Romans 1

Overview:

Law 78 times; Justification/Righteousness 64 times; Faith 60; Sin 57; Grace 24 Theme: The Gospel (Justification) Key Scripture: 1:16 Time of Writing: 58 A.D.

Chapters 1-3: The Whole World Guilty of Sin (Jews & Gentiles) Chapters 3-8: The Gospel Message Chapters 3-5 Justification Chapters 6-8 Sanctification Chapter 8:18-39 Glorification Chapters 9-11: The Nation of Israel Chapters 12-16: Practical Duties of the Justified

Purposes: 1. To strengthen Roman Christians in their faith and win their financial support 2. To give a clear doctrinal exposition of God's method of justification by faith 3. To show that both Jew and Gentile are only acceptable to God through the New Covenant

Messages: 1. The just shall live by faith. 2. All men are under sin and cannot be justified by the works of the law. 3. The only righteousness God accepts is a faith-righteousness.

theosu

Chapters 1-4: The idea of righteousness by faith - exposition of "he who is righteous by faith" Greek word for faith appears 37 times and word for life appears 3 times. Chapters 5-8: The Christian life - exposition "shall live by" Greek word for faith appears 3 times and word for life appears 25 times Chapters 9-11: Issues on Israel picks up again Chapters 12-16: Various pastoral and ethical issues

theosu

v.16

I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation for everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile.

v.18

The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness,

All forms of wickedness comes from our attempt to suppress the truth.

theosu

v.24

Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another.

This does not mean that God caused us to sin, but rather, that he deliberately withheld His help and allowed us to sink into deeper deprivation. But this giving over of humanity to sin was not, thankfully, God's last word on the subject because it is very significant the same verb is used, "to give over," in 8:32 to describe the giving over of God's son, our salvation. The curse was lifted when Christ himself was given over, on our behalf, to receive punishment for the very sins listed in these verses. God allows us to go our own way in order that we might at last learn from our consequent wretchedness the hate of futility of a life turned away from the truth of God.

theosu

v.31

they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless.