(12) For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.  (13)  And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.

The author of the letter to the Hebrews is unknown.  The audience of this letter seems to be Jewish Christians who had faced some persecution, probably from Jewish authorities and at the time of writing of this letter – around 64 A.D. – they faced severe persecution from Roman authorities.  The readers are being encouraged to remain steadfast in their confession of Jesus Christ as high priest and Messiah.  The readers are warned no to “shrink back” by denying Jesus as the fulfillment of the Old Testament.

The discussion in the verses of Hebrews that we are looking at today concerns the word of God and it’s capabilities.  The Word of God is scripture and the words of Jesus Christ – the only reliable guide we have in order to function properly in a broken world.  The Bible is not intended to replace human knowledge or effort but to supplement and correct this.  Exposition of the Bible is the FIRST responsibility of Church leaders.  It is also why I am writing this blog.

Hebrews draws an analogy between our soul and our spirit and the joints and marrow of our bodies as between our material/physical self and our invisible nature and spiritual self – a transition from the Word of God to God himself.  The word of God is the activity of God and also His revelation of Himself in judgment and salvation.  God is both source and fulfillment.

Nothing is hidden from God.  There is not and cannot be any part of reality which is unknown or incomprehensible to Him who is the source of all being and fount of all knowledge.  God gave us the Word so we can see the sin and unbelief in our own hearts.  Nothing is created – not a creature exists – that is concealed from His sight.  We are not only NOT hidden from His sight, we are completely exposed to Him.  We have to stand before Him and give an account.  That is our judgment, our reckoning and there is NO exception.  These powerful verses tell us that self delusion is of no matter.  God knows our intents and motivations and we must be always mindful of our choices.

(9) But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor, that He, by the grace of God, might taste death for everyone. 

(10) For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings.  (11) For both He who sanctifies and those who are being sanctified are all of one, for which reason He is not ashamed to call them brethren.

The author of Hebrews is unknown as is the date it was written except to place it before 64 A.D.  It is unlikely that the author was Paul as his style and use of language is different – and Paul used Greek and Hebrew sources for his Old Testament quotes but writer of this letter uses only the Greek Septuagint for a source.  Also, Paul heard the word of salvation directly from the Lord where the author of Hebrews seemingly did not.  Further, Paul also identified himself in his writings.

The original Christians were Jews, as were Jesus and His disciples, and  these Hebrews were steeped in Jewish law and the Hebrew system of sacrificial priestly rules.  This letter was written to them as tolerance was being replaced by opposition and persecution by the Gentiles and especially from Jews –  Jewish Christians needed to remain steadfast in their belief in Christ as the Messiah and the answers were not to be found in the Old Testament.  Jesus  once and for all times made the perfect sacrifice whereas the Hebrew Law was never complete.  The Hebrew Law could not actually save the believer but Christ by His sacrifice perfected for all time those who are sanctified. Hebrews addresses the supremacy of Christ.  Jesus is better than the angels, better than Moses, better than the priesthood and He is better than the Law for he mediates a better covenant.

In our present sinful state man is lower than the angels and Jesus was made man not as a ruler but as suffering servant.   His death on behalf of man, destroying the power and consequences of sin, was the motive for His incarnation and death on the Cross.  The reference to His being crowned with glory and honor is a reference to Olympic games and the victor’s crown.

Only God can satisfy the demands of God.  Jesus is not just the way, He is the only way; not just the truth but the only truth and the only eternal life.  Hebrews emphasizes the humanity of Jesus.  There was no moral imperfection in Jesus but by means of sufferings God perfected His Son in his human life and death as Redeemer and Saviour.  He stooped to conquer.  His death was sufficient for all and efficient for some and Jesus sets those sanctified and those being sanctified apart.  Those set apart are of one nature and have one destiny and He calls us brethren.

Come now, you rich, weep and howl for your miseries that are coming upon you.  (2) Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are moth-eaten.  (3) Your gold and silver are corroded, and their corrosion will be a witness against you and will eat your flesh like fire.  You have heaped up treasure in the last days.  (4)Indeed the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, cry out; and the cries of the reapers have reached the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth.  (5) You have lived on the earth in pleasure and luxury; you have fattened your hearts, as in a day of slaughter.  (6) You have condemned, you have murdered the just; he does not resist you.

It is generally believed that the James who wrote this letter to Jewish Christians was the half brother of Jesus Christ.  This letter may have been written close to the end of his life – James was martyred in 62 A.D. – or it may have been written earlier around 50 A.D.  In any case, this letter is addressed to Jewish Christians who are described as “scattered abroad”.  There was a persecution of the early believers that Jesus was Messiah and these believers were forced to leave Jerusalem.  James was the leader of the Jerusalem church and it follows that he may have written this pastoral letter on the occasion of this early dispersion to aid them in dealing with oppression by the rich and to encourage them to hold fast to their faith, especially in the light of coming judgment.

James declares that those who are guilty of wrongs and make use of the power of wealth to injure those in humble circumstances will be judged.  James uses the rot and rust of material goods to illustrate the bondage in which the means of doing good was kept, profiting no one.  He prophesied that there would be a swift and total judgment of those leading such a life.  The first crime of the wicked rich is hoarding so much wealth that it has rotted – the crime of uncontrolled greed.  James declares that this greed will result in the destruction of the rich just as the corrosion that eats the material  wealth – clothing, possessions, gold and silver.  The second crime the rich are charged with is that they failed to pay the workmen who harvest their crops.  The rich are also accused of extravagant and wasteful self-indulgence for which there will be judgment.  James indicates that the men to be judged were unaware of their impending destruction.

