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Back to the Bible. Let it be our plea. God's Word alone, our authority, every word, every step in the name of Christ. Back to the Bible for the way of life.
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Welcome to this period of Bible study. We are so thankful for the opportunities that we have to consider God's Word together. And we hope that you find this period of time to be beneficial to you. Above all, our effort is that God would be glorified and honored in our efforts. We believe that the way that we can do that is by trying our very best to communicate His Word faithfully and clearly. And inasmuch as we fall short of that, we invite you to reach out to us and let us know how we can improve in our clarity, how we can straighten out our lack of faithfulness to God's Word. Because we want to be able to teach the truth and we want to do so in a way that's understandable. If you want to reach out to us, you can go to backtothebiblepodcast.com there you can find previous episodes, you can find information about the program, and you can contact us through various ways on that website. And we would be happy to hear from you. If you're watching on video, you might see that we're in a little bit of a different setting than we have been in previous weeks. We are trying to make some adjustments over time. I'm thinking that there will be changes and kinks getting worked out, but hopefully it won't obstruct from the Bible study process. If you're listening on the radio or on the podcast, hopefully the audio comes through clearly and maybe we can make some adjustments to sharpen that. Those perhaps are far in the rear view mirror regarding faithfulness or clarity. But if there are issues that you think you could help us address, then we would be happy to hear from you about those too. We don't want it to be a burden to have to listen to the program. We would rather it be easy listening even when there are maybe difficult topics that we have to discuss. I am thankful. I'm thankful for those who help support the program. I am thankful for those who encourage our efforts. I am thankful for the access to resources that I'm able to have in order to be able to provide something like this. And most of all, we are thankful to God for the blessing of Christ and being in him, for the blessing of His Word so that we may know him and for his care, his provision through the years so that we can have this as a means by which we consider Him His Word his promises. So today we come to the very last paragraph of the letter to the Romans. And we have gone through this weighty, heavy book, and we have tried to make observations about what Paul is trying to prove in the Book of Romans and then the applications that he is making along the way. And I realize that there are probably places where my understanding of the passage is different, even from good and faithful brethren that I love and respect. But I want you to consider these things in light of the argument that I've made for them and in what I'm seeing in the text. And I hope that it's a helpful consideration. Regardless, I do want to say that I have not made an attempt to overturn our whole understanding of how God works or our understanding of what it takes for a person to be saved. What I've tried to do is to sharpen the way we look at the text and the way the words are used, and perhaps we'll review that a little bit in this time. But if there are questions about my disagreements with other brethren or with the way that I understand a particular text, I am happy to address those things. And I'll tell you I'm happy to change my view in light of compelling evidence, because I want to understand God's Word well, and I know that I am just a fraction of where I want to be in knowing and understanding God's Word. And so hopefully that will be a help to you. We come to the last paragraph of the letter to the Romans. And here Paul writing says, now I urge you, brothers, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to strive together with me in your prayers to God for me that I may be rescued from those who are disobedient in Judea, and that my service for Jerusalem may prove acceptable to the saints, so that I may come to you in joy by the will of God and find rest in your company. Now may the God of peace be with you all. Amen. That was actually the end of chapter 15. That would be a great passage to consider again. But let's read from chapter 16, verse 25. 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, which has been kept secret for long ages past, but now is manifested and by the scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the eternal God has been made known to all the Gentiles, leading to the obedience of faith. Do the only wise God through Jesus Christ be the glory forever. Amen. So as Paul concludes this letter. The first thing he does here is he points to the one who strengthened him and who had called them in the Gospel to him who is able to strengthen you? In verse 27, we see who he was talking about. He gives quite a long description of the gospel that he was preaching, and we'll look at that in just a moment. But he says to him, who is able to strengthen you, verse 27, to the only wise God, through Jesus Christ, be the glory forever. Amen. When we talk about giving God the glory, it's wonderful to think about. We are put in a position to glorify God because God's glory far surpasses anything that we could offer. When God's glory appeared in the Old Testament, it drove people not just to their knees, but to their faces out of the sheer power and the awe of God's glory. So how is it that we can give God glory? How is it that Paul could say to him, be the glory? Well, the way it's done is that we give him the credit, we give him the praise, we lift him up, we make known what he has done, and we sing about that and we give thanks for that