Paul’s anguish over unbelieving Israel was made more painful when he thought of all the unique privileges and blessings that they possessed. The question hanging in the air is “Has God’s word failed? Can we trust God?” In Romans 9:1-13, Paul launches into the basis of election: an explanation of the doctrines of unconditional election and divine sovereignty over human willing. Paul argues for God’s faithfulness in His sovereign election of Israel. He aims to vindicate God’s righteousness. 

God’s word has NOT failed! Our faithful God has kept, is keeping and WILL keep his promises!

To kick off a new season of MOMS, Pam Larson unpacked our theme for the year: Behold and Become. 

At some point, every Bible reader needs to wrestle with the problem of Israel's unbelief. If God failed to deliver on the big, saving promises he made to his people Israel, who's to say he'll be faithful to the big, saving promises he's made to us? Paul wrestles with this question after writing his most famous promise-filled chapter of all. And his answer is at once surprising and precisely what we should have expected all along. Surprising faithfulness: what else would we expect from a God like ours!

No Separation: God’s Everlasting, Amazing Love in Christ

God’s forever love is FOR us because of what Jesus has done for us.

We can rest assured! God’s plans work for good as he conforms us to the image of Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit.

There is GLORY to be revealed! As Christians, we do suffer, but not without HOPE of a far greater, future glory. That sure hope of a glorious future strengthens us to patiently persevere through the trials we are faced with now.

Paul reminds us that it is by the Spirit you have been freed from your sinful flesh, found as adopted sons of God whom you now call Abba! Father!, and have been made co-heirs with Christ by the fellowship of his suffering for the fruit of eternal glory with him.

Our passage this week takes up the issue mentioned at the end of Romans 8:4— how does this new walk, walking according to the Spirit, come about?

We looked at three ways set out in Romans 8:5–11:

In Romans 8:1-4, we have the glorious proclamation that IF we are in Christ, we are no longer under condemnation, but have liberation in Christ, propitiation through Christ’s sacrificial death for sin, and sanctification through the work of Christ and the Holy Spirit’s power in our lives.

Romans is a detailed explanation of the heart of the gospel and how it works in our lives. Apart from God and his grace, we are utterly without hope. In this episode Pam Larson reviews Romans 1–7 to open our study series on Romans 8, examining various aspects of the gospel much like a jeweler would examine the facets of a beautiful diamond set off by the dark black velvet background ... the bad news that none of us are righteous and all are under God’s wrath apart from Jesus and his work on the cross.

How do believers relate to the law? The law is holy, righteous, and good! But it can’t make us holy, or righteous, or good. The great news coming in Romans 8 is that God has done “what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do.” (Romans 8:3). God redeems us by sending his Son to fulfill the law. We have been set free from the law and walk in the new way of the Spirit.