1 Peter in a Nutshell

I'm Peter, and you're scattered all over Asia Minor. Hello!

God's done great things for us through Jesus Christ! Salvation is coming; it's ready and waiting! Of course things aren't so great right now. But remember, the prophets foretold of all this about Christ. They were puzzled but excited, and the angels were very curious too.

In this time when you are exiles and strangers--this is not your country--live in terms of the country that is coming rather than the way you Gentiles used to live. Be holy like God is holy. You've been born again. You're a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation now.

So live such good lives among the unbelieving nations that they may see your good behavior and glorify God for it at the judgment. Be subject to political authorities. Slaves, submit to your masters even when they beat you wrongly. They beat Jesus wrongly too. Women, submit to your husbands even when they are unbelievers. Maybe they will be won over by your virtue. Husbands, honor your wives.

To sum all that up: live among the nations honorably. Be ready to testify to Christ if they bring you to trial. Christ's suffering brought victory, which he proclaimed to the fallen spirits from the days of Noah. Noah was saved on the water from the Flood of those days. Baptism is water that saves us today.

So suffering purges us of sin and motivates us to live for God, not human passions. Christ is getting ready to judge the living and the dead. Yes, the dead will rise because Christ preached to them too.

The end is near. The judgment has begun with the house of God--don't be surprised. And if it is this bad for us, imagine what it will be like for the rest of the world! Rejoice in the honor of suffering with the name "Christian."

So elders who lead the flock, be good shepherds. And those who are younger should submit to the elders. Humble yourselves under God, and He will lift you up. You will suffer for a while, but then comes a time of eternal glory.

Silas helped me write this letter. Those here in "Babylon," Rome, greet you, including Mark.

Romans in a Nutshell

I have about three weeks left in the last online course I plan to teach for Asbury. We're in Romans this week so I thought I would do for them what I've done for my classes here on 1 and 2 Corinthians. Here's Romans in a nutshell.

Chapter 1

• Paul calls himself a slave (only here, Philippians with Timothy, and Titus; desmios in Philemon).
• He also calls himself an apostle, one set apart for the gospel (his most frequent letter opening).

• This gospel, this good news of an extraordinary sort, was promised beforehand in Scripture.
• What is this good news proclamation? It is the good news of God's Son, Messiah Jesus.
• He was David's seed according to the flesh; he was appointed Son of God in power when he was raised from the dead. This seems part of the good news.
• These verses, 1:3-4, are perhaps an early Christian "creed" of some sort.
• The gospel is the power of God for salvation (1:16).
• The gospel reveals God's righteousness, beginning with His faithfulness (1:17).

• The Roman audience was probably mostly Gentile (1:5-6; 13; 15:16).
• Paul had often planned and been prevented from visiting them (1:13).
• Paul's mission plan was to go where the gospel had not been preached (15:20).
• Paul hoped to use the church as a base to launch a mission into Spain (15:24).
• He was currently on his way to Jerusalem (15:25), likely at Corinth (16:1, 23). He was likely taking the offering of 2 Corinthians 8-9 (15:26). He fears possible persecution there (15:31).

• God's righteousness shows itself in His enactment of the gospel of Christ Jesus (1:17).

• Salvation is for everyone who has faith, Jew first, then Greek (1:16).
• God's faith to all leads to a faith response by believers (1:17).

• 1:18-3:20 present the problem: "all have sinned and are lacking the glory of God" (3:23).
• 1:18-32 particularly reference Gentile sins, although Paul never directly mentions them as such. These verses are somewhat of a "sting operation." Paul is trapping the self-righteous person of Romans 2.
• God's wrath in Romans 1 is probably both future and "realized" wrath. It is in part wrath already in play in the world by way of God's abandonment of sinners. But it is likely also wrath coming on the Day of Judgment.
• The basis for this wrath is the fact that while all should have known God and glorified Him as such, they have instead turned to idols (Gentile sin #1).
• Therefore, God gave them up to sexual immorality. Paul highlights homosexual sexual activity as an example (Gentile sin #2).
• God also gave them up to many other kinds of wicked behavior, the vice list of 29-31.