and we talk about that. And in those ways, the God whose glory far exceeds whatever we can imagine is glorified in our words and in our life. And he says that he wants that God, the only wise God, to receive the glory. And he says he can strengthen you. According to my Gospel and, and the preaching of Jesus Christ. The thing that provides strength for a human being is the good news that Paul preached the message about Jesus the King. That is what God has provided, which is the most gracious offering he could give. It's important to see that the Gospel being on offer is the thing that should drive us to glorifying God in a way beyond all the other things that he provides for us, as wonderful as those things are. And here he describes the Gospel, the preaching of Jesus Christ according to the revelation of the mystery, which has been kept secret for long ages past, but. But now is manifested and by the scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of eternal God, has been made known to all the Gentiles. Notice what he's saying here. There are several passages here. The revelation of the mystery, the thing that was kept secret, now manifested. The scriptures of the prophets having been made known. You have this the way it was and the way it is. But, well, what was it? Well, it was a mystery. It was kept secret. It was the scriptures of the prophets they pointed forward to what was coming. Now, here's the idea. When it was kept secret, it was not as if God wanted people to have no idea what was coming. It was not as if he wanted to keep it completely hidden, but it was not completely made known. It was a mystery. I have heard this compared, and I think it's. It's fair, though the limitations are obvious. The illustration of a magician who wants to reveal at the end the thing that was hidden, or the card that you chose, or whatever the case may be. Now he doesn't reveal everything. And I think God gives us more insight into the way things were working than the magician wants to give us. There's still things that we don't know for sure about how God worked out this whole process, but that's beside the point. What the magician does is he gives you just a peek into what's happening. He shows you where he places the thing, or he shows you what he's going to be doing. He's just giving you a little preview. And. And then when the person reappears or when the rabbit is pulled out, or when the card is revealed on the other side of the glass, you say, wow, I did not see that coming. Well, I think that there is a way in which we can look at the prophets, and if we look at them, well, we can say we see someone coming. The Jewish people believed there was someone coming. And the benefit, though, is we get to look in the light of the thing having been revealed and we can go back and look at that process and say, what was being pointed to? What was the mystery? What was the thing that was being kept secret? Well, we can do that because the mystery has now been revealed by revelation. This is another passage in which Paul is saying the message that he is preaching is not just his ponderings, but it is something that had to be revealed to him. It is something that was made manifest or made known, was revealed, and now it's been made known to all the Gentiles, which is significant. And we'll talk about that in just a moment. But I do want you to consider what Paul is saying here. This is not something that he just pondered or philosophized about and was finally able to come to an understanding of what God's word is, was, or God's message was. Rather, this is something that was revealed, manifested, made known. Here's why that's significant. If you read lots of the religious books, and I would think, especially like the Eastern religions, what you will find in those is not something that was supposed to be divine. Revelation, but just the long meditations and thoughtful sayings of people who pondered for a long time. And I think probably there are wise things that those people have said when they ponder and they look at family life and work and recreation. And you just sit and you ponder that for a long time. And you can use common sense and say, this is the way things work the best. But that's not what the Scriptures are. What the Scriptures are is saying we have not worked things out the best. Now we have an opportunity to do so because God has revealed what is the best. This is made known. And that sets Scripture apart from so many of the other ancient books. It's not just the wise ponderings of the prophets. It is God's wisdom made known. It is God's promises revealed. So notice he says that this is in accordance to the commandment of the eternal God has been made known to all the Gentiles. I think that is a major case of the Book of Romans is that God is revealing his will to the nations. I think we can look at the Old Testament. One passage that comes to mind is Deuteronomy chapter 4, where the nations are going to look at Israel and they're going to say, what nation is there like this that has a God like that? What nation is there like this that has wisdom and judgments revealed to it that are so wonderful? Well, it was limited in its revelation. That is not to say God didn't have dealings with the Gentiles in the Old Testament era. I believe that he did. It's not to say that there was no revelation made to people like that in those days. I think that there probably was. But all of that is to say is that they did not have the access to God's revealed will in the way that the Jewish people did. But now the gospel is being made known to all the Gentiles, being made known to all the nations. This is not something that is limited to a social, racial, ethnic, national group. This is something that is spreading through the world and through Paul's preaching, through the commandment of the eternal God, through the gospel that Paul was presenting, that was being done. Now, I