TPT The Book of Romans E-Book

Brian Simmons

• Herausgeber: BroadStreet Publishing Group, LLC
• Kategorie: Religion und Spiritualität
• Serie: The Passionate Life Bible Study Series
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2020

Seitenzahl: 144

Beschreibung

The book of Romans was written to communicate God's message of grace and glory to all of his believers. Live in the truths found in Romans and discover the heavenly treasures of faith, grace, righteousness, and power. This 12-lesson study guide on the book of Romans provides a unique and welcoming opportunity to immerse yourself in God's precious Word as expressed in The Passion Translation®. Begin your journey with a thorough introduction that details the authorship of Romans, date of composition, first recipients, setting, purpose, central message, and key themes. Each lesson then walks you through a portion from the book and includes features such as notable verses, historical and cultural background information, definitions of words and language, cross references to other books of the Bible, maps, and character portraits of figures from the Bible and church history. Enrich your biblical understanding of the book of Romans, experience God's love for you, and share his heart with others.  

Leseprobe

BroadStreet Publishing® Group, LLC

Savage, Minnesota, USA

BroadStreetPublishing.com

TPT: The Book of Romans: 12-Lesson Bible Study Guide

Copyright © 2021 BroadStreet Publishing Group

978-1-4245-6161-2 (softcover)

978-1-4245-6162-9 (e-book)

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, except for brief quotations in printed reviews, without permission in writing from the publisher.

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations are from The Passion Translation®, copyright © 2017, 2018 by Passion & Fire Ministries, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Stock or custom editions of BroadStreet Publishing titles may be purchased in bulk for educational, business, ministry, fundraising, or sales promotional use. For information, please email [email protected].

General editor: Dr. Brian Simmons

Managing editor: William D. Watkins

Contributing editors: W. Terry Whalin and Christy Phillippe

Writer: Christy Phillippe

Cover and interior by Chris Garborg at GarborgDesign.com

Printed in the United States of America

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CONTENTS

From God’s Heart to Yours

Why I Love the Book of Romans

Lesson 1  The Apostle Paul, Romans, and the Fullness of the Gospel

Lesson 2  Good News!

Lesson 3  The Big Problem

Lesson 4  Our Guilty Verdict

Lesson 5  The God of All People

Lesson 6  The Gift of Grace

Lesson 7  Sin: The Dethroned Monarch

Lesson 8  Life in the Spirit

Lesson 9  The Gospel and Israel

Lesson 10 A Living Sacrifice

Lesson 11 The Strong and the Weak

Lesson 12 Doing Ministry Together

Endnotes

From God’s Heart to Yours

“God is love,” says the apostle John, and “Everyone who loves is fathered by God and experiences an intimate knowledge of him” (1 John 4:7). The life of a Christ-follower is, at its core, a life of love—God’s love of us, our love of him, and our love of others and ourselves because of God’s love for us.

And this divine love is reliable, trustworthy, unconditional, other-centered, majestic, forgiving, redemptive, patient, kind, and more precious than anything else we can ever receive or give. It characterizes each person of the Trinity—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—and so is as unlimited as they are. They love one another with this eternal love, and they reach beyond themselves to us, created in their image with this love.

How do we know such incredible truths? Through the primary source of all else we know about the one God—his Word, the Bible. Of course, God reveals who he is through other sources as well, such as the natural world, miracles, our inner life, our relationships (especially with him), those who minister on his behalf, and those who proclaim him to us and others. But the fullest and most comprehensive revelation we have of God and from him is what he has given us in the thirty-nine books of the Hebrew Scriptures (the Old Testament) and the twenty-seven books of the Christian Scriptures (the New Testament). Together, these sixty-six books present a compelling and telling portrait of God and his dealings with us.

It is these Scriptures that The Passionate Life Bible Study Series is all about. Through these study guides, we—the editors and writers of this series—seek to provide you with a unique and welcoming opportunity to delve more deeply into God’s precious Word, encountering there his loving heart for you and all the others he loves. God wants you to know him more deeply, to love him more devoutly, and to share his heart with others more frequently and freely. To accomplish this, we have based this study guide series on The Passion Translation of the Bible, which strives to “unlock the passion of [God’s] heart.” It is “a heart-level translation, from the passion of God’s heart to the passion of your heart,” created to “kindle in you a burning desire for him and his heart, while impacting the church for years to come.”1

In each study guide, you will find an introduction to the Bible book it covers. There you will gain information about that Bible book’s authorship, date of composition, first recipients, setting, purpose, central message, and key themes. Each lesson following the introduction will take a portion of that Bible book and walk you through it so you will learn its content better while experiencing and applying God’s heart for your own life and encountering ways you can share his heart with others. Along the way, you will come across a number of features we have created that provide opportunities for more life application and growth in biblical understanding:

Experience God’s Heart

This feature focuses questions on personal application. It will help you live out God’s Word, to bring the Bible into your world in fresh, exciting, and relevant ways.

