King's Church Birmingham

Paul continues his defence of God’s word, arguing that Israel missed out on God’s righteousness because they pursued the law ‘as if it were based on works’. Israel ran hard but tripped over the ‘stumbling stone’: Jesus. The Gentiles who didn’t even run won the ‘race’ and achieved the prize: Jesus.

In the first half of Romans 9 Paul has defended the claim ‘it is not as though the word of God has failed’ by outlining God’s choice of Isaac and Jacob as God’s true and chosen Israel. However, that has led to another potential accusation about whether God is just and why, if He is sovereign, He still finds fault? Having started with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, Paul now moves on to Moses and Pharaoh...

Paul is deeply concerned that Israel’s unbelief might undermine our trust in God’s promises. He explains that God’s intention was always to save some of Israel, not all, using Isaac and Jacob as examples of how God chooses some to rescue. We saw that God’s choice of us is the ground of our salvation. God’s election is an act of mercy, undeserved and unearned.

The last section of chapter 8 is one of the awe passages of the New Testament. Written by the Apostle Paul that we might worship, bow down, or stand amazed at the love of God given to us through His Son. We are built up through a selection of rhetorical questions encouraging believers that God is for us. That He will graciously give us all things. That we are justified, not condemned, and that ult...

What a joy to know that the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness by praying for us when we do not know how to pray. V28 declares that God is able to work all things together for the good of those who love Him. We celebrate the fact that God is on our side, even in the face of adversity. V29-30 then cements this truth with the declaration that what God starts he finishes. That what began in eternit...

Last week we saw how we’ve been given a spirit of adoption, that we are co heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him. The introduction of suffering can leave us asking; how do I handle suffering? Is god really good? Am I really adopted...? Paul’s answer to these questions is to provide us with assurance that not only will we be glorified with Him, but so too the whole creation. Paul wants us...

Having been saved and justified through the cross of Christ, we are now children of God – God is our Father, and we are His beloved children. We’ve been adopted into His family to know forevermore His perfect fatherly love and attention, and to share in the riches and glory of Jesus! All he has is ours by God's grace. This is the framework in which we should see everything; who we are and how we r...

The Law is good and wise and points to Jesus, but it’s no longer our master. Jesus will not condemn us for anything that we’ve ever done, thought or felt. However, he rescued us so that we could obey him. We are made to be like Jesus by the Spirit, who gives us the capacity to imperfectly obey the law, to love others, to put others before ourselves. If we know that we’re with Jesus, we can be secu...

In this second part of Romans 7 Paul begins by defending the law as good, holy and righteous v12. Demonstrating that it was sin in us that was responsible for our death, not the law. Then a clear understanding that v14-25 refer not to Paul or new testament believers but someone hopelessly struggling in their relationship with the law, helps draw out the fact that whilst the law is good it cannot s...

This is the third time Paul asks his readers ‘do you not know’ and proceeds to use the analogy of marriage to describe our relationship to the law and then to Christ. As believers we have died to our old husband the law and are now free to marry another. In Christ we have a new husband who is far better than the previous one. He is life-giving and life-saving, producing a fruitful harvest within u...

In the second half of chapter 6 Paul repeats and reframes his argument that if we are under grace, we are free from sin. Last week we saw how our unity with Christ made us alive to God and dead to sin, this week we see how our slavery to Christ also helps us say no to sin. Paul presents us with the choice between two masters – sin and obedience, death and life, Adam and Christ. He wants us to see...

Chapter 6 marks the start of a new section, as the apostle Paul moves from outlining his gospel of justification by faith, to showing how grace also transforms our lives. If we understand that we are no longer in Adam but in Christ, we will begin to grasp that we have died to sin. That the power of sin is broken. That just as Jesus is raised then so are we. That we can live lives of liberty and fr...

Because of Adam’s sin we were trapped in a cycle of sin and death: they are the powers that rule over our lives. If we are in Christ then the consequences of Adam’s sin are overturned and surpassed. Jesus doesn’t just keep the law on our behalf, he gifts us what we don’t deserve; he doesn’t just forgive us, but declares us in the right; he doesn’t just defeat death but invites us to reign in life;...