want to note this phrase here at the end of verse 26. What was the gospel supposed to lead to? It was supposed to lead to the obedience of faith. Now, I want you to see in the Book of Romans that this idea of faith partnered with obedience is not in contrast at all. Every time I listen to someone from a denominational background, an evangelical background, perhaps, talk about Paul in the Book of Romans, Talking about faith, I feel like it's such a shallow presentation of. Of what Paul means when he talks about faith. Because they read what Paul says about works, salvation, and they draw the conclusion that any obedience is what Paul means by works in this text. And that there's nothing that you do in order to meet any conditions for your salvation. And that faith, this simple belief or even acknowledgment, and maybe they go so far as to say trust that that is all that's required for one to be rendered righteous in God's sight. And I think what Paul shows through the Book of Romans is that faith and obedience are not disconnected. And let me say that faith is not the thing that saves and obedience just the result of it, but rather that is our faith characterized by belief, by confidence, by trust and by loyalty. That is the right condition for responding to Jesus the King. When Paul talks about works in the Book of Romans, he is talking about a shallow concept of that. He is talking about imposing the law on Gentiles so. So that they can come and be part of the people of Israel. And what Paul is saying is that those works of the law were never intended for the Gentiles. And in fact, that the Jewish people had not been faithful in their maintenance of the law. And it's not a criticism of the law, and it's not a criticism of obedience. It is a criticism of the shallow way with which the Judaizing teachers were trying to impose all of that. And so when we look through the Book of Romans, not only do we see a critique of that kind of works, but we also need to understand that Paul does not diminish the role of works. This passage here in Romans 16 serves as a bookend to Romans chapter one in verse five, where he says that the Gospel was intended to bring about the obedience of faith. That is, the faith that is characterized by obedience. This we could call faithful allegiance or loyal obedience or something like that. I think the best word to use through the Book of Romans when we talk about faith is not belief, but about faithfulness. That God demonstrated his faithfulness in Jesus. Jesus demonstrated his faithfulness and going all the way to the cross. And in response to God and Jesus faithfulness, we can come to faithfulness as well. And so as you go through the Book of Romans, Romans 1, verse 5, obedience of faith, here in chapter 16 and verse 26, obedience of faith. And then just think through the text, chapter two, we're going to be judged according to our works, chapter six, that we have been called to obedience Paul says in verse 17, I'm thankful to God that though you were the servants of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed. And having been freed from sin, you became the slaves of righteousness. Somebody might look at what Paul says there. If somebody said that in a pulpit today, they would say, how legalistic. They might say, why are you so focused on works? And Paul would be amiss at what you're saying because he would say, obedience to the king is the condition for receiving the promises and the blessings of being a part of his kingdom. I know lots of people will go to Romans chapter 10 and they will say, see here it says if you confess. Yes, if you confess what? If you confess Jesus. Jesus as Lord. That's the confession that you're making. You're saying, he's the boss, he's the ruler, he's the master, he's the king, he is Lord. That's the thing that you are saying. And so we come to all the way through Romans, chapter 14, even in these disagreements, whether we live, whether we die, whatever he is Lord over in chapter 15, as he talks about the way that he came preaching to the Gentiles, I will be bold enough. I will not be bold enough to speak of anything except what Christ has brought through me. The leading to the obedience of the Gentiles by word and deed. If somebody was telling Paul that he was trying to preach faith alone, that's not what he says. He was bringing the Gentiles to. He was bringing them to obedience in word and deed. And of course, we come to our end of the book here, chapter 16. Now let me make a note there that I think that you can see through these texts, and this perhaps is what frames my reading of the Book of Romans, is that he is writing to the Gentiles. And I think it's important to see that there is one Gospel, there is one faith, there is one Lord, there's one means of access to Father, There is no other name under heaven by which we must be saved. Acts 4. But having said that, the way that the book of Romans is framed is framed towards communicating to Gentiles. And we can see that through the book, right in Romans chapter 1 and verse 14 or verse 13. I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that that often I have planned to come to you and have been prevented so far so that I may have some fruit among you also, even among the rest of the Gentiles. You see that if he's having fruit among them as he has among the rest of the Gentiles. Then who are these people? You can drop back up to verse five. Through whom we have received grace and apostleship for the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles for the sake of his name, among whom you also are the called of Jesus Christ. So we see it there in a couple of ways. Then you come to other chapters, other sections of the Book of Romans. I would say that chapters 9 through 11 deal with the Israelite issue the most. I think that we see that even in these texts. Paul refers to the Jewish people as them and they. Now, of course, these