## 💡Big Idea >- ### Takeaways and Next Steps - ## 📖Bible Passage >[!NOTE]- Scripture > ## Points - What is the theme of God's word? - It is a risk to find only one theme, partially because we are trinitarians. This means that we will find more than one focal point of truth. Are we Christ centered, or God-centered, Spirit centered. Yes. All of these. - The Bible's theme is about God revealing Himself to us. - What is the reason for the Bible? - Revealing man's fall from God. Our sinful condition. - God has set out a plan for our **redemption and salvation**. - The end goal is that we be rescued, redeemed and that we worship Him. - Now we come to our text. - v14: Paul: I am a debtor. I owe them. - because he was called to this. Jesus appointed Paul to this task and therefore Paul is under obligation. - This is also a good that we owe to our neighbors: to share the Good News. - There is a great deal of passion for sharing news. - Even the cults share their *bad news* - The rest of the world shares the message *eat, drink, and be merry for tomorrow we die*[^1]. this is a hopeless gospel. Not good news. - Most of the news that we see in media is bad news: - It is told to us by a beautiful face. This gives us the false hope that they have the answers to our problems. - The world **needs** to hear real, true, actual good news. - Our neighbors are dead in their trespasses. - As believers we, like Paul need to say that we are debtors to our neighbors. - Every time we have a conversation with someone, we need to find some way to share the truth with them. - We may be rejected and, if so that is fine. Christ was rejected as we see in John 6. - No one was rejected more than Paul. He was stoned on multiple occasions. - If we really believe this is Good news we ought to have passion to share this good news to others. - Here Paul mentions 2 groups of people who need to hear the good news. - 1. the wise: - the intellectuals. the rich and well-educated. - These are rarely humble and therefore rarely susceptible to the Gospel. - They have so much internal contradiction in their own belief system, and yet they have great confidence in it. - 2. the foolish: - the rejects. The humbled. - they tend to be much more susceptible - Nevertheless Paul says he owes them. - Don't forget, that Paul also mentions the Jews. - They had a great background of knowledge of the word and yet have rejected the Gospel. - v16: Yet Paul has proclaimed that he is not ashamed of the Gospel. - The world wants us to be ashamed of it and to bring us down. - They will attempt to shame you - Also the world outnumbers you. This is intimidating. - We believe the Gospel and stand for it, and yet we overcome the opposition against us. - Rev 14 says we overcome the devil by the blood of the lamb - If you are on the stake then the question is *what do we believe?* - What are you holding on to? When you are at death's door will you hold onto the truth or will you be ashamed of the Gospel? ## Application - 2 questions: - 1. Why is this good news? - This really is the question that is answered in the rest of the book of Romans. - It is good news, because God has determined that it is good. - God decides what is good. - Let's summarize the 76 references to the *Good news* in the NT - [[Ephes-01#v14]] - Eph. 6 mentions the Gospel of peace - [[Col-01|Colossians 1:5]] - 2 timothy 1:10 - Romans 1:2-5 - Romans 2:16: - Acts 20:24-25 - Acts 28:31 - Most of the references of the Gospel in the Gospels reference Jesus bringing the good news of Jesus bringing the Kingdom of God. - So here is our summary: - The Gospel is a work that is **already done**. - It is what Christ has already accomplished for us. - 1 Corinthians 15 - This is something very securing for us. - It is a Gospel of grace. - It gives us everything we could ever need. - It addresses sins, and it's power and consequences. - Yet other world views: - essentially say *life is the pits and then you die*. - Some religions propose reincarnation. That's not good news. - Most world views essentially say you just have to pretend that everything is okay. - But that is not God's Good News. - God is ultimately good. - The reason why people doubt the Gospel and can't receive it is because they doubt the goodness of God. - This was Eve's mistake. She doubted that God could give her goodness if she didn't take it for herself in the fruit. - Is God as good as His power? - Well we see His goodness all around us, in nature. - We need to believe that God has brought a Gospel that will solve all the world's problems. - Because it fixes all the bad things in the world. - What could be better than that? - The Gospel means resurrection, ascension, rule, and then the kingdom of God. - Jesus has overcome the enemies. He has already won. - And we *will* win, as we trust in Him. - He is King. - We have a hard time understanding what kings have done in history. - What kings do is they overcome the enemy and then they establish their rule and dominion. - This is what Jesus did. He crushed the enemies of His kingdom. - And He continues to do this throughout history. - Ended the roman empire, the spanish inquisition, Mao zedong. Jesus brought these all to an end, and yet Jesus' kingdom continues to grow. - Psalm 45 shows this. - 2. Why is this so powerful for all who believe? - The theme of this book: how is this book a power for all who believe? - Unfortunately the Gospel that is presented in evangelicalism today is an anemic, powerless gospel. But the real Gospel is **divine, life transforming, glorious, beautiful, powerful** - Ask yourself this: What can possibly overcome the sin in your life? - Not just the whack-a-mole approach to sin, but really overcoming the underlying mechanism that causes these sins to pop up. - What power can overcome the *lust, and the [[pride]]* in our hearts. - The Law could not do this[^2] - Illustration: Swanson was at a Buddhist temple - There was a sign that said *while you're here try not to commit adultery or murder* - This is a sign of the powerlessness of Buddhism. - Only the Gospel of God, the power of God can overcome our sins, our hopelessness, our depression, overcome the devil, overcome death and every other problem. - This is the same power: - that healed the blind, deaf, lame, and lepers - that split the Red Sea. - Have **you** seen the power of God? - One thing I know: *Once I was blind, but now I see.* Jesus opened my eyes to the truth. - this is how we can sing Amazing Grace. - *I have experienced the supernatural power of God who changed me*. - And this is Paul's prayer: that we would see, feel and know the power of God - We, believers are walking talking miracles. - Believe these truths and be saved. - [[John-03#v36|John 3:36]] - If you haven't believed it before, believe it now. --- ## Further Study - --- ## 💬Discussion Questions 1. # Footnotes [^1]: the ancient YOLO [^2]: as Paul teaches later in Romans