David Pawson - ROMANS Part 2

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THOUGHTFUL THOUGHTS  30.1.26 BY JOHN DUNNING.

ROMANS PART 2.

St Paul’s study for mainly Gentile Christians in Rome.

CATCH-UP

- Paul had not gone to Rome yet… 

- Paul did not “found” this church…

- Paul is mainly writing to Gentile disciples in Rome, and to the few returning Messianic Jews following their exile under Claudius. 

- In Romans 1:5 Paul mentions that he was called to make disciples of Gentiles. Although all Jews had previously been expelled under Emporer Claudius, they had recently been permitted to return to Rome when he committed suicide, and Nero became Emporer. (Because they were such good businessmen.) Nero came to the throne in 54 AD. 

- The letter to the Romans was written about AD 57-ish+. Some Messianic Jews were trickling back to Rome when this letter was written, as Nero reversed the order of Claudius, and the relevance of that will be seen as we continue…

THE PROBLEM… 

GENTILES V. MESSIANIC JEWS…

The Gentiles did not have the degree of superior knowledge of Scripture that the Messianic Jews had, who had been brought up on the Scriptures, and been taught to read and write by their mother. And remember, there was still no “New Testament”, as God was still using the Apostles to write down what they had learned from the Messiah, about how He completed the first Covenant, which He called the old wineskin, and how He brought in the new one, which He called, the “New Wine”; (Matthew 9:17).

What Gentiles did have, was the Apostle Paul - who taught them all about this through his letter writing. He was God’s messenger to teach the Gentiles, 1:5, as well as Jews. 

The New Covenant was in the Old Testament, concealed and the Old was in the New, revealed; (Augustine). God used His Jewish disciples who could read and write, to reveal what was concealed in the Old Testament by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Because Peter could not read and write, God sent Mark to him, who wrote on behalf of Peter, the Gospel of Mark. And because Paul had difficulty with his hands, Dr. Luke, who was a Gentile, helped him write, when he was around. So the New Testament is still just as much a Jewish book as the Old Testament, and Jesus said, “Salvation is from the Jews”. 

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The book of Romans came to be written by Paul because the problem in Rome was that the Gentile church leaders were not recognizing the teachings gifts of the Messianic Jews returning from exile, to the church in Rome. (ie which was leading to the church splitting...) 

Writing in those days was very expensive, so Paul saw the situation as urgent, as the expenses included buying treated animal skins and paying someone to ride to Rome with all the parchments that made up the book of Romans that we have, which God included in the Bible. So let’s look at what Paul went to so much trouble to teach the Gentile Christians in Rome… 

FAITHFULNESS, CERTAINTY AND AGAPE 

A).  “FAITH”; Chapters 1-4.

‘Faith’, as taught by the prophets and apostles, would have been better translated, ‘FAITHFULNESS’. Those who have the kind of faith in God which the Apostles spoke of, actually SHOWED the fruits of that faithfulness. (ie like a tree bears the fruit of a tree which it is part of; (Luke 6:43-45). 

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B i). “HOPE” Chapters 5-11. 

The word “hope” has lost its original meaning. Paul did not mean it like we do, when we say, “I hope you get well soon”. The word “hope” back then meant “certainty”, as in something we are waiting for, like an inheritance. “The hope of things unseen”. Paul is saying it is something you know to be true. 

Let me explain further... When Churchill learned that Pearl Harbour had been attacked, he wrote in his diary that he slept well for the first time since the war began… Why? 

Because he knew that with the Americans joining in the war, Hitler WOULD be defeated. The American military had the muscle to swamp the might of Hitler’s war machine. The hope Churchill had when he heard the USA had joined the war is the kind of hope Paul is talking about as the very hope that should sustain us. We have a future that Paul had SEEN in his visions. 

One heroine of world war two was asked what kept her going in the dark times when Hitler controlled her country, and she said “Hope”. She knew the allies were stronger than the evil that had overtaken her country, especially after the Americans joined in. Paul uses HOPE as a certainty of victory, like that. 

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B ii) “THE MYSTERY”... Chapters 9-11.

Before Paul moves on to “LOVE”, he comes to his punchline… “the mystery”. It is what Paul has been leading up to. Right in the middle of Romans, amongst Paul’s overall theme of Faith, Hope, and Love, there is the “jam in the sandwich”, in which Paul talks about God’s plan for the Jews…

For Paul, it comes under his message of ‘hope’ for Jews generally, that there is a mystery for the Jews… which is that God still has a plan for Jews.

a). Romans 9 talks about what happened to the Jews in the past…

b). Chapter 10 talks about the Jews in between the cross and end times…

c). Chapter 11 writes about God’s plans for the future of the Jews…

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C). AGAPE LOVE…Chapters 12:9

Paul uses the Greek word “Agape” to describe the kind of love he is referring to which is the kind of love God has. This is important as the Greek language used different words to describe the different kinds of love. (The English language uses one word for love as if one size fits all, which is not helpful.

The word used here of  “AGAPE” is a spiritual kind of love which is selfless. 

We should ask ourselves, ‘do we care what God wants and feels?’ Paul did. Paul really did put God first. God revealed to Paul His plan that He is creating a family.  Agape can be used to describe obeying what God wants.

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SUMMARY…

The truly righteous person will be known by SHOWING the fruits of righteousness; (Galatians 5:22-23). What we need is GOD’s righteousness – and not our “SELF-righteousness”. God is looking for "Faithfulness, Trust, and Agape Love”.

Romans chapters 9 to 11 is the summary of what Paul calls the “mystery”, and is the heart of Paul’s letter. It is the centerpiece of Paul’s Open University type of “teach-in”, to the Gentile Christians in Rome. God has an unfulfilled plan for the Jews. Paul revealed to the readers that God hadn’t finished with the Jews at all. Paul is explaining all this to the church, which is now being run by Gentiles who have given up on the Jews, which is why Romans 9-11 is the ‘jam in Paul’s sandwich’.

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EPILOGUE…

We can have confidence in the inspired Word of God by believing what God has said in His Word. Christian ministries have been set up to counter “Replacement Theology” by re-teaching the “mystery”, mentioned in this study, that Paul taught. 

As for us Gentiles, after Paul went to Rome for his trial, so many soldiers became believers that Paul refers to them being in the palace in Rome. Many of the Christian soldiers ended up going to Britain creating Christian fellowships, and many crosses have been unearthed where the soldiers’ barracks once were. 

Please share these Bible study pages with your friends…

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This is John Dunning signing off from “Thoughtful Thoughts” for another week.

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