Romans 1:8-17
Grace Coach Podcast
English - June 11, 2022 14:52 - 28 minutes - 19.7 MB - ★★★★★ - 33 ratingsChristianity Religion & Spirituality graceministry gracepodcast podcastchristian podcastministry sermonpodcast Homepage Download Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Overcast Castro Pocket Casts RSS feed
Previous Episode: Romans 1:1-7
Next Episode: The Book of Romans Podcast-Romans 1:18-32
Romans 1:8-17 talks about a few important things. Why was it so astonishing that the faith of the Gentiles was being reported all over the world? Next the Apostle Paul introduces that in the Gospel, that our righteousness from God comes by faith alone. What does it mean to be right with God? How can I be made right with God? Is it by my good deeds or is it something else.
Transcript:
Want to discover your freedom in Christ, then listen in as Mike Stone and Kevin Smith talk about it today on Grace Coach. Hello, this is Mike with Grace Coach. It is good to be here here. And I'm with Kevin Smith. What's up, Mike? Yeah, I am excited about this podcast. I've been looking at chapter one versus eight to 17, and there's a lot here, Kevin. Well, I'm surprised we're not going to get through chapter one in two weeks. I mean, it's going to take us three weeks to get through it. Maybe not even three weeks. But you know what? God's timing is perfect. I guess I just want to review the first seven verses in chapter one. We read that Paul was set apart by God to be an Apostle, that God met him on the road to Damascus while he was crucifying Christians and murdering them, taking them to jail. It also talked about how God promised this gospel in the Old Covenant. So everything about Jesus was prophesied in the old Covenant. We read that Jesus was a descendant of David and that he was declared to be God by the resurrection of the dead. Amen. We talked a little bit that he wasn't declared with power when he died on the cross, which is the main message of Christmas today. But he was declared to be God by the resurrection of himself, which was very cool to go into Romans one, verses eight to 17. Kevin, to get the full picture and the impact of what Paul is saying, because really just before I did this and to say what is going on here, why is he writing what he's writing? I really had to dig deep into some verses to find out what is he talking about in verses eight to 17. Jesus, this is crazy when you read this, even when I Typed it out and read it in Matthew ten, five and six, Jesus said to the disciples, he says, do not go to the Gentiles or any town of the Samaritans, but rather go to the lost sheep of Israel. This was his command. This is God himself commanding the disciples, don't go to the Gentiles. The Jew first, then the Gentiles. Yeah, only go to the Jews. And in Acts twelve and 222, after the Holy Spirit came on the disciples who became Apostles at Pentecost, Peter addresses all these people and he says, fellow Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem. And he said, fellow Israelites, listen to this. He is not talking to the Gentiles. He's only talking about the Jews. He's following Jesus command of going to the Jews and not going to the Gentiles. And you really got to scratch your head. What verse was that? Acts 214, where Peter says, fellow Jews and Acts 222 and he says, fellow Israelites, I'm just following what Jesus said in Matthew ten, five and six, that he said, do not go to the Gentiles. Or any town of the Samaritans, but rather go to the lost sheep of Israel and you see that happening. You see Paul and Peter following that command until Peter goes up to the roof in Acts ten. And Peter went up to the roof, and he prayed, and he fell into a trance, and he saw heaven open like a large sheep being led down to Earth by its four corners. It contains all kinds of four footed animals, as well as reptiles and birds. Then a voice told him, Peter, get up, kill and eat. Surely not, Lord. Peter said, I have never eaten anything impure or unclean. The voice spoke to him a second time. Do not call anything impure that God has made clean. And so Peter is like, are we talking about food here? These were Orthodox Jews who followed their schedule for eating foods and types of foods perfectly. And God is telling Peter to eat what is not clean, what is not kosher. And so he didn't know what to make of it until he understood that when they were with Cornelius in Cornelius'house and Cornelius had a vision from an angel. And the angel told him, Go get Peter. And Peter came with the Centurion soldiers, and they were in a home, and something happened. The Holy Spirit came on Cornelius and all of the Gentiles that were with them. And it says that they were astonished. Why were they astonished? Because the Gentiles did not pursue righteousness. Only the Jews pursued it. And it says that in Romans 930, the Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have obtained it. A righteousness, that is, by faith. But the people of Israel who pursued the law as a way of righteousness, have not obtained it. Isn't this crazy? It's a huge slap in the face for Jewish people that are hyper legalistic with the law to read that huge slap in the face. Yeah. Because Jews consider themselves the chosen people. Yes, they are. Well, they were just chosen first. And that's what we'll read in Romans 16 and 17 1st for the Jew. And then the Gentile, the Jews were chosen, but also the Gentiles were chosen. They