Chapter 2

• Now Paul turns the tables on the person who relied to a large extent on their Jewish identity for their acceptance before God, including perhaps some of the more superficial aspects of the law.
• This person doesn't recognize his/her need for repentance too (2:4).
• Now the future dimension of wrath comes in view. God will judge everyone on the basis of their deeds on the Day of Judgment (2:6). He will judge both Jew and Gentile alike without favoritism simply because of their Jewish or non-Jewish heritage (2:9-11).
• Paul mentions some Gentiles who will be accepted because they demonstrate the Law written on their hearts (2:15, 27). This is likely a reference to Gentile believers in Jesus who have the Spirit, which enables them to keep the Law. Law must therefore here be understood more in terms of a kind of core Law rather than the Law in its fullness.
• Jews who don't keep the Law will be condemned despite the fact that they are Jews.

Chapter 3

• Paul now reaches the climax of this line of thinking. God has imprisoned all under sin. No one will be considered right with Him on the basis of their law keeping.

• 3:21-4:25 present the solution to this problem of sin. The faithful death of Jesus and human faith in what God has done through this event solve the sin problem.
• The faithful death of Jesus solves God's righteousness problem (3:22). God is seen to be just and the one who makes just any one who has faith like Jesus did (3:25-6) in the one who could save him from death (2 Cor. 4:13-14; Heb. 5:7).
• God is shown to be just because Jesus' death is like an atoning sacrifice (3:25; cf. 8:3). It secures redemption (3:24). He died for our sins (4:25; cf. 2 Cor. 5:21).
• The way in which we appropriate this benefaction of grace is by trust in Christ, that is, in what God has done through Christ (3:22).
• There is no room for boasting about this, for no amount of keeping the Jewish law merits this grace. We simply trust in God's grace and return Him the honor due.
• This does not of course cancel the idea of law. We affirm the righteous standard of the Law as correct (again, apparently vetted of its Jewish particulars).

Romans 4

• Abraham models this theology of "justification," of being found innocent before God.
• Paul's opponents apparently argued that the seed of Abraham are the seed of promise and they were given the sign of circumcision.
• Paul argues that Abraham was deemed right with God because he had faith in God (4:3). This happened before he was circumcised (4:10). Circumcision was only a sign of this after the fact (4:11).
• Abraham is the father of all who are justified by faith, both Jew and Gentile (4:11-12).
• It is by faith, then it is by grace, not by obligation on God's part (4:5).
• Faith in this chapter is directed not on Christ, but on God as the one who raises the dead (4:17, 24) and justifies the ungodly (4:5).

Romans 5

• Romans 5-8, in my opinion, deal with the implications of justification by faith while we are here on earth waiting for the "redemption of our bodies" (8:23).
• First, we have peace with God (5:1) as we hope for glory (5:2).
• But this time may also be one of suffering (5:3; 8:18).

• But it is a great hope we have. We will be saved from God's coming wrath (5:9). We will live!
• While sin and death came through Adam, justification and life comes through Christ.

• Paul now steps back and places justification into its narrative context.
• Sin and death entered the world through Adam.
• From Adam to Moses, they died without the law, even though they did not know the law and their sin wasn't taken into account (5:14).
• The law entered so that sin would increase (5:20). Where there is no law, there is no transgression (4:14; 5:13). The law brings wrath (4:15).
• The obedience/faithfulness of Jesus has made possible the justification of many (5:19; 3:22).

Romans 6

• One question that justification by faith raises is the function of the law and sin for the justified. Romans 6 and 7 work out that question.
• So since justification comes by God's grace through our trust in him, should we sin--violate the law more to get more grace (6:1)?
• Paul emphatically says no (6:2)! Do not let sin reign in your mortal bodies (6:12).
• In baptism into Christ, we are buried with him so we can live a new life (6:4)--we sinned before; now we don't. He was raised for our justification (4:25), both legal and then literal.
• We used to be slaves to sin; now we're slaves to righteousness (6:17-18).
• So we must offer the "members" of our bodies as instruments of righteousness, not instruments of unrighteousness (6:13).

