By Mike Peek

Text: Romans 5-6 I am awed by every word in this letter to the church in Rome. The theology that Paul is expressing in this letter turns all other theology preached by men on its head. Picture men standing on their heads and this is the theology of the world’s religion. That form of religion died when man ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The form of religion that I am speaking of is earning your way to heaven through righteous deeds and law keeping. We have all sinned and fall short of the glory of God. We were all hopeless, only facing eternal separation from the Father in death. Romans 5:8, “ But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”  In Christianity everything is reversed. We begin unrighteous and are declared righteous when we repent and believe in Jesus. However, it does not stop there. We are actually becoming righteous through the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. This is how ...

Justification by faith is one of if not the most important doctrines in all of Scripture, because it is in this doctrine, that all other doctrines come together. This morning I read Romans 3 and 4. I have to tell you that this is my most favorite passage in all of Scripture because it gave the answers that I was seeking. I did not grow up in a Christian home but when I was about thirteen years old our mother took us to a Methodist church. By this age, I had already done many things that I was feeling guilty about. I had reached puberty and had much lust. I heard in this Methodist church that God forgives sin but I did not understand how. I went along with it because I had meet many friends in the youth group and it became my place for socialization. During my last two years of high school I found other friends and other ways of filling my lustful desires. When I graduated high school, I joined the army and left my boyhood home and never attended a church until I was married and had chi...

The apostle Paul believed himself to be a bond-servant of Jesus Christ, and so doing, he served all of mankind. He had been given a mission by the Lord to preach the gospel to the Jew first and also to the gentile. For this reason he became known as the apostle to the gentiles. The word gentile means non-jewish person.  Romans 1:14, “I am under obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish.”  His obligation was not to serve Greeks and barbarians, or the wise and the foolish as they saw fit, but as commanded by the Lord. Paul was sent by the Lord to preach the gospel to the nations. His obligation was to tell the truth and the truth often hurts. The word sin as Paul used it means a violation of the divine law in thought, word or act. In his epistle to the Romans, chapters 1-2, he shows that both gentile and Jew have violated the divine law.  Paul agrees with his jewish brethren that the way gentiles were living was heinous, and he gives t...

Romans 10:1-21 A Wrong Understand about the Righteousness of God (Romans 10:1-4) Concern for Your Religious Neighbor Many of our friends, family, co-workers, and neighbors are religious but ignorant about God’s righteousness. Ignorance does not mean that they are lacking in intelligence but are lacking in knowledge and understanding. Paul is concerned for the Jewish people as we should be concerned for those closest to us. We must (like Paul) have a desire for their salvation and pray to God for their salvation. The End of the Law The law was never meant to save anyone. Paul clearly pointed out in (Romans 3:1,19-20) that the Jew being under the law had an advantage over the Gentile because its purpose is to keep one from boasting. The law brings the knowledge that we have sinned. Once a person comes to faith in Jesus Christ the laws purpose has come to its end. The Gentile was never under the law, it was the Jew who was under the law; therefore, the Jew had this advantage...