Thursday, July 31, 2014

Romans 1: Apostles, grace, saints, faith, and apostasy

The Presbyterian pastor who spoke at my grandfather's funeral said that it was through reading Paul's epistle to the Romans that my grandfather gained a testimony of Jesus Christ as his Savior and Redeemer. In memory of my grandfather, I have decided to re-read this same epistle, and imagine that I am leading my grandfather through a bible study. Or imagine that he is leading some of his friends through a study and that he is helping them come to the same knowledge that he has.

I'm not a trained minister, so this is super informal. It's pretty much a verse-by-verse study of each chapter. I imagine Grampy reading one verse at a time, and at appropriate moments, asking the following questions:

Romans Chapter 1
As you read this chapter, pay attention to the attributes of Jesus Christ that Paul writes about. How can you develop these attributes in your own life?
(v. 1) How is being an apostle different from being a disciple?
(v. 1) It says in this verse that Paul is "called" to be an apostle. What does that mean? What is God's way of "calling" someone to be an apostle?
(v. 5) What does grace mean to you? Who is the source of grace?
(v. 5) Who is the source of apostleship?
(v. 7) Paul says that he is writing this apostle to "all that be in Rome" who are "called to be saints." What does that mean? And how do we become saints?

  • Okay, I'm actually cheating with this question. One of my favorite verses in the Book of Mormon explains what it means to be a "saint." It doesn't mean just being naturally perfect! Instead, Mosiah 3:19 says that a saint is someone who has put off the "natural man" by yielding to "the enticings of the Holy Spirit." A person can become "a saint [ONLY] through the atonement of  Christ." A saint has become "as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which The Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father." 
  • Isn't it cool how the Book of Mormon and the Bible support each other? Okay, end digression...back to Romans.
(v. 8) What is faith?
(v. 17) What does it mean to live by faith?
(v. 21-31) How does God feel about people who change His truths?
(v. 29-31) What happens to people who reject God's truth?

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