I thought it would be a great method for self-defense, but sin grabbed the sword of the law out of my hand and thrust it in my heart as a weapon. The very thing that looked so promising was used by sin actually to bring death. That’s what Paul is saying in chapter 7, verse 5. Could somebody read it, please?

For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in our members to bear fruit for death.

And again, verse 11, the same dynamic.

Somebody read that for us would be great. For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, that is the law, deceived me and through it killed me. And that is how it used to be all the time for sinful man when sinful man came in contact with the law. Sinful man, sinful nature, and the law together was a recipe for disaster.

It brought death. But now, for the person who has been justified by faith in Christ, something extraordinary has happened. Now get this, as we put our faith in Jesus, we have been united to Him. That is what’s going on in chapters 5 and 6. And now, as Paul says, that we are in Christ.

We’ve seen, on the one hand, what He has done for us by counting Christ’s righteous status to us. That’s understood. But also, His death works for us in other ways. By being united to Him in His death, it means we are now dead to that whole realm of Adam. The slave master of sin that used to rule there is no longer our master, and we’ve been set free.

And that also means that we are dead to the law, as he explains in chapter 7. We’ve been released from the law as our master. As Paul says in chapter 7, verse 6, but now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in a new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code. You see what Paul is saying? This is really important for us to grasp.

Overcoming sin does not come by the sword of the law. The law is powerless to fight sin. In fact, the law kills us. It comes by the power of the Spirit who has invaded into our lives. As those who have the Spirit of Christ now living in us for the first time ever, finally we’re actually able to fight sin and live righteously.

It’s not a perfect victory. It’s very important for us to grasp that. We can’t go into the details of Romans chapter 7 now, but I’m persuaded that that the person that Paul is speaking about in Romans 7 is still his experience as a Christian. He’s describing what it is like for us as those who are still fleshly. That is, all of us, those who still have mortal fleshly bodies.

He’s speaking as a Christian about our merely human capacity that has been impacted by the fall, our capacity to do right, which is zero in and of ourselves. We still have mortal bodies. We still have the virus of sin dwelling in them. The invasion of the Spirit has begun, but it hasn’t been completed. But now, once the hopeless, the once hopeless inevitability of sin is no longer the case, the Christian is able now, for the first time, to please God.

It’s possible for us to experience some genuine victory in the battle. We are now not totally left completely to our fleshly selves, who by themselves cannot but sin. Instead, now by the Spirit, we can participate in the risen life of Christ.

His Spirit produces in us the righteous life of Christ that we cannot generate in and of ourselves.

Could somebody read chapter 8, verses 8 to 10?

Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life Thank you. As we said, the invasion of the Spirit is not yet complete, but it has begun.

We are waiting for the complete redemption of our mortal bodies, that day when we will have completely sinless bodies. And now, yes, does involve groaning, as Paul speaks about in chapter 8, but at the same time, it is actually possible for the Christian, because of the Spirit, to live in line with the new creation that we’ve been saved for. It’s an extraordinary thing to participate in the life of Christ, the risen life of our Saviour. And that future is one that will be of perfect and complete glory, as Paul speaks about in chapter 8. The time when there will be a total end to the struggle with sin, a total end to suffering which plagues our world, suffering that has come about because of human sin.

The experience of being perfectly conformed to the image and likeness of the Son. Chapter 8, verse 18, Paul says, I consider the sufferings of the present time are not worth comparing to the glory that is to be revealed in us. And how hard we find it, don’t we, to fix our eyes on that future. How quickly our minds are so often focused instead on this world and the world the world around us. And yet the hope of this glorious new creation is certain.

Jesus has guaranteed it, and by His Spirit He is taking us there, step by step, day by day. It’s no wonder Paul says, what then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? Again, I want to give us a moment for questions. I think this is, for me personally, the hardest section of Romans to grasp.

But the basic trajectory and the basic shape of the section, I think, is clear— this move from being united to Christ and being given the Spirit and now being able, in part, to participate in the life of the resurrected Christ.

Any questions?

Sorry. I’ll try and maybe do it in one.

I don’t know if Paul necessarily answers this, but I’m a little bit confused about what he means, for example, in 7:5 and 7:11, where we talked about our sinful passions being aroused by the law and then sin seizing an opportunity because of the law, or like using the law Because from reading that, it almost to me sounds like he’s saying like once we got the law, then like we— like sin used an opportunity, or the law itself made us want to sin. But surely we would have had those sinful passions already. So I know what it sounds like to me is not— is not what he’s saying. So I wonder if you could maybe clarify what he means by being aroused by the law or sin seizing an opportunity through the law? Because I’m not quite sure what you mean there.

Like, surely we have those sinful passions with or without the law. Yeah, I think that’s right. And I think it is partly— it is rhetorical, so it is giving us a dramatic sense. You know, things are personified, so the law is personified, sin’s personified, and gives us something of the dynamic of what is happening. But I think that language of being aroused by the law is true, that actually as my sinful nature, as it comes into contact with God’s truth, God’s Word, actually because of what I’m like, it reacts, it exposes and arouses— that’s the language.

It goes back to the rebellion, the act of rebellion and rejection. Yeah, and the law in and of itself is holy and righteous and just. But when put in— like oil and water— when put in touch with sinful nature, the two don’t mix. The law arouses— it’s the language used— the sinful nature. I mean, the illustration is sometimes used.

I think it’s useful. I mean, you walk along one of those Oxbridge colleges and there’s that beautiful green in the middle. And it says, you know, please do not walk on the grass. In a sense, I never would have thought about breaking the law, but as soon as the thing is there, there’s something in my sinful nature that thinks, oh, I definitely want to walk across the grass. Or, you know, only senior students allowed to graze sheep on this grass.

I’m thinking, where’s my sheep? I want to get a sheep to graze on this grass. Maybe not, but I think that is the sort of sense that is being spoken about. Paul in Romans 7 is speaking about— I think he’s speaking as a Christian, speaking about his condition as a human, what he shares with all human beings, with this condition of the mortal body, the flesh infected by the virus of sin before the incoming of the Spirit. Paul is both the person in Romans 7 and the person in Romans 8, but this is almost saying, now imagine for a moment that you don’t have the Spirit, and those times when you’re not walking according to the Spirit, this is the dilemma.

