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Lee Grey
Sep 20, 2024

Romans: The "Fifth" Gospel?

SERVING AS THE “fifth” gospel, the book of Romans brings us into a more complete understanding of not only the nature/character of God, and how he sovereignly reins over his creation, but also serves as somewhat of an engineering blueprint for the Christian’s earthly sojourn. Some have suggested that Romans is, in essence, a theological “treatise”. As such, Romans specifically touches on the most important Christian doctrines such as; sin, salvation, ethics/morals, the nature of God, God’s dealings with man, and Christian conduct.

            Throughout the text, the reader has a front row seat to the interworking of a Creator who desires a relationship with His creation. We see God’s wrath against unrighteousness (ch.1, v.18), how that wrath is righteous (ch.2, v.12), the all-encompassing nature of the fall (ch.3. v.23), the promise of a blessed faith (ch.4, v.13), the opportunity of victory over death (ch.6, v.3-4), the relationship between the law and liberty (ch.7), the character of Christian conduct (ch.12), the eternal significance of our witness (ch.14, v.20-21), and the hope of a new life, found, in Jesus (ch.15, v.8-12).

            Paul tells us in the very first chapter that God has existed since, before, the creation of the world. He tells us that we may see God through the natural order, “…in the things that have been made” (ch.1, v.20). Even though this truth is visible, the human condition was still such that man rejected God and His truth. We are told that the nature of the fall is all-encompassing. Romans 3:23 states that we have “all” sinned and that “everyone” has fallen short of God’s standard. Because of our fallen condition, God’s righteousness demands a righteous judgment. The just nature of God cannot sit, idly by, and excuse sin. However; through faith, and more specifically, through faith in Jesus, our hope for eternity has been restored. In chapter 6 verse 4, we read, “We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.”

            Romans provides the Christian with a sort of “user’s manual” for engaging the world we find ourselves in. We are instructed that while the law is good and ultimately reflects our sin back onto us, we aren’t bound by the law—Christ has fulfilled it and through this fulfillment we find liberty! With our newfound liberty, we can hope to live a holy life by leaning on the Holy Spirit. Chapter 8 verse 2 states, “For the law of the Spirit of Life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.”

            God is love! We see this truth all throughout the book of Romans. However; God is also just and cannot excuse sin. The nature of His love, necessarily requires, that He deal with the sinful desires of the human heart. He has done so through Jesus Christ. He has given to those, who will place their faith in Him, a ransom (Jesus) to pay their captor (sin).

            Like any great teacher, Paul not only calls us out, but he also exhorts us to live a righteous life—leaning on the Holy Spirit. He shows us how to be faithful and how to examine ourselves to ensure that we are in line with all that God commands of us. He calls us to live in peace, so that we may be above reproach, and be found faithful. Ultimately, our desire to please God demonstrates the love and gratitude that we have as wretched sinners, whom by no actions of ourselves, have been declared righteous! This is true of Paul, this is true of Romans, and this can be true of you!


Prepare Today | Prevail Tomorrow


Lee


Psalm 91


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"The gospel starts by teaching us that we, as creatures, are absolutely dependent on God, and that he, as Creator, has an absolute claim on us. Only when we have learned this can we see what sin is, and only when we see what sin is can we understand the good news of salvation from sin."

~

J.I. Packer, Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God.


...


Sources:

The Complete Guide to Christian Quotations. Uhrichsville: Barbour Publishing, Inc., 2011.

Elwell, Walter A. Evangelical Dictionary of Theology, 2nd Ed. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2001.

Kroll, Woodrow. The Book of Romans: Righteousness in Christ. Chattanooga: AMG Publishers, 2002.

MacArthur, John F. The MacArthur New Testament Commentary: Romans 1-8. Chicago: Moody Publishers, 1991.

MacArthur, John F. The MacArthur New Testament Commentary: Romans 9-16. Chicago: Moody Publishers, 1994.

Moo, Douglas J. The NIV Application Commentary: Romans. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2000.

“Scripture notations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright© 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.”



Note: Photo credits go to the Grey tribe home library.


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In Congress, July 4, 1776.

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America, When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of

Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

 

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

​

       He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

       He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

       He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

       He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

       He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

       He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

       He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

       He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.

       He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

       He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.

       He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

       He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.

       He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

       For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

       For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

       For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

       For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

       For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:

       For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences

       For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:

       For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

       For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

       He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

       He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

       He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

       He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

       He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

 

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

 

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

 

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

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