Share God’s Heart

This feature will help you grow in your ability to share with other people what you learn and apply in a given lesson. It provides guidance on how the lesson relates to growing closer to others, to enriching your fellowship with others. It also points the way to enabling you to better listen to the stories of others so you can bridge the biblical story with their stories.

The Backstory

This feature provides ancient historical and cultural background that illuminates Bible passages and teachings. It deals with then-pertinent religious groups, communities, leaders, disputes, business trades, travel routes, customs, nations, political factions, ancient measurements and currency … in short, anything historical or cultural that will help you better understand what Scripture says and means. You may also find maps and charts that will help you reimagine these groups, places, and activities. Finally, in this feature you will find references to additional Bible texts that will further illuminate the Scripture you are studying.

Word Wealth

This feature provides definitions and other illuminating information about key terms, names, and concepts, and how different ancient languages have influenced the biblical text. It also provides insight into the different literary forms in the Bible, such as prophecy, poetry, narrative history, parables, and letters, and how knowing the form of a text can help you better interpret and apply it. Finally, this feature highlights the most significant passages in a Bible book. You may be encouraged to memorize these verses or keep them before you in some way so you can actively hide God’s Word in your heart.

Digging Deeper

This feature explains the theological significance of a text or the controversial issues that arise and mentions resources you can use to help you arrive at your own conclusions. Another way to dig deeper into the Word is by looking into the life of a biblical character or another person from church history, showing how that man or woman incarnated a biblical truth or passage. For instance, Jonathan Edwards was well known for his missions work among native American Indians and for his intellectual prowess in articulating the Christian faith; Florence Nightingale for the reforms she brought about in healthcare; Irenaeus for his fight against heresy; Billy Graham for his work in evangelism; Moses for the strength God gave him to lead the Hebrews and receive and communicate the law; Deborah for her work as a judge in Israel. This feature introduces to you figures from the past who model what it looks like to experience God’s heart and share his heart with others.

The Extra Mile

While The Passion Translation’s notes are extensive, sometimes students of Scripture like to explore more on their own. In this feature, we provide you with opportunities to glean more information from a Bible dictionary, a Bible encyclopedia, a reliable Bible online tool, another ancient text, and the like. Here you will learn how you can go the extra mile on a Bible lesson. And not just in study either. Reflection, prayer, discussion, and applying a passage in new ways provide even more opportunities to go the extra mile. Here you will find questions to answer and applications to make that will require more time and energy from you—if and when you have them to give.

As you can see above, each of these features has a corresponding icon so you can quickly and easily identify them.

You will find other helps and guidance through the lessons of these study guides, including thoughtful questions, application suggestions, and spaces for you to record your own reflections, answers, and action steps. Of course, you can also write in your own journal, notebook, computer, or other resource, but we have provided you with space for your convenience.

Also, each lesson will direct you into the introductory material and numerous notes provided in The Passion Translation. There each Bible book contains a number of aids supplied to help you better grasp God’s words and his incredible love, power, knowledge, plans, and so much more. We want you to get the most out of your Bible study, especially using it to draw you closer to the One who loves you most.

Finally, at the end of each lesson you’ll find a section called “Talking It Out.” This contains questions and exercises for application that you can share, answer, and apply with your spouse, a friend, a coworker, a Bible study group, or any other individuals or groups who would like to walk with you through this material. As Christians, we gather together to serve, study, worship, sing, evangelize, and a host of other activities. We grow together, not just on our own. This section will give you ample opportunities to engage others with the content of each lesson so you can work it out in community.

We offer all of this to support you in becoming an even more faithful and loving disciple of Jesus Christ. A disciple in the ancient world was a student of her teacher, a follower of his master. Students study and followers follow. Jesus’ disciples are to sit at his feet and listen and learn and then do what he tells them and shows them to do. We have created The Passionate Life Bible Study Series to help you do what a disciple of Jesus is called to do.

So go.

Read God’s words.

Hear what he has to say in them and through them.

Meditate on them.

Hide them in your heart.

Display their truths in your life.

Share their truths with others.

Let them ignite Jesus’ passion and light in all you say and do.

Use them to help you fulfill what Jesus called his disciples to do: “‘Now go in my authority and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And teach them to faithfully follow all that I have commanded you. And never forget that I am with you every day, even to the completion of this age’” (Matthew 28:19–20).

