Prairie Bible Church

Romans 6 held up the great victory we have over sin through our union with Christ. Because we have been crucified with Christ, we have been set free from sin (6:6-7). Now, Romans 7 deals with the reality of remaining sin. While we are already justified in Christ, we are not yet fully delivered from indwelling sin. Three times in Romans 7, Paul speaks of sin still dwelling in us even after our conv...

After explaining the Gospel in Romans 1-5, Paul turns to dealing with distortions of its message. In Romans 6, he defended God’s grace. Now in Romans 7, he defends God’s Law. Paul knew that his statements about the Law in Romans may lead critics to suggest he thought the Law was bad. Yet he shouts in Romans 7:12, the Law is good! God’s Law serves His purposes by exposing sin, yet sin seeks to seiz...

The term “law” occurs eight times in Romans 7:1-6, and it is among the topics of greatest confusion for believers today. What is the believer in Jesus’ relationship to the Law of Moses and the entire Old Testament? What do we do with this giant first chunk of our Bibles? These verses show us that, while the law is good (Rom. 7:12), Jesus is better. In other words, the New Covenant is better than t...

From beginning to end, the Bible presents two paths, one leading to death and one to life. “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23). It is only in Christ Jesus that a person finds life, and the evidence that a person is in Christ is their spiritual “fruit.” What fruit are you producing, and what does it say about the path you...

Paul began his letter to the Romans in a rare way, calling himself a slave (doulos) of Christ. He does this only two other times in his letters (Phil 1:1 and Titus 1:1). Doulos (slave) means someone who belongs to another, without any ownership rights of their own. We American Christians love our freedom, and may bristle at the idea that we are slaves. Yet, doulos is used with the highest dignity...

John Owen famously said, “Be killing sin, or sin will be killing you.” The war with sin connects us with all people of all times, because the sin problem is timeless and universal. None of our technological advances have fixed our sinful nature, guilty conscience, or separation from God. What makes Romans relevant today is that it speaks to this seemingly impossible issue. The key to killing sin l...

Paul spent the first several chapters in Romans laying out bedrock truths of Christianity. Now in Roman 6:11, he gives a strong imperative command: Consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God. This is not a suggestion, but a “must.” Why is it so important? Because being alive to God is the entire purpose of our dying to sin. As one pastor put it, "The glory of Christian redemption is tha...

Romans 1–5 communicates the radical truth that, by faith in Christ’s righteousness alone, apart from any works of our own, we have been declared right with God. Paul ends Romans 5 in the clearest terms possible: “where sin increased, grace abounded all the more” (Rom. 5:20). Not only is this teaching controversial, it is dangerous. Why? Because some may assert that it leads to rampant sinning. How...

America may be the most individualistic culture in the world, which makes these verses hard for us to understand. We often think of sin as an individual problem that needs individual remedies, but Romans 5:12–21 teaches that it runs much deeper. Paul states that humanity’s ultimate problem is we have inherited Adam’s sin nature. Truly, the apple has not fallen far from the tree. Christianity is th...

If God did the harder thing, He will do the easier thing. Paul makes this point with a “greater to lesser” argument: “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” (Rom. 5:10). When we are tempted to doubt God’s ability to bring about our final salvation, we should remember the length to which G...

Romans 5:6-8 provides a radical demonstration of God’s love for us: the sacrifice of His Son for ungodly, undeserving sinners. Paul began Romans with the phrase “the gospel of God” (Rom. 1:1), reminding us that our salvation is just as much a story about the Father as it is about the Son. Jesus did not come to earth to convince a begrudging Father to accept us; He partnered with a loving Father to...

I am convinced that no matter how old you are, where you come from, or what you’ve been through, there are things that everyone wants. We all want, desire, and long for peace. We all want access to the supernatural in some way, shape, or form. We know that we cannot avoid suffering, so at least we want it to mean something in this life. Lastly, all of us, deep down, whether we admit it or not, wan...

