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Part 6 of 7
The Believers' Constitution: Understanding Romans
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We're beginning week two of a study through the book of Romans, a 38-week journey. Romans is often called the Believers' Constitution because no book in the Bible captures Christian doctrine and theology more clearly and systematically.
Understanding this book gives us a clear framework for our faith anchored in Christ. Whether you're already a Christian or still contemplating faith, you owe it to yourself to understand what Christian doctrine actually teaches before dismissing it. Many people walk away from faith based on misunderstandings of what the gospel truly is.
Romans addresses the ultimate question: How can I be right with God? We have a Creator, a Maker. We are broken, rebellious humanity that has drifted due to our sinful nature. There's a chasm between us and our heavenly Father.
The gospel is the answer. Jesus Christ brilliantly takes two pieces of wood in the form of a cross and builds a bridge across that chasm, allowing every single one of us to enter into a relationship with God. On the cross, Jesus punishes sin yet preserves the sinner—that's a remarkable truth. Through this series, we'll see how the gospel mends our broken relationship and makes us right with God.
Paul begins his letter with a statement he makes to every church: "Grace and peace to you." This may seem simple, but Paul is doing something brilliant. He's addressing the tension between Jews and Gentiles in the Roman church—Greeks and non-Greeks, the wise and the foolish. He's trying to bring unity through the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Paul pairs Shalom (peace)—a word used by the Hebrew and Jewish community—with Charis (grace)—a word used by the Greco-Roman community. In two words, he summarizes the entire gospel: grace and peace.
What is the gospel's intent in your life? What is Christ trying to accomplish by laying down his life on a cross, resurrecting from the grave, and defeating death?
The overarching idea is reconciliation. Christ came to reconcile us to our Maker, to build a bridge so that you and I can be reconciled to God and have peace—not just with God, but with everyone throughout life. Peace and Shalom were embedded in the nation of Israel and the Jewish community, representing not just the absence of conflict but serenity, completeness, and wholeness.
The gospel intends to bring us to a place of perfect and complete peace. But how do we get there? Through grace.
Peace is the destination; grace is the vehicle.
This isn't just a shallow greeting. Paul is systematically laying out sequentially that it is by grace that we make our way to peace. Many people understand peace fairly well but have a limited understanding of grace.
Scripture shows us three ideas about grace: grace is sufficient, grace is abundant, and grace is abounding.
Grace is sufficient means there's not an area of your life, not a situation or predicament, not a relationship where God's grace does not apply. The basic definition of grace is unearned favor—God is good to us not because we've earned it, not because we're impressive, but simply because that's who he is.
Most people can't confidently say "his grace is sufficient" because they haven't applied God's grace to every area of their life. Many develop "fences" in their faith: "I'll trust God with my children but not my marriage. I'll trust God with my career but not my education. I'll trust God with my health but not my finances."
The courageous question: Where in your life have you restricted God from working? Where have you assumed God doesn't work?
Many Christians today are backing down from the sufficiency of grace. You hear it: "I respect that you're a Christian, just don't bring it to work. Just don't bring it to school." But if you've surrendered your life to the lordship of Jesus Christ, that now informs everything about you—how you endure suffering, how you steward your finances, how you raise your children, how you approach marriage, how you treat people who mistreat you. It shapes and transforms every part of your being.
Paul is writing to a culture steeped in performance-based religion, idolatry, and philosophy. He's saying: "No, none of this is predicated on our performance, our goodness, our own righteousness. It is simply unearned favor, and that's enough. We don't have to do something to manipulate the heart of God. Grace is enough. Christ is all we need."
When David reaches the end of a psalm, he says, "my cup runneth over." The person in your life who is modeling grace, demonstrating it, applying it, expressing it well and consistently is someone whose cup is running over—someone who lives every single day aware of God's goodness, having experienced it, now living as an expression of that very experience.
Scripture says, "Taste and see that the Lord is good." The proof is in the tasting. We need to open our lives to Christ and experience the goodness of God for ourselves.
Abundant grace means more than enough. Too many Christians walk around with a scarcity mentality when it comes to God's grace. We need to understand: God doesn't run out. His grace is unconditional and unlimited. Your sin is no match for his grace. You're going to wake up tomorrow and find grace dumped upon your life, wake up the next day with more grace, and the next day—and before long you discover his grace truly is overwhelming. Your brokenness is no match for his goodness.
Abounding grace means that not only does your cup run over and not only does God do something great in your life—God starts to do things in places and spaces you would have never expected him. You realize, "I had no idea God worked in those situations. I had no idea God would use me in that way." This grace leaps out of your heart, through your life, into interactions and dilemmas.