were chosen second. Yes. That means that anyone who believes and has chose to put their faith in Christ are the chosen. That's right. I mean, as much as God dealt with the nation of Israel, and I know that they're close to his heart. He gave them the land, he gave him the book, and he gave them the law, he gave them the law. But I do agree that when you look at Salvation, they're no better than we are, because it's all about Christ. It's all about being in Christ. It's just that they were the first ones to hear about God's plan. They rejected it. The Gentiles came in by faith, not by the law. And that's where we find ourselves today. Absolutely. And that's what happened in Acts 28, where it says in a 28, 26 to 28, go to this people and say, you will be ever hearing, but never understanding. This is about the Jews you will be ever seeing, but never perceiving for this people's heart. The Jews have in callous, they hardly hear with their ears and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they may see with their eyes and hear with their ears and I would heal them. Therefore, I want you to know that God's Salvation has been sent to the Gentiles and they will listen. The good news, man, when you were reading that, I was thinking of the term stiff necked people. Well, the problem was that they thought, Kevin, that their righteousness came about by the law which God gave them, but they made it a law of righteousness. And the Gentiles, as we read in Romans 930, did not pursue a law of righteousness, but have become righteous by faith. Yes. Not by works, not by the law. And this is stunning to most people to even hear this today. Yeah. A lot of people don't really understand that huge aspect of God's plan. God had a plan all along to the Jew ones. They rejected it. Even in the Old Testament. It even goes back that far. God wanted them to go to all the nations and tell them and they wouldn't. They kept it to themselves. And God was like, okay, stiff neck people. Yeah. And they considered the Gentiles unclean. One of the laws of the 613 law is that in Acts 1028, you could read this. And Peter says to Cornelius, when he's in the house with these Gentiles, he says, Are you aware it's against our law to associate or even visit a Gentile? Right? Yeah. But God has shown me through the vision of the four corners with the unclean animals that I shall not call anyone impure or unclean.PARTICIPANT #1
10:41
Yeah. Wasn't it Peter that got called out because he was hanging out with the Gentiles? But then when Paul came, he didn't hang out with them and Paul called him out on it. Exactly.PARTICIPANT #1
11:02
I wanted to give that backstory because when we read in Romans eight and nine and ten, do you want to read that, Kevin? Romans one, eight through ten. First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is being reported all over the world. God, whom I serve with my whole heart in preaching the gospel of his Son, it's my witness how constantly I remember you in my prayers at all times. And I pray that now, at the last, by God's will, the way may be opened for me to come to you. All right. So what is he saying? That your faith has reported all over the world? He's talking about the Gentiles faith. It's being reported all over the world because they were excluded. They were on the outs. It says in Ephesians at one time you were excluded from the promises and of God, the Commonwealth of Israel. Yes. This is Ephesians 212. And you are excluded from the promises without hope and without God in the world. Chapter two, verse 13 in Ephesians. But now in Christ, you were once far away talking about the Gentiles have been brought near by the blood of Christ. Beautiful. That's a summary of Peter's vision, that this gospel was going to go to people who were excluded from the promises of God. God was going to also go to the Gentile as he had gone to the Jew. Yeah. And that's why their faith is being reported all over the world, because it's like, wow, who would believe this huge news. That's right. I'm going to get it. Big news. It depresses. All right. So eleven to 13, I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to make you strong. That is that you and I may be mutually encouraged by each other's faith. That's what happens when you get together with a believer or you go to a conference with other believers and you see all these other people believing what you're believing, and you're really mutually encouraged by each other. Amen. Just when I do a podcast with you, I get very encouraged by your faith and knowing who you are. Absolutely. Feelings mutual. And it says in verse 13, I don't want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, that I plan many times to come to you, but have been prevented from doing so until now in order that I might have a harvest among you, just as I have had among the other Gentiles. So definitely you can see the direction of his message going to the Gentiles here. In verse 1314 and 15, he says, but I am obligated to both Greeks and non Greeks, both to the wise and the foolish. And there Kevin, I think he's mentioning Greeks and non Greeks. I really think he's referring to Gentiles and Jews here. Sure. He just calls them something different. Greeks, non Greeks. And then verse 15, it says, that is why I am so eager to preach the gospel also to you who are in Rome. So he preached to Gentiles in other parts of the world, and now he's preaching