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By the works of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight;

  Good morning. What good was it to be a Jew? They were entrusted with the oracles of God. That is actually a really big deal. The Jews were very meticulous in copying the Scriptures and in taking care of them. If they had been entrusted to anyone else, they would’ve been long ago lost forever. Paul then quotes the scripture that there is none who is righteous. By the works of the law no flesh will be justified (declared not guilty, but rather righteous) in His sight; for through the law comes the knowledge of sin. Of course that seems to contradict what James said that faith without works is dead; and that Abraham was justified by works when he offered up Isaac his son on the altar. He also said that you can see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone. How do you reconcile the two? Unlike some people, I don’t know everything. It is possible that James wrote his letter before he came to the full understanding of salvation. After all, it was years after the resurrect...
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God: who will render to each person according to his deeds. To those who by perseverance in doing good seek for glory and honor and immortality, eternal life.

  Good morning. Speaking of the righteous judgment of God: who will render to each person according to his deeds. To those who by perseverance in doing good seek for glory and honor and immortality, eternal life. Sometimes we don’t persevere, and give up. But to those who are selfishly ambitious and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, wrath and indignation. We get upset because God does not zap them right away. As one fellow used to say: God will get them in the end – I’m not saying which end He will get them in, but He will get them in the end. There will be tribulation and distress for every soul of man who does evil (Jew or Greek), but glory and honor and peace to everyone who does good (Jew or Greek). For there is no partiality with God. For all who have sinned without the law will also perish without the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law; for it is not the hearers of the law who are just before God, but the doers of the law will ...
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Therefore you have no excuse, everyone of you who passes judgment, for in that which you judge another, you condemn yourself; for you who judge practice the same things.

  Good morning. Today you see politicians and others condemning certain activities; and then later you find out they were doing the same thing, and maybe even worse. This is from chapter 2 of Romans: therefore you have no excuse, everyone of you who passes judgment, for in that which you judge another, you condemn yourself; for you who judge practice the same things. Oops! But do you suppose this, when you pass judgment on those who practice such things and do the same thing yourself, that you will escape the judgment of God? Of course we all say, get them God! But: do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and tolerance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance? We so want others to get their just desserts now; but when it comes to us, we want God to be patient. If God judged us the way we want Him to judge others, we would be toast! But because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of ...
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Even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened

  Good morning. So God’s divine nature is clearly seen in what He has made. Then a verse that is so applicable today: even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools, and made their idols. Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, so that their bodies would be dishonored among them. For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. People today may not serve physical idols like Paul was talking about, but they have other things that become idols in their hearts. And because they do not look to God as their source, they look other places to find meaning in their lives. They cannot believe in an all powerful, loving Creator, so they have to come up with some other explanation as to how everything came about. If there is no Cr...
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Gospel: For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, “but the righteous man shall live by faith

  Good morning. Paul was talking about the Gospel: For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, “but the righteous man shall live by faith“. People like the gospel because it gives them their fire insurance; but they don’t like the demand that it puts on the way they live. We came into the kingdom of God by faith, and we are to live the Christian life by faith also. This same verse from the Old Testament is in the book of Galatians. There is where Martin Luther read the quote, and that brought about the Reformation. The just shall live by faith. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, having been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made,...
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For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek

  Good morning. I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that often I have planned to come to you (and have been prevented so far) so that I may obtain some fruit among you also, even as among the rest of the Gentiles. It had been Paul’s goal for a good while to get to Rome. The phrase “rest of the Gentiles“, just like the one from before when he said “obedience of faith among all the Gentiles“ seems to confirm that this church was mostly Gentiles. I am under obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish. Even though this was Rome, the philosophy etc. of the Greeks was greatly admired. People who were not sophisticated were a lot of times called barbarians. And then a verse we should all live by: for I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. (Remember what Jesus said to the Gentile woman whose daughter was cruelly demon possessed – I was sent to the ...
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For God, whom I serve in my spirit in the preaching of the gospel of His Son, is my witness as to how unceasingly I make mention of you, always in my prayers making request, if perhaps now at last by the will of God I may succeed in coming to you.

  Good morning. Well it only took two days to get through Paul’s first sentence. First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all (don’t you mean y’all?), because your faith is being proclaimed throughout the whole world. How would you like that to be said about you - that your faith was being proclaimed throughout the whole world? Even when he was about to zap somebody, Paul started his letters saying something nice about the people. For God, whom I serve in my spirit in the preaching of the gospel of His Son, is my witness as to how unceasingly I make mention of you, always in my prayers making request, if perhaps now at last by the will of God I may succeed in coming to you. Other than perhaps family or for really good friends, how many people do we unceasingly pray about? This, and Paul had never met these people. He was praying though, that he might succeed in coming to them. We just saw at the end of the book of Acts that his prayer was granted, but not in the way that ...
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