2.16.2009

Orienting Data

Jared- Great picture to get us started. When I'm reading, I love having a sense of what could have been going on.
To tack onto what Jared wrote, I want to add a few orienting pieces.
1) From a broad sense, it seems as though Paul had two primary reasons to write the Romans. One was to introduce himself to them. The other was to give a foundation for the Christian faith.
2) There are a number of 'famous' verses from this book. What are some that you know? I think the central verse, the verse that could be lifted out as the big picture is found in this first chapter. Anyone want to guess which verse?
3) A quick word study will show the following statistics:
"Righteousness" is used 34 times in the book of Romans and is key to understanding this book. It is only used 92 times in the entire New Testament.
"God" is used 153 times.
"Law" is used 72 times.
"Christ" is used 65 times.
"Sin" is used 48 times.
"Faith" is used 40 times.

I'm excited to read this book with you. John Calvin said this about Romans:
"If a man understands Romans he has a sure road open to help him understand the entire Bible."
Posted by Matt

3 comments:

  1. Pam SmithFebruary 16, 2009 at 3:51 PM

    I would venture to say v. 17.

    Please pray for my uncle, Mark, he is living out the last part of the chapter. :(

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  2. MattFebruary 17, 2009 at 8:28 AM

    Right on Pam - I'd add v.16 to v.17. I guess that would make it two verses instead of one though.

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  3. Jan and Kris StilesFebruary 17, 2009 at 9:00 PM

    Hang in there Pam. One of the words that strikes me the most in vs 18-32 is the word practice. Practice tends to imply to me that you are doing these things over and over until you get really good at them. I spent many years (before I knew Christ) practicing almost everything in that list and I got really, really good at them, although I never really cared for that thing in vs. 27, nor have I murdered anyone, yet. What amazes me most from the final section of this chapter is that we can practice all of this stuff and still be forgiven and have our hearts changed by God, so that even though we still may commit these sins sometimes, at least we no longer practice them. Somewhere in the NT I know that Paul said that Christ did not come for the righteous, but for sinners. Will keep Mark in prayer,

    Kris

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