昨晚繼續了羅馬書的學習，由培磊弟兄與麗雯姐妹帶領
referenced from "The Smart Guide to Bible - Romans"
1-5： “therefore”, used to summarize chap 1-4: God’s road to freedom from sin and the gift of righteousness through faith for the sinner. Chapter 5 talks about the benefits and blessings of justification. "与神和好" we are at peace with God; no longer are we God’s enemies. We look for the blessings of God. We now stand “in” the grace. Not only that, we rejoice in the hope of glory of God (5:2).
Paul gives several benefits of justification.
verse 2 – we have access to God and his grace.
10 – we have absolute salvation
11 – we have reconciliation
17 – we have the capacity to live a righteous life
18 - we have life itself
21 – we have eternal life
Paul says we now rejoice in our sufferings. He didn't use rejoice “at” but rejoice “in”. We don’t like to suffer and we shouldn’t. Our sufferings have meaning and purpose. Our sufferings are leading us somewhere. 忍耐 perseverance is the ability to continue onward in the face of hard times. If we are persevering people, we don’t give up. “Perseverance produces character”: by facing trials and working through them, God is molding us into better people. We give up bad habits and replace them with good ones. Lastly, Paul says character produces hope. When we look back on the process through which God has brought us, we have a firm basis for hope. We know that just as he has brought us through trials of the past, he will bring us through trials of the future. (Perry shared that in the movie "Changeling", the last word said by Christine was "Hope" when she was asked that what she had in the end. Personally, I recommend this movie to everyone, it talks about the corruption of the L.A. cops around 1930's through a mother looking for her lost son. )
However, when we are in suffering, most of time it is hard to see the purpose in it. Often it is not until afterwards that we can look back and see that God had a reason for the suffering. He was sculpting us to look more like Jesus.
6-8: it mentions about 3 different men: righteous man, good man and sinner. "When we were still sinners, Christ died for us."
9-11: We were busy hating God – spitting on him, throwing dirt in his face, kicking him – while he was busy taking our sin upon his own back and dying for us. If that is how God treated us when we were his enemies, don’t you think he’ll be good to us now that we are his own?
12-21: Eden, a perfect environment, then it comes the Fall, aka “Original Sin”. The wages of sin is death. So death came to all men.
Contrast:
The two man Adam (14) Christ (14)
The two acts Adam – one trespass (12, 15, 17-19) Christ – one righteous act (18)
The two Results
By Adam – condemnation, guilt, death (15-16, 18-19)
By Christ – justification, life, kingship (17-19)
Two Kings Sin – reigning through death (17) Grace – reigning through righteousness (21)
15-17: GOD'S GRACE > SIN Sin of one man, Adam, brought all people into condemnation. But God’s grace is sufficient to overcome that condemnation. While sin destroys lives, grace helps us to live full lives – lives of abundant blessing.
18-21: The more clearly we see what’s right, the more things we discover are wrong.
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