Romans 7

• Romans 6 is so clearly about doing righteousness, that it is hard to understand what Paul means by saying "you are not under law but under grace" (6:14). Yet he has said earlier that he stablishes law (3:31).
• Romans 7:1-6 uses the image of marriage to clarify what he means by not being under law. A wife is bound to her husband as long as he lives (7:2). But when the husband dies, she is free to marry another (7:3). So we have died to the law through the body of the Messiah and now we bear fruit to God.
• This is a difficult logic for us to follow, but Paul implies that we can only keep the righteousness of the law if we die to it. Those under the law are "in the flesh" and bear fruit to death (7:5-6).

• So what was the purpose of the [Jewish] Law, then? Is it evil? Is it to blame?
• No, the law is holy, righteous, and good (7:12). It told me what wrong was (7:7).
• But sin overpowers a person through the Law (7:11). The law is the power of sin (1 Cor. 15:56). Sin actually makes a person sin even more once they know the law (7:13).
• In 7:14-24, Paul vividly and dramatically describes the plight of a person who wants to keep the Law, but finds that s/he can't because of the power of sin over them.
• Paul dramatically ends with the plea of this desperate person: "who will free me?" (7:24). As in 6:17 he answers, "thanks be to God." Through Jesus Christ we can be freed (7:25a).

Romans 8

• After reviewing the place of the believer in salvation history in 5:12-21 and anticipating questions from someone about the continuance of sin and the purpose of the Jewish Law, Paul returns in Romans 8 to the state of the justified person--no condemnation and freedom from the law of sin (8:1).
• Jesus' death has done what the law couldn't do (8:3). And now the righteous expectation of the law can be fulfilled by way of the Spirit (8:4). Those in the flesh cannot please God (8:8).
• The Spirit of Christ is what identifies a person as belonging to God (8:9).
• And the One who raised Jesus will also through the Spirit raise our mortal bodies in resurrection (8:11).
• This Spirit witnesses with our spirits that we are sons of God (8:16).

• So we may suffer now, as Christ did, but our bodies, like the whole creation, will be redeemed (8:18-25).
• The material world is enslaved to corruption just as the default state of our flesh is enslaved to the power of sin (8:20-21).
• The Spirit intercedes as we wrestle with suffering (8:26).
• But it will all work together for resurrection in the end, for good (8:28), and we will be conformed to the [resurrection] image of the Son--God has predestined this to happen for those whom He foreknew (8:29).

• Wow--God really loves us! Why would we fear any opposing force!

Romans 9

• Romans 9-11 deals with another question of this present age. What about Israel? They were clearly God's people, God's elect. Why haven't they responded to the gospel like the Gentiles have?
• Paul assures the Romans that he loves his own people and wants them to be saved from God's coming wrath (9:1-5).
• Paul may refer to Jesus as God in 9:5. It depends on how you reconstruct the punctuation. On the whole, Paul tends to reserve being over all for God the Father (cf. 1 Cor. 15:28), so on balance I have some doubts that Paul was thinking this. It remains, however, very possible.

• God's word is not to blame for Israel's failure to believe--not all in Israel are truly Israel (9:6).
• Various stories in Genesis demonstrate that God chooses some and doesn't choose others, and He does so before they have done anything.
• The clay has no right to complain about God's choices in mercy and hardening--He's God, the Potter (9:20).
• And God has currently chosen to show mercy on the Gentiles and to harden Israel (9:25-29).
• And He is not showing mercy on Israel because they did not place their trust in what God was doing through Christ, while the Gentiles are putting their trust in him (9:30-33).
• They are instead pursuing righteousness by way of the Jewish Law instead of by trusting in Christ. But Christ is the goal of the Law (10:4).

Romans 10

• Paul contrasts the two kinds of righteousness, the one by works the other by faith (10:5-6...). Those who call on the Lord Jesus will escape God's wrath, will be saved (10:13). This is believing that God raised him from the dead and thus, confessing him as Lord, Messiah (10:9).
• Paul is one sent to the Gentiles--they won't have faith unless they hear and they won't hear unless someone is sent like him (10:14-17). Israel by and large has not listened (10:18-21).