are the disobedient Jewish people. But then I want you to know that he references. He says through this text that they are the Gentiles that he's writing to. So In Romans, chapter 11 and verse 17, he says in if some of the branches were broken off. It's very obvious there. He's talking about Jewish people and you, being a wild olive, were grafted in among them and became a partaker with them of the rich root of the olive tree. He's talking about the Gentiles being grafted in verse 24. If you were cut off from what is nature by wild olive tree and were grafted contrary to nature, the people he's writing to are not the them or the they of the branches of the olive tree. They are the Gentiles. Now, why do I make that point? Well, the reason I make that point is because I think that helps us see how Paul is framing the law. Paul will say in the Book of Romans that the law is holy and righteous and good. And yet through the text, he's criticizing works of the law. How does that happen? What's going on there? Well, the challenge is, is that he's addressing this to Gentiles for whom the law was never intended as the means by which they would come into right standing with God. Rather, it was always pointing to Christ. And what was happening is both Jews and Gentiles were depending on going back under the law. And I would say in a very truncated, shortened way, and observing some of these major statutes of the law. Paul mentions circumcision several times here. I think that was probably the great indicator of a Judaizing teacher's message. And what he's saying here is that is not what God was always looking for. And Abraham, chapter four, can be the father of the circumcised and the father of the uncircumcised. How? Because he was justified by his faithfulness before he was circumcised, he was justified. The text tells us in chapter 15 that he kept on believing that he remained steadfast and firm in his confidence in God. And then in chapter 17 is when circumcision was introduced. So if we thought of an outline of the book of Romans, I think that the old traditional outline that I used in teaching for a long time is useful. And I think what you see here is in Romans, chapter one, you have the introduction and then you have the problem of sin. I think the basic problem that we see introduced in chapter one is the problem of the sin of the Gentile world. At the beginning of chapter two, I think that we are talking about a hypocritical Gentile who has taken on perhaps the law in some way, but who is not living in keeping with what has been revealed. And it's pointed out in the end of chapter two that what you've got here is somebody who has bought this message of circumcision without circumcision from the heart. And Paul says, that wasn't even working for the Jewish people. And so we go through chapter three, and here come these Judaizing teachers saying this is the way to be right with God. And Paul is saying, even these people who have that missed what it meant to be right with God. So how is it that we can be right? How is it that God can be faithful to his promises to have a people when the people he chose have rejected Him? How is it? Well, it's through the faithfulness of Jesus, I think. Romans, chapter 3, verses 21 and following, show that God's righteousness, his faithfulness to his promises have been displayed in the righteousness, the faithfulness of Christ, and that we can respond to that by giving him our faithfulness. And so chapter four says, really, I think that Moses is not the best model for how Jew and Gentile will be brought to God, but rather Abraham. Abraham, who believed that God could bring life from the dead. Abraham, who was faithful to him in view of his promises, that is our forefather, Jew and Gentile, not because he was circumcised, not because he kept the law of Moses, but because. But because of his faithfulness. And I think we see the blessings and the benefits of being reconciled to God by our faithfulness, by his faithfulness to us in Christ, and by our response of following Jesus into death and into resurrection, we see the benefits of that. Chapter five, we can have hope that if God has done this for us so far, we can anticipate what's coming. Chapter six. We can be dead to sin, raised alive. Chapter seven. We don't have to feel enslaved to sin. Rather, chapter eight. We are free. We can call God Father. The Spirit testifies with us that we are children of God. The Spirit intercedes for us, understanding our innermost griefs. We have hope of eternity. God works all things together for good. You see the blessings that are just mounding on top of one another. In chapter eight, of course, Paul deals with the Israelite question, has God rejected them completely? The answer is, no, he has not. They had many wonderful blessings. They still had blessings. They had things that should have pointed them to Christ. In fact, he says, all Israel will be saved. My take is, is that God had always been pointing to a remnant. And the remnant were those who would put their faithfulness, give their faithfulness to Jesus Christ, and they would be like branches grafted back into God's olive tree. And then Paul draws some practical applications. And I will say, I think Romans chapter 12 sums it up. I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies as a sacrifice, living holy and acceptable to God, which is your reasonable spiritual service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is good and acceptable and perfect. We have other plans for Bible studies in the future, but that brings us to an end of our study of the Book of Romans. Thank you so much for your kind attention. And until next time, we bid you a pleasant good day.
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Back to the Bible. Let it be our plea. God's word alone, our authority, every word, every step in the name of Christ. Back to the Bible for the way of life.