Aug28-Sept3: Redemption for Jew and Gentile

Teaching Points

1.  What statements has Paul made so far about both Jews and Gentiles?

ANSWER:

• Rom. 1:16—The gospel is the power of God for the salvation of both Jews and Greeks.
• Rom. 3:9, 12, 23; 5:12—Both are under sin (condemned). All have sinned.
• Rom. 3:22; 4:11—all that believe can have righteousness by faith.
• Rom. 3:29—God is for the Gentiles as well as Jews.
• Rom. 5:18—Who is justification available to? It is available to all because all have been affected by one man—Adam therefore, one man—Jesus can offer the free gift to all.
• Rom. 8:32—Christ was delivered up for us all.

2.  What is Paul saying about Jews and Gentiles in chapter 9?

ANSWER:

• Rom. 9:24—God has called both Jews and Gentiles to His family. 

3.  What does Paul say about the Jews?

ANSWER:

• Rom. 9:3-5—The Jews were given the special privilege having the message of truth for the world.
• Rom. 9:6-9—Not all Jews are children of God. 

4.   What is Paul showing us by writing about the differences between Jews and Gentiles?

ANSWER:

• Rom. 9:3-9—God gave the truth to the Jews for the world, but not all Jews believe and live the truth.
• God is also giving the gentiles opportunity to accept the truth.
• Does this mean the Jews are cast away? Rom. 11:1-5 No. God still has a remnant of faithful Jews.

OBSERVATION:

• Paul reveals in Romans that Jews and Gentiles have all sinned, need a Saviour, are offered salvation, can be justified and have the hope of eternal life, and be adopted into God’s family.
• God wants to save all both Jews and Gentiles.
• The Jews were given special advantage and privilege in being given the truth for the world but this does not mean that all Jews will be saved.
• The Gentiles do not have such great privileges as the Jews but God wants to save all not just Jews.
• Though as a nation the Jews rejected Christ, Jews can still believe in Christ and be saved. 

5.  What was it about Esau that caused God to say, “Jacob have I loved and Esau have I hated?”

ANSWER:

• Gen. 25:24-27—Jacob and Esau were raised in the same home with the same opportunities.
• Gen. 25:29-34—Esau sold his birthright to be the spiritual leader of the household as well as the earthly inheritance.
• Gen. 27:6-29—Jacob stole Esau’s blessing.
• Gen. 28:11, 16-22; 32:24-28— Jacob repented and wrestled with the angel.
• Gen.26:34, 35—Esau took idolater wives.
• Gen. 27:41; 32:6 —Esau wanted to kill Jacob.
• Jacob turned to God and repented. Esau continually turned away from God. God knew that Esau would reject Him and Jacob would accept Him before each was born, but He still gave both the opportunity for salvation.

6.  Is God unrighteous or unjust in dealing with people, why or why not?

ANSWER:

• Rom. 9:14—He is not unrighteous.
• What reveals that God is not being unjust in regard to Esau and Pharaoh?
• Rom. 9:15-17—God knows the best way to reach a heart to help it respond and be saved. He reveals His mercy, compassion, and/or power to the person. 

7.  Why was Pharaoh’s heart hardened against God?

ANSWER:

• Rom. 9:17—Could not God’s power have been shown in a fuller way if Pharaoh had surrendered to God as did Nebuchadnezzar? Yes. God wanted to show His power IN Pharaoh. God wanted His name (character) to be revealed in Pharaoh.
• Rom. 9:18, 19—God showed His mercy by showing His power to Pharaoh. Pharaoh responded by resisting or hardening His heart. He resisted God’s will to reveal His character in the king. 

8.  What is Paul trying to illustrate about God by using Esau and Pharaoh’s story?

ANSWER:

• Rom. 9:17—God’s purpose, for Pharaoh specifically, was to reveal His (God’s) character in Pharaoh.
• Rom. 9:19-22—The vessels of wrath are the ones resisting God’s will or purpose.
• Rom. 9:22—God is longsuffering even with the “vessels of wrath” (those resisting God’s purpose for them).
• God wants to save all. God is doing all to save all who choose to be saved. Even those who resist God’s salvation (His purpose or will), He is longsuffering with.

9.  Why is it important for Paul to show that God is longsuffering and merciful to all?

ANSWER:

• Romans chapters 9-11 shows us that God is trying to save Jews, as well as Gentiles. Paul is warning them not to resist God’s work, or reject Jews or Gentiles who are believing in Christ; but rather accept them as part of God’s family—joint heirs by faith. 

