The offering of yourself to our merciful God is now explained in application. Given that this life you now live came from God, you must not think too highly of yourself apart from Him, as you seek to make your offering… which is your very self. Your Savior’s presence has uniquely equipped you to bring Him glory by serving Him as you serve others in Him. In fact, since He is in you, and you no longer live for you, you belong to others in whom He lives, and they belong to you. This reality of belonging is the wholeness of the body of Christ as all the individual parts come together, each uniquely different, serving Him as we serve one another. His mercy compels you to live Him out in loving service to others.
This Week’s Bulletin:
We have stated that there are three great mountain-peak ‘Therefore’ passages in Romans, 5:1 (peace with God), 8:1 (no condemnation) and now this one: offer all of yourself living to God. Beginning here, Paul engages his final broad topic in the letter (Chapters 12 – 15): a believer’s response to their salvation, which is God’s mercy. This is the climactic response to the mercy of God that has been poured-out to and on the believer; one who is alive in the Spirit with unshakable, irrevocable love that guarantees life now and forever. This mercy, when rightly understood, MUST compel a responsive offering of your new life so that everything you do and everything that you are, is an offering that pleases God. We know who we are in this new life, and we know what we ought to do, because the Spirit of God who lives in us works to change us inside (Transformed!), that we might think the thoughts of God’s will for our lives here and now.
This Week’s Bulletin:
This is the climax of Chapters 9 through 11 as Paul points to the end of this age when God will rescue Israel and she will call Jesus her Savior. There is a clock that is ticking when this age will close and Jesus the Messiah will return, but it is not about years and months and days, but about the fullness of salvation of those outside of Israel (the Gentiles/Nations). When that fullness is reached, God will call Israel to Himself by His unprovoked, unmerited mercy, and she will believe upon her Messiah, Jesus. For now, Israel is hardened toward Him, but He will call and save the remnant, and Israel will be saved. For God’s great plan is to consign the faithless to disobedience, so that He can show His great mercy and call them to faith in Jesus, Jew and Gentile alike.
This Week’s Bulletin:
Paul continues to explain his sure hope for Israel, acknowledging that he desires that his ministry to the Gentiles will produce a sense of spiritual jealousy among the Jews. Jesus came as the Messiah to the Jewish nation, but she, as a nation, rejected Him, opening the door of salvation to the Gentiles. Therefore, mercy shown to the Gentiles who were far away and undeserving should never result in arrogance or pride over those who were hardened. Recipients of mercy never boast in their position. Rather, they tremble at the thought, and weep for those who do not have it! And if God saved the Gentiles who were not His chosen nation, how much more will He save those for whom He promised to come; those who descended from Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to whom He made the Promise of love.
This Week’s Bulletin:
Paul addresses God’s irrevocable heart for Israel. Though, as a nation of people, they are disobedient to God’s call, as they still stand in opposition to Jesus as their Messiah, God is still working in their midst on the basis of His sovereign grace. Their fall and rejection of God’s grace and His Son, their Messiah, served to allow salvation to come to the world. So even now, as national Israel watches the Gentiles in Jesus, who believe in their God, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, God would have them to be jealous; jealous of grace, mercy, and salvation by faith in Jesus the Messiah (Christ). When they recognize and believe on Him, the world will rejoice in peace.
This Week’s Bulletin:
Given that salvation comes to those who simply have to call out to Jesus and believe upon Him, Paul raises the issue of those who have never heard of the One to whom they are to call. How can someone place their faith upon the Good News of Jesus if they have never heard the Good News of Jesus? The question is not posed as some kind of unsolvable puzzle, but rather one where the answer compels us to send and go with the Good News. God chose to send His saved ones to a world that is desperately lost and in need of hearing the Gospel of God. Are you part of God’s sending, going, and telling those close and far about Jesus? And if not you, then who?
This Week’s Bulletin:
As Paul continues to express his sadness over Israel, he makes the clear point that salvation is received by faith and not by the keeping of the Law (self-righteousness before God); this was Israel’s great error with her Lord. God is calling us to believe on Him alone for our righteousness, knowing that the Good News of this salvation, received by faith alone, is close and available. There is no mountain to scale nor valley to descend into; the Word of salvation is right here and right now, available for the willing heart that desires to receive God as their righteousness. We need only call on Him, believe in our hearts as we confess Jesus with our mouths, and we will be saved.
