Introduction to Season 20 + An Overview of Pauls Letter to the Romans.

The Bible Project Daily Podcast: Welcome to the Book of Romans

Episode 1: Introduction to Romans

Welcome to a new series of The Bible Project Daily Podcast! This time, we embark on an in-depth journey through the Book of Romans, one of the most influential writings in the New Testament. Written by the Apostle Paul, this letter lays out the core doctrines of the Christian faith, tackling themes such as sin, grace, justification, and righteousness by faith.

Why Study Romans?

Romans has been a cornerstone of Christian theology, shaping the faith and thought of believers for centuries. Its impact on key figures such as Augustine, Martin Luther, and John Wesley underscores its power in transforming lives. As we work through this book, we will examine its historical context, theological significance, and practical applications for our daily walk with Christ.

Structure of the Series

This series will be as always, a chapter-by-chapter, verse-by-verse exploration of the book. Along the way, we will:

• Unpack key theological concepts
• Explore Paul’s arguments in their historical and cultural context
• Reflect on how Romans applies to contemporary Christian life

What to Expect in This Episode

In this introductory episode, we will cover:

1. The Author: Who was Paul, and what motivated him to write this letter?
2. The Recipients: Understanding the church in Rome and its unique challenges
3. The Purpose: Why did Paul write Romans, and what are its key themes?
4. The Big Picture: A quick overview of the book’s structure and main arguments

How You Can Engage

I encourage you to read through the Book of Romans as we progress through the series. Take notes, reflect, and feel free to share your thoughts. You can engage with me through the podcast platform or on Patreon to discuss insights and ask questions.

https://patreon.com/JeremyMcCandless?utm_medium=unknown&utm_source=join_link&utm_campaign=creatorshare_creator&utm_content=copyLink

Let’s embark on this exciting journey together! May the study of Romans deepen our faith and draw us closer to the heart of God.

Transcript

Introduction to New Season.

Overview of the Book of Romans – The Big Picture. 

Imagine you’ve just purchased a farm. First, you might drive around it. If you were rich and it was a particularly big farm you might fly over it to gain an overall view—the fields, the woods, the buildings—getting a clear picture of its contours from above. 

Later, as you begin to work the land—plowing, fertilizing, planting, cultivating, harvesting—you would come to know every detail.  You would begin to understand the soft spots that need gentle care and attention, but also the tough hard ground that needs to be ploughed first before you can do anything useful with it.

This two-tiered approach is exactly how I plan to study the book of Romans. Before delving into its many details, we must first soar above it to grasp the broad strokes—the overall layout and design of this critical epistle, before later going in to plough the land, so to speak, to draw out the depth of meaning within it.

Romans is one of the most important books in the Bible, and it’s easy to get a little lost in its many twists and turns, we must begin by understanding its overall structure and main theme of the book.

Romans is written in the form of an ancient letter. An just like modern letters, it follows a standard format: A greetings that identifies the author and recipients, followed by a section of thanksgiving and prayer. Then the main body of the letter, and finally personal greetings and a closing benediction. 

In Romans, Paul also opens his letter with a salutation in verses 1–7, then offers thanksgiving and prayer in Romans 1:8–17. Then the heart of the epistle—the core message—is found from Romans 1:18 through to chapter 15, after which the letter concludes with a series of personal greetings in closing chapter 16.

For today’s overview, I want us to soar above a look down on the main body of the letter, in which the core subject is revealed: 

Which is the righteousness of God. 

Yes, it’s simple but critical to say—the subject of Romans is God’s righteousness.

So let me begin today by breaking down what it says about righteousness into four key points. Four points that describe for us, what righteousness is, and how it works.

1.             Righteousness Is Needed:

In Romans 1:18–3:20, Paul explains that all people are in fact, unrighteousness. He shows that God’s wrath is revealed against the whole of a unregenerate creation because, although God’s existence is clearly shown in creation, humanity has rejected that revelation and, as a result, stands condemned before God. In this opening section, Paul emphasizes that every person—regardless of background—lacks the righteousness God demands.

2.             Both Jew and Gentile Fall Short of that Righteousness:

Some bible teachers claim that Paul’s argument here addresses only the Gentiles, but a closer look I believe indicates that Paul includes everyone in this. In Romans 2:1–3:8, he argues that even the Jews, who had received the Law, are not exempt from condemnation. They, too, are judged by their works and the light they have received, so all people fall short of God’s holy standard.

3.             Universal Sinfulness:

In Romans 3:9–20, Paul says that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Although some may seem more righteous than others in relative terms, however when measured by the absolute standard of God’s righteousness, every person is deficient. This universal need for righteousness is the foundation for Paul’s argument throughout the letter.

I believe that by first grasping this broad overview—the structure of the letter and its central theme of God’s righteousness we are able to lay a firm foundation before diving into the detailed "plowing" of each section, over the coming days and weeks.

This approach helps us avoid getting bogged down in minutiae because we are still able to appreciate the overall design and purpose of the his letter.

So, the first major theme of this book is that righteousness is needed, and that all is sin and fall short of the standard need to achieve that righteousness, therefore all live in a state on unrighteousness, regardless of their background.. 

The second movement in the book is that this righteousness is imparted by faith, I should say imputed by faith, because beginning in chapter 3, verse 21 and going down through chapter 5. Verse 21 he discusses the fact that righteousness is (and he uses the word) imputed. 

He does this by first begins by explaining the doctrine of justification by faith. 

Now at this point I need to pause for just a second and say a word about the doctrine of justification. The Greek word justification means to declare righteous.

God is in the business of declaring some people righteous. 

Now how can you say that God comes along and just declares someone righteous and we have it imputed to us, rather than earned through anything we do.

Well, the answer Paul says is that Jesus Christ died to pay for humanities sin, and he then arose from the dead, so that when individual men and woman when they trust in Jesus Christ, the righteousness of Christ is put to their account it is imputed, if you will.

So, the doctrine of justification, is simply saying that when a person has faith in what God himself has done, God imputes to that person the very righteousness of Jesus Christ. 

That doctrine is illustrated most clearly in the book of Romans, probably in chapter 4, verses 1 to 25. In this portion he illustrates the fact that Abraham. Was justified by faith and the second Old Testament figure he points to is David, 

Both Abraham and David he says were also justified by faith. 

So, Paul is claiming the whole of Scripture, both Old Testament and New Testament, teaches this doctrine of justification by faith. 

Then in the next chapter of the book he talks about how the righteousness is given and can be received in joy. 

In Chapter 5 he will talks about the benefits that we have because we have been declared righteous by faith in Jesus Christ. 

So, the opening section of this book is that righteousness is needed and the second is that righteousness is imputed when a person trusts in the finished work of Jesus Christ again. 

Let me illustrate for a moment how our own attempts to achieve righeouness by our own efforts will always fall short.

When I was younger, I used to be a javelin thrower (Expand)

Imagine I took a group of the world’s best javelin thrower stood on the docks at Boston and tried to throw their Javelin and hit my house the UK, they would all fall short.

Some might do better than others, some will definitely do better than you, but they will all miss the target. 

However, God in his infinite power can and would always hit the mark

Now that illustration is a little bit of an oversimplification of the doctrine of justification, but it does get at one of the basic concepts in justification. 

God’s law sets a perfectly righteous standard—a standard that we have all failed to meet, and that standard revolves around the concept of moral sin. A because being Holy has declared that the penalty for this disobedience (sin) is death, we need to find a solution for the problem of sin. God takes sin seriously.

Yet, Jesus Christ, God own son, became a man, lived a perfectly righteous life, and offered Himself as a righteous sacrifice to pay for our sins. And when we trust in Him, God credits us with Christ’s righteousness.

In other words, though I could never achieve righteousness on my own, through faith in Jesus, His perfect righteousness is imputed to me.

This brings us to the next major section of Romans, which spans from chapter 6:1 to chapter 8:39.

Here, Paul addresses, one by one, various objections to the doctrine of justification by faith. 

·          He asks, for example, in Romans 6:1, “Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?”.

·          Again in 6:15, “Shall we sin because we are not under the law, but under grace?” 

·          Then, in Romans 7:7, he questions, “Is the law sin?” 

Each time, Paul emphatically rejects these implications with phrases like “Certainly not” or “God forbid,” and then he proceeds to explain the proper understanding of our new life in Christ.

Paul teaches that although we are declared righteous by faith in Jesus Christ—who died on the cross and was raised from the dead—we must also live out that righteousness through obedience to God. 

In Romans 6:16, he reminds us, “Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves, you are that one’s slave, either of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness?” 

Similarly, in Romans 6:19, he urges us to present our members as slaves of righteousness rather than of sin. Essentially, our obedience to God’s Word is the means by which the righteousness of God is worked out in our lives.

Further, in Romans 8, Paul explains that it is the Holy Spirit who empowers us to obey God.

In Romans 8:5, he contrasts those who set their minds on the things of the flesh with those who set their minds on the things of the Spirit. The carnal mind, he warns, is enmity against God and cannot submit to His law; only a mind governed by the Spirit brings life and peace.

To bring this into perspective, imagine this:

All people naturally fall short when trying to live righteously, just like standing in Boston and attempting to hit my home on the Northwest coast of Lancashire in England with that Javelin.

