In the epistle to the Romans, Paul spends the first 11 chapters talking about the theology and doctrine of the church. Not the doctrinal distinctives of a particular type or denomination of a church, but the general theology and doctrine which believing through faith leads to salvation, through which you are made a part of Christ’s church. You cannot join this church, you must be born again to be a member of this church. And Paul uses the first eleven chapters to teach the doctrines of being born again, which is the doctrine of salvation. That doctrine is what is

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Starting in chapter 12, Paul has basically been giving a series of admonitions regarding life in the church.  The church is not a building nor an organization, per se.  It is an organism, a living, breathing community of believers who are connected in spirit, soul and body.  The church is the temple of God, of which  indwelled by the Spirit of God. 1Peter 2:5 says, “you also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” And beginning in chapter 12, Paul has

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I believe that in chapters 12 through 14 of Romans what we have is Paul addressing some practical considerations for how the church is to show love towards one another.  It is one thing to say that you should love one another, and that you should love your neighbor, and you should even love your enemies.  But it is another thing to work out how we do that in real life.  In each of these aspects of love, Paul is explaining the way love is worked out in the church and through the church.  Even in chapter 13, when Paul

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Beginning in chapter 12, Paul has been writing a series of practical exhortations to the church.  He started off in ch.12 vs 1 saying that as Christians we have a responsibility to present our bodies to the church as a living sacrifice, which is our reasonable service of worship. Now as we have learned, the church is not a building, nor a denomination, but a people.  The church is the eklesia, the called out ones, the assembly of believers who make up Christ’s body in local community.  So we are to physically present ourselves to be a part of that

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If you were here for the last few weeks in our study of Romans 12, then you will remember that chapter 12 deals with the practical application of the doctrine espoused in the first eleven chapters.  And practically speaking, chapter 12 is focused on the life of the church.  Paul says how we are live out the doctrines of justification and sanctification and glorification is by presenting our bodies physically to the church body, as a living sacrifice which is our worship to the Lord.   And the dominate focus of the chapter deals with how we live out our

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Jesus told His disciples in John 13:34-35 that “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” So in the church we are commanded to love one another, and we will be characterized by our love for one another. Now Paul is talking to the church in this chapter, giving them practical exhortation on how to live out their salvation. And Paul is saying in this passage

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When I look at what a lot of other preachers and teachers and commentators have said about this chapter before us, I think in some respects that many of them are guilty of dealing with  these passages out in a piecemeal sort of way.  What I mean by that is, they take them completely out of context with one another.  For instance, they look at vs1 and 2 separately from the rest of the chapter and see it as some sort of post conversion consecration of the individual believer.  Then in vs 3-8 they tend to disregard the previous verses

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Last week I went through the entire chapter 11 in one sermon.  Something I normally don’t attempt to do.  Today I am only going to be looking at two verses.  Oddly enough, the sermon length should be exactly the same. I think that the two verses we are looking at today are some of the most important in Romans. They serve as the culmination of Paul’s entire epistle and his argument up to this point.  Up through chapter 11 he has examined and explained the theology of our salvation; particularly the grace and mercies of God in producing and procuring

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