BIBLE STUDY OUTLINES (2022) – REALITIES MINISTRIES

NOVEMBER BIBLE STUDY OUTLINES

YIELD YOURSELF FOR PRUNING | TEXT: JOHN 15:1-6 | WEDNESDAY 30TH NOVEMBER 2022

TOPIC: YIELD YOURSELF FOR PRUNING TEXT: JOHN 15:1-6

MEMORY VERSE: “Jesus answered, “A person who has had a bath needs only to wash his feet; his whole body is clean. And you are clean, though not every one of you.” For he knew who was going to betray him, and that was why he said not every one was clean.” (John 13:10-11NIV)

INTRODUCTION
Pruning is a very important activity for those who keep vineyards. That is because it is one of the processes through which they promote the fruitfulness of the trees they are caring for. And what does pruning involve or entail? It entails the cutting away from a tree any part of it that is unwanted or that is not contributing to its growth and fruitfulness, so that it can maximize the nutrients and care that it is receiving to increase in fruitfulness or usefulness. But what does this have to do with Christian living? It has a lot to do with it, as our Lord made clear to the disciples of old just before He went to the cross. And that will be the focus of this study. We want to see the place of pruning in our walk with God and the kind of attitude we need to have towards it in order for it to accomplish what He wants it to accomplish in our lives.

YIELD YOURSELF FOR PRUNING
Now here is what the Lord says about pruning and its roles in our relationship with Him, just before He went to the cross:

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. “I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned.” (John 15:1-6NIV)

What is the first thing we see in our Lord’s words that we have in this bible text? It is a description of our relationship with Him and with the Father. According to Him, our relationship with Him is like that of a vine and its branches. He is the vine, the true vine. And we are the branches. That being the case, we need Him for our life and sustenance. We need Him for every nourishment required by us to become fruitful and productive and live out whatever our potential may be in this life. All of this is why He tells us to remain in Him, for apart from Him we can do nothing.

So, as a child of God, if you want to continue to be fruitful in life, you must remain in the Lord Jesus. As a child of God, if you want to continue to have and enjoy access to God and everything He represents and has provided for His people, you must remain in the Lord Jesus. As Paul tells us, it is in Him and through our faith in Him that we can approach God with freedom and confidence. And if we want to continue to access God’s limitless provision of grace for us to thrive and walk in victory in this life, we must remain in Him. (Cf. Rom 5:1-2; Eph 3:12)

Anyone, then, who will not remain in Him will soon enough find himself unable to connect to the grace of God or utilise it. That, of course, is the reason for the dryness, confusion, depression, sorrow of heart, poverty, weariness and lukewarmness of faith that many so-called believers are experiencing today. They will not stay connected to the Lord, who is our source, the source of everything we need to be fruitful and productive in life and to all stay safe. So, they are not just in danger of being cut off from His provisions; they are also in danger of being totally cut off from Him and His kingdom. And some have been cut off from Him in this manner and become lost to the wiles of the devil.

In any case, how do we remain in the Lord Jesus, our source? John answers that for us in his first epistle, saying, “See that what you have heard from the beginning remains in you. If it does, you also will remain in the Son and in the Father.” (1John 2:24NIV) Did you see that? It is by allowing the words of Jesus to dwell or abide or remain in us that we will remain in Him and in the Father. And how exactly do His words keep us in Him? One of the ways they do that is by pruning our lives, ridding them of everything that is contrary to growth and fruitfulness.

Remember, as I pointed out before, that the Lord describes our relationship with Him as that of a vine and its branches. But that is not all. He also describes the relationship of the Father with us. He refers to Him as the gardener taking care of all of us. And one of the ways He takes care of us is by pruning our lives, ridding them of everything that is unwanted and unnecessary and that is limiting us in growth, fruitfulness and usefulness.

According to our Lord Jesus, God, as the caretaker of our lives, is ever committed to our increased fruitfulness. That is because it is by being continually fruitful that we will remain useful to Him and His kingdom and bring glory to Him. Those who are not bringing forth fruit for Him, the fruit of righteousness, are useless to Him and so must be cut off, at some point, if they remain fruitless. Therefore, He wants us to be most fruitful and productive in living for Him. And whatever is preventing that in our lives He will surely deal with.

But then, we must yield ourselves to be pruned by God in order for His purpose to be accomplished. In order words, we must allow Him to get rid of those things in our lives that are limiting our fruitfulness. And the things we are talking about may be certain wrong attitudes or philosophies we have or some unclean appetites that we will not deal with. Or they may be some relationships with people or things that are hurting and hindering our faith. Whatever they are, God is ready to rid our lives of them or of their wrong influences over our lives. We too have to be ready to allow Him to work. Otherwise, His purpose will not be realised in our lives.

Now how does He do this? How does God prune us? As I pointed out before, one major tool He uses in pruning us is His word. In our bible study text, Jesus says this to His disciples: “You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you.” (John 15:3) And in Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, he tells us that the Lord Jesus washes us, members of His body, with His word the way we use water to wash our bodies and other things (Eph 5:26). So, God’s word is one of His pruning hooks. And as He brings His word to us, our eyes are opened to see habits, relationships and philosophies that we need to totally drop or that we need to define or sanctify and our hearts are also strengthened to act accordingly.

Then there are also times that God uses circumstances of life to separate us from things, ideas, people or influences that are limiting our growth and usefulness to Him. Will this be interesting? Not likely! Is pruning often enjoyable for those whose lives are being pruned? No! Having our lives rid of certain habits or appetites or philosophies or ambitions that have been a part of us for years or for all our lives can’t be interesting at all. And having certain people that have been very vital parts of our lives and that we are benefiting from our dealings with them separated from us or being limited in the degree of influence they wield over lives is most times not enjoyable. It may even fill us with fear or doubts, as it was the case with Gideon when most of his men were sent home by God just before they went into battle with the Midianites. (Cf. Judges 7:1-15)

Therefore, we will want to fight it or prevent it from happening. But if we too are truly concerned about our increased fruitfulness and usefulness in God’s kingdom, we will endure the pains and surrender ourselves to be pruned by our Father as He deems fit. By the way, there are times that we ourselves may the ones that need to be cut off from some people’s lives, so that they can mature in the things of God. And if we do not understand this, we will most likely find ourselves fighting God and hindering His works in others’ lives. That, of course, will not yield anything good for us. So, we need to be discerning in relating to others, so that we will not become a limitation to their fruitfulness and growth, a limitation that God will have to take care of.

At any rate, not yielding ourselves to be pruned by the Father will surely come with consequences. Remember that He is pruning us for our good and not to inflict pains on us. So, if we will not allow Him to prune us, we will not become clean and made ready to always increase in fruitfulness and usefulness. That, of course, may at some point lead to stagnation or a situation in which the wrong things in our lives take full charge of us, separate us from Jesus our source and drive us to our destruction.

That was what happened to Judas Iscariot. He did not allow himself to be pruned and rid of the greed in his life. While Jesus could say of His other disciples that they were clean because of the words He had spoken to them, He could not say the same thing of Judas. His words were, “And you are clean, though not every one of you.” Did you see that? That man was not clean, even though he too had heard the same words that cleansed his fellow disciples. So, he went on to reveal himself as a son of perdition, a man that was doomed for destruction.

CONCLUSION
Now my prayer is that you will not for any reason be separated from our Lord Jesus Christ and meet with destruction. However, you need to yield yourself to be pruned by Him for greater fruitfulness and usefulness in life. How? First, give yourself to His word and embrace it, whether it is pleasant or not. Second, don’t get tired of being rebuked or corrected by Him. Third, don’t get tired of making corrections or adjustments in life based on the revealed will of God for you. Finally, don’t lose heart when God is separating you from people or things that are dear to you so that can put your trust fully in Him, so that you can concentrate on doing His will or so that you can take certain responsibilities of yours that you have been neglecting. Remember that everything He is doing is for your good. So, cheer up and be fully yielded to Him. And you will never be unproductive or unprofitable again in your walk of faith with Him.

QUESTIONS
– Can you identify any area of your life in which you have been contending with God and refusing to yield to His pruning?
– What is the most important lesson for you in this study?

For further studies: Hebrews 12:1-13

By Johnson O. Lawal

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PRAYERS THAT MOVE MOUNTAINS | TEXT: DANIEL 10:11-14 | WEDNESDAY 23RD NOVEMBER 2022

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PRAYERS THAT MOVE MOUNTAINS | TEXT: DANIEL 10:11-14 | WEDNESDAY 23RD NOVEMBER 2022

MEMORY VERSE: “Elijah was as human as we are, and yet when he prayed earnestly that no rain would fall, none fell for the next three and a half years!” (James 5:17NLT)

INTRODUCTION
I started sharing with us about a month ago on the subject of prayers. And now I want us to continue from where we left off by looking at prayers that move mountains. Before we can be committed to offering prayers that can move mountain, we need to first understand the concept of prayer. Prayer is a means of expressing our absolute dependence on God. God has not created us to live independent of him. That is why the Lord Jesus Christ says to us that without him we can do nothing (John 15:5). Without God, we cannot really make much sense out of life. And if you know that without God you can’t achieve anything, you will always talk to Him about every matter of your life. You will live a life of total dependence on Him.

It’s when we gain this knowledge that we can actually pray without ceasing, as we are instructed in the Scriptures (Luke 21:36; 1Thess 5 :17). Also, there will not be any issues of our lives that we would consider to be of too little significance to commit into God’s hands. King Solomon says that we cannot eat and enjoy our food without God. “So I decided there is nothing better than to enjoy food and drink and to find satisfaction in work. Then I realized that this pleasure is from the hand of God. For who can eat or enjoy anything apart from him?” (Eccl 2:24-25) So, God wants us to express our absolute dependence on him to provide for all our needs and solve our problems.

PRAYERS THAT MOVE MOUNTAINS
In order to offer prayers and get our desired results, we need to have the consciousness that our prayers are powerful. The prayers of a believer are not just mere words but powerful. Until we begin to walk in this consciousness, we cannot experience much of this power. “The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and wonderful results.” (James 5:16) I like how James describes the power he is talking about here. He calls it ‘GREAT POWER’. If you are righteous, your prayers have great powers to move mountain and bring about your miracles.

James further describes for us the greatness of the powers of prayers by giving us the account of Elijah’s prayers and the results that followed. He says, “Elijah was as human as we are, and yet when he prayed earnestly that no rain would fall, none fell for the next three and a half years! Then he prayed for rain, and down it poured. The grass turned green, and the crops began to grow again.” (James 5:17-18) James says here that Elijah is a human being like us. In other words, we too can get as much powerful results as the results he got through prayers.

But there is one important lesson from the story of Elijah, which we need to pay attention to. And it is that he persisted in prayers until he got the result that he wanted. He prayed for seven times in one day until he got result (1Kings 18:41-45). Is that to say that there is a formula to receiving answers to our prayers? No, there isn’t. Elijah persisted seven times in prayers before he got physical manifestation of answers to prayers but Daniel’s case was different. Look at what is said about him and a time that he prayed:

“And the man said to me, “O Daniel, greatly loved of God, listen carefully to what I have to say to you. Stand up, for I have been sent to you.” When he said this to me, I stood up, still trembling with fear. Then he said, “Don’t be afraid, Daniel. Since the first day you began to pray for understanding and to humble yourself before your God, your request has been heard in heaven. I have come in answer to your prayer. But for twenty-one days the spirit prince of the kingdom of Persia blocked my way. Then Michael, one of the archangels, came to help me, and I left him there with the spirit prince of the kingdom of Persia. Now I am here to explain what will happen to your people in the future, for this vision concerns a time yet to come.” (Daniel 10: 11-14).

It took Daniel 21 days before he got answers to his request, even though God heard him the very first day he started praying. The lesson from these two accounts is that we must persist in prayers until we get results. The reason so many people do not receive from God is that they give up too quickly when they seem not to be getting results through prayers. Of course, it’s not all the time that we will need to persist for days or weeks in prayers before getting answers. But there are times that we will need to persist in prayers for days or weeks or months or even years before we receive the needed answers.

CONCLUSION
The power to change any ugly situation of our lives is in us. Glory be to God! By his mighty power at work within us he is able to accomplish infinitely more than we would ever dare to ask or hope (Eph 3:20). This should bring some excitement into our prayer lives, since we know that each time we pray the power of God is being released from within us over the situations of our lives. So, never give up on expressing your total dependence on God, for men ought always to pray and not to faint.

By Emmanuel Olarinre

DON’T LEARN THE HARD WAY | TEXT: LUKE 15:11-24 | WEDNESDAY 16TH NOVEMBER 2022

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TOPIC: DON’T LEARN THE HARD WAY
TEXT: LUKE 15:11-24

MEMORY VERSES: “I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you and watch over you. Do not be like the horse or the mule, which have no understanding but must be controlled by bit and bridle or they will not come to you.” (Ps 32:8-9NIV)

BACKGROUND
One of the things we are shown in the Scriptures in a very consistent way is that God is utterly devoted to instructing His people and leading them in the way they should go. Take the exodus of Israel out of Egypt, for instance. God was with the people all the way to lead them to experience His rest. And He was mindful of where He took them through in order to fulfil His good purpose for their lives. Look at some of the things we are told about how He led them: “When Pharaoh let the people go, God did not lead them on the road through the Philistine country, though that was shorter. For God said, “If they face war, they might change their minds and return to Egypt.” So God led the people around by the desert road toward the Red Sea. The Israelites went up out of Egypt armed for battle.” (Ex 13:17-18NIV)

Did you see that? God was concerned about the route He led the nation of Israel through and how it might affect their disposition towards challenges. So, even when He could have taken them through a shorter route, He did not. He did not because He did not want them to meet with certain challenges that could make them turn back and return to Egypt. And how did He lead them? We are told this about how He led them: “By day the LORD went ahead of them in a pillar of cloud to guide them on their way and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, so that they could travel by day or night. Neither the pillar of cloud by day nor the pillar of fire by night left its place in front of the people.” (Ex 13:21-22NIV)

Well then, since God was the one leading them in this manner, it means there was no challenge they would encounter that He did not already know about and have a way of escape for. For instance, He was the one that led them into the situation in which they were sandwiched between the army of Pharaoh and the Red Sea. Could God actually lead one into an impossible situation? Yes! That is one of the things the story of the exodus of Israel from Egypt into the Promised Land teaches us. It teaches us that the fact that God is the one leading us does not mean that we will not encounter trouble or challenges. We may encounter very troubling challenges even though God is the one leading us. But as long as we are trusting in Him, He will always show us the way of victory.

DON’T LEARN THE HARD WAY
Now, just as God was committed to leading the children of Israel from Egypt into the Promised Land by His good Spirit and with all kinds of signs and wonders, He is still committed to leading His children today by His good Spirit and through His word, prophetic revelations, visions, dreams and angelic visitations. But the question has always been, “Are God’s children willing to be led by Him?” Are we willing to trust Him, as our good and great Shepherd, to lead us to be all that He wants us to be and to experience the best He has for us? That is usually where the problem lies.

As I pointed out before, there are several Scriptures that point to the fact that God is utterly devoted to leading and guiding His people into all that is best for them (Is 48:17-18; John 16:13). But Scriptures also show us that many of God’s people often need to learn the hard way before they yield themselves totally to His leading. I mean that many of us have to learn from our experiences of failure and pains before we agree that God’s way is the only way to experience fullness of life, peace, joy and prosperity in this world. And some may not even live to tell the stories of their foolishness in rejecting God’s way and following their own way. This is why we must learn to yield our hearts to follow Him without reservations. It is for our own good and safety.

In the bible text before us for this study, our Lord Jesus shares a story with us, one that has become one of the most popular stories ever told anywhere in the world, of a young man who woke up one day and decided that it was time for him to get away from his father’s leadership. Here again is the story:

“Jesus continued: “There was a man who had two sons. The younger one said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of the estate.’ So he divided his property between them. “Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living. After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything. “When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired men have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired men.’ So he got up and went to his father. “But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him. “The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ “But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ So they began to celebrate.” (Luke 15:11-24NIV)

Now what the made the younger son of the man the Lord speaks of in this story demand for his own share of his estate? It was a desire to be independent. He wanted to be independent of his father and of his control. He must have felt that he had had enough of his father and that he had become wise and old enough to be able to run his own affairs. And did the father deny him what he asked for? No! Why did he not deny him? It was because he wanted him to learn from experience that he had not mature enough to lead himself and manage his affairs. It is possible that he had been pressuring his father for a while about getting his own share of his inheritance. Whatever the case was, the father granted his request by giving him what he wanted. And after a while, he got together everything he had and left the land of his father altogether for another country.

But it was only a matter of time before he lost everything he had, which he did not work for. Then he had to go and work and see how difficult it is to amass wealth. He could not even earn enough money to feed himself, not to talk of save, invest and amass wealth. And if he had insisted on doing things in his own way and had not resolved to go back home to his father, he would have perished in that strange land. Thankfully, when he returned, his father, who had been longing to have him back and perhaps praying that he would not die in his foolishness, was all too glad to receive and restore him.

What is the point of this story? Well, often, we dwell on the repentance of the young man as the main point of the story. And that is true. Jesus wants us to know that however messed up our lives are, if we will return to God, our Father, whom all of us in Adam have abandoned, He will take us back as His own, celebrate our return to Him and begin to work to restore us. But that is not the only main point of the story. There are others. And one of them is that if, though we acknowledge God as our Father and Shepherd, we fail to submit ourselves to Him, so that He can lead and guide us into what is best for us, He will not contend with us and force us to follow Him. Instead, He will leave us and allow us to learn the hard way. And whether we survive that or not will depend on how quickly we retrace our steps back to Him and the measure of His mercy that we receive.

You can look at your life to see how many times you have had to learn the hard way. And you can also look around you, and you will see people who have had to learn to yield themselves to God the hard way. When He was bringing them His word about their devotion to Him, love relationships, jobs and so forth, they were not listening to Him or taking Him seriously. But when their lives and world began to collapse on them and everything was working towards eliminating them from the world before their time, they remembered Him and ran back to Him. And though He has the power to save, heal and restore anyone, the scars of the injuries we may sustain from learning the hard way will always be there to remind us of how foolish and terrible it is not to yield ourselves to God. (Cf. Ps 107:23-30)

All of this is why the Spirit says this to us through the mouth of His servant, David: “I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you and watch over you. Do not be like the horse or the mule, which have no understanding but must be controlled by bit and bridle or they will not come to you.” (Ps 32:8-9NIV) Did you see that? God, here, promises to instruct us and teach us in the way we should go. There is the way we should go in life. There is the path we ought to follow in life. And God is devoted to showing us by His Spirit and through His word. Not only that, He is also devoted to counselling us and watching over us wherever we go. So, as long as we are following Him, there is no situation that will be able to overwhelm us or hinder us from getting to the place He is taking us in life

However, He warns us to yield ourselves to Him totally and not to act like horses and mules, which must be tamed with harsh circumstances become they yield to their owners. In other words, we should not wait until He allows the circumstances of life to deal harshly with us and perhaps injure or wound us before we listen to what He is saying to us. No, we should not wait until we come to our wits’ end before we begin to take what He is saying to us seriously. That is not good for us. And as I pointed out before, we may not even survive what is coming. So, willingly choose to follow the Lord faithfully and in all matters of your life. That is the only way to experience His peace and not be wounded, regardless of what you meet on the way.

CONCLUSION
We can choose to yield ourselves to God and be led by Him in the way we should go, so that we will experience all that is best for us. Or we can choose to do things our own way and learn the hard way that God’s way is the only way for us to make sense out of living. The choice is ours to make. But God’s counsel to us is to choose not to learn the hard way.

QUESTIONS
– What is the most important lesson for you in this study?

By Johnson O. Lawal

THE HOUSEHOLD OF STEPHENAS | TEXT: 1CORINTHIANS 16:15-18 | WEDNESDAY 9TH NOVEMBER 2022

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THE HOUSEHOLD OF STEPHENAS TEXT: 1CORINTHIANS 16:15-18

MEMORY VERSES: “…But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.” (Joshua 24:15NIV)

INTRODUCTION

Just before Joshua died, having settled the children of Israel in the land of Canaan, he made it very clear to them that he and his household would be forever be devoted to serving the Lord. That is showing us that what God wants is not just for each of us to give ourselves to serving Him; what He wants is for each of us to lead our various households in serving Him. In fact, one of the reasons He picked Abraham as the one through whom He would bless the whole world was that He was convinced that the man would lead his descendants to obey and serve Him (Genesis 18:17-19). So, what will really delight His heart will not be for just one person in a family to be given to serving Him but for everyone in every family to be radically devoted to knowing Him and to serving Him.

As we see in the bible, Our Lord Jesus had very close disciples that were brothers. He had Peter and Andrew, who served Him wholeheartedly from the time He called them till the very time the left this world. He also had James and John. And they too served Him with everything they had from the time He called them till the very time they left this world. What about His own natural brothers? At least, we have books written by His brothers, James and Jude, showing that they also, having believed in Him, gave themselves to serving Him as their Lord. And I gave you these examples to let you know that we can have whole family members devoted in service to God and His children.

Now, in the bible portion we want to examine for this study, which is in 1Corinthians, Paul specifically mentions a household which members are devoted to serving God’s people in Christ Jesus and the need for God’s people to recognise, submit to and also learn from such families. Here is what he says:

“You know that the household of Stephanas were the first converts in Achaia, and they have devoted themselves to the service of the saints. I urge you, brothers, to submit to such as these and to everyone who joins in the work, and labors at it. I was glad when Stephanas, Fortunatus and Achaicus arrived, because they have supplied what was lacking from you. For they refreshed my spirit and yours also. Such men deserve recognition.” (1Cor 16:15-18NIV)

Whose household is Paul referring to in this text? The household of a man called Stephanas. Who was Stephanas? Not much is said about him by Paul in his letters. And even Luke, who wrote much about the ministry of this apostle, says nothing about him in the book of Acts. But from the little said by Paul about him, first, it is clear that he was among those who first gave their lives to the Lord Jesus in Corinth when Paul came to minister to them. Second, it is clear that Stephanas was one of the leaders or pastors of the churches in Corinth.