the gospel to the Gentiles here who are in Rome. Again, if we remember in Acts 28, he says the Jews would not listen, and he is now the Salvation. His message is now going to the Gentiles and they will listen. Absolutely. And we're off and running 2000 years ago. Yeah. So here is what I think is the meat of the first chapter in verse 16 and 17. You want to read that? I am not ashamed of the gospel because it is the power of God for Salvation of everyone who believes first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. For in the Gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written, the righteous will live by faith. Those are powerful words that are just really have real deep meaning. And Paul says, I'm not ashamed of the gospel. And don't forget, he was the headphiracy. So if he thought back that I was once the headphoracy, and if he ever thought that I was going to be preaching this gospel message of Jesus Christ, he would be embarrassed. He would be ashamed. Oh, yeah, he would. But he's saying, I'm not ashamed, even though this is what I was doing in my past life. But it says that the power of God that brings Salvation for all who believe first to the Jew. So in verse 16, it talks about the power of God that brings Salvation to everyone who believes first to the Jew and to the Gentile. You know, we think of John 316, John 336, John 524, that anyone who believes is born again, has eternal life. And that's because, you know, the Spirit of God comes to live inside of you. That's the power of God. Amen power of God is him living inside of us. Yeah. Not around us, not behind us, not among us, but inside of us. Yes, absolutely. The living God. And again, first to the Jew and then to the Gentile. And that's how God planted again, Jesus said, don't go to the Gentiles, go to the Jews. Only battle switched in Acts Ten, with the spirit of God coming on the Gentiles. The Jews wanted in Acts 15 to put the Gentiles back under the law. Peter. And Paul says, no, we couldn't obey the law. Why would we think the Gentiles could obey the law? And finally, again in Chapter 28 in Acts, Paul says, I'm going to the Gentiles and they will listen. I love how I know it's. Somewhere in there it says, you couldn't even obey the law yourself. And you want to put the Gentiles under the law. Come on. Now, that's real hypocrisy. Exactly. I mean, that goes on today, right, when somebody puts you back under the law and says, Are you doing this? Are you going here? Did you get baptized? Are you giving to the poor? What's your service? It's hypocritical, yes. You know, as I was been reading this chapter this week and just preparation for this, I think one of my realizations is how Paul is basically, of course, setting up the whole book of Romans in this first chapter. He's just setting up the whole book and he's making this righteous versus unrighteous. This is kind of the beginning of it. And it goes on and we'll read this next week. But talking about the unrighteousness, this is the righteous up to now and how you can become righteous, then he's going to come into the unrighteous and he just goes on and he just continues to build the case. But it's like building blocks. And as we go through the whole book of Romans. He just built this absolutely rock solid case for Salvation in Christ through faith and through belief. Yeah. In that word, righteousness that gets thrown around a lot usually gets associated with self righteousness because it makes people nervous when they hear righteousness. Righteousness of God is the imputed right standing. Jesus is the only righteous one. He's the only right one. He's perfect and Holy and blameless. And when he comes live inside of us by association. He makes us righteous. He makes us Holy. He makes us blameless. He makes us perfect in God's sight. I'm so glad you said that, because people listening to this may take that upon themselves to become righteous in their own strength. And that is absolutely not what we're saying. But it's the imputed righteousness of Christ. It's a gift. It's a free gift. As we read on in chapter three. Yeah. That says in chapter 321, we'll get there probably in a month or so, but it says, but now, apart from the law of righteousness of God has been made known, which the law and the prophets testified. Abraham testified to this righteousness by faith because he believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness. Absolutely. He was the first one. Yeah. Verse 22, chapter three says this righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There's no difference between Jew and Gentile anymore. No, the wall has been broken down. The wall of hostility has been broken down. Kevin, read Romans 424. There sure God will credit righteousness for us who believe in him who raised Jesus, our Lord, from the dead, man. That's the whole enchilada right there, man. Yeah. If we believe that God rose Jesus from the dead and that's so crucial, we're not just talking about Jesus dying on the cross. As good as that is, as important as that is for us, that our sins are taken away. We're talking about faith in the resurrection, believing that a dead man named Jesus is now alive and wants to come live inside of you. Now you're saved from your condition, which was spiritual death. We have a bigger problem that being a sinner in need of forgiveness, that's a big problem. But our bigger problem is that we're spiritually dead and we need life. And