We are moving on to Romans! I got a bit behind in blog posts with the busyness of the summer youth/singles trip and then school getting started, and I know that many are further ahead in their reading of the book of Romans, but I'll start here at the beginning.
I already did one post for Romans 1, but I decided to give a bit of an intro before going on to Chapter 2.
We saw in the overview of Paul's travels and writings that Paul wrote the Letter to the Romans around AD 56-56 and very likely from Corinth since he mentions two Corinthian residents in his letter (Phoebe and Erastus). This is on his third missionary trip where he spends three months in Greece (Acts 20:03) and Corinth is the main city he visited in Greece.
At this point Paul is heading to Jerusalem where he will be imprisoned and then taken to Rome as a prisoner. So when Paul writes in chapter 1 of Romans that he is longing and praying to go to Rome (Romans 1:10-11) his prayer does later get answered, just not in the manner that we would be too excited about. It certainly does explain some of why Paul views his imprisonment in a positive way: He had been wanting to go to Rome, and Jesus appeared to Paul and spoke to him and said that he would testify to Jesus in Rome (Acts 23:11).
This letter is Paul's longest letter and it has very extensive theological discussions about the nature of salvation, comparing those who try to attain salvation by good works and their own efforts (which is impossible) to those who receive the mercy and grace of Jesus and are then rescued from their sins. Some of the sentences in this letter are extremely looong and complex and require careful reading (and at least for me, reading several times :) )
There are several big thematic breaks in the book.
In chapters 2-8 he is focusing on salvation as I had mentioned coming from God's mercy and gift to us in Jesus versus following the Law of Moses (The Chapter 7-8 transition is a major climax)
In chapters 9-11 he focuses on the nation of Israel and how they fit into God's plan still
In chapters 12-16 are more of the practical implications of how to live out the salvation that is a gift from God.
I already did one post for Romans 1, but I decided to give a bit of an intro before going on to Chapter 2.
We saw in the overview of Paul's travels and writings that Paul wrote the Letter to the Romans around AD 56-56 and very likely from Corinth since he mentions two Corinthian residents in his letter (Phoebe and Erastus). This is on his third missionary trip where he spends three months in Greece (Acts 20:03) and Corinth is the main city he visited in Greece.
At this point Paul is heading to Jerusalem where he will be imprisoned and then taken to Rome as a prisoner. So when Paul writes in chapter 1 of Romans that he is longing and praying to go to Rome (Romans 1:10-11) his prayer does later get answered, just not in the manner that we would be too excited about. It certainly does explain some of why Paul views his imprisonment in a positive way: He had been wanting to go to Rome, and Jesus appeared to Paul and spoke to him and said that he would testify to Jesus in Rome (Acts 23:11).
This letter is Paul's longest letter and it has very extensive theological discussions about the nature of salvation, comparing those who try to attain salvation by good works and their own efforts (which is impossible) to those who receive the mercy and grace of Jesus and are then rescued from their sins. Some of the sentences in this letter are extremely looong and complex and require careful reading (and at least for me, reading several times :) )
There are several big thematic breaks in the book.
In chapters 2-8 he is focusing on salvation as I had mentioned coming from God's mercy and gift to us in Jesus versus following the Law of Moses (The Chapter 7-8 transition is a major climax)
In chapters 9-11 he focuses on the nation of Israel and how they fit into God's plan still
In chapters 12-16 are more of the practical implications of how to live out the salvation that is a gift from God.
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