You by yourself, left to your own devices, it’s absolutely hopeless. You cannot do anything but sin. But now that you have the Spirit, as he’s begun his invasion, you are now actually able to participate in somebody else’s life. In the life of the Spirit. So it’s not actually you doing it, in a sense.

It is you participating in the life of the Spirit.

It’s a complicated section, but I think that’s where I’m at at the moment. I do think that the person is Paul speaking as a person who is fleshly, that is, somebody who has a mortal body still.

If you want, there’s a very— it requires about reading a couple of times carefully, but there’s an article on the Gospel— I should probably put it in some of our stuff— but the Gospel Coalition website by Will Timmins, T-I-double N-double M-I-N-S, Will Timmins, who’s a lecturer at Moore College in Sydney. I’m not just biassed, he’s actually English, so there’s There you go. But he, I think, has his— and it’s quite a short article. It will require careful reading a few times. But his analysis of it, and particularly his identification of a misreading of— I think it’s chapter— let me just get my text up.

I don’t want to go into too much detail lest I confuse us and get it wrong.

Where is it, verse 14? That’s right, verse 14, for we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin. Often people have said, well, that can’t be Paul because he would be contradicting himself by saying he is sold under sin. But the point that Will makes is that what is being qualified there isn’t Paul, but Paul’s fleshliness, his mortal body. That My mortal body, as somebody who is originally born in Adam, is sold under sin.

It’s got the virus that can’t be changed. Paul, insofar as he is fleshly still, he has no— it’s not speaking about his identity, it’s speaking about his capacity. Not his identity, but his capacity. In his capacity as a fallen human being, in and of himself without the Spirit, he’s got zero. In terms of being able to do righteous things.

It’s a good article, but it does require careful reading. Simon, just to clarify there, so when you say man plus law equals death, that’s basically death because they’re not in receipt of the Spirit, and the law is what arises out of seeing that? Yes, I think that’s right. The law outside of us just condemns us, actually. As sinful human beings in Adam, because the fall is the big tipping point.

Prior to the fall, the law was given and Adam was able not to sin. It was possible for him. But once he fell, all of us who have been infected with that virus now are not able— we are not able not to sin. But then there’s a difference between the Christian who has the Spirit and the non-Christian, the Christian now for the first time is able not to sin.

Then one day we will be in a state where we will not be able to sin, which is glory. Great. Can we move on? Is that all right? Great.

Next heading, the beneficiaries of the gospel— those God mercifully elects.

As we come to this, it’d be— again, let’s go to pairs, and I think it’s at the top of page 8 of our handouts. Let’s have a go at the questions on that sheet there.

What do we think? It’s a bit of a silly, silly exercise in a sense, isn’t it? Because all of those described there belong to Israel. Most of them come up in Romans chapter 9. The rest are elsewhere in Romans.

But the reason— there is a point to the exercise, and that is that we feel the weight of the problem that is put to Paul in the next section. And the issue is about what is going on with the Jews. This is the people who’ve had all the privileges of being God’s people. The issue is that despite all the privileges they’ve had, they are not, on the whole, turning to their Messiah. There are huge numbers of Gentiles turning to the Jewish Messiah, but the Jews themselves don’t seem to be turning to the one to whom all the promises are pointing, to the Messiah who’s come for them.

They do not have the obedience of faith, which is faith, the obedience which is faith, the faith which connects them to Jesus and the righteousness and the life that he brings. Paul is inevitably saddened by this reality. He loves his fellow Jews. He longs for them to be saved. It’s quite moving the way that he writes about that in this section.

But as well as expressing his sadness, he needs to respond to this very serious charge and this objection that seems to be calling into question his gospel. If God is a God who’s issued so many promises to Israel, does that mean that the gospel represents a massive cosmic breach of contract? Has God taken the covenant He made with Israel and chucked it into the bin? That’s the issue. If so, what does that mean for us, those who are being persuaded to put our faith in this God and His Gospel?

We’ve just been assured, for chapter after chapter, that we’re justified and that we will be saved. It’s guaranteed. But what kind of guarantee is this, if this is a God who changes His mind and has given up on His old people, won’t He just do that same again with us? What Paul does in this section is to show us that far from a change of plan, far from reneging on His promises, what God is doing is completely and utterly in line with everything the Old Testament promised. His Gospel works perfectly.

It is a plan of, in fact, divine genius when you examine it. And Paul does that, I think, in 3 primary ways. First of all, he shows people’s definition of Israel to be— to have been faulty, and actually unbiblical, and out of line with the Old Testament Scriptures. That’s the first thing. Can somebody read out chapter 9, verse 6 for us?

Do you see his point? It is not as though the Word of God has failed. God’s Word is consistent. God’s Word is faithful. Not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel.

He’s using Israel there in 2 different senses. Israel, of course, was the name of God’s people, another name for Jacob, the son of Isaac, the son of Abraham. So what Paul is saying here, in other words, is not all Israel, that is, in the sense of those who are physically descended from Jacob, not all of them are Israel, that is the true people of God.

Israel in that sense, the true people of God, was never about bloodlines ultimately. It wasn’t about DNA physically. Even from the beginning, not all of Abraham’s descendants were his true people. You think of Ishmael. It was never about bloodlines and physical descent.

It was always instead about God’s choice. As chapter 9, verse 11 says, God acted in order that His purpose of election might continue. It has always been about God’s choice. But not a sort of raw, callous choice. As we see presented time and again in this section, it is about His merciful choice.

His merciful choice to rescue sinful people. The fact that anybody has been chosen is extraordinary. He has chosen voluntarily to show them mercy. Could somebody read chapter 9, verse 16 for us, please?

So that depends not on human will or exertion, but on God who has mercy. So as we said, being part of the true Israel is not being— is not about DNA. It is about merciful election. Now we’ll know that election is a difficult topic. We give a whole weekend in the 6 PM to consider it.

And in the end, It causes us to step back and marvel at God, yes, to wrestle, but at the end of the day to step back and recognise that God is God and his ways are higher than our ways. We want to search as far as we possibly can, but there is a moment upon which we need to step back and trust him about what we cannot fully grasp. But I do want to recommend that book, little book, thin book by Orlando Sayer, which doesn’t have all the answers, but I think is quite a useful treatment of the subject, and a good thing for us to be recommending, I think, to our group members as something that they can consider alongside what they’re wrestling with in Romans 9 to 11. But let’s make sure that we keep in mind the main point and reason Paul is speaking about election. I think there’s a bit of a danger sometimes when we get to this section in our studies that we suddenly think that Paul has given up on his letter and he’s taken a step aside and he’s giving us a systematic doctrinal treatment of the doctrine of election.

