Baptism won't save you

Or is anyone hearing this who is relying upon his or her baptism? I do not care whether you were baptized as an infant or whether you were grown-ip - it make not the slightest difference, if you are relying upon it. 

If you think that the act of baptism is the thing that saves you and puts you right, whatever you may be doing with your life, you are in the identical position of the Jews. As they relied on circumcision you are relying upon baptism, whether it is sprinkling or immersion, or anything else you make like - mode, again, it does not matter. 

Anyone who relies upon it, and upon it alone, is in the position of the Jew who was relying upon circumcision. [see Romans 2:25-29]

 (p156  Romans: 1 to 3: 20 - The Righteous Judgement of God An Exposition of Chapters 2 - D.M Lloyd-Jones )

good people resist grace

When he (Paul) spoke of the Gentiles being 'without excuse' (Romans 1:20), there was no dialogue with them; they were silent, as if acknowledging the justice of their condemnation. It is the moral man, not the corrupt Gentile, who is disposed to argue, and to resist the unsparing and unqualified judgment that he is in the same predicament as the other, and in the same need of the grace of the gospel. 

It is significant, too, that this form of argument continues right to the end of the section, at Romans 3:20. The respectable, moral or religious man is much more difficult to convince of his need of grace than the other, and it is long before Paul an arrive at his verdict that 'the whole world' (including the good pagan and the religious Jew as well as the corrupt Gentile) is 'accountable to God' and guilty in His sight (3:19). (p35 Power of God: Exposition of Paul's Letter to the Romans)

given up?

Sermon 5 (Romans 1:26-32) Notes / Handout

In view of the content I also did a 'Table Activity' for those Infants/Juniors at church to do 'out' during the Sermon. Romans 1 & 3 scratch cards. 

Huge fun to make (if a little fiddly). Here is the template.

I was very indebted to this website: Artmind. You'll find there all you need to know how to make a scratch card. 

blindingly obvious

Sorry, I've been ill since Sunday, so this is a bit late, but here are the notes of last Sunday's sermon. We continue our series in Romans. It is unpolished I am afraid - but will be mostly intelligible I think. 

 

Sermon 4 Notes

LIVE by faith

Sermon 3 Notes / Handout 

Eight chapters in one verse

The righteous will live by faith ... or ... 
He who through faith is righteous shall live.

(Romans 1:17)

Which ever reading is followed, however, the quotation becomes the 'text' on which  the exposition of the next eight chapters is based, with 'the righteous' and 'by faith' occupying the Apostle's attention in 1:18-4:25, while 'shall live' is dealt with in 5:1-8:39.  

(p 26 Power of God: Exposition of Paul's Letter to the Romans, James Philip)

If you are flush with cash get this ... it is expensive (between £30 and 50!!) because it is out of print. Paul Levy is right about it.) However don't despair because another version of James Philip's Notes on Romans (mostly the same) is FREE online at St George's Tron. Bless them. 

Romans Introduction

I have messed up our church news webpage (oops!). I'm not quite sure what I did. But it spectacularly does not work now. So, until I can get that fixed, I thought I would post  our Romans series so far here:

Sermon 2 Outline // Handout 2

Sermon 1 Outline // Handout 1

Saul or Paul

This is something that has puzzled me for a while. We encounter Paul the apostle in the NT under two names: Saul and Paul. A common misunderstanding that I had until recently is this: that Saul the Pharisee changed his name to Paul when he came to faith in Jesus. 

At first glance that seems reasonable because:

a) there is a tradition of name changes that correspond to important moments in a person's life (Abram/Abraham, Jacob/Israel, Simon/Peter).

b) When we first encounter Saul, he's persecuting the church and standing by as Stephen is stoned (Acts 8:1). Later, however, in Acts 13-28 the missionary, apostle is referred to as Paul.

Conclusion: he changed his name when he accepted Jesus as Messiah. 

Sounds reasonable, right?

On closer investigation, however, we find out this is not the case. 

First, Saul is converted or called in Acts 9. He's baptized and engages in apparently a significant period of Christian discipleship and ministry under the name of Saul. In Acts 13:1-3 Saul along with several others are leaders in the church at Antioch when the Holy Spirit sets them a part for the Gentile mission. In Acts 13:6 Saul is called Paul for the first time ("But Saul, who was also known as Paul, . . . ") on the island of Cyprus. For the rest of the book and in all of his letters he is referred to as Paul. So what is going on?

Saul was a Pharisaic Jew of the tribe of Benjamin. If Jewish tradition were followed--and there is no reason to think it wasn't--he was given his Jewish name on the day of his circumcision. So Saul was his Jewish name, the name of Israel's first king. 

But Saul was a Roman citizen as well which means that he needed a Roman name. Perhaps Paul was taken because it was a family name or the name of someone who helped provide citizenship to his family, we don't know. But the name Paulos in Greek means something like "little fellow." 

So when Saul is around Jews, he uses his Jewish name. But when Saul is around Greeks and Romans, he uses his Roman name. In Antioch where the Jewish population of Christ-believers was significant it made sense that he'd use his Jewish name. But during the Gentile mission, he encountered primarily, well . . . Gentiles. So he used his Roman name then. 

I am not sure of the significance of all this. Probably nothing. But it has bugged me for a while and I am glad to be getting a little clearer.

most of the content here comes from David Capes' helpful blog piece

The righteousness of God makes me ...

Martin Luther's wrestle with Romans 1:16-17:

“I was angry with God, and said, ‘As if, indeed, it is not enough, that miserable sinners, eternally lost through original sin, are crushed by every kind of calamity by the law of the Decalogue, without having God add pain to pain by the gospel and also by the gospel threatening us with His righteousness
and wrath!" 

“I hated Paul with all my heart when I read that the righteousness of God is revealed in the Gospel” 

“At last, by the mercy of God, meditating day and night, I gave heed to the context of the words, namely, “In it the righteousness of God is revealed, as it is written, He who through faith is righteous shall live.’ 

There I began to understand that the righteousness of God is that by which the righteous lives by the gift of God, namely by faith. And this is the meaning: the righteousness of God is revealed by the gospel, namely, the passive righteousness of God with which merciful God justifies us by faith, as it is written, ‘He who through faith is righteous shall live.’ 

Here I felt that I was altogether born again and had entered paradise itself through open gates. There a totally other face of the entire Scripture showed itself to me.” 

Why Did Paul Write Romans?

Pick up and read!

Augustine in great crisis of soul, captive to his lusts, yet drawn to God was ‘weeping in bitter agony of my heart’ when ...”suddenly I heard a voice from a nearby house chanting as if it might be a boy or a girl (I do not know which), saying and repeating over and over again ‘Pick up and read, pick up and read.’ At once my countenance changed, and I began to think intently whether there might be some sort of children’s game in which such a chant is used. But I could not remember having heard of one. I checked the flood of tears and stood up. I interpreted it solely as a divine command to me to open the book and read the first chapter I might find. ... So I hurried back to the place where Alypius was sitting. There I had put down the book of the apostle when I got up. I seized it, opened it and in silence read the first passage on which my eyes lit: ‘Not in riots and drunken parties, not in eroticism and indecencies, not in strife and rivalry, but put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh in its lusts’ (Romans 13:13-14).
I neither wished nor needed to read further. At once, with the last words of this sentence, it was as if a light of relief from all anxiety flooded into my heart. All the shadows of doubt were dispelled. [The Confessions (Oxford World's Classics) Bk 8.29, p153]