In Romans 6 Paul address misunderstandings that come from not understanding …

• What Happened When we Came to Christ
• What was Happening Before we Came to Christ

In Romans 5:11-21 Paul addresses something he has not discussed yet: how Christ’s death can change our fate. The answer is through a real union with those who put their faith in him. This is how the human race fell into sin in the first place, through a real union with Adam. And so Paul here describes:

• How God Justified Us
• Why God Justified Us, and
• The Confidence God Gives Us

Romans 5:1-11 demonstrates that, far from being a lesser justification, fake justification, justification by faith is far superior to any status we might ever have earned for ourselves. Justification is not just the satisfaction of our legal responsibilities, it is also …

• The Restoration of a Relationship, and
• The Relocation of our Confidence

We boast in God…

To demonstrate the deep roots of this gospel of justification by faith, Paul takes us to the very beginning of God’s work to bless – to Abraham, “the father of us all” (Rom 4:16). He takes the received wisdom of the Jewish believers and goes about:

• Redefining History
• Redefining Israel
• Redefining Hope

Zechariah 7-8 forms a kind of review of what the prophet has revealed so far in the form of opposing pictures of:

• Our Coldness, and
• God’s Jealousy

The record of the visit of the Magi provides us with …

• A False King
• The True King
• Some Unexpected Subjects

Romans 3:21 is the turning point, the thing that changes everything, where Paul introduces us to …

• God’s Declaration – Justification
• God’s Goal – Redemption
• God’s Means – Propitiation

In Romans 3:1-20 Paul is bringing the first section of his letter to a close, asking a series of rhetorical questions to drive home the point that we have fundamentally missed the point of the Law.

no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by the works of the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin

In Romans 2:17-29 Paul makes a personal challenge to those resting on their inherited advantages and reminds them that,

• Keeping the Law is an inward thing, not an ourward
• Keeping the Law requires an outward power, not an inward resolve
• Keeping the Law is for God’s praise, not people’s

Friday 29th November will see the House of Common giving a second reading to a bill intended to legalise assisted suicide for adults who are terminally ill. What, if anything, does the Bible say about this issue?