Paul has been endorsing a scandalous message: Jesus Christ came and died for everybody—not just the Jew and Hebrew, not just the nation of Israel (though that's where it began), but it extends to the Gentiles. The gospel leaps from outside the Jewish community and is extended to everyone. The Jewish community looks at these Gentiles coming to faith in Christ and realizes, "I had no idea God would ever save people like that."
Here's the question for us: Who in your purview, who in our society and culture, who within our world are you going to find yourself amazed by God's radical grace, realizing, "I had no idea God could rescue and redeem an individual or situation like that"?
As Paul lays out this greeting, characteristics begin to emerge from the text: integrity, generosity, humility, gratitude, prayer, commitment, service, encouragement. Yes, Paul isn't addressing specific doctrine, but Christian virtue is pouring out of this guy.
Martin Lloyd-Jones said: "There is nothing more confusing or more disturbing to the soul than to separate your Doctrine from your living—to create a dam between your head and your heart that doesn't allow the knowledge you are gaining through studying to permeate within the depths of your soul, move from your head to your heart, and ultimately out through your hands in service of Christ."
The goal of theology is not knowledge. The goal of theology is worship. Every study of scripture should stretch our heart and mind, leaving us in awe and wonder: "Whoa, that's my God, and he wants to have a personal relationship with me. That's amazing."
God gave Paul authority, and the question is: Will you respect the authority God gave him?
We all need three kinds of relationships:
Who in your life have you given access and authority to speak into your life? Who can convict you, rebuke you, make you aware of a blind spot, or tell you that you were made for more? Who can say, "I love you enough to tell you God has greater things in store for you"?
We don't give access and authority to people because we all have trust issues. We've been burned, let down, hurt, and led astray. We build walls. But here's the challenge: most people speaking into your life are just trying to make an assessment rather than make an investment.
One of the greatest needs for being in a local church is not just showing up to be part of a crowd but engaging in a community where you can connect with qualified people who can speak into your life. Otherwise, you'll have a hard time benefiting from this dynamic.
When it comes to the Book of Romans, Paul is a pretty good candidate to give access and authority to. As we get into this scripture and text, we need to keep reminding ourselves: This guy deserves the right to speak into our life. His own experience of being radically changed by the grace of God should stay in front of us as we receive his humble yet firm words as truth in our own life.
Paul wants the Romans to know: "I can't wait to be there with you so we can be mutually encouraged. I want to impart to you some gift to make you strong." This doctrine should strengthen your life so you can stand rooted in a firm foundation, proud of the God you serve, resolute in your values and convictions, immovable and not swayed by the waves of this world.
He tells them, "Your faith is being reported throughout the entire world." Paul wants them to know the impact of their faith and to understand that studying this doctrine will ground them in confidence about who they are in Christ.
When Paul tells the Romans that their faith is being reported throughout the entire world, he's emphasizing something important about their cultural moment. The Romans thought they were the entire world—they were the center of it all.
Historically, Emperor Claudius had expelled all the Jews from Rome, but when Emperor Nero came to power, the Jewish people returned. What surprised everyone was that the church not only still existed but was actually thriving. For the first time in history, there was an entire church made up entirely of Gentiles.
Paul had been declaring a scandalous message: grace is for the entire world, not just the nation of Israel. When people heard what was happening in Rome, they began to understand that Paul was telling the truth. How could anyone deny what God was doing in the epicenter of the Empire? God was reaching people who were assumed to be outside the reach of His grace, and He was doing it effectively and fruitfully despite the context.
This demonstrates the principle found in John 3:16: "For God so loved the world." When you look at the original Greek and Hebrew, "the world" means everybody—it's a clear statement. Paul was establishing that this good news is for everyone.
We often think of Rome as just a city, but you must understand it as an entire empire. The Roman Empire stretched along the Mediterranean Basin, into Northern Africa and Egypt, into the Middle East, and fully encompassed Italy and France. During this period, over 50 million people lived under Roman dominion.
Jerusalem was about 1,300 miles away from Rome, yet word about the church was spreading. What amazed people was that Rome carried all the cards—Rome had all the influence. Every idea and philosophy was pushed out of Rome. Yet somehow there was a church thriving in that environment, full of wickedness, corruption, immorality, evil, and hatred. Somehow the good news of the Gospel still bore fruit in a context like that.
What this reality would do for people then—and does for us now—is encourage them: If God can work in a place like Rome, God can work in a place like ours.
I understand when Christians express fear about the current context in our nation. There are some challenges the church is facing, and there are things shifting in the landscape of our nation that are unique in our history. We've been blessed to live in a nation that has supported and championed Christian values. Now studies suggest we're becoming a post-Christian culture, and some worry about what will happen when we're no longer a Christian nation.
