After reflecting on the first day of class I realized that I have to know my world. Paul was an apostle to the gentiles. He knew the world he was living in. For example, in Paul’s times, there were two major groups, there was Stoicism, and there were Epicureans. Both believed in a god that is flawed, imperfect, unlike the God of the Bible. I need to realize that in the world today, there are many different religions and sects, but really there are two major groups. There are those who believe in the God of the Bible, and there are those who do not.
That leads me to remember the three major parts of the first century Jewish theology. They believed that one God created the world. That the world is responsible to God. And this God has called Israel to be His people and turn from sin. They believed that monotheism and election ushers in eschatology. Many people in my world today do not believe like this, and the Romans class has challenged me to think about what the people around me believe, and how to speak truth into their lives.
I learned about the overview of chapter break downs. Romans1-4 talks about how God has been true to the covenant (by sending the messiah) that was established with Abraham. In Romans chapters 5-8 God deals with the sin of Adam. Through Jesus, God’s people are all saved like what was done for Israel of old. Lead through the wilderness to the Spirit. In Romans chapters 9-11 reveal that Israel has failed to believe in the Messiah. In these chapters, Paul is wrestling with why God’s people rejected Jesus. Finally, in chapters 12-16 there are a new people and new humanity.
On the second day of class, I learned that Romans 1:16-17 are the climax of the book of Romans. It says, “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, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.”
A big concept that I learned on the second day of class was that righteousness is not given to is, it is God’s nature. He does not impute His righteousness on us, He imparts it to us. Another quote that I really appreciated was “Faith is trusting God in spite of the evidence and then you watch the evidence change.” This is a great reminder for my life! I am blessed with the spiritual gift of faith, but sometimes I see that it is hard for peers to believe in spite of seemingly opposite evidence.
Then, on Thursday, I learned that my past does not dictate my present or my future, yet, it still exists. This was a liberating thought. Then the teacher reminded the class that it takes the community of faith to help us get past our past. Getting connected in a youth group helped me to get “past my past” when I was younger.
While sin no longer reigns, it remains. However, through the freedom of Christ, we can choose to sin, but we are not bound to it. When the heart is changed, we are happy that we are no longer living in Adam’s nature. Because of the new life in Christ, we simply cannot continue in our old careers as sinners. As far as sin is concerned, we are dead. In baptism, we symbolize how we died to sin, and are raised to a new life.