And through all of this, let Jesus’ love nourish your heart and allow that love to overflow into your relationships with others (John 15:9–13). For it was for love that Jesus came, served, died, rose from the dead, and ascended into heaven. This love he gives us. And this love he wants us to pass along to others.

Why I Love the Book of Romans

The book of Romans has rocked my world. As a new believer, I decided I would memorize the book. That took some time and lots of discipline, but after a number of months, God was good to me and helped me commit to memory the sixteen chapters of Paul’s masterpiece.

Theologians love Romans.

Preachers study it.

Believers pour over its pages.

The world desperately needs its truth.

Grace and glory reveal themselves in every chapter.

Today, as never before, the church needs to be grounded and established in the truths of Romans. This incredible letter describes our need as sinners before a holy God, and it reveals the righteousness that he will transfer to us when we believe in Christ. I love Romans because of its massive themes: forgiveness, grace, glory, Israel, the church, endless love, and so much more. To read through Romans is to get a primer on every doctrine in the Bible. Paul wrote to these Roman Christians an important epistle filled with rich doctrines of our faith that reveal God’s heart for his people and what must be our proper response to such sacrificial love. Paul’s theology flows from the romance of God toward us. Intimacy longs for understanding and oneness. And to be intimate with the God of glory requires that we understand his heart and join him in every way. I love Romans because I see, hidden in its pages, divine romance.

Some of my favorite verses in the Bible are found in Romans:

•“So now the case is closed. There remains no accusing voice of condemnation against those who are joined in life-union with Jesus, the Anointed One” (8:1).

•“You did not receive the ‘spirit of religious duty,’ leading you back into the fear of never being good enough. But you have received the ‘Spirit of full acceptance,’ enfolding you into the family of God. And you will never feel orphaned, for as he rises up within us, our spirits join him in saying the words of tender affection, ‘Beloved Father!’ For the Holy Spirit makes God’s fatherhood real to us as he whispers into our innermost being, ‘You are God’s beloved child!’” (vv. 15–16).

•“Be enthusiastic to serve the Lord, keeping your passion toward him boiling hot! Radiate with the glow of the Holy Spirit and let him fill you with excitement as you serve him. Let this hope burst forth within you, releasing a continual joy. Don’t give up in a time of trouble, but commune with God at all times” (12:11–12).

Studying the book of Romans gave me so many insights into Paul’s heart. I discovered what grace and glory filled him. He was an amazing man, a genius, a powerful theologian, and a spirit-filled apostle. His ministry was so far-reaching and impactful that it touches us today no matter what nation we are from. Perhaps what affected me the most was the love he expressed to his friends in chapter 16. Paul honors a total of thirty-seven people in this last part of Romans. Their names have gone down in church history as wonderful servants of Jesus. God’s eternal Word records their names forever. Church tradition states that most of those named here were martyred for their faith. They were Paul’s friends, and some of them were his own relatives.

The relational equity that Paul maintained with so many people is admirable. He honored a woman named Phoebe who actually carried Paul’s letter to Rome and shared it with the believers there.

Can you imagine dear sister Phoebe carrying a letter for hundreds of miles, a letter that contained the greatest wealth of Christian theology, a letter Paul entrusted to this remarkable woman? A copy of the very letter she carried is in your Bible today.

And finally, I love the book of Romans because it clearly sets forth the gospel, reminding us that the grace of God, not our own achievements, saves us entirely. Romans reminds us that all the glory goes to God in our salvation and in redemptive history. He is working out his wise purposes, and thus we have massive reasons for hope. Romans is also great in that it teaches us that our love for one another can only come from the gospel of Christ. No other ideology, no other strategy will truly bring people together. We will find unity only in the gospel of Jesus Christ crucified and risen.

Grace and glory are waiting for you in Romans!

Dr. Brian Simmons

General Editor

LESSON 1

The Apostle Paul, Romans, and the Fullness of the Gospel

Welcome to the book of Romans, one of the most challenging and rewarding of the New Testament epistles—letters written by the leaders of the early church to encourage believers in Jesus and establish them in their faith.

The book of Romans immediately follows the four Gospels and the book of Acts in the New Testament. Romans explains and provides good reasons to believe the good news of the passionate God who loved each of us so much that he sent his only Son to bring us back to himself. Romans is, in fact, the gospel of grace and glory.

God’s grace is available to each of us. It is his free gift, and when we receive it, it births righteousness in our hearts. Through this outpouring of grace, we are able to enter the glory of God. His kindness and compassion toward us empower us to embrace the holiness he requires—not through our own good works but because of the relationship that is now possible for us to have with the Father because of the work of his Son.