Then, the third thing Paul says about this man, for which cause we are considering him, is that he was not the only Christian in his family; on the contrary, all the members of his household were equally Christians. And not only were they all Christians, they all also devoted themselves to ministering to God’s people. That means each member of this household was involved in God’s work in a very significant and noticeable way. In what ways did they devote themselves to ministering to God’s people? Paul does not say in specific terms. But since Stephanas was one of the leaders of the church in Corinth and members of his household were among the first converts there, we can infer that they must have been devoted to teaching the brethren His word and following them up to grow spiritually.

Furthermore, since Paul speaks in this passage about how this man and two other church leaders came to him with some gifts and how they had been refreshing the hearts of the brethren, we can infer that his household must have been devoted to giving to support the brethren. So, we are looking at a household that was not just devoted to sharing their faith with the people of God but also devoted to sharing their lives with them. And it is important to equally note that everyone in Corinth knew about the devotion of this household to God. Again, look at how Paul puts this: “You know that the household of Stephanas were the first converts in Achaia, and they have devoted themselves to the service of the saints…” In other words, it was common knowledge in Corinth that these brethren were not just among the first to be born again in that place but were also radically given to doing the Lord’s work.

Now is my devotion to God and to serving His people common knowledge among the people of God and even among the unbelievers around me? What about you? Is your devotion to the Lord and to His people common knowledge to those in your assembly and others around you? If our devotion to God is not wholehearted and obvious to those in our lives, how can we lead or inspire members of our household to be wholehearted and passionate in their devotion to Him? And what God wants, as I pointed out before, is for all of us in our various families to be radically devoted to Him. What He wants is for all for us to know Him and to be wholeheartedly serving Him and His people in very obvious ways.

So, if there is a member of our family that does not yet know the Lord, we must not stop praying for them until they too join us in the faith. Then if there are members of our household that are not truly passionate in their devotion to God, it is our job to continually pray for them and to admonish them to fully take their place in His kingdom. As we know through the bible, every child of God is gifted to serve Him in one way or the other in the kingdom. That means each member of our family has at least a gift with which they can serve and honour God. Do they know this? If they know, what are they doing about this knowledge? How they are moving the work of God forward with it?

It is reported in the book of Acts that Philip the evangelists had four unmarried daughters who prophesied (Acts 21:7-9). That means these ladies were known by the church as prophetesses. How? It was through the use of their prophetic gifts. That means they were edifying the churches of God then by declaring His mind to them. And that is how it should be for each of us too in our various families. We are to be using whatever our gifts are to minister to God and to His people, without holding back. But what if the leadership of our church begins to think our own is too much? Then, instead of allowing anyone to quench the fire of the Spirit of God in us, it may be best to move on to join a fellowship of believers who will give us room to freely serve God as He wants us to do. But we must never give room for rebellion against spiritual authority in our lives or allow the devil to use us to cause divisions in the church of God.

At any rate, Paul goes on to state for the Corinthians how believers ought to relate to families like those of Stephanas and anyone who, like them, is labouring hard for the Lord. First, he says they are to submit to them. In other words, they are to yield themselves to the leadership of such people. Why? It is so that they can learn from them and also fully participate in the blessings of their ministries. And we should keep this in mind: it does not matter how anointed, gifted and devoted our leaders are to serving us, if we will not humble ourselves and follow their leadership, we will not enjoy the full blessings of their ministries.

So, yield yourself to those leaders that are labouring over you in the Lord. That way you can learn from them and begin to emulate their passion and devotion in serving the Lord. Also, that way, you can fully enjoy the blessings of their ministries.

The second thing Paul says about how to relate to such people is that they are to be recognised. What does it mean to recognise people? It means to honour them and not to despise them. That means you show them that you appreciate their work. It is sad that those of the world often do better in honouring their own than those of us in the kingdom of light. That is why they give them awards, cash gifts and so forth just to let them know that what they are doing is not being overlooked. But those of us in the church hardly take this seriously, unless we are manipulated or coerced to do so.

Now, of course, God will certainly honour those who serve Him faithfully whether men honour them or not. But He has commanded us to honour them. So, not honouring them is disobedience. Not appreciating those that God is using day after day, week after week, month after month and year after year to bless us is sin against God. And how will He punish such sins? I cannot say. And I don’t want to be used as a scapegoat for others to learn from. Therefore, I will be devoted to appreciating and honouring those God is using to minister to me with my words and also with my resources. And I counsel you to be devoted to doing the same.

CONCLUSION

God wants us and our entire families to be devoted to His service. We too should want what He wants and continually pray that this will be the case with the various families in our assemblies. And when we see families who are devoted like this, we should honour and not despise them. Yes, we should honour such families and not do anything that will discourage them or minimise the relevance of their work. Otherwise, not only are we going to miss greatly the blessings of their work, God will also not hold us guiltless for dishonouring or discouraging His servants.

QUESTIONS

– How can we benefit from having our entire family members radically and wholeheartedly devoted to God’s service?

– What is the most important lesson for you in this study?

By Johnson O. Lawal

MORE THAN WORDS | TEXT: MATTHEW 21:28-32 | WEDNESDAY 2ND NOVEMBER 2022

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MORE THAN WORDS

TEXT: MATTHEW 21:28-32

WEDNESDAY 2ND NOVEMBER 2022

MEMORY VERSES: “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.” (James 1:22NIV)

INTRODUCTION

All through the Scriptures, we find emphasis placed on not just being hearers of the word of God alone but doers of it as well. Why is this important? It is important because it is in doing the word of God or His will that we experience the fullness of His blessings in our lives. Yes, the word of God shows us that those who present themselves to read or hear whatever God has to say to them are blessed too. However, until we do what the word says, it will not accomplish in us and through us what God desires. So, it is not enough for us to hear what God says and to acknowledge it as His will for us. We must also do what He says. And until we do what He says, we are not pleasing Him. (Cf. Rom 2:13; James 1:22; Rev 1:3)

MORE THAN WORDS

Now, to make this point very clear to us, I want us, in this study, to turn to a story our Lord Jesus shares with the religious leaders of the Jews about a man and his two sons and of how they both responded to a certain instruction that he had given them. Here is the account:

“What do you think? There was a man who had two sons. He went to the first and said, ‘Son, go and work today in the vineyard.’ “‘I will not,’ he answered, but later he changed his mind and went. “Then the father went to the other son and said the same thing. He answered, ‘I will, sir,’ but he did not go. “Which of the two did what his father wanted?” “The first,” they answered. Jesus said to them, “I tell you the truth, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you. For John came to you to show you the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes did. And even after you saw this, you did not repent and believe him.” (Matt 21:28-32NIV)

As you can see, this story shared by the Lord is not difficult to grasp at all. It is about a man who had two sons and who gave them the same instruction about working in his vineyard. And how did the first son respond to his instruction? He said clearly that he would not obey it. Why did he tell his father that he would not obey his instruction? The Lord does not say. But he must have had his reasons. However, when he later thought the matter over again, he saw that it was wrong of him not to obey his father. So, he decided to obey him by going to do the work he had instructed him to do.

Then, coming to the second son, the man gave him too the same instruction. Interestingly, his response was affirmative. He said that he would obey his father’s instruction. And did he obey him? No, he did not. Why did he not do what he had told his father that he would do? Again, the Lord does not tell us. And did it really matter? No, it did not matter. His reason for not doing what the father wanted did not matter at all. What mattered was that he did not do the will of his father, as he had said that he would do. Since he, then, did not obey him, he failed and was not worthy of receiving his father’s praise or reward.

Now, in closing His thoughts on this parable, the Lord presented the application to His audience, the religious leaders of the Jews. He showed them that they were the second son of that father. They were the ones reading, studying and proclaiming the Scriptures and what they say about God’s kingdom and righteousness. Yes, they were the ones carrying the whole thing about the worship of God on their heads. Unfortunately, they were still the ones that would not act in line with what the Scriptures say, which they were proclaiming. They were the ones that would deliberately disagree with those telling them the truth of God and also persecute them.

Therefore, as the Lord further showed them, the tax collectors, the prostitutes, the swindlers and all the so-called sinners in the land, whom they were despising and condemning, would enter the kingdom of God ahead of them. Why? It was because even though those ones had been disobedient to God before, having heard the truth of the gospel, they began to reconsider their ways and to turn back to God.

In like manner, it is not enough for us to mentally assent to what the word of God that we are listening to, reading, studying or preaching is saying. It is also important that we give ourselves to living accordingly. That is because until we begin to live accordingly, whatever we think we know about His word is useless. I am saying that until we are living according to what God is saying to us in His word, our reading, studying and preaching it is utterly useless to us. His word cannot do us any good.

Look again at what our Lord Jesus says about those who hear God’s word and what will become of them based on whether they act on it or not:

“”Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say? I will show you what he is like who comes to me and hears my words and puts them into practice. He is like a man building a house, who dug down deep and laid the foundation on rock. When a flood came, the torrent struck that house but could not shake it, because it was well built. But the one who hears my words and does not put them into practice is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. The moment the torrent struck that house, it collapsed and its destruction was complete.” (Luke 6:46-49NIV)

Can you see that the Lord’s emphasis here is not at all on hearing or reading or studying His word but on putting it into practice? Is that to say that hearing, reading or studying His word is unimportant? No, that is not it. Hearing, reading and studying the word is very important and causes us to experience His blessings to some degree. But the reason He is speaking to us is not for us to merely know His mind about what He wants us to do and about all that concerns our lives but for us also to act accordingly.

Now as the Lord shows us in the text above, the one who hears and acts on His word is that one that is really living and building his life. The one that hears his word and does nothing about it will find that he is not building his life at all but wasting his time, energy, passion, devotion and resources. That is because whatever it is that he is building will certainly collapse when it is tested with life’s challenges and trials.

CONCLUSION

So, we need to stop deceiving ourselves and go from just mentally assenting to God’s word and from making all kinds of promises about what we are going to do for Him to actually doing what He wants us to do. Otherwise, we will someday come face to face with the reality about the lies we have been telling ourselves about our devotion to Him.

QUESTION

– What is the most important lesson for you in this study?

By Johnson O. Lawal

OCTOBER BIBLE STUDY OUTLINES

TWO MEN OF DISTINCTION | TEXT: PHILIPPIANS 2:19-29 | WEDNESDAY 26TH OCTOBER 2022

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TOPIC: TWO MEN OF DISTINCTION
TEXT: PHILIPPIANS 2:19-29

MEMORY VERSES: “Welcome him in the Lord with great joy, and honor men like him…” (Phil 2:29NIV)

INTRODUCTION
As we see in Scriptures, all of us who are children of God must learn to recognise the leaders God has appointed over us in the church and to treat them with great respect. And that is not because they are more anointed than us or have a better standing before God than us. Rather, it is because of their work, the work God has given them to do among us. In fact, writing to Timothy on this matter, Paul says that such people deserve to be doubly honoured. It is as serious as that. So, when we see men and women of God in our assemblies being greatly honoured and being treated in very special ways, we should not be surprised or be bitter. It is what the Lord Himself has commanded. (Cf. 1Thess 5:12-13; 1Tim 5:17)

Unfortunately, in many places today, leaders of God’s people are already abusing this privilege of honour that God has bestowed on them. What many want is honour without corresponding work. But the only reason God commands us to honour them greatly is their work. That means they need to distinguish themselves as men and women worthy of such honour. Of course, it is not for us who are being led to dishonour any leader because he does not take his work in the Lord seriously. But every leader being honoured by God’s people in this way ought to justify the honour he is receiving before God. Otherwise, God Himself, at the right time, will reveal the truth about who he is and what he has been up to. And that is going to be the focus of this study.

TWO MEN OF DISTINCTION
Now, in Paul’s letter to the Philippian brethren, he speaks about two men who distinguished themselves in doing the Lord’s work and why he considers them as men to be honoured by the saints. Look at what he says about these men and who they were:

“I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you soon, that I also may be cheered when I receive news about you. I have no one else like him, who takes a genuine interest in your welfare. For everyone looks out for his own interests, not those of Jesus Christ. But you know that Timothy has proved himself, because as a son with his father he has served with me in the work of the gospel. I hope, therefore, to send him as soon as I see how things go with me. And I am confident in the Lord that I myself will come soon. But I think it is necessary to send back to you Epaphroditus, my brother, fellow worker and fellow soldier, who is also your messenger, whom you sent to take care of my needs. For he longs for all of you and is distressed because you heard he was ill. Indeed he was ill, and almost died. But God had mercy on him, and not on him only but also on me, to spare me sorrow upon sorrow. Therefore I am all the more eager to send him, so that when you see him again you may be glad and I may have less anxiety. Welcome him in the Lord with great joy, and honor men like him, because he almost died for the work of Christ, risking his life to make up for the help you could not give me.” (Phil 2:19-30NIV)

The first name mentioned by Paul here is Timothy. Who was Timothy? He was one of the fruits of Paul’s ministry in Lystra. And both his mother and grandmother were believers as well. Apart from that, the brethren in Lystra and Iconium spoke well of him. So, when Paul with Silas set out on his second missionary journey, he took him along. (Cf. Acts 16:1-3; 2Tim 1:5)

How, then, did Timothy, who was a young man at that time, become a permanent co-worker of Paul in the ministry? How did he become someone that Paul could recommend for ministry work anywhere and any day? Was it simply because he was highly gifted? No! Or was it simply because he had a fine Christian character and everyone spoke well of him? No! As Paul points out in our text above, one of the things responsible for the kind of ministry relationship he had with Timothy was the young man’s genuine concern for the welfare of the people of God. In fact, Paul says that he has no one like him among the people around him who has the kind of genuine concern that Timothy has for these brethren in Philippi. So, if there is anyone to send to them or to be given the responsibility of leading them, Timothy is a perfect candidate.

Today, we have a lot of spiritually gifted people in the church. But they are not adding much value to the work of God and to the growth of His church. That is because they are not genuinely concerned about God’s people. They are only or mostly concerned about their own appetites. And whatever honour that is given to such by God’s people is undeserved and misplaced, something God will reveal at the right time. (Cf. Phil 3:18-19; 2Pet 2)

Another thing that Paul says about Timothy is that he was someone that had proved himself at various times as faithful and competent to lead God’s people. Having genuine concern for God’s people is one thing; it is another thing to have the competence of the Spirit of God to lead and care for them. There are also today people who have a good heart and love to take care of God’s people. But they do not have the gifts, knowledge or discipline required to lead and take care of them. Such people, if they will not humble themselves to learn and to be led by those who are competent to lead, can only end up destroying the work of God.

Unfortunately, there are people today who think they should surely be made leaders and be treated with great honour simply because they truly care about God’s people and want to help. Such people’s so-called genuine concern for God’s people is quite questionable. That is because if you truly have genuine concern for His people, then, you will also come to terms with your inability to take care of them and allow those who know what to do in caring for them to take charge. In other words, you will not mind supporting or assisting others who are more gifted than yourself in caring for God’s children inasmuch as His will is done in their lives, just as Jonathan did with David and David with Solomon.

Timothy was a gifted and competent young man. Nevertheless, he was always submissive to Paul the apostle as his leader. So, they were always able to work together for the good of God’s people. No wonder this apostle himself would ask brethren, even in other churches, to honour and respect him. (Cf. 1Cor 16:10-11)

The second person Paul mentions his name in our text is Epaphroditus. Who was Epaphroditus? We are not told much about this man in the bible. In fact, his name appears only in this letter to the Philippians. But from what we see in the letter, he was definitely a distinguished leader among the leaders of the churches in Philippi. Paul, in fact, refers to him as their messenger. And the word translated as ‘messenger’ in our text here is from the Greek word ‘Apostolos’. Which means this man was an apostle to the brethren in Philippi. And Paul asks that he be recognised and treated with special honour.

But why was Epaphroditus supposed to be treated by God’s people with special honour? Was it just because he was known as an apostle? No! Rather, it was because he was a hard worker in the kingdom of God. He was someone that was ready to give his life to make sure that God’s people under him became the persons God wanted them to become and did everything He wanted them to do. This man, as Paul points out, almost lost his life while carrying out spiritual service on behalf of his church. He had been sent by the Philippians to bring certain gifts to Paul for his ministry. And it was while carrying out that assignment that he fell ill. Yet he made sure that the work was done without giving any excuse for failure.

Also, even on his sick bed, he was still concerned about his brethren in Philippi and the fact that they were worried about his illness. That means instead of complaining that it was because of them that he was dying, he was earnestly desiring that he would get well on time and go back to them. It is clear, then, why Paul would instruct the brethren to treat him and men like him with great honour.

Today, sadly, what many of our so-called ministers who want men to honour them and, if possible, give their lives for them are simply carrying around are titles. They want people to regard them and respect them because of their titles. But we are not instructed in the bible to honour our leaders because of their titles; rather, we are told to honour them because of their work. So, if all you are carrying around is a title and you are not truly given to serving God’s people, labouring over them for the will of God to be done in their lives, whatever honour you are seeking or getting from them is underserving. And God will show this when the time comes.

In addition, many of our so-called ministers today do not want to share their lives with their brethren, not to talk of give their lives for their welfare. Paul, in a number of his letters, makes it clear that he and his ministry companions were always willing to share more than the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ with the brethren. They were always willing to also share their lives and whatever they had with them. And that is how true ministers of the gospel that deserve to be highly honoured function. It is not what the brethren can give to them to appreciate them that they seek but how they can give their all to bring them to perfection. (Cf. 2Cor 12:14-15; 1Thess 2:8)

CONCLUSION
So, if you want to be receiving a deserving honour from the people of God that you are living or working among, emulate these men. Emulate their genuine concern for God’s people and their faithfulness in serving them. Yes, distinguish yourself in serving the Lord by serving His people. And even if you do not have the honour of men, you will certainly have the honour of God. By the way, we are not called to serve God for the honour of men but for His own honour and praise. So, let not your focus be on serving to get the praise of men but the praise of God. Otherwise, you may end up corrupting the work you are called to do.

QUESTION
– What is the most important lesson for you in this study?

By Johnson O. Lawal

TWO MEN OF DISTINCTION | TEXT: PHILIPPIANS 2:19-29 | WEDNESDAY 26TH OCTOBER 2022

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TOPIC: TWO MEN OF DISTINCTION
TEXT: PHILIPPIANS 2:19-29

MEMORY VERSES: “Welcome him in the Lord with great joy, and honor men like him…” (Phil 2:29NIV)

QUESTION
– What is the most important lesson for you in this study?

By Johnson O. Lawal

AUGUST BIBLE STUDY OUTLINES

IT’S FOR YOUR BENEFIT | TEXT: 1KINGS 17:1-24 | WEDNESDAY 12TH OCTOBER 2022

MEMORY VERSES: “I assure you that there were many widows in Israel in Elijah’s time, when the sky was shut for three and a half years and there was a severe famine throughout the land. Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to a widow in Zarephath in the region of Sidon.” (Luke 4:25-26NIV)

INTRODUCTION
One of the things that often bother those wanting to give all their time to preaching the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ is how they will be taken care of. And there are many who, even though they know the Lord has chosen them to preach or proclaim His word in some way, are yet to commit themselves to doing so. Why? They are afraid of how their basic needs and those of their immediate families will be met. And should anyone allow that kind of fear to hinder them from doing the will of God? No! But we also know that anyone who wants to serve God faithfully and who has no intention of manipulating anybody in order to have his needs met will most likely have such concerns. He will want to know that he will not be financially stranded at any point and become exposed to ridicule.

Yes, as Paul tells us in his epistle to the Philippians, it is not everyone that preaches the gospel out of genuine interests. Some preach the gospel out of impure motives, seeking to make names for themselves or seeking to take care of their unclean appetites. Such people are usually not concerned about what means they use to have their needs met or taken care of. They are ready to use any means necessary or at their disposal. And that is largely because it is not the Lord Jesus Christ they are serving but their appetites. (Cf. Phil 1:15-18, 2:21 & 3:18-19)

However, anyone who is set out to serve the Lord Jesus Christ faithfully knows that he is not in it for material things that he may gain but for the fulfilment of the will of God in the lives of men. So, he cannot take any means available to have his needs met. Rather, he has to rely on God solely to take care of his needs. And can he trust God to take care of his needs, whatever they may be? Yes, he can trust God to do so. But will he trust Him to do so? Only time will tell.

In any case, one thing that is clear is that God will always provide people to support His servants, so that they can fully discharge the duties of their ministries. And how those He has provided respond to the task He has given to them will determine how they will be rewarded by Him. As our Lord Jesus Christ will have us understand, there is always a reward from God for everyone that supports His servants, including the one that is only able to give them a cup of water. Therefore, as long as we have the opportunity to do so, we should do our best to give quality support to any servant of God that He brings into our lives. (Cf. Matt 10:40-42; Gal 6:10)

IT IS FOR YOUR BENEFIT
To say the fact, one major reason God often leads people into situations where they are able to support His servants is that may experience and enjoy certain blessings of His that they may not otherwise experience or enjoy. And this is the major lesson of the bible story that we want to consider in this study. It is the story of Elijah and a widow in a place called Zarephath. The incident was set in a time of national famine that lasted three and a half years in Israel. And though it was Elijah that petitioned God to send this famine, God was ready to take care of him all through its years, just as He is ever ready to take care of His servants, regardless of the times they find themselves in.