Romans 11

• So is that it for Israel? It is not.
• It is not, first of all, because there is a remnant that has believed (11:5).
• But is not as well because it is still possible for hardened Israel to be saved (11:11, 25-26). This fact undermines any approach to Romans 9 that sees predestination as some fixed and unchangeable concept. It is after the fact language--we know what is predestined as we see what happens. We know Israel is predestined to be hardened because it is hardened.
• So if God cut out the natural branches in order to graft in the Gentiles/in response to their unbelief and boasting (notice the duality: one a statement of predestination, the other a consequence of human choice), then if the Gentile believers become arrogant, he can cut them out as well.
• All Israel will be saved (11:26). God's election of Israel is irrevocable (11:29).
• What a mystery! (11:33-36)

Romans 12

• Paul now turns to practical matters of the believers at Rome. In consequence of all that has gone before, here is how they should live.
• They should present their bodies as living sacrifices (12:1). This recalls what Paul said in Romans 6 about presenting their members and instruments of righteousness.
• Romans 12-15 will clarify what it means to have a transformed mind.
• First, it means not thinking more highly of yourself than of others (12:3).
• Those in Christ form one body--imagery like 1 Corinthians 12. Different gifts.
• Miscellaneous admonitions in 12:9-21, most of which have to do with loving one another and clinging to the good. Love is after all the fulfillment of the law (13:8)

Romans 13

• Material here on submitting to authorities over you. Implies agreement with governments punishing criminals (including capital punishment and war--he bears the sword) and taxes.
• Love fulfills the law, is apparently the essence of having the law written on our hearts.
• Augustine became converted from conviction occasioned by 13:13.

Romans 14

• Perhaps Paul has heard of divisions at Rome like those at Corinth between the "weak" and the "strong."
• The "weak" are those whose consciences will not allow them to eat meat because of the possibility it would have been offered to an idol. Similarly, weak Gentiles might feel the need to observe the Jewish Sabbath.
• Paul says these things are a matter of personal conscience. The food is neither clean nor unclean in itself. Faith is what is important, even though a person can be wrongly convinced about their faith.
• The strong should not despise the weak and the weak should not pass judgment on the strong (15:1).

Romans 15

• See above at the beginning.

Romans 16

• Many think this may have been sent to Ephesus rather than to Rome. Would Paul know this many people in Rome in such detail? Priscilla and Aquila were in Ephesus last thing we knew... and in 2 Timothy! The first convert of Asia is there (16:5). Some manuscripts do not have chapter 16.
• Phoebe is a deacon of Cenchrea--the masculine word, not deaconess! Romans 16:1-2 is probably her letter of reference. If this is to Rome, she is probably conveying the letter and would perhaps read it to the churches in Rome as a substitute for Paul's presence.
• House churches!
• Priscilla mentioned before her husband (16:3).
• Many women co-workers!
• Paul apparently considers Junias an apostle. She and her husband were in Christ before Paul (16:7).
• Tertius is likely the secretary who wrote down the letter (16:22).
• Gaius, Erastus are significant in the Corinthian church. Perhaps the whole church of 40-50 could fit in Gaius' house.
• Erastus, Corinth's aedile, perhaps paid for a pavement with his name in it that you can still see at Corinth.
• The doxology is quite possibly not original to the letter (16:25-27).

Romans in a Nutshell

Hi, I'm Paul. You're the Romans. Hello!

I've often wanted to come to you. Now I am.

Key Verses: For I'm not ashamed of the good news. It is the power of God to salvation to everyone who has faith, Jew first then Greek. In it God's righteousness is revealed from His faith to ours, as it is written, the person who is righteous by faith will live.

For God's wrath has been revealed... and the Gentiles are going to get it.

2 But the Jews are going to get it too.

3 In fact all have sinned and are lacking the glory God intended for them.

But God has made a way through the faithfulness of Jesus to death, if we have faith in that way.