But here's what's important to recognize: The gospel bears fruit all over the world right now in places where it is illegal, where there is persecution, where people are executed for their faith, where there are laws against it. The gospel is fruitful in any context. If it can be fruitful in Rome—the most powerful, morally corrupt center of the known world—it can be fruitful anywhere.
So every single day, we should be living with the passion of knowing: Despite what I'm facing and despite what swirls around me, my God is still on the move, weaving His redemptive plan in and through the world.
Next week, we're going to discover that after the salutation, the book begins to break down with a particular structure. Charles Swindoll, a great leader and thinker, has outlined the major sections:
Most people throw in the towel around chapter 2 or 3. As scripture begins to lay out things about God's wrath, many misinterpret it, get turned off, and walk away. But if you stick with it, you may find that you've been viewing God's wrath wrongly and in an unproductive way. We can put some clarity around that.
It's like when someone recommends a TV show to you. They say, "You've got to watch this show—it's so amazing!" So you give it a shot, but after the second or third episode, you think it's terrible and don't want to watch the rest. Then when you tell your friend, they say, "Yeah, the first few episodes are bad, but you have to stay with it because it gets much better."
The book of Romans functions the same way. Most people throw in the towel when it comes to the wrath conversation, asking, "How is this good news?" But here's the key: this is good news precisely because despite deserving God's wrath, God grants us grace.
Despite the fact that you and I are utterly depraved, our souls are eternally fractured and doomed without God's grace, and we're heading in a direction that lands in His wrath—for whatever reason, He shows up and graciously extends this to us. We could never earn it or deserve it on our own. That's wonderful news.
In verse 16, Paul says:
"For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes—first to the Jew, and then to the Gentile."
Then in verse 17:
"For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed."
Paul is declaring the gospel of Jesus Christ. In the epicenter of the Empire, where everybody was proud to own their theories—Socrates owned his ideas, Plato owned his ideas, Aristotle owned his ideas, the Stoics owned their ideas—Paul shows up and says something radically different. He says: "I'm just as intelligent as all those guys, but this isn't my idea. I have no claim on this. I can't take credit for it. This is God's doing. This is His news."
The gospel reveals, showcases, uncovers, and exposes the righteousness and goodness of God.
Paul makes a big statement: "I am unashamed." You only make a statement like that if you can relate to at some point being ashamed of it. Many of us can relate to the moments when we gave our lives to Christ and then started to share that faith with other people. Maybe a really intellectual person in our life was shooting holes in what we believed, asking hard questions, and suddenly we backed down and grew insecure about what we believed.
Many of us can also relate to adhering to a faith that is mocked by the culture we live in and the values of our world. Being a Christian means that at times people will criticize, look down upon, judge, or mock your faith.
Paul writes to a church in the epicenter of the Roman Empire and declares: "I am not intellectually embarrassed, and I am not socially embarrassed."
The Christian faith and worldview is brilliant. If this were easily dismissible, it would have been dismissed long ago. How many ideas have come and gone?
If the Christian faith were easily dismissible, this peasant faith—with no rights, no power, nothing—somehow spread all over the world. We're not the first generation to rise up in pride and arrogance thinking we know better than God. We're going to pass away, but His word will remain.
When you start to realize this, you discover substance. You discover the history behind this faith. You discover how rooted and academically supported these truths actually are. And you don't have to take the bait every single time someone gives you a popular talking point meant to shoot holes in what you believe.
You can stand confidently: I'm not intellectually embarrassed, and I'm not socially embarrassed. You've seen the fruit. You've experienced God's goodness. You know what it produces. So you're not tempted to embrace someone else's lifestyle when you see the end result of theirs while living in the end result of yours.
You may say: "Do as you please, but I am very content and happy that I discovered Christ and His new life for me. I'm not socially embarrassed about this stuff."
My prayer through this study is that we as a group of believers will rise up in greater confidence and know this: We live marked by grace. But this is not permission for us to look down on anyone. Amen!
If anything, it means we've been appointed to look out for everyone. We live on mission declaring: This grace is for everybody. There's not a situation where this grace can't bear fruit, and there's not a single person on this speck of dust within this remarkable galaxy that God doesn't say, "I love him. I'm for him. And I'll do anything to redeem him."
When we see brokenness, stop retreating. Lean in as a representative of Christ. You might find God's abundant, sufficient, and abounding grace working through your life, and you get to serve as the conduit.
If we can hang on to the proper framework of this book, I do think it will enrich your life.
