Introduction to The New Testament 7

hello this is Le M loes I'm your professor of introduction to the New Testament and today we will dive in to the introduction to the Book of Romans as I mentioned before we did a introduction to the Epistles but now I wanted just to walk you through some of uh facts uh about the book of Romans or the Epistle of or two Romans if you may but first of all I would love to present to you some suggestions about uh literature yes I have mentioned to you about uh Paul's life about uh introduction to the

New Testament if you want to really uh dive into the studies of uh uh the apostles uh we have this book by lock here uh published by zervan all the Apostles of uh the Bible it's very good okay you can uh have that amazon.com and uh this is in Portuguese but I have another copy in English also by FF Bruce is one of our very good uh commentators uh the book of Romans or uh introduction and commentary he goes chapter by chapter verse by verse making a expositive commentary about it okay if you want a

inductive Bible studies in Romans you have this book by Warren VP uh be right is a very very nice very deep uh Bible study in the Book of Romans uh you have uh William Barkley uh this commentary is a pearl is gold if I may uh if you want to access that also they are not publishing that anymore uh but you might find this someplace uh and by use is one of the best Bible commentaries in the The Book of Romans and um if you want to have a expository uh outline of every single book

of the New Testament including the book of Romans you have this ver expository outline on the New Testament Warren ver why I'm showing this to you because if you will really take Serious your studies of the the Bible you have first the Bible uh you can study you can't understand the Bible uh with the Bible and you cannot understand the Bible without the Bible so you have to read the Bible you have to dive in to the bible to read first you read intellectually first secondly you read uh searching or researching you do a research

and third you read devotionally in allowing the Bible to imprint or or to do something in your life to change your life like the Apostle Paul he allowed God change his life completely so introduction to the Book of Romans we have this first epistle okay and uh let's check here uh and let's walk in You Into the Book of Romans introduction to the epist of Romans I I I want to to clarify you with this those studies that we are into and the other classes that you have you might have some Bible studies you might

have some devotional classes this class uh it's not a intend to be a a devotional class but even though we have and we can allow ourselves to uh dive into into a point that the word of God will make sense not only intellectually but will make sense spiritually and will change CH our lives and my challenge here is try to balance as much as possible uh the studies of each one of the books of course it's just an introduction we will not be able because the class or Rec course it's not for us to study

verse by verse and chapter by chapter remember is just an introduction to uh Inspire uh to encourage you to study and dive into yes you have another other classes where we will be able to study more uh in depth verse by verse and chapter by chapter which is not this case now is an introduction to the epistle ofor to the Romans okay uh we have a key Point here for us to understand reminding you the slides they are just a slides which is very very very small portion if I'm might say of what you have

on your uh study guide okay so keepy points from the beginning Romans is a Paul's letter to the Romans uh and is being a letter is much than a letter it is a theological uh trestin okay here is a theological uh text is a theological uh positioning of uh the Christian D described as the greatest companion of theology in the New Testament yes one of the books in the New Testament that is been studied more uh besides the gospels okay you have to point this out beside the gospels is the book Book of Romans why

because of the substantiality of the theological content that we have in that book so saying that it's very important and key for us to understand and I brought out here some of the theologians some of the uh Scholars if you may that uh have something to say about that John Murray ex he stated that the book of Romans is a Exposition and defense of the gospel of grace John St this guy is awesome everything all of these guys are mention everything you find it you can buy it okay Johnny St considered Romans as a kind

of Christian Manifesto FF Bruce which I recommend you his book uh introduction and commentary of the book of Romans he states that and refers to Romans as The Gospel According Paul Gillam or he approached the Romans as doctrinally uh Romans is the greatest book ever written yes I want to encourage you if you have not yet read all the book of Romans trust me you will read once twice three times and you're going to read again it's an awesome content is an awesome book kind of a cemented you know theologically and uh uh doctrinally uh

our faith our beliefs Francis schaer historically is studied in American law school for argumentation Francis schaer he look at the book of Romans as a kind of a you are studying in the law school because you will find in the Book of Romans everything that we need pointed out very well curved very well designed for us to live and out live okay uh yes let's move forward the content and importance of the book okay uh length and magnificence uh the longest letter by Apostle Paul highly regarded by many as I mentioned before I brought here

uh those Scholars how they approach to the content of the book of Romans uh this book is not only the longest but uh is very well recognized by the Academia by the scholars uh and also by the church today uh doctrine of justification you will find all the doctrine of justification in that book complete explanation of justification by faith in Jesus Christ by by obedience to the Mosaic law he makes that clear remember that uh in the book of at the Luke he shows how God wants to reach out to other uh ethnic groups to

the Gentile TI community and Paul has this Revelation about the doctrine of justification hey we are Justified only by faith in Jesus Christ not anything else not the law not anything that we might do not sacrifice that we might do because he already did the sacrifice that we need okay yeah we are not here to discuss and to study theologically uh the doctrine of justification but for you to understand that the book of Romans is pave the base for the doctrine of justification and we have also a huge amount of teach in on salvation explores

explores various doctrines of salvation and their practical applications Christianity is about salvation Salvation from what salvation in what who can save us Paul explores everything in the Book of Romans this is a very key book and this is a very important for us the aonan and Hope the studying Romans enhances understanding of Jesus Christ's atonement offering peace and hope to all the sacrifice of Jesus Christ is here to offer us peace and hope and Paul works that perfectly and helps us hey remember on the on this side you have the Portuguese version okay of everything

I'm saying here okay uh the background and context of the book probable location rhythm in Corinth brought to Rome by fobby or Phoebe from sraa yeah Phoebe was a guy was a disciple and he brought that book to Rome okay and uh he wrote In cour remember when I was telling you uh about uh Paul's biography that he went to Corinth and he stood that more time couple of years yeah is from where he wrote the book of Romans connections to Kin uh hosted by Gus during reading doing doing writing I'm sorry uh hosted by

guos during writing erastus the city's Treasurer likely from Corinth okay uh early Christians community in Rome Christianity possibly planted by individuals present prison in uh Pentecost do you remember in Acts chapter uh 2 we have uh in the midst of the the Pentecost Feast that the Holy Spirit fill a place baptizing the disciples and they spoke in different languages uh 16 languages were understood in that day about the the great things of God about this about salvation and in those occasions of the uh the Feast of Tabernacles the Feast of Pentecost which is in is

part of the the Feast of Tabernacle in those feasts people from all over the world came used to come to Jerusalem for uh the feast and the heard uh seems like the studies pointed out that most likely those the Christians that were in Rome they were uh presented in the days of Pentecost and the the Feast of Pentecost and they they heard they learned in those days about Jesus Christ accepting Christ they went back to Rome because we have no record of who planted the church in Rome most like was this people that were there

present at the day uh of the desence of the Holy Spirit upon the disciples in Jerusalem well let's move forward as a background Jewish influence uh presence of Jews in Rome facilitated facilitated and uh with Jesus teaching okay they were familiar with the teachings of Jesus uh back then formation of Christian Community as I mentioned to you evidence of a diverse Christian Community in Rome with multiple meetings places back then they have a multiple places that they come together to praise to learn to study the word of God and to preach and share the Gospel

of Jesus Christ well back then we did not have this in hand but they have they learn about Jesus Christ the uh all the teachings of Jesus Christ were very fresh into their minds okay so the background for the Book of Romans uh uh Corinth was probably the probably the location uh strong connection with Corinth uh the early Christian Community in Rome uh and um moving forward the authorship we don't have to discuss much we don't have much to discuss here Romans chapter 1 verse one attributes the authorship to the Apostle Paul transcription Romans 16:22

mentions uh terus as the Scribe who transcribe Paul's words uh and Paul's uh role uh despite the use of a scribe Paul is recognized as the primary author of The pistle to the he received the Revelation the inspiration the perspiration and he uh spoke uh and uh he has a scribe that helped him but the authorship is Paul dating of the epistle okay the epistle was likely written between 55 and 58 I have to remind you uh we cannot assure the dates even though we have material even though we have the content we have history

uh on our side but there's no way to assure that oh was a March of uh 55 ad no no there's no way to do that okay and uh but most likely uh the Academia and the the conon of the church uh they pointed out uh most likely to a date between 55 and 58 and uh also uh I pointed out some contextual Clues written during Paul's preparation to travel to Jerusalem to minister to the Saints yeah prior to go to Jerusalem he wants that this letter to get to Rome while you were going to

Jerusalem the letter would be going to Rome so most likely were uh in the same period of time of preparation for this travel and and remember uh he went to Jerusalem and to take a part in the cile in in Jerusalem a meeting in Jerusalem with the the disciples with the leaders of the church and he already have written Romans so he were prepare to get to Jerusalem and sit with uh our with his brothers in in Christ and to discuss uh about uh the teachings and the uh understand uh the teachings of Jesus Christ

and how they would be uh spreading that message uh winter before last visit to Greece aligns with Acts chapter 19 20 uh Corinthians uh chapter 16 indicated earlier 58 so see between 55 and 58 as much as we can uh studied uh and we have a clue and uh once you look to the to the indications uh of Acts and 1 Corinthians uh where he mentioned you know the the winter that for the last visit uh to Greece uh pointed out that the last visit to Greece were approximately the early 58 uh ad as a