Now how did He take care of this man? As we see in Scriptures, God began taking care of him by first leading him to a place where there was enough water for him to drink. Then He was also sending birds to give him food in the morning and in the evening. That means that God could do without the support of human beings in order to keep this prophet alive. And we should let this soak in our hearts. If God could not find any human being to use to do His will here on earth, He may decide to shock us by using an animal, a bird or a stone. (Cf. Num 22:21-35; 1Kings 17:1-6; Matt 3:9)

But then, as the account further reveals to us, a time came when the water of the brook that Elijah had been drinking from dried up because there was no rain in the land. Could God not have kept the water from drying up? He could have kept it from drying up. But He did not. Why? It was because He wanted to send Elijah to a widow and her son that needed miracles to survive those years of famine. And look at how the matter is reported in the bible:

“Go at once to Zarephath of Sidon and stay there. I have commanded a widow in that place to supply you with food.” So he went to Zarephath. When he came to the town gate, a widow was there gathering sticks. He called to her and asked, “Would you bring me a little water in a jar so I may have a drink?” As she was going to get it, he called, “And bring me, please, a piece of bread.” “As surely as the LORD your God lives,” she replied, “I don’t have any bread — only a handful of flour in a jar and a little oil in a jug. I am gathering a few sticks to take home and make a meal for myself and my son, that we may eat it — and die.” Elijah said to her, “Don’t be afraid. Go home and do as you have said. But first make a small cake of bread for me from what you have and bring it to me, and then make something for yourself and your son. For this is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘The jar of flour will not be used up and the jug of oil will not run dry until the day the LORD gives rain on the land.'” She went away and did as Elijah had told her. So there was food every day for Elijah and for the woman and her family. For the jar of flour was not used up and the jug of oil did not run dry, in keeping with the word of the LORD spoken by Elijah.” (1Kings 17:9-16NIV)

Why did Elijah go to that widow? It was because God commanded him to do so. Naturally, someone like Elijah would consider asking a poor widow for food at that time oppressive. But because it was God that gave him specific instructions about this particular widow, where to find her and how to recognise her, he went to look for her. And did he find things the way God had said he would find them or not? He did. So, if some stranger is telling you that God told them to tell you ‘thus and thus’, you may want to ask them for specifics. How are they sure you are the one God has sent them to?

Unfortunately, many of God’s people often foolishly fall into the traps of strange prophets and preachers today because they lack understanding along these lines. In fact, some will not use their head at all in relating to any so-called preacher or prophet they meet. Here is someone you don’t know at all or what he has been doing with his life. But just because he or someone introduces him to you as a prophet, you are already telling him all the stories of your life and are even ready to believe whatever he tells you, even when it is clearly contrary to the will of God. Then you will later start crying that he has defrauded you or injured you. Who is to blame?

Truly, as the story goes, when Elijah went to look for that woman as he had been instructed and told her what he wanted, the woman obeyed the word of the Lord. Yes, she was initially making excuses not to do so. But she later did. And why did she later obey the voice of the Lord? It was because the Lord had already spoken to her about taking care of His man that was coming. How did the Lord speak to this woman? We are not told. It may be through a dream, a vision or an angelic visitation. We wouldn’t know. But we do know that the Lord told Elijah that He had already commanded her to take care of him.

So, that woman responded to Elijah the way she did, even though he was a stranger to her, because God had already spoken to her about him. If you too are dealing with a stranger, be sure you have heard from God about them before you open the doors of your life for them to come in. Yes, we are told to help strangers in scriptures, for we may be dealing with angels. But in helping any stranger, help them publicly and where people can see how you are relating to them. Otherwise, you may put yourself in trouble. (Cf. Heb 13:2)

Then, even if you are dealing with one that you know to be a true servant of God, don’t just do anything they ask you to do, if it does not agree with Scriptures or if God has not given you specific instructions about it. You can tell the one talking to you to give you time to hear from God yourself, if you have not heard anything like what you are being told from Him. Otherwise, you may end up being misled against His will and to your own hurt.

Well, when that woman did the will of God by sharing her food with Elijah that very day he came to her, God also performed a miracle for her. God blessed her jar of flour and her jug of oil, so that their contents were not used up till the day God sent rain on the land. That means they had food to eat every day of those years of famine. Not only that, when death suddenly came in and took that woman’s only son away from her, Elijah was right there with her to restore the young man to life. And that was another miracle she never thought she would need. (Cf. 1Kings 17:17-24)

But what if she had not welcomed Elijah into her house to take care of him, as God had instructed her, would she and her son have survived those years of famine? No! Even if they somehow managed to survive, would her son have been brought back to life when something other than famine killed him, if Elijah had not been there? No! So, the coming of Elijah into their lives was for their benefits. Yes, they took care of him. But as I said before, God would have taken care of him somehow, if they had not received him.

CONCLUSION
Therefore, if God speaks to you about taking care of any of His servants, you had better hurry up and make yourself ready to do so. That is because you will someday find out that it is for your benefits. And if you don’t do what He has told you to do, you can be sure that He will find someone else that will do it. Why was it the widow of Zarephath that God picked? Why was it not someone else? There were several other widows in the land at that time. Did they also not need miracles? Yet God did not choose them but someone else that wasn’t an Israelite, someone in the region of Sidon. Why? As our Lord would show His disciples centuries later, it was because the Israelites did not value the ministry of Elijah that none of them was chosen at that time to experience God’s miraculous power for their survival. (Cf. Luke 4:25-26)

Now do we too value the ministers of God in our lives? Are we caring for them as we have been instructed in Scriptures? If we do not value and care for the men of God that He has placed in our lives to feed us with His word and watch over us, so that we may be established in His will, certain miracles or experience of God’s blessings we are supposed to witness will never happen. Interestingly, as long as they continue to do the will of God, He will continue to find people like the widows of Zarephath, people that may not be as religious, educated or rich as we are, that will care for them. And these are the ones that will eat the fruit of obedience to His word. (Cf. 1Cor 9:14; Gal 6:6)

Finally, if a you are servant of God, know that He will always take care of you, even if those He has commanded to support you will not do so. So, don’t lose your mind because certain people that are in a position to support you and your ministry will not do so. They are the ones that will ultimately lose. But you too have to be careful to remain in the will of God so that you also do not lose the reward of faithfulness to the one that has called and sent you.

QUESTION
– What is the most important lesson for you in this study?

By Johnson O. Lawal

STEWARDSHIP IN MATERIAL THINGS | TEXT: LUKE 16:1-12 | WEDNESDAY 14TH SEPTEMBER 2022

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STEWARDSHIP IN MATERIAL THINGS TEXT: LUKE 16:1-12

MEMORY VERSES: “Moreover it is required in stewards that one be found faithful.” (1Cor 4:2NKJV)

BACKGROUND

One of the things made very clear to us in Scriptures is that God is very much interested in how we use things, whether they are things that belong to us or things that others entrust to us. Why? It is because He is the owner of all things. The bible says, “The earth is the LORD’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it…” Ps 24:1NIV) It also says, “For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it.” (1Tim 6:7NIV) So, whatever we have access to in this life is not originally ours but God’s. In other words, we are stewards of God, as far as all the earthly things we have access to are concerned. And how we use the things He has entrusted to us, then, is important to Him. In fact, how we use the things He gives us or allows us to have access to has a great role to play in determining the degree to which He will elevate us in this life and also in the age to come. This is why, in this study, we are going to be looking at some basic things that our Lord Jesus Christ has to say about the kind of attitude we should have towards whatever God entrusts to us (people, money, special abilities or things), whether directly or through others.

AN UNFAITHFUL MANAGER

Now what are these basic things that our Lord says about how we are to function as God’s stewards in this life? To answer this question, we turn to a story that He once shared with His disciples about financial stewardship. And look at how Luke renders it:

“Jesus told his disciples: “There was a rich man whose manager was accused of wasting his possessions. So he called him in and asked him, ‘What is this I hear about you? Give an account of your management, because you cannot be manager any longer.’ “The manager said to himself, ‘What shall I do now? My master is taking away my job. I’m not strong enough to dig, and I’m ashamed to beg— I know what I’ll do so that, when I lose my job here, people will welcome me into their houses.’ “So he called in each one of his master’s debtors. He asked the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’ “‘Eight hundred gallons of olive oil,’ he replied. “The manager told him, ‘Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it four hundred.’ “Then he asked the second, ‘And how much do you owe?’ “‘A thousand bushels of wheat,’ he replied. “He told him, ‘Take your bill and make it eight hundred.’ The master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly. For the people of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own kind than are the people of the light. I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings.”” (Luke 16:1-9NIV)

What is the main point of this story? It is unfaithfulness in stewardship and how it is to be handled. As the story goes, there was a manager (steward) that was accused of wasting his master’s possessions. We are not told exactly how he wasted his master’s possessions. But when his master heard about what he was doing, he did not sit still or keep quiet. Instead, he summoned him immediately, fired him and told him to perfect his account books and hand them over.

What lessons does the Lord want us to pick from this? First, it is that we must not allow anyone to waste our resources. Don’t forget that those resources you have are not originally yours but God’s. So, if you allow people to waste them, abuse them or misuse them, you are showing yourself as an unfaithful and unworthy steward of God’s properties. And this, of course, has implications, as we will soon see in the Lord’s commentary on the story. What the Lord expects of us, then, if anyone is wasting or misusing our resources is to handle them. Those that need to be warned should be warned. Those that need to be sacked should be sacked. And those that need to have certain rights or privileges withdrawn from them should have such withdrawn from them. Of course, we should not be wicked or vindictive about this, punishing people beyond measure or beyond whatever offence they have committed. But we must not allow anyone staying or working with us to waste the resources God has given to us, resources that He will hold us accountable for their use.

In like manner, we also must not waste anyone’s possessions or misuse their properties. Otherwise, we should expect them to take action against us. And when actions are being taken against us for our irresponsibility in managing or handling other people’s things, we should not be upset or think they are being ungodly or unfair. That is because they are not being ungodly or unfair, if they are not vindictive in their approach. Rather, they are doing just fine, just what God will expect them to do.

In any case, the Lord, in the story, also goes on to show us how the manager that was being sent away responded to the news of his sack. And how did he respond to it? In sorting out his account, he got a number of his master’s debtors together and made them pay far less than they actually owed. Why? He wanted to win their favour. This man, as the Lord pointed out, knew that he was too lazy and irresponsible to get another job or a better job. But if he could win the favour of those who owed his master by giving them huge discounts on what they had bought, he could get them to help him after he had been sent away.

Now think about that. In order to solve his problem, that manager acted more unfaithfully. He stole more money from his master, for he did not get his permission before giving the kinds of discounts he gave to the man’s debtors. Nevertheless, when his master heard what he did, he commended him. What did he commend him for? Did he commended him for further wasting his resources? No! Rather, he commended him for his smartness, his cleverness. The man thought about his future and how to secure it. Yes, he went about it in a wrong way. But he acted smartly.

Unfortunately, as the Lord points out, children of God hardly act smartly as God’s stewards. They hardly use their heads in handling the resources, positions and opportunities God gives them, so that they can use these things to promote their future welfare, not just here in the world but also in the age to come. And God expects us to be using our heads in handling the things He has given to us. He expects us to always think of how we can use them for future and eternal purposes. If you, then, are not mindful of this, as you use whatever position, resources or opportunities God brings your way, you are not being wise at all. (Cf. Eph 5:15-16)

A TWIST TO THE STORY

But then, there is a twist to this story, which we must not fail to comprehend. And it is that the Lord is not asking or teaching us to be like that unfaithful manager in the way we handle the things of this life that are entrusted to us. Yes, there is a part of the story that has been rendered by bible translators to sound like that is exactly what He is saying. Let me give the part that I am talking about again:

“I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings. (Luke 16:9NIV)

What exactly does this mean? Well, many believe that it means that we are to use our earthly wealth or riches in such a way that we will be able to win people into God’s eternal kingdom. And those that we win into His kingdom in that manner will be the ones welcoming us into His eternal kingdom when Jesus returns. But this is far from what the Lord is saying. It is true that money can play a vital role in evangelising the world. But money by itself cannot save anyone’s soul. The one who saves people’s souls is the Holy Spirit. And if He does not save them, whatever amount of money we spend towards their salvation will not accomplish anything. Besides, this view of what the Lord says in this text does not agree at all with what He says next, as I shall soon show you. (Cf. John 6:44; Acts 16:13-15; 1Cor 12:3)

Furthermore, it is true that we can use worldly wealth or position to gain friends for ourselves. And we will do so, if we are smart. Yes, if we are smart, we will be using our money or position to keep in our lives people that can make our future sweet. But that does not mean that those friends will rise to support or help us, if should lose our money or position of advantage. When Job lost everything, including his health, his wealthy friends that came to him did not immediately consider helping him to recover all that he had lost. Instead, they used all the time they spent with him to criticise and condemn him. And if God had not vindicated him, he would most likely not have received any tangible help from them. So, it is not in every situation that friends that we make with our money or position will stand by us in our moments of need, for friends made through such means are often not genuine.

What, then, is the Lord talking about in that text? Personally, I believe that text was wrongly rendered by most bible translators to say what the Lord did not mean. And that would be because of their own religious inclinations. But if we consider how it is rendered in The Living bible, we will see exactly what it means. Look at how it is put in it:

“But shall I tell you to act that way, to buy friendship through cheating? Will this ensure your entry into an everlasting home in heaven?” (Luke 16:9TLB)

Did you see that? The Lord is using this story to teach us the exact opposite of what that manager did in handling his master’s possessions. He is saying that even if you are able to secure friendship for yourself in this world through cheating or dishonesty, will doing something similar make room for you in God’s eternal kingdom? No, it will not. In other words, God will not praise or reward you for acting in dishonesty. And this rendering of what He says perfectly agrees with what He says next, which is this:

“Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much. So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches? And if you have not been trustworthy with someone else’s property, who will give you property of your own?” (Luke 16:10-12NIV)

So, it is all clear that even though the Lord wants us to be smart in the way we use the things He has entrusted to us, whether directly or indirectly, He does not condone unfaithfulness at all. As far as He is concerned, if you cannot be trusted with what is little, you cannot also be trusted with what is much. That means He is watching our attitude towards handling every little thing He gives to us, whether they are opportunities, gifts, time, education, people’s support, position, money and so forth. And if we do not show ourselves faithful in managing it, He will not give us more. There won’t be exaltation or promotion from Him. If you, then, are not experiencing an increase of what you have or exaltation, progress, or expansion where you are or in what you are doing, you may want to examine your faithfulness in handling the things that God has entrusted to you.

Also, as far as God is concerned, if you are not trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, that is money, you are not fit to handle spiritual wealth – spiritual knowledge, spiritual gifts and people. This is why God does not use people who are lazy, slothful or unfaithful or dishonest with money in leading His people. And if they have been leading His people, the moment that start demonstrating unfaithfulness in handling money or anything else committed into their hands, God starts shutting doors of spiritual revelations, spiritual gifts and faithful brethren against them. So, soon enough, they will become dry spiritually.

Furthermore, as far as the Lord is concerned, anyone that is not trustworthy with someone else’ property is not fit to have his own property. That means that manager that He speaks of in that parable is not fit to be set up or established by anybody. In fact, if his master’s debtors that he gave those huge discounts to were smart, they would know that he was not someone that they should keep close to themselves or to their business. That is because he would certainly cheat them too, if the opportunity to do so presented itself.

The point of this, then, is that the Lord’s eyes are one all of us who are working under some people or who have other people’s properties, money or businesses entrusted to us. And how we are managing those things entrusted to us is one of the things that will determine whether God will clear the way for us too to be set up and established to be masters of our own or not. Remember Joseph. Remember how he handled Potiphar’s properties and possessions. Remember also how he handled the things committed into his hands in the prison. He showed himself to be a faithful steward in those two situations. That was why God lifted him up and set him above a whole nation. (Cf. Gen 39-41)

So, don’t think being a Christian alone or praying alone is enough to make you rise, become rich or take an important position in this life’s affairs or in the kingdom of God. It is not enough. You have got to show both God and men that you have what it takes to manage more resources, more people, more responsibilities or a bigger position than you are now occupying. That is God’s rule of life for promoting, exalting and increasing people. And if you are breaking it, you are going to be stagnant in many areas of your life. This, of course, is the reason for the stagnation and barrenness that many of God’s people are experiencing in their lives today.

CONCLUSION

As God’s stewards in this life, He demands that we demonstrate faithfulness to Him and to men in all that He entrusts to us. Even in little things, He wants to be faithful and diligent. Otherwise, He will never consider us fit or ready for a better life or for greater usefulness.

QUESTIONS

– How important is faithfulness of others to you?

– What is the most important lesson for you in this study?

By Johnson O. Lawal

ROMANS – CONCLUSION | TEXT: ROMANS 15:14-16:27 | WEDNESDAY 24TH AUGUST 2022

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ROMANS – CONCLUSION | TEXT: ROMANS 15:14-16:27 | WEDNESDAY 24TH AUGUST 2022

MEMORY VERSES: “…for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus…” (Rom 3:23-24NIV)

BACKGROUND

As we have seen in our previous studies in the book of Romans, Paul’s main focus in writing to the Roman brethren, who comprise both Jews and Gentiles, is to reiterate to them that justification and righteousness before God come only through faith in Christ Jesus. This, of course, leads him to share some very vital truths with them about sin, how God dealt with it in man, the reason for the law of Moses, the failure of the law of Moses, the introduction of grace through Jesus Christ, life by the Spirit of God and God’s plan for the unbelieving Jewish nation. Then he goes on to talk about true Christian living and how it should impart on the believer’s everyday life, even as he relates to the established authorities that are over his life and other people of God who may have view different from his on some aspects of life. And we will do well to pay attention to these things.

CONCLUSION TO ROMANS

Now, in the remaining passages of this letter, Paul gives his concluding thoughts to the brethren. And these can be grouped into five parts. In the first part, he expresses his confidence in the ability of the brethren to take the things he shares with them seriously and act on them. Then he acknowledges and praises God for the success of his ministry so far. Look at how he puts these things:

“I myself am convinced, my brothers, that you yourselves are full of goodness, complete in knowledge and competent to instruct one another. I have written you quite boldly on some points, as if to remind you of them again, because of the grace God gave me to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles with the priestly duty of proclaiming the gospel of God, so that the Gentiles might become an offering acceptable to God, sanctified by the Holy Spirit. Therefore I glory in Christ Jesus in my service to God. I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me in leading the Gentiles to obey God by what I have said and done—by the power of signs and miracles, through the power of the Spirit. So from Jerusalem all the way around to Illyricum, I have fully proclaimed the gospel of Christ.” (Rom 15:14-19NIV)

How did Paul become a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles? It was through the grace of God. It had nothing to do with his education, religious zeal or political influence. It was all by the grace of God. And how did he succeed in leading many Gentiles, people who all their lives had worshipped nothing but idols, to faith in Christ Jesus? It was also by the grace of God. That is why he says in this letter that he will not speak about anything except what Christ Jesus Himself has accomplished through him. In other words, the only thing that is worth talking about is what Christ has done through him. And that is the mindset we too should have about life. It is only what Jesus has done and is doing through us that is worth talking about. So, if we can’t give Him credit for anything we have done or accomplished, then, we should shut our mouths about it.

In the second part of Paul’s concluding thoughts in this letter to the Romans, he shares his current ministry plans with them. He tells them what trips he intends to make and why he intends to make them. He also tells them of his plans to visit them and how he expects his visit to them to turn out. And why does he do this? First, it is so that they will know that he accepts and trusts them fully and truly as his brethren, even though he has not met many of them personally. Second, it is so that they may pray along with him for the success of his ministry trips and endeavours. (Cf. Rom 15:22-33)

And what is this teaching us? It is teaching us something about the importance of being open and truthful to our brethren about our lives and what is going on in them. It is true that there are many false believers today. But that does not mean that every believer around us is false or that there were no false brethren in Paul’s day as well. If we cannot trust those believers in our lives, we have no business continuing in fellowship with them. But as long as we are in fellowship with them, we should be open to them. This will make our fellowship with them more robust and also make room for us to enjoy their support in unimaginable ways. And if the great apostle Paul did not think other children of God and their prayer support did not matter much in his life, you should not reason or function like that. God did not plan His family so that any of His children could live in isolation. Rather, He planned it so that we all could see ourselves as members of the same body and of one another and function accordingly. (Cf. Rom 12:4-13; 1Cor 12)

The third part of Paul’s concluding notes in his letter to the Romans is focused on greeting and appreciating all his friends that are in Rome at the time he wrote the letter. As I pointed out when we started our studies in the letter, the reason Paul was in a position to write to this church in Rome, even though he was not the one that God used in founding it and even though he had not personally met with them before, was that he had a couple of friends and fellow workers among them. In other words, he had enough people in the church for him to have their attention and for him to expect them to act on whatever truths he shares with them through a letter.

So, it is only fitting that he appreciates these people, to whom he owes the opportunity to share with the Roman church, in this letter. And that is exactly what he does. He appreciates them all by name, showing that he has a good relationship with them. Then he does not overlook the women among them at all but appreciates them as well for their faith and also for their various ministries to the church, whatever those ministries may be. This, of course, shows that Paul practised what he taught. He had taught from place to place and through letters that in Christ Jesus there is neither male nor female. And by commending the believing women in his life in an open letter like this, he is showing that he truly believes that in Christ Jesus men and women occupy the same place in heart of God. (Cf. Rom 16:1-16; Gal 3:28)

Now the fourth part of Paul’s closing thoughts in this letter is a note of warning to the brethren. And look at how it goes:

“I urge you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and put obstacles in your way that are contrary to the teaching you have learned. Keep away from them. For such people are not serving our Lord Christ, but their own appetites. By smooth talk and flattery they deceive the minds of naive people. Everyone has heard about your obedience, so I am full of joy over you; but I want you to be wise about what is good, and innocent about what is evil. The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus be with you.” (Rom 16:17-20NIV)

What is the warning to these brethren and to us as well? It is to watch out for those who cause divisions among us and cause others to stumble through their wrong teachings or acts. That means we must identify them. And once we identify them, we are to stay away from them. In other words, we are to avoid fellowship with them. Otherwise, they will mislead us. And that is one main thing that is missing in many of our assemblies today. We allow erring and sinful brethren to feel at home among us to spread their evil yeasts instead of warning the brethren to separate themselves from them.