God offered Jesus as a sacrifice for sins.

A person is justified by faith in God.

4 Take Abraham, he was justified by his faith in God.

5 So we have peace with God.

For sin and death entered the world through Adam. Justification and life have come through Christ.

6 That's no excuse to sin.

7 Why the law then? It showed me my sin problem, but couldn't help.

8. The Spirit can help! It's all going to work out in the end.

9 So God has chosen to harden most of Israel right now. Don't complain, He can do what He wants.

10 Israel has not currently chosen faith.

But if you confess Jesus as Lord, have faith that God raised him from the dead, you'll be saved.

11 And in the end even Israel will be saved.

12 So present your bodies as living sacrifices and have a renewed mind.

Get along with one another.

13 Obey those in authority over you.

Love fulfills the law.

14 Accept others who don't have the same convictions as you.

And as far as your convictions, whatever is not truly done with a heart of faith is sin.

15 I'm hoping to go to pass through on my way to Spain. Right now I'm off to Jerusalem.

16. Letter of commendation for Phoebe

Colossians in a Nutshell

Finally, for the final...
__________

Hi I'm Paul, and you're the Colossians. Hello!

Thanks to God for you.

Christ trumps other heavenly powers and so called spiritual knowledge

(here’s a hymn to prove it: Christ is the image of the invisible God...)

I’m taking care of the suffering, finishing all that's left to suffer for Christ.

And I’m making known the mystery—Christ in you Gentiles!

Don’t buy the Jewish philosophy:
--food laws aren’t the ticket
--Sabbath is not your concern
--worship with angels, big deal we have Christ
--ascetic, earthly thinking

You've disconnected from the head, Christ.

So live accordingly.

Put to death the things of earth

Put off this list of bad things; put on this list of good things.

Do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus

Household codes (husband/wife; child/parent; heavy on the slave/master)

Pray!

A whole lot of greetings

Goodbye.

Philippians in a Nutshell

Also for the final:

Hi, I'm Paul, and you're the Philippians. Hello!

I'm in chains right now, not sure the outcome.

But to live is Christ; to die is gain.

Be of one spirit. In fact here's a hymn:

[Christ though divine emptied himself...] Have that attitude.

So work together to make it to salvation with fear and trembling.

Be like Timothy and Epaphroditus, both good eggs.

Beware of the dogs, the circumcision.

I have a good circumcision resume...

But these credentials mean nothing next to Christ. I'm not resurrected yet but am pressing on hoping to attain it.

Imitate me.

So rejoice!

Tell Eudodia and Syntyche to get along.

Be content whatever your circumstances.

Thanks for the gift!

Goodbye.

Ephesians in a Nutshell

My Prison Epistles class has to do something like this on the final:
________________

Hi I'm Paul and you're all over the place because this is a circular letter.

Praise to God for all the incredible stuff he's done for those he predestined for lots of good stuff.

I give thanks to God for all I've heard about you.

[We're on top of the world with Christ]

By grace you've been saved through faith, not of works, although we're created for good works.

Christ has abolished the law, making peace between Jew and Gentile.

We're all fellow citizens built on the foundation of the apostles and [Christian] prophets, with Jesus as the cornerstone.

And I'm the preacher of this mystery: that God is bringing in the Gentiles.

We're all one--one body, one Spirit, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all...

But different roles--apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, teachers...

Take off the old; put on the new.

Don't live in darkness but in the light.

Household codes:
--wives submit to husbands, husbands love wives (metphor of Christ and the church)
-- children obey parents; parents don't provoke children to anger
--slaves obey masters; masters recognize you're a slave too.

Put on the armor of God.

Goodbye.

Paraphrase of Romans 9-11

9 Now don't get me wrong. Don't get the impression that I don't like my own people or that I'm glad they're in trouble for not accepting Jesus as Messiah. I wish I could be damned in their place! And it's such a pity because my fellow Israelites have so much going for them. The covenants and promises are for them. God gave them the law and the temple. Jesus himself was a Jew!

