Thoughts While Reading Romans

I want to preface this with a thank you...

God, as a boy and then a young man, being raised in a Christian home, I learned a lot about You. I heard about You all the time. I was taught about You from birth yet I did not seek You out in a real, personal way. Even though You gave me the faith for salvation at age 6 and I was constantly hearing about You, learning in Sunday School about You, sitting in during preaching about You, singing songs about You, listening to music about You, reading things about You, talking about You, and enjoying You while doing those things, I never enjoyed or put much effort into reading and studying Your Word. Even when I did force myself to read or study Your Word it was usually so I could answer a question, or win an argument/debate, or show somebody else what the Scripture said about whatever at the time. I thank You so much for changing me in this area of my life. Now, because of Your continued work in me, I enjoy reading and studying Your inspired Word. Now I read Your Word not only so I can get an answer for a question, or so I can show somebody else what You have to say concerning any and every subject, but I read it so I can hear from You and communicate with You. I read it so You can teach me Your ways, teach me Your precepts, and teach me how to live life in such a way that I can most glorify You and live, preach, and teach the gospel of Jesus in such a way to be faithful to Your truth and be culturally relevant at the same time. Thank You and Amen.


A little less than a year ago, while studying the "doctrines of grace", I decided to take a little trip (lol) through the book of Romans. If your wondering why I laughed it is because Romans, while only 16 Chapters in length, is so theologically packed that a little trip could take a while. Anyways, a little trip I took. By making an outline in a notebook, I went through and unpacked everything that Romans had to say in about four weeks...or so I thought. I though "OK, I can just check that right off...I have read through Romans. I got all that down..." Boy, was I wrong!

In the past month God has been revealing to me some of the areas of my life that I have not surrendered to Him. He has been showing me those areas where I haven't let go of sin even though He has has broken sin's power to hang on to me. During this "Fatherly trip to the woodshed", He has taken me to Romans 6:1-14 for the past two weeks and parked me there so I can chew on what He has to say concerning His grace for me when I do sin and why I should not sin so I can use more grace. He has shown me that in Christ I am free from bondage to sin even though my flesh may still try to convince me otherwise. He has shown me that life is a war against the deeds of the body and that I must passionately and violently put them to death. Finally, he has showed me that the reason that I cannot let sin reign in my mortal body is because He reigns as King over the kingdom of my heart and I must fight to keep Him central in my life. I have got to present my body parts (my eyes, ears, tongue, hands, feet, and more) to Him as instruments (or weapons) of righteousness and not allow sin to use those weapons for unrighteousness. My sin controlled existence was crucified on the cross with Christ and I was given a redeemed, resurrection existence when Christ was raised from the dead. Thank You God!

Romans is a huge book of the Bible from a theological perspective, and I believe that if we all chewed our way through the contents of Romans that God would reveal to us things that we have never thought of or focused on in the way that He had Paul present it to us.