It was 500 years ago this day that Martin Luther hung his 95 theses on the door of the Wittenberg church. How fascinating that the subject for today also gets right to the heart of salvation by faith. In Romans 4:13, “promise” and “law” are contrasted. Paul is seeking to establish an Old Testament background for … Continue reading –>
The issue Paul is dealing with here is much more than just theology. It gets to the heart and soul of salvation and of our relationship to God. If one believes that he or she must earn acceptance-that he or she must reach a certain standard of holiness before being justified and forgiven-then how natural … Continue reading –>
Read Romans 3:31. What’s Paul’s point here? Why is this point important to us as Adventists? In this passage Paul states emphatically that faith does not make void God’s law. But even those who kept the law, even the entire Old Testament corpus of law, were never saved by it. The religion of the Old Testament, … Continue reading –>
Read for This Week’s Study: Gen. 15:6; 2 Samuel 11-12; Rom. 3:20, Romans 3:31; Romans 4:1-17; Gal. 3:21-23; 1 John 3:4. Memory Text: “Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law” (Romans 3:31). In many ways Romans 4 gets to the foundation of the biblical doctrine of salvation by faith alone and to the heart … Continue reading –>
Further Thought: Read Ellen G. White, The Righteousness of Christ in the Law, pp. 236-239; Come and Seek and Find, pp. 331-335; Perfect Obedience Through Christ, pp. 373, 374, in Selected Messages, book 1; “ Things New and Old,” pp. 128, 129, in Christ’s Object Lessons. “Though the law cannot remit the penalty for sin, but charges the sinner with all his debt, … Continue reading –>
“Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law” (Rom. 3:28). Does this mean that if the law doesn’t save us we are not required to obey it? Explain your answer. In the historical context, Paul was speaking in Romans 3:28 of law in its broad sense of the system of … Continue reading –>
In Romans 3:25, Paul expounds further on the great news of salvation. He uses a fancy word, propitiation. The Greek word for it, hilasterion, occurs in the New Testament only here and in Hebrews 9:5, where it is translated as “mercy-seat.” As used in Romans 3:25 to describe the offer of justification and redemption through Christ, propitiation seems to represent the fulfillment of … Continue reading –>
Keeping in mind what we have studied so far about the law and what the law cannot do, read Romans 3:24. What is Paul saying here? What does it mean that redemption is in Jesus? What is this idea of “justifying,” as found in the text? The Greek word dikaioo, translated “justify,” may mean “make righteous,” “declare righteous,” or … Continue reading –>
“Now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets” (Rom. 3:21). How are we to understand what this text means? This new righteousness is contrasted with the righteousness of the law, which was the righteousness with which the Jew was familiar. The new righteousness is called “the … Continue reading –>
Read Romans 3:19-20. What is Paul saying here about the law, about what it does, and about what it does not or cannot do? Why is this point so important for all Christians to understand? Paul is using the term law in its broad sense as the Jew in his day understood it. By the term Torah (the Hebrew word … Continue reading –>
