Romans in Six Weeks - Some Highlights

We're almost through with our study of Romans. Our study ended up being six weeks instead of the eight I originally thought it would be. Imagine Romans in eight weeks - daunting! But in six? But the thing is, we wanted to finish before Ash Wednesday (at least that was one of my original goals), and because of travel conflicts, we couldn't start until January 17 - and complicate that with the fact that I didn't do the math right. I think I would have let my goal of done by Ash Wednesday be forgotten, but others had commitments after that time ... life is like that, isn't it? So six weeks it was and is. God is our God in real time, not in a neatly planned time line of our devising. We meet to study, God is there. We have something else going on in our lives, God is there. We sleep, God is there. We're awake, God is there. God is there. God is here. Period.

From the resources I initially collected (http://suestudies.blogspot.com/2011/09/romans-resources-for-this-study.html), we've used these:

• The study guide by Charles Gieschen from the God's Abiding Word series published by CPH.org (Every participant received this guide for background self-study, if they desired.)
• The two books by Douglas J. Moo (These books are in my library and I didn't ask that anyone else purchase them. They were great resources for me!)
• The 1984 version of the NIV (This is the Bible we have on our shelves at church. We used it so that everyone would be reading from the same text, even though we encouraged everyone to also refer to the text of their own favorite version.)
• http://www.biblegateway.com/ (I used this wonderful site when I wanted to copy limited snippets of text into our weekly guides so we could compare a verse from different versions or to pull up a few verses from the Old Testament or to summarize some history necessary to understand Paul's references. The publishers on BibleGateway.com allow limited uses of their copyrighted text, and they provide the verbiage you need to show that you have permission to use it. I can't say enough about BibleGateway.com. I also use it to study multiple sections of the Bible when I'm dealing with multiple cross-references or when a question about one section pops into my mind. Endless wonderful applications on that site!)
• And, as always, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page. I am so grateful for the people who gather together all their best and post their research onto wikipedia, and for leaving a trail of their arguments under the Talk tab. You give me much information, many points of view, and links to follow through. Thank you!

I've never lead a study where I wasn't both leader and participant. The truth of the matter is, the Word teaches us all. I learn through my preparation time, but I learn also during the time I meet with others. This next week, the 5th of our 6 weeks, we're going to take a little review time to name some of the outstanding points we've learned during our time together. I'm going to start the list with three things I've learned and don't want to forget.

• When we were studying Romans 1:21-23, Gieschen says: "The human response to the Creator is not neutral." To me, this translates into this: "Everyone has a reaction to God. Even atheists are reacting to God." As we were exploring reasons why one seems to reject God, even though that person leads a good life and more or less believes there is "a God," one of our participants says she believes her husband feels vulnerable when he thinks about "becoming a Christian." Vulnerable! I don't recall ever thinking about that. Reluctant, yes. Doubtful, yes. But vulnerable? For me, this was a great truth. I will forever remember this. I know it will color the way I look at nonbelievers. Jesus knows they feel vulnerable. He will be gentle with them, I'm sure. I will be more gentle in my love for my nonbelieving friends, too. (Week 2)
• The same participant who gave us the word "vulnerable" works with the preschool at our church. When we were studying the concept of Original Sin (that's what we Lutherans call it) in Romans 5:12-14, she related a discussion with our pastor about how those beautiful, sweet little children in our preschool could be tainted with original sin. He told her it's because life is all about me at that age.
  
  And isn't that it? Isn't that the definition of the sin inherit in every human being, whether we call it original sin or the characteristic of natural man or our sinful nature or all about me or whatever?
  
  And it's not just true for our preschoolers, either. It's probably the same thing Paul is talking about when he says "For what I do is not the good I want to do..." in Romans 7:19. All about me is the state of our fleshly bodies, of the bodies we live in, all of our lives. Our consolation is that God through Jesus Christ has rescued us from this state and it is no longer our master. We are not slaves to all about me. The phrase all about me will stay with me. (Week 4)
• We talk a lot about God. A lot of people talk a lot about God -- or is that god? During Week 3 we talked about an article by Steve Chapman, a writer for the Chicago Tribune. I found this article in The Week, a magazine which is always on our kitchen table. http://theweek.com/article/index/223252/the-truth-about-lsquosecularrsquo-america Our point wasn't about whether Chapman's assessment was right (secular America has less crime, teen pregnancies, divorces, etc, than Christian America) but why he might think that's true (perhaps what Chapman thinks Christian America calls sin is hidden in secular America because of birth control, cohabiting without the benefit of formal marriage, etc).
  
  We talked about what Christianity really IS. Being a Christian means that you believe what God has done through Jesus Christ. Christianity is believing and trusting in "this Good News about Christ. It is the power of God at work, saving everyone who believes -- the Jew first and also the Gentile..." (Romans 1:16 - NIV 84). But so often, we equate Christianity with "believing in God," and that's what we'll say: "Do you believe in God? Yes? Then you must be a Christian."
  
  In our thoughts, Chapman was comparing the wrong things. He was actually comparing the economically disadvantaged to the economically advantaged. It's obvious that Chapman's "truths" fell apart in our hands.
  
  And then somewhere in our God-talk discussion, our arguments fell apart a little bit, too. One of our participants asked, "But what about Jesus?" That was a moment of truth for me. How do we define God? Do we need to be clearer when we speak that we're talking about the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit (the Trinity, in Lutheran theology and in the theology of many other protestant and catholic denominations and churches)? Do we need to be clearer about defining what Christianity is? And have we forgotten that we, as believers in and recipients of Christ's magnificent work, are part of secular America?
  
  For each of us, our discussion may lead to different paths, but hopefully it will help all of us to be ever mindful of who this God is we worship. Hopefully, Christ is at the forefront of our faith. Hopefully, in our efforts to "do good," we will not forget What About Jesus. (Week 3)

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.