the only way to get that is through faith in Jesus, where we become righteous or right with God. You know, there's another cool I don't hate because I love the chosen, but I'm making all these references to the chosen people. Please watch that series. It is awesome. But there is a really cool scene in it. Often they will at the very beginning of the show, they will kind of do a story of the Old Testament and remember when the nation of Israel I don't want to get into the whole story, but they were dying because they were being eaten by snakes and Moses puts a snake on a pole and Aaron's like they're dying left and right. I can't even bear fast enough. What are you doing? Putting a steak on a pole? I'm just doing what God told me. I can't question it. We just got through with the Red sea. I'm not questioning God anymore. He says, do something. I'm going to do it. But he says, whoever looks at this snake as I walk through the camp, all youPARTICIPANT #1
25:08
have to do is look up and believe in Christ. There's no do ten things to become righteous. It's just look up, believe and receive. And then once you're righteous, there's nothing we have to do to stay righteous. I mean, that sometimes is a bigger stumbling stone for people. Once they are saved is thinking they need to stay saved or they go when they sin, they go out of fellowship with God and they ask God to forgive them and he comes back and it's like a roller coaster. It's a terrible life. It's a roller coaster. I love roller coaster. You're saved. You're not saved. You're in the fellowship. You're not in the fellowship. No. This is imputed righteousness. And that's when verse 17 says, for in the gospel, the righteousness of God is revealed. A righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it has been written, the righteous will live by faith. Yes, that's Romans 117. Yeah. So it's an amazing thing. Most people, as Hebrews 513 talks about, are not acquainted with these teachings about righteousness. Hebrews 513 says, anyone who lives on milk, still being an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. It's a stumbling stone to them. But really, if we soften our hearts and realize that once we're saved, we're saved completely, can't lose our Salvation. We don't become unrighteous. Once we are right with God, it is always in forever. Then really, peace can begin and contentment in your life, it can actually take root in your life. And we could talk more and more about that. But friends, please just listen in and we'll unpack this awesome truth more and more as we dig deeper into Romans and learn more about God's, lavishing his love on every one of us who just look up to Christ and believe. Thank you for listening to Grace coach. If you want to connect with us, we would love to engage with you. Email us at the Grace [email protected], visit our Facebook page or visit our website. Gracecoach.org.Romans 1:8-17 talks about a few important things. Why was it so astonishing that the faith of the Gentiles was being reported all over the world? Next the Apostle Paul introduces that in the Gospel, that our righteousness from God comes by faith alone. What does it mean to be right with God? How can I be made right with God? Is it by my good deeds or is it something else.
Transcript:
Want to discover your freedom in Christ, then listen in as Mike Stone and Kevin Smith talk about it today on Grace Coach. Hello, this is Mike with Grace Coach. It is good to be here here. And I'm with Kevin Smith. What's up, Mike? Yeah, I am excited about this podcast. I've been looking at chapter one versus eight to 17, and there's a lot here, Kevin. Well, I'm surprised we're not going to get through chapter one in two weeks. I mean, it's going to take us three weeks to get through it. Maybe not even three weeks. But you know what? God's timing is perfect. I guess I just want to review the first seven verses in chapter one. We read that Paul was set apart by God to be an Apostle, that God met him on the road to Damascus while he was crucifying Christians and murdering them, taking them to jail. It also talked about how God promised this gospel in the Old Covenant. So everything about Jesus was prophesied in the old Covenant. We read that Jesus was a descendant of David and that he was declared to be God by the resurrection of the dead. Amen. We talked a little bit that he wasn't declared with power when he died on the cross, which is the main message of Christmas today. But he was declared to be God by the resurrection of himself, which was very cool to go into Romans one, verses eight to 17. Kevin, to get the full picture and the impact of what Paul is saying, because really just before I did this and to say what is going on here, why is he writing what he's writing? I really had to dig deep into some verses to find out what is he talking about in verses eight to 17. Jesus, this is crazy when you read this, even when I Typed it out and read it in Matthew ten, five and six, Jesus said to the disciples, he says, do not go to the Gentiles or any town of the Samaritans, but rather go to the lost sheep of Israel. This was his command. This is God himself commanding the disciples, don't go to the Gentiles. The Jew first, then the Gentiles. Yeah, only go to the Jews. And in Acts twelve and 222, after the Holy Spirit came on the disciples who became Apostles at Pentecost, Peter addresses all these people and he