This Week’s Bulletin:
The sad truth of Israel is the sad truth of all mankind… If God does not interrupt our wickedness and hardness, then none of us would remain before Him. And God patiently endures the wickedness of some, up until the point of wrath, for the purpose of revealing the greatness of His mercy to those who have received it. Paul concludes that Israel failed to attain righteousness, because they were unwilling to pursue it by faith in God. Instead, they attempted to pursue righteousness by works of the Law, and as Scripture predicted, they stumbled upon Jesus, Son of God, who called them to believe on Him. So, Jesus becomes to Israel (and to others) either a Stone of Stumbling and a Rock of Offense, or the source of ultimate victory.
This Week’s Bulletin:
With such an emphatic statement of the security in Jesus that comes from God’s loving call, Paul turns his heart to the condition of Israel, who has, as a nation, rejected Jesus. As Paul is broken-hearted over this reality, he wants the church to know that their rejection is not a result of God’s Promise being broken or His call being somehow compromised. He chose Israel, yet not all of Israel responded, but only the part of her that is chosen for mercy as part of His sovereign plan and Promise. That part, Paul says, is the true Israel and those are the true children of Abraham, not just his physical decedents. Those are foreknown, pre-appointed and called to accomplish His good plan, in accord with His good purpose, which is not depended upon the work and will of men.
This Week’s Bulletin:
This is the climax of everything that Paul has stated in this letter concerning your salvation that comes by the Gospel of God. This is the climactic conclusion that now must motivate the child of God to live a life that glorifies God. The fact of the matter is this… that God has loved us with an everlasting love that can never be damaged, broken or separated from us. Never. Anyone or anything that might attempt to do so will be fighting nothing and no one less than God Himself, for the Spirit of God lives in you. What God does, nothing and no one cannot undo. The one whom God chooses to love will be loved forever and in this presence of love, the believer conquers in all things according to God’s good purpose.
This Week’s Bulletin: https://thechapelingreen.cdn.prismic.io/thechapelingreen/aKYhHKTt2nPbai_5_08.24.25Rm829-39InseparableLoveOutline.pdf
In the midst of this mountain-top proclamation of no condemnation, given that we are Sons of God that now cry-out ‘Abba Father’ to God Himself, Paul is not slow to recognize that suffering will be part of our lives on this earth. We should and must expect to suffer. For it is clear that all creation groans in the Fall, and we who are fallen, yet Sons, will groan inward, and the Spirit who dwells in us will also intercede on our behalf with groans to our Father. And God uses all this groaning to conform us who love Him to the likeness of His Son as we trust and rest in the God-Hope of what is yet to come. He does this as He brings us into His glory; a glory which outweighs any possible comparison to the suffering that produces our groaning. In this life, you will experience suffering and groaning. Do you suffer with Him as His child, or do you groan and suffer alone?
This Week’s Bulletin: https://thechapelingreen.cdn.prismic.io/thechapelingreen/aJYCL6Tt2nPbaEk6_08.10.25Rm818-28HopeThatGroansOutline.pdf
With such a great cry of ‘no condemnation at the beginning of this chapter,’ Paul now moves to the next great cry from the believer in Jesus, that is, ‘Abba, Father.’ The assurance of belonging to Jesus by the presence of His Spirit is demonstrated by living for Him, and not for our old nature. This living is the life of a child that brings glory to their father. It is, in-fact, living proof of intimate relationship. And this is the guarantee that we have as children of God: we will inherit, with Jesus, the Kingdom of Jesus. We ask again… are you a child of God? And if so, you will reign with Him in His Kingdom!
This Week’s Bulletin: https://thechapelingreen.cdn.prismic.io/thechapelingreen/aIt70qTt2nPbZnBy_08.03.25Rm812-17ChildrenofGodOutline.pdf
Romans 8 may well be the pinnacle of the entire letter to the church in Rome. The opening words (literally) are: ‘Nothing Therefore Now Condemns Those In Christ Jesus.’ Wow! Do you believe that truth? Neither sweeter nor stronger words can hardly be spoken to those who believe in Jesus. It is this confidence and security that compels us to live our lives for God as we await what is yet to come, guaranteed by the Spirit who lives in us. And what is coming? Resurrected life. Therefore, we now walk by His Spirit that dwells in us! Do you set your mind on the things of God and walk by them, or on the things of your fallen nature, and walk by them?
This Week’s Bulletin: https://thechapelingreen.cdn.prismic.io/thechapelingreen/aIKIAlGsbswqTOw1_07.27.25Rm81-11Alive%26FreeOutline.pdf
What shall we say then? It’s the question Paul asks again as he has given us much to consider. What does it mean to be dead to sin? What about dead to the law? How are we to put that into practice in our daily lives? These are the questions that get addressed in this next passage. Not just addressed, but answered in a personal way that I hope encourages and challenges you today.
