SFJ Bible Reading Plan

Romans 9

God’s Sovereign Choice

9:1 I am speaking the truth in Christ—I am not lying; my conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit—2 that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. 3 For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers,¹ my kinsmen according to the flesh. 4 They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises. 5 To them belong the patriarchs, and from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ, who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen.

6 But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel, 7 and not all are children of Abraham because they are his offspring, but “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.” 8 This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as offspring. 9 For this is what the promise said: “About this time next year I will return, and Sarah shall have a son.” 10 And not only so, but also when Rebekah had conceived children by one man, our forefather Isaac, 11 though they were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad—in order that God’s purpose of election might continue, not because of works but because of him who calls—12 she was told, “The older will serve the younger.” 13 As it is written, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”

14 What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God’s part? By no means! 15 For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” 16 So then it depends not on human will or exertion,² but on God, who has mercy. 17 For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” 18 So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills.

19 You will say to me then, “Why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?” 20 But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, “Why have you made me like this?” 21 Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use? 22 What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, 23 in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory—24 even us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles? 25 As indeed he says in Hosea,

  “Those who were not my people I will call ‘my people,’
    and her who was not beloved I will call ‘beloved.’”
26   “And in the very place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’
    there they will be called ‘sons of the living God.’”

27 And Isaiah cries out concerning Israel: “Though the number of the sons of Israel³ be as the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will be saved, 28 for the Lord will carry out his sentence upon the earth fully and without delay.” 29 And as Isaiah predicted,

  “If the Lord of hosts had not left us offspring,
    we would have been like Sodom
    and become like Gomorrah.”

Israel’s Unbelief

30 What shall we say, then? That Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have attained it, that is, a righteousness that is by faith; 31 but that Israel who pursued a law that would lead to righteousness⁴ did not succeed in reaching that law. 32 Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as if it were based on works. They have stumbled over the stumbling stone, 33 as it is written,

  “Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense;
    and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.”

Footnotes

[1] 9:3 Or brothers and sisters

[2] 9:16 Greek not of him who wills or runs

[3] 9:27 Or children of Israel

[4] 9:31 Greek a law of righteousness

(ESV)

Romans 8

Life in the Spirit

8:1 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.¹ 2 For the law of the Spirit of life has set you² free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. 3 For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin,³ he condemned sin in the flesh, 4 in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. 5 For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. 6 For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. 7 For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. 8 Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

9 You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. 10 But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. 11 If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus⁴ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.

Heirs with Christ

12 So then, brothers,⁵ we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. 13 For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. 14 For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons⁶ of God. 15 For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” 16 The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 17 and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.

Future Glory

18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. 19 For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. 20 For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. 22 For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. 23 And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. 24 For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? 25 But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.

26 Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. 27 And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because⁷ the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. 28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good,⁸ for those who are called according to his purpose. 29 For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. 30 And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.

God’s Everlasting Love

31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be⁹ against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? 33 Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.¹⁰ 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? 36 As it is written,

  “For your sake we are being killed all the day long;
    we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”

37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Footnotes

[1] 8:1 Some manuscripts add who walk not according to the flesh (but according to the Spirit)

[2] 8:2 Some manuscripts me

[3] 8:3 Or and as a sin offering

[4] 8:11 Some manuscripts lack Jesus

[5] 8:12 Or brothers and sisters; also verse 29

[6] 8:14 See discussion on “sons” in the Preface

[7] 8:27 Or that

[8] 8:28 Some manuscripts God works all things together for good, or God works in all things for the good

[9] 8:31 Or who is

[10] 8:34 Or Is it Christ Jesus who died . . . for us?

(ESV)

Romans 7

Released from the Law

7:1 Or do you not know, brothers¹—for I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law is binding on a person only as long as he lives? 2 For a married woman is bound by law to her husband while he lives, but if her husband dies she is released from the law of marriage.² 3 Accordingly, she will be called an adulteress if she lives with another man while her husband is alive. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law, and if she marries another man she is not an adulteress.

4 Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God. 5 For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death. 6 But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code.³

The Law and Sin

7 What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.” 8 But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the law, sin lies dead. 9 I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died. 10 The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me. 11 For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. 12 So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.

13 Did that which is good, then, bring death to me? By no means! It was sin, producing death in me through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure. 14 For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin. 15 For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. 16 Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. 17 So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. 18 For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.

21 So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. 22 For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, 23 but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. 24 Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? 25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.

Footnotes

[1] 7:1 Or brothers and sisters; also verse 4

[2] 7:2 Greek law concerning the husband

[3] 7:6 Greek of the letter

(ESV)

Romans 6

Dead to Sin, Alive to God

6:1 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? 2 By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? 3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.

5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. 6 We know that our old self¹ was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. 7 For one who has died has been set free² from sin. 8 Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9 We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. 10 For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. 11 So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

12 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. 13 Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. 14 For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.

Slaves to Righteousness

15 What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! 16 Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves,³ you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? 17 But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, 18 and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. 19 I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification.

20 For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. 21 But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. 22 But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Footnotes

[1] 6:6 Greek man

[2] 6:7 Greek has been justified

[3] 6:16 For the contextual rendering of the Greek word doulos, see Preface; twice in this verse; also verses 17, 19 (twice), 20

(ESV)

Romans 1-5 (3-12-22)

I am very excited that we are now in Romans in our annual Bible reading plan. This has been considered by many scholars and historic theologians as one of the great pillars of the New Testament.

Paul starts in chapter one highlighting the sinful demise of mankind and that the gospel is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes. He then spends the majority of the next chapters making it abundantly clear about mankind’s condition apart from Christ’s saving work. This is what I want to highlight in today’s study–the spiritual state of mankind in our sin. Then next week, we will turn to chapters 6-10 and highlight the good news of the gospel and our spiritual state in Christ.

Romans 3:10-12 speaks of our spiritual condition in our sin so well, so let’s start there:

Romans 3:10-12 as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.”

Scripture again and again points us to the overwhelming and damning reality that we are dead in our sin–not sick, not morally neutral–we are dead!

Three things Paul highlights here that lay this most important foundation for our utter need for God’s saving grace:

1. No one is righteous.

We have no righteousness of our own that is satisfactory for God’s utter holiness!

We cannot stand in front of a holy God and attempt to do what the prideful Pharisee did, saying, “Compared to that guy, I am looking pretty good.”

The Bible says everything we do apart from Christ is sin because it’s not done from a right heart to the glory of God, and that our best efforts at good deeds or righteous living are like filthy menstrual rags.

Romans 3:23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God

Understand this most critical reality. One day, you will stand in front of a holy God inquiring about His acceptance of you. Not anyone else’s acceptance of you–only the holy God. We must not miss this! We must see how absolutely grand the canyon is that separates us from God because of our sin.

2. No one seeks God.

The Bible-revealed reality is what man seeks on his own is not God but some form of religion–a man-made, self-salvation based on self-merit. It’s a pursuit of a lifestyle that attempts to put God in debt to him. The good deeds of man are ultimately not to honor or glorify God but are self-glorifying or self-satisfying. Without the gracious intervention of God, man only seeks to glorify man. Spiritually dead people don’t tend to spiritual matters unless first made alive or born again.

3. No one understands.

This is not speaking to our ability to think or reason or understand many things in this life. It is speaking to our spiritual blindness, our utter lack of spiritual perception. We are totally absent-minded to the things of God in our sin.

Ephesians 4:17b-18in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart.

Later in Romans, Paul will say “For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot” (Romans 8:7).

The Bible says that even the demons understand who God is, believe He exists, and can talk about Him; but the spiritual discernment required to know Him personally is not in them.

This is super important to understand. James Montgomery Boice says it so well:

“This does not mean that an unsaved person cannot have a rational understanding of Christianity or of what the Bible teaches apart from the illumination given by the Spirit. A scholar can understand Christian theology as well as any other branch of knowledge. A philosopher can lecture on the Christian idea of God. A historian can analyze the nature of the Protestant Reformation and describe justification by faith very well. But left to themselves, people like this do not believe what they explain, nor are they saved or changed by it.”

Please understand rightly: Because we are dead in sin and all we do is sin, we are not due any gift of God. Especially one that restores us to a relationship with Him. A very important way to think about grace is that it is a gift that is undeserved. We must fully and rightly see that God’s grace is undeserved. In its simple reading, “undeserved” means you did nothing to deserve it. Undeserved is like showing up on the job site, and you just sit there your entire shift and don’t lift a finger to work at all. Any pay your boss might consider giving you, in that case, would be completely undeserved.

But it’s worse than this, because we didn’t do nothing; we showed up on the job site and worked our entire shift to tear apart the work the boss wanted done, to hurt his company and to work against him. Surely when that is the way we performed, as an enemy and anti-agent, we, all the more, don’t deserve any pay or reward. So, what we must see is that undeserved here means we actively and holistically are against the giver. This is Paul’s emphasis in the early verses of Ephesians 2!

Our death in sin meant we were …

… following the course of this world. That means we were actively not obeying the law and commands of God.

… following the prince of the power of the air (Satan). That means we were actively not following the holy God; rather, we lived in anti-God unrighteousness like Satan.

… the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience. That means we were not righteousness unto obedience and honoring God.

… living in the passions of our flesh. That means we lived for ourselves and for our flesh–not for God and His glory.

… carrying out the desires of the body and the mind. That means we were idolaters instead of worshiping and following God and His desires.

We were His enemies in every way! This brings up another foundational principle that helps us rightly understand that God saves by grace alone: Because we are all fallen in Adam, we deserve God’s wrath. And we have increased the severity of wrath due us in living as Paul describes here in our passage.

This is what Paul says next. Look at verse 3:

Ephesians 2:3 … were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.

Most people, and sadly even many Christians, have a low view of the righteous wrath of God. Please understand, at the end of human history, sin will be punished eternally. But this is so foreign, it seems like a fantasy to many. Many simply cannot imagine God to be a God of judgment–a God who would impart His wrath on us or people we have loved in this life. People like to see Jesus as a loving hippy who would not dare send anyone into eternal torment based on His sound judgment of them.

To correct this line of thinking, we simply turn to Jesus’ very own teaching, as He describes the judgment to come in Matthew 25 through three parables He shares.

In the first story, the bridegroom returns suddenly, and the women who are not ready for his coming are excluded from the marriage feast (Matthew 25:10).

In the story of the servants, the master returns to settle his accounts, and the evil, lazy servant is condemned, as the master says, “Throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (v. 30).

In the final story, the king separates the sheep from the goats, sending the wicked “to eternal punishment” and the righteous “to eternal life” (v. 46).

According to Jesus Himself,there absolutely will be a future day of reckoning for all people. But many people love to argue, “God is so good, He could never send anyone to hell.” Yet, it is because of God’s goodness that He must rightly judge and condemn guilty people to hell.

Exodus 34:7 says God “will by no means clear the guilty.” The principle in this Old Testament verse applied to final judgment is that all who stand outside of Christ will rightly be condemned and receive just wrath. His perfect justice means He must declare the guilty “guilty!” And the sentence is death–eternal death. If a human judge declared someone innocent who was clearly guilty, he would not be considered a “good judge.” In fact, he would be fired, because he is indeed a terrible judge.

It is because God is a God of love that He must send people to hell for the same reason that letting a guilty person go free is not an act of love; it’s an act of great injustice. So, the presupposition that “God is good” is correct, but the conclusion that therefore, because He is good, means He won’t or can’t punish anyone is completely misguided, unbiblical, and dangerous.

The Bible proclaims the sentence for sinners in Romans 6:23: “For the wages of sin is death …”

Jesus declared it in Matthew 7:13: “… For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction …”

Hebrews 10:26-27 (NIV) says, “If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth … [there is] only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God.”

It is imperative that we note that none of our excuses will have any weight before God. You might get away with giving excuses to other people—your boss, your parents, your friends. But, you cannot excuse yourself before God. The apostle Paul wrote that in the day of judgment, “… every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God” (Romans 3:19). When the Judge takes the bench, there will not be a single protest.

In our current day, man is in love with human “rights,” and most people wrongly assume that God owes us something good—salvation or, at least, a chance at salvation. God owes sinful man something; this is true. He owes unrepentant, sinful man His righteous and eternal wrath. Yes, we are owed and we are deserving … of His eternal wrath. But there is good news that Paul highlights in chapter five:

Romans 5:6-11 For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die—but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

While we were His enemies, while we were still sinners, Christ died for us! What does this mean for us? It means we who believe into Jesus as Savior and Lord are “… saved by him from the wrath of God.” (Romans 5:9)He substituted Himself in our place. He died to pay our penalty.

Hebrews 2:17 Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.

Jesus Christ substituted Himself in our place.

This is the wonder and beauty of what Jesus accomplished on the cross of Calvary on our behalf. His bloodshed is the righteousness with which we who trust in Christ are covered. So, when God, in all His holiness, looks upon you and me to consider if we get to enjoy His glory and have communion with Him, He sees Jesus’ perfection and righteousness and declares us justified. We are justified by His blood.

We are “… reconciled to God …” (Romans 5:10). This leads to the next huge point Paul tells us in Romans 5, verse 10, “For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son …” There is not eternal life, there is no return to the garden of Eden, no all-satisfying enjoyment with God almighty, no being freed from sin and eternal suffering, no reconciliation to God if not for the death of His Son, Jesus Christ on our behalf.

If you are reading this and are not yet saved, repent and believe in Christ alone for salvation, for reconciliation to God.

And finally,

Romans 5:11 … we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

Habakkuk says it so well:

Habakkuk 3:18 yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will take joy in the God of my salvation.

Even while standing downstream of absolute physical ruin and abject famine, the prophet realized that inner peace and joy did not depend on outward prosperity but only on the God of his salvation. Habakkuk did not state that he would merely endure in the hour of distress. He said he would rejoice in the Lord and be joyful. God is the inexhaustible source and infinite supply of joy.

The phrase “the God of my salvation” is also seen in the Psalmist’s words:

Psalms 18:46 The Lord lives, and blessed be my rock, and exalted be the God of my salvation

Are your feet firmly grounded on the rock of Jesus Christ, on the God of your salvation?

Praise God for the good news of Jesus Christ which sets condemned sinners free.

By His grace and for His glory,

-Shepherd

Soldiers for Jesus MC

Chaplain Council