Which epistle is a short version of romans

He maintains that this righteousness comes by faith to all who believe in Christ Jesus apart from obeying the law. Read Romans 3 Articles. Romans 4 is proof that faith has always been the means for justification. Paul reflects back to the Old Testament patriarchs who were justified by faith, not works, to illustrate his point.

Paul uses this illustration to prove that Gentiles were part of this promise given to Abraham. The whole world was blessed through him because he chose to believe God rather than his circumstances and, because of this, his faith was credited to him as righteousness. Read Romans 4 Articles. Romans 5 is powerful and instrumental in understanding that we are reconciled with God through Jesus Christ.

God did not spare His own son, but graciously gave Him for us to undo what Adam did in the garden. Paul stresses that this reconciliation is not something we are waiting for, but in every sense of the word, believers are righteous, holy, and acceptable to God. Read Romans 5 Articles. Paul maintains that we are freed from sin and made alive to God through Jesus Christ. Our sinful nature was crucified with Him when we were baptized into his death.

Now through Jesus, we have received the gift of God, which is eternal life. Read Romans 6 Articles. Romans 7 shows us the contrast between living bound to the law and living by the Spirit of God. We are no longer in bondage as slaves and are now free to belong to God.

The struggle with sin may still be evident, but Paul maintains we have no obligation to succumb to it. We are instructed to live by the Spirit and bear fruit according to our new nature.

Because he himself was a Roman citizen, he had a unique passion for those in the assembly of believers in Rome. Since he had not, to this point, visited the church in Rome, this letter also served as his introduction to them. Are we any better? Not at all! We have already made the charge that Jews and Gentiles alike are all under sin. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ.

For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved. Keep away from them. He had intended to go to Rome and then on to Spain Romans , but his plans were interrupted when he was arrested in Jerusalem.

Please contact us or click here to learn more about how to enable JavaScript on your browser. Follow us:. Listen Now. Paul had never been to Rome when he wrote the letter to the Romans, though he had clearly expressed his desire to travel there in the near future Acts ; Romans — The apostle greeted twenty-six different people by name, personalizing a letter from a man who would have been a personal stranger to most of the recipients.

No doubt they had heard of Paul and would have been honored by the letter, but Paul always took opportunities to personally connect with his audience so that the message of the gospel might be better received.

The apostle Paul wrote to the Romans from the Greek city of Corinth in AD 57, just three years after the year-old Nero had ascended to the throne as Emperor of Rome. He is essentially using another way to explain what he has already said: we have died to sin and are now free to be reconciled to God. He makes this comparison using the idea that a woman is adulterous if she is with someone else while her husband lives, whereas she is free to be with another man if her husband has died.

We are no longer slaves to death with no hope of escape under the law without Jesus' sacrifice. Instead, we are now considered righteous when we obey the law, because of God's spirit that cleanses us of our sins from Jesus' sacrifice Romans Again, Paul returns to clarify what he does not mean: the law is not sin.

The law is the will of God Do not steal, Do not murder, etc. However, sin is what causes death, since the law requires no sin. Even one sin makes us a law-breaker and condemned under the law without Jesus' sacrifice.

Paul concludes this section with saying that his mind is a slave to God, whereas his body is a slave to sin. Understanding Romans This section in Romans is often misunderstood. Many read Paul's words out-of-context and think that Paul is expressing the fact that he cannot stop sinning; however, Paul has clearly just told his audience to stop sinning repeatedly.

For example, "How can we who died to sin go on living in it? In Romans 7, Paul says, "But now we are discharged from the law, dead to that which held us captive, so that we are slaves not under the old written code but [now we are slaves] in the new life of the Spirit.

Then Paul clarifies in Romans , that the law is not evil, but that sin is actually what held us captive not the law. Paul explains that sin made us a slave to itself. But what did Paul just say about being a slave to sin? Having said all of this about sin, Paul makes his point, "Who will rescue me from this body of death? Paul has just explained that Jesus Christ's spirit, living in us, is what has released us from this slavery to sin.

Now he is making the point that while the body will still die because of sin, we will not die entirely because of our obedience to Jesus Christ. Paul clarifies this meaning in other letters, but he also clarifies this immediately after this section, in Romans 8, by saying such things as, " Paul explains that the law of faith sets us free from the law of sin. God's law could never save us by itself, because under the law all people are condemned.