10.  Why is it that there are Gentiles who have righteousness by faith and Jews who do not?

ANSWER:

• The Jews were trying on their own to keep the law and attain righteousness by keeping the law, without faith in Christ. This became a stumbling block to them. 

OBSERVATION:

• God’s relation to Jacob and Esau was determined, not arbitrarily by God, but by their individual choices.

• Paul clarifies that God is not unjust in how He deals with individuals. God uses the best methods to reach their hearts but, if they resist His purpose for their salvation, they become “vessels of wrath” by their own choice.
• God is longsuffering and merciful to all regardless of their choice to resist Him or to accept Him.
• Paul is trying to show the justice and mercy of God and His desire to save all. The Jews need to be able to accept the Gentiles as people that God wants to save equally with themselves.
• If Jew or Gentile wants to attain righteousness it must be by faith in Christ. Works are not enough.

SOP

• It was God's purpose that His grace should be revealed among the Gentiles as well as among the Israelites. This had been plainly outlined in Old Testament prophecies. The apostle uses some of these prophecies in his argument. "Hath not the potter power over the clay," he inquires, "of the same lump to make one vessel unto honor, and another unto dishonor? What if God, willing to show His wrath, and to make His power known, endured with much long-suffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction: and that He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy, which He had afore prepared unto glory, even us, whom He hath called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles? As He saith also in Osee, I will call them My people, which were not My people; and her beloved, which was not beloved. And it shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not My people; there shall they be called the children of the living God." See Hosea 1:10.  {AA 376.1}  
• In the deliverance of Israel from Egypt, the Lord plainly showed his distinguished mercy to his people, before all the Egyptians. He saw fit to execute his judgments upon Pharaoh, that he might know by sad experience, since he would not otherwise be convinced, that the power of God was superior to all other. That his name might be declared throughout all the earth, he would give proof to all nations of his divine power and justice. It was the design of God that these manifestations should strengthen the faith of his people, and that their posterity should steadfastly worship Him alone who had wrought such merciful wonders in their behalf.  {ST, April 1, 1880 par. 32}
• Thus Paul shows that God is abundantly able to transform the hearts of Jew and Gentile alike, and to grant to every believer in Christ the blessings promised to Israel. He repeats Isaiah's declaration concerning God's people: "Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant shall be saved: for He will finish the work, and cut it short in righteousness: because a short work will the Lord make upon the earth. And as Esaias said before, Except the Lord of Sabaoth had left us a seed, we had been as Sodoma and been made like unto Gomorrah."  {AA 379.1}

CONCLUSION:

• Jews are no better than Gentiles. The only difference is that Jews have greater advantage because they have been entrusted with the message of Salvation.
• God wants to save all people and does all He can to save them. Even with those who refuse, He still is longsuffering.
• Paul’s main point in Chapter 9 is that God wants to save all, both Jews and Gentiles; but, both Jews and Gentiles can choose to resist God’s purpose.
• Righteousness must be by faith. We cannot save ourselves by keeping the law in our own strength.

APPLICATION QUESTIONS:

• Do you think that you are better than others or more likely to be saved because you know more truth than others?
• Are you taking advantage of the truth that you know and by faith in Christ living it?
• Are you trying to save yourself by doing what you know is right, but not surrendering yourself to Christ?
• Are you resisting God’s longsuffering and mercy for your salvation as Pharaoh and Esau did?

Aug21-27: Freedom in Christ

Teaching Points

1.  Summarize Romans 1 through 7.

ANSWER:

• Rom. 1—We are under the wrath of God.
• Rom. 2—We are still under wrath but there is hope; God decides to give us judgment.
• Rom. 3—We are all guilty deserving wrath in God’s judgment but God   offers His free gift of justification so that we can stand in the judgment and avoid God’s wrath.
• Rom. 4—Justification is possible by faith so here is an explanation of how. 
• Rom. 5—Who is justification available to? It is available to all because all have been affected by one man—Adam therefore, one man—Jesus can offer the free gift to all.
• Rom. 6—reveals that the experience of justification by faith involves switching masters from sin to righteousness.
• Rom. 7—The experience of bondage. We can’t switch masters until the old man is crucified. Even if we thought we were free and tried to keep the letter of the law we are still in bondage to sin until our old man is crucified.