But Paul says this must not be the case among us. On the contrary, once we observe that a brother or a sister is not acting in line with the truth of the gospel and will not accept correction, we must dissociate ourselves from them and also encourage other people of God that they may mislead to do likewise. That does not mean we are to take them as an enemy. But we must let them know in an unmistakable way that we do not condone what they are doing and will not be partners with them in their errors. That is how to preserve the health of the church.

Well, finally, in the fifth part of his closing remarks in this letter, Paul sends the greetings of some of the believers with him at the time to these brethren in Rome. And through this we get to know that it was Tertius that wrote the letter for him and that there were also some highly placed people in the society in the church at the time, one of whom was a man called Erastus, who was happened to be the treasurer of the city Paul was at the time (Corinth). What a remarkable letter this is, then, a letter that not only teaches doctrinal truths but that also shows us the need to appreciate the people God has placed in our lives! My prayer is that the truths that we have learnt in the letter will dwell in our hearts and also produce the fruit God desires in multiple folds, in Jesus’ name. Amen.

QUESTIONS

– How have these studies in the book of Roman helped your understanding of life by grace in Christ Jesus?

– What are the lessons for you in Paul’s closing words to the Romans in the letter?

By Johnson O. Lawal

ROMANS – FAITH BOUNDARIES | TEXT: ROMANS 14:1-15:13 | WEDNESDAY AUGUST 10, 2022

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MEMORY VERSES: “…for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus…” (Rom 3:23-24NIV)

BACKGROUND
In our last study in Paul’s letter to the Romans, we considered what this apostle has to say about the practice of Christianity and how it ought to find expression in the believer. According to him, it should find expression in our demonstration of love for one another and others in our world, in our undying passion to serve God and in our display of submission to the established authorities in our lives. And now, as he is about to round off all that he has in mind to say to these Roman brethren, he decides to also drop some notes for them on faith boundaries. Why is this important? It is important because this church is a mixture of both Jewish and Gentile believers. And both of these different groups of people have certain religious notions about some matters of life that they have carried over into Christianity. These notions, in themselves, cannot be said to be right or wrong. It all depends on how informed people are about them and the perspectives from which they view them. However, these things, if permitted, can become forces that will set God’s people at variance with one another and also cause them to say or do hateful things to one another. So, they must not be left unaddressed. Otherwise, we will not stop experiencing church splits in different parts of the world.

FAITH BOUNDARIES
Now in addressing these matters, which we may refer to as disputable matters, Paul gives us some examples of what we may call disputable matters and then lays down some general rules for us that we must follow in handling them. Look at some of what he says:

“Accept him whose faith is weak, without passing judgment on disputable matters. One man’s faith allows him to eat everything, but another man, whose faith is weak, eats only vegetables. The man who eats everything must not look down on him who does not, and the man who does not eat everything must not condemn the man who does, for God has accepted him. Who are you to judge someone else’s servant? To his own master he stands or falls. And he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand. One man considers one day more sacred than another; another man considers every day alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. He who regards one day as special, does so to the Lord. He who eats meat, eats to the Lord, for he gives thanks to God; and he who abstains, does so to the Lord and gives thanks to God. For none of us lives to himself alone and none of us dies to himself alone. If we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord.” (Rom 14:1-8NIV)

What is the first thing Paul tells us here about disputable matters? It is that they often arise from weakness of faith. What sort of weakness of faith? It is weakness that is associated with having difficulties to accept God’s verdict about a matter. In other words, we know, somewhere in our hearts, that what God has said about the matter in question is the truth, but our culture, feelings and emotions cannot just handle it. So, we maintain our status quo and refuse to move along with Him. Will that get Him angry with us? No! But it will affect our experience of His goodness and liberty.

For example, as Paul shows us in the passage that we are considering, it is weakness of faith that makes people think of one day, week or year as special or more sacred than others. That is because based on the truth that our Lord Jesus has brought to us, no one day is more sacred than others or worse than others. That is because each day has its own uniqueness or peculiarities. In like manner, it is weakness of faith that makes people reject certain kinds of food as unclean, when the Lord Jesus clearly tells us that all foods are clean for us (Mark 7:19).

But then, we must not forget that the Jews, for example, who have become Christians had first lived on the basis of the law of Moses that commands them to abstain from certain foods and to honour some days as special and sacred. So, they may not find it convenient to disregard the law of Moses about these things and begin to live otherwise. And since their convictions about these things do not make them wrong or unrighteous, there is no point insisting that they are to live otherwise or condemn them for not living otherwise. This same thing is applicable to Gentile believers. There are among them people, as Paul shows in the letter, who have grown up eating meals offered before idols. And having become Christians, their conscience may no longer find it convenient to eat such meals again without thinking that they are participating in idolatry. So, though idols are nothing, it is not in anybody’s place to look down on them for still having such views as Christians. (Cf. 1Cor 8&10)

In the same vein, it is equally possible for those who think their involvement in these things and some other similar things will hurt their faith in Christ Jesus in some ways to begin to criticise those who think and act differently. I mean that it is possible for us to judge the exercise of other believers’ liberty in Christ Jesus in areas of our ignorance. And we too will be wrong to do so. Unfortunately, many of us are criticising one another in this manner, even to the point of not wanting to fellowship with one another or not accepting one another as believers in Christ Jesus.

All of this is why Paul lays down the following general rules, which we may call faith boundaries, for us in dealing with one another on any matter that is disputable or that the Scripture has not given any specific rule about:

– Accept other believers, regardless of their faith type (Rom 14:1&15:7): In our walk with God, we will come across different believers with different types of faith, weak faith, strong faith, great faith and little faith. But as long as they are children of God through faith in Christ Jesus, we are to accept them and not condemn or criticise them. That is because our Lord Jesus, who has called them and saved them, has accepted them.

– Never try to pass a final judgment on a disputable matter (Rom 14:1): Inasmuch as the bible does not say that something is wrong or right, we must always be careful of passing final judgments on it. That is because we may end up misleading ignorant people into errors or condemning innocent people.

– Be firm about your personal convictions on disputable matters (Rom 14:5&22-23): Don’t be double-minded or hypocritical about your faith convictions. If you believe that something is right for you, then, stand by your belief, regardless of where you are. Don’t be like Peter, who would not stand by his belief about Gentile meals when he was in Antioch because of his fear of some Jewish believers (Gal 2:11-21). Otherwise, you will be sinning against the Lord, for anything that is not based on faith is sin.

– Always aim for mutual edification instead of pleasing yourself (Rom 14:13-15:4): It is easy for those who are knowledgeable about the things of God to disregard the effects that their actions or inactions are having on ignorant or weak believers. And those who function like this are not walking in love but are sinning against the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. So, even in exercising our liberty in Christ based on our convictions about what is right or wrong about any matter, we must do only those things that will result in the edification of our brethren, however weak in the faith they may be. In other words, inasmuch as we know that our actions, not inner convictions, may injure their faith or cause them to sin against God, we should desist from such acts. That is what will show that we love them and have respect for their salvation. (Cf. 1Cor 8)

– Keep your personal convictions on disputable matters between you and God (Rom 14:3-4&22-23): Don’t force your faith on anybody. Don’t judge anybody on the basis of your own faith or personal convictions. Don’t criticise anyone on the basis on your personal convictions. That is God’s job and not yours. Otherwise, you will find yourself sinning against Him.

Now as Paul further shows us, it is important that we all are functioning like this, if we are going to stand together as one and bring glory to God in this world. This is why he offers this all-important prayer for us, saying, “May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you a spirit of unity among yourselves as you follow Christ Jesus, so that with one heart and mouth you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (Rom 15:5-6NIV) Did you see that? Where the spirit of unity or harmony is at work among the brethren, none will be self-seeking. Instead, everyone will bear with one another in love and glorify God together with one heart and one voice.

CONCLUSION
There are faith boundaries which we must not cross in our dealings with our brethren. Otherwise, we may find ourselves destroying God’s work in their lives instead of aiding it. It is, therefore, important that we recognise these boundaries and also respect them, so that we may continually stand together with other children of God in our lives as one in the Lord.

QUESTIONS
– Apart from the ones mentioned in this study, what other disputable faith matters can you mention?
– What is the most important lesson for you in this study?

By Johnson O. Lawal

JULY BIBLE STUDY OUTLINES

RESISTING THE DEVIL | TEXT: EPHESIANS 6:12-15 | WEDNESDAY 27TH JULY 2022

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MEMORY VERSE: “So humble yourselves before God. Resist the Devil, and he will flee from you.” (James 4:7)

INTRODUCTION
The real enemy of the Christian is the devil. Your real enemies are not the witches and wizards in your community. Your real enemy is not that wicked boss at work or your neighbour that is constantly fighting you. Your real enemy is the devil. These people are only tools in the hands of the devil. And that is why your prayers must not basically be directed against them but against the devil. The real enemy we are to resist is the devil. You must never be ignorant of the fact that Satan is your real enemy and is at war against our soul, heath, finances, marriage and everything you hold dear to your heart. But basically, Satan is at war against your soul because he knows that it is the most important thing to you. Therefore, you must never trade anything for your soul. Satan tempted the Lord Jesus Christ to trade earthly riches for his soul. “Next the Devil took him to the peak of a very high mountain and showed him the nations of the world and all their glory. “I will give it all to you,” he said, “if you will only kneel down and worship me.” (Matthew 4: 8- 9) You must see the devil as your enemy and not a friend. Satan can never be a friend of anybodym including those that have sold themselves to him. Nobody can permanently be at peace with the devil. You can only be at peace with him for a while. The highest goal of the devil is to destroy our souls. He may give you wealth, influence and all kinds of good things but what he is after is your soul. “And how do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul in the process? Is anything worth more than your soul?” (Mark 8: 36- 37)

RESISTING THE DEVIL
What does it mean to resist the devil? To resist the devil means to stand against everything the devil represents or to stand against all his activities or attacks in your life. Resisting the devil starts with knowing the activities or evil schemes of the devil. If we are ignorant of his activities, there is no way we can successfully resist him in our lives. The Lord Jesus Christ summarizes all his activities and all he represents for us in the gospel according to John. “The thief’s purpose is to steal and kill and destroy…” (John 10:10) The goal of the devil is to steal from you. He wants to steal every precious thing away from you. Primarily, he wants to steal your soul from you. Not only that, he wants to steal your resources, health, relationship and lots more from you. The devil is the one oppressing people with sicknesses, diseases, blindness, deformity, depression, suicide and all kinds of pain and not God. God does not represent any one of these. If you don’t know that the devil is the one throwing sicknesses, diseases and all kinds of affliction at you, you will most likely not resist him. Look at the story of Job, for instance. He thought it was God that was responsible for his calamity. “…The Lord gave me everything I had, and the Lord has taken it away. Praise the name of the Lord!” (Job 1: 21)

Another activity of the devil is to tempt God’s children to sin against God and to act contrary to His will. There is nobody that is immune from temptation. If Satan could tempt our Lord Jesus Christ, he can as well tempt you and, in fact, he has been tempting you (Mathew 4:3-10). The devil can as well move us to act contrary to God’s will as he did to David by moving him to number Israel (1Chro 21:1). Also, in the case of Ananias and his wife Sapphira, the scripture records that the devil filled their hearts to lie again the Holy Spirit (Act 5 :3).

SUBMIT YOURSELF TO GOD
The next thing we need to know before we can resist the devil is to submit ourselves to God. “So humble yourselves before God. Resist the Devil, and he will flee from you.” (James 4:7) This means that we are to submit ourselves to His Word, His Lordship and to His will. Until we yield ourselves to God completely, the devil cannot flee from us, even if we resist him. It’s when we submit ourselves to God that we can use our authority over the devil. The degree to which you submit to God is directly proportional to how well you will resist the devil. We need to submit to God on a daily basis so that we can resist Satan on a daily basis. Submitting ourselves to God has to do with gaining the mind of Christ and letting go of your unrenewed mind. This has to do with embracing the mind of Christ over every issue of life. This means we have to settle down with His word to learn from Him so we can gain His mind. When you gain the mind of Christ, you are able to resist any challenge that Satan might throw at you exactly the Lord Jesus would have handled it.

WEAPONS TO RESIST THE DEVIL
In order to resist the devil, we need to make use of God’s weapons. We will be looking at what the weapons of God are and what they are not. Firstly, we need to understand that we cannot make use of Satan’s weapon to resist him; it cannot work. “And if Satan is casting out Satan, he is fighting against himself. His own kingdom will not survive.” (Matthew 12:26) Many people, including believers, engage in witchcraft and sorceries to fight the devil. The devil will only give them temporary solutions when they appease him. The devil cannot use his weapons to fight himself. Many believers as well make use of the Bible, anointing oil, anointing water and other similar things to fight the devil. These are not the weapons described for us in the bible with which to fight the devil.

Weapons of God’s word: When the Lord Jesus was tempted by the devil how did he resist him? Jesus resisted the devil using the word of God. “Then the Devil came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, change these stones into loaves of bread.”But Jesus told him, “No! The Scriptures say, ‘People need more than bread for their life; they must feed on every word of God. Then the Devil took him to Jerusalem, to the highest point of the Temple, and said, “If you are the Son of God, jump off! For the Scriptures say, ‘He orders his angels to protect you. And they will hold you with their hands to keep you from striking your foot on a stone. Jesus responded, “The Scriptures also say, ‘Do not test the Lord your God.’ Next the Devil took him to the peak of a very high mountain and showed him the nations of the world and all their glory. “I will give it all to you,” he said, “if you will only kneel down and worship me.” “Get out of here, Satan,” Jesus told him. “For the Scriptures say, ‘You must worship the Lord your God; serve only him.’2 (Matthew 4:3-10) The Lord Jesus was able to resist the devil here because he had an understanding of God’s word. That is the reason we must let the word of dwell in our hearts richly (Col 3:16). When the devil throws sickness at you. if you don’t know God’s word for you concerning this, there is no way you can resist him. If you don’t know the scriptures, there is no way you can resist the thoughts Satan is bringing to your mind to destroy you. “Put on salvation as your helmet, and take the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.” (Eph 6:17)

Weapons of Prayers: Another weapon described for us in the scriptures is the weapon of prayers. Through prayers we are able stop the activities of the devil in our lives and as well prevent him from working in our lives. When Satan stood against Daniel to hinder him from receiving answers to his prayers, he made use of the weapons of prayers. “Then he said, “Don’t be afraid, Daniel. Since the first day you began to pray for understanding and to humble yourself before your God, your request has been heard in heaven. I have come in answer to your prayer. But for twenty-one days the spirit prince of the kingdom of Persia blocked my way. Then Michael, one of the archangels, came to help me, and I left him there with the spirit prince of the kingdom of Persia.” (Daniel 10:12-13) So many things are happening behind the physical scene of our lives that we are never aware of. In the case of Daniel, the devil hindered him from receiving answers to his prayers for 21 days. But for 21 days too Daniel did not give up praying until he was able to resist him. There are some situations of our lives too that Satan may not just give up easily when we pray to God resist him. In such cases, then, we need to persist in the place of praying until we receive answers. “Pray at all times and on every occasion in the power of the Holy Spirit. Stay alert and be persistent in your prayers for all Christians everywhere.2 (Eph 6:18) Paul too was hindered by the devil from visiting the Thessalonian brethren twice. But Paul did not give up praying until Satan was resisted. (1 Thess 2:17-18)

CONCLUSION
We must understand something about the character of our adversary (the devil) that he does not give up. It’s not in his nature to give up on us even when we resist him. The Devil tempted the Lord Jesus Christ and He rebuked the him. But he did not give up on Jesus. “When the Devil had finished tempting Jesus, he left him until the next opportunity came.” (Luke 2:9) So, if the devil could just leave Jesus for a while until the next opportunity showed up, he will do the same for us. So, we must always be watchful and never to lay down our armours. It is not in devil’s nature to quit. So, don’t quit praying and studying the word, for they are your weapons with which to resist the devil. If you resist him today, he will come for you tomorrow again or until he sees another opportunity to strike. So, don’t give any place for the devil. You must resist him and put him where he belongs – under our feet. We are instructed not to give room for the devil to operate in our lives (Eph 4:27). If we give the devil any slightest opportunity in our lives, he is able to mess up our lives before we even wake up. Therefore, don’t give a place to the devil in your life. Instead, be watchful and resist him steadfastly in your life. And when you resist, him he will flee from you.

QUESTION
– What is the most important lessons you have learnt in this evening Bible study?

By Emmanuel Olarinre

ROMANS – PRACTISING CHRISTIANITY | TEXT: ROMANS 12:9-13:14 | WEDNESDAY 20TH JULY 2022

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MEMORY VERSES: “…for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus…” (Rom 3:23-24NIV)

BACKGROUND

All along and for the most part, what we have been dealing with in Paul’s letter to the Romans is doctrinal. We have looked at how sin entered the world, God’s view of it, God’s provisions to take care of it and how man must respond to what He has provided to solve the sin problem. All these things have been examined in the light of the place of the Law of Moses in the life of the Christian. Now, having made his point very clear in this letter on the fact that the Christian cannot be accepted by God or live to please Him on the basis of the law of Moses, Paul goes to show us what it means to practise Christianity, that is, by the Spirit of God and without the law of Moses. And that is going to be our focus in this study. We will be looking at what this apostle has to say about true and authentic Christian living and how it is to permeate all of life for us.

PRACTISING CHRISTIANITY

Well then, what does the practise of Christianity entail? First, we must not forget that the Christan life is not one that is lived with the aim of being justified by God or being declared righteous by Him. Rather, it is a life that is lived to give expression to the justification and righteousness that one has received through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. In other words, the Christian is not someone that is trying to be justified or made righteous by God. Conversely, he is one that has already been justified and made righteous by Him. So, in living, his job to give expression to the nature of righteousness of God that has already become his. Yes, his job is to give expression to the new life that he has already received through his resurrection with Jesus Christ.

Now how is he to give expression to the new life that he has received in Christ Jesus? Though Paul has a lot to say about this, everything he says about it in the passage we are considering can be summed up under the following headings:

– Walk in love (Rom 12:9-21): As this apostle will have us understand in this letter, true Christian living involves walking in love with everyone in our lives. His words about this are: “Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for he who loves his fellowman has fulfilled the law. The commandments, “Do not commit adultery,” “Do not murder,” “Do not steal,” “Do not covet,” and whatever other commandment there may be, are summed up in this one rule: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does no harm to its neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.” (Rom 13:8-10NIV) Did you see that? The only debt the Christian is permitted to owe or, to better put it, cannot finish paying is love. So, a life of debt is not an expression of true Christian living. If there are people you owe, then, you should do your best to pay up everything you owe them, leaving nothing outstanding.

And to be on a safer side, do your best not to owe anybody anything. In any case, the main point Paul wants us to get in all this is that we are to be devoted to a life of love. And as long as we are devoted to this, we will find that we have even fulfilled the law of Moses. That is because everything in the law of Moses, even as our Lord Jesus taught while He was here in the world, is best summarised into two parts. The first part has to do with loving God wholeheartedly and with everything we have got. The second part has to do with loving our neighbours as ourselves. Paul, of course, shares a number of examples with us in this passage on what love for our neighbours entails. And a very important one among them is not allowing ourselves to be overcome by whatever evil they may do to us but to overcome it with good. (Cf. Matt 22:37-40)

– Maintain your zeal for God (Rom 12:11-12): Another expression of true Christian living is a maintaining of our zeal for God. As I pointed out already, the first of the two major rules of living for man pointed out by our Lord Jesus Christ is focussed on loving God with all our heart, soul and strength (Deut 6:4-5; Matt 22:34-40). And this must daily find expression in our lives, as we burn with passion in serving Him and in demonstrating our dependence in Him, regardless of the circumstances in which we may find ourselves, pleasant or bad. Thus, true Christianity is expressed in an unflinching devotion to God in all situations. And is this what our lives are daily expressing?

– Submission to established authorities (Rom 13:1-7): Another important way in which our new life in Christ Jesus must find expression is in submission to established human authorities. A way to simply put this is to say that true Christianity, authentic Christianity, genuine Christianity, real Christianity is law abiding. Yes, we know, according to Scriptures, that the Christian is not bound to obey any law that sets Him against the will of God for his life. But where this is not the case, he is expected to obey the laws of the land in which he resides and to show respect for every human authority that is above him. As Paul points out in this passage, we will not be disrespecting God in any way by showing proper respect and honour for the human authorities that we have over us, which may be our parents, bosses at work, teachers in school, traditional leaders or government leaders. The contrary is, in fact, the case. In other words, it is God Himself that we are honouring and obeying, when we submit ourselves to the human authorities that are over our lives. That is because, as Paul also clearly shows us in the passage, there is no authority anywhere except that which God has ordained. So, nobody can be a leader over us, if God has not permitted it. He may not be a godly or competent person. But inasmuch as he is there over us, God has ordained him. In fact, Paul says all such people are also God’s ministers. That means He is the one they are serving. They may not serve Him well or with understanding. But they are His servants, sent to do good to those who fear Him and to punish evil doers. Therefore, our rejection of them is a rejection of God Himself. And that will not go without consequences. So, not to show proper honour for our leaders is not true Christianity, neither is evasion of civic duties true Christian living.