But this is not God's fault. In a sense, not everyone in Israel is yet truly in Israel. True Israel is, after all, about God's direction and not about your DNA. God's plan often is unpredictable and our job is to accept it rather than question it. It's not about us following our plan but about following the plan God himself has set up. God can show mercy on the Gentiles if he wants to show mercy on the Gentiles. And if part of his plan is for most of Israel to reject him right now, it's his call.

So is God unrighteous for having a different plan than we would expect? Is God unrighteous because it fits his will for most of Israel to reject him right now?

Absolutely not. God can do what he wants--he's God.

You might say, then, well why does God find fault with Israel because his Messiah isn't what they were expecting, indeed what the Scriptures themselves would lead us to expect?

It's not your place to ask. God can make most of Israel reject Jesus if he wants to because he's God. It's his clay and he can do whatever he wants with it.

Right now it's his will to include the Gentiles in the people of God. And right now it's his will that only part of Israel will accept Jesus as the Messiah.

So is that really what you're saying, Paul, you ask. The non-Jews who didn't care about being right with God have come to be right with God and Israel--which wanted to be right with God--is not. Yes. Why? Because they have not accepted God's plan. They have continued to think God considers their acts of keeping the Jewish law as the basis for continued right standing before God. But they misunderstand what the law was all about. The law was meant to point to Christ. Faith in God's plan, what he has done through Christ, is the path he wants both Jew and Gentile to take in order that they might be in good standing with him.

Israel is currently tripping over Christ. Their zeal for the law has ironically led them away from God's plan. I sure hope they will come to realize this!

Moses' writings realize it. Deuteronomy tells about this path to right standing with God. It's not something you have to go up to heaven or down to the dead to get. It's right in your mouth, the confession of faith that Jesus is in fact God's king, God's messiah, the Lord of the universe. It's faith that God raised Jesus up from the dead to take this role. If we will call on Jesus as Lord we will all be saved from God's wrath on the Day of Judgment.

It's because of this good news that I have gone all over the world. But thus far most of Israel has not accepted this good news. The writings of Moses and Isaiah both have some words that are true of most of Israel: God is making them envious by bringing the Gentiles into the people of God, even though the Gentiles weren't even looking for God.

So is that it for Israel, the end?

Absolutely not! I'm an Israelite, after all. There is already a remnant who have accepted Jesus as Messiah. This is a group that has placed their faith in God's gracious offer of reconciliation through Christ, rather than by keeping the Jewish law. In some mysterious way, this is just God's plan for those in Israel who have not accepted Jesus as Messiah.

So are those who have rejected Jesus toast, the rest of Israel? Is there no hope for them?

Absolutely not! This is apparently God's plan to bring the Gentiles into the people of God. Those of you who are Gentiles will make Israel so jealous. They will become jealous that God is showing such favoritism to those who didn't even start out as his people. You're like a branch that God has grafted into the tree of Israel.

By the way, if Israel had no basis for boasting in a privileged relationship with God, certainly you Gentiles don't have any basis to boast either. If your faith fails like Israel's has, God can cut your branch off too. And if Israel starts having faith, God can graft them back in as well.

In fact, this is all a big mystery to me--especially the fact that Israel has not accepted Jesus as Messiah. But when enough Gentiles are in, then the rest of Israel will come in too--Israel will eventually affirm Jesus as Messiah. How could it be otherwise, since God would not change his mind about his election of Israel. Ultimately, God will have mercy on everyone--both Jew and Gentile.

Oh how mysterious and unfathomable is God's way of thinking to us! Everything is ultimately about him, to whom be glory forever!

Paraphrase of Romans 5-8

5 Therefore, we have indeed been justified by faith and are at peace with God, reconciled through Christ's death. The problem both Jew and Gentile face has been taken care of through the blood of Christ and we will be saved from God's wrath when it comes on the world. God has shown us His love for us in that while we were His enemies, Christ died for the ungodly we mentioned in chapter 1.

Notice I mention in chapter 5: 1) the hope of the glory of God, something that I will end the section with in chapter 8 and 2) tribulations, remembering that I will mention sufferings at the end of this section as well. These comments may just create an inclusio that binds chapters 5-8 together. It may also imply that we should read my comments on sin and the law later at least partially against the backdrop of the way we Christians are currently suffering for Christ.

