Reading through Romans

+ In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Opening sentence

Praise to You, Lord Jesus Christ, King of endless glory. You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed and have come to know that You are the Holy One of God.
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A reading from Romans: Romans 5:15-17 (NLT)

But there is a great difference between Adam’s sin and God’s gracious gift. For the sin of this one man, Adam, brought death to many. But even greater is God’s wonderful grace and his gift of forgiveness to many through this other man, Jesus Christ. And the result of God’s gracious gift is very different from the result of that one man’s sin. For Adam’s sin led to condemnation, but God’s free gift leads to our being made right with God, even though we are guilty of many sins. For the sin of this one man, Adam, caused death to rule over many. But even greater is God’s wonderful grace and his gift of righteousness, for all who receive it will live in triumph over sin and death through this one man, Jesus Christ.
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Reflection: Romans 5:15-17 (John Stott, The Message of Romans: God’s Good News for the World)

The two humanities, in Adam and in Christ (5: 12– 21)

b. Adam and Christ are contrasted (15– 17)

How can the Lord of glory be likened to the man of shame, the Saviour to the sinner, the giver of life to the broker of death? The correspondence is not a parallel, but an antithesis…. ‘Adam and Christ stand there’, writes Anders Nygren, ‘as the respective heads of the two aeons. Adam is the head of the old aeon, the age of death; Christ is the head of the new aeon, the age of life.’

The differences concern the nature of the two actions (15), their immediate results (16), and their ultimate effects (17).

First, the nature of their actions was different. But the gift is not like the trespass (15a)…. Adam’s trespass was a fall (‘the fall’, as we call it) – a deviation from the path which God had clearly shown him. He insisted on going his own way. With it Paul contrasts Christ’s gift – an act of self-sacrifice which bears no resemblance to Adam’s act of self-assertion.

Secondly, the immediate effect of their actions was different. Again, the gift of God is not like the result of the one man’s sin (16a)….In the case of Adam God’s judgment brought condemnation; in the case of Christ God’s gift brought justification (16b)…. The secular mind would have expected many sins to attract more judgment than one sin. But grace operates a different arithmetic. ‘That one single misdeed should be answered by judgment,’ writes Charles Cranfield, ‘this is perfectly understandable: that the accumulated sins and guilt of all the ages should be answered by God’s free gift, this is the miracle of miracles, utterly beyond human comprehension.’

Thirdly, the ultimate effect of the two actions is also different (17)…. Formerly death was our king, and we were slaves under its totalitarian tyranny. What Christ has done for us is not just to exchange death’s kingdom for the much more gentle kingdom of life, while leaving us in the position of subjects. Instead, he delivers us from the rule of death so radically as to enable us to change places with it and rule over it, or reign in life. We become kings, sharing the kingship of Christ, with even death under our feet now, and one day to be destroyed.
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Wonderful grace of Jesus, Greater than all my sin; How shall my tongue describe it, Where shall its praise begin? Taking away my burden, Setting my spirit free; For the wonderful grace of Jesus reaches me.

Wonderful the matchless grace of Jesus, Deeper than the mighty rolling sea; Higher than the mountain, sparkling like a fountain, All-sufficient grace for even me! Broader than the scope of my transgressions, Greater far than all my sin and shame; Oh, magnify the precious Name of Jesus, Praise His Name!

Wonderful grace of Jesus, Reaching to all the lost, By it I have been pardoned, Saved to the uttermost; Chains have been torn asunder, Giving me liberty; For the wonderful grace of Jesus reaches me.

Wonderful grace of Jesus, Reaching the most defiled, By its transforming power, Making him God’s dear child, Purchasing peace and heaven For all eternity — And the wonderful grace of Jesus reaches me.
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Canticle

Christ, as a light illumine and guide me. Christ, as a shield overshadow me. Christ under me; Christ over me; Christ beside me on my left and my right. This day be within and without me, lowly and meek, yet all-powerful. Be in the heart of each to whom I speak; in the mouth of each who speaks unto me. This day be within and without me, lowly and meek, yet all-powerful. Christ as a light; Christ as a shield; Christ beside me on my left and my right.

Blessing

May the peace of the Lord Christ go with you, wherever He may send you. May He guide you through the wilderness, protect you through the storm. May He bring you home rejoicing at the wonders He has shown you. May He bring you home rejoicing once again into our doors.

+ In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen

Reading through Romans

+ In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Opening sentence

Praise to You, Lord Jesus Christ, King of endless glory. You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed and have come to know that You are the Holy One of God.
__________

A reading from Romans: Romans 5:12-14 (NLT)

When Adam sinned, sin entered the world. Adam’s sin brought death, so death spread to everyone, for everyone sinned. Yes, people sinned even before the law was given. But it was not counted as sin because there was not yet any law to break. Still, everyone died — from the time of Adam to the time of Moses — even those who did not disobey an explicit commandment of God, as Adam did. Now Adam is a symbol, a representation of Christ, who was yet to come.
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Reflection: Romans 5:12-14 (John Stott, The Message of Romans: God’s Good News for the World)

The two humanities, in Adam and in Christ (5: 12– 21)

a. Adam and Christ are introduced (12– 14)

The topic of verse 12 is sin and death, and in it Paul describes three downward steps or deteriorating stages in human history, from one man sinning to all men dying…. Here then are the three stages — from Adam’s sin to Adam’s death , to universal death due to universal sin.

Dr Martyn Lloyd-Jones summed up the rationale in these words: ‘God has always dealt with mankind through a head and representative. The whole story of the human race can be summed up in terms of what has happened because of Adam, and what has happened and will yet happen because of Christ.’

