Simpler Bible

By Simpler BibleReligion & Spirituality Christianity

Simpler Bible episodes

October 22, 2024Ep. 296. Romans 7 | The Futility of the Law
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Here’s an excerpt from the blog post.

Throughout the year, we have discussed multiple times the reality that we all have verses we take out of context because we were never initially taught to view them within their context. Romans 7 contains a set of these verses that, when used with disregard for the context, leave us shrugging our shoulders and accepting, in defeat, the inevitability of sin in our Christian lives. However, Paul has made abundantly clear in chapter six that we are set free from and not held captive to sin. So how, then, can he say at the end of chapter 7 that he is "sold under sin" and "the captive to the law of sin?" Obviously, these two things can not be simultaneously true. When we read chapter six, we see that the people Paul addresses "were" under sin and had "been slaves" to sin. But now they have been set free and sin "rendered powerless."

The clue comes in the opening verses of chapter seven as Paul talks about two husbands and how now we, as believers, have been set free from the Law and joined to Christ. You will notice that in chapter six, there is a contrast between those who are in slavery to sin and those who are in slavery to God/righteousness. In chapter seven, we find the same comparison made between those who are joined to the Law and those who are joined to Christ. In both cases, we see that those joined to sin and law produce fruit for death, but those joined to God/Righteousness and Christ bear fruit for life. (In Romans 8, we will see the same argument made for a third time using the terms "flesh" and "Spirit."

So then, those who are slaves to sin are also joined to the law of Moses, are also doing the works by the power of the flesh, and will ultimately bear the fruit of death. But those who are slaves to God have been joined to Christ and, now, empowered by the Spirit, are producing fruit for life.
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16 min
October 21, 2024Ep. 295. Romans 6 | The Work of the Cross
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Here’s an excerpt from the blog post.

Let me try to convey the point of this text in a way that will hopefully drive home the point.

First, "we who died to sin." "baptized into his death." "buried with him by baptism into death." "united with him in a death like his." "our old self was crucified." "One who has died." "If we have died with Christ." Seven of the first eight verses of chapter eight have us believers as counted dead with Christ. We joined Christ in his death and in his crucifixion. Joining in the death of Jesus has overwhelming benefits for us.

"We too might walk in newness of life." "The body of sin would be brought to nothing [rendered powerless]." "The one who has died has been set free from sin." "Consider yourself dead to sin and alive to God." "Sin has no dominion over you." "You were once slaves to sin." "Having been set free from sin." "When you were slaves to sin." "But now that you have been set free from sin."

Let's put these two truths together. We have died, really died with Christ. We have partaken in his death and are, therefore, beneficiaries of his resurrected life. Right now! The power of sin in our lives has been broken, and though we were all once slaves to sin, we have now been set free from sin's power such that it no longer masters us. This is fantastic news and should give us strength and hope in our day-to-day lives. No longer are we bound to say, "I'm only a sinner." Or "I just can't seem to beat or overcome this sin." Our sin has already been beaten and overcome in Christ. We are victors now as well as in the future.

Paul is very repetitious in this section of Romans. Could the first-century follower of Christ have had as much difficulty believing these truths as we modern-day Christians do?
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14 min
October 20, 2024Episodes 288-294 Summary
Welcome to Simpler Bible, your daily path to biblical understanding.

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12 min
October 20, 2024Ep. 294. Romans 5 | Adam then Christ
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Here’s an excerpt from the blog post.

There are only two things I really want you to hold to in this chapter. (maybe three)

First, someone will scarcely die for a righteous (according to the law) person, someone might die for a good and decent person, "but God showed his love for us in that while we were still sinful, Christ died for us." That is real love. We didn't earn it, we couldn't merit it, we were the dross of the earth and he made way for our redemption.

Second, death came through Adam, and life came through Christ. The earthly came first, and then the spiritual. Sin reigned, and then came righteousness. You will really want to go and read the verses from 1 Corinthians that I listed below. Adam, of Genesis, is called the "first Adam," but Jesus is the "second Adam." This takes us back to Ishmael, who was first and of the flesh, and Isaac, who was second and came by God's promise. We have seen a lot of examples throughout the Scripture of God's blessing coming through the second iteration of a thing.

Bonus: Where sin increases, grace abounds all the more.
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13 min
October 19, 2024Ep. 293. Romans 4 | Justified By Faith
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Here’s an excerpt from the blog post.

Let's begin where we left off in Chapter 3, "Do we then overthrow the law by this faith? By now means! On the contrary, we uphold the law." Remember that there are no chapter breaks in Paul's original letter. The chapter break here can potentially sabotage our understanding of the text. Paul has just introduced faith as the means for righteousness and then asks if faith overthrows the law. He surprises his reader and us as well, I imagine, when he says, "On the contrary, we uphold the law." Now, our tendency is to think of the "rules" when we think of "the law." Maybe we think of the Ten Commandments. But what does Paul talk about? Moses on Sinai? Purification rites? Dietary restrictions? Sabbath ordinances? No. "What shall we say was gained by Abraham, our forefather, according to the flesh? For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. For what does the Scripture say? 'Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.'" In other words, the way that faith upholds the law is that it is consistent with what is recorded in the law, aka the Scriptures, seeing that Abraham was not justified through works but through faith.

Second, we see that Abraham was counted righteous while uncircumcised to show that he is the father of both the circumcised and the uncircumcised.

Third, four times in this section of Paul's letter, we see references to Genesis 15:6, "Faith was counted to him as righteousness." I don't know how we can read Paul's writings and still land in the place where we believe our works somehow assist in our righteous standing before God. We certainly don't find it in this chapter.

Finally, read those last few verses of the chapter again, "But the words, 'it was counted to him' were not written for his [Abraham's] sake alone, but for ours also. It will be counted to us who believe in him [God] who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord."
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14 min
October 18, 2024Ep. 292. Romans 3 | No One is Righteous
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Here’s an excerpt from the blog post.

The advantage that the Jew (used to have) over the Gentile is that the Jew had the oracles of God, what we call the Old Testament. To them came the prophets, to them came the promises, and to them came the expectation of the world-redeeming Messiah. They should have seen Jesus coming a mile away. But, though they have an advantage, the Jew is not actually better off than the Gentile. All are under sin, a topic that will be revisited in more detail in Romans 5. "Through the works of the law, no human being will be justified [righteous] in [God's] sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin."

God makes no distinction between Jew and Gentile, as we have previously seen in Romans 2:11.

And since all people, Jews, and Gentiles, are saved by faith, there is absolutely no room for boasting (See also Ephesians 2:8-9) for, "We hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the Law." God isn't just the God of the Jews; he is also the God of the Gentiles. It boggles my mind that Paul will make repeated references to the two people groups of the earth, Jews and Greeks and that people will still insist that Paul is preaching about individual salvation. That isn't to say we can't understand salvation more clearly through the book of Romans; rather, that just isn't the point Paul is trying to make. He seems, rather clearly to me, to be indicating that salvation wasn't limited to the Jews.

The last verse of this chapter is very important, but makes more sense when taken with all of chapter four, so I'll save that discussion for our next blog.
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15 min
October 17, 2024Ep. 291. Romans 2 | To the Jew First
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Here’s an excerpt from the blog post.

I want to start by pointing out Romans 2:4; "It is the kindness of God that leads you to repentance." The reason this is so important is because when I was growing up in church, a lot of effort was put into scaring people out of Hell and into Heaven. People would get up and talk about the terrible realities of Hell, though they can't possibly know or understand them, and once the crowd was on the edge of panic, they'd finish with a quick, albeit poorly shaped, gospel presentation designed to "rescue" you from the most horrible fate of Hell. Not once can I remember someone presenting the gospel from the perspective of the kindness of God as a motivation for knowing him and following him. To be sure, wrath is mentioned in the next verse, but not as the motivation for believing in Christ, rather it is offered as the result for those who have rejected him. Wrath, as a reality, presented to those who have made a mockery of God and kindness presented to those who were being called and beckoned to salvation. What a contrast! One I never experienced.

Pay attention to verses 9 and 10, "For every human, the Jew first and also the Greek." We read this "every human" as "every individual," and certainly every single individual is included in the gospel, but that isn't the point Paul is trying to make. Remember that the Jews believed the Messiah to be for them alone. The mention then of "every individual" was meant to be a jarring truth that showed the Jews that, yes, even the Gentiles were included in the call to righteousness.
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13 min
October 16, 2024Ep. 290. Romans 1 | By Faith
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Here’s an excerpt from the blog post.

Romans is one of my favorite books for sure. It easily falls in my top five favorites at all times. The thing about Romans is that we often have bits and pieces of it memorized, and those few memorized verses give us false confidence in knowing the book as a whole. We were taught the Roman road, or we have a friend with a particular theological leaning that has shaped our view of Romans 9, or we've just learned certain verses without ever considering the context. That last point trips us all up sometimes, I'm afraid.

All of that being said, let me give you a quick rundown of the book. The first two and a half chapters make the point that all people (Jews and Gentiles) are sinners. Halfway through chapter three, the idea of righteousness by faith is mentioned, and that is developed more fully in chapter four. Chapter five returns to the "all" discussion, showing that, through Adam, all people came to sin and death and that through Christ, all could come to righteousness. Chapter six outlines the work of the cross and being set free from sin's power. Chapter seven discusses what it looks like to live according to the Law of Moses. Chapter eight reveals what a life submitted to the Spirit looks like. Chapters nine through eleven show how the Jews have not believed in the truth of the Gospel of Jesus and how the Gentiles have now been grafted in. Romans 12-15 deals with the practical application of the truth of faith, and the final chapter contains a series of greetings.
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14 min
October 15, 2024Ep. 289. Acts 27-28 | Malta and Rome
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Here’s an excerpt from the blog post.

As cool as the story of Paul being bitten by a snake and shaking it off into the fire is, that isn't where I want to spend my time today. I will turn your attention to the last few verses of chapter 28. "From morning till evening, he expounded to them, testifying to the kingdom of God and trying to convince them about Jesus from the Law of Moses and the Prophets." By now, we all should be familiar with the fact that the whole of Scripture points to and foreshadows the coming of Jesus, in some cases subtly and in others quite directly. The Jews should have been able to search the Scriptures and find Jesus in those pages, but as the prophet Isaiah said, "You will indeed hear but never understand, and you will indeed see but never perceive." This text from Isaiah is referred to four or five times in the New Testament, and every time, it refers to the Jews of the first century who rejected their savior and God, Jesus Christ.

A hardening had to happen to the Jews so that the Gentiles could and would come to faith. In fact, if the Jews had believed the testimony of Jesus, they never would have crucified him. And if he had not been crucified, then there would be no salvation for anyone. Jesus and John also quote Isaiah 6 and connect it to the disbelieving Jews.

But one day, the Jews will believe. One day, their hearts will awaken to the truth, for the "gifts and calling of God [on the Jews] are irrevocable." I do love that Paul was never one to shy away from saying hard things.
For more visit http://simplerbible.com/episodes
17 min
October 14, 2024Ep. 288. Acts 25-26 | King Agrippa
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Here’s an excerpt from the blog post.

Felix was replaced by Festus and Festus conferred with King Agrippa and all of them sat before Paul to listen to his teachings. Paul was a servant to the Gentiles to "turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness." As he stood before Agrippa recounting his conversion and his belief in the resurrection of the dead, Paul knew that God had appointed this moment in time.

"King Agrippa, do you believe the prophets? I know that you believe." Paul put these words to Agrippa recognizing that none of the things that happened through Christ or to him occured in a dark corner or some unknown basement, but on the public stage before the eyes of the multitudes.

Paul's desire for the King and all who heard the message that day was no less than, "Whether short or long, I would to God that not only you, but all who hear me might become as I am [a Christian] except for these chains." Oh, that I had that heart in my own chest. It is hard to know who I will cross paths with today, but each and every one of them is a soul for whom Christ died. I have but two desires for those people around me:

First, that those who don't know God would come to know him by faith.

Second, that those who do know God would come to know him more fully and love him more deeply.
For more visit http://simplerbible.com/episodes
16 min

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Simpler Bible is your go-to online daily Bible reading program, where our dedicated pastor, Ryan, guides you through about one Bible chapter each day. Our mission is to make the Bible more accessible…