Today
was the next to last day for our Romans classes. We started with Romans 11 and
noted how God’s casting off of physical Israel as His chosen people was not a
total rejection of all Jews. Instead, it is presented as way God used to
provoke the Jews to come to God’s favor through Christ as they saw Gentiles
coming to the grace offered through Christ. In fact, what physical Israel could
find in Christ, the forgiveness of sin, they could never have found solely by
the old law. Paul’s great concern for his countrymen is also seen in the
chapter as he expresses his hope that they might come to the salvation offer by
faith through the gospel of Christ. We also spent some time looking at the
stirring end of the doctrinal section of Romans (11:33-36).
After
that, we turned to Romans 12, covering the first half before the lunch break
and the last half during the afternoon session. Our study centered on the
exhortation for the readers to be transformed by the renewing of their minds.
Paul then notes the part played in the renewing our the mind by getting rid of
pride, replacing it with an humble recognition that we are charged with using
the gifts we are given in the service of God. We then spent some time
discussing Paul’s urging the readers to a proper love and how that affects our
lives as we are renewed in our minds by that love.
Romans
13 was our last section to examine for the day. We noted our responsibility to
submit to the government even when it is predominated by evil as was the case
of first century Rome. We ended by noting the transformed life that must
characterize Christians as our lives purge the darkness and are filled with the
light of godly living. That left us with the last three chapters to finish
tomorrow, the Lord willing.
Thanks
again for your concern, prayers and support!