That’s not actually what he’s doing. The whole talk about election and everything he’s saying is put into the service of his greater purpose. What he’s trying to do here is to explain the proper definition of Israel and the consistency of his gospel with the Old Testament Scriptures.

First, therefore, Paul says, your definition of Israel is wrong. But also second, the Jews are like everyone else in that they have always needed faith. That’s what we saw back in chapter 4, and again Paul makes that point. It wasn’t as though God misled them by giving them a law and followed them, and to follow, and then changed the terms and conditions. He didn’t lead them down the salvation by works path only to change His mind.

It wasn’t that He decided to surprise them by first misleading them. No, the point is that always, always, God has dealt with people by calling them to faith. Israel were called by God to respond by faith, but they refused. And then Paul stacks up Old Testament reference after Old Testament reference to prove that that is the case. You need faith.

They then had to, and you now need to, put your faith in Christ. That is the only way. The Jews had ample opportunity to see that what they needed was faith. So, for example, in chapter 10, verse 18, Paul makes that point. Can somebody read that for us, please.

But I ask, have they not heard? Indeed they have, for their voice has gone out into all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. Do you see Paul’s point? He’s answering the question that— the accusation that the Jews haven’t heard of this charge to put faith in the promise. But His answer is, yes, indeed they have.

Their voice has gone out to all the earth, their words to the end of the world. They’ve had ample opportunity. The Old Testament has been urging them over and over again to respond in faith. But how did they respond? Chapter 10, verse 21, but of Israel He says, all day long I have held out My hands to a disobedient and contrary people.

This is a people who folded their hands and dug in their heels to God and His promises. God has been giving them plenty enough opportunity to understand, but they refused to listen. They are a disobedient and contrary people. If we’re feeling sorry for Israel, having all this promise and ending up with nothing, then we haven’t understood. They’ve actually had ample opportunity.

Being part of God’s people was always about the mercy of God, His generous decision to make His gospel available to people who didn’t deserve it.

The Jews were, as we know, particularly blessed as people because they had God’s Word. They were given the constant you need faith reminder. You know those notifications that come up on your computer all the time and you click them away? It’s that kind of issue in the Old Testament. Time and time and time again, they are called to faith, and yet they reject it.

And indeed, God is still offering mercy to the Jews. He hasn’t shut off the possibility of salvation to them. Chapter 11, verse 1, I ask then, has God rejected His people? That classic statement in response, by no means, says Paul. Do you see the point?

In spite of their persistent rejection, even their murder of his son, God has still not rejected the physical descendants of Jacob. He owes them nothing, yet he still acts in mercy towards them. There still will be a group within God’s people who are descended from Jacob, Jews, who turn to their Messiah. God has committed himself to bringing more Jews into his people. And in fact, and this is where, this was something that really came home to me last year as I to study in this section.

In fact, the very fact that lots of Gentiles are being saved at this present is part of God’s divine and amazing plan to bring in the Jews. It’s his divine strategy for saving the Jews. He’s using the Gentiles to make the Jews jealous, he says, and to prompt the Jews to turn around. Can somebody read chapter 11, verse 11 for us?

Please. So I ask, did they stumble in order that they might fall? By no means! Rather, through their trespass salvation has come to the Gentiles, so as to make Israel jealous. What God is doing by saving the Gentiles in these great numbers isn’t just saving them.

It’s actually God’s divine strategy for bringing in all the totality of His chosen people, including the Jews. Chapter 11, verse 32 puts it this way, God has consigned all to disobedience that He may have mercy on all— that is, all of His chosen people, both Jew and Gentile. The salvation of the Gentiles through the gospel is becoming a theatre of God’s mercy for the Jews to look and gaze upon. That’s what we’ve tried to capture in that image, that they look at what is happening and the blessings and the benefits that are coming to the Gentiles who are so far from God and are encouraged and led into a holy jealousy that they might have the same thing. That means something quite significant for what’s going on in this letter.

It means that backing this gospel doesn’t mean that you’re backing something that abandons the Jews. Do you see how that works? Actually, by backing this Gospel, by seeing the promotion of the Gospel to the Gentile world in the West, seeing more and more Gentiles come in, is actually the way God’s strategy, His divine mandated strategy for the way to save the Jews. If you want to save the Jews, well, back mission to the Gentiles. Because that will bring them in as they are jealous and put their trust in Christ.

Is God unrighteous? Has He misled His people? That is the accusation in this section. No, says Paul very firmly. He has never misled them.

He is a God who has endured for century after century disobedience and hostility from this people, and yet He continues to exercise His mercy to them, to the Gentiles, so that all the totality of His people will be brought in. Our Gospel truly is a Gospel worth backing because of its divine genius. It’s no wonder that Paul ends this section with that famous song of praise of God’s unsearchable, inscrutable, divinely wise plan. It’s true, isn’t it? Who could ever have imagined a plan like this.

You could never have invented such a plan. But that is what God has done, and it is to His glory and His wisdom and His ways that are higher than ours.

Again, I want to give us just a couple of minutes to ask any questions on the material we’ve just been thinking about there.

Well, that’s either complete clarity or— Is it still very much the case that the Gentiles coming in and will make the Jews coming in? Is that still the case now? Is that still the format and pattern, or was that something that was very specific to that world at the time?

I think it is the ongoing dynamic, that that is what— as the gospel goes out to the world, God will use that gospel to the Gentiles to bring in Jews who see what’s going on and who are brought in. Some people would say— sometimes when you say some people would say, it’s actually actually say it’s wrong and it’s stupid, ridiculous heresy. I don’t think this is necessarily the case, but some would say— many very fine thinkers in Christian history would say that they are expecting a significant turning of the Jews at the end of time. I personally don’t think that that is— and that is a legitimate way of reading that section, I think. Does have— yeah, you could argue that.

I think, though, that the dynamic is more that there is a general turning around of Jewish people over time in this period before the return of Christ as the gospel goes out to the Gentiles. I think you see that happening. You think of— I better get his testimony right, but I think someone like Ziggy, or let me be of somebody I definitely know, a lady called Peggy Bishop, who was converted late in her— late, you know, age 75 or something like that. She’s a great— and she’s adopted me as her— she’s my Jewish grandmother, and she prays for me. She’s praying for me for this weekend, and it’s a great privilege.

She’s very, very Jewish culturally, very great fun, a real laugh. But she heard the gospel through Gentile witness. She came to Christ by seeing Christians who were Gentiles and being attracted to their lives, and then she found her Messiah. She would say that by being converted, I became truly Jewish. It’s really sweet, isn’t it, that I was fulfilled as a Jew, that I found Yeshua.

She’s given me her Jewish New Testament that has all the New Testament terms and ideas that come from— it’s most of it from the Old Testament in very specific— so we’ll say Yeshua, and we’ll say the Messiah, you know, the Messiah, and other words, and Pesach for the Passover, you know, so just to show us how Jewish the Old Testament is. And that is the dynamic. So it’s not huge numbers, but Apparently, and you see there is a turning of people in Israel at the moment, all over the world, people who have been Messianic Jews who have put their trust in Christ, not actually through Jewish witness necessarily, but through Gentile witness. Thank you.

Good. Okay, let’s keep on going. I think we might even get an early mark. I mean, I better not speak too soon, but— Right. Chapters 12 to 15, verse 13.

The application of the Gospel. The transformed life. We’ve been working through the first 11 chapters of God’s Gospel. As Paul’s been laying out the amazing purposes, he’s been showing us the diamond of the Gospel. Now he shows us more of the diamond with the way that this Gospel transforms as people grasp it and understand it.

As their minds are renewed, this Gospel brings about change in the life experience. Let’s have somebody read chapter 12, verses 1 and 2, those key verses upon which this whole section hinges and is based. Please.

By the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. Great, thank you. So we should read the these verses with great excitement as we see the response to the Gospel and what we might expect it to be. I appeal to you therefore, Paul says.

This huge shift in what has been happening, the practical implications in the life experience of all that has come before. In light of what I’ve been saying, in light of this Gospel, by the mercies of God, that is, chapters 1 to 11. It’s a good summary, isn’t it, of chapters 1 to 11, the mercies of God. Because of this truth about God that we’ve been seeing, this wonderful eternal plan that fits perfectly with his Old Testament, that shows his glory and his righteousness, that gives us what we cannot have ourselves, because of that— and it’s the first of these big appeals, the other one in chapter 16 that we’ve seen earlier, these 2 big appeals— do you see that you are to be transformed. Allow the Gospel to take root in your life, to renew your mind, and therefore to transform you.

The mind being the control tower of the life and the body. As you allow your mind to be renewed, what you see in the next few chapters, from chapter 12 onwards, is the logical and right and appropriate fruit of what we’ve seen in chapters 1 to 11.

And it’s really exciting because of the way that it interacts with everything we’ve seen before. It’s a reversal of chapters 1 to 3 especially. Think about it. For example, back in chapter 1, mankind suppressed the truth about God and we were given over to our sinful behaviour. Now in chapter 12, we accept the truth and about God revealed in the Gospel and find ourselves empowered by the Spirit and living a transformed life in light of the Gospel.

The opposite of what we saw in chapter 1. Our response to the truth leads to very radically different lives. So again, the lesson we learnt in chapter 2, that God’s wrath is coming. Chapter 2, verse 6, on the day of wrath, God will render to each one according to his works. But on the flip side now, at the other end of the Gospel, chapter 12, verse 19, Paul says, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God.

You see the balancing act that is happening. Or take again the passage which is at the heart of the Gospel in chapter 3, verses 23 to 24. Chapter 3, verse 23 to 24, all have sinned and are justified by His grace, righteously justified by His grace as a gift.

As I grasp that, I’m going to stop thinking that I’m special and worthy, aren’t I? And therefore, in chapter 12, verse 3, we see, do not think of yourself more highly than you ought to think, but according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. Do you see? Again, the right response, the logical outcome of grasping what we’ve seen before. Again, another link, for example, and there are loads of these, we won’t go through all of them, but another one, the verse that we’ve just looked at in chapter 11, verse 32, for God has consigned all to disobedience that he may have mercy on all.

How should we respond to each other when God has shown us mercy? Well, chapter 15, verse 7, therefore welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God. If we’ve been shown such mercy by God, then surely it’s right for us to extend that same mercy to others who are also undeserving like we are. And indeed, chapters 14 and 15 in particular push home the importance of unity within the church, and especially unity between Jew and Gentile. As we’ve been saying earlier, people have been teaching a doctrine which has been dividing, or there might be the prospect of a doctrine that would divide Jew and Gentile, particularly, as we’ve said, accusing Paul of a gospel that doesn’t work with the Old Testament, one that would cause Jews and Gentiles to be proud in different ways.

Jews, on the one hand, boasting in having the law, being superior and having that as a means of righteousness, that they don’t need the gospel in the way the Gentiles do, or the Gentiles being proud and puffed up, thinking that they are now the people of God and God has done away with, forgotten, given up on the Jewish people and favoured them instead. But no, everybody is at the same level, everybody guilty, everybody only justified by faith, Everybody only having received the mercy of God, both Jew and Gentile. Therefore they have nothing to boast in. Therefore they will be humble together. And that is what brings people together in unity.

That is what enables people to care for, to love each other. And so that brings us to our final section and conclusion. Any questions on chapters 12 to 15? Treated relatively briefly.

Should we spend longer on these chapters than we have in— well, I suggest— I feel like we ought to find ways of spending longer on these chapters because the application of the gospel is what’s difficult and what’s intended.

As Paul rattles through ways in which we’re being called to change our lives, I would be astonished to see those changes happening myself week by week. And so how can we kind of give ourselves the time to comprehend the implication of the Gospel?

Yeah, it’s a good question. I’m looking at the programme and seeing how many weeks Yeah, I don’t, I don’t think we— do we move through this more quickly than other bits?

Yeah, yeah, I think, I mean, partly it’s just pragmatic, I’m like afraid, in terms of just getting material It’s true. I wonder whether maybe one thing that we would want to do is to get our groups to, at the end of chapter 11, we’ve got a break of about 5 weeks. Yeah. Go away and start thinking about how do I apply all this good gospel stuff that I’ve heard so that when we come come in to then study Romans 12 through 16, they’ve already been thinking about application, thinking about how do these gospel truths apply, and so they’re almost ready to hit the ground running with 12 through 16. That’s a good idea.

