Letter of Paul to the Church in Rome
Romans 1:1—16:32
Doctrine. 44:30 – The letter Paul wrote to the Christians in Rome provides the most extensive discussion in all of the NT on several doctrine that can deepen our theological understanding and Christian commitment. Three very important doctrines that Paul addresses in Romans.
Righteousness of God. The righteousness of God is featured in Paul’s statement of the themes of Romans. The righteousness of God means that God will always do what is just. The righteousness of God stresses what God does more than actually who He is. The righteousness of God revealed in the gospel is that God sets things right in Jesus Christ. The righteousness God manifested in the gospel events becomes important in our lives and essential to our faith. Trust or faith is essential to both understand and avail our sense of the revelation in the gospels. See Romans 3:22. God declares sinners righteous or justified on the basis of what He did in Christ in Romans 2:21–26. The justified person yield to his or her life as an instrument of righteousness. Paul talks about us as being instruments of righteousness.
Salvation of Christ. He said that the power of salvation that God brings in Christ has three dimensions in Christian experience:
a. The first dimension of salvation comes at the very moment that we trust Christ. This is the [ ] experience of salvation Paul talks about in Romans 8:24. The experience of this faith wherein there is hope of salvation is also talked about in Romans 5:17 concerning the movement from death to life. From being under the power of sin to being justified and from being the slave of sin to a servant of God.
b. The second dimension of salvation is the operation of the power of the gospel in the current life of the Christian. Christians look back to an experience of salvation, but they also live a new life in Christ. This involves a constant struggle with sin and yielding of self to God; and we are to be instruments of righteousness.
c. The third dimension of salvation is in the future. Christians are not only experienced in salvation; they also look to the future with confidence that present suffering which are not worth comparing to the glory to be revealed in us. God is working all things together for our good so we will be more than conquerors and so that our bodies will be redeemed. Paul summed up this future dimension of salvation.
Work of the Spirit. The discussion of the Spirit is Romans 8 is the most extensive in the NT. It reflects Paul’s distinctive stress on the role of the Spirit in the ethical life of the Christian. The emphasis in Romans is that life in the Spirit is a quality of ethical life which is contrasted with life in the flesh. The contrasts Paul used are dramatic and they teach us that the law of the Spirit of life is contrasted with the law of sin and death. Conduct, according to the sinful nature, is emphasized with that according to the Spirit and want to have their minds set on not what nature desires but those who have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. So, we are talking about two different lifestyles. Controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit. Romans 8:9 represents the human alternatives. Our life in the Spirit is life that fulfills God’s demand for righteousness in all of us. The person who is controlled by the sinful nature is not aware that this is not his or her realm of life, we are not in that life anymore. Life is dedicated to selfish and sinful ways without regard for God will prove to be a person living in the flesh. Now, the Christian who lives in the Spirit demonstrates this by his dedication to Christ and by his righteousness and demonstration to others.
All scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, reproof, correction, and instruction in righteousness (2 Timothy 3:16).