CONCLUSION

Now, having shown us how our new life in Christ Jesus ought to find expression in us, Paul goes us to remind us that our time here on earth is almost up. According to him, our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. And if he considered our common salvation from this world nearer at the time he wrote this letter, that is, about two thousand years ago, what shall we say about it now? Evidently, we can say it is almost right at the door. But why do we need to keep this mind? It is so that we will not get carried away by the errors of this lawless world and the day of the Lord will meet us unprepared. So, the point of what Paul is saying is that we are to put aside everything that is not consistent with our new life in Christ Jesus and, instead, put on His character. Then when He returns for us, we will be found blameless, spotless and at peace with Him. (Cf. Rom 13:11-14)

QUESTIONS

– Is there any misconception about Christian living which this study addresses in your life? What is it?

– What is the most important lesson for you in this study?

By Johnson O. Lawal

ROMANS – RESPONDING TO GOD’S MERCY | TEXT: ROMANS 12:1-8 | WEDNESDAY 6TH JULY 2022

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ROMANS – RESPONDING TO GOD’S MERCY

TEXT: ROMANS 12:1-8

MEMORY VERSES: “…for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus…” (Rom 3:23-24NIV)

BACKGROUND

In all the chapters of the letter of Paul to the Romans that we have already treated, one thing that is clear to us is that our justification, salvation and righteousness in Christ Jesus have come to us as a result of God’s mercy. In short, every good thing we have received from Him we have received because of His mercy. That is because none of us deserves any good thing in this life. All of us sinned and came short of His glory. So, if He decided to condemn us all to destruction, He would be just. But in His mercy, He decided to save us all by taking care of our sins. Also, in His mercy, He has been moving our hearts towards Him, so that we may obtain all that He is freely offering us. However, even though it is His intention to show mercy to everyone and to save everyone, it is not everyone that will be saved. That is because it is not everyone that will respond to His mercy. Interestingly, even those who will ultimately respond to His mercy will respond because He is moving them to respond. So, again, our response to His mercy is equally a function of His mercy. Therefore, there is nothing for us to boast about in our salvation or in our faith in God. It is all a gift of God to us. It is all a result of His mercy towards us. (Cf. Eph 2:1-10)

RESPONDING TO GOD’S MERCY

But then, having been justified, saved and made righteous like this, we need to make the most of all the forms of God’s mercy that we have received. Otherwise, everything will be in vain. So, the next thing Paul tells us in this letter has to do with responding appropriately to the mercy of God that we have received and are still enjoying, so that it does not amount to nothing. And look at how he puts this:

“Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God — this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is — his good, pleasing and perfect will. For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you. Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. We have different gifts, according to the grace given us. If a man’s gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his faith. If it is serving, let him serve; if it is teaching, let him teach; if it is encouraging, let him encourage; if it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously; if it is leadership, let him govern diligently; if it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully.” (Rom 12:1-8NIV)

How are we to respond to the mercy of God, based on what Paul shares in this passage? We are to respond in the following major ways:

– Offer your body to Him: Why did God offer His Son, Jesus Christ, as the sacrifice for our redemption and justification? It was so that we might belong to Him again. Man was made originally by God and to be God’s. It was sin that turned him into a child of the devil. But through the sacrifice of Jesus, those of us who believe are now God’s again. And that, as we have seen, is a function of God’s mercy. One way to then show that we know and understand this is to, in turn, offer our bodies to Him, not as animal sacrifices to be slaughtered but as living sacrifices, so that He may use them for His purpose, whatever it might be. That is the kind of sacrifice that He considers to be holy and acceptable. Earlier in this letter, Paul told us that instead of offering our body members as instruments of wickedness, we are to offer them as instruments of righteousness to God (Rom 6:11-13). Now he is saying the same thing to us again and giving the reason we are to do so. And why are we to do so? We are to do so because it is our real and logical worship. So, the real way to worship God is to offer our bodies for Him to use in this world moment by moment. And any worship that is not done in this way is not genuine or spiritual. In other words, inasmuch as you take your body as yours to use as you please, you are not a true worshipper of God. A true worshipper of God willingly offers his body to Him to use as He pleases. This, of course, goes beyond making ourselves available for service in our churches, though it does not exclude it. Rather, it is what we are to do moment by moment. And it is the right and sensible thing for us to do, if we agree that we are God’s indeed, spirit, soul and body. Otherwise, we are simply making a waste of His mercy.

– Offer your mind to Him: Another way not to make a waste of the mercy of God but to fully appropriate it is to offer our minds to Him for renewal. Before God brought us to Himself and saved us, we were His enemies in our minds (Col 1:21). In other words, our reasoning was contrary to the will of God and hostile to Him when we still unsaved (Rom 8:5-8). And now that we have been saved and made His children, our reasoning must change. But that will not happen if we do not deliberately yield our minds to God for cleansing and renewal through His word. In other words, our minds must be made to begin to think like God, to see things like God and to judge things like God. This is what Paul refers to in his letter to the Corinthians as possessing the mind of Christ (1Cor 2:9-16). And apart from making our bodies available to God to use, it is our possession of the mind of Christ that will result in the change of our character in this world. It is what will make the character of the person of Jesus Christ visible to those in our world. That is why Paul says, “Be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” According to him, it is when our minds are renewed in the will of God and we are functioning accordingly that we will be able to prove with our lives that all that God wants for us is not only good and acceptable but also the best for us. And unless this is the way things are with us, we are merely wasting the mercy of God that has freely flowed to us.

Now in what ways will our lives show that are doing these things? In what ways will our lives show that we are offering our bodies and minds to God moment by moment to serve His purpose? First, our lives will show that we are doing these things through the humility that will be seen in them. In other words, we will no longer think of ourselves more highly than we ought to, neither are we going to be thinking of ourselves lowlier than we ought to. Instead, we will think of ourselves in accordance with what God has done for us and is doing in us. And this, of course, will affect our relationship with other members of the body of Christ. It will make us recognise our oneness with one another and the uniqueness of each member of this body to God and to the entire body. (Cf. Rom 12:3-5)

Second, our lives will show that we are yielded to God, spirit, soul and body through our devotion to service in the body of Christ. Remember that we have already seen that our true and proper worship of God is demonstrated through a moment by moment giving of our bodies to Him as living sacrifices. And if we are conscious of this, our bodies will be readily made available for Him to use in doing all kinds of things to people and for people. Once this is the case, there is nothing else we will not want to offer to Him, for a man’s body is always seen by him as his most precious possession in this world. (Cf. Rom 12:6-8)

As Paul rightly shows in this passage of his letter that we are considering, each of us who belong to Christ Jesus has been blessed with at least a spiritual gift. In other words, God’s Spirit, who lives in each of us, has endowed each of us with at least a gift to serve God by serving humanity. And it is only as we make our bodies available for Him to use that these gifts, whatever they are, will find expression in us. Then it is only as we allow our minds to be renewed that we will be able to use these gifts to accomplish His purpose and not destroy His works.

CONCLUSION

In closing the point that Paul is making all along is that true worshippers and servants of God are those whose bodies are available for Him to use and whose minds are renewed to function according to His purpose. Anyone, then, who calls himself a child of God or a servant of Christ in whose life these things are not evident is likely to be a false believer or a believer who is wasting the grace and mercy of the Lord.

QUESTION

– What is the most important lesson for you in this study?

By Johnson O. Lawal

JUNE BIBLE STUDY OUTLINES

ROMANS – THE MYSTERY OF ISRAEL’S SALVATION | TEXT: ROMANS 11:1-36 | WEDNESDAY 22ND JUNE 2022

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ROMANS – THE MYSTERY OF ISRAEL’S SALVATION

TEXT: ROMANS 11:1-36

MEMORY VERSES: “…for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus…” (Rom 3:23-24NIV)

BACKGROUND

It was reported that Martyn Luther, that great servant of God and reformer of the church, once said of the Jews, “We are at fault for not slaying them!” Why would he say such a thing? It was because he was furious at the unbelief of the Jews. Just as they would not believe the Lord Jesus Christ during His earthly days and the days of His apostles that He left behind, they would still not believe in the days of Martyn Luther. So, in his anger against them, he said those bitter words that made history label him to be antisemitic, that is, anti-Jew.

But moving away from sentiments, did Martyn Luther have any biblical right to use such words in addressing the Jews, the people of God? No, he had no such right to do so! Even the Lord Jesus Christ Himself would not use such words against them, as painful as it was for Him to deal with their unbelief. And we see that Paul the apostle also functions with the mind of Christ in addressing the unbelief of these Jews in his letter to the Romans. As we saw in the passages we have already considered, it troubled his heart greatly that his own people, the Jews, would not accept the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, even though they were the first to hope in His coming. And it so troubled his heart that he could wish he were cut off from Christ, if that was what it would take to save them (Rom 9:1-5).

However, Paul knew that even if he were cut off from Christ for the sake of the Jews, salvation would still not be theirs. That is because salvation in Christ Jesus is not what one man’s faith can obtain for another. Everybody must express their own faith in Him for them to be saved. And nobody can demonstrate faith in the Lord Jesus, if He is not made alive in his heart by God and drawn by His Spirit to embrace Him as Lord. So, as far as this apostle was concerned, there were only two things he could do to help his people, the Jews. The first was for him to be praying for them (Rom 10:1-2). The second was for him to take his ministry to the Gentiles so seriously that, somehow, he may make the Jews envious through the manifestation of the person of Christ among believing Gentiles (Rom 11:13-14).

THE MYSTERY OF ISRAEL’S SALVATION

But what was Paul’s motivation for doing these things? It was his belief that God would definitely save some of the Jews through faith in Christ Jesus. In other words, not all of them would ultimately reject Jesus Christ. There would be among them those who would accept Him and live by faith in Him. Already, he was one of those who would be save in this manner. There were also the first apostles of the Lord and several other Jewish disciples of the Lord at that time. And he believed that there would still be more of the Jews coming into the kingdom of God through faith in Christ Jesus. These he refers to as the elect in this passage of his letter that we are now considering. (Cf. Rom 11:1-10)

Now look at some of the things he says on this matter:

“I ask then: Did God reject his people? By no means! I am an Israelite myself, a descendant of Abraham, from the tribe of Benjamin. God did not reject his people, whom he foreknew. Don’t you know what the Scripture says in the passage about Elijah — how he appealed to God against Israel: “Lord, they have killed your prophets and torn down your altars; I am the only one left, and they are trying to kill me” And what was God’s answer to him? “I have reserved for myself seven thousand who have not bowed the knee to Baal.” So too, at the present time there is a remnant chosen by grace. And if by grace, then it is no longer by works; if it were, grace would no longer be grace. What then? What Israel sought so earnestly it did not obtain, but the elect did. The others were hardened…” (Rom 11:1-7NIV)

Did you see that? There is a remnant chosen by grace among the Jews to embrace Jesus and be saved. These ones will not harden their hearts against the gospel of Jesus Christ but will embrace it. That is why we have Jewish Christians today, as we had them in bible days.

But there is something else that Paul still wants us, Gentiles, to know about the salvation of the Jews through faith in Christ Jesus. He refers to it in this passage that we are studying as a mystery, something that the Lord has revealed to him but that is beyond our comprehension. And it is the fact that the hardening of the Jews is for a while. It is not going to be forever. Rather, it something that will go on only till all the Gentiles marked for salvation in Christ Jesus have come into God’s kingdom through faith in the Lord Jesus. Then all the unbelieving Jews at that time will be drawn to salvation and be saved. (Cf. Rom 11:25-27)

How will this happen? It is not something any of us, not even Paul, understands or can explain. That, of course, is why it is a mystery. However, it is again reminding us of a subject Paul has already treated in this letter, which is predestination. God had always known those who would come to Him through faith in Christ Jesus before they were born. Yes, He will give everybody their chance to acknowledge and come to Him. But it is not everyone that will ultimately come.

At any rate, as Paul would have us understand, once the number of the Gentiles that are supposed to come to God through Christ Jesus is complete, the door of faith will be opened for all the Jews alive to come to faith in Christ Jesus and be saved. And why is Paul telling us this, for he is speaking to the Gentiles here? It is so that we will not despise the Jews and become conceited in relating to them because of their unbelief in Christ Jesus. (Cf. Rom 11:22-32)

As Paul clearly illustrates to us in this letter, the Jews were the original olive tree branches that were cut off from the life of God because of their unbelief. We Gentiles were the wild branches that were grafted into this Olive tree to become sharers in the life of God. That being the case, we should not abuse that grace and begin to look down on those who were originally sharers of the life of God. That is because if we too misbehave, we could also be cut off from His life.

Unfortunately, as I pointed out to you earlier, even the great Martyn Luther erred along this line. And if you have not been in contact with unbelieving Jews, you may not understand the possibility of developing a feeling of hate or contempt for them because of their unbelief in Christ Jesus. But if you would consider what you feel for the Muslims, Buddhists and people of other religions of the world who are hostile to Christ and His gospel, you should be able to understand what Paul is saying, which is that there is a tendency for us to resent those who do not believe in Christ Jesus as we do or to be judgmental in dealing with them.

CONCLUSION

In conclusion, we who are Gentiles Christians need to be careful not to despise any unbelieving Jew. In fact, we should not despise anyone who is unbelieving. That is because we ourselves have been saved by grace and not by any good act of ourselves. So, instead of despising unbelievers, Jews or Gentiles, we should be moved to pray for them and to live our lives in such a way that they would be envious of our faith in Christ Jesus.

QUESTION

– How relevant is this study to Christians today?

By Johnson O. Lawal

ROMANS – HOW TO MISS GOD’S RIGHTEOUSNESS | TEXT: ROMANS 9:30-10:21 | WEDNESDAY 8TH JUNE 2022

ROMANS – HOW TO MISS GOD’S RIGHTEOUSNESS | TEXT: ROMANS 9:30-10:21 | WEDNESDAY 8TH JUNE 2022

MEMORY VERSES: “…for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus…” (Rom 3:23-24NIV)

BACKGROUND

In our last study in the book of Romans, we considered what Paul has to say about God’s mercy and how people become beneficiaries of it. According to him, even though God has no obligation to show anybody in this world mercy, because He is a merciful God, He is continually showing mercy to whomever He wishes to show mercy to. Can He, then, be blamed for choosing to show certain people mercy and not choosing to show others mercy? No, He cannot be blamed. That is because mercy is a gift and not a reward. So, nobody can claim any entitlement to it and nobody can complain for not being shown it. This is why those have received His mercy must be eternally grateful to Him. And what about those who have not received His mercy? Who is to blame for their situation? Is God to blame for their situation? No! As we are further shown in the bible, even though God is the sole determinant of who is shown mercy and who is not, it is not His desire that anyone will not be shown mercy. That is why His hand of mercy is being extended to all, to as many as would come to Him to receive it (Ezek 18:23; Matt 11:28; John 6:37-40; Rom 11:32; 1Tim 2:1-3; 2Peter 3:9). But He will not force anyone to come Him. Yes, He will move their hearts to come to Him. But they will have to take that step of faith by themselves to come to Him. And if they will not come, there is nothing He can do for them. They cannot experience or enjoy His mercy. Instead, at some point, they may, in fact, be hardened towards receiving His mercy and eventually lose their souls.

HOW TO MISS GOD’S RIGHTEOUSNESS

But then, it is possible for people, in all honesty, to not want to lose their souls but to please God and obtain His approval or any other thing He is offering them on their own terms. And that, as Paul points out in the part of his letter to the Romans that we are considering for this study, is the problem with the Jewish nation as a whole. They already possess the revelation of God’s demand of righteousness upon humanity. But they do not understand that their desire or effort cannot make them fulfil His demand of righteousness on their lives. The only thing that can make that happen is God’s mercy.

Remember that Paul already tells us that standing before God as righteous or receiving anything from Him does not depend on human desire or effort but on God’s mercy (Rom 9:16). But the Jews, as a nation, do not understand or appreciate this. They think if they can just work hard enough in keeping the law of Moses given to them and other moral law they have come up with over the centuries, then, God will accept them and declare them righteous before Him. But that is a miss, as Paul will have us understand through this letter. And look at how he sets forth for us God’s mind on the matter:

“What then shall we say? That the Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have obtained it, a righteousness that is by faith; but Israel, who pursued a law of righteousness, has not attained it. Why not? Because they pursued it not by faith but as if it were by works. They stumbled over the “stumbling stone.” As it is written: “See, I lay in Zion a stone that causes men to stumble and a rock that makes them fall, and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame.” Brothers, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for the Israelites is that they may be saved. For I can testify about them that they are zealous for God, but their zeal is not based on knowledge. Since they did not know the righteousness that comes from God and sought to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness. Christ is the end of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes.” (Rom 9:30-10:4NIV)

Think about that. The Gentiles, who originally did not have God’s revelations as did the Israelites and who were not even seeking His righteousness, have obtained it and are still obtaining it till today. But the Israelites themselves, who were the first to hope in the coming of the Messiah who will set all things right, have failed to obtain God’s righteousness. In other words, they do not have God’s approval as righteous before Him. In fact, Paul says that they are not saved. Yet they are zealous about standing before God as righteous. What, then, is the problem? The problem is that they are trying to establish their own righteousness before God through their works instead of embracing what He has done for them to be made righteous before Him.

In like manner, there are many today who sincerely want to stand as righteous before God. But how? Through their works! Through their effort! But that will never work. They will have to submit to God’s own righteousness in order to stand before Him as righteous. Otherwise, there is nothing they do that will amount to anything before Him. Also, there are those who often approach God for what they need on the basis of their moral works, their offerings, their tithes, their Christian service and so forth. These ones too will not receive anything from Him on that basis, regardless of how much they cry, weep or challenge Him. That is because people can only receive from Him by mercy and through faith, not by works. (Cf. Luke 9:14)

In any case, to make his point clearer to the Jewish mind reading his letter to the Romans, Paul goes on to make a very great declaration about the law of Moses given to the Jews. He says, “Christ is the end of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes.” What does this mean? It means that the job of the law ended when Christ came and did all that was necessary for us to become righteous before God. So, right now, nobody will stand before God as righteous by observing the law. Rather, people will stand righteous before Him by accepting by faith what He has done for them through Christ Jesus. And as many as will accept what He has done by faith in their hearts, calling upon His name with their mouths, whether Jews or Gentiles, will be saved and generously blessed by God. (Cf. Rom 10:5-13)

All of this, as Paul further says, is why the preaching of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ is very important. It is the message of His gospel that produces faith in people’s hearts. So, this word has to be brought near them by those sent by God to proclaim it. Yes, this word has to be planted in their hearts, so that they may believe and confess it for their justification and salvation from all kinds of sins. (Cf. Rom 10:14-17)

Unfortunately, though the Israelites have heard this gospel, first from the Lord Jesus Himself and then from His holy apostles, they would not receive or believe it, that is, as a nation. Therefore, they will remain unsaved and without God’s approval until their hearts are awaken to the reality of what they are missing. But the Gentiles who have heard this message of the gospel and have believed it will remain justified and approved of God throughout eternity.

CONCLUSION

What, then, is the point of this all? It is that as long as we are seeking to please God or obtain things from Him through our works, we will continue to miss Him and His blessings. But the moment we humble ourselves before Him and accept what He is saying about us and what He has done for us, we will have His approval, justification and righteousness as gifts freely given to us. And our lives and relationship with Him, therefore, will continue to make those who have chosen to do things their own way envious until they too humble themselves and approach God by faith and faith only.

QUESTIONS

– How important is it for those coming to God to know that they can only be accepted and approved by Him only on the basis of faith in Him?

– Can you highlight some of the ways people still seek to establish their own righteousness today instead of embracing God’s righteousness?

By Johnson O. Lawal

MAY BIBLE STUDY OUTLINES

A WISE BUILDER AND A FOOLISH BUILDER | MATHEW 7: 24-27 | WEDNESDAY 25TH MAY 2022

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A WISE BUILDER AND A FOOLISH BUILDER

TEXT: MATHEW 7: 24-27

MEMORY VERSES: “Let the words of Christ, in all their richness, live in your hearts and make you wise. Use his words to teach and counsel each other. Sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs to God with thankful hearts.” (Col 3:16)

INTRODUCTION

In a building project, one of the most important elements of the building is the foundation. The foundation of a house carries all the other elements that is imposed on it, from the block wall to the roof of the house. Therefore, every wise builder pays important attention to the foundation of a house during construction. If the foundation carrying all other loads is faulty, there is no way it will be able to carry the loads that are imposed on it.

In our text for this study, our Lord Jesus Christ describes for us the difference between a wise builder and a foolish builder. The only difference between the foolish builder and the wise builder is their foundation. The wise builder builds on a solid rock while the foolish builder builds on a weak foundation. And now we will be looking at what experiences both of them will have when there works are tested.

The wise and Foolish builder

As I already pointed out, what differentiates the wise builder from the foolish builder is their foundation. The foundation of the one is strong while that the other is weak. And the Lord Jesus Christ uses these two people to describe for us the categories or the two types of Christians in the church. You are either a wise builder or a foolish builder.

The wise builder: “Anyone who listens to my teaching and obeys me is wise, like a person who builds a house on solid rock. Though the rain comes in torrents and the floodwaters rise and the winds beat against that house, it won’t collapse, because it is built on rock.” (Matt 7:24-25) The Lord Jesus describes a wise builder as someone who listens and acts on what he has listened to. If you fall under this category, you are being described as a wise builder. And in life all of us are builders. We are either building one thing or the other. If you are a student, it’s obvious that you are in school to build your career along some line. And you may probably be building some other things along with it. For some others, it could be their jobs, businesses, family, ministry and so on that they are building. But then, whatever you are building, if you don’t build on solid rock, you are building nothing.