probable day okay uh recipients members of the church in Rome who are the recipients to whom he wrote it you know uh to the members of the church in Rome uh oranging of the church are is uncertain we already mentioned that uh we don't know who planted that church but we have a clue we have an idea that Christian that that people that came for the the Feast of the Pentecost were right there and they heard about the teachings of Jesus Christ they accept Christ they understood the message they went back and they started uh

the church and they start to uh be connected and uh so most likely in that time of the Pentecost uh people from Rome Jews that came to celebrate they accept Christ and bring the message to Rome um a specific greetings sent to individuals known by Paul such as prisila and aula uh we have U he mentioned this uh pril aula uh so they were also uh recipients of that letter uh and uh they used use the letter to spread uh the message of Christianity uh in a format and now with uh more understanding and uh

with the principles and guidance okay how they would practice their faith and their Christianity uh the purpose of this uh epistle uh as we already uh mentioned uh is explanation of gospel doctrines once you read the the gospels you see many doctrines there and that those doctrines they some of some of them were new some of them were part of uh the law uh but uh Paul took time to explain to draw uh the doctrines uh of the gospels written by Paul to explain the fundamental doctrines of of the gospels systematic exposition of the Gospel

applicable uh to both Jews and Gentiles and he makes sure that the application okay um of the Gospel uh of the the teaching is for Jews and Gentiles okay it's not that now we going to have a gospel just for the Gentiles we going to have a special gospel for the Jews no is the same gospel for both for all men and Paul will mention that argumentative approach addressing Gentiles while appealing to Jews okay he is preaching to the Gentiles with their many godess many spiritual goddess and he is addressing to these people and appealing

to the Jews and bringing them together because the gospel and the uh the good news is for all not only for some uh reasons to or for sending the epistle firstep preparation for Paul's visit to Rome remember uh Paul has expressed himself the desire to go and visit with them and stay with them making that there in Rome maybe the base for uh his uh mission trip to uh Spain and the uh litania which is Portugal so we have to remember this preparation for post visit is one of the reasons okay beautiful and second reason

is a clarification and defense of teachings okay uh opposition he fac oppositions okay due to miscon misunderstanding or uh Distortion of post teaching okay we will see this in Acts chapter 13 Romans 3 and second Peter also uh we will learn that uh Paul wrote it uh to clarify and defend his teachings uh third uh to promote or promotion of unity among Jews and gen genes Gentile members yeah but were very concerned about you know that the situation that might be coming or arriving within the community of the Saints and he needs to address the

unity among Jews and the Gentiles so this is one of the reasons okay uh let's move forward uh Paul shows an uh ex his excitement and intentions in this letter okay Paul eagerly anticipated ministering in the Roman Church Romans chapter 1 8-15 we learn how excited he is and how committed he is to come to Rome and preach to the church there uh letter written from cor Corinth uh before Paul's journey to Jerusalem to deliver offerings to the poor uh original plan to visit Rome and then is Spain interrupted by his arrest in Jerusalem eventually

reached Rome as a prisoner okay remember he went to he wrote it Romans sent the letter to Romans and he went to Jerusalem why in Jerusalem they arrested him and they then sent him to Rome but now not and receive them receive him there now not as a preacher but as a prisoner in Rome okay uh the structure of the epistle we have an introduction their uh Doctrine in the first chapter doctrine of justification by faith Romans chapter 1st up to uh chapter 11 uh practical uh extortions uh Paul's excitement and intentions uh I present

here how excited and intentional Paul is on the chapter 1 of Romans to go and visit with the church in Rome but remember uh he wrote the book of uh Romans he sent the book to Rome and he went to Jerusalem to meet with the brothers leaders of the church in Jerusalem and then you were arrested in Jerusalem and he reached then Rome but now as not as a as a preacher but now as a a prisoner uh he went to Rome in a very different format that you were expecting to uh so uh a

structure of the p so uh is a introduction we have the introduction there we have the doctrine of justification practical exhortation in conclusion with personal greetings explanation blessings uh we finishing not so in the chapter 15 and 16 uh the um Epistle of Romans okay now we see the themes and divisions of Romans okay four sections of the epistle necessary righteousness Pro provided righteousness V Vindicated righteousness and practice righteousness Paul shows uh these four sections to study and explain uh what he means and what the gospel being by righteousness okay the central theme is righteousness

okay Paul emphasizes the concept of righteousness through the letter throughout the letter you will learn you will see you read about righteousness salvation by grace through faith in Christ imputed righteousness there's nothing can save us there's nothing we can do to save our own selves the only thing that can save us is the God's righteousness through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ Our Lord and Savior okay yes themes and divisions of Romans is still testamentary nature Sunday's uh description describes Romans as a testamentary what what what he means about that that seems like the Apostle Paul