Chapters 5-8 of Romans move on to the outworking of our justification by faith, and specifically the assurance we can have as believers. In this first session we look at the blissful consequences of our justification; peace with God, grace, hope and even the ability to rejoice in our sufferings. Paul is keen for us to grasp the implications of what it means now that we are reconciled to God. That...

In the second half of Romans 4, Paul reiterates that we are saved by grace through faith. Not through any work, effort or righteousness of our own – but simply by believing what Jesus has done for us on the cross. He was delivered up for our transgressions and raised for our justification! To help us understand and build our life on this amazing truth, and the freedom and security it brings, Paul...

As we move into chapter 4 of Romans, Paul is developing his argument that we are all justified by God’s grace through faith. He is clear to clarify that the gospel is not obtained through works, so that no one may boast. Both Abraham, the great Patriarch, and David, the King, are used as examples of how God both credits us with His righteousness and covers over our sins. A true understanding of th...

Paul has left us with every objection answered, every justification silenced, knowing that we should be justly condemned before God. “But now” everything changes in perhaps the most important paragraph ever written. God gifts us with righteousness we could not earn, pays our ransom we could not pay, and turns aside his own wrath: all of this through the death of Jesus, God’s gift to us. If that’s...

In this final part of Paul’s polemic, he hammers the nails in the coffin of our self-justification and illustrates with finality how all, Jew and Gentile alike, are under sin’s power and without hope. It is only when we are rendered speechless by the gravity of our own sin that we are ready to move on to v21 and the BUT NOW of God. It is only when we have fully appreciated the bad news that we are...

Paul scripts a debate with an imaginary critic who objects to his claim that the Jews are not privileged above Gentiles in knowing God because of their ethnic tradition and religion. If that is so, the critic mounts four charges, each arising from the previous one, against God. Isn't Jewish election a sham (vv1-2)? Hasn't their failure to keep the covenant meant that God has failed (vv3-4)? How ca...

Paul continues his polemic against the Jews who might be tempted to rely on their privilege rather than trusting in Christ’s work on the cross for salvation. Paul outlines, the somewhat shocking news, that neither the law nor circumcision will save. Indeed, even the uncircumcised gentile Christians who obey Christ are more ‘Jewish’ than the Jews who disobey the law. We reflect on how we too rely o...

Paul is specifically addressing Jewish believers who may have exempted themselves from his message as they had “special status” having the Torah. Paul’s argument is that all will be judged; Jew & Gentile, with the law or without the law, all fall under the wrath of God, but God is fair. Paul wants his hearers to know; we all are in the same boat, perishing outside of Christ. He lands this section...

Paul has already explained the power of the gospel, and the wrath of God that is coming on those who do wrong and approve of others doing it. He now turns his attention to those who do wrong and condemn others who do it: the self-righteous. We easily fall into patterns where we excuse in ourselves the behaviour we condemn in others. We must repent, we desperately need mercy, and should be surprise...

In the first 17 verses Paul introduces his ministry and his gospel. He will now take the next two chapters outlining the fallen, sinful state of humanity both Jew and Gentile, righteous and self-righteous and how we have all fallen short of the glory of God. It’s only against this dark backdrop that the gospel shines brightest. It’s only when we see the wrath of God that we rejoice in the salvatio...

Whatever the reason, in these verses which summarise the book of Romans, Paul is eager to tell the church in Rome that he is not ashamed of the gospel. JP looks at why we can live with this same attitude and in fact, why the Gospel is worth giving our whole lives too, namely because it is the Power of God, because it is for everyone and because it reveals the righteousness of God.

If part 1 outlined Paul’s confidence in the gospel; that Jesus is now appointed Son of God in power. Part 2 is the outworking of it, demonstrated in Paul’s confidence in his ministry and his desire to come to Rome. We note Paul’s expectation that he will reap some spiritual harvest and that the gospel must be proclaimed. It’s a provocation to us to think; am I living like that? Do I have such conf...