However, through Jesus' sacrifice and the law of faith, we can be considered righteous by God's law. Paul says, "so that the just requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

Jesus dying for us, means we now have the possibility to fulfill the law, "that the just requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us. Jesus himself made it clear about the law, "Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. According to Paul, those who have a mind hostile to God are those who sin who live according to the flesh. Such people who sin cannot please God even if they say they "believe" in Jesus, there actions prove them wrong.

Paul continues to give reasons for us to live in obedience to God. Telling his audience essentially, Don't sin. He tells his Gentile audience that they have been adopted into God's family through their faith and obedience "living according to the spirit, not the flesh.

Moving on to their present suffering persecution by non-believers , Paul encourages them that just as they share is Christ's suffering, they will share in his glory. All of creation waits to be renewed with the believers of Christ, the children of God. It is the Spirit of God that helps us when we feel weak in context, referring to feeling discouraged from persecution and suffering. Romans is often referenced out-of-context.

In-context, Paul basically says in Romans that when you are suffering persecution and feel discouraged, know that God makes everything work out for those who love and obey him. When non-believers persecute you, remember, "If God is for us, who is against us?

Because if we are God's elect, then by definition we are ones who has been reconciled to God, repented of our sins, and returned to obeying God. If we do not steal, do not murder, etc. Paul concludes this part of his explanation by saying that nothing can separate us from the effects of Jesus' sacrifice for all who believe, repent, and obey.

Essentially, he is telling his audience to not fear or be discouraged by persecution, because nothing that happens to them death or otherwise , will separate them from God's promise of eternal life. In context, Romans is in reference to being encouraged through persecution. Again, Paul is referring to the fact that a Jew is a Jew by spiritual means, not physical Romans This decision to have salvation based on God's promise is His will, His mercy, His grace, His decision; which Paul says to oppose the idea that those who are Jews by birth should have the right to be saved simply because of their position as physical descendants of Abraham.

This statement of such absolute power and sovereignty is hard for many to accept, but it's implications are sobering. To relate this statement to us personally, if we hear the truth of God's salvation, and we can feel in our heart the humbling pull to repentance, then God has chose to show mercy on us and is calling for us to be apart of his chosen people.

However, if we feel a hardness in our heart, a rejection of God's truth of salvation, and a desire to continue on sinning, then God has not chosen us like Pharaoh because of our rebellion.

Sometimes, God hardens peoples' hearts temporarily for his divine purpose. Has the potter no right over the clay? According to Paul, those of the Jews who thought they could obtain salvation by obedience to the law by itself are unable to accept that salvation comes through one who has fulfilled the law Jesus Christ , so that Gentiles might fulfill the law by obedience with faith that cleanses our past transgressions.

Continuing, Paul says he wishes those who are Jews by birth but who are not believers would be saved, but that since they believe they can be righteous through their own efforts, they reject righteousness through God's efforts. Romans is another hugely misunderstood verse, because it is not kept within the context of Paul's entire letter. Romans was never meant to become an absolute theological belief made into one statement.

For one believes with the heart and so is justified, and one confesses with the mouth and so is saved. When Paul makes this statement, he is talking about the fact that salvation is for everyone who believes.

His point is not to tell his readers how to be saved in one simple statement, because he has already spent the first portion of his letter talking about that subject, including: sin, salvation, faith, obedience, repentance, circumcision-as-spiritual, the-laws-of-faith-and-sin, etc.

So if Paul says all of this, why doesn't he mention it as part of Romans ? It is because he has already spent the first half of his letter making it clear about the relationship between faith and obedience, and having said all that to his audience, he clearly does not feel the need to restate it. The focus of this portion of his letter in Romans 10 is the fact that salvation is for everyone. He is done making his point about faith and obedience and salvation.

He has already clarified and re-clarified and re-emphasized that point over the course of several chapters; he now focuses on a new point. If Paul felt he had to restate the point of obedience and faith, and that we should uphold the law, then he would have gone into another several-chapter explanation of it all. Instead, he assumes that the readers of his letter have understood by now, since he spent the first portion of his letter explaining salvation and the laws of faith and sin, and that we should uphold the law now that we have been forgiven of our previously committed sins.

Therefore, in Romans 10, Paul makes his point that salvation is for everyone, saying that everyone can be saved through faith and again, what we truly believe is shown by our actions.