I would value— don’t need to feed it back to me, but sharing ideas about how we can help people really put these chapters— it’s not so much putting them into practice, I think it is considering them and having our minds changed by them. If I was to be a little— I think all of it is— all of it. I mean, the first understanding deeply, the first 11 chapters actually is the way. Of course, you can understand it merely intellectually as a theory, but as one understands it and grasps it, the implications will actually begin to peter out. What you’ve got there with Paul, I think, in like all of his letters, is almost the implications that you could map out in a sense if you really understood the first half.

If you really understand this is reality, then actually you will do these things. You think about the one with Jew and Gentile. If everybody is humbled under grace, recognising we’ve got nothing, that we present it’s 100% God, 0% us. It is therefore logical and right that we should love each other. It’s therefore logical and right that we don’t boast.

It’s logical and right that we are thoughtful about the weaker brother. So I suppose, what am I saying? That if we rightly give people the opportunity to really grasp and meditate and think on the first 11 chapters. We ought to be seeing application coming out in that as well. But I hear you.

I mean, I understand. I mean, it’s an ongoing thing, isn’t it? Memory verses. I mean, I think— I do think we’ve slightly lost that in our generation, that art of art. I mean, it’s just the practice of memory verses.

And it’s this thing, isn’t it? It’s Psalm 119:1. Verse 11, hiding God’s Word in our heart. No, no, I’m just reading Psalm 119, verse 11.

I was about to try and see if I could do it, but that could go very badly, couldn’t it? But now, Now, a righteousness of God has been revealed apart from the law, a righteousness that has— I don’t know, I’m going to give up there. Clearly I haven’t— has been manifested by the— blessed is the man who— anyway, okay.

I think you said, talking about 12:1, that the I appeal to you therefore by the mercy of God, that that’s referring back to the whole scope of what’s been said at 1 to 11. Yeah, I wonder if you can just clarify why you think it’s the whole speech rather than, for instance, referring back to the argument from 9 to 11. Yeah, I mean, immediately speaking, the mercy does appear very strongly in 9 to 11, so I think I wouldn’t, I wouldn’t go to the stake for it. But I, I think 9 to 11 depends on 1 to 8, and I think he is at this point— I think there is a strong change at this point. The argument takes this practical outworkings turn, and therefore I think he is gathering together everything that we’ve seen from chapters.

I couldn’t argue it more strongly than that. I just, I think that probably the force of the fact that this is a really big split— people have different views about where the sort of strong splits are, but this is one of them major splits, I think, in Romans that looks back to the whole thing right from the beginning. I think partly, some of the stuff that I tried to show there about the way that it points all the way back to chapter 1, not just to chapter 11. What did we say? Stuff about the mind, for instance, that in chapter 1 it’s all about the mind being disordered and the mind giving over to a debased mind.

So that the fallen— we have debased minds as fallen people by nature, but now we have a renewed mind. So that immediately picks up something all the way from chapter 1. Great. Well, our concluding postscript, our conclusion, Getting Behind the Gospel, and that takes us right back to where we began.

And it would be good if we turned up again where we began, chapter 15, verse 23 and 24. And again, if somebody could read those for us, that would be great.

Thank you.

Paul’s completed his work, as we said, in the eastern Mediterranean, and he wants to go west to Spain, to the far reaches where the Gospel hasn’t been preached. And as we’ve been saying from the beginning, Rome is a church that he wants to have partner with him in this great work. He wants to be helped there. By him. He wants to be mutually encouraged.

He wants, presumably, the practical, financial, and prayer support that he will receive from this group of Christians. And perhaps as a way of preempting strikes of false teaching that might undermine the church and cause division and weaken them as gospel partners, he wants to protect the fort, as it were, and to strengthen them in the truth of the gospel such that they would back it with their whole lives, while especially he heads off to Jerusalem for this short sojourn as he takes money for the Jerusalem church before he hopes to go to Rome and then on to Spain.

He does this by what we’ve been saying is this perfect gospel, this demonstration of the diamond of this gospel that is perfect in every way, that is impeccable, that has no chinks, that is perfectly consistent with everything that God has been saying, that saves all people, both Jew and Gentile, that has been doing it through the one method the whole time, one that gives glory to God and humbles man. And in the last few chapters and in chapter 15 here, Paul, I think, is drawing us together to show that he has been on about strengthening them in the truth of this gospel. As we said before, it’s about building confidence in the gospel so that they will commit to the gospel with everything they have. It’s about strengthening them in the truth of the gospel so that they will strive with Paul and each other to go out and to support the mission of the gospel. And it’s about building their confidence in the gospel so so that they will back it with their whole lives.

And I think what we have in chapter 16 is a very personal series of notes of relationships that he has with them. And what we start to see is what it actually looks like on the ground, a demonstration of how Rome has already been doing that, how they’ve been engaging already in gospel partnership with that list of names of people from all sorts of different backgrounds, people who are working in gospel work, not as necessarily professional Bible teachers like Paul, but each in their own way using the gifts they’ve been given and the situation in life in which they’ve been placed to, as it says in chapter 16, verse 4, in the case of Prisca and Aquila, risk their necks for my life, to give themselves to the work of the gospel supporting the apostles, of the Gospel and giving all that they have to see the promotion of this Gospel. And so he concludes with this reminder to his readers, which is a word for us today as well, as people who are not in Rome but are living in this same age of the Gospel, who have this privilege and responsibility to partner in the Gospel, the Gospel of Paul, the Gospel of the Lord Jesus, to see it go to the ends of the earth, such that all of God’s people, the totality of His people, will be saved. Chapter 16, verses 25 to 27: Now to Him who is able to strengthen you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery that was kept secret for long ages but has now been disclosed and through the prophetic writings has been made known to all nations, according to the command of the eternal God, to bring about the obedience of faith— which takes us back to chapter 1— the only wise God, be glory forevermore through Jesus Christ. That is the right response, isn’t it, after seeing this gospel laid out, bringing glory to God, glorifying Him for His wisdom in having this perfect plan that is perfectly suited for the salvation of all people.