Paul ends this paragraph (12– 14), in which he has concentrated on Adam’s sin and death, with the briefest possible allusion to the corresponding figure of Christ. Adam, he writes, … was a pattern of the one to come (14b), the Coming One, the Messiah. He will develop the analogy in the next paragraphs. For now, it is enough to call Adam the typos of Christ, because he ‘prefigured’ (JB) and ‘foreshadows’ (REB) him. Like Adam, Christ is the head of a whole humanity.
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Canticle

Christ, as a light illumine and guide me. Christ, as a shield overshadow me. Christ under me; Christ over me; Christ beside me on my left and my right. This day be within and without me, lowly and meek, yet all-powerful. Be in the heart of each to whom I speak; in the mouth of each who speaks unto me. This day be within and without me, lowly and meek, yet all-powerful. Christ as a light; Christ as a shield; Christ beside me on my left and my right.

Blessing

May the peace of the Lord Christ go with you, wherever He may send you. May He guide you through the wilderness, protect you through the storm. May He bring you home rejoicing at the wonders He has shown you. May He bring you home rejoicing once again into our doors.

+ In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen

Reading through Romans

+ In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Opening sentence

Praise to You, Lord Jesus Christ, King of endless glory. You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed and have come to know that You are the Holy One of God.
__________

A reading from Romans: Romans 5:11 (NLT)

So now we can rejoice in our wonderful new relationship with God because our Lord Jesus Christ has made us friends of God.
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Reflection: Romans 5:11 (John Stott, The Message of Romans: God’s Good News for the World)

The results of justification (5: 1– 11)

The whole paragraph (verses 1– 11) depends on the opening words: Therefore, since we have been justified through faith.… Paul utters six bold assertions in the name of all whom God has justified.

f. We also rejoice in God (11)

Christian exultation in God begins with the shamefaced recognition that we have no claim on him at all, continues with wondering worship that while we were still sinners and enemies Christ died for us, and ends with the humble confidence that he will complete the work he has begun. So to exult in God is to rejoice not in our privileges but in his mercies, not in our possession of him but in his of us.

In spite of our knowledge that for Christian people all boasting is excluded (3: 27), we nevertheless boast or rejoice in our hope of sharing God’s glory (2), in our tribulations (3) and above all in God himself (11). This exulting is through our Lord Jesus Christ, because it is through him that we have now received… reconciliation (11).

It seems clear from this paragraph, then, that the major mark of justified believers is joy, especially joy in God himself. We should be the most positive people in the world. For the new community of Jesus Christ is characterized not by a self-centred triumphalism but by a God-centred worship.
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Canticle

Christ, as a light illumine and guide me. Christ, as a shield overshadow me. Christ under me; Christ over me; Christ beside me on my left and my right. This day be within and without me, lowly and meek, yet all-powerful. Be in the heart of each to whom I speak; in the mouth of each who speaks unto me. This day be within and without me, lowly and meek, yet all-powerful. Christ as a light; Christ as a shield; Christ beside me on my left and my right.

Blessing

May the peace of the Lord Christ go with you, wherever He may send you. May He guide you through the wilderness, protect you through the storm. May He bring you home rejoicing at the wonders He has shown you. May He bring you home rejoicing once again into our doors.

+ In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen

Reading through Romans

+ In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Opening sentence

Praise to You, Lord Jesus Christ, King of endless glory. You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed and have come to know that You are the Holy One of God.
__________

A reading from Romans: Romans 5:9-10 (NLT)

And since we have been made right in God’s sight by the blood of Christ, he will certainly save us from God’s condemnation. For since our friendship with God was restored by the death of his Son while we were still his enemies, we will certainly be saved through the life of his Son.
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Reflection: Romans 5:9-10 (John Stott, The Message of Romans: God’s Good News for the World)

The results of justification (5: 1– 11)

The whole paragraph (verses 1– 11) depends on the opening words: Therefore, since we have been justified through faith.… Paul utters six bold assertions in the name of all whom God has justified.

e. We shall be saved through Christ (9– 10)

So far the apostle has concentrated on what God has already done for us through Christ…. Yet there is more— much more— still to come, which is not yet ours . In fact, verses 9 and 10 are notable examples of the familiar New Testament tension between the ‘already’ and the ‘not yet’, between what Christ has accomplished at his first coming and what remains to be done at his second, between our past and our future salvation. For salvation has a future tense as well as past and present tenses, and the words common to these two verses are the statement that we shall be saved.

If, therefore, we are asked… whether we have been saved.., the correct answer would be ‘Yes and no.’ For yes, we have been saved through Christ from the guilt of our sins and from the judgment of God upon them, but no, we have not yet been delivered from indwelling sin or been given new bodies in the new world.

So the best is yet to be! In our present ‘half -saved’ condition we are eagerly looking forward to our full and final salvation.
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Canticle

Christ, as a light illumine and guide me. Christ, as a shield overshadow me. Christ under me; Christ over me; Christ beside me on my left and my right. This day be within and without me, lowly and meek, yet all-powerful. Be in the heart of each to whom I speak; in the mouth of each who speaks unto me. This day be within and without me, lowly and meek, yet all-powerful. Christ as a light; Christ as a shield; Christ beside me on my left and my right.

Blessing

May the peace of the Lord Christ go with you, wherever He may send you. May He guide you through the wilderness, protect you through the storm. May He bring you home rejoicing at the wonders He has shown you. May He bring you home rejoicing once again into our doors.

+ In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen