 Romans 1 - 4 Questions and Answers |
| Q. Who wrote the Book of Romans? | A. Romans 1:1 = The Apostle Paul. |
| Q. What is the Good News Paul spent his life preaching? |
A. Romans1:2-5 = 1) The Prophets spoke from God about Jesus from David's kingly line 2) Jesus is the Son of God, proven so when God powerfully raised Him from the dead. |
| Q. How did God raise Jesus from the dead? | A. Romans 1:4 = Through the Holy Spirit. |
| Q. How did Jesus receive the authority to welcome Gentiles into God's presence? |
A. Romans 1:5 = Through Jesus: 1) Who brought us the New Covenant 2) Who excluded no one. |
| Q. So the Good News is what? | A. Romans 1:5 = God has opened His door to Heaven to all of mankind. This was made possible through Jesus' life and death. |
| Q. Why? | A. Romans 1:5 = That all people will believe and obey God. |
| Q. What does that do for us? | A. Romans 1:5 = Obeying God brings glory to His name. |
| Q. I'm a believer. Am I called to this place? | A. Romans 1:6 = Yes. I'm called to belong to Jesus. |
| Q. Why am I called? | A. Romans 1:7 = God loves me dearly. |
| Q. And everyone else too? |
A. Romans 1:5 = Yes. Note: Some folks are mistaken about God. Whether it be because they were told so or else imagine God in a negative light, it is a mistake to see God as one standing behind us with an axe just waiting for us to fail so he can whack us good. Rather, God is standing behind us waiting to catch us when we fall and lovingly set us on our feet once again. He loves us beyond our ability to measure love. He does so unconditionally and not without heavy cost, which He doesn't try to impose on us. We have simply been set free to live lives full of glory and power, if we will just take up the mantles given us by the Prophets and godly folks of the past and present. May we continue God's great work. The Holy Spirit is ready to take us to places in the spiritual realm we can only begin to imagine. |
| Q. Did Paul bless people, even in his writings? | A. Romans 1:7 = Yes. He blessed them with grace and peace from God. |
| Q. Can I do that for others too? | A. Romans 1:7 = Yes. What a good way to steer a questionable conversation! Bless the people we discuss, and the people we find ourselves to be around. Prophesy good things over them, stretch your imagination as you speak faith, hope and love into every one. |
| Q. What was the church in Roman and the believers there like? | A. Romans 1:8 = Their faith in God was becoming known throughout the world. |
| Q. Should I thank God for each of my friends? | A. Romans 1:8 = Yes. |
| Q. Should I pray for each one? | A. Romans 1:9 = Yes. And often! |
| Q. How should I pray for people? |
A. Romans 1:9 = 1) Day and night 2) for specific needs they've mentioned. |
| Q. How do I serve God with all my heart? | A. Romans 1:9 = Telling others the Good News about His Son, Jesus. |
| Q. What is one good thing to pray for? | A. Romans 1:10 = Opportunity to share a spiritual blessing with young believers and old. |
| Q. What do spiritual blessings do? | A. Romans 1:11 = They help us to grow strong in the Lord. |
| Q. What else did Paul want for them? | A. Romans 1:12 = He was eager to encourage them in their faith, but they also offered him something in return. |
| Q. What? |
A. Romans 1:12 = He would be encouraged by their faith. Note: Fellowship serves to build people up. Believers in every place in life benefit from hearing what God has done in each life. And what a good conversation starter! If someone asked you what God was doing in your life today, would you have a ready answer? Always reflect on God's intervention in your life. Count your blessings and watch God move on your behalf. The brethren need to hear you describe God's faithfulness to you. And as a bonus, they will learn to do this by your example. |
| Q. Was Paul's heart for the believers in Rome? | A. Romans 1:13 = Yes. |
| Q. Why? | A. Romans 1:14 = Paul was himself a Roman Jew by birth, so was exposed to Roman and Jewish cultures. This piqued his interest in all other cultures a well. |
