[0:00:02] Brenton: This is Further, a weekly show for the people of Harmony Bible Church, where we seek to revisit and expand on Sunday sermons with the goal of growing deeper in biblical truth that transforms our lives. Welcome back to further. This is our third episode and we're coming off of a message in romans one eight eight through 17. We got Chris here again to kind of expand on what we talked about this last weekend. So. Hey, Chris.
[0:00:33] Chris: Hey, everybody. So thankful that you're joining us and for the great response you've given so far. I heard lots of encouraging comments and it seems like maybe we're accomplishing what we had hoped to accomplish and that this would be something that would be a real benefit to our church and real encouragement and help us as we study this incredible book over the next 14 months.
[0:00:55] Brenton: Yeah, so just to expand on that a little bit, I wanted to talk a little bit about when things are going to be coming out. So our plan is to release everything on wednesdays. So about Wednesday afternoon, you can look for it, but also if you go to your podcast platform and just hit follow, then you should be getting notifications. And also one other thing that I'd like to suggest is just to share it with people that haven't listened to it yet. You can do that through your podcast platform or you can go to Furtherpodcast.com
[0:01:30] Brenton: and just share the link from there. Chris, as you briefly mentioned two weeks ago, martin luther's life was completely changed when studying romans, and specifically chapter one, verse 17, where we're at right now. luther had spent most of his life as a monk trying to pursue righteousness before God. He committed himself to the study of God's law, but but ultimately he knew that he could never obey it entirely.
[0:01:59] Brenton: In 1515, when going through romans, he found a notation that augustine had written centuries before on verse 17 where Paul says, for in it, the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith. augustin's note was referring to the righteousness that's talked about in verse 17 that it isn't referring to God's righteousness or holiness that's revealed by the Gospel, but it's referring to the righteousness that is freely given by God to all who believe.
[0:02:32] Brenton: Years later, luther wrote about this moment by saying, here I felt that I was altogether born again and had entered paradise itself through open gates. And I love this story because it shows the power of scripture when it's understood correctly. So in that spirit, let's jump in and let's talk about some historical context of the book of romans. So, Chris, can you talk a little more about the first century political situation in Rome?
[0:03:01] Brenton: What were the issues the Christians were facing at that time?
[0:03:05] Chris: Sure, it was a pretty crazy time for Christians. We think today that it's a pretty crazy time to be Christians in our country in our world. But it really was nothing like the Christians were facing when Paul wrote the Book of romans. The Roman emperors, many of them made guys like Vladimir Putin look like a choir boy. And I'm really not exaggerating, and this is specifically true of the emperor who was probably in power at the time that Paul wrote the Book of romans. His name was nero.
[0:03:36] Chris: nero had one of his wives killed. Actually, he probably kicked her to death. And then over sorrow for that, he married one of his slaves, a young boy who apparently looked like his wife that he had killed. He had the slave castrated and he went on to live with him. And on top of that, when it comes to Christians, nero loved to build. And he's actually pretty famous, well known for just many of the different things that he did build, but it got to the point where there wasn't really any more room in Rome to build. And so when you love to build and you don't have any more room to build, what do you do? Well, he set fire to the city of Rome.
[0:04:25] Chris: Now, of course, the citizens didn't like that too much, and so he needed somebody to blame. And so who did he blame? What? He blamed the Christians. And so that resulted in a persecution, a pretty great persecution against the Christians right around the time that romans paul would have written romans maybe a little bit after, but that's kind of the context. And so it resulted in Christians being lit on fire to light, nero's gardens being sewn into animal skins and thrown to the lions. In the colosseum, we see some of the things like from the movie gladiator that's the kind of stuff that was going on in Christians often were the ones who ended up being the fodder for those things. And so that really plays in here where paul's talking in our passage day. He's not ashamed about the Gospel, and he says, I want to come to Rome to preach the Gospel. And we got to keep in mind when he says that there was persecution awaiting him there, should he go and do so?
[0:05:33] Brenton: Yeah, so we see a legitimate fear of being a Christian in first century Rome. That really does put in perspective where we're at today, and we'll get into it a little later. But how we can still be ashamed of the Gospel, and yet we look back and we have Paul saying, I'm not ashamed through those circumstances. In verse twelve, Paul says that we may be mutually encouraged by each other's faith, both yours and mine.
[0:06:07] Brenton: And on Sunday you touched on mutual ministry and what that would look like at harmony. Can you give just some more specifics on what that would look like for our people to get involved with mutual ministry and encouraging each other?
[0:06:24] Chris: Yeah, we can talk about this a lot. I think you can really boil it down to what are known as the one another's. In the New Testament, more than 50 commands that we, we find where we're to love one another, encourage one another, pray for one another, spur one another on, admonish one another, teach one another, goes on and on and on. And it's not that we're all called to do all of those things necessarily, but we each and every one of us have certain one another that we can carry out for other people.
[0:06:56] Chris: And so it really is as simple as being in community with other people and using the gifts that God has given you, your personality, your strengths to help to as hebrews puts it, spur one another on to love and good deeds. And so it really is recognizing that you have a role to play in the church. Everybody has a role to play in the church. And I would even say it's a unique role that if you don't play that, the church is going to be missing out because there's only one of you, you're special.
[0:07:34] Chris: Now, we can joke about that, about some people are special or whatever, but the reality is that we are all special and we are all a part of the body. And being a part of the body, we all have a function to carry out in order to help the church and the body to be healthy.
[0:07:49] Brenton: Yeah. So do you think that getting involved with specific serving positions on Sunday mornings fulfills this or is this just living in community with people?
[0:08:03] Chris: I think it's both and I think it is. Yeah. You've seen your gifts to serve and it's not necessarily just on Sunday morning, although that's a great place. There's lots of other things throughout the week as well. And then definitely being in a community group or some type of small group where you have the opportunity to really live in relationship with other people. And sometimes it's as simple as just praying for somebody, saying a kind word.
[0:08:32] Chris: Sometimes it's maybe helping them out when they have an issue or a problem or just a physical need. There's really a myriad of ways that we can carry this out and we don't have to make it complicated.
[0:08:46] Brenton: Yeah, a lot of it's just looking past ourselves and looking to what the needs are of the body. Okay, so one of your application points from this weekend was to preach the gospel to yourself. And I know this is a term that gets thrown around a lot. I don't know that everyone has heard it, but what do you mean by that?
[0:09:08] Chris: Sure, I'll start with this is that you talk to yourself more than anybody else does. So what you say to yourself is immensely important. And preaching the gospel to yourself, really, it means that just continually reminding yourselves of the truth of the gospel and thinking carefully through about how they apply to the situations that you face in life. And so it's remembering. And this is why romans is going to be so helpful. As we dig into the depth of the gospel we will find that it has a limitless number of applications to our lives and there is always a way that the gospel applies to each and every situation or circumstance or challenge that we face in our life. And so it's kind of going back in some ways. It's simple that we're reminding ourselves of the core truths. In another way, there's depth to it as we've got to think and we've got to meditate on how the gospel applies to what we are facing in the current moment and place that we are in our lives. And so it's remembering that I'm a sinner but I'm also saved by grace.
[0:10:30] Chris: So yes, I'm a broken sinner but I'm also someone who's been made righteous before God. I've been made right with God through faith in Jesus Christ and pursue faith in his life, death and resurrection. And so I'm kind of going on here but it's just really on a day by day basis and I love how Tim keller puts it, see if I can get this right. But the gospel reminds us that we're more sinful than we ever imagined, but we're more deeply loved and accepted than we ever dare believe.
[0:11:07] Chris: And so it's reminding ourselves of those two things on a continual basis.
[0:11:12] Brenton: So you kind of put this in as an unofficial spiritual practice, right? This is kind of a daily thing that we need to be doing and kind of going out of our way to do it too. It's so easy to let our minds wander and lies, just sit and stew and we need to take control of those thoughts.
[0:11:33] Chris: Absolutely. I would say that it's a habit that you have to develop. So habits are things that you do without having to consciously think about them. But the way that you develop a habit is by practicing it. You do it so often, it just becomes kind of second nature to you. So for example, when we're done here, I'm going to get in my car and drive to the gym. Just a couple of habits I could talk about with this, but I probably won't consciously think about driving from here to the gym because it's just habit. I've just done it so often and hopefully that's going to apply to the gym too. That I'll do it so often that I'll just go and I'm going to do it because it's part of what I do.
[0:12:23] Brenton: I'm not that treadmill.
[0:12:24] Chris: Yeah, I'm not to that place yet, but and really, this is folks, if you will get this, this will make an immense difference in your life is that if we get in the habit of preaching the gospel to ourselves and reminding ourselves of it. We will gradually get to the point where we will find that the gospel comes to mind and we're able to apply it in the moment without just having to think about it. We will think about the gospel. We wanted to think about actually thinking about the Gospel, if that makes any sense.
[0:13:00] Brenton: Yeah, that's good. That's a hard thing to do, but it is worth it.
[0:13:05] Chris: Can I add something here, too? Absolutely. This is why regular time of being in the Word on a daily basis, and why, again, if I can go back to community groups or some type of small group is important, is so that you have a regular time where you're immersing yourself in the gospels. Why being present on Sunday morning for the preaching of the Word and the singing of the Word and the fellowship of the Word is so important, too is that we've got to get the gospel into our lives so we're immersed in it so that it becomes second nature to us.
[0:13:37] Brenton: Yeah, I think we're talking about preaching the gospel to ourselves. But another part of that, and we see that in this passage, is that we need other people to preach the gospel to us. And that is another step in immersing. So community groups and being involved in Sunday worship is just irreplaceable.
[0:13:59] Chris: Absolutely.
[0:13:59] Brenton: Okay, so in verse 16, Paul says that he's not ashamed of the Gospel. And some of that is just kind of remarkable given what we talked about in the political context they were in. But he's not ashamed because it's the power of God for salvation. And you talked on Sunday about one aspect of being ashamed, and that was the offense of the Gospel. But this also brought me to the beginning of one corinthians two, where Paul says, and I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling.
