Saturday, April 28, 2007

Romans 6 Freedom from sin's grasp

1-14 Dead to Sin, Alive in Christ

Why do we not sin? Thoughts:
- Experienced God's love -> Chose to die to sin as an act of loving back -> Automatically reject sin because it's against God's way (counter argument: non-believer also knows what's wrong/right, and may choose not to sin either)
- Gratefulness of salvation
- Choose to believe in God and die to sin (out of knowledge) -> because it's the right thing to do

before becoming believer:
- out of fear of the consequence (or conscience)

after becoming believer:
- love -> commitment
- why love God? because he's good -> from personal experience (not only knowledge). Consequence: try not to sin anymore


15-23 Slaves to Righteousness
The answer to previous question:

16.Don't you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness?

- 2 choices: slaves to righteousness or to sin
- slaves always obey their master
- slave to sin -> sin -> death
- slave to
righteousness -> obey -> try not to sin (sanctification process)

why the term "slaves"? slaves have to follow the master's path. imperfect analogy because we still have free will, and allowed to choose your master. we cannot manipulate the consequence of our choice though.

now there's a time when say someone ask you, why are you not gossiping?
some ppl would say I'm not gossiping because I love him... now, the three of us... we still cant say those words easiliy like that. is it something wrong with us? or we're in fact in the right way afterall... its only we havent got that far yet.

now in that case? what is the meaning of "I love Him"?
if we havent got that far (see case above), does it mean that we *dont* love Him? or we *havent* got that far.

there's indeed certain passage in the bible, forgot where that is right now.. that says "if you love Him, you obey what he said." so it's answering what we've been asking all this time. obeying, having commitment, *is* love... or some part of love at least. so... now when we answer the question "why you are not gossiping" with "I do that because I'm committed with that".. that still means we're in love with Him nevertheless.

love is combination of feeling, and commitment.
strangely this applies both to human-human relationship and also to human-god relationship.

Saturday, April 7, 2007

Romans 5

5:1-11 Peace and Joy.


All humans suffers. They will experience death, pain and loss.

Cause of suffering:
- Nature. limited resource due to fallen nature of humans. System not perfect. case: natural disaster.
- God. punishment sin. case: tulah.
- Satan, allowed by god. case: ayub

when facing suffering:
- faith God will give best.
- hope: expect to happen, anticipation that God will give the best.
- plus request.

For a believer:
- suffering,
- perseverance, -- tahan banting.
- character - habit.
- hope.


12-21. Death through Adam, Life through Christ.

- There's sin even before Moses law.
- We don't know what makes somebody sinful. (Trespass against God's direct order? conscience? )
- Although there's no Moses law, sin was penalized by death. Since adam.
- Gift >>>>> Trespass. Because gift of love, we have power to overcome sin's power. Without it, we're under law. And we'll be breaking law.
- One man sacrifice was/is enough for all. Tekanan: quantity?

Saturday, March 17, 2007

Romans 4 - Abraham Justified by Faith

1-8
- if salvation is a result of work, then it's not a gift, but rather the worker's right
- implication: no one can work hard enough to earn salvation, so salvation has to be given ("gift / grace ")
- david: "blessed are those those transgretion are forgiven whose sin is covered"
- sin has to be punished. period.
- what does is mean to forgive then? sins erased? isn't not fair if sins are not punished?
- the sin still exist and will be punished, but the punishment/consequence are taken care of by JC.
- Was David aware of the concept of salvation, that JC will come to redeem them? Probably not, but he's aware that God is able to nullify sin (doesn't know the mechanism yet)
- IF sins are automatically forgiven when you believe, why do believers still ask for forgiveness? (The Lord's prayer, I John 1:19, James 5:16)

Confession means:
--> agreeing with God that our sin truly is sin, and we're willing to turn from it
--> ensuring that we don't conceal our sin.
--> recognizing our tendency to sin and relying on his power to overcome it

If we don't confess:
--> we're not agreeing with God that our sin truly is sin, and we're not willing to turn from it
--> we're (most likely) concealing our sin.
--> we're not recognizing our tendency to sin and not relying on his power to overcome it

confessing doesn't have any effect on your right of salvation, but it affects your relationship/fellowship with God.

9-12
- Circumcision is only a "seal" / outward-sign of Abraham's faith. God has acknowledged Abraham's faith before he was circumcised.

- What kind of faith do you need to receive salvation? Faith to what? To God. But which part and how far do you need to believe before you're qualified? Is believing God's existence enough?

13-25
There's no law in Abraham's era. When there's no law, there's no transgression, but there's still sin. Abraham was saved through righteousness that comes by his faith.


============= side note ===================
| what's the difference between "holy" and "righteous"?
| "holy" is more like a quality standard
| "righteous" is more like a justice standard
=======================================

Sunday, March 11, 2007

Romans 3 -- God faithfulness

1-8
  • Is sin ok? No. And no excuse for the sin either. (context, see contradiction, why people may use argument of ch 2.1:God's kindness, patience, tolerance for sinner)
  • Jews entrusted by word of God so they have more responsibility.
9-20
  • (context vs Jews) Function of law (1) not to declare self-righteousness but to point out where we go wrong, conscience of sin.
  • Nobody has 100% compliant to the law, so no one is righteous.
  • Why do we need to be righteous? --> Not punished, Go to heaven (saved!).

21-31
There is righteousness (kebenaran). It's from God.
How? through (our) faith in JC.
Mechanics:
  • All have sinned,
  • justified freely -- for free, declared not guilty,
  • through redemption -- consequence of sin is punishment. To bail out from punishment, there is a price to pay. JC (by sacrificing himself) paid that price for us. It 's done.
  • came by JC --By grace, it's available.
  • God shows justice -- sin to be punished, standard for salvation is to be righteous.
  • (25) How about people who lived before Christ?
(1) Kalo sin dibiarin- ga dihukum, -- ga adil.
(2) Kalo sin tapi di selamatin - ga artinya faith.
jawab: By faith to the coming of Christ, penebusan . Orang dulu ikut ditebus waktu JC mati.
how early? alfons: Eve.
Sampe 26.

-----31- Function of law (2) , stay tuned , chp 6-7.
---------------------
ben thoughts:
Concept:
- sin: offense to (God's) moral law. (m-w)
- sin is always punished.
- punishment for sin is death.
- nobody's sin free i.e nobody's righteous. Everybody is offender of moral law, charged guilty. Without other mechanics, everybody is punished.
- God says, JC is the subs the punishment for us. Justice is enforced.
- Faith to JC is the tix for justification.


27-31
no foundation to boast for observing the law

Romans 2

1-16 We can't judge other people since we're also sinful. "judge" in this context has a negative meaning. (i.e. judging hypocritically / self-righteously, Mat 7:11-5)

Judging has to be based on God's word and with the motive of love. Love here means that we have to give opportunity and support for the person to repent, not just to "shoot them down".

To what extend do we have to tolerate sin? (i.e. what's your attitude toward gays?)


17-29 Only Jew has access to the law (at this point), and they often boast about their knowledge of the law. Jews are criticized in this section because of their self-righteous behavior even though they're also sinful.

Romans 1

1-7 introduction by Paul as an apostle of God.

8-17
Paul's longing to visit Rome. He feels obligated to both Greeks and non-Greeks and the message of salvation belongs to everyone who believes.

18-32
Paul talked about different sinful acts and God's wrath against it.

Romans Strikes Back: A continuation of the study of the book of Romans

Where: Corinth (probably)
By Whom: Paul
To whom: congregation in rome, addressed to believers, including Jews and Gentiles
When: Paul's third missionary journey (57 AD)
Background: Paul sent this letter on his way back to Jerusalem to deliver collection from the gentile congregation for the congregation in Jerusalem. The congregation in Jerusalem was experiencing economic hardship and being persecuted. Paul has never been to Rome, and didn't know much about their problems. He longs to go to Rome, but has not been able to do so.