Let's step back and place this discussion of justification and sin into its broader narrative framework. You see, sin entered into the world through one person, Adam. And death was the result. Before God gave the law to Moses, the power of sin was in the world, even though sin was not taken into account. But they still died even though they didn't sin like Adam, who knew the commandment.

But Christ has done the opposite of Adam. Many died because of Adam. Many will receive God's grace because of Christ. The disobedience of one person made many sinners; the faithful obedience of one will make many righteous, justified. The purpose of the Jewish law was to make sin multiply as people knowingly violated it. But God's grace multiplies even more when that happens and reigns as it leads to eternal life.

6 So I've said that grace multiplies even more as sin multiplies as we consciously violate the Jewish law. So should we dwell on sinning, so that even more grace comes? Absolutely not!

We've died to sin and been buried with Christ. We must therefore rise up to a new way of life. We become conformed to his death, and then later we will be resurrected like him. When we died, we died to sin.

What that means is that the power of sin must not rule over your dying bodies, meaning that you just can't obey the desires of your body. You can't present the parts of your body to sin, but your body to right living. We are not in the situation under the law we started out in; we are in the age of God's grace through Christ.

So since we have God's grace on our side, should we go ahead and sin and not worry about it? Absolutely not! That would make you a slave of sin rather than a slave of right living. Thanks be to God! You were slaves of sin, but you have been freed from sin and now serve righteousness. Good thing too, because the end of the "slave to sin" path is death, death is its wages. But now you you are free from sin and enslaved to righteousness--your living is now the kind appropriate when you belong to God.

7 Again, you used to be married to the Jewish law and to the power sin exerted over you through it. But when your first husband dies, you can get remarried. So now although you were in the flesh, with the passions of sins working in the parts of your body, now you have been released from the power sin had over you because of the law.

So does that make the Jewish law evil?

Absolutely not! The law told me what sin was. But the power of sin uses the law to kill me. So like those before the law and Adam, we start off life without real knowledge of the law. Then like Adam, we learn the commandment and the power of sin takes advantage of us and we head for death. It isn't the law's fault--it is correctly pointing out what the holy and just and good actually is.

So why did I die then, since the law is good? The problem is that when you are a slave to sin, when you are "in your flesh," in your dying body, a person isn't able to keep the good law even when they want to. We all start off this way, as fleshly creatures sold as slaves under sin. The young Jew may want to keep the law and do the good in their inner person, but there is a rule in their flesh that prevents them. Woe is me! What can be done?

Thanks be to God, through Jesus Christ our Lord something can be done!

So you see there is no condemnation to those in Christ Jesus, just as we saw back in chapter 5. The rule of sin that entered the world through Adam is overcome by the rule of the Spirit that entered the world through Christ. The law couldn't make us right with God--our flesh made sure of that. But God sent his Son in the flesh--flesh that looked like the sinful flesh the rest of us have--and condemned sin in the flesh. Now the just act of the law can be fulfilled in us (love) if we walk according to the Spirit.

But those "in the flesh" can't please God, they are not subject to the law of God. But you're not in the flesh; you're in the Spirit, because the Spirit of Christ is in you--you can't even belong to Christ if you don't have his Spirit.
So as we said in chapter 6, put to death the deeds of the body of the flesh and you will truly live.

Those with God's Spirit are His sons. If we suffer with him we will be glorified with him. The sufferings we're experiencing these days are nothing compared to the glory we're about to see. The creation of which our bodies is a part is waiting to be liberated just like we are. We know that all these things will come to the good at the end, for God has pre-arranged for us to be resurrected and take on the image of his Son.

God is on our side! None of the things we are experiencing can separate us from the love of God that He has shown us in Christ Jesus!