says, fellow Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem. And he said, fellow Israelites, listen to this. He is not talking to the Gentiles. He's only talking about the Jews. He's following Jesus command of going to the Jews and not going to the Gentiles. And you really got to scratch your head. What verse was that? Acts 214, where Peter says, fellow Jews and Acts 222 and he says, fellow Israelites, I'm just following what Jesus said in Matthew ten, five and six, that he said, do not go to the Gentiles. Or any town of the Samaritans, but rather go to the lost sheep of Israel and you see that happening. You see Paul and Peter following that command until Peter goes up to the roof in Acts ten. And Peter went up to the roof, and he prayed, and he fell into a trance, and he saw heaven open like a large sheep being led down to Earth by its four corners. It contains all kinds of four footed animals, as well as reptiles and birds. Then a voice told him, Peter, get up, kill and eat. Surely not, Lord. Peter said, I have never eaten anything impure or unclean. The voice spoke to him a second time. Do not call anything impure that God has made clean. And so Peter is like, are we talking about food here? These were Orthodox Jews who followed their schedule for eating foods and types of foods perfectly. And God is telling Peter to eat what is not clean, what is not kosher. And so he didn't know what to make of it until he understood that when they were with Cornelius in Cornelius'house and Cornelius had a vision from an angel. And the angel told him, Go get Peter. And Peter came with the Centurion soldiers, and they were in a home, and something happened. The Holy Spirit came on Cornelius and all of the Gentiles that were with them. And it says that they were astonished. Why were they astonished? Because the Gentiles did not pursue righteousness. Only the Jews pursued it. And it says that in Romans 930, the Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have obtained it. A righteousness, that is, by faith. But the people of Israel who pursued the law as a way of righteousness, have not obtained it. Isn't this crazy? It's a huge slap in the face for Jewish people that are hyper legalistic with the law to read that huge slap in the face. Yeah. Because Jews consider themselves the chosen people. Yes, they are. Well, they were just chosen first. And that's what we'll read in Romans 16 and 17 1st for the Jew. And then the Gentile, the Jews were chosen, but also the Gentiles were chosen. They were chosen second. Yes. That means that anyone who believes and has chose to put their faith in Christ are the chosen. That's right. I mean, as much as God dealt with the nation of Israel, and I know that they're close to his heart. He gave them the land, he gave him the book, and he gave them the law, he gave them the law. But I do agree that when you look at Salvation, they're no better than we are, because it's all about Christ. It's all about being in Christ. It's just that they were the first ones to hear about God's plan. They rejected it. The Gentiles came in by faith, not by the law. And that's where we find ourselves today. Absolutely. And that's what happened in Acts 28, where it says in a 28, 26 to 28, go to this people and say, you will be ever hearing, but never understanding. This is about the Jews you will be ever seeing, but never perceiving for this people's heart. The Jews have in callous, they hardly hear with their ears and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they may see with their eyes and hear with their ears and I would heal them. Therefore, I want you to know that God's Salvation has been sent to the Gentiles and they will listen. The good news, man, when you were reading that, I was thinking of the term stiff necked people. Well, the problem was that they thought, Kevin, that their righteousness came about by the law which God gave them, but they made it a law of righteousness. And the Gentiles, as we read in Romans 930, did not pursue a law of righteousness, but have become righteous by faith. Yes. Not by works, not by the law. And this is stunning to most people to even hear this today. Yeah. A lot of people don't really understand that huge aspect of God's plan. God had a plan all along to the Jew ones. They rejected it. Even in the Old Testament. It even goes back that far. God wanted them to go to all the nations and tell them and they wouldn't. They kept it to themselves. And God was like, okay, stiff neck people. Yeah. And they considered the Gentiles unclean. One of the laws of the 613 law is that in Acts 1028, you could read this. And Peter says to Cornelius, when he's in the house with these Gentiles, he says, Are you aware it's against our law to associate or even visit a Gentile? Right? Yeah. But God has shown me through the vision of the four corners with the unclean animals that I shall not call anyone impure or unclean.PARTICIPANT #1
10:41
Yeah. Wasn't it Peter that got called out because he was hanging out with the Gentiles? But then when Paul came, he didn't hang out with them and Paul called him out on it. Exactly.PARTICIPANT #1
11:02