“Though the rain comes in torrents and the floodwaters rise and the winds beat against that house, it won’t collapse, because it is built on rock. (Matt 7 :25) Every foundation will be tested. It’s just the law of nature. Every house foundation will be tested by rainfall, flood, wind storm or land movement. And that is the reason foundations must be strong enough to withstand every external factor that may descend on it. In the example our Lord Jesus uses for us, the house of the wise builder could not fall, even though rain, flood and wind storm descended on it because the foundation was strong. The rainfall, flood and windstorm represent the challenges of life. None of us is immune from life trials and challenges. What will determine if the temptation and trials of life will destroy us or not is the foundation we have built before these challenges come.

The foolish builder: “But anyone who hears my teaching and ignores it is foolish, like a person who builds a house on sand. When the rains and floods come and the winds beat against that house, it will fall with a mighty crash.” (Mathew 7:26-27) What makes this builder a foolish builder is that he builds on a weak foundation. He is the person that listens but will not act. He may give excuses for not acting on what he has listened to. But that does not change a thing. And just like the strong foundation of a wise builder will be tested with rainfall, flood and windstorm, the weak foundation of a foolish builder will be tested too. But the structure of the foolish builder will fall with a mighty crash because it’s weak. The lives, families, relationships, businesses, ministry and lots more of men will fall with a mighty crash, if they will not take God seriously by acting on his word.

CONCLUSION

There is something peculiar to both the wise builder and the foolish builder. And it is the test their foundations are subjected to. Their foundations were both tested with diverse circumstances. But the building of the wise builder stood while that of the foolish builder crashed. Challenges of life are inevitable. It’s just a matter of when they will come. What I am saying is that as long as we are in this world, we can’t run away from challenges. We can only prepare for them by building our lives on a solid foundation. How then do we build a strong foundation? It’s by taking God seriously. It’s by acting on the whole counsel of God.

“Let the words of Christ, in all their richness, live in your hearts and make you wise. Use his words to teach and counsel each other. Sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs to God with thankful hearts.” (Col 3:16). Until the word of God dwells in our hearts richly, we can’t act on it. It’s our responsibility to fill our hearts with his word so we act on it. A man automatically acts on what his mind is filled with. Likewise, if your mind is filled with God’s words, you will act in it. The reason many give excuses of not acting on God’s word is that they have not heard enough of it to stay in their subconscious mind. Many things are vying for our attention in life. There is a lot of distraction everywhere. So it requires a deliberate effort to take out time to drive the Word into your spirit. The word of God is able to make us wise. The word of God is able to enable us build a quality life, build good relationships, raise God fearing children and in fact give us wisdom to handle everything in life. The decision to be either a wise builder or a foolish builder is in your hands. In order to be a wise builder, all you need to do is take God seriously by acting on his words. “Here is my final conclusion: Fear God and obey his commands, for this is the duty of every person.” (Eccl. 12:13)

By Emmanuel Olarinre

ROMANS – RESPONDING TO GOD’S LOVE | ROMANS 8:31-39 | WEDNESDAY 11TH MAY, 2022

TOPIC: ROMANS – RESPONDING TO GOD’S LOVE TEXT: ROMANS 8:31-39

MEMORY VERSES: “…for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus…” (Rom 3:23-24NIV)

BACKGROUND
In our last study in the book of Romans, we established the fact that the Christian life is not possible without the enablement of the Spirit of God. In other words, there is no way we can live to please God, if He Himself does not enable us to do so by His Spirit. As Paul points out, it is the Spirit of God that sets us free from the power of sin and death. It is He that makes us children of God truly in our hearts. It is He that fills us with the desire to please God. And it is also He that walks with us through life to strengthen us, guide us and make all things work for our good. So, first, if anyone does not have His Spirit, He does not belong to God. Second, if anyone does not yield to the leading of His Spirit and also rely on Him for everything and in everything, He cannot live to please God.

RESPONDING TO GOD’S LOVE
Now, in the part of this letter that we want to consider for this study, Paul begins to charge us on how to respond to all that God has done for us in love. As we have already seen in the letter, God had known us before we came into this world. Then, having come into the world, He called us to be His own, justified us and also glorified us. It may not look like we have been justified by Him. But we have been justified by Him. And it may not look like we have been glorified by Him. But He has already glorified us as His children. We are already sharers in His eternal glory that will be revealed. More so, He is causing all things to work for our good.

How, then, are we to respond to these things? Paul shares this with us using the following words:

“What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all — how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died — more than that, who was raised to life — is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: “For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Rom 8:31-39NIV)

From what he says here, we can see that he expects us to respond to the love God has shown us with understanding. Understanding of what? First, we are to respond with an understanding of the fact that God is always with us and on our side. So, whatever He does will always be in our interest. Therefore, no being or situation can successfully defeat us or take us down.

Second, we are to respond to the love of God with an understanding of the fact that there is nothing He will not graciously give to us. As Paul points out to us in this letter, God did not withhold His Son, His only begotten Son, from us when we needed Him. But He gave Him up for our salvation, deliverance, justification and righteousness. And since that was the case, since He was willing to give His Son up for us like that, it must mean that He values us just as much as He values Him.

This becomes even clearer through our Lord’s own words of prayer for all believers in Him before He left this world, which say, “…May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.” (John 17:23NIV) Imagine that. God loves us just as He loves Jesus Christ. He values us just as He values Him. That was why He did not hesitate to give Him up for our salvation and reconciliation to Him. He knew that doing so would enable Him to bring many sons into glory, so that they all, together with Him, may live as one holy family (Hebrews 2:10-13).

Now Paul’s point in all this is that since God loves and values us so much that He gave up the Son of His love for us to be brought back to Him, there is nothing that we need to live the kind of life He wants us to live that He will not graciously and freely give to us. If you, then, need anything to function as He wants you to function in life, be free to talk to Him about it. He will not withhold it from you. The only thing He will withhold from us is what we do not need. So, if you want to continue to receive from Him, give yourself to learning from His word to know what your true needs are. And as long as what you are presenting to Him are your true needs, He will not fail to graciously give them to you. So, as far as our walk with God now is concerned, we can always function with an assurance that we will never be stranded again – all our needs will always be adequately taken care of. (Cf. Matthew 7:7-8; Hebrews 4:16)

But then, man needs more than a consciousness that all his needs will always be met or adequately taken care of. He also wants to always have a sense of wholeness, a sense of righteousness. He always wants to know that there is nothing against Him before God and before men. This is so that when he walks, he walks with his head up high. And thankfully, Paul says we can have that too. We can have it because God has already justified us through Jesus Christ. Then Jesus Christ Himself did not just die to bring us to God, He is now also living to make intercession for us, so that our lives will always be want God wants them to be till we come into His eternal kingdom. (Cf. Hebrews 7:24-25; 1John 2:1-2)

So, there is no one, including Satan our archenemy, whose accusations against us will ever again amount to anything before God. That is because we have Jesus Christ, not only as our saviour and justifier but also as our advocate and intercessor. And He is always speaking in our favour to God and before Him and the whole creation. We are now the ones that should begin to walk with this consciousness that no one will ever again be able to successfully come between us and God. In other words, our relationship and fellowship with Him can never be messed up by anyone again, if we do not allow it. We will always be loved by Him. And we will always be righteous, holy and perfect before Him. We may not feel that way. We may have reasons to feel condemned in our hearts. We may continually be reminded in our minds what horrible lives we have lived in the past or what mess we have made of the grace of God, even having become Christians. But none of these things will change our situation with God. We will always be what He has made us and what He calls us. So, we should take this very seriously, go for His forgiveness wherever we have missed it and straighten our lives by His grace. That is how to respond to the love of God towards us and not waste it.

Furthermore, still speaking to us about how to respond to the love of God towards us, Paul says we are to respond to it with an understanding that nothing in all creation can keep us from enjoying it. If God truly loves us, and He does, then He will always protect and keep us safe. As we all know, very important among the basic needs of man is safety. Man wants to be safe and to also feel safe. But can he keep himself safe in this world of darkness and evil? No! No one in this world will be safe, if God does not keep him safe. And no one will feel safe in this world, if God does not give him a sense of security and safety. Otherwise, all he will have is a false sense of security.

Now we ought to forever rejoice and be grateful because God, who loved us so much that He gave up His Son for us, will never be irresponsible about our safety, regardless of where we are or what circumstances we find ourselves. And we must relate to Him with this consciousness. Otherwise, we too, like those who do not know God or have Him as their Father and Saviour, will often find ourselves afraid, confused and depressed because of the happenings in this world. This is why Paul makes this announcement to us in the part of this letter that we are considering: “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Do you have this same conviction? Do I have it? We must have it, for it is based on a clear understanding of the nature and quality of the love God has for us. His love for us will never change, regardless of the circumstances we may find ourselves. And His love for us will never change, regardless of what other created beings of God think or do to us. That means not even an angel or a demon of darkness can keep us from enjoying or experiencing His love. So, we can always count on His love for us. We can always walk with a feeling of safety because God loves us and will surely keep us safe and sound, notwithstanding the situations we find ourselves in. On this basis, then, we can joyfully join Paul to daily say, “In all situations of life, we are more than conquerors through Him who loves us.”

CONCLUSION
The love of God for us is real and true. And we can see its proof in what He did for us through Jesus Christ our Lord. It is now up to us to take this love that He has for us very seriously in taking care of our needs, walking without a sense of condemnation but with a sense of righteousness and living with a consciousness of eternal safety from all harm.

QUESTION
– What is the most important lesson for you in this study?

By Johnson O. Lawal

APRIL BIBLE STUDY OUTLINES

ROMANS – THE LAW AND SIN | ROMANS 7:1-24 | WEDNESDAY 13TH APRIL 2022

TOPIC: ROMANS – THE LAW AND SIN

TEXT: ROMANS 7: 1-24

MEMORY VERSES: “…for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus…” (Rom 3:23-24NIV)

BACKGROUND
In our last study in Paul’s letter to the Romans, we saw that the grace of God was never given to us to promote sin or wickedness; rather, it was given to make it possible for us to live righteous and holy lives before Him. So, those who claim to be under God’s grace and are yet living in sin do not understand what His grace means. Likewise, they who reject His grace and are trying to please Him on the basis of their own strength or wisdom also do not understand His grace and what it is meant to do for them. The grace of God represents all that He has done and provided for us to be the people He wants us to be and to also do the things He wants us to do. So, His grace is His empowerment. His grace is what makes us fit to stand before Him justified and righteous all the time. But we have to take adequate advantage of it. Otherwise, we won’t be able to live differently in this world, as He wants us to live. And all who take advantage of it will realise that sin no longer has any power over them and that they can always walk in victory over it.

THE LAW AND SIN
Now what is the role of the Law of Moses in all of this? Don’t forget that, originally, this letter was written to a church that was a mixture of both Jewish and Gentile believers. And the Jewish believers in this church, who had grown up trying to live to please God in accordance with this Law, seriously desired to know what role or roles it had to play in Christian living. Is it completely useless to the Christian? Or does it have a place where it fits in in Christian living? Even now, many believers who are not of Jewish background are still bothered by the same questions. They also want to know the exact thing to do with the law of Moses.

Therefore, in the part of the letter that we are considering for this study, Paul opens our eyes to see the relationship between sin and the law of Moses, which we could take as the representative of every other human law or constitution. And he begins by saying the following:

“Do you not know, brothers — for I am speaking to men who know the law — that the law has authority over a man only as long as he lives? For example, by law a married woman is bound to her husband as long as he is alive, but if her husband dies, she is released from the law of marriage. So then, if she marries another man while her husband is still alive, she is called an adulteress. But if her husband dies, she is released from that law and is not an adulteress, even though she marries another man. So, my brothers, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, that you might belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit to God. For when we were controlled by the sinful nature, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in our bodies, so that we bore fruit for death. But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code.” (Rom 7:1-6NIV)

Observe that Paul makes it clear in this passage that he is now addressing those who know the Law of Moses. So, everything he says next until he changes the subject is aimed at educating those who know the Law of Moses, that is, the Jews, for the most part. And his first point to them is that the Law was given to maintain our relationship with the first man, Adam. To make it clearer, we are not just descendants of Adam; we are also partakers of his nature, which is a sinful nature. So, the Law of Moses was originally given to the Jews, as a test case, to deal with the nature of Adam in them.

However, that sinful of Adam, which produces nothing in humanity but sin, has been judged and put to death in Christ Jesus. As the bible tells us, our Lord Jesus became sin for us, so that He might receive the judgment of eternal death meant for us (2Cor 5:21). In other words, He, who knew no sin at all, took upon Himself the sinful nature of Adam that we all, except Him, have been partakers of and received the sentence of death meant for us all because of this nature upon Himself. And since we were the ones He died for, it is reckoned in the eyes of God that we too died with Him, that is, spiritually. Then when He was raised up from the dead, having been justified by God, it is also reckoned that we too were raised up with Him spiritually to begin to live a new life. (Cf. Rom 6:3-4)

What, then, is the implication of this, as far as the Jew’s relationship with the Law of Moses is concerned? It is that he is now free from this Law, just as a woman that her husband is dead is free from whatever law that bound her in marriage to him. This Law was originally given to maintain man’s relationship with the sin nature he got from Adam. But now that he is dead to that nature and made alive to God, his life is no longer to be controlled by this Law. He is now free from it in order to freely live in union with Christ Jesus, the new man that saved him.

As Paul would have us understand, if our spiritual death with the Lord Jesus Christ had not occurred, we would still have been married to Adam and his nature of sin. Then, the Jew, who was given the Law of Moses by God, would still need that Law to control his life and conduct. Also, if we had not participated spiritually in death with our Lord Jesus but are trying to unite ourselves with His life, then, we would have been as good as an adulterer. And the Law of Moses must take action against the Jews among us. But thank God, as many of us who have put our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and are now one with Him in spirit are not adulterers, whether we are Jews or Gentiles. We are now truly married to Him and are free to live for Him, not on the basis of the written Law of Moses but on the basis of the Law of the Spirit of God.

But then, unless one thoroughly understands what Paul is teaching here, especially the Jewish mind, he will still not want to see and treat the Law of Moses as he should. So, this apostle goes on to clarify some things about this Law for us in the letter. The first is that nothing is wrong with this Law in itself. It is not sin, neither is it sinful. On the contrary, it is good, spiritual, holy and righteous. In what sense is it holy and spiritual? It is in the sense that it came from God and not from man. In what sense is it righteous? It is in the sense that it communicates the justice of God against evil? And in what sense is it good? It is in the sense that it makes sin obvious to men. Without the law we will not know what sin is or how sinful it is. (Cf. Rom 7:7-14)

However, the Law of Moses has some weaknesses. And that should not surprise us, for we know that something may be good and yet weak. The law of Moses is good, righteous, holy and spiritual but weak. In what way? First, it is weak because it is a weapon for the sinful nature to condemn us to death. As Paul shows us in this passage, apart from the law sin is dead. In other words, without any law against a particular course of action, the urge to sin by doing it is inactive. But the moment a law is passed against it, the desire to do it begins to rise. So, simply put, the law awakens sinful desires in man. And these are the things that bring about spiritual death.

The second weakness of the Law of Moses is seen in its inability to keep the one who has it from sinning, even when he does not want to sin. Look at the way Paul paints the picture for us:

“We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do — this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God — through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.” (Rom 7:14-25NIV)

Did you see that? Even the Jew that has the best of intentions is helpless in the face of the sinful nature of man. Yes, he has the Law of Moses. And this Law is able to instruct him in the will and ways of God. In fact, this Law is able to inspire him to want to do the will of God. But as Paul shows us, there is another law at work in man, permeating his whole being, the law of sin. And this law is always working to make him act contrary to the Law of God or any human law. In fact, it will even make him work contrary to reason. There is none of us who does not know what this means. Your sense of reason tells you that what you are about to do is totally wrong and destructive. Yet your body and everything within you seem to be rebelling against that and driving you in a crazy way to do the very thing you yourself have judged as wrong. What is the problem? It is the principle of sin in humanity that is at work. And unless a man, whether he desires to do the will of God or not, is set free from this principle, there is no law, however righteous and true it may be, that will be able to make him live a life that is well pleasing to God.

No wonder Paul cries out, “Who will rescue me from this body of death?” And this is the cry of every honest Jew that has the law of Moses and yet senses his incapability to living accordingly. It will, of course, also be the cry of every child of God that chooses not to live on the basis of the grace of God but on the basis of the Law of Moses or his own law. He will often find that though he desires to do the will of God, he is totally incapable of dealing with the sin in his flesh.

CONCLUSION
The Law of Moses is good, holy, spiritual and righteous. But it lacks what it takes to free anybody from sin and live a life that is well pleasing to God. The only one with the power to do that is our Lord Jesus Christ. May His name be praised forevermore.

QUESTION
– What are the main lessons you picked from this study?

By Johnson O. Lawal

MARCH BIBLE STUDY OUTLINES

ROMANS – UNDERSTANDING GOD’S GRACE | ROMANS 6:1-23 | WEDNESDAY 23RD MARCH 2022

TOPIC: ROMANS – UNDERSTANDING GOD’S GRACE
TEXT: ROMANS 6: 1-23 (WEDNESDAY 23RD MARCH 2022)

MEMORY VERSES: “…for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus…” (Rom 3:23-24NIV)

BACKGROUND
In our last study in Paul’s letter to the Romans, we saw that God’s grace is more than sufficient to take care of man’s sin problem and put him in a situation in which he is able to stand before God and relate to Him as though he had never sinned at all. And what is God’s grace? From what Paul says about it in this letter, we are able to deduce that it is all that God has done and is doing to save man and keep him right before Him. What, then, has He done and what is He doing to justify us and make us stand before Him righteous and blameless? First, He provided His Son, Jesus Christ, as the atoning sacrifice for our sins. So, all the sins from the time of Adam to the very end of this age has been duly paid for. This is why we are able to stand free before God as though we never sinned. Second, He recreated us, as we will soon see in this letter, so that we may live an entirely new life. Third, as we will also later see in the letter, He put His Holy Spirit in us to lead, comfort and strengthen us to live the new life He has recreated us to live. So, you can see that everything has come to us and is coming to us from Him. That is why we call it grace, for it is not a function of our effort or goodness but a function of His love and mercy. Ours is just to receive by faith what He has done and given.

UNDERSTANDING GOD’S GRACE
Unfortunately, many of God’s people do not understand what the grace of God means and how they are to respond to it. So, they either abuse it or refuse to utilise it. Paul already tells us that God’s grace towards us is abundant and overflowing (Rom 5:17). In other words, what He has done for is more than sufficient to carry us through in this life and make us become all that God wants us to be and do all that He wants us to do. Yet there are many believers who keep asking Him to give them His grace or more of His grace. When you make a demand on these ones to act on the will of God, they will immediately say, “May God give me the grace to do it.” In other words, if they fail to perform, it is because the grace of God is not made available for them.

But will that truly be the case? No! The grace of God is always more than sufficient for anyone who will take advantage of it by faith. So, if my life is not what it is meant to be, it will not be because God’s grace is not available or sufficient for me to utilise; on the contrary, it will be because I will not recognise and take advantage of it.

Then, as I already pointed, there are equally those who abuse the grace of God. And that is because they are ignorant of what it truly means and what it is meant to accomplish in the life of anyone who has received it. So, somehow, they further strengthen the unwillingness to receive of those who are refusing His grace. That is because when these ones see how messed up their lives are under their so-called grace, they don’t want to be a part of the experience.

But does the grace of God truly make a mess of people’s lives? No! Or does His grace make people bold to live foolish, reckless and sinful lives? The answer is also ‘No’. What, then, is the problem? Why do we keep having many who talk so much about living by the grace of God living messed up and irresponsible lives? The reason is that they are ignorant of what God’s true grace means and also of how to respond to it.

Therefore, in the passage of Paul’s letter that we are considering for this study, he shares some very vital points with us about the grace of God and how we are to respond to it in order for the will of God to be done in our lives. And he begins by saying the following to us:

“What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.” (Rom 6:1-4NIV)

Did you see that? The first misconception about grace that people often have is what Paul is dealing with here. “Is grace a promoter of sin?” he asks. Absolutely not! So, though God’s grace is more than enough to save a man from any kind of sin, it is not a licence to continue to live in sin. As Paul further points out, to accept the grace of God is to accept the fact that Christ died for our sins. And since He truly died for our sins, it means that we also spiritually died with Him and died to sin and were buried together with Him.

Moreover, since we died with Jesus to sin and were buried with Him, it means that when He was raised from the dead by the power of God, we also were raised from the deadness of our spirits to God with Him. So, we too are now to begin to live a new life in Him, just as He has begun to live a resurrected life. How, then, can all this truly happened to us and we will still continue to live in sin? How can we partake in the grace of God like this and still continue to live as though nothing happened to us? It does not add up. So, if we claim to have received the grace of God through Jesus Christ and are still living in sin, it is clear that we do not know what we are saying. We are most likely false believers or ignorant believers.

Now if we are ignorant believers, Paul, in the passage for this study, deals with our ignorance about this matter by letting us know that having died with Christ Jesus, buried with Him and resurrected with Him, we are supposed to begin to walk in newness of life. In other words, in our spirits, we are now new beings (new creations) in Christ Jesus and should live as such. Once we were alive to sin and so dead to God. But now, in Christ Jesus, we are dead to sin but alive to God. (Cf. Rom 6:5-10)

Therefore, we must discontinue whatever life of sin we were living before. And that is exactly what we are going to do, if we have truly participated in the grace of God through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. It is exactly what we will eagerly and urgently want to do, if we have truly been born anew through our spiritual resurrection with the Lord Jesus Christ. But how do we do so? Paul answers that for us by saying the following:

“In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness. For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace.” (Rom 6:11-14NIV)

What is the first step towards utilising the grace to walk in victory over sin? It is counting ourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. In other words, we must see ourselves as individuals who are done with the life of sin and are now alive only to live for God. And it is our duty to see ourselves this way, if we have truly believed.

