Lessons

The lesson on May 17, 2009 continues the study in Romans and starts with a discussion on Paul’s Gospel. The important distinction regarding Paul’s Gospel is that all the previous Gospel’s were only given to the Jews. Paul’s Gospel is unique because it was given to the Jew first, and then to the Gentiles. If you were a Jew during this time, you would have to ask yourself what was Paul preaching here because the inclusion of the Gentiles was something new. Paul was adept at explaining the Gospel out of the scriptures and was taking time to explain it to them. They accused Paul of things that were not true and started imposing the Proselyte status on the Gentile converts. This part of scripture describes when the Gentile was receiving salvation with the Jew. In the Old Testament it was trough the Jew, and after the book of Acts, it is apart from the Jew (TWA = Through, With, and Apart). God’s revealed plan included all the Gentiles were to be blessed by the Jews. When you look at Chapter 11 verse 1, Paul is stating the question that the Jews were asking. The Jews were having a hard time understanding the new status of the Gentiles in Paul’s Gospel. There are three sections to Romans. Chapters 1-8 are Doctrinal, Chapters 9-11 are dispensational, and 12-16 are practical. Chapter 11 brings the dispensational section to a close. When we read in Romans references to His people, there is no doubt that He means Israel (see Deuteronomy 32:9-10). One of the major issues in chapter 11 is the doctrine of election. The free will of man vs. the sovereignty of God. For those who have studied it, you could reference Calvinism vs. Arminianism. Calvinist believe in the Sovereignty of God, while Armenians believe in the free will of man. The best way to deal with these truths are to say both exist in parallel. The sovereignty of God and the free will of man are two sides of the same coin.