I wanted to give that backstory because when we read in Romans eight and nine and ten, do you want to read that, Kevin? Romans one, eight through ten. First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is being reported all over the world. God, whom I serve with my whole heart in preaching the gospel of his Son, it's my witness how constantly I remember you in my prayers at all times. And I pray that now, at the last, by God's will, the way may be opened for me to come to you. All right. So what is he saying? That your faith has reported all over the world? He's talking about the Gentiles faith. It's being reported all over the world because they were excluded. They were on the outs. It says in Ephesians at one time you were excluded from the promises and of God, the Commonwealth of Israel. Yes. This is Ephesians 212. And you are excluded from the promises without hope and without God in the world. Chapter two, verse 13 in Ephesians. But now in Christ, you were once far away talking about the Gentiles have been brought near by the blood of Christ. Beautiful. That's a summary of Peter's vision, that this gospel was going to go to people who were excluded from the promises of God. God was going to also go to the Gentile as he had gone to the Jew. Yeah. And that's why their faith is being reported all over the world, because it's like, wow, who would believe this huge news. That's right. I'm going to get it. Big news. It depresses. All right. So eleven to 13, I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to make you strong. That is that you and I may be mutually encouraged by each other's faith. That's what happens when you get together with a believer or you go to a conference with other believers and you see all these other people believing what you're believing, and you're really mutually encouraged by each other. Amen. Just when I do a podcast with you, I get very encouraged by your faith and knowing who you are. Absolutely. Feelings mutual. And it says in verse 13, I don't want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, that I plan many times to come to you, but have been prevented from doing so until now in order that I might have a harvest among you, just as I have had among the other Gentiles. So definitely you can see the direction of his message going to the Gentiles here. In verse 1314 and 15, he says, but I am obligated to both Greeks and non Greeks, both to the wise and the foolish. And there Kevin, I think he's mentioning Greeks and non Greeks. I really think he's referring to Gentiles and Jews here. Sure. He just calls them something different. Greeks, non Greeks. And then verse 15, it says, that is why I am so eager to preach the gospel also to you who are in Rome. So he preached to Gentiles in other parts of the world, and now he's preaching the gospel to the Gentiles here who are in Rome. Again, if we remember in Acts 28, he says the Jews would not listen, and he is now the Salvation. His message is now going to the Gentiles and they will listen. Absolutely. And we're off and running 2000 years ago. Yeah. So here is what I think is the meat of the first chapter in verse 16 and 17. You want to read that? I am not ashamed of the gospel because it is the power of God for Salvation of everyone who believes first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. For in the Gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written, the righteous will live by faith. Those are powerful words that are just really have real deep meaning. And Paul says, I'm not ashamed of the gospel. And don't forget, he was the headphiracy. So if he thought back that I was once the headphoracy, and if he ever thought that I was going to be preaching this gospel message of Jesus Christ, he would be embarrassed. He would be ashamed. Oh, yeah, he would. But he's saying, I'm not ashamed, even though this is what I was doing in my past life. But it says that the power of God that brings Salvation for all who believe first to the Jew. So in verse 16, it talks about the power of God that brings Salvation to everyone who believes first to the Jew and to the Gentile. You know, we think of John 316, John 336, John 524, that anyone who believes is born again, has eternal life. And that's because, you know, the Spirit of God comes to live inside of you. That's the power of God. Amen power of God is him living inside of us. Yeah. Not around us, not behind us, not among us, but inside of us. Yes, absolutely. The living God. And again, first to the Jew and then to the Gentile. And that's how God planted again, Jesus said, don't go to the Gentiles, go to the Jews. Only battle switched in Acts Ten, with the spirit of God coming on the Gentiles. The Jews wanted in Acts 15 to put the Gentiles back under the law. Peter. And Paul says, no, we couldn't obey the law. Why would we think the Gentiles could obey the law? And finally, again in Chapter 28 in Acts, Paul says, I'm going to the Gentiles and they will listen. I love how I know it's. Somewhere in there it says, you couldn't even obey the law yourself. And you want to put the Gentiles under the law. Come on. Now, that's real hypocrisy. Exactly. I mean, that goes on today, right, when somebody puts you back under the law and says, Are you doing this? Are you going here? Did you get baptized? Are you giving to the poor? What's your service? It's hypocritical, yes. You know, as I was been reading this chapter this week and just preparation for this, I think one of my realizations is how Paul is basically, of course, setting up the whole book of Romans in this first chapter. He's just setting up the whole book and he's making this righteous versus unrighteous. This is kind of the beginning of it. And it goes on and we'll read this next week. But