Um, that was rather just a brief little, uh, touch on that last section. I want to go on to thinking about some of the big themes and some of the application. But why don’t we just have 30 seconds, 1 minute for anything that we want to ask about that? I was just going to ask a question on, um, you said right back at the start that Paul in Romans holds up God himself like a gleaming jewel. Can you say a little bit more about the way in which the whole book glorifies God and makes him look spectacular?

Because just, I can sort of see how justification is a kind of a gleaming jewel in the book. Yeah, yeah, there’s a few different jewels, weren’t there? There was a few. Once it was the righteousness, once it was gospel, once it’s gone. I just don’t see how all that builds up to what you said at the start, which was that it makes God seem spectacular.

I think we’ll say a little bit of that now, but I wonder what other people think. I just think that one of the big themes in the letter is not just to show what God is doing and how great that is, but it shows that he himself the doer, is great. Classically, in chapter 3, that he’s not only the just but the justifier of the one who has faith in Christ Jesus. It is about his upholding his righteous character. How else— you think about it— how else could— what a genius plan— how can God righteously make unrighteous people righteous and at the same time maintain his righteous character?

He came up with this plan which you could never have invented. So it’s that sort of thing, I think, personally. And then I think back in places in chapter 11, the way that the genius of the way that he is seeing the Jews come in by promoting the Gentiles. So it’s just, it’s that as a sort of general— I’m sorry if it’s quite vague, but I think that the whole of the letter is. And I think the doxologies, so at the end of the various sections, including the one we just read, you know, chapter 16, verse 25, at various points Paul just stops in his tracks.

Isn’t it chapter— I better make sure I got it right— but at the end of chapter— I’m right, aren’t I? Chapter 11. At the end of chapter 11, you get the same thing a number of times where he’s going, that’s right, who has known the mind of God? Who has been his counsellor? You know, he just stops in his tracks at various points and just steps back and says, not just what God is doing is brilliant, but God himself must be brilliant to have been able to come up with such a plan.

Just for clarity, you’re saying the main way that God is glorified is in the way that his plan has come together and makes sense of things? I think so. The way we know God is by his— it’s always been the case, isn’t it? You think classically in the Exodus, the way God reveals himself, the way we know know who Yahweh is. Yahweh is an empty set.

The Lord is an empty set in— not totally empty. I think there are chapters before Exodus, but it is basically an empty set, and then the name is filled in with the great things that he does. You see that in the Psalms all the time. Psalm 77, only because I’ve preached it recently, is exactly about that. It’s about the Lord.

Who is the Lord? Well, he’s the one who saves. He’s the one who destroys Pharaoh. He’s the one who rescues his people through the sea. That’s the Lord.

Likewise, in Romans, I think what you see is not a sort of, here are the attributes of God, in a systematic theology way. Rather, this is what God has done. This is his great plan in history, and that evidence then makes you step back and say, wow, he in and of himself, his attributes must be holiness, righteousness, wisdom, glory, rather than saying— sometimes you can have You could write a systematic theology on the attributes of God and how wonderful it is, and it’s a good thing to do, but actually the way you see God is glorious is through his actions.

Should we tackle the last bit?

I have. Thank you.

I’ve got in my notes, before we go on another coffee break, but no.

Yeah, I do just want to spend a couple of minutes now tying together some of the big ideas that run throughout the whole letter. And to do that, I do want to go back to chapter 1, verse 16 and 17, which I think are really helpful sort of drawing together or précis of all the themes, major themes of the letter. Could somebody read it for us just to remind us what it says? And then I’m going to pull out some of the things that we’ve seen, the big ideas in the letter.

Thank you. So, first thing to pull out is that it is the power of God for salvation. It is about salvation. As a number of people have said, Christianity is at heart a rescue religion. The gospel takes people out of hell and secures us for the new creation.

It saves people. There’s loads of things we can offer people, loads of things that we could occupy our year together with, but the gospel highlights the great problem— our sin, our rebellion, God’s inevitable and just wrath. No greater crisis faces man. As we said before, Brexit is small fry compared to this and the issues surrounding that. Climate change really is nothing compared to this.

Modern slavery, as awful as it is, is not as deep a problem that faces humanity as this. And this gospel solves that great problem. The unsolvable problem has been solved by God himself. In the present, as chapters 1 to 4 show us, it declares us right with God. We’re justified.

In the future, in chapter 8, it demonstrates that we certainly will be saved and we will experience glory, and that means that in the present we experience the Christian virtue of hope. We can experience hope. We know that there is a future day when God will execute His wrath, but through the gospel we will be safe as those who are presently justified and will be saved. So salvation. Secondly, a big theme in the letter is that it is to everyone.

To all, that is, both to Jew and Gentile.

If both Jews and Gentiles don’t have access to the gospel, it is a serious problem. But Paul demonstrates that the gospel is for everyone, for both Jew and Gentile. The problem of wrath and sin affects everyone. There is no one righteous. The solution is available to all— simply faith.

You don’t need to be Jewish. You don’t need to have the law in order to be saved. Even though it looks like God’s commitment to the Jews has failed on the surface, we saw in chapters 9 to 11 that He will save Jews, and He’s doing it through this extraordinary, surprising way— by saving Gentiles. That is a reason to back Paul’s gospel. Thirdly, it’s God’s power for salvation to everyone, who believes.

What we’ve been saying all morning. It’s about faith, faith, faith, faith, faith. Faith from beginning to end. Faith from faith to faith. No work of the law, nothing that we do, is ever going to save anyone.

Chapter 3, verse 20, by the works of the law no man will be justified, righteous-ified. You cannot by any works. We can’t contribute anything. We come with an empty hand. What is faith?

William’s favourite illustration, which I think is really helpful, it’s the baby bird with its mouth open, open just to receive the food from its mother. In our case, it’s the forgiveness that we receive from God, the justification that depends on Christ’s death. It’s us relying, depending, trusting in another, not ourselves. And then not just as we begin, but all through our life, looking forward to that future day, trusting Him in all our activities of life, trusting Him to provide us with all that we need, the salvation and strength we need to keep on trusting Him.

