My apologies, the lack of recent blog posts is due to my upcoming exams and hence it is unlikely I will be posting again for some time. There may be odd bits here and there but in all likelihood normal blogging will return after exams, and with renewed vigour for the summer!
God Bless,
Luke
Quite a short one today!
Background:
More is coming! For now, see my Romans 1 study.
Themes:
Salvation, Faith, The Bible.
Overview:
Salvation is discussed, using a couple of OT heroes as evidence that we are saved by faith and not deeds, and that Jesus came for everyone, not just circumcised Jews. God keeps His promises and a little more about salvation :)
Points of Interest:
Verses 3-5: I promise that a post on salvation is coming at some point, it’s in the works! This verse is great, we’re continuing the theme of salvation that we’ve seen in previous chapters and Paul reiterates here that faith makes us right with God, not deeds. I particularly like these verses because Paul references Moses and David, two of the heroes of the Old Testament, sort of spiritual giants. In fact, a footnote in my Bible says this about Abraham: ‘Most respected ancestor of the Jews. Every Jew hoped to see Abraham’. This shows how important he was and that is why Paul references him, sort of using it as evidence to show that if Abraham and David (you know, those awesome guys that we all look up to?) cannot be saved by deeds then why would you think that we could be? It is through faith.
Verses 10-11: Paul seems to be making sure that the Roman Church got the message from Chapter 2- Jesus came for everyone, not just the Jews.
Verses 23-24: I love these verses: Paul is essentially saying ‘Look guys, this wasn’t just meant for Abraham but for us too!’ That still applies- the OT is just as much for us as it was for the early Church or for the people at the time it was written. Often I find I can skip into the NT because it’s more ‘relevant’ and that means I miss out on some of the awesome stuff that’s in the OT too! I think it’s quite easy to skim over the OT because it can be hard work or less relevant. But I believe every word is meant to be there and so it shouldn’t be overlooked or deemed as less important.
Similarly, Paul’s words aren’t just for the Roman Church- they are for us too! By the way, that’s The Bible to give the theme :)
Verse 24: A nice little summary of the generally accepted view of salvation there: We believe in God and that He raised Jesus from the dead, Jesus died for our sins to save us and that we are right with God due to Jesus’ death. Boom! Love it.
Questions:
What do you think about salvation? What about the relevance of the OT?
Also, have I missed something here? :P I feel like there’s something that I’ve overlooked/not explained fully.
Other:
Please feel free to comment, correct and share your views.
Background:
Once again, see my Romans 1 study because I haven’t looked up anything else yet :P
Themes:
The themes that I picked out in this chapter include: Judging others; Salvation; God’s amazing grace and Faith.
Overview:
The first section is a continuation of the end of Romans 2 where Paul is talking to the Jews and how they sin. He goes on to say that we all sin and no one is better than another. Finally, he tells of the awesomeness of what God has done for everyone through sending Jesus to die for us and emphasises that we do not earn salvation, but rather it is by God’s grace that He gives it to us as a gift if we believe in Jesus :).
Points of Interest:
Verse 9: This is a great verse- are Jews better than everyone else because God trusted them with His teachings? No way! Everyone sins! This verse is very easily applicable: Are Christians better than other people because we try to live how we think God commands? No way! Everyone does wrong. No one is exempt, except Jesus. This means that we cannot judge others and should not be arrogant or holier-than-thou, because we are all equal: none are more important than others.
Verse 19: The New Living Translation puts it amazingly: ‘Obviously, the law applies to those to whom it was given, for its purpose is to keep people from having excuses, and to show that the entire world is guilty before God’. What a verse! There are no excuses for sinning, we all know what is right and how we should act, but all of us mess up! The phrase ‘show that the entire world is guilty before God’ doesn’t mean that God is wanting to condemn us all, or that He wants us to feel like horrible sinners, or that He gave us the Bible so that He could say ‘Ha! Now you have no excuses and there’s no way you can keep to what I say I can punish you!’ because that’s totally not the message. This verse, rather than showing God’s pleasure in exposing our sin, is actually a message of God’s amazing grace. The entire world is guilty, yet Jesus died on the cross so that we would be washed clean. All who accept what Jesus did for them are not guilty any longer! If we choose to let Jesus take our punishment for us then we are made free! Isn’t that amazing? The law shows that the entire world is guilty before God, yet ‘through Jesus the law of the Spirit of life has set us free from the law of sin and death’. If that’s not Good News I don’t know what is!
