Lessons

The lesson on March 8, 2009 covers chapter 5 of Romans which culminates what Paul was teaching in chapter 4 that our sins have been done away with in Christ and through Christ, God can see us as acceptable because when God looks at us, He sees Christ’s righteousness. Romans 5:8-11, it says “But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement.” Chapter 5 or Romans starts with the word “Therefore” and the wherefores and therefores appear in scripture to point out to us something that has already been said and the conclusion that comes from that matter. Chapter 5 has three of these, and we know that Romans is the great doctrinal book of justification which was covered in part 5. We know from 1 Timothy 2:5 that “… there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus;” so the doctrine of justification is very important especially after Acts 28:28 in the dispensation of the Mystery. The three divisions of this chapter goes from 1-11, 12-17, and 18-21 (each of these sections are started with the words therefore and wherefore) and the first verses 1-11 bring us to a conclusion. Job knew that justifcation was important because he asked the question in Job 9:2 “… how should man be just with God?” Paul answers that question in Romans 5:1. We learn we have justification by faith, and in verse 9, we see that we are also justified by His blood. We learn in Chapter 5 that the sin of Adam is on us all resulting in death but with Christ, we have grace and life. We receive God’s riches at Christ’s expense.