Remember Steve Austin? No, not the wrestler, the Six Million Dollar Man. When I was a child, I watched that TV series. The tag line was, “We can rebuild him. We have the technology. We can make him better than he was. Better, stronger, faster.” My friends and I would run in slow motion making the noise that highlighted his powers. He was better, stronger, and faster than anyone else. Every child wanted to be Steve Austin, better than everyone else. This tapped into a common human desire and drive, distinction (partiality).

We need something that distinguishes us, that sets us apart from others and confirms how we view ourselves, our self-identity. We bring this pattern into our faith, using our religious practices or obedience to God as leverage to exalt ourselves. This reveals that we are living in a world of comparison with others. We see this played out in the Roman church as the Jewish believers hold their ethnic heritage and religious practices over the Gentile believers, exalting themselves over their brothers and sisters.

But if God is impartial, not favoring one ethnicity over another, and the law condemns everyone as sinners, and our obedience doesn’t meet the standard of righteousness, then we’ve got nothing to hold over one another. As one friend of mine said, “the ground at the foot of the cross is level.” The point is that gospel humbles us and changes our identity, fundamentally changing how we think about ourselves and how we relate to each other. Join us Sunday as we consider the ramifications of the gospel.

This week, we continue to unpack an essential passage that explains the gospel of salvation by grace. Paul says that God has revealed his righteousness by making the payment of redemption through Jesus (remittance). He is answering the question, “How can God pardon ungodly people and still be righteous, or just?” God can declare us righteous because he punished Jesus in our place. This justification is received by faith as a gift of God’s grace. This is how we come to the table, receiving grace by faith, not works, obedience, or performance. This means that whether I’m a highly religious, moral person or a rebel pursuing all the pleasures of life, salvation is granted by faith in Jesus’ redemption.

This has deep ramifications for the interpersonal relationships within the church and the conflict between the Jewish and Gentile believers. Who can boast over another in the church? Who can claim a greater status with God? To do so actually makes God schizophrenic. Join us Sunday as we unpack this powerful text.

The Roman church was deeply divided between believers of Jewish and Gentile descent. The Jewish believers couldn’t reconcile God’s forgiveness of the Gentiles without requiring obedience to Jewish covenant traditions and laws (circumcision, food restrictions, festivals, etc.). In addition, they claimed a privileged status over the influx of Gentile believers within the church, expecting submission to their leadership. How can God be just and pardon these Gentiles without conversion to Judaism? How could God welcome these pagan people into his family so freely?

This division is rooted in a deep misunderstanding of the gospel and the path to acceptance with God. While the Apostle has agreed that the Gentiles are pagans, deserving God’s wrath (1:18-32), he has also corrected the Jewish thinking that their covenant relationship and obedience has merited them something with God (2:1-3:20). No one, not even the most obedient Jewish believer, is justified by obedience to the Law, no matter how advanced their obedience.

In our text this week, 3:21-31, Paul presents the path of righteousness, not in personal obedience but through faith alone in Jesus’ redemption, for both Gentile and Jew. While this is jarring to the religious moralist, it is liberation for the soul to know that I no longer have to live my life wondering if I have “made the grade.” God can be just and justify sinners by faith, because of the sacrifice of Christ. Join us Sunday as we consider the implications of God’s salvation in Jesus.

Many of us have had the experience of getting a traffic violation. We’re given a court date, and eventually stand before the judge to plead our case. The judge might hear our pleas, but he must adjudicate according to the Law. We might even know the judge personally, and hope that he’ll show mercy, but to be just, he must be impartial. Excuses, blame-shifting, minimizing, all fails to move the judge, so we appeal to our relationship. “Judge, you know me. We’re friends. Can’t you cut me a break?” you say. But the court cannot show favoritism. All are judged impartially by the law.

This Sunday we’ll complete our examination of Romans 2 and move into chapter 3. The Apostle Paul is confronting the self-righteousness of the Jewish believers in the church and exposing their distorted vision. They have a distorted view of themselves, the Law of God, the Judge (God), and the gospel. Their internal conflicts with each other are the result of these distortions. This week, we’ll consider their distorted view of God and of the gospel. Join us as we worship and humble ourselves before the righteous One.

Sunday, we’ll go back to Romans 2 as Paul confronts the Jewish believers' distorted view of themselves, the law, God, and the gospel. This week, we’ll focus on their distorted view of God’s Law. Remember that after exposing the sinfulness of the world, particularly the Gentiles, in chapter one, Paul now zeros in on the Jewish believers' “partiality.” The Jewish believers in Rome believed they were a privileged class, having grown up knowing the Scriptures and living a more moral life. That sense of “privilege” is a distorted view of self that produces their judgment of others (2:1), especially the Gentile believers they engaged in church, and blinds them to their own sin (2:1). Paul is adamant that God’s patience and goodness were meant to lead them to repentance not moralism (2:4). They were the “older brother” in the story of the Prodigal Son, rejecting their wayward, but repenting, brother.