Verse 20: This confused me a great deal- it seems to completely contradict what Paul says in Romans 2:13 (which I don’t think I included in my study because I didn’t understand it) but, after researching it, I’ve found that it really doesn’t :). In brief, in Romans 2:13 Paul is referring to the beliefs held by a group of Jews in the Roman Church, as seen by Romans 2:17. Salvation does not come from following God’s law, it is a free gift for all who believe in Jesus. I know I haven’t explained that brilliantly here but I will be doing a post on my other blog all about these verses and salvation as a topic so stay tuned and I will try my best to put it up swiftly! :)
Verses 21-26: These verses are amazing! This is one of the most key points about Christianity, if not the most important point of all- everyone does wrong in God’s eyes, no one, no matter how good they are, can be as good as God because no one is perfect and we all fall short of His standard of perfection. Yet through His grace, even though we don’t deserve it, He sent His son Jesus to die for us, to take on the punishment that we deserve, so that all who believe can be right with Him. Basically- Jesus died on the cross and was risen from the dead so that we can have a true relationship with God and be saved from our wrongdoing, as Jesus has taken the punishment we deserve. That is the Good News!! :).
Verse 27: ‘So do we have reason to boast about ourselves? No! And why not? It is the way of faith that stops all boasting, not the way of trying to obey the law’. This is a great verse too- it reminds us that Jesus has done everything and we can’t claim any credit for our own salvation because it’s all due to Jesus! Not only does it not allow us to boast but, if followed through, it reminds us that we cannot judge others because we are no better than anyone else.
Verses 29-30: God came for everyone! For you, and for me, and for everyone else! God doesn’t pick and choose- everyone is welcome in the Kingdom of Heaven, so long as they believe in Jesus and what He has done.
Questions:
Verses 1-9: I don’t really understand these at all :P What do they mean?
Verse 31: Just an interesting verse for me because I’ve recently been thinking and reading about salvation and the concept of faith and things: ‘Faith causes us to be what the law truly wants’. So faith is necessary for us to act in accordance with the law (that is to say, to serve God) and in fact, it seems that true faith causes us to act in that way. This seems to imply to me that true faith is evidenced by acting in accordance with what we know is right. Trying to do right and good is the natural response to having faith so is it possible to have faith without doing good? If one has faith that doesn’t cause a change to live for God is that real faith?
Other:
Please feel free to comment, correct and share your views.
Background:
I think I covered most of what I have to say in my Romans 1 study but I’ll edit in any extra I think is good as I read more.
Overview:
Firstly, Paul says that we all sin and shouldn’t judge others as we are just as bad as they are. He then talks about judgement and salvation and then lastly about hypocrisy, relating to the beginning.
Points of Interest:
Verses 2-3: This is great! Right after the previous chapter talking about sin, and specifically homosexuality, the first few verses in this chapter serve as a sharp reminder that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and thus, none of us can judge others.
Verses 6-8: These are some verses I’m struggling to get to grips with slightly. I think I’ll probably post something about salvation and what I think these verses mean (when I’ve figured it out!) on my other blog which, if I do it, will be linked here ___________. Oh and themes: judgement/salvation/life after death.
Verse 11: We can be sure that God will judge fairly as He is the ultimate judge- He knows all the mitigating circumstances, there is no need to access whether anyone is lying because (as verse 16 says) he knows our secret thoughts, and he is 100% just.
Verses 12-16: These are amazing verses! Whenever a discussion about Heaven arises the question ‘What about people who have never heard of Jesus?’ is posed. These verses, to me, seem to provide an answer. Just because people have never heard the Good News it doesn’t mean they are automatically condemned, just as people who have heard the Good News aren’t automatically saved. It takes obedience to what we know is right. People that have never heard about God still have a conscience and they will be judged based on their secret thoughts and their actions as they know what is right as right and wrong seem to be integrated into every human’s heart.
Verse 21: This is such a powerful verse to me: ‘You teach others, so why don’t you teach yourself?’. I think it speaks for itself! I know I have been guilty of correcting others when I myself needed correcting, and I’m sure most of us have done exactly that at some point in our lives. It’s very easy (especially in a church setting, I find) to try to teach others, or to judge, or to criticise, when we ourselves need to be taught; be it a lesson in humility, or in empathy, or in encouragement. Theme: Hypocrisy.
Verse 24: This is another repetition of Scripture and, as you know from my Romans 1 study, I think that if Scripture is repeated it must be important! It says ‘Those who are not Jews speak against God’s name because of you’. This commentary is a good one and I’m not going to simply repeat what it says there so check it out if you have the time, it’s only a few paragraphs about this verse :). Essentially, if people say they are Christians but do not act like it, this leads to non-Christians getting an incorrect view of what Christianity is as a whole, because most would probably assume all Christians are like the ones that they’ve encountered and take them as typical. Therefore, we need to act with love and compassion and all the good things Jesus teaches, or else we are not reflecting God properly. Epic stuff.
Verses 28-29: This is some evidence as to why Christians don’t need to be circumcised like the Jews, because we are freed from the law.
Questions:
What do you think of verses 5-16? What do you think they mean in context, and what do they mean for Christians today? As I said previously, I may post my thoughts later because in researching it I became quite confused :P Let me know what you think :)
Verse 24: What theme would you call this? I couldn’t think of the right word, but it definitely is one! :P
I didn’t know whether to put this one into questions or other but I think I’ll leave it here: should I add a heading for themes or is it fine as it is?
Other:
Please feel free to comment, correct and share your views.