And fourthly, in that gospel, the righteousness of God is revealed. Again, we’ve been saying this over and over again, the righteousness of God is the subject of so much of this letter. First of all, it’s that righteous status, the righteousness that is imputed to us, the gift of God. But secondly, and I think later on in the letter, well, by the time you get to chapter 3 especially, what we’ve seen is the righteousness of God in terms of God’s righteous character, the righteousness of God, both in terms of the status given but also the righteous character that gives that status, is something on trial throughout this book. And God’s Gospel reveals that righteous character, showing how He can righteously make unrighteous people righteous, never ever compromising His own righteous character.

And then finally, I think, is Paul’s use of the Old Testament, this idea, this theme of utter consistency. As it is written, as it is written, as it is written comes up over and over and over and over again. Paul is adamant about demonstrating that this gospel is one that is entirely in line with and fulfils the promises of the Old Testament. When Paul quotes the Old Testament in chapters 1 to 4, he is proving universal guilt. When Paul the inability of the law to yield righteousness in chapter 7, he is leaning all the time and drawing from the Old Testament.

When Paul shows the consistency of God in his behaviour towards the Jews in chapters 9 to 11, again, he draws upon the Old Testament over and over and over again. The eternal plan of God has been ultimately building up to all of this. All of history climaxes in this one event in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the Messiah, which is where he begins his book. Far from representing a departure from the Old Testament, this is what the Law and the Prophets have been testifying to. So that brings us to our summary of Romans and the big themes.

I think that’s hopefully pretty uncontroversial. And where I’d like us to close for the last little bit is just to think about application.

How are we going for time? Why don’t we just spend a few minutes with our neighbours, maybe in threes if we wish. What do we think are the big applications of Romans? And then I will suggest a few things Um, that are possible options for us as well before we close. Great.

It’d be good just to hear some thoughts that might be stimulating for us, help each other to reflect on some of the things we’ve been thinking about. This is obviously just the beginning of the conversation. This is something we can be doing all year. So it’d be good to hear some things that we discussed, things that particularly struck us as we’ve been reflecting on Romans, big areas of application. We were discussing that one of the implications obviously from 1 to 11 is big God.

Yeah. Just like Paul’s response in the end of 11 to worship him. Yeah. One of the big applications is to do that, not just in the form of 12, of spiritual worship, but also just praising him. Yeah.

Yeah, absolutely. Our view of God is massive, isn’t it? That this whole, as we were saying before, all that he’s been doing points to that character and size, size, the bigness of his being. I guess playing from the big idea of for everyone, and obviously that has an impact in terms of evangelism. Yeah, yeah.

The fact that actually this is a gospel for everyone. Just challenging us that not just the people we think might be more accepting of the gospel, it’s not about at all. We should be telling everybody. That’s really helpful. I find myself very often dismissing certain people or categories.

That person’s too far gone. There’s no way, humanly speaking, that person will be saved. But this gospel is for everyone, and it is the the power of salvation for everyone, as you say. And that kind of fits with the kind of context of the letter. So we were talking about how the purpose of it is a letter for support for Paul to go out to Spain and take the gospel.

And so it’s just kind of building on what Rachel was saying, that it is, I guess, an application would be to once kind of reminded and grounded in all this wonderful, being true, is to then partner in that ministry, whatever that might look like, and take the gospel out. So it’s quite an evangelistic letter in a way from its context, but also it’s kind of what do I need to do after it reminds me. I think that’s absolutely right, it is strengthening us for mission, isn’t it? It does have a particular outbox, and I think sometimes we get nervous and we think, oh, does that mean me doing personal evangelism in a particular particular way? I don’t think the answer necessarily is.

It’s not less than that. It’s not that if we are gripped by this gospel we want to do everything we can. But I think what’s quite nice at the end of chapter 16 is you see all these different people in different ways, in different situations, using their different circumstances to partner in this gospel. I have to look at it again, but people sharing their houses, who’ve got houses and people who are sharing their resources, others who are helping in other practical ways, others who are speakers. That whole— we are bound together as St Helen’s with the particular gifts and opportunities that we have, and each of us is trying to together maximise this Gospel going out to the ends of the earth, which I think is liberating.

I’m all for, I hope it’s obvious, I’m all for us speaking the gospel. The gospel is a word that is to be spoken, it is to be declared, but that will look different for different people.

It doesn’t have to be, everyone doesn’t have to be, or no, not everyone will be a Rico Tice.

Thank God for that. No, no, Rico’s great, he’s an absolute absolute legend. But I can’t do the stuff that Rico can do and you can’t, other people. It’s each of us in a particular way, but all of us in our hearts, if we’re gripped by this gospel, will maximise our opportunity to see this gospel spoken and to speak it.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

There’s practical ways, and I think I have to do— I have to go and check it and do more work on it, but where he uses the language of partnership. It is that same idea of— I mean, it is the hip pocket, it’s the wallet that is certainly in view, if not the main thing, but certainly in view. It’s not the only thing, but prayer, pounds, people, potatoes. There’s definitely other Ps.

Romans, and I think, oh golly, they’re going to send me somewhere. Yeah, I don’t want to go. And you know, maybe there’s— yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But there’s also that— I think that’s partly because I think that my evangelism is owned by me, and so if I’m not doing it and I’m not in front of it, yeah, it’s not mine. Yeah.

But the thing about putting your money— it’s yours. Yeah. Other people is that it goes, you’re like, you know, like they’ll get the glory. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Really, isn’t it?

That might be our perspective, but to align your whole self behind the church’s mission to take the gospel out and supporting others in prayer, it’s just a lot bigger, but it has the perspective that it’s the gospel and the glory of God and the salvation of others. It’s not about me and what I’m doing. That’s really helpful, isn’t it, actually? If you really grasp the gospel, you’ll be less concerned about your part in it and you’ll be You won’t be so self-conscious about it. You will just do what’s needed to get it out.

Rome, I assume, and they would have had some missionaries, I’m sure they did send out from the Roman Church, but actually many stayed in order to partner, to be a base and a sending church and one that is fueling mission around the place. Of course, the nations came to Rome, so they were evangelising Rome. Just as there is no more global city. If you were a management consultant and you gave the Boston Consulting Group a task which was— why are you laughing at me? It’s a good thing to laugh.

Do laugh at me anyway. But I think that’s usually a fair thing to do. But I’m going off on one, but London is the place. I mean, maybe I’m wrong about this, but I think— any consultant, tell me I’m wrong— but London is the place in terms of if you want to reach the world. So we have enormous opportunity as St Helen’s.

