Deep in Scripture Radio

Some key points in today’s passage:

• (vs. 1) The idea of “sacrifice” is still very much an important aspect of our Christian faith;
  
• (vs. 1) Our entire person—body and soul—is our personal share in the daily sacrifice of the Body of Christ; “what we do in the body” daily, as St. Paul say elsewhere, is how we “suffer with Christ”; (Col 1:24; Rom 8:17; Phil 1:29);
  
• (vs. 2) This requires a transformed state of mind, living out the Our Father;
  
• (vs. 2) By doing this, our conscience is formed by the indwelling Holy Spirit;
  
• (vs. 3-5) Behind these verses, is St. Paul assumption of the Mystical Body of Christ: through baptism believers become united with Christ and one another in the Church;
  
• (vs. 3-5) Living together in the Body requires living out the Beatitudes: detachment from world, sin, self;
  
• (vs. 6-8) This also requires that we recognize the importance of being a faithful individual in the Body of Christ, yet using our individual gifts to work together for the building up of the Body (Eph 4)
  

Email: Dear Ken & Marcus, last week you discussed Rom 12:2, “Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may prove what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” In your discussion you didn’t address what Paul meant by being able to “prove” “what is the will of God, and “what is good and acceptable and perfect.” This term, “prove”, would seem to imply that this process would help one “know” clearly what God’s will is. Yet, in my experience, I’ve known many many faithful Christians—Catholic or non—who have dedicated their lives to doing this very thing, yet they can’t seem to agree on what God’s will is for lots of things. What does Paul mean here?

Some key points in today’s passage:

1. The idea of “sacrifice” is still very much an important aspect of our Christian faith;

Emails:

1. Will there be entry into heaven for a person who has committed a mortal sin without going to confession? This person believes he only has to confess this grievous sin to God. Jay ____

Some key points in today’s passage:

1. The idea of “sacrifice” is still very much an important aspect of our Christian faith;
2. Our entire person—body and soul—is our personal share in the daily sacrifice of the Body of Christ; “what we do in the body” daily, as St. Paul say elsewhere, is how we “suffer with Christ”; (Col 1:24; Rom 8:17; Phil 1:29);
3. This requires a transformed state of mind, living out the Our Father;
4. This requires living out the Beatitudes: detachment from world, sin, self (verse 12:3);

Emails:

1. Will there be entry into heaven for a person who has committed a mortal sin without going to confession? This person believes he only has to confess this grievous sin to God. Jay ____
2. Dear Marcus Grodi, can you respond to my intellectual dilemma. It deals with the justice of God. What do you consider a more radical punishment: hanging or spending eternal in hellfire? If you say spending eternity in Hellfire, than consider any of your friends or family who are not practicing Christians: giving their lives do any of them deserve hanging? If not, than how can we justify God condemning them to eternal Hellfire? Thanks, Fred

A few thoughts to consider concerning today’s text, Romans 11:25-36:

1) Verses 23-24 set the context with Paul's insistence that faith on the part of the Jews is a condition for their being re-grafted back in. 

2) What is the mystery that Paul is speaking of?

      a) (25) partial hardening (What does "all Israel" mean?)

      b) (26) a promise of the fullness of Israel remains (cf. 11:2)

3) In verse 28 Paul is asking us to view the present situation through TWO lenses:

      a) Gospel: Jews are enemies

      b) Election: Jews are beloved. 

4) In verses 33-34, the consideration of God's providence leads to adoration of His wisdom.

5) The Doxology in v 36 provides the background for the Great Doxology of the Mass 'Through Him, with Him, and in Him, in the unity of the Holy Spirit etc.

From Twitter: Dear Marcus and Dr. Howell, on a recent Journey Home episode, the guest mentioned 1 Tim 3:14-15 as a rebuttal to non-Catholic Christians, but reading on to 4:1-3, you see why they are Protestant. Where they see the error of imposing forbidden doctrine law, even to marry, making them subjects; for in Christ we freely serve. We know all those who believe of Jesus, going His way in Spirit, are His. Though they fall short in the flesh are justified. It is of the spirit that we sin, taking on spirits of error, that which defiles; our denying the Truth of Spirits of error.”

“I hope to come to you soon, but I am writing these instructions to you so that, if I am delayed, you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and bulwark of the truth” (1 Tim 3:14,15).

“Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by giving heed to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons, through the pretensions of liars whose consciences are seared, who forbid marriage and enjoin abstinence from foods which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth” (1 Tim 4:13-3).

Gal 5:13, “For you were called to freedom, brethren; only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love be servants of one another.”

[Jesus and Paul both said that some disciples might be called to abstain from marriage and food: Mt 19:11f; 6:16f; 1 Cor 7:32f; 8:13).

EMAIL: Dear Marcus, I heard you speak this weekend on Christ’s statement, “Unless you eat my body and drink my blood, you have no life in you: Symbolic or literal?” Can you and Dr. Howell discus this in relation to the passage you will be discussing this week from Romans? In other words, what is they have not heard or understood?