Background:
The origins of the Roman Church (to whom Paul, the author, was writing) are likely to have been as a direct result of the Day of Pentecost, as among the Jews present were ‘visitors from Rome’. It is likely that some of these Jews would have been converted on that day and taken the Gospel back with them to Rome. So, one can assume that the first Roman Church was Jewish. However, Paul meets the Jew Aquila and his wife Priscilla at Corinth because ‘Claudius had ordered all Jews to leave Rome’. So it is likely that when the Jews returned under the new emperor, Nero, after Claudius had died (54AD) the Roman Church would have been entirely Gentile. The Jews would not have been especially made welcome and this led to the situation that almost every part of Romans is dealing with. As a Jew who was called to the Gentiles, Paul was uniquely equipped to reconcile them.
In chapter one, Paul reminds both the Jews and Gentiles that they sin and neither one is better than the other.
Overview:
Firstly, Paul starts out by thanking God for the faith that the recipients of this letter (the Roman Church) have and says that he has asked many times to be able to visit them. Secondly, he tells of how all people have done wrong as God has shown Himself to man and yet man turns his back on God, so God left them to their own sinfulness as He gives us each a choice whether to live for Him or not.
Points of interest:
Verse 17: There is a fantastic quote that Paul references (Habakkuk 2:4) about how God makes people right with Himself: it begins and ends with faith. That still blows me away when I stop to think about it. Jesus died on the cross for me, that my sins could be forgiven and that I could go to heaven, and yet all I have to do is believe it. The fact that Paul references Scripture seems to be of particular significance to me: I believe the Bible to be God-inspired and I don’t think a single word is there by chance or accident. Some of it may be difficult to understand, but it’s all meant to be there. So here, this specific verse about faith is repeated so, to me, it’s got to be important!
Verse 20: This is a great verse and rings particularly true for me and, I suspect, everyone else too, but in different ways. In essence, it says we can see God’s power through creation so it is easy to understand how powerful He is. I, personally, find particular aspects of creation the most awe-inspiring, like the stars (a common one I’m led to believe), ripples in water and the sky and clouds. That isn’t to say that I can’t or don’t see the power of God in other ways, but they are the most common for me. But isn’t that amazing? Not only has God made it so we can see His power through the world around us, but also that it’s individually tailored to make us ‘Wow’ where others may not :)
Verses 21-22: These verses ring true of my life not all that long ago, specifically, they knew God but they did not give glory or thanks to Him. Their thoughts became useless and they said they were wise but they became fools. I thought I was living okay, and I was by most standards, but essentially I wasn’t giving enough time to God- I wasn’t praying regularly, reading my Bible was just a chore that I tried to avoid and singing worship was often just that- singing. So these verses are a reminder to me of how I used to be and how, for me, when other things took up way more ‘brain space’ than God my thinking was essentially useless. Not only does it not please God but also, I wasn’t as happy!
Verses 26-27: The sometimes controversial issue of homosexuality is here already in the very first chapter! It’s interesting that I was discussing this issue with a few friends the other day (this issue here meaning the way in some Christians act in relation to homosexuality and what the Bible says) and the only verses any of us could come up with were some old and oft quoted from Leviticus: (Lev.18:22). Yet just that night I come across this verse which seems to be fairly clear on the matter! In essence, it says that homosexual sex isn’t right. Now, this is one of those many areas where I don’t claim to know everything and I don’t want anyone to get the wrong impression by thinking that my opinion is definitely true but I believe that homosexuality probably isn’t a sin (that is to say disobeying God’s commands) in itself. I think that carrying out one’s homosexual desires isn’t in line with the Bible but as for having such desires and not practising them, I think it’s a different matter and one I’m not entirely sure on. I may do some further research and post on my other blog so, if you’re interested you can check that out if I do it. (I’ll hyperlink it here if I do).
Questions:
Verse 18: Does anyone know what it means when it says God’s anger is shown from heaven against all evil and wrongdoings? (As Joyce Mayer would say, emphasis mine). What does it mean when it says shown?
Other:
Hello there!
This is my Bible study blog. I hope to read portions of the Bible and write about what I find interesting and useful for my life. This isn’t a Bible study in the traditional sense as I’m not going to look at each verse- I’ll only look at the ones that stand out to me in particular and share my own thoughts on what I think they mean and how it applies my life. I’m definitely no scholar so if you’re looking for an in depth look at the Bible then this probably isn’t what you’re looking for!
I’ll probably get some stuff wrong, it won’t be amazingly written and I don’t claim to know everything (or even a fair amount!) about the Bible, but the Bible is for all people and that is the beauty of it. Please don’t hesitate to offer suggestions, correction or criticism, as well as your own views on what the passages mean :).
Just some background on me: I’m a practising Christian and the Church that I go to is part of the Church of England. I’m also a student currently studying A-Levels, none of which are Theology, Religious Studies or even English!
But two days ago I felt like God was saying to me; ‘Take risks’.
So here goes nothing! :P.
