Christ is the end of the law

  |   By  |   2 mins 0 secs |  0 Comments

Rom 9:22-10:4

Yesterday we started to look at the question, ‘If God is sovereign and chooses who to save and who to harden, how can we be responsible?’. God is patient in his wrath, wanting all to have the chance to repent. In Chapter 1 we saw that God’s wrath is currently shown in giving people over […]

Continue reading...

Why the Jews rejected Jesus

  |   By  |   3 mins 57 secs |  0 Comments

Romans 9:1-21

Paul is the apostle to the Gentiles, but he is a Jew, an ex-Pharisee and a Hebrew of Hebrews (Phil 3:5), so of course he is aggrieved that Jews have rejected the Messiah as much as he is passionate about the Gentile mission. This is a fairly complicated passage, probably one of the ones Peter […]

Continue reading...

If God is for us

  |   By  |   3 mins 20 secs |  0 Comments

Romans 8:18-39

In our life group we have been going through Crazy Love by Francis Chan and a couple of weeks ago I was challenged by discussion on where our home really is – that we can get far to comfy here on earth with friends and families and jobs and houses that we never want to […]

Continue reading...

The pinnacle of the New Testament

  |   By  |   2 mins 3 secs |  0 Comments

Romans 8:1-17

I’m an armchair mountaineer; which is a little strange as I’m scared of heights and wouldn’t real-life climb for all the tea in China! I loved Joe Simpson’s “Touching the Void” and have just finished Bear Gryll’s “Facing Up”, describing his ascent of Everest. He reached the pinnacle, the summit, safely and made it back […]

Continue reading...

The passage most people get wrong!

  |   By  |   1 min 48 secs |  0 Comments

Romans 7:7-25

Romans 7:7-25 is one of those passages that people take in isolation from the thread that Paul has been building thus far, and therefore get wrong. This is not describing the battle of the Christian life. Sure the Christian life is a battle, but this passage should not be used to describe your struggles with […]

Continue reading...

Sin, law, grace, … and marriage???

  |   By  |   4 mins 51 secs |  0 Comments

Rom 6:15-7:6

Sin, law, grace, … and marriage?? I love the fact that twice in chapter 6 of Romans, the ‘logical’ conclusion of what Paul says is “let’s keep sinning because of grace”. To me that shows good grace based teaching. Of course the conclusion is wrong (hence the inverted commas around ‘logical’). However when grace is […]

Continue reading...

Perish the thought!

  |   By  |   1 min 45 secs |  0 Comments

Romans 6:1-14

If in our reading of Romans to this point we are not asking the question “Can we continue in sin then?”, we have not understood grace yet. Grace begs that question. The answer is “By no means!”, “Perish the thought!”, “No way, man!” Throughout the book of Romans, Paul asks a series of questions with […]

Continue reading...

From desperation to restoration

  |   By  |   2 mins 27 secs |  0 Comments

Romans 5:12-21

Several years ago, I was fortunate enough to take part in a fascinating school trip to Chongqing, China, the largest city on earth by area, with a population of over 30 million. One afternoon, while sitting on the school field watching our student sports leaders teach their Chinese counterparts tag rugby, I noticed white flakes […]

Continue reading...

Faith and its results

  |   By  |   3 mins 10 secs |  0 Comments

Romans 4:16-5:11

Abraham is given as the example of faith by Paul. He was an old man who was given an amazing promise by the Lord that he would be a father of many nations. He believed patiently for 25 years for the promise to begin to be fulfilled – Romans 4:3 “Abraham believed God and it […]

Continue reading...