What is the second step towards discontinuing a life of sin? It is refusing to allow sin to reign in our mortal body, that is, through our physical body. That means sin will still want to reign in our lives, even though we are believers in Christ Jesus and are dead to it. Why? It is because it is our spirits that are dead to sin; our minds and bodies are not dead to it. So, through our thoughts, desires and emotions, sin will still want to express itself in our lives. Our job, however, is to say ‘No’ to sin. Our job is to refuse to make any part of our body available as an instrument of wickedness and instead to make all the parts of our body available to God as His instruments of righteousness. (Cf. Titus 2:11-12)

But can we do this? Can we actually discontinue a life of sin and give ourselves only to promoting the righteousness of God? Yes, we can, as Paul points out to us in the text. We can because we are not under the law but under God’s grace. In other words, we are not living on the basis of the codes of the law but on the basis of the provisions of God. The Law was introduced to make sin obvious and sinful to us. But it cannot empower us not to sin. God’s provisions, however, are provided to save us from all kinds of sin and to empower us to walk in victory over them.

That being the case, sin no longer has dominion over our lives. Paul says, “It shall not be your master” Yes, it will want to give us the impression that we have no choice but to do what it is telling us or to fulfil its desire. But it is all a lie. It is no longer our master. And if we yield to it, it will not be because we are helpless against it but because we will not take advantage of God’s provision of the gift of righteousness and His Holy Spirit to walk in victory over it.

So, apart from the fact that the grace of God is now available in abundance for us to discontinue a life of sin, it is also sufficient for us not to sin again at all, that is, even occasionally. We have already been told that the dominion of sin over our lives has been broken. And we should make much of this in saying ‘No’ even to occasional sins. To, then, bring this point home more strongly to us, Paul goes on to say:

“What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey — whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted. You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness. I put this in human terms because you are weak in your natural selves. Just as you used to offer the parts of your body in slavery to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer them in slavery to righteousness leading to holiness. When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness. What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death! But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Rom 6:15-23NIV)

Did you see that? We are not expected to commit any sin at all in the name of grace? That is because grace does not make us slaves of sin but victors over it. So, though God’s grace of forgiveness is available for any kind of sin we may commit, if we sin at all, it is because we choose to obey the dictates of sin. And if we continue like that, we are simply enslaving ourselves. But we should enslave ourselves to sin again? No!

As Paul shows us twice in this text, we have already been set free from sin and its power. So, we cannot blame anyone but ourselves for allowing us to be enslaved by it at any time. And we need to remember that all sins result in death. In fact, Pauls words on this matter are, “The wages of sin is death.” In other words, the full payment for sin is death. And this is beyond spiritual or physical death; this also includes eternal death, eternal separation from God. So, if we, having known the grace of God, are still indulging in sin, we are exposing ourselves again to death and destruction instead of embracing God’s free provision of eternal life through our Lord Jesus Christ.

CONCLUSION
The grace of God is not meant to be refused or abused. Rather, it is meant to be utilised to live a life of victory over sin and everything contrary to God’s will for us. But if we are ignorant of this, we will most certainly end up abusing it or refusing it, none of which will do us any good.

QUESTIONS
– How has this study helped your understanding of the grace of God?
– How has this study helped your knowledge of what it takes to walk in victory over sin?

By Johnson O. Lawal

ROMANS – THE GIFT OF RIGHTEOUSNESS | ROMANS 5:12-21 | WEDNESDAY 16TH, MARCH 2022

TOPIC: ROMANS – THE GIFT OF RIGHTEOUSNESS

TEXT: ROMANS 5:12-21

MEMORY VERSES: “…for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus…” (Rom 3:23-24NIV)

BACKGROUND
We ended our last study with Paul’s words that say, “…but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.” (Rom 5:11NIV) So, those of us who have put our faith in Christ Jesus have now been reconciled to God. Before we were sinners under His wrath, sinners deserving nothing but destruction. But now, through our acceptance of God’s provision in Christ Jesus, we have been brought back to Him. We are now at peace with Him. And we should continually rejoice in this fact, regardless of what the current situations of our lives may look like. That is because everything does not end here in the world. There is an eternal kingdom of peace and righteousness coming, which we are now a part of through our faith in Christ Jesus. And our hope of this should continually keep us strong and joyful.

THE GIFT OF RIGHTEOUSNESS
Now, in the passage of this letter of Paul to the Romans that we want to consider for this study, he further enlightens us about what our reconciliation to God means, so that we can take fully advantage of it. And he begins by taking us back to how we were estranged from Him and what necessitated the introduction of the Law of Moses. Look at how He puts some of these things:

“Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned—for before the law was given, sin was in the world. But sin is not taken into account when there is no law. Nevertheless, death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even over those who did not sin by breaking a command, as did Adam, who was a pattern of the one to come.” (Rom 5:12-14NIV)

How were we estranged from God? It was through sin, the sin of one man, Adam. It was his sin that separated us all from God, meaning that his sin was our sin. Why was his sin our sin? It was because we all were in him when he sinned – he was our representative. In any case, since his sin was our sin, naturally, we became sharers in the punishment that followed, which was death – spiritual, physical and eternal. So, even before any law was given to men, sin had been in the world, finding expression among humanity. Of course, no sin can be legally punished where there is no law. That, however, does not mean sin does not exist in the world or that it would not be punished at all. In fact, as Paul points out to us, the presence of death in the world and its reign over all men, even before any law was given to people, shows that sin is always punished in all.

Having said that, he goes on to show us what all men now stand to benefit to through the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ. And what is that? It is righteousness. Truly, the sin of Adam brought death to all of us. But the righteousness of Jesus Christ has made reconciliation to God, justification and righteousness now available to all men. Look at how Paul puts this:

“But the gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God’s grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many! Again, the gift of God is not like the result of the one man’s sin: The judgment followed one sin and brought condemnation, but the gift followed many trespasses and brought justification. For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ. Consequently, just as the result of one trespass was condemnation for all men, so also the result of one act of righteousness was justification that brings life for all men. For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous.” (Rom 5:15-19NIV)

Observe that righteousness before God is referred to by Paul as a gift in this text. So, it is not something we labour or work for. We cannot even labour or work for it. If we could be righteous on our own, then, there would not be any need for God to step in and offer Jesus as a sacrifice for our sins. But we could not be righteous by ourselves or by our labour. All of us are sinful in our nature. Even when we are trying our best to be good and righteous, we will still not measure up in many ways. So, all that we deserve is destruction and death.

But God, because of His great love for us and in His mercy, provided the payment for our sins, which was the person of Jesus Christ. He took our place and died in our stead. That is why God could freely justify us and declare us as righteous before Him. And this is why our justification or righteousness before Him is a gift. But we need to appreciate this. Otherwise, we may never stop relating to Him with a sense of guilt or of unrighteousness.

Don’t forget we all have this consciousness of sin, unrighteousness and unworthiness in us. And it often affects our relationship with God and with one another. In fact, nothing hinders and limits a man’s relationship with God as a sense of unrighteousness does. It paralyses us and prevents us from lovingly fellowshipping with Him and serving Him. All the time, we are thinking about our sins and wrongdoings. So, instead of always intelligently praying to Him or fellowshipping with Him in our walk, we often find ourselves trying to appease Him or be at peace with Him.

But Paul wants us to know that we are already at peace with God. And we need to let it stay that way. However, right now, as long as we have demonstrated our faith in His Son, Jesus Christ, we are already at peace with Him. We have been reconciled to Him. And in order for us to stand before Him without any feeling of unworthiness, He gives to us the gift of righteousness, making us righteous in our hearts. So, though we do not feel righteous in ourselves and though our past actions did not depict righteousness, we have been made righteous within. God sees us as righteous within and in every way. We too, then, must see ourselves as righteous, just the way He sees us. Otherwise, we will never enjoy our fellowship with Him.

Now part of what Paul does in the passage we are considering is to show us how God’s righteousness becomes ours. And as I pointed out before, he begins by telling us how sin became ours. It became ours through the sin of Adam. But there was another representative of man sent by God and born of a woman. That is Jesus Christ. He did not come through Adam but directly from God, just as Adam also came directly from God. And since He did not come through Adam, He did not partake in his nature of sin. Not only that, unlike Adam, He fully pleased God in all ways. That was why He was the only one qualified to take our place and suffered the penalty of all the forms of death that the sin of Adam brought on us for us all.

At any rate, the point of it all is that just as Adam’s sin brought sin, condemnation and death to us all, Jesus’ obedience has brought righteousness, justification and eternal life to us all. And since we (including many who are not Christians) have no problem accepting that we are naturally sinners because of Adam’s sin, we should have no problem that we become naturally righteous through Jesus’s righteousness. It is those who accept this that will reign in this life as kings over sin and the works of the devil (Rom 5:17).

What, then, is the place of the Law of Moses in all this? That is the question the Jewish mind would be asking. Clearly, from what Paul says here, it is not the Law of Moses that has made justification and righteousness available to us. Rather, it is grace of God through Jesus Christ. What about the Law, then? Well, Paul answers that by saying:

“The law was added so that the trespass might increase. But where sin increased, grace increased all the more, so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Rom 5:20-21NIV)

Did you see that? The Law of Moses or any human or national law whatsoever that may be given is never introduced to make people righteous. Rather, it is given to highlight sin. So, using Paul’s words, the introduction of laws among men increases sin or make its presence more obvious among them. That means laws reveal us as sinners; they reveal the evil in us that we have probably refused to admit. And that is it about the law. It cannot do us any further good other than reveal us as sinners that need to be punished unless saved.

But thanks be unto God, for, regardless of how much sins we have committed or may commit, the grace of God, His provision of Jesus Christ is more than enough to handle our sins. So, just as death has been finding expression in us and dominating us because of sin, now eternal life is able to find expression in us and dominate us through the righteousness made available to us by our Lord Jesus Christ. And this is among the reasons we should be rejoicing in our reconciliation to God.

CONCLUSION
God did not just reconcile us to Himself through Jesus Christ; He also justified us and gave us the gift of righteousness, which is the ability to stand before Him without any sense of guilt or condemnation. But if we do not know this and live in the consciousness of it, our walk with Him will not be exciting but boring and filled with grief.

QUESTIONS
– Why is it difficult for many who have become Christians to accept that they are righteous?
– How important is the point made by Paul about the law to all Christians?

By Johnson O. Lawal

ROMANS – AT PEACE WITH GOD | ROMANS 5:1-11 | WEDNESDAY 9TH MARCH 2022

TOPIC: ROMANS – AT PEACE WITH GOD TEXT: ROMANS 5:1-11

MEMORY VERSES: “…for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus…” (Rom 3:23-24NIV)

BACKGROUND
The last portion of Paul’s letter to the Romans that we considered ends with Paul’s summary on how justification before God came to humanity. It came to us through God’s payment for our sins. God, as this apostle points out, first gave up His Son, Jesus Christ, who is man’s representative, to die for our sins. And when our sins had been fully paid for and His demand for justice had been fully satisfied, He raised our Lord up for our justification. So, no one stands justified before God on the basis of his personal merits, merits that have to do with his relationship with some saints of old, his devotion to keeping some laws or his good works. Rather, people stand justified before God because they accept by faith the spiritual reality that He paid for their sins and proclaimed them not guilty.

AT PEACE WITH GOD
Now Paul, in the part of this letter that we are considering for this study, goes on to give us an understanding of what receiving justification before God means for anyone who has received it and how it should affect his mindset and attitude towards life. Here is what he says about this:

“Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us. You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! For if, when we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! Not only is this so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.” (Rom 5:1-11NIV)

Again, the first thing this man of God reminds us in this passage is that justification before God comes only through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. So, those of us who have faith in Him that He is who God says He is to us and that He has done for us what God says He has done for us have been justified by Him. We stand justified before God, regardless of who we are or what we have done with our lives. In other words, we now stand before Him guiltless and blameless (Col 1:22). And this is what he refers to as grace. It is grace because God did everything for us. We just came to receive and enjoy what He did by faith.

What, then, does this mean for us? What do we gain by standing before God as justified men and women, instead of as sinful men and women? First, as Paul points out, it means that we are now at peace with Him. Before we were His enemies and under His wrath. But now, having been justified through our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, we are no longer enemies of God but His children and friends. This, of course, is why can now freely approach Him with boldness to live with Him, walk with Him, love with Him and to enjoy all that He represents. No wonder Paul says we are now standing in His grace. That means we are now living in the place of His provisions. Therefore, there is nothing we need to make our lives meaningful that we do not have access to. All we need is to receive whatever we need by faith, just as we received our salvation and justification from Him by faith. (Cf. Eph 3:12; Heb 4:16)

So, even if your life has been messed up with all kinds of sins and evil practices, you can still become a friend of God and live the rest of your life as though you had never been evil in life. God Himself has done something in order to make that possible. All you need is to accept what He has done by faith, that is, regardless of how you or others feel about it. And I am saying this because, a lot of times, people want to judge us on the basis of our past life. They just do not want to accept what God is saying about us and about our new life in Him. So, they condemn as worthless and unfit to merit His goodness or kindness. But regardless of what they say or think or feel, we are already what He says we are – we have been washed, sanctified and justified through Jesus Christ our Lord (1Cor 6:9-11).

All this, of course, calls for rejoicing. That is why Paul goes on to draw our attention to the need for us to continually rejoice and what forms our rejoicing should take. First, he says we are to rejoice in our hope of sharing in God’s glory that would be revealed. Though he does not say much in this letter about the revelation of God’s glory to those who love Him, when He establishes a new order of things, enough is said to us in other Scriptures about it. And the point of it all is that a better and more glorious future awaits us all that are now at peace with God. Therefore, we can rejoice and celebrate God in anticipation of it. (Cf. Rom 5:1-2)

Second, Paul says we are to rejoice even in our sufferings. What does this mean? Well, it means that the fact that we are now at peace with God does not mean that we will never again suffer in this life. On the contrary, the very fact that we are now at peace with God sets us at variance with the world. That, in itself, can expose us to different kinds of challenges or sufferings in life. Nevertheless, we are to rejoice even in our moments of suffering. First, we are to rejoice in the fact that we are counted worthy of sharing in the Lord’s suffering. In other words, we are to rejoice because we are not suffering as enemies of God but as His children. Second, we are to rejoice because whatever the sufferings that come to us may be, they can only work for our good and not destroy us. They can only develop our character and drive us to take advantage of the grace of God to experience victory and to also long more and more for a fulfilment of our hope of sharing in God’s eternal glory. This hope, of course, is not a disappointing hope but a sure one that is strengthened by His love that has been poured into our hearts by His Spirit. (Cf. Rom 5:3-5; 1Pet 4:12-14)

Mind you, when we are talking about rejoicing in our sufferings, we are not talking about rejoicing in any kind of suffering. There are sufferings that come to people because of their foolishness or wickedness or sin. Such are not Christian sufferings. And anyone who is exposed to them needs to blame himself only. But here, we are talking about sufferings that come to us as a result of faith in God or unjust sufferings that come to us in life, which we endure because we are conscious of God. We are saying we are to rejoice in the Lord in such circumstances and not lose heart because those sufferings are earthbound – they will not last throughout eternity. More so, our Lord will certainly make them work for our good, not only here in this world but also in His eternal kingdom. (Cf. Rom 8:18; 2Cor 4:16-18; 1Pet 2:19-20&4:15)

The third thing Paul says we are to rejoice in is our reconciliation to God. We must, of course, understand that he is not stating these forms our rejoicing should take in their order of importance or practice. Rather, he is just showing us that these are the various forms our rejoicing in the Lord should take. We may not have any reason to rejoice in the circumstances of our lives or world. But our reconciliation to God has given us reasons to continually rejoice in this life.

Now why should we rejoice in our reconciliation to God through our Lord Jesus Christ? It is because what we are destined to enjoy through it is beyond what human minds can conceive or even grasp. As Paul clearly shows us, it was not our reconciliation to God that made Him love us. He had been loving us even before He gave His Son Jesus Christ for us. In other words, it was while were yet sinner that He gave Him for us. And that is to show us the kind of love He has for us. (Cf. Rom 5:6-11)

The point, then, is that if God loved us enough to give His Son up for death for us in our sinful state, what else would He not do for our eternal or momentary good? Nothing! Instead, He will, as Paul would later say in this same letter, along with the gift of His Son Jesus Christ to us, graciously give us all things (Rom 8:31-32). This is why we are to continually rejoice in God for our reconciliation to Him. And have you been rejoicing in this fact? Have you been rejoicing in the fact that God loves you and has saved you and brought you to Himself, so that you may enjoy with Him throughout eternity?

CONCLUSION
Well, in conclusion, in the passage before us, Paul’s aim is to let us know that since we have been justified by God through our faith in His Son, Jesus Christ, we have enough reasons to live a life of rejoicing in this world, giving us room to radically evangelize those in our world whose lives are marked with misery and sorrow. But if we are walking around sorrowfully and acting as though we were hopeless, if we are complaining and griping because of the circumstances of our lives, then, we are defeating the purpose of what God has done for us and are also making the Christian life unattractive to those in our world.

QUESTIONS
– Rejoicing is one of the marks of true Christian living. Explain.
– What is the most important lesson for you in this study?

By Johnson O. Lawal

JANUARY - MARCH BIBLE STUDY OUTLINES

HOW TO OVERCOME TEMPTATIONS AND TRIALS | 1 COR. 10:1-13 | WEDNESDAY 26TH JANUARY 2022

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HOW TO OVERCOME TEMPTATIONS AND TRIALS TEXT: 1 COR. 10:1-13

MEMORY VERSES: “But remember that the temptations that come into your life are no different from what others experience. And God is faithful. He will keep the temptation from becoming so strong that you can’t stand up against it. When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you will not give in to it.” (1cor 10:13NLT)

INTRODUCTION
All through the scriptures, God has shown his people that he is a faithful God. He is faithful in taking good care of his children as a responsible God. He is faithful in protecting us from all kinds of evil. He is faithful in giving us comfort and encouragement. God is faithful in not allowing us to face trials and temptations that are beyond what we can handle. The faithfulness of God is from generation to generation (Psalm 100:5 & 119:90). God is ever faithful to fulfil his words concerning us. Hallelujah!

Now Paul, in his first letter to the church at Corinth, chapter 10, reminds them about God’s faithfulness to his ancestors and of how God set them free from slavery of many years in Egypt, led them to walk through the Red Sea on dry land, fed them with Manna and water in the wilderness. His words are:

“For I do not want you to be ignorant of the fact, brothers, that our forefathers were all under the cloud and that they all passed through the sea. They were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. They all ate the same spiritual food and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ.” (1Cor10:1-4NIV)

When all hope of getting food, water, crossing the red sea and leaving Egypt was gone, God showed himself faithful to his promises. God does not make empty promises. Whatever promises he makes, he is committed to fulfilling them. So, He can be trusted.

However, despite all the goodness and faithfulness of God that those people enjoyed, God was not pleased with them. Paul says, “Yet after all this, God was not pleased with most of them, and he destroyed them in the wilderness. These events happened as a warning to us, so that we would not crave evil things as they did.” (1Cor10:5-6) God was not pleased with these people because they did not take advantage of His grace to resist temptations and fight the challenges they encountered on the way to the Promise Land. In the face of temptations and challenges, they threw away their faith in God and forgot all His faithfulness to them. Many of them fell into the sin of immorality, idol worship and grumbling. So, God killed them, for the Scriptures say:

“The people celebrated with feasting and drinking, and they indulged themselves in pagan revelry. And we must not engage in sexual immorality as some of them did, causing 23,000 of them to die in one day. Nor should we put Christ to the test, as some of them did and then died from snake bites. And don’t grumble as some of them did, for that is why God sent his angel of death to destroy them.” (1cor.10:7-10)

OVERCOMING TEMPTATIONS AND TRIALS
Temptations and trials are unavoidable in life. At every stage in life, we will be confronted with temptations and challenges that may want to render our faith ineffective. How then should we respond to differs temptations and trials that we are confronted with?

Your temptations and trials are not special
Firstly, Paul begins by saying that the temptations that we face are not different from what others are experiencing. The devil will want us to think that the temptations coming to us are peculiar and that we have no other choice than to give up. The temptations and trials that come to us are common to people. Generations and generations before us experienced them and just as there were those who fell, there were also those who resisted and triumphed. The story of the Israelites that Moses led out of Egypt clearly illustrates this. Also, the Lord Jesus Christ was tempted at all point yet without sin. Whatever temptation to sin you may be facing, our lord and savior Jesus Christ too experienced it but did not fall. So, cheer up and keep faith. (Cf. 1Cor10:5-12; Heb 4:15)

God is faithful
“No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you to be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.” (1Cor 10:13NIV)

Overcoming temptations and trials starts with the understanding that God is faithful no matter what. You come to a point in your life that you trust God’s word absolutely, regardless of contrary circumstances. You know for certain that God is on your side and he loves you so much.

Paul, addressing this church at Corinth, says God is faithful and will not allow us to be tempted beyond what we can handle. And there are two things he says God’s faithfulness is committed to doing. Firstly, because of the faithfulness of God, he will not allow us to be tempted beyond what we can handle. That means God will see to it that Satan does not bring our way challenges and trials that are beyond what we can handle. Therefore, before anyone can overcome temptations and challenges, we must know that our God is faithful and that the temptations and challenges we are facing at the moment are never beyond what we can handle. How, then, should we respond to it? We are to take advantage of the grace of God to resist such temptation and fight such challenges, knowing fully well that they are not beyond what we can handle.