Though we are no longer slaves to sin we still struggle with the sin patterns that we have grown so accustomed to. Though we are no longer held to the law, we still struggle with an intense desire to follow a “thing” and not a Person. Seeking to walk in holiness before God and acknowledging the sin that “so easily entangles us” is the mark of a maturing Believer.
This Week’s Bulletin: https://thechapelingreen.cdn.prismic.io/thechapelingreen/aHlPAEMqNJQqIFDk_07.20.25TheBattleWithin-Romans7.7-25-.pdf
In the passage this week, Paul is giving another illustration to help us comprehend our freedom in Christ. Paul wants us to fully understand what it means to no longer be held to a system of rules for our salvation, but to allow ourselves to live from the inside out. Under the law there is judgment and condemnation. But, if Christ lives in us, we produce the fruit from His Spirit. If He lives in us, we can rest. We can abide in Him and allow Him to work in us and through us. Death breaks the bonds that holds us to the law and gives us the freedom to live in Him.
This Week’s Bulletin: https://thechapelingreen.cdn.prismic.io/thechapelingreen/aHAnC0MqNJQqHxcn_07.13.25Romans71-6NewWaytoLive.pdf
God is expressing through Paul’s voice the declaration of freedom and victory that is found in Jesus Christ. In our freedom from the old taskmaster of sin, we seek to be servants of our new Master of righteousness, where the production of obedience (the fruit of our life) leads to our holiness (sanctification). Before, the production of service to sin led to ungodliness, which ultimately led to death. But now, in Jesus, the pull of righteousness is felt, leading us to holiness as we experience the life of grace that leads to eternal life. See the simplicity and beauty of his final words in this passage, as verse 23 may be the most succinct and descriptive verses in all of Scripture describing the sure effect of the Gospel of God.
This Week’s Bulletin: https://thechapelingreen.cdn.prismic.io/thechapelingreen/aGV3O3fc4bHWi-P__07.06.25Rm615-23FreeServantsOutline.pdf
If we are saved by grace, should we keep on sinning? Absolutely not. Grace doesn’t excuse sin—it transforms us. As baptism symbolizes, through union with Christ in His death and resurrection, we have died to sin and risen to a new life. This passage reminds us that grace leads to freedom, not a license to sin; identity, not excuses; and power, not passivity. As believers, we are no longer slaves to sin but alive to God—called to live as instruments of righteousness in response to the incredible mercy we’ve received.
This Week’s Bulletin: https://thechapelingreen.cdn.prismic.io/thechapelingreen/aF2glHfc4bHWiw8A_06.29.25Rm61-14DeadtoSin%2CAliveinChrist.pdf
Paul now explains how Jesus is a type of Adam to all mankind. As the father of all mankind, Adam’s one act of sin led to and leads to the condemnation of all mankind, because all followed him in sin and death. Jesus, who is the sinless man who satisfies the cost of sin and conquers death, His one act of righteousness leads to the life of all who receive His free-gift of grace. This is for all mankind who believe on Him. So as the one sin of Adam ‘abounds’ to constant increase unto death, so the one act of the Righteous One abounds to constant increase of eternal life. You are born of Adam, but are you born of God?
This Week’s Bulletin: https://thechapelingreen.cdn.prismic.io/thechapelingreen/aFRUiXfc4bHWijTI_06.22.25Rm512-21ByOneTheManyOutline.pdf
Paul now clearly moves to express the incomparable benefits of being credited with the Righteousness of God by introducing three words that all in Christ must know: Peace, Love and Reconciliation. We are now in a state of peace with God, because He chose to love us. For God’s love is proved by the undeserved and unprovoked move of the Cross. He does this for us, who are His enemies, so that we would have a restored relationship with Him who made us for this very purpose. In Jesus, we now ‘belong’ with Him, forever secured, reconciled and at peace.
This Week’s Bulletin: https://thechapelingreen.cdn.prismic.io/thechapelingreen/aEndarNJEFaPX4V8_06.15.25Rm51-11PeaceSecuredOutline.pdf
Paul concludes his case that we are saved by Jesus Christ, by His grace (unmerited favor) as a gift (no payment) received through faith alone. And since this is so, our salvation (life in Him) rests entirely upon God’s promise, not on our performance. Our assurance of all that He has given, and of all that is yet to come rests solely upon Him. In this Promise of God, we have hope! And this ‘God-Hope’ is an unshakeable, unwavering guarantee, that teaches us to ignore the broken circumstances of this broken world. Do you take Him at His Word? That is to say, do you believe on Him, resting in/on His guaranteed grace in your life, forever?
This Week’s Bulletin: https://thechapelingreen.cdn.prismic.io/thechapelingreen/aDh0ISdWJ-7kSr-J_06.01.25Rm413-25PromiseKeeperOutline.pdf
