OCTOBER NEWSLETTER
Paul's Letter to the Christians in Rome
Romans
The news of Jesus’ resurrection spread fast throughout the known world. No doubt the news reached the busy streets of Rome. The Gospel reached far and wide but many of Jesus’ followers would have looked to Rome. How would the new Christians under the pressure of the Roman Empire respond? Would they just quietly believe or would they continue to spread the word?
Paul’s letter is written to real people with lives as busy as ours and in the middle of it is their relationship with God. If you outline his ideas through the letter you will find much of what Paul is doing is informing us about our new covenant relationship with God. Answering many difficult questions such as, “How does grace work?” “Where did the idea of grace come from?” “What about the Old Testament?” “What does God ask of us now?” In response to the gospel, Paul shares with us many key theological words and each one deserves close attention.
Righteousness, Peace, Hope, Law, Trespass, Waith, Justified, Reconciled, and many more! I would encourage a deeper study into these words. I shared these words and questions at our Bible study and I would like to share them with you as well:
Peace / εἰρήνη
What kind of peace do we have with God?
Grace / χάρις
How would you define “Grace”?
How does grace change your daily relationship with God?
Hope / ἐλπίς
How does worldly hope and Biblical hope differ?
Reconciled / καταλλάσσω
Do you have family or friends you are estranged from?
What would it mean to be reconciled to them?
Trespass / παράπτωμα
How do we trespass against God?
Can we still trespass after salvation?
How is our trespass different with grace?
I would encourage you to dig deeper! If you have more questions than answers join one of our many Bible Fellowship Groups. Each one has great leaders and people hungry for God’s word.
Scott Carpenter