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Adult II Class .....
Room 12
Teachers:
Rusty Doom & Steve
Fischer
Curriculum:
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Romans
"Salvation by the System of Faith" |
When Paul wrote
this letter he addressed a church in the greatest city of the
world, the capital of a world empire. Paul had never
been there although he had often desired to come. He
wrote this letter from Corinth near the conclusion of his
third missionary journey, at about 57-58 A.D., and he spoke of
his desire to come to Rome after he had taken a contribution
to the poor saints in Jerusalem, Rom.
15:24-25.
The book of Romans
is at once a complicated and a carefully constructed
letter. It is an outstanding treatise on the subject of
salvation by the grace of God through faith. However,
because of the style in which it is written, some passages
have suffered abuse by being lifted out of context. When
the word "only" is added to either grace or faith,
the system of salvation by faith described in Romans is
perverted.
The theme of this
grand book is introduced and set forth in 1:16-17.
Until these two verses Paul was making personal greetings and explaining
in part why he had not been to Rome earlier. Now he sets
forth the underlying motivation for his zeal to preach the
gospel "as much as in me is" as he explains its
purpose and power. Three times the conjunction
"for" is used in these verses, and each time it
introduces an explanation of something that has just been
said; 1) for I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, 2) for
it is God's power unto salvation to everyone that believeth,
and 3) for therein is revealed a righteousness from faith to
faith.
It is man's duty
and privilege to trust in God, and to do this even when he is
not able to figure out all of the Lord's doings. In this
humble trust and quiet confidence of faith he shall truly live
and prosper.
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