Secondly, Paul says because of the faithfulness of God, he will make a way of escape so that we don’t give in to any temptation. Every challenge or temptation has a solution. All we need to do is talk to God to show us the way of escape so that we don’t give in to it.

CONCLUSION
“These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the fulfillment of the ages has come. So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall.” (1Cor 10:11-12NIV) Paul sounds a note of warning to the church at Corinth to be careful so as not to fall like Israel’s ancestors did. According to him, the temptations they are currently facing are not different from those people faced in the wilderness. So, if they are not careful, they may fall just like those people did. In like manner, the temptations and trials those people faced in the wilderness represent the day-to-day challenges we too are facing. But God is ever faithful, and he will not allow us to be tempted beyond what we can handle. And as we take advantage of His grace to resist our temptations and challenges, He will always show himself as faithful and rescue us from them all.

QUESTION
What is the most important lesson you have learnt in this study?

By Emmanuel Olarinre

ROMANS – MANIFESTATIONS OF GOD’S WRATH | ROMANS 1:18-32 | WEDNESDAY 19TH JANUARY 2022

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TOPIC: ROMANS – MANIFESTATIONS OF GOD’S WRATH

TEXT: ROMANS 1:18-32

MEMORY VERSES: “…for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus…” (Rom 3:23-24NIV)

BACKGROUND
In our last study in Paul’s epistle to the Romans, we saw the basis for his eagerness in proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ everywhere he went, especially in places where it had not been heard. As he points out in the letter, first, the Lord had commissioned and empowered him to preach the good news about him. So, it would be irresponsible of him not take its preaching seriously. Second, the gospel not only carries the power of God for the salvation of those who believe it, whether Jews or Gentiles, it also makes the righteousness of God by faith known to them. That means it presents to man the solution to all of his problems. It shows him how to walk with power over all the things seeking to destroy him and how to walk with a true sense of worthiness in life. So, like Paul, we too who have received the message of this gospel ought to be reaching it to men.

MANIFESTATIONS OF GOD’S WRATH
Now, having shown the Roman-brethren the reasons for his eagerness in preaching the gospel and for wanting to be with them, Paul goes on to begin to elaborate on the need for the preaching of the gospel. Already, he has made it clear that the gospel is the power of God for the salvation of humanity. But why do men need to be saved? Or maybe we should say from what do men need to be saved? According to Paul, in the passage of the letter that we are considering for this study, men need to be saved from the wrath of their Creator, that is, God.

Is God angry with man? If He is angry with us, why is He angry with us? That is where to start from. And that, of course, is where Paul starts from, saying:

“The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities — his eternal power and divine nature — have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.” (Rom 1:18-20NIV)

So, from what this apostle says here, it is clear that God’s wrath is already being manifested from heaven against humanity. That means human beings are naturally objects of His wrath (Eph 2:1-3) Why? It is because we are deliberately being godless and wicked. Unfortunately, for the most part, we would not agree that we are deliberately being godless and wicked. In fact, there are situations in which we would not agree that we are godless and wicked at all. This is why we often have excuses for our rejection of God or our denial of His existence. It is also why we often try to explain away the reasons for the manifestations of wickedness in the lives of many of us, especially children. We may say it is because our family or the society in which we grew up did not show us enough care or concern that we are misbehaving. Or we may say it is because we are depressed or mentally unstable that we act like we do. It is even now becoming popular to say of those who embrace homosexuality and other similar nonsense that they are born that way and that nothing is wrong with them, if they seek to give these natural desires in them a full expression.

But Paul, based on the revelation given to him by Jesus Christ, says when we think and act like this, we are simply trying to suppress the truth about our wickedness and ungodliness. And what is the truth about these things? First, it is that we all are by nature wicked. In other words, we are not naturally good and innocent people that are being corrupted by our environment. Rather, we are naturally wicked people that are bound to corrupt and ruin our world, if we are not saved. And until we accept this as the truth and sincerely seek help, we can only end up destroying ourselves.

Second, the truth is that even though we are by nature wicked and deserving nothing but God’s judgment, we have no excuse to remain wicked or ungodly. Why? It is because God, though invisible, has already revealed the truth about His existence, power and divine nature to us through the things He has made. In other words, by observing and studying nature, we can tell, if we will not be lying to ourselves, that there is a divine being responsible for us and everything that exists, whether the ones we can see or the ones we cannot see. We and all these things in existence with us could not have made ourselves or given ourselves life or breath. Someone must have made us and organised our universe to be the way it is. And that being the case, the only proper and sensible way to live is to reach out for the one who has made us, so that He may save us from the things destroying us and show us how to live in the light of His purpose for us. (Cf. Ps 19:1-6; Ps 97; Acts 17:24-28; Rom 12:1; Rom 14:7-8)

In addition, by looking at our making, we can tell that we are different from animals and must not live or function like them. In other words, even the very nature of things teaches us what is right and profitable for us to do and what is wrong and destructive for us to do. This is why, after our fall in the Garden of Eden, the first thing Adam and Eve did when they both realised that the glory of God covering their nakedness was gone was to cover it by themselves. And they did that almost instinctively. They just knew somehow in their hearts that it was inappropriate for them to move around naked, just as they would later admit that they could not do without God and so had to be praying to Him and giving Him offerings. (Cf. Gen 3&4; Micah 6:8; 1Cor 11:14-15)

However, the longer we stay here on earth, the more we keep trying to suppress the truth that is plain to us about God and about ourselves. We keep deliberately trying to suppress the fact that we cannot do without Him. So, our rejection of Him and of His ways and our devotion to doing all the evil things we are doing are inexcusable. And as long as we will not admit the truth of God to us, we will not stop experiencing manifestations of His wrath and be saved from destroying ourselves.

But then, the trouble is that we don’t even have a clear understanding of what God’s wrath means. That is largely why we are not taking the steps He has been asking us to take to escape it. Often, we think of it as things God does to destroy us or punish us for our sins. For instance, we can relate to the flood of Noah’s days. That, of course, was manifestation of God’s wrath. We can also relate to the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah or the plagues that were brought on the land of Egypt when God was fighting for Israel. These things were indeed manifestations of His wrath. (Cf. Gen 6, 7 & 19; Ex 7-12)

Nonetheless, the wrath of God goes beyond what He does to punish us. A lot of times, it also involves what He does not do to keep us from hurting or destroying ourselves. And that is the point Paul is making to us here in the passage of his letter to the Romans that we are considering. He says when men refuse to admit the truth God is confronting them with about Himself, themselves and life in general, He will, at some point, have to give them over to do as they please. In other words, He will not restrain them from carrying out certain wicked acts of theirs. Why? It is so that they can experience some real implications of what they are doing. And that, as he shows us, is a manifestation of His wrath. Just look at some of the things he says to bring his point home to us:

“For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles. Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator — who is forever praised. Amen. Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion. Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done.” (Rom 1:21-28NIV)

Now, from what Paul says here, we can see that all the forms of perversion that we now see among men are manifestations of God’s wrath or anger towards us. This, as I pointed out before, is showing us that one of the ways God shows that He is angry with someone is to refuse to stop the person from doing foolish things or things that will destroy him. So, it is love that makes God talk to us about the right way to live and not to live. And it is love that makes Him prevent us from living foolish and meaningless lives. Oh yes, it is love that makes God continually work towards preventing us from hurting or destroying ourselves. (Cf. Job 5:17; Prov 3:11-12; Heb 12:5-11)

But if we continue to ignore what He is saying to us and doing to us to keep us from hurting or destroying ourselves, a time will come when He, in His anger and displeasure, will be left with no choice but to allow us to have our way. That is when we will see how low, corrupt, shameless and destructive we can become in life. And you can begin to consider for yourself the shameless and ruthless ways in which we are now destroying our lives, homes and world through sexual immorality, divorces, rape, homosexuality, suicides, terrorism and other kinds of terrible things we are doing because we have chosen to ignore God.

CONCLUSION
Human beings are by nature objects of God’s wrath. And they are already experiencing His wrath against all their acts of wickedness. But because they do not understand the concept of His wrath, they cannot even tell that all the ills and perversions that they see among them, things that are hurting them and destroying them, are manifestations of His wrath. So, it is not every time that God shows us that He is angry with us by sending a plague on us or allowing us to become victims of some accidents. On the contrary, in most cases, He shows that He is angry with us by allowing us to have our way and destroy ourselves. If you, then, realise that you are no longer being confronted by anybody to stop whatever wrong thing you are doing, you need to understand that God’s wrath is already being manifested against you. And if you continue in that path you are following, it won’t be long before you destroy yourself in it.

QUESTIONS
– How well do you now understand the concept of God’s wrath?
– What is the most important lesson for you in this study?

By Johnson O. Lawal

INTRODUCTION TO ROMANS | TEXT: ROMANS 1-16 | WEDNESDAY 30TH

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TOPIC: INTRODUCTION TO ROMANS

TEXT: ROMANS 1-16

MEMORY VERSES: “…for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus…” (Rom 3:23-24NIV)

INTRODUCTION
The letter of Paul to the Romans, as its contents show, was written for two reasons. The first was to let these believers in Christ Jesus in Rome know something about Paul’s eagerness to come to them and minister among them. Clearly, he, at the time he wrote the letter, had not met with most of them. He had not even ministered at all in Rome at the time. But he had believing friends there, as the letter again indicates, who were a part of the church there. And he seriously desired to have an opportunity to visit them in order that they may be mutually edified. So, he wrote to them to let them know this. (Cf. Rom 1 & 16)

Then Paul’s second reason for writing the letter must have emanated from what he had learnt from his friends in this Roman church about the composition of the church, being a mixture of Jewish and Gentile Christians, and the effect this is having on their fellowship with one another. As the letter shows, many of the Jewish believers among them still had a wrong notion about their relationship with God and how salvation came to them. For them, because they were Jews, they were God’s favourites and had a better standing before Him than the Gentile believers. So, they, in a sense, expected their Gentile brethren to show them some special respect and to also listen to and act on whatever they teach them on the basis of the laws of Moses. And this apostle had to show them that even though their being Jews gives them some form of advantage over the gentiles, where the matter of sin, judgment and justification are concerned, whatever advantage they have over the gentiles means nothing. And unless they too approach God on His terms, as the gentiles are supposed to, they will be lost in their sins.

So, the epistle to the Romans, is essentially set forth to show us the equality of all men before God our Creator where matters of sin, judgment and justification are concerned and to also show us how we are to respond to what God has done in order for us to be right with Him and to also live right before Him. That means being right with God and living right before Him are not solely God’s responsibilities, just as they are not solely our responsibilities. First, there are things God must do and which only He can do in order for us to be right with Him and live right with Him. And these He has already done. Then there are things we can do and which we must do in order for us to be right with God and to live right with Him. All these things are what Paul discusses in this all-important epistle that speaks to us about justification before God by grace and through faith in Christ Jesus.

But how do we know for sure that it was Paul that wrote this letter? First, it is because he introduces himself as the author in its opening verses (Rom 1:1-6). Also, it is because of certain things he says about his ministry in the letter that agree with what is said about him and his ministry in some other books of the New Testament part of the bible (Acts 19:21; Rom 15:25-33; 2Cor 8-9). Then how do we know for sure that the letter was written to the Roman brethren? It is because it is stated very plainly in the letter that it is to them (Rom 1:7&15). How about when it was written? Well, since Paul speaks in the letter of his plan to visit Jerusalem with the gifts of the brethren from Macedonia and Achaia, something that is also spoken of in other parts of the bible, bible historians believe that it must have been written around A.D. 57 or A.D. 58, while Paul was still in Corinth.

Now there are three main divisions in the letter. In the first division Paul first speaks about his passion to visit these Roman brethren, most of whom he has not yet met, and then goes on to deal with the subject of justification and righteousness by grace and through faith alone and how man is to respond to these. In the second division he deals with the failure of the Jewish nation to obtain the righteousness of God through their own making and God’s plan of redemption for them. In the final division he speaks on how believers are to respond to the grace of God and also relate to one another in their everyday lives. And he closes the letter by sharing with the brethren a number of things about his ministry plans and also by sending his personal greetings to a number of them. My prayer, then, is that the Spirit of God will fill our hearts with understanding, as we study it together, and also with the strength we need to act on the truths set forth therein.

OUTLINE

Introduction to the book of Romans Romans 1-16
An eager minister Romans 1:1-17
Manifestations of God’s wrath Romans 1:18-32
False religion Romans 2:1-29
In the light of sin Romans 3:1-20
By faith or by the law Romans 3:21-31
A case study Romans 4:1-25
At peace with God Romans 5:1-11
The gift of righteousness Romans 5:12-21
Understanding God’s grace Romans 6:1-23
The law and sin Romans 7:1-24
Life by the Spirit Romans 8:1-30
Responding to God’s love Romans 8:31-39
Understanding God’s choice Romans 9:1-29
How to miss God’s righteousness Romans 9:30-10:21
The mystery of Israel’s salvation Romans 11:1-36
Practising Christianity Romans 12:9-13:14
Faith boundaries Romans 14:1-15:13
Conclusion Romans 15:14-16:27

By Johnson O. Lawal

AN EAGER MINISTER | ROMANS 1:1-17 | WEDNESDAY 12TH JANUARY 2022

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TOPIC: AN EAGER MINISTER

TEXT: ROMANS 1:1-17

MEMORY VERSES: “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus…” (Rom 3:23-24NIV)

BACKGROUND
As I pointed out in our last study, which was my introduction to the epistle to the Romans, one of the reasons Paul wrote this letter was to let the brethren, most of whom he had not personally met at the time, know that it was his earnest desire to visit them. Clearly, he had learnt about this church and how it was doing from some of his friends among them. At least, we know that at the time he wrote the letter both Priscilla and Aquilla were in Rome and even had a church meeting in their house (Rom 16:3-5). We also know from the letter that he had a number of other believing friends in that church at the time, some of whom he mentions their names and sends greetings to (Rom 16:4-16). So, though he had no apostolic authority over this church, he was in a position to visit them and to write to them because of the cordial relationship he had with a number of their brethren and leaders. And this shows that if we want the influence of our ministry to keep increasing, we must learn to build a great relationship with the people of God in our lives at the moment. For it may just be through them that God will open more or greater doors for an effective ministry for us among other believers or even unbelievers (2Cor 10:13-16).

AN EAGER MINISTER
In any case, as a foundation for Paul’s visit to these brethren in Rome, he writes this letter to them. And he begins it by introducing himself and his ministry, saying:

“Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God— the gospel he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures regarding his Son, who as to his human nature was a descendant of David, and who through the Spirit of holiness was declared with power to be the Son of God by his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord. Through him and for his name’s sake, we received grace and apostleship to call people from among all the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith. And you also are among those who are called to belong to Jesus Christ. To all in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints: Grace and peace to you from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.” (Rom 1:1-7NIV)

How does he refer to himself in this part of the letter? He refers to himself as a servant of Christ Jesus. The Greek word that is translated ‘servant’ here is ‘Doulos’, which means a bond servant. That means Paul does not just see himself as one that is completely owned by the Lord Jesus Christ but also as one who has voluntarily chosen to completely belong to Him and serve Him (Deut 15:12-17). And it is important for every child of God not just to see himself as utterly belonging to Him but to also choose to utterly belong to Him. When we choose to belong to the Lord, we will serve Him wholeheartedly and in love and not see His instructions or commands to us as a burden. And that will be because we see ourselves as His love slaves. But if we do not think of ourselves as His love slaves, there will certainly be times in which we want to do as we please, even though we know that we have no right to do so, seeing that we are His properties.

Well, Paul saw himself as a love slave of the Lord Jesus Christ. So, he was ready to live for Him in whatever way He wanted and to serve Him in whatever way He wanted. And how did the Lord want him to serve Him? As he further points out in the letter, He wanted him to serve Him as an apostle. In fact, he said that he was called and set apart to be an apostle. So, he was a special messenger of the Lord. And what was he sent to do? He was sent to preach the gospel of God.

Now what is this gospel, this good news, that God sent Paul to preach about? Though he will later speak about this in the letter, the first thing he tells us is that this gospel is clearly spoken of by God’s holy prophets of the past in the Scriptures. What this means is that whatever good news anybody is preaching must have its roots in the Scriptures and not be based on mere human thoughts, feelings or experiences. Any gospel that does not have its roots in the Scriptures is to be rejected as false or as another gospel, which will be no gospel at all. (Cf. Gal 1:6-12)

The second thing Paul tells us in this part of his letter to the Romans that we are considering about the gospel is that it is about a person. And that person is Jesus Christ. This Jesus, of course, as even the Jews would agree, was a descendant of David. That means He lived and died as a man. But He did not stay dead. Rather, He was raised from the dead. Why? It was to confirm to all men that He is the Son of God. He had been saying this to the men of His days that He is the Son of God. But they would not believe Him. On the contrary, they killed Him for His testimony. And to show them and the whole world that everything He had said about Himself was the truth, God raised Him from the dead. So, apart from the fact that He was born as God’s Son through Mary by the power of the Holy Spirit, He was also declared to be His Son by the power of resurrection.

In any case, the gospel is about Jesus Christ (not about any pastor, prophet or preacher), what God has done through Him for humanity and how men must respond to what He has done in order to appropriate or enjoy it. And Paul’s job was to call men everywhere to obey this gospel. That is why he says in that text, “Through him and for his name’s sake, we received grace and apostleship to call people from among all the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith.” (Rom 1:5NIV) So, it was not this man’s idea to be preaching the gospel. He was actually chosen and graced or enabled by the Lord to do so.

Then the reason he is saying these things to the Roman brethren is that they too are among those who have been called to obey the gospel of Jesus Christ. Look at how he puts this: “And you also are among those who are called to belong to Jesus Christ. To all in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints: Grace and peace to you from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.” (Rom 1:1-7NIV) So, these brethren too have been called to be Jesus’s properties and chosen ones and also loved by God. And if you too have obeyed the gospel of Jesus Christ, then, you can be addressed in this very same way: you are Christ Jesus’ chosen one and property and are a recipient of God’s love.

Having introduced himself in this manner, Paul goes on to speak to these Roman brethren about his eagerness to visit them, which is born out of his eagerness to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. Already, he has told them about his passion for the Lord as His bond servant and about his ministry as an apostle. Yet he wants them to know how seriously he takes his ministry and why? So, he says:

“First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is being reported all over the world. God, whom I serve with my whole heart in preaching the gospel of his Son, is my witness how constantly I remember you in my prayers at all times; and I pray that now at last by God’s will the way may be opened for me to come to you. I long to see you so that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to make you strong— that is, that you and I may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith. I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that I planned many times to come to you (but have been prevented from doing so until now) in order that I might have a harvest among you, just as I have had among the other Gentiles. I am obligated both to Greeks and non-Greeks, both to the wise and the foolish. That is why I am so eager to preach the gospel also to you who are at Rome. I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.”” (Rom 1:8-17NIV)

From what this apostle says here, it is clear that he is all sold out to preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. He even says God Himself could testify to his commitment to it. And it is because he is wholeheartedly committed to preaching this gospel that he remembers these Roman brethren in all his prayers and is also praying and working towards coming to see them, so that they may be mutually edified and that he may also have a harvest of souls for the Lord in their city.

But why is he so passionate about doing this? He gives two reasons. The first is that it is his obligation to do so. Why does he say that it is his obligation to preach the gospel to as many people as he can get to? It is because he knew that he had been commissioned by the Lord to go and preach the gospel to all men, first to the Jews and then to the Gentiles. And there are revelations and gifts of the Spirit that He has received to do so. So, he knows that for him not to take the preaching of the gospel seriously is to be irresponsible. (Cf. Acts 22:1-21; 1Cor 9:16-17; Gal 1:11)

The second reason Paul is passionate about the gospel is that he knows its capability. He knows what it is able to do to those who believe it. He has seen the gospel change his own life and the lives of several others (1Tim 1:12-17). He has seen how it turned swindlers, homosexuals, prostitutes, idolaters, robbers and other wicked and unreasonable people into lovers of God and humanity (1Cor 9:9-10; 1Thess 1:4-10). And according to him, the gospel does two things to anyone who believes it and acts on it. First, it releases the power of God for the salvation of that person from eternal destruction, regardless of who he is or what he has been. Second, it reveals to the person the only true way to stand before God in righteousness, that is, faith. No other form of power, religion or philosophy could accomplish these things. And the Romans themselves, who were at the time the letter was written the most powerful of the nations of the world, could attest to it that their military power could not solve basic human problems, change who people are on their inside and make them at peace with their maker and with themselves.

So, the gospel is not something to be taken lightly. Rather, it is something to be preached wholeheartedly, eagerly and unashamedly by those who have received it and who understand it to those in their world. This, then, was the basis for Paul’s devotion to it. And it should also be the basis for our devotion to it. But do we understand what this apostle understood about the gospel? Do we know anything of its power to change and transform lives in very remarkable ways? And do we know anything about what it is saying about how to be right with God and stand right before Him? If we do not know these things, there is no way we can be eager and effective ministers for Him where we are.

CONCLUSION
Being eager to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ, as we see in our bible study passage, is largely a function of three things. The first is an understanding of what it represents and is able to do for men. The second is a receiving of the ability to effectively present it to men. The third is a high sense of responsibility to take advantage of the grace of God on our lives to make it known to men. And because Paul the apostle possessed these three attributes, he was able to function not just as an eager minister of the gospel, one who was very willing and ready to proclaim it to anyone willing to listen and anywhere, but also as an effective one. If we too possess them, we will find that we too are eager to proclaim the gospel and effective in proclaiming it.

QUESTIONS
– What is the most important lesson for you in this study?
– Mention some of the things that show one as an eager minister.

By Johnson O. Lawal

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