Biblical Wisdom Series

Pamphlet #1002

Lesson From Romans

The Good News The good news is God's powerful method of bringing all who believe it to heaven.Everyone is invited to come to God the same way.This good news is that God makes us ready for heaven---makes us right in his sight---when we put our faith and trust in Christ to save us. This is accomplished by faith. As the scripture says it, "The man who finds life will find it through trusting God".

No Excuse on Judgement Day Since earliest time men have seen the earth and sky and all that God has made,and have known his existence and great eternal power.So they will have no excuse when they stand before God at Judgement Day.

No one is good As scripture says, "No one is good---no one in all the world is innocent". No one has ever really followed God's paths, or even wanted to.Now do you see it? No one can ever be made right in God sight by doing what the law commands. The more we know about God's laws,the clearer it becomes that we aren't obeying them; his laws serve only to make us see that we are sinners.

Different Way to Heaven Now God shows us a different way to heaven--- not by "being good enough" and trying to keep his laws, but he will accept and acquit us---"declare us not guilty"---if we trust Jesus Christ to take away our sins.And we can all be saved in this same way, by coming to Christ, no matter who we are or what we have been like. Yes, all have sinned; and fall short of God's glorious ideals; yet now God declares us "not guilty" of offending him if we trust in Jesus Christ, who in his kindness freely takes away our sins. God sent Jesus Christ to take the punishment for our sins and to end all God's anger against us. He uses Christ's blood and our faith as a means of saving us from his wrath.

Isn't it unfair? But, isn't this unfair for God to let criminals go free, and say that they are innocent? No, for he does it on the basis of their trust in Jesus who took away their sins. Then what can we boast about doing, to earn our salvation?Nothing at all. Why? Because our acquittal is not based on our good deeds; it is based on what Christ has done and our faith in him. So it is that we are saved by faith in Christ and not by the good things we do.

God Showed His Great Love God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. And since by his blood he did this for us as sinners, how much more will he do for us now that he has declared us not guilty? Now he will save us from all God's wrath to come. And since, when we were his enemies, we were brought back to God by the death of his Son, what blessings he must have for us now that we are his friends, and he is living within us.  Now we rejoice in our wonderful new relationship with God---all because of what our Lord Jesus Christ has done in dying for our sins---making us friends of God.

Adam's Sin The sin of this one man, Adam, caused death to be king over all, but all who will take God's gift of forgiveness and acquittal are kings of life because of this one man, Jesus Christ. Yes, Adam's sin brought punishment to all, but Christ's righteousness makes men right with God, so that they can live.Adam caused many to be sinners because he disobeyed God, and Christ caused many to be made acceptable to God because he obeyed.

The Ten Commandments The Ten Commandments were given so that all could see the extent of their failure to obey God's laws. But the more we see our sinfulness, the more we see God's abounding grace forgiving us. Before sin ruled over all men and brought them to death, but now God's kindness rules instead, giving us right standing with God and resulting in eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. There is no condemnation awaiting those who belong to Christ Jesus.  For the power of the life- giving Spirit---and this power is ours through Christ Jesus. We aren't saved from sin's grasp by knowing the commandments of God,because we can't and don't keep them, but God put into effect a different plan to save us. He sent his own Son in a human body like ours---except that ours are sinful---and destroyed sin's control over us by giving himself as a sacrifice for our sins. So now we can obey God's laws if we follow after the Holy Spirit and no longer obey the old evil nature within us.

Now we can really serve God Now when we put our faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ we can really serve God, not in the old way, mechanically obeying a set of rules, but in a new way, with all of your hearts and minds.

How Does This Salvation Come?The scripture says we are saved through the free gift of God's kindness, not by being good enough. If we were required to be good enough, it wouldn't be a free gift. It wouldn't be free if it had to be earned. The salvation that comes from trusting Christ--- is within easy reach of each of us; if fact, it is as near as our own hearts and mouths.For if you tell others with your mouth that Jesus Christ, is your Lord, and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead,you will be saved. For it is by believing in his heart that a man becomes right with God, and with his mouth he tells others of his faith,confirming his salvation.For the scriptures tell us that no one who believes in Christ will ever be disappointed. Any one who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved. Ask the Lord Jesus Christ to help you live as you should, and don't make plans to do evil. Don't copy the behavior and customs of this world, but be a new and different person with a fresh newness in all you do and think. Then you will learn from your own experience how his ways will really satisfy you.

I know I am rotten through and through so far as my old sinful nature is concerned. No matter which way I turn I can't make myself do right. I want to but I can't. When I want to do good, I don't; and when I try not to do wrong,I do it anyway.Now if I am doing what I don't want to, it is plain where the trouble is:sin still has me in its evil grasp. It seems to be a fact of life that when I want to do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong. I love to do God's will so far as my new nature is concerned; but there is something else deep within me, in my lower nature, that is at war with my mind and wins the fight and makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me. In my mind I want to be God's willing servant but instead I find myself still enslaved to sin.

So you see how it is: my new life tells me to do right,but the old nature that is inside me loves to sin. Oh, what a terrible predicament I'm in. Who will free me from my slavery to this deadly lower nature? Thank God! It has been done by Jesus Christ our Lord. He has set me free.