| Q. Did Paul prefer to work with educated or uneducated people? |
A. Romans 1:14 = He loved to work with both! Note: Sometimes college kids graduated and cannot readjust to living amongst the uneducated again. This should never be! Intelligence does not originate in books, but in the Creator. Common sense comes from the most subtle of folk. We all need one another to achieve a balanced perspective in Christ Jesus, lest the rich forget the poor and stunt their own growth as a result. Be prepared to teach the poorest man and God will bless you. Love God, love your brother, rtake care of the poor. Never conclude that one is too dull or ignorant to converse with. Dullness comes from having learned everything from books. |
| Q. The message Paul had for them was the same for both educated and not? |
A. Romans 1:15 = Yes. That we all have one Maker. Note: See how the Good News breaks down classes of people? |
| Q. Why does the Good News save the Jew before the Gentile? | A. Romans 1:16 = The Jews had anticipated Messiah since Adam! |
| Q. How do I get right with God? | A. Romans 1:17 = By faith. |
| Q. Once I apply faith, how do I keep right with God? | A. Romans 1:17 = By faith. |
| Q. Is this a new concept for Jesus' time? |
A. Romans 1:17 = No. Habbakkuk taught this in the Old Testament. See Habbakkuk 2:4 = "It is through faith that a righteous person has life." Note: Does your life sem off? Then your faith has not been applied to it. Faith is trusting God and letting Him lead you in every detail of your life. |
| Q. What does God think of sin? |
A. Romans 1:18 = He is angry with sin, and displays His anger from Heaven against all sinful wicked people who push the truth away from themselves. Note: Sin = Pushing the truth away. God does not hide truth. People reject what He has made plain. |
| Q. How does every man know about the truth of God? |
A. Romans 1:19 = God created them to know Him instinctively. Note: Idolatry is worship of the wrong god. Man can't help worshiping, for he was created to worship, but only God. |
| Q. So when God knitted me together in my mother's womb, He put the knowledge of God in my heart? | A. Romans 1:19 = Yes. |
| Q. How else do people know about God? | A. Romans 1:20 = Our knowledge of God is activated by seeing earth and sky and all that is made. |
| Q. What is easy to see? |
A. Romans 1:20 = 1) God's eternal power 2) God's divine nature. Note: Nice weather, volcanic activity, foul weather, fire, mercy and judgment are all before us. |
| Q. Does anyone have an excuse for not knowing God? | A. Romans 1:20 = No. All have known god. |
| Q. What is the problem sin brings in knowing God? |
A. Romans 1:12 = Sin takes the truth that there is God, then convinces a person: 1) not to worship God as God 2) Not to give God thanks. Note: What eggs on an idol worshipper? His God conciousness eggs him on. |
| Q. How does one acknowledge God? |
A. Romans 1:21 = 1) By worshiping Him 2) By giving thanks to Him for making us. |
| Q. How does man fall from true knowledge of God in his heart? | A. Romans 1:21 = By thinking up foolish ideas of what God is like. |
| Q. Apart from what God has revealed about Himself? | A. Romans 1:21 = Yes. |
| Q. What happens when man does this? |
A. Romans 1:21 = His mind becomes dark and confused. Note: Mental illness! As soon as a man decides he is clear enough to dream what is in his heart apart from what God Himself has put there, he becomes nuts. His sinful nature WILL conclude all kinds of false things. |
| Q. Why is this so? | A. Romans 1:21 = God has spoken. Man in sin responds with a sarcastic "Oh yeah?" |
| Q. Why? | A. Romans 1:22 = Man wants to think himself wise on his own volition. |
| Q. What does that result in? | A. Romans 1:22 = He makes himself an utter fool. |
| Q. How? |
A. Romans 1:23 = Worshiping the creation, making idols that look like mere people, or worshiping birds and animals and snakes. Note: God has said in the Ten Commandments of Moses not to make idols. Even respected religions make idols. People worship people, pray to people instead of: 1) Acknowledging God 2) Giving thanks to God for their lives. |
| Q. If it is wrong to do this, why doesn't God stop it? | A. Romans 1:24 = God lets them find out for themselves. Bad fruit is born of it though. |
| Q. What bad fruit comes from worshiping idols? | A. Romans 1:24 = Sexual perversion. |
| Q. So man deliberately chooses to believe lies about God? |
A. Romans 1:25 = Yes. Knowing the truth about God in the first place (in his heart). Note: Man is a lost sheep. But he loses himself because of his foolish ideas about God. Is there anyone in your life who is really lost and confused? This is why. Stop think, start believing right things again. The truth is in your heart. Access it. |
| Q. What happens when a man turns to worship creation? | A. Romans 1:26 = God abandons him to his shameful desires. |
| Q. What are shameful desires? | A. Romans 1:26 = Lesbianism and homosexuality. |
| Q. But aren't those things natural? | A. Romans 1:26 = God sees them as shameful. These people begin knowing the truth about God in their hearts and deliberately turn away from Him. |
| Q. What is it like in the minds of homosexuals and lesbians? | A. Romans 1:21 = Darkness and confusion; mental illness. |
| Q. But this problem is real, isn't it? | A.Romans 1:26-27 = Yes. Women indulge and men burn with lust. The result is suffering within. |
| Q. What is this suffering? | A. Romans 1:27 = Natural consequences, or the penalty of sin. |
| Q. All starts with refusing to acknowledge God in their hearts? | A. Romans 1:28-30 = Yes. With God having abandoned them, the mind has only evil intent. The life of one abandoned by God becomes full of every kind of wickedness, sin, greed, hate, envy, murder, fighting, deception, malicious behavior, and gossip. Lives full of these things, they become backstabbers, haters of God, insolent, proud and boastful. |
| Q. Does man need help from Hell itself to sin? | A. Romans 1:30 = No. He is forever inventing new ways of sinning. |
| Q. What else is evident that God has abandoned a person? | A. Romans 1:30 = Disobedience to parents. |
| Q. How is this demonstrated in a sinner? |
A. Romans 1:31 = 1) He refuses to understand them 2) He breaks promises made to them 3) He is heartless toward them 4) He is unforgiving toward them. Note: Honor your parents. Take heed! God shows us here by this example what not to do with parents. So the opposite is also true: 1)Understand your parents' place in your life 2) Keep promises made to them 3) Be loving and compassionate to them 4) Forgive them everything. |
| Q. What is the worst thing about abandoned people? |
A. Romans 1:32 = 1) They don't care about the consequences of their sin. 2) They encourage others to do the same. |
| Q. Are these particular folks worse than others who sin less? | A. Romans 2:1 = No. |
| Q. Why do people continue in sin? | A. Romans 2:4 = They imagine God doesn't care one way or the other. |
| Q. What is true? | A. Romans 2:4 = God is infinitely kind, tolerant and patient with all of us, regardless of whether or not we sin. |
| Q. Why? | A. Romans 2:4 = His desire for every man is that he turns from his sin and so gives him time to do so. |
| Q. Will time run out? | A. Romans 1:5-6 = Yes. The judgment will come. |
| Q. What keeps people doing good? | A. Romans 2:7 = Persistence. |
| Q. What is good? | A. Romans 2:7 = A life that persists in seeking after the glory and honor and immortality that God offers. |
| Q. What is the exact wrong way to live? | A. Romans 2:8 = Living for oneself. |
| Q. How does one live for himself? |
A. Romans 2:8 = 1) Refusal of obeying the truth 2) Practicing evil deeds. |
| Q. What is the fate of those who persist in sinning? | A. Romans 2:9 = Trouble and calamity. |
| Q. What is the judgment order for persistent sinners? |
A. Romans 2:9 = Jesus first, the Gentiles next. Note: Jews have the Word of God. They know better all the way back to Adam. |
| Q. What is the fate of those who persist in doing good? |
A. Romans 2:10 = Glory, honor and peace from God. Note: People are rewarded with glory! |
| Q. Does God show favoritism? | A. Romans 2:11-12 = No. All sin is punished, all good is rewarded. |
| Q. What does God expect of every Jew and Gentile? | A. Romans 2:12-13 = Obedience to His Word (doing good, seeking after the glory and honor and immortality that God offers). |
| Q. What is true of people not exposed to God's Word? | A. Romans 2:14 = They show that they know right from wrong in their hearts by their actions. |
| Q. How do they know? | A. Romans 2:14-15 = By instict, by conviction of conscience they make decision. |
| Q. Does everyone have a secret life? | A. Romans 2:16 = Yes. And it awaits judgment. |
| Q. By whom? | A. Romans 2:16 = By Jesus. |
| Q. What does the Jew rely on for his relationship with God? | A. Romans 2:17 = Knowing God's law in the Law of Moses. |
| Q. What does he lack? | A. Romans 2:21-23 = The desire to keep it in obedience to God. |
| Q. What is the cause of the world's people blaspheming God? | A. Romans 2:24 = The Jews' unwillingness to obey God, while telling their own people about Him through the generations. |
| Q. What is the point God is making here? | A. Romans 2:27-29 = Obedience to God originates in the heart. Knowledge of the Word doesn't save us. God's Holy Spirit changes the heart so that it wants to obey God. |
| Q. What is true of people who live to obey God from the heart? | A. Romans 2:29 = He seeks praise only from God. |
| Q. What is evident of an evil heart? | A. Romans 2:29 = It seeks praise only from man. |
| Q. Why is being Jewish of value? | A. Romans 3:1-2 = Jews are a people God chose to entrust with the entire revelation of Himself. No one else had this commission! |
| Q. So the Old Testament is really worth knowing? | A. Romans 3:1-2 = Yes. Through the Old Testament, man knows God's character, the things He cares about, His very heart. The New Testament makes sense because the Old Testament paves the way to it in revealing God. |
| Q. I'm discouraged about God because people I know failed God themselves. What is behind my thinking in this? | A. Romans 3:3 = That since people failed me, God will fail me too. |
| Q. Is this true? | A. Romans 3:4 = Of course not! |
| Q. What if all people I know fail God? | A. Romans 3:4 = Let them! Know that God will never fail. He is always true. |
| Q. What should I remind myself of? | A. Romans 2:4 = What David said in Psalm 51:4 = "He [God] will be proved right in what He says, and He will win His case in court." |
| Q. Does the end justify the means? | A. Romans 3:5 = No. The results of an action done in sin may turn out for good, but the outcome bringing good does not justify the sin. One must do things for good out of an obedient heart to God. |
| Q. What message did the world witness about the Jews? | A. Romans 3:9-11 = That though they held the Word of God from Adam on, all men fell under the power of sin. |
| Q. Sin wields power? | A. Romans 3:9 = Yes. It is alive and must be put to death. |
| Q. Who knew this in Old Testament times? |
A. Quoted in Romans 3:10-18 = David in Psalm 14:1-3; 53:1-3, 5-9. Note: David was called the friend of God, yet he knew that sin was not stopped when even he grew closer to God. No matter how much David loved God, he still sinned. Love for God and sin were both alive and active in him. This is the fate of every man and why we must die to sin on a daily basis. |
| Q. What is the problem the world saw with the Jews? | A. Romans 3:18 = Quoted from Psalm 76:1 = They had no fear of God to restrain them from doing evil. |
| Q. Where else do Old Testament people recognize this lack of the fear of God? | A. Romans 3:14-18 = Paul quotes Psalms and words from Isaiah, who also knew the truth. (See Ps. 140:3, 36:11, 10:7; Is. 59:28). |
| Q. To read and know these verses to be true, what must I confess? | A. Romans 3:10-18 = I am guilty too. |
| Q. So knowing God's Word doesn't keep me from sin? | A. Romans 3:18 = No. |
| Q. What keeps me from sin? | A. Romans 3:18 = The fear of God in my heart. |
| Q. What is the purpose of God's Word? |
A. Romans 3:19-20 = 1) To kep people from making excuses for sinning 2) To bring the entire world into judgment before God. |
| Q. How? | A. Romans 3:20 = By showing us our tendencies to do the exact opposite of what is right — Which highlights our corrupt natures. |
| Q. So even if we live our lives persistently doing what is good, seeking after God's glory and honor and immortality that He offers us, because we are already corrupt by sin, we fight doing good? |
A. Romans 3:20 = Yes. Everything we learn about in God's Word reveals to us more and more the evil we do naturally and apart from God's will. Note: We need God's Word to show us our need for Him. |
| Q. What hope is there for us then? | A. Romans 3:21 = God has shown us a different way of being right in His sight. |
| Q. Not by obeying the Law of Moses? | A. Romans 3:21 = No way! Thank God! We can't obey the Law of Moses persistently. |
| Q. Then how? | A. Romans 3:21 = By God's promise in Old Testament Scripture when it came true. |
| Q. Which promise? | A. Romans 3:22 = We would be made right in God's sight one day. |
| Q. How? | A. Romans 3:22 = In Jesus, who died and took away our sins; past, present and future. |
| Q. Who did Jesus die for? | A. Romans 3:22-23 = All mankind. We all share the same dilemma in our tendency to sin. We all share the same soution: Jesus dying for us to save us from the separation from God that sin brings. |
| Q. Why did God do this? |
A. Romans 3:24 = God is graciously kind! Note: Don't forget to tell people that God is graciously kind! |
| Q. What did Jesus' death do for us in life? | A. Romans 3:24 = We are free to seek after good without the distraction of an evil heart's desire to want the opposite. |
| Q. Why did Jesus have to die? |
A. Romans 3:25 = 1) Sin must be punished 2) God's anger against us must be satisfied. |
| Q. Whoa! So Jesus died and fixed our broken relationship with the God who put the knowledge of Himself in our hearts at our conception? | A. Romans 3:25 = Yes. |
| Q. And all mankind is now made right with God as a result? | A. Romans 3:25 = If all mankind believe Jesus did this dying thing for their sins, yes. |
| Q. Did God punish mankind for their sins in former times? | A. Romans 3:25 = No. We'd all be dead! |
| Q. What does that say about God? | A. Romans 3:25 = That He is fair and just. He knows we couldn't NOT sin, so He was unwilling to require obedience from a people who could not obey Him, no matter how much they loved Him. Look at David, Isaiah and John the Baptist. In fact, every Writer of the Bible knew they were unworthy of God. Yet they loved Him and He loved them as well. |
| Q. When did God solve the problem of sin and reconcile Himself to us? | A. Romans 3:26 = When Jesus died for us. |
| Q. Is this event entirely just and fair? | A. Romans 3:26 = Yes. |
| Q. What am I obligated to do in response to Jesus' actions? | A. Romans 3:26 = Believe in Jesus — that He has made me right with God. |
| Q. Can anyone boast about his work because it got him to be right with God? | A. Romans 3:27 = No. |
| Q. Why not? | A. Romans 3:27 = I wasn't made right with God because of my good deeds, because I live a life for good in seeking the honor and glory and immortality that God offers. My acquittal, my pardon, my rightness with God, is based in faith in Jesus, that He made me right with God by His actions. |
| Q. How does the Old Testament Law fit in? | A. Romans 3:31 = Only when I have faith do I truly fulfill the Law. |
| Q. How so? |
A. Romans 4:1-3 = Faith made Abraham right with God. Abraham had faith before there ever was a Law of Moses. Note: So it has always been faith that makes me right with God! |
| Q. What is the difference between living by good behavior and living by faith? |
| Faith - God's way to Himself | Good behavior - Man's way to God |
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1) Romans 4:4-5 = Faith = righteousness |
1) Work = Wages |
| 2) Faith is: | 2) Deeds are: |
| 3) "The assurance of things hoped for; the conviction of things not yet seen." | 3) The things I do to earn rewards. |
| 4) Belief in Jesus' work | 4) Belief in my work |
| 5) Belief in God's solution for salvation - Jesus | 5) Deeds feel like they guarantee my salvation |
| 6) Faith originates in my heart and affects my life | 6) Deeds originates in my works and are witnessed by mankind. |
| 7) Faith is knowing every morning that God turns on the lights in the world | 7) Works takes for granted that the sun will shine in the morning. |
| 8) I respond to God with praise and adoration and continual thanksgiving. | 8) God's deeds require only my brief nod of approval — I expect Him to just do business as usual, whatever that is. |
| Q. What are you saying? | A. Romans 4:6 = Unbelieving sinners are declared righteous through belief in Jesus' finished work and nothing else. |
| Q. Who else in the Old Testament knew righteousness came through faith alone? |
A. Romans 4:7-8 = David. In Psalm 32:1-2, David spoke of being made righteous by God: "Oh, what joy for those whos disobedience is forgiven, whose sins are put out of sight. Yes, what joy for those whose sin is no longer counted against them by the Lord." |
| Q. So God was forgiving from the beginning? This hasn't changed? | A. Romans 4:7-8 = Yes. Forgiveness has always been there for the asking. |
| Q. What is forgiveness? |
A. Romans 4:9 = A blessing from God. Note: Bless others by forgiving them everything. |
| Q. Was Abraham declared righteous after his circumcision? |
A. Romans 4:10 = No, it was before his circumcision. Note: Abraham was declared righteous before he became the Father of Israel. The act of circumcision did not make him righteous before God, neither did it purify him so that he could draw near to God. Only his believing in what God said saved him. |
| Q. What was circumcision for then? | A. Romans 4:11 = A sign that he was already saved by faith; made righteous by faith. |
| Q. So who is Abraham father of? | A. Romans 4:11-12 = Those who have faith, inside and outside of Israel. Salvation is by faith and has always been for all time, for all people. |
| Q. What does faith in God result in? | A. Romans 4:13 = A new relationship with God. |
| Q. What is faith to someone trying to be righteous by his good deeds? |
A. Romans 4:14 = A useless concept. Note: Ah, the reason believers are counted as fools by unbelievers is because unbelievers see faith as useless. |
| Q. If faith is useless, what results? |
A. Romans 4:14 = God's promise to Abraham is meaningless. Note: God promised Abraham that he would father a nation (Israel). This is a promise God kept and proved. You can't separate faith and God's promise to Abraham. |
| Q. Why can't we be saved by keeping the Law of Moses? | A. Romans 4:15 = Because the Law is virtually impossible to keep. |
| Q. What is righteousness to those who believe? | A. Romans 4:16-17 = God's free gift to us. |
| Q. Why was Abraham's faith large? | A. Romans 4:18-20 = It was humanly impossible for anyone to bear children at his age. But Abraham knew God was larger than man and could do it without a problem. |
| Q. Did Abraham doubt at all? | A. Romans 4:19-20= No. His faith only grew stronger. |
| Q. When I grow in faith, what happens in Heaven? | A. Romans 4:20 = I bring glory to God. |
| Q. What is faith? |
A. Romans 4:21 = Being absolutely convinced that God is able to do anything He promises. Note: Make sure your requests are based on things God has already promised to do in His Word. |
| Q. This righteousness Abraham received is for all mankind? | A. Romans 4:23-24 = Yes. |
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| 1) Righteous - Abraham | 1) Believed God would bring the impossible to his door. |
| 2) Righteous - All mankind | 2) Believe God sent Jesus for us. We have peace with God. God has brought the impossible to our doors. |
| Q. How did Jesus' plan work? |
| Death | Ressurection |
| Penalty for all sins were paid forever. | We are made right with God forever. We stand in His presence confidently and joyfully look forward to sharing God's glory now and forever. |