Paraphrase of Romans 1-4

Hi, I'm Paul, I'm a servant of Jesus Christ--and let me share a little "creed" about him you might have heard: he's "son of David" and thus Messiah in his flesh but "Son of God" in power because God raised him from the dead according to the Spirit of holiness"--and you all are the Romans. I've often wanted to come visit you so that we could have a kind of spiritual gift exchange, but it just hasn't happened up till now. I'm an apostle to the Gentiles, so I want to preach to you all at Rome too.

For I'm not ashamed of the good news about what God has done through Jesus Christ. What God has done has provided a way for everyone who has faith to be saved from God's wrath on the day of judgment. In that good news God reveals His righteousness and justice toward Israel and the world, starting with His faithfulness toward the world and leading to our faith in response, just as Habakkuk 2:4 has proclaimed: "The one who is righteous on the basis of faith, will live."

For we all start out with this a problem: God judges the ungodliness of humanity and the unright aspect of people. People should know about the true God. Everyone should know His invisible power and divinity. But instead the nations worship idols. So God has let them spiral out of control, to follow that road out to its logical conclusion. We see this in the same sex practices of certain ones who bring on the punishment of disgrace in the very act itself. In fact look at the world. We can see their spiralling out of control in their covetousness, strife, murder, gossip, deceit, boasting, etc. These sorts of behaviors are worthy of death, and yet people applaud them.

2 But don't get to smug. I know some of you have been thinking. "Yeah, Paul, most Gentiles are like that. God's going to blast them. But I am or have become a Jew." But are you actually living any differently that these "heinous Gentiles" you're laughing at? The fact that God is only graciously receiving you should lead you to repent just like it should them! It is not the hearers of the Jewish law that God accepts, but the doers.
So if you should find a Gentile [nudge, wink--I'm talking about Christians here] that keeps the essence of the Jewish law, shows the law written on their hearts [nudge, wink, because they have the Spirit] shouldn't their uncircumcision be counted as circumcision? But it works both ways. Should a circumcised Jew be considered a Jew if they don't keep the essence of the law [nudge wink: love your neighbor as yourself]? So you who call yourself a Jew, do you actually keep the Jewish law? I know a lot who call themselves a Jew but actually behave in a way that disgraces God among the nations.

3 So does a Jew have any advantage at all, especially if circumcision doesn't matter? Sure. They have the Scriptures. The fact that some don't live up to them isn't God's problem. And by the way, if you've heard that I teach "Let's sin so that God's grace will come," I don't teach that.
The fact is that both Jews and Gentiles are under the power of sin. Neither has a claim to God's favor. "No one made of flesh will be found not guilty and approved," because no one has kept the Jewish law that good. All have sinned--both Jew and Gentile--and neither have the glory God intended for humanity in the creation. That's the problem.

But God has shown His righteousness again--the fact that He is just, and that He is faithful to Israel and in fact the whole world. But He has shown his righteousness in a way that doesn't involve the Jewish Law, even though the books of the Law and the Prophets have foretold it. What I'm talking about is the righteousness God has shown through the faithfulness of Jesus Christ resulting in atonement for all who have faith in what God has done through him. So although both Jew and Gentile have sinned, both can be acquitted because of God's grace made possible by offering Christ as redemption, as an atoning sacrifice. See how this shows that God is just [because a punishment has been asserted] and yet God makes people just if they have this faith Jesus demonstrated.

No one, Jew or Gentile, has any basis to boast before God. God is one God, which means He must be God of both Jew and Gentile. And he justifies or declares someone in right standing the same way. For the Jew it is on the basis of faith [not works of law] and for the Gentile it is through their faith as well. A person is justified by faith and not by works of the Jewish law.
4 Let's use Abraham as a test case. Genesis says that Abraham had faith in God and God afforded him right standing before Him. When was this? Was Abraham circumcised when this happened? No, it was when he was uncircumcised. So Abraham at this point of his life is the father of all those justified while they are uncircumcised, namely, the Gentiles. What kind of faith did Abraham have? He had faith in a God who could raise the dead. He had faith in a God who could give life to a barren womb. If we have faith in this God who raised Jesus from the dead, we will be considered right with God too.

Jesus died to atone for our sins and he was raised to establish our right standing before God. This is the solution.