wrote uh the Romans theologically and uh in a very testamentary format or like expressing his deepest desire that the Christians would live like that his last desire and the Burton's description uh about Romans is he describes Romans as a uh prophylactic or prophylactic Paul's desire to protect against false teachings I mean uh prophylactic is something that will cure that will protect you from any illness so basically Paul wrote this Roman epistle uh in order to present a prophylactic answer to the uh disease or to some teachings false teachings uh in the midst of the community

of the faith okay and also reinforcing Christian doctrine of defense against erroneous ideas okay themes and divisions of Romans is still uh a testamentary nature we already um bounced there uh most important key the doctrinal uh foundations okay for the for the doctrinal foundation Paul's epistle to Romans a theological testi okay is a you will see a lot of theology in Paul's uh letter to the Roman greatest companion of theology in the New Testament deals with deepest themes of Christianity listen the gospels is started and bring about it uh all the outlined uh or outline

uh ways of the Christianity uh and the ways of how the Christians should live and uh uh and Paul he immers himself and he created structure he if I might say he structurized the themes of Christianity uh highlighted let me show you I'm you have this on your study guide but uh I just give you this highlight except Paul climbed to lofty Heights and reach the Pinnacle of Christian theology okay there's no way for you to study theology Christian theology without diving into the book of Romans okay Romans opens up a perspective through which the

entire landscape of the Bible can be seen okay let's move forward and uh spirit value of the epist you might ask well is a theological is a defense of of Faith a defense against uh and false teachings but what's a spiritual uh value of the person spiritual renewal that renew you most important key points on this is the influence of Romans through church history impact on prominent church leaders role in spiritual revivals listen if you read the book of Romans and if you are not you know passionate about uh you will see how influenced you

will be by uh the teachings of the Apostle Paul uh in the Book of Romans highlighting this part this section many influential church leaders testify to the impact produced by the Peace of the the Romans in their lives Austine uh was converted to Christ Austine uh himself confessed I read no more and need nothing else but the book of Romans uh impact on church leaders uh as I mentioned Austin of Hippo conversion and transformation Martin Luther breakthrough uh and Liberation John Wesley assurance and Leadership all of this guy they were really impacted by the reading

of the book of Romans I would add here uh John Calvin also highlighted uh on this section Austine become the greatest Theologian of the western church Martin Luther discovered that the righteous shall live by faith John wasley receive Assurance of Salvation he later founded the Church of Methodist or Methodist Church so you see the impact that Romans cause historically it's awesome it's awesome something amazing um expository Outline by chapters I I took a chance to uh section uh the book and and bring a kind of a outline expository for each section Symphonies of all men

chapter 1 to chapter three oh men are sinful whether Gentiles or Jews the Gentile who has ample evidence of God's existence through both creation and the inner law of the heart will also be judged both are guilty because righteousness comes only through faith in Jesus Christ can you say Amen there's no other way guys justification of Believers in Jesus chapter 3 from verse 21 up to chapter 5 verse 21 the expiatory uh death of Jesus is the basis of justification faith is the means of obtaining justification EX including human boosting to do good works as

seen in the example of Abraham no matter how much good you think you are or I think I am the faith salvation justification comes only through the sacrifice and believing uh of the s in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ there's no other way to be justified there's no amount of good that we can do that we justify ourselves before God but only uh through what Jesus Christ did it okay um sanctification sanctification uh of Believers in Jesus chapter 6 up to chapter 8 uh he addresses that baptism uh represents our identification with the death and

resurrection of Jesus dying to sin and rising to righteousness slavery to righteousness through attempting to keep the law has the same effect as slavery to sin okay Paul reflects that his own slavery to the law produced guilt sin and condemnation but the good news is that there is now the no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus I have I might be condemned if I just walk by my walk and my talk if I don't walk by my faith in Jesus Christ I will

be condemned okay and Paul works that perfectly unbelief of Israel chapter 9 to chapter 11 he extensively discuss that the importance of Israel uh and the Jews to come to Christ and to come to church in order to be saved okay let's move forward uh Christian Living and conclusion chapter 12 up to chapter 16th consecration Ministries in the church love with uh within the church and relationship outside the church okay obedience uh to the state love and waiting for the coming of Christ chapter 14- 15 deal with deals with the subject of the freedom of

Believers regarding ceremonial and dietary uh dietary laws okay finally Paul's plans to return to Rome warnings about false teachers greetings and doxology chapter 15-6 so Paul has this very well carved very well structur he draw with inspiration by the Holy Spirit okay and I have here a personal application and I hope you do your personal application as you uh study uh Romans I prepared this you have this on your study guide and you can check it out this I will not um go through this whole thing and hope I hope you will not only read

for the sake of knowledge but I hope that you will read and allow the Holy Spirit use this whole strategic structur book with the teachings of our faith believe me your life will be changed forever God bless you hope hope you enjoy see you next class