Article archive
03/19/2018 08:36
To illustrate Israel’s failure in pursuing the righteousness of the law, Paul quotes from Isaiah. His first point indicating their stumbling is from Isaiah 8:14. God is a rock, but as a rock, it can be a stumbling stone to those who are not watching it, blithely going along their paths focused on...
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03/12/2018 07:12
Romans 9:14 through 29 discusses God’s justice in his election. We must be careful to remember that the election spoken of here is not the choosing of individuals for heaven or hell. Paul has been discussing God’s interaction with humanity—especially through Israel—to bring about his redemption...
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03/05/2018 06:45
As we discussed last time, the key to understanding Paul’s topic discussion of Chapter 9 lies in the flow from the first few verses of the chapter. If we pluck verses out from the chapter in isolation, it may tend to make us think Paul is talking about election regarding the individual eternal...
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02/25/2018 19:12
We have come through three major sections of Romans so far: The Introduction (1:1–17), God’s Righteousness (1:18–5:21), and Messiah’s Renewal of Life (6:1–8:39). Section 4, which covers chapters 9 through 11, we will call “God’s Israel.” The name Israel comes from two Hebrew words: sarah and El....
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02/12/2018 08:31
Verses 26 and 27 provide a familiar set of verses which are often, maybe, slightly misunderstood. Verse 26 tells us that the Holy Spirit helps in our weakness. He intercedes with unspoken groanings when we do not know for what or how to pray as we should. Verse 27 says that the heart-searcher (God)...
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01/29/2018 08:40
Paul goes on to explain this salvation in light of his discussion. We need to remember that over the past several chapters, he has not only been discussing the gospel in terms of how Christ provided his death for ours and justification through faith but all this against the insufficiency of the...
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01/22/2018 09:31
To recap the post-marriage illustration of chapter 7, we find Paul ask a question in verse 7: is the Law sinful? He immediately answers, “No!” and follows in the next five verses with an explanation. His explanation is basically that rather than being sinful itself, the Law points out sin. And then...
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12/18/2017 15:35
We can understand God’s interaction with Israel mirroring his interaction with the human race better as we understand what Paul already spoke of in chapter 5 verses 13 and 14. There Paul argued that even though the Law had not yet been given, people from Adam to Moses all still died because of sin....
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12/11/2017 08:34
Romans 7 is one of those difficult chapters that force you into such a struggle to understand that you easily forget where Paul has been going in his argument up to this point. The marriage illustration of the first six verses seems to put the Law in a bad light. And therefore, verse 7 opens again...
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11/06/2017 09:53
We have covered a lot of ground since last we listed our outline, so let’s take a look:
Section 1: Introduction (1:1–17)
Section 2: God’s Righteousness (1:18–5:21)
Part A: In COE: Judging TGB...
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