talking about the unrighteousness, this is the righteous up to now and how you can become righteous, then he's going to come into the unrighteous and he just goes on and he just continues to build the case. But it's like building blocks. And as we go through the whole book of Romans. He just built this absolutely rock solid case for Salvation in Christ through faith and through belief. Yeah. In that word, righteousness that gets thrown around a lot usually gets associated with self righteousness because it makes people nervous when they hear righteousness. Righteousness of God is the imputed right standing. Jesus is the only righteous one. He's the only right one. He's perfect and Holy and blameless. And when he comes live inside of us by association. He makes us righteous. He makes us Holy. He makes us blameless. He makes us perfect in God's sight. I'm so glad you said that, because people listening to this may take that upon themselves to become righteous in their own strength. And that is absolutely not what we're saying. But it's the imputed righteousness of Christ. It's a gift. It's a free gift. As we read on in chapter three. Yeah. That says in chapter 321, we'll get there probably in a month or so, but it says, but now, apart from the law of righteousness of God has been made known, which the law and the prophets testified. Abraham testified to this righteousness by faith because he believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness. Absolutely. He was the first one. Yeah. Verse 22, chapter three says this righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There's no difference between Jew and Gentile anymore. No, the wall has been broken down. The wall of hostility has been broken down. Kevin, read Romans 424. There sure God will credit righteousness for us who believe in him who raised Jesus, our Lord, from the dead, man. That's the whole enchilada right there, man. Yeah. If we believe that God rose Jesus from the dead and that's so crucial, we're not just talking about Jesus dying on the cross. As good as that is, as important as that is for us, that our sins are taken away. We're talking about faith in the resurrection, believing that a dead man named Jesus is now alive and wants to come live inside of you. Now you're saved from your condition, which was spiritual death. We have a bigger problem that being a sinner in need of forgiveness, that's a big problem. But our bigger problem is that we're spiritually dead and we need life. And the only way to get that is through faith in Jesus, where we become righteous or right with God. You know, there's another cool I don't hate because I love the chosen, but I'm making all these references to the chosen people. Please watch that series. It is awesome. But there is a really cool scene in it. Often they will at the very beginning of the show, they will kind of do a story of the Old Testament and remember when the nation of Israel I don't want to get into the whole story, but they were dying because they were being eaten by snakes and Moses puts a snake on a pole and Aaron's like they're dying left and right. I can't even bear fast enough. What are you doing? Putting a steak on a pole? I'm just doing what God told me. I can't question it. We just got through with the Red sea. I'm not questioning God anymore. He says, do something. I'm going to do it. But he says, whoever looks at this snake as I walk through the camp, all youPARTICIPANT #1
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have to do is look up and believe in Christ. There's no do ten things to become righteous. It's just look up, believe and receive. And then once you're righteous, there's nothing we have to do to stay righteous. I mean, that sometimes is a bigger stumbling stone for people. Once they are saved is thinking they need to stay saved or they go when they sin, they go out of fellowship with God and they ask God to forgive them and he comes back and it's like a roller coaster. It's a terrible life. It's a roller coaster. I love roller coaster. You're saved. You're not saved. You're in the fellowship. You're not in the fellowship. No. This is imputed righteousness. And that's when verse 17 says, for in the gospel, the righteousness of God is revealed. A righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it has been written, the righteous will live by faith. Yes, that's Romans 117. Yeah. So it's an amazing thing. Most people, as Hebrews 513 talks about, are not acquainted with these teachings about righteousness. Hebrews 513 says, anyone who lives on milk, still being an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. It's a stumbling stone to them. But really, if we soften our hearts and realize that once we're saved, we're saved completely, can't lose our Salvation. We don't become unrighteous. Once we are right with God, it is always in forever. Then really, peace can begin and contentment in your life, it can actually take root in your life. And we could talk more and more about that. But friends, please just listen in and we'll unpack this awesome truth more and more as we dig deeper into Romans and learn more about God's, lavishing his love on every one of us who just look up to Christ and believe. Thank you for listening to Grace coach. If you want to connect with us, we would love to engage with you. Email us at the Grace [email protected], visit our Facebook page or visit our website. Gracecoach.org.