[0:14:37] Brenton: And my speech, my message, were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the spirit and of power so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. And Paul seems to essentially remove himself from the equation as he preaches the gospel. He puts all the weight on the spirit as he just faithfully delivers the message. So I guess my question here is what would you say to encourage someone that struggles to give the gospel to friends, to people they experience in daily life? How would you help them to not be ashamed of that message?
[0:15:18] Chris: Sure. It's a great question and I hope this will be really helpful to you. I didn't talk about this a lot on Sunday, but a positive way to put what Paul is saying here is that I have full confidence, complete confidence in the Gospel. And what I also didn't talk about a lot is that the Gospel is the power of God, of salvation as it is proclaimed. So in the very proclamation of the Gospel, the words actually have power in them.
[0:15:51] Chris: And the words have power in them, because the gospel is the power. It's not a power, it is the power of God. And so the very words have the power to transform and change lives. So, yes, we can be pretty sure that when we share the gospel, some people are going to reject it, they're going to be offended and all of that, but we can also have a great assurance that some people are actually going to receive it and be saved and their lives are going to be transformed and changed. And that it ultimately, and here's maybe the most encouraging thing, it ultimately, and this goes to what you were talking about in one Corinthians, chapter two. It doesn't rely upon how well we communicate, it really relies upon the Spirit.
[0:16:42] Chris: The Spirit is the one who takes the gospel and makes it effective in people's lives. And therefore our responsibility is simply to be faithful and to share it. And it's God's responsibility to make it work.
[0:16:59] Brenton: Yeah, you're preaching to me right now. It's so easy to get hung up on what words we're going to use, on what arguments we're going to encounter, and are we ready for that? And paul's saying here, just stop worrying about it, go preach the message, and it's the Spirit that's going to be faithful to that anyway. It does give us another level of boldness to be able to go out and not worry what's going to happen.
[0:17:31] Brenton: One thing that we're going to see, I think, three times in this book that I think could be a little confusing at first, is Paul saying to the jew first and also to the Greek, is that referring to the chronological order of how God has called people? So he called Israel first and then graphed it in the gentiles later. What does this mean here?
[0:18:01] Chris: I think you're right, by the way, we are going to talk about this a lot more when we get to romans 910 and eleven. That will be in the fall. So looking forward to that. But I think in the big picture, really what Paul is trying to say is here is that the gospel is for everybody. So that's kind of the overarching thing that he's trying to say. It's for Jews and for gentiles. I do think it is chronological in that the gospel came to the Jews first. And one of the reasons it came to the Jews first is it was promised to the Jews first. It came through the Jews, Jesus being a jew, and then from the Jews it went to the gentiles. And so he's not saying that the Jews are more important or more significant.
[0:18:53] Chris: They have the first priority in salvation. I don't think he's saying that. I think it really is primarily that they do have a special place in God's plan of salvation.
[0:19:06] Brenton: I know that we'll get into this a lot more later in romans, but I'd like to spend a little time on what Paul means by righteousness here and kind of talked about it at the beginning of this episode with luther. But in what sense are we considered righteous as believers? And maybe a different way to ask this is what justifies us before God.
[0:19:34] Chris: So this concept of righteousness, the righteousness of God being righteous, pretty soon in romans we'll get into this term justification is very rich and it's pretty complex. But I think it is important for us to understand that God is not actually making us righteous in the sense that we become internally righteous in and of ourselves. Rather, the righteousness that Paul is talking about here in chapter one is what's known as a forensic righteousness. Or maybe a better term would be legal righteousness.
[0:20:17] Chris: It's a declaration that God makes about our relationship to Him and how he views us. He views us as righteous. He now brings us, therefore, into a right relationship with Him. Now, that doesn't mean that there isn't internal change that takes place within us when we are saved. We'll talk a lot about that. We get to romans seven and eight. That will be really great there. But at this point, we need to understand that this righteousness is really, again, a legal righteousness, a way that God considers us. He considers us to have the righteousness that he has.
[0:20:57] Chris: And so now we can be in a right relationship with Him. Imputed righteousness. There's another big term. It's a righteousness that he credits to our account. You want to think from an accounting perspective. So there's a legal perspective. There's an accounting perspective is that he credits righteousness to our account. Really? He credits christ's righteousness to our account. So that's the way that he views us.
[0:21:23] Brenton: Yeah, I think sometimes in our explanation of the gospel, we can sell it short. I mean, I think the legal view is great. We're essentially pardoned for our sin. But not only that, but we're now given christ's righteousness and so there's a negative aspect to it, but there's also a positive of the imputed righteousness. And that's no small thing. And it's something that I think we can skip over pretty quickly.
[0:21:53] Chris: That's really good. Think of it this way. We lose something and we gain something and we lose our unrighteousness and we gain Christ righteousness. And so I think it's a really good thing to emphasize.
[0:22:12] Brenton: All right, with that, we're going to wrap this episode up. Thank you for listening. I hope that you're finding this further study and discussion helpful in your lives. And again, I'll ask you to continue to get the word out. If you'd like to share this with someone you know, go to furtherpodcast.com and use the links from there. We'll talk to you next week.