In contrast, Jesus Christ, who is God in the flesh, perfectly achieved what we could not. 

When we trust in Christ, His perfect act on the cross is credited to us, and by the Holy Spirit’s enabling we are empowered to live in obedience to God. This is why righteousness is not something we achieve by our own efforts; it is a gift received by faith and then worked out in our daily lives through our obedience.

This section of Romans teaches that in Christ it is possible for us to present ourselves to God in true obedience. We are declared righteous by faith, and as we yield to the Spirit, our lives begin to reflect that righteousness—a righteousness that we could never muster on our own.

The fifth and final section of Romans spans from chapter 12, verse 1 through chapter 15, and it focuses on living out righteousness in everyday life. In this section.

Paul shifts from explaining that righteousness is needed and provided to showing how believers can practice that righteousness in every area of life. 

He outlines specific instructions for how that righteousness can be lived out in four specific areas of life:

1.     Life in the Church (Romans 12:1–8): How believers should live, using their spiritual gifts, and present their bodies as living sacrifices.

2.     Life in Society (Romans 12:9–21): How we must behave in our relationships with others, emphasizing love and genuine concern for one another.

3.     In Our Attitude Toward Government (Romans 13, and parts of 14–15): How to submit to authorities as a matter of Christian duty.

4.     Relationships Among Believers (Romans 14 and 15:1–13): How to interact with one another in unity and love, setting aside differences.

Paul’s overarching point is that true righteousness is not merely about following a set of external rules, it should always begin with an internal attitude of love. 

When we live rightly, we do what is best for others. Our obedience is marked by a genuine, heartfelt love that permeates every area of our lives.

Remember those top Javelin throwers we’ve gathered in Boston, all of whom are trying to hit my house in England with their Javelins. They’d naturally miss because human effort alone is limited. 

In contrast, Jesus Christ, the incarnate God as man, perfectly achieved what we could not. When we trust in Him, His perfect righteousness is credited to us. 

But also, by the power of the Holy Spirit, we are enabled not only to “hit the mark” sin wise, but to impact every area of our lives, whether in church, in society, in our dealings with government, or in our relationships with one another.

Our forthcoming study together in Romans I hope will teach us three fundamental truths about righteousness:

1.     It Is Needed: Every person, whether Jew or Gentile, falls short of God’s perfect standard.

2.     It Is Provided: Through faith in Jesus Christ, His righteousness is imputed to us.

3.     It Must Be Practiced: True righteousness is demonstrated by our obedience to God’s Word and our dependence on the Spirit, leading us to live in love.

Moreover, Paul consistently weaves into his argument the theme of the Jews and the Gentiles. He shows that both groups are equally in need of God’s righteousness, and are equally offered salvation through faith, and are equally called to live out that righteousness in unity within the church.

This final section of Romans challenges us to live a practical, loving, and obedient life—a life where our internal commitment to righteousness is reflected in every interaction, every decision, and every relationship. 

As we study trough this book together over the coming months, we will hopefully see how Paul intertwines the themes of righteousness and the unity of Jew and Gentile, as a template for the whole world and all of humanity. Reminding us that no one is exempt from God’s call to live righteously by faith and in love.

But then, in an interesting challenge at the end, he says, practicing righteousness will demand everything you’ve got. It requires wholehearted effort, unwavering obedience, and deep faith and trust in the Holy Spirit.

Paul’s message in Romans is clear: God calls unrighteous people to be righteous. This righteousness is not earned by our own works but is provided through faith in Jesus Christ, and then lived out in our daily obedience to God’s Word.

Today we live in a time when many people feel unloved, burdened by broken relationships and the pressures of everyday life. While some in ministry today seem to wholly emphasize on God’s love for us, and that is of course undeniable. However if we are truly taking our relationship with Him seriously it also means understanding that Gods expression of love must always include the judgement of our sin and that forgiveness and genuine righteousness is found only in Christ. 

As we study Romans together, with God’s help I trust we will all see that we are declared righteous by faith, and then that righteousness is thereafter practiced in our lives through obedience.

In essence, Romans teaches that God demands righteousness but also provides that righteousness through the work of His Son and the power of the Holy Spirit.

That is the awe inspiring truth that resonates throughout all this book in that God’s righteousness is not a distant ideal, but a living reality that transforms our lives when we trust in Jesus and obey His Word.

So we can be thankful for the revelation of His character revealed to us in this book.  

We may along the way indeed notice that in truth fall short of God perfect standard. But we can also be deeply grateful that He has provided His own righteousness through His Son, Jesus. And that he can empower us by the Holy Spirit to live out this righteousness every day.

May this time together in his Word these coming days and weeks not only shape our minds but also transform our minds, our wills and our lives. Amen.