For many, the word “faith” sounds foolish. We hear this in phrases like “blind faith” or “taking a leap of faith.” But our faith as Christians is far from foolish because of Who our faith is in: the Promise-Keeping God of the Universe. The Bible says, “The eyes of the LORD search the whole earth in order to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him” (2 Chron. 16:19). God is always s...

The resounding message of the gospel is this: “Come home.” Christ’s resurrection provides the pattern for those who come home: Just as Jesus was put to death on the cross, my old self is put to death. And, just as Jesus was raised to life, I become a new creation. But none of this can happen until I come to my senses, turn from my sin, and come home. Jesus did not come to earth to convince a begru...

For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God - ‭‭1 Peter‬ ‭3‬:‭18‬ ‭ Thank you for joining us for Good Friday.

Believers in Jesus Christ have won the lottery. The only difference is that our prize is far greater: we are declared right with God, all our debts are forgiven, and we are promised eternity in heaven. We could never earn or deserve any of these, a fact that was especially radical in Paul’s day. There was a belief in Judaism that salvation came by obedience to God’s Law, but Paul put forth that no...

A danger that can occur in the heart of the believer is to shrink the message of salvation down to merely intellectual and spiritual information that has no virtually effect on their life. With this in mind, we must remember that Romans is a real letter, penned by a real person (Paul), to a real church. You see, Paul does not want to only impart doctrine to the Romans. He desires that this salvati...

This passage has been famously called “the greatest paragraph ever written”–and rightfully so. It explains how sinful humanity can be saved from the wrath of God. Paul spent Romans 1:18–3:20 talking about humanity’s problem: sin. Because of this sin against a just God, the wrath of God is coming. We often forget that the wrath of God is kind, for if God did not address the problem of evil, who cou...

Many believe that we can make ourselves righteous with enough effort. In Romans 3:9-20, God’s Word emphatically rejects this, stating that “No one is righteous, no, not one.. no one does good, not even one.. for by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight.” The difference between Christianity and every other religion is that Christianity claims we’re declared righteous by wha...

We value those who hold it together when everyone else is wavering, and we cherish the person who remains faithful despite others not holding up their side of the bargain. These qualities are marks of God. The Bible describes God as a rock, fortress and stronghold (Ps. 18). God always remains faithful, even when His people do not. He remains righteous when His people do not. He remains just when H...

Circumcision was “the single clearest distinguishing feature of the covenant people.” When the gospel reached the Gentiles, a controversy broke out among the Jews, with some declaring, “Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.” (Acts 15:1). Paul dealt with the issue of circumcision throughout his entire ministry. He was an expert in the Scriptures and a for...

Ash Wednesday is an invitation for us to “examine ourselves to see whether we are in the faith” (2 Corinthians 13:5). As we begin the Lenten season and seek deeper communion with Christ, we look to Hebrews 3:12-15 for some examination.  How many stories have you heard of someone who loved Jesus, served Jesus, was active in the church, maybe even a leader in the church—and then seemingly out of now...

Almost everyone knows someone whose reason for leaving God was “those Christians are hypocrites.” While this will not stand up as a sufficient excuse on Judgment Day, Paul acknowledges that the hypocrisy of God’s people is both real and tragic: “The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.”  Paul does not let anyone off the hook. After critiquing the sinfulness of all people (1...

Romans 2 is a sobering reminder of the reality of God’s judgment and our inability to keep God’s Law perfectly. God’s judgment is not like a human courtroom or judge. God knows everything, even our thoughts. God judges perfectly and He will not give preference or deference to anyone. These truths are humbling and they should grab our attention but they should also remind us of Jesus. Jesus is the...

We love it when people speak the truth about what we align with. Whether it be our favorite sports team, political affiliations, our take on pop culture drama—when someone says something we align and agree with, we love to champion that. In the study of Romans so far, there have been many truths preached that many people in our church align and identify with, therefore, love and feel great about w...