2.  Now that we are guilt free, our sins will be blotted out, and we will be considered righteous—is there more?

ANSWER:

• Rom. 8:14-17—We are adopted into God’s family.

3.  Now starting from the beginning, who is condemned?

ANSWER:

• Rom. 8:1—Those not in Christ Jesus who walk in the flesh.

4.  Why are those in Christ Jesus free from the law of sin and death?

ANSWER:

• Rom. 8:1, 2—Without the law sin does not exist. Without sin, death does not exist.
• 1 Cor. 15:54-46—O death where is your victory? …the sting of death is sin and the strength of sin is the law.
• The law reveals sin and the wages for sin is death. Thus the one who is not justified (declared innocent) in Christ is condemned.
• Those in Christ Jesus are justified or not condemned.

5.  What is the law of the spirit of life?

ANSWER:

• Rom. 2:28—He is a Jew that is one inwardly, circumcised in heart, in the spirit and not in the letter.
• Rom. 5:5—The Holy Spirit sheds the love of God in our hearts.
• Rom. 7:6— We should serve in newness of the spirit and not oldness of the letter.
• Rom. 8:10—The body is dead because of sin (old man) but the spirit is life (new man) because of righteousness.
• What is the law of the Spirit of life? The Holy Spirit shedding God’s love in our hearts so that we will obey in the spirit of the law (obeying from the heart with Christ’s power) and not in the oldness of the letter (obeying on our own). 

6. What does it mean to walk after the flesh?

ANSWER:

• Rom. 8:4-9—Cannot fulfill the righteousness of the law, Mind the things of the flesh, carnally minded, at enmity with God.
• Rom. 8:7—enmity with God or not subject to the law of God. Another word related to the word “subject” is “yield” (Rom. 6:13, 16, & 19). In other words those who walk after the flesh do not yield themselves to serve God.

7. What does it mean to walk after the Spirit?

ANSWER:

• Rom. 8:4-10—The righteousness of the law is fulfilled in us, mind the things of the Spirit, being spiritually minded, having life and peace, at peace with God, subject (yielding) to God’s law, The body (old man) is dead and the Holy Spirit is living in you.
• Total surrender to Christ so that He can live out His life in you. Yielding self to serve God.

OBSERVATION:

• There is more to salvation than being justified—we are actually adopted as children. Now we can switch from being children of Adam, to being children of God.
• Those in Christ Jesus who are walking by the Spirit are not condemned, they are justified.
• Those in Christ are free from the law of sin and death, because they are justified, they are no longer standing guilty before God.
• Walking after the Spirit means to be dead to the old man (desires to sin) and alive to God. Total surrender to Christ yielding the will to serve God and not sin.
• Walking after the flesh means to be alive to the old man (desires to sin) and dead to God. They are not yielding or surrendering to God.
• Naturally we are enemies of God—we are rebelling and breaking His law. Paul is trying to show us how we can become friends at peace with God.  

8.  What does weak through the flesh mean?

ANSWER:

• Rom. 8:3—The law was weak through the flesh. The law can’t help us.
• Rom. 7:18—The flesh is also weak, unable to obey or perform on its own.
• Rom. 4:21—Jesus is able to perform.

9.  Why did Christ come in the likeness of sinful flesh to condemn sin in the flesh?

ANSWER:

• Rom. 8:3-9—those in the flesh, carnally minded, or the old man cannot please God because they are at enmity with God and is not subject (yielding) to the law of God. (Heb. 11:6) They cannot please God because they are not walking after the Spirit by faith.
• Rom. 8:4—That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us (inwardly). (The Jews kept the law outwardly, not in the heart).
• Christ overcame in the flesh, so that we can, through His power, overcome in the flesh by walking after the Spirit and not following our sinful desires.  

10.  Summarize the rest of the points of the chapter.

SUMMARY:

• Rom. 8:10, 11—Christ in you: the Spirit that raised Jesus is in you. This means that you not only have power to live righteously, but also have the hope of immortality (quicken your mortal bodies).
• Rom. 8:12, 13—live after flesh: death. Live after spirit: life.
• Rom. 8:14—Those who are led by the spirit (live after the spirit) are sons of God.
• Rom. 8:15—Spirit of bondage—living after the flesh. Spirit of adoption—living after the Spirit (yielding to serve God).
• Rom. 8:16, 17—Children are heirs or joint heirs—whatever Christ inherits we inherit. As children—Christ suffered, we will suffer; Christ was glorified, we will be glorified (immortality).
• Rom. 18-23—the creature (physical body) will be delivered from bondage of corruption (mortality or death) to glorious liberty. Those who have the first fruits (having spiritual rebirth or renewal) of the spirit are waiting for the adoption—the redemption of our body (immortality—freed from the bondage of death) or eternal life.
• Rom. 8:24, 25—Hope: immortality or eternal life (Rom. 5:2 and 1 Cor. 15:19-21).
• Rom. 8:26, 27, 33, 34—Christ intercedes for us because we don’t fully know what we need.
• Rom. 8:28-32—the topic here is immortality. “All things work for good” and “freely give us all things” are specifically referring to the gifts of justification, changing into His image, and  immortality (eternal life) contextually. Those who God knew would respond to Him, He predetermined or pre-planned to change them, justify them, and glorify them.
• Rom. 8:35-39—Who can keep God from doing this work of changing, making us innocent and adopting us or giving us eternal life? No outside power!

OBSERVATION:

• Weak through the flesh means that the law has no power to help us obey. We have no power to obey on our own. But Christ does have the power to help us obey.
• Christ came in the “likeness of sinful flesh” (our nature) to condemn sin in the flesh so that the “righteousness of the law could be fulfilled in us”—we could live obedient through His strength.
• Those who are in the flesh can’t please God because they are not yielding to walk after the Spirit by faith.
• Paul basically summarizes everything in the chapter in verses 29 and 30. God pre-planned to save all. Those who respond to His plan He “conforms to the image of His son (changes the character), justifies, and glorifies.
• Adoption as children of God, being glorified, having hope, the “redemption of our body,” being “delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God” are all references to the gift of immortality or eternal life.

SOP

• We have a living Saviour. He is not in Joseph's new tomb; he is risen from the dead, and has ascended on high as a substitute and surety for every believing soul. "Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." The sinner is justified through the merits of Jesus, and this is God's acknowledgment of the perfection of the ransom paid for man. That Christ was obedient even unto the death of the cross is a pledge of the repenting sinner's acceptance with the Father. Then shall we permit ourselves to have a vacillating experience of doubting and believing, believing and doubting? Jesus is the pledge of our acceptance with God. We stand in favor before God, not because of any merit in ourselves, but because of our faith in "the Lord our righteousness."  {ST, July 4, 1892 par. 6} 
• Jesus stands in the holy of holies, now to appear in the presence of God for us. There he ceases not to present his people moment by moment, complete in himself. But because we are thus represented before the Father, we are not to imagine that we are to presume upon his mercy, and become careless, indifferent, and self-indulgent. Christ is not the minister of sin. We are complete in him, accepted in the Beloved, only as we abide in him by faith.  {ST, July 4, 1892 par. 7} 
• Christ's followers are required to come out from the world, and be separate, and touch not the unclean, and they have the promise of being the sons and daughters of the Most High, members of the royal family. But if the conditions are not complied with on their part, they will not, cannot, realize the fulfillment of the promise. A profession of Christianity is nothing in the sight of God; but true, humble, willing obedience to His requirements designates the children of His adoption, the recipients of His grace, the partakers of His great salvation. Such will be peculiar, a spectacle unto the world, to angels, and to men. Their peculiar, holy character will be discernible, and will distinctly separate them from the world, from its affections and lust.  {2T 441.1} 

CONCLUSION:

• When we are justified we are no longer condemned by the law because our record of sins by faith will be blotted out. We are at peace with God because we are no longer serving sin but we are serving Him doing righteousness.
• God works to change us into His image or character and adopts us as children with equal rights to eternal life with Christ.
• Paul’s main point in Chapter 8 is that God is not stopping short. He wants us to be His own children inheriting eternal life! What He started in us He will finish and no outside power will stop Him. Our part is to co-operate by yielding to Him or walking after the Spirit. If we do our part God will do His.

APPLICATION QUESTIONS:

• Are you at peace with God?
• Are you choosing to yield yourself to God daily?
• Are you under condemnation of the law because of sin?
• Are you hoping for the gift of eternal life because you are yielding to Christ and trusting in His righteousness?
• Are you one of the “called” who is being changed into the image of Christ?
• Are you thankful that God is not stopping short but able to finish the work He has started in you, if you continue to surrender to His will?
• Are you stopping God from doing this wonderful work of transformation and adopting you into His family?