I mean, some of us will have the privilege of staying at St Helen’s and stay in London for the sake of mission. It’s real. Anyway, any other thoughts? Johnny? I know we’re a great sending church, we love evangelising.

Yeah. To turn the topic slightly, I think we were talking a little bit, and this also might be Because Paul basically talks about applying the gospel in terms of a transform. Yes, I mean, that’s big. Yeah. And I think what really struck this time is the fact that we have the ability now to obey.

Yeah. But also that it’s the only logical conclusion of understanding the gospel. I think that really— like, so the outbox is obey, but not out of a sense of obligation. Obligation. I have to do this.

But yeah, a gratitude that we can do it, but also that it’s the only thing that makes sense to do after understanding what we’ve received now. Absolutely. It just makes so much sense to live a transformed life. Yeah, absolutely. If you understand what we’ve said, if we understand what he said in his gospel, then that’s the only right outcome.

And the fact that it’s possible now. There is power to participate in the life of the Spirit. It was impossible before. I haven’t pushed this too hard. Some others would say that the primary thing that’s going on in chapters 12 to 15 is the display of the gospel for the sake of the mission.

To the Jews. That is, as people see how amazingly transformed the church is in Rome, this will bring people in because the Jews will be jealous and they’ll be saved. I think that is true, but I personally don’t think that’s the main thing that’s going on because it doesn’t seem to be. He doesn’t seem to be saying, and therefore do this because of the sake of the mission. I think it’s sort of a reason but not the primary reason.

The primary reason is so that you would be changed. But it is nevertheless true still that as people are changed, people are drawn to the gospel. That’s so often the case, isn’t it? Christians, it’s their lives that people see, transformed lives, and they come to listen to the message that has produced that transformed life. On the one hand, I don’t think it’s the primary thing in that section.

It is a I’m agreeing with you that it is for the sake of it actually to be changed. But at the same time, it’s not disconnected from mission. I think if it’s all right, just for the sake of time, we might just— let me whiz through fairly quickly things basically reiterating what we’ve said and just some simple headings for us that we might use over the course of the year to think sort of use to think about application and implications, really picking up what we’ve said. And they’re all about changed views. First of all, a change, a transformed mind, a changed view of our world.

So that would be a way that we can be thinking about how does this this particular section, how does this part of Romans help us change our view of the world in which we live, the world around us? Do I think, for example, in Romans 1 to 4, that all without exception are under God’s wrath? The people I came down with on the train, are they worthy of God’s wrath? That seems to be what he is saying. Do I actually believe that?

Do I believe my non-Christian neighbours, my loving, lovely family members, as awful and painful as that is, and myself included, are facing that wrath apart from the Lord Jesus. Do I think the state of this world as I go out, the jealousy and the envy and the greed and the immorality in my office and elsewhere, do I think that that is evidence of God’s wrath? Because that’s what Paul seems to be saying. This is the evidence of the truth of God’s wrath being played out in front of us? Do we think this world is coming to an end, that there will be glory and new creation that we’re going to inhabit?

Interrogating our thinking of this world. Secondly, our view of each other as Christians.

Again, another useful, fruitful area to meditate on. How has Romans changed the way we should look at each other? Do I recognise the privilege of being someone somebody who no longer faces God’s wrath. There’s nothing more wonderful. Do I recognise that about each other?

What is my instinctive thought as I turn to another Christian person? Do I think of them in the categories of the way the world thinks of them, or do I think, here is a forgiven child of God who has peace with God and a certain future based on God’s mercy alone, who is just like me in that way? Do I realise that we’re all, all of us, only right with God by his merciful election, do I realise there’s nothing special about me? Do I think in any way that being a leader or a church worker somehow is a Christian badge that sets me out as superior? Romans says absolutely and utterly no.

Get your thinking about yourself and others right. The third area to think about is to think rightly about what God is doing in the world now.

These are the eternal purposes of God. This gospel is what it is all focused upon. The Old Testament Scriptures that have been laid out, it was all pointing towards this. Do we grasp the depth and the profundity and the constancy and the magnitude of this gospel, this plan coming together? Are we unashamed of what God is doing?

Do we think God is doing something local and small and parochial and unimpressive, or do we think he is rescuing people from every tribe and tongue and nation from himself, from his wrath, through the death of his dear Son, the Lord Jesus? The largest projects of this world, whether our career or engaging in political reform or some social enterprise or a discovery for the cure of a particular cancer, all of that according to Romans pales into insignificance compared to this gospel. So what God is doing. Then finally, as we’ve been saying, God, our view of God, because all that he is doing refers back to who he is. How does Romans change our thinking about God?

Is he as big as he is presented in Romans? Is he the hero of the story? Because that is who he is.

Is he the righteous, holy, merciful God that I see in the chapters of this letter? And if I’m not driven to worship him with my whole existence, then it reveals to me that I haven’t fully grasped this gospel. If in my heart I don’t actually chime in with what Paul is saying, it makes me go back to this gospel and interrogate myself and interrogate each other. What is it that I haven’t actually grasped? What haven’t I actually believed about the God of this gospel?

Because if I did believe it and did understand it, I would have this kind of reaction. That’s not to beat ourselves up. I think the answer is to pour ourselves out on His mercy and to cry out to Him and ask Him to reveal to us His love for us, for us to experience in our minds and our hearts what is presented on the pages of Romans. And as we do that, as we receive His grace, as we we understand what He’s done, well, that will, bit by bit, thrust us out into that kind of response. It is 1 o’clock exactly.

Let me lead us in prayer. Oh, the depths of the riches and the wisdom and the knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments, how inscrutable His ways! Father, we confess our coldness in many ways to what you’ve done, in the many ways we fall short of fully grasping and grasping in our hearts the extent of your Gospel, its magnitude, its perfection, its wisdom, the genius that you have in bringing it about, and most of all your love and mercy for us who are undeserving, who by ourselves did not seek you out, but you sent your Son to die for us and to give us this righteousness that is not ours but is properly yours. We thank you so much for that, and we pray that as we study this gospel this year, you would be working your power for salvation in us, that we would increasingly be unashamed of this gospel, that we would be giving our whole lives to backing the proclamation of this gospel to the ends of the earth.

And we pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen.