Romans - Resources for this study

I'll use a variety of resources for this study.

• Our primary resource, which will serve as our outline and guide, is a study in the God's Abiding Word series, published by Concordia Publishing House, authored by Charles A. Gieshchen. It's categorized as an "expert" study, although I think it's "expert" at the casual lay level. Because it's Lutheran, I can have confidence that I'll not stray too far from sola fide. Unfortunately, it would be too easy to do that when it's humanly dificult to separate works and faith in our daily lives. Our minds get tangled with those concepts. Gieshchen's study is 16 chapters long. We want to take 8 weeks for this study, so we will be combining some things and adapting other areas to develop the study for our purposes. This resource is the only resource we will use in class. I will use other resources to develop discussion points and other information.
• Paul for Everyone Romans Part One and Part Two, Tom Wright, published by Westminster John Knox Press. Tom Wright is N. T. Wright, and I enjoy thinking about how he thinks once I get past his wordiness. This is a resource I will use, not a resource the group will use.
• N. T. Wright Romans, one of the Bible studies in the For Everyone Bible Study Guides. Again, a resource for me, not for the group.
• Encountering the Book of Romans by Douglas J. Moo, published by Baker Academic. Moo writes from a Reformed / Lutheran point of view.
• The NIV Application Commentary - Romans, by Douglas J. Moo, published by Zondervan. This probably repeats much of Encountering the Book of Romans, although it's presented in a different style and it's a book that resides on my Nook, not on paper.
• The 1984 version of the New International Version (NIV1984) Bible, the version in our pews, published by Zondervan.
• The New Living Translation (NLT) Bible, Life Application Study Bible version, published by Tyndale House. (A personal favorite.)
• The New American Standard Bible (NASB), published by The Lockman Foundation. (My other personal favorite.)
• I almost forgot this one, even though it's a nearly daily event for me: a study on Romans by Robert Cara of Reformed Theology Seminary (RTS), via iTunes University. Although I feel Cara is sometimes flippant about certain topics, and I mentally have taken issue with him about his comments to a female student (perhaps the only female student) in this class, he knows his stuff from a "teaching Reformed theology" point of view. Reformed theology re sole fide  is nearly the same if not exactly the same as Luther's theology.
• Internet searches, with a majority of those searches begun at Wikipedia. It's amazing the number of good articles and links to other sites I can find on Wikipedia.
• One more resource of high importance for this study is http://bible.org/, the home of the NET Bible.****

***The NET Bible translation philosophy seems to be similar to the New Living Translation, a modern combination of formal equivalence and functional equivalence. It's very readable, and it comes with many, many translaters notes.

To best understand the translation philosophy of the NET bible, see this page: http://bible.org/article/preface-net-bible-first-edition The best thing about the NET Bible for me is that it's a very credible modern translation that allows me to distribute more than 500 verses, including even a whole chapter or book of the Bible, without copyright violations!!! This avoids my using a small portion of a translation for illustrations, and then having our group read the balance from their various and sundry translations while the rest of us try to translate from the other's translation into ours, perhaps entirely missing the point of the study. Thank you, NET Bible!

A study of Romans

For the past 6 months or so, I've been moderating a monthly Bible study at the home of some friends. We've been meeting for several years, but up until just before Lent this year, someone else usually set the agenda. Our studies began as movies enacting various gospels, and then we moved into a comercially available study on Genesis. I think people ran out of ideas, and the group asked me if I would prepare something.

Me, moderate a Bible study - you betcha! There's nothing I enjoy as much! It had been a few years since I'd had an opportunity to do so.

So for the past 6 months, we've taken a section of the Sunday readings for the month and I prepared a study based on those readings. The study consists of the text of the readings and then some questions to get us off into a discussion. With the discussion questions, the group leads itself. It's worked really well.

Another pair of friends recently asked me if I would be interested in leading a women's evening Bible study. It didn't take much thought on my part to agree. We decided that the study should be 8 weeks, long enough to get into something meaningful and short enough that we would know quickly if our idea was going to work.

Romans came to mind for me. It's such a beloved epistle. I have always especially liked the parts that tell you how to live amongst others, how to treat one another, and what our responsibility is to each other.

And the best part is that Paul starts out very early in this letter saying something like "I want to encourage you," AND "I want to be encouraged by you." To my mind, that's what a thoughtful study of God's word should do - encourage everyone there.

The study won't start until January, but I'm already heavy at work on it. Although the parts of Romans that I love speaks plainly, there's a whole lot else that deserves more than a simple "what do you think this means" and a "let's try to treat one another better" approach.

Romans isn't an easy epistle. It covers the entire gospel, and it's theologically heavy.

However, I want to stay away from the controversies (and they are numerous). The very heart of evangelical and reformed beliefs arises from Paul's theology in Romans, and entire protestant denominations are divided over their interpretations of Paul's words. So many of the controversies seem akin to the quest to learn how many angels can sit on the head of a pin. That's so nonproductive for a thoughtful study.

It's my thought that many Christians aren't sure what their church's stance is concerning many of the controversial points currently being discussed - and furthermore, they probably don't care. If they were encouraged to care, I believe the controversies would be more destructive to their faith than instructive or productive. I do want to carefully explain concepts like "imputed" and "imparted" because I think the distinction is important in our understanding of our relationship to Christ. But whether or not Jews depended on grace or works in the second temple era makes little difference in the way we live our day to day lives and relate to God.

(Although I have read many articles and books over the years, I am put off quickly when I see one man's writings (yes, these writings are usually authored by men) so heavily laced with why another man is wrong that you can't figure out what either man's beliefs really are. Sometimes I think it's just a big game for them. As much as I have enjoyed reading some N. T. Wright, I am downright irritated when I read, in some of his works, the reasons others are wrong. Come on, Tom, just tell me what you think. Don't tell me what you DON'T think!)

In this study, I want the Word itself to teach us. As a leader and moderator, I need to study the nuiances so I don't let us get off track in our discussions. I want to inform my own understanding. As much as I love leading a Bible study, it's not a frivolous undertaking. People tend to believe some of what you say. They look to you. And I don't want to lead anyone astray because of my careless approach to a very serious business.