“What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?”— Romans 6:1-2 Context & Key Themes Chapter five ended with a line that demanded an answer: where sin increased, grace abounded all the more. An opportunistic…
“Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.”— Romans 5:1-2 Context & Key Themes Chapters one through four have…
“Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.”— Romans 4:3 (quoting Genesis 15:6) Context & Key Themes Having announced in chapter 3 that justification comes by faith apart from works of the law, Paul now faces the obvious question: can that claim be demonstrated from the Old Testament itself? If this doctrine…
“But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it — the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe.”— Romans 3:21-22 Context & Key Themes Romans 3 is the pivot of the entire letter. Everything Paul has…
“Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?”— Romans 2:4 Context & Key Themes Romans 2 is one of the most elegantly constructed rhetorical traps in the New Testament. Paul spent chapter 1 cataloguing the moral collapse…
“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. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith.”— Romans 1:16-17 Context & Key Themes Romans opens with the longest formal…