Two Bits Media of Kansas City: Romans Commentary (Text Version)

Romans

Updated: August 17, 2007

[C]2000-07 by Richard L Zorek

Rom 2:1: Therefore thou are inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judgest wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself; for thou that judgest doest the same thing To judge another is to presume that you have nothing to be judged in yourself--that attitude reveals a sinful and hardened heart.
Rom 2:2: We are sure that the judgment of God is according to truth against them which commit such things God judges by the heart--but man judges by outward appearances, with his own corrupt human understanding.
Rom 2:3: So when you, a mere man, pass judgment on them and yet do the same things, do you think you will escape God's judgment? Most people who make judgments are telling more about themselves then the thing they are judging. They usually see in others something they have in themselves.
Rom 2:4: Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering: but knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance? God postpones punishment in order that his kindness will lead people to repentance. Paul reminds them that Gods kindness is also meant to lead them to repentance.
Rom 2:5: But after thy hardness and impetenitent heart treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God This kind of person has sat in self righteous judgment of others for too long.
Rom 2: 6: God "will give to each person according to what he has done." According to what your faith has produced.
Rom 2: 7: To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor and immortality, he will give eternal life. Eternal is a long long time.
Rom 2:8: But unto them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath Paul still has in mind the self-confident, self righteous person, who through his own self-seeking has actually turned away from the truth and resisted the gospel, and is following his own evil path.
Rom 2:9: Tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jew first, and also of the gentile. Just as the gospel of salvation came first for the Jew and then for the Gentiles, so will the judgment of God.
Rom 2:10: But glory, honour, and peace, to every man that worketh good, to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile. We might misread a phrase like "who works what is good" so it becomes "who does the best he or she can." But Paul was not comparing various human behaviors and creating a scale of good and evil. The passage describes Gods righteous judgment on those who have done what is good or evil.
Rom 2:11: For God does not show favoritism. No one is going to be able to buy their way into heaven..........nor use their good looks, or presuasive personality.
Rom 2:14: "For when the gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves." Sin is not natural. It is contrary to nature. The more you sin, the more you mess up your body. Sin is insanity. Sin is living contrary to your design.
Rom 2:22: You who say, “Do not commit adultery,” do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? The Greek word that is interpreted "rob Tembles" is hierosuleo. and is translated "Commit sacrilege." This is the only place in the Bible this word appears. Theft is basic to the word and sacrilege is theft directed against God.
Rom 3:2: The covenant people of God are called to oversee the transmission of Scripture, and their usage and transmission of the text, under the providential guidance of the Holy Spirit, preserves the correct text from generation to generation.
Rom 3:4: "God forbid: yes, let God be true and every man a liar, as it is written, That those mightest be justified in thy sayings, and mightest overcome when thou art judged." Men refuse to take God's word in its plain meaning, because they want their word to be true, and to make God a liar.
Rom 3:10: ...there is none righteous, no not one..." God's favor and grace is unmerited. It cannot be earned.
Rom 3:23: "For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God." Sinner is a perfectly good word because it speaks to the truth of our fallen states before God. We are not simply wayward, mixed up, hankering for the good life but missing it folk. We are born in a desperate condition of being sinful with a bent toward the same. There is no one who has the "right" to be free from God's wrath. If you escape His wrath, it is His choice. The word "glory" (doxa) is used in the New Testament with two distinct meanings. It means (1)reputation, or (2) brightness, especially the brightness or splendor which radiates from the presence of God. The second must be the meaning here. It is the majesty or goodness or God as manifested to men.
Rom 3:24: Being justified freely by grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus Justified: God reckons, or pronounces, or treats as righteous the ungodly who has no righteounsess of his own to show. It is faith that is reckoned for righteousness; faith in Christ is accepted instead of personal merit gained by good works.
Rom 4:20: No distrust made him waiver conerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God The Greek word used here (diakrino) orginally had the sense of "argue with", "to be at odds with," or "Take issue with." The word now refers to an internal mental debate reflecting indecision and lack of conviction. The same idea and word is used in James 1:6 with a powerful image--a wave tossd by the wind in a stormy sea.
Rom 5:3-4: And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; and patience, experience; and experience, hope Suffering produces perseverance, or steadiness, by slowing me down and forcing me to turn to God; it produces character by calling on the reserves of inner strength.
Rom 7:12: "Wherefore the Law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good." The law is good because God is good and his every word is pure and good. The law is a reflection of God's righteousness, wisdom, and truth. The law is His will and therefore necessarily authoritative.
Rom 8:16: The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God A child of God is God's dependent. A child knows he cannot control his own life. He lives wholly dependent upon the Lord for everything.
Rom 8:18: I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed to us-ward The Bible never speaks despondingly about the future. Apostles and prophets alike, quickened by the inspiration of the spirit, look across the ages to the last result, amd never hesitate to declare that that result will compensate for all the toil and suffering. If glory cannot come without the pain, it is not unloving to inflict the pain. Do you feel you suffer more than others? Then remember you can estimate better than others how great the glory will be. For the glory will be greater than the sufferings. Remember that whatever you have lost, you have gained a clearer vision of the glory that shall be. And through your sorrows you may also know God better. For sorrow is a revelation of God. Suffering affects only our happiness, but the glory secures our holiness.
Rom 8:19: The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. The word in the original language which is translated "eager expectation" is an interesting word. It is a word that pictures a man standing and waiting for something to happen, craning his head forward. Phillips translates this, "The whole creation is standing on tiptoe, eagerly awaiting the revelation of the sons of God." The word means "to crane the neck, to look on with a visible sense of anticipation that something is about to happen." That is what Paul says the world is doing. It is eagerly awaiting this remarkable event toward which the world is hastening, and has been hastening, since the beginning of time.
Rom 8:27: "And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered." Why are you praying as you are?
Rom 8:28: And we know that all things work for the good to them that love God, to them that are called according to his purpose." God causes all things to work for the good. God is able to use every circumstance in your life for His and your good. Happiness is one thing, good is another. Good, in this sense, will in the long run bring in its turn perfect blessedness. But good may not be happiness or freedom from pain, strife, care and pain. If we think all things work together to bring the godly man all that he desires, or freedom from trouble and trials and distress, then we misread the words. "Them that love God" and "those called according to His purpose" are the two complimentary aspects of the religious life. There is the human side of relation, "love," and the Divine side, "the call."
Rom 8:32: He that spared not His own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? He will give all things freely. The gift of Christ was no answer to prayer. It was a free spontaneous bounty of God. No where can we discern a slightest reluctance form God in doing so. He loveth a cheerful giver for He himself is a cheerful giver.
Rom 8:33: Who shall lay anything to the charge of Gods elect? It is God that justifeth God's elect are not the self elect. They have been elected legitematey, not by self proclamation. His choice of them always issues in their choice of Him.
Rom 8:34: Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. If Christ had been detained among the dead, the though might not unnaturally have risen, Can it be that he has Failed? Where is the evidence that the expiation of His atonement is Divinely satisfying?
Rom 8:37: "..more than conquerers through him that loved us" We can be free men in a slavery marked world.
Rom 9:20: Shall the formed thing say to the thing that formed it, why hast thou made me thus?" We do not set up the standards for what is right in the world. We need to settle. In our minds, that whatever Gods does in this world is the right thing.
Rom 10:2: "...they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge." In other words, "These people mean well. They truly love God and try to please Him. But they are ignorant of what he has provided for them in Jesus Christ!
Rom 11:29: "For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance" God does not change his mind or withdraw once He gives. Some walk away from God, and still function in their gifts.
Rom 12:2: "And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good and acceptable, and perfect. will of God." Unless what I believe inwardly in my mind actually influences the way I behave outwardly in the world, my life will lack integrity. We need not be a product of the system. We live in the system, but are not a product of it. Don't let the world squeeze you into it's mold.
Rom 13:4: For he is God's minister to you for good. But if ye do evil, be afraid; for he does not bear the sword in vain; for he is God's minister, and avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil" The role of civil government is limited to the protection of its citizens from internal or external threats. The court systems can execute vengeance. But the church does not have the authority to execute vengeance on murderers or to act as a court of law in determining guilt. The church may not use violence to enforce the decrees of the God.
Romans 13:7: "Love worketh no ill to his neighbor: therefore love is fulfilling of the law." Love is thus defined as keeping of the law of God in relationship to one another.
Rom 13:8: Owe no man anything, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law." Let no debt remain outstanding. The borrower is the slave of the lender.
Rom 13:11-12: Salvation is nearer to us now than when we became believers; the night is far from gone, the day is near These phrases from Paul invite us to think of the Chrsitian life as walking in the dark. The dawn is now nearer than when we first began that walk, but it has yet to happen. It is twilight.
Rom 14:1 Accept him whose faith is weak, without passing judgment on disputable matters. Some matters are disputable and irrelevant to the important issues of life.
Rom 14:10,12: Why dost thou judge thy brother? or why dost thou set at nought thy brother? for we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ....then every one of us shall give account of himself to God" We have a big enough problem judging our own hearts. No time to worry about everyone elses.
Rom 14:23: But he who doubts is condemned is he eats, because he does not eat from faith, for whatever is not from faith is sin." If we violate our conscience we are sinning. If we do something we feel we shouldn't be doing, it is sin. Mentally and physically we are compromising when we do something we don't think is right. When we compromise, we destroy character.
Rom 15:15: I have written you quite boldly on some points, as if to remind you of them again, because of the grace God gave me Paul had a confidence and could write boldy, because he was sure of his calling from God.
Rom 15:21: "For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead." Death was not part of the creation. It came from man's sin.
Rom 15:22: "For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive." Adam's death caused the death of his descendants; Christ's resurrection guarantees that of His people. Christ came to restore what was ruined in Adam's fall, hence Christ's work produces the opposite effect of Adam's.