Moralism had crept into their lives. The Jewish believers saw themselves as “pretty good people.” But in this they distorted the Law of God as something they could and were obeying. But Paul is adamant again, saying, “no one is justified by the Law,” (3:20). The most moral person is much more sinful than they realize, and an undistorted view of the Law will expose that. Here’s the bottom line, if you think you’re living a good life and obeying the Lord, you might have a distorted perspective. If life is good and you think to yourself, “I must be doing something right,” you have a distorted view of the Law. Join us Sunday as we unpack the Scriptures.

“How could a good and all-powerful God let something like that happen to me?

Does God even care?” It seems suffering is inevitable - Job 5:7 states that “man is born to trouble as the sparks fly upward.” Jesus said, “In this world you will have trouble…” John 16:33. Theologians often state “we live in the now and not yet” meaning the in between times of Christ first coming and his second coming. Another writer uses the term the age of ambivalence or the age of tension. We have a portion of His kingdom but not the completion/fulfillment of God’s promises of a new heaven, new earth, and new body. In this meantime, people still suffer in evil and cruel ways. We all experience losses and unfair treatment. Things just don’t work like they should. Why can’t we get back to Eden? What does Jesus Christ have to offer us during this age of suffering and waiting and hoping?

While suffering is something we must all endure, those of us who know Christ can hold to the promises of his presence, his purpose, and his plan for us.

This Sunday join us in worship of the Man of Sorrows, the Suffering Servant: Jeus Christ our LORD and King!

This Sunday we will be looking at Paul’s letter to the Church in Colossae. In the first two chapters Paul focused on Christ’s authority over all of creation and our redemption. Now in chapter three Paul is delving into the implications for Christ’s authority over the lives of His people. Specifically, Paul addresses the sins that try to define us as well as the natural identities that can become idols in our lives. Paul ultimately points the church to its eternal identity in Christ which overcomes all sins, breaks down worldly barriers, and calls us to set our mind on the glory of God. 

Imagine you’re in the Roman Church, surrounded by the depraved culture the Apostle Paul described in Romans 1:29, “filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, and malice.” The sexual debauchery and shameful acts being carried out in the brothels and homes confronts you every day. But you know the truth, you were raised to obey God, you believe and have devoted your life to your faith and traditions. How would you feel if people from that culture walked into your church proclaiming that they believe in the risen Christ? Would you feel morally superior? Would you be quick to welcome them? How would you respond to their struggle to break the habits of their upbringing and experience?

As we begin chapter two in Romans, Paul confronts the assumptions of the life-long religious person! Does their upbringing and practice make them “better than”? Should their “moral goodness” give them a leg-up in the church? Does God favor them over their Gentile brothers and sisters? Join us Sunday as we explore what Jesus describes as older brother syndrome in the story of the Prodigal, Luke 15:11-32. Maybe watch this video from the Bible Project on the Prodigal Son’s older brother.

Sunday, we’ll continue in Romans 1, as the Apostle Paul unpacks the revelation of God’s wrath. The great “religious monstrosity” (John Murray) of worshipping created things rather than the Creator, results in God giving mankind over, as he says, “in the lusts of their hearts to impurity.” Notice something important here, God turns mankind over to the desires of his heart. Moral corruption flows out of inordinate desires leading to impurity, specifically impure actions. That’s important because the Apostle isn’t just condemning sinful actions, but corrupt desires. (See James 1:14)

He explains this “giving over” in two arenas: “dishonorable passions…debased mind.” The passions that are dishonorable center on going against the sexual order that God created, specifically engagement in homosexual behavior. The mind that is reprobate or has completely turned against God is filled with all kinds of vice, or as Paul says, “all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice.” What’s increasingly troubling is that they promote these vices even though they know God’s judgment.

This is the backdrop of the gospel, the good news revealed amid this evil. These are the very people God reveals the gospel to and who join the family of God by faith! Join us Sunday as we worship God and rejoice in the gospel of Jesus.

In our study, the Apostle Paul is unpacking the gospel: the good news of Jesus’ Lordship and God’s salvation through him; a salvation received by grace through faith. He does this to root them in Jesus and heal the divide between Jewish and Gentile believers. He has taught them that the gospel reveals God’s justness, now he will show that it reveals God’s justice dolled out on those who refuse him.

From 1:18-3:20, the Apostle sets out to destroy any claims of sufficient obedience to warrant or earn God’s favor. His summary statement is simple, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” 3:23. Our text will be 1:18-23, where Paul explains why mankind is without excuse before God. In summary, it’s not that we are ignorant of God, rather, we suppress the truth. Join us Sunday as we worship and serve, “the Creator who is blessed forever. Amen.” (1:25)