Finally, the rich are accused of having “murdered the just”.  This is meant literally and the examples are Christ, Stephen and James the son of Zebedee.  The prophesied judgment is a warning for the wicked and a consolation for the righteous.

Christ will be magnified in my body, whether by life or by death.  (21) For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.  (22) But if I live on in the flesh, this will mean fruit from my labor, yet what I shall choose I cannot tell.  (23) For I am hard-pressed between the two, having a desire to depart and be with Christ, which is far better.  (24) Nevertheless to remain in the flesh is more needful for you.  (27) Only let your conduct be worthy of the gospel of Christ

The city of Philippi was one of the leading cities of Macedonia largely because the Via Egnatia, the main road from Asia to the West, ran right through it.  Phillipians were allowed  an autonomous government and were not required to send tribute to Rome.                                          The Church at Philippi was founded in A.D. 50 by the Apostle Paul who was imprisoned in Rome at the time of writing this letter probably in A.D. 61.  Paul is writing to the Philippians to assure them he loved them and was praying for them.  Joy is a prominent theme in his letter.  Paul expresses that he is in chains but his situation has only helped in the furtherance of the Gospel as he has been able to reach the Roman guards and even the royal house.  The Apostle Paul was a Roman citizen and accorded certain rights and though under house arrest in Rome and chained to guards, he was not silenced – so the guards chained to him on a rotating basis were an unwilling (or willing) audience during this period.  Paul considered his imprisonment to be the working of God’s sovereign will.  He expresses that Christ would be magnified by his continued life or by his death as either would glorify Christ.  If he lived, he would continue to minister to the Philippians and the Church.  If he were to be executed he would be with Christ and that would be gain.  He has confidence that Christ is using him to further the Gospel.  Paul has a certain expectation of future good – it is not that Paul will exalt Christ but that Christ will be exalted by the continued work of the Holy Spirit in Paul.  Remember that Paul was awaiting trial and could either be released or executed.  His point is that his life or his death makes no difference – only that Christ be magnified in him.  Either suffices.  Paul’s goal was to complete his ministry one way or another and to manifest the spirit of Christ by leading a life that magnifies and glorifies him.  The issue was in God’s hands and given the choice, the Apostle Paul could not choose either heaven or earth for himself.  Paul was ready to go but willing to wait.  He was pulled in two directions and in both cases it was for the highest reasons.  The mark of God’s man (or woman) is an unwavering and unselfish spirit.  Paul is urging the Church at Phillipi to live in this world as citizens of another world – to be holy or apart; to be reflective of their standing as citizens of a heavenly realm.

(7)For none of us lives to himself, and no one dies to himself.  (8) For if we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord.. Therefore, whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s.  (9) For to this end Christ died and rose and lived again, that He might be Lord of both the dead and the living.

Romans was written by the Apostle Paul to the Christian community in Rome about 57 A.D.    In A.D. 49, the Emperior Claudius expelled the Jews from Rome because of disturbances at the “instigation of Chrestus” (Christ).   The Christian Gentiles remained as a relatively peaceful community until the death of Claudius in A.D. 54 when the Jews returned to Rome.  Tensions developed between the Christian Jews and the Christian Gentiles and in Chapter 14 of Romans, Paul addresses these differences out of concern for the full fellowship of the Church in Rome.

Chapter 14, verse 7 refers to the Christian’s use of food, his conduct and observance or nonobservance of days.   The Christian’s life belongs to his Lord.  The same holds true of his dying – he dies when the Lord wills and as the Lord wills.  Paul’s purpose is to disabuse believers of the destructive notions that one set of believers thought themselves to be more spiritual than others who were thought to be more of this physical world. 

A Christian lives his life for the Lord and the Lord is the judge of that life.  So, in life we live to please the Lord and dying we go to  be with the Lord.  Both in life and death we belong to the Lord.  This principle gives us an unerring guide for our conduct.  The Apostle Paul is saying there are questions that each Christian needs to settle and decide for himself.  Paul is not addressing matters about which there can be no controversy.  We are not our own and the duty of devotion and obedience are not founded on creation but on redemption.  We are Christ’s because he bought us with a price.

(8) Owe no one anything except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law.  (9) For the commandments, “You shall not commit adultery,” “You shall not murder,” “You shall not steal,” “You shall not bear false witness,” “You shall not covet,” and if there is any other commandment, are all summed up in this saying, namely, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”  (10) Love does no harm to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.

In Romans 12, the Apostle Paul turns from laying a doctrinal foundation of the Gospel to the application of principles for living.    Our obligation to God is the primary theme in our lives and in the Old Testament as emphasized by Jesus Christ.  We are now presented with the second great theme of the Bible where we love God by loving each other as the dominant and central theme of the New Testament.  

Paul commands us to owe nothing  to anyone,  meaning we are not to take on debt or obligations which we are unable to discharge.  The word except is then used here and references our duty to love one another.  The Greek word for love used  here by the Apostle Paul (agape) indicates an active selfless love which is more a decision than an emotion and is at it’s foundation, behavior.  

 The commandments which guide our relationships with each other, here enumerated by Paul in verse 9, will be satisfied by loving our neighbors as ourselves for, with this love/behavior, we would do them no harm.    We would fulfill the Law.   This is not a command to love ourselves – that is assumed – but we are to love others as an act of will.  We do not have this unconditional love by nature but we are empowered by the Holy Spirit and this love is manifested by specific action.  It is directed to all our neighbors including the unlovely and the unlovable, those who do not return our love and includes those we do not like. 

In Alcoholics Anonymous there is a saying “drag the body, the mind will follow”.  C.S. Lewis observed “Do not waste time bothering whether you “love” your neighbor, act as if you did.  As soon as we do this we find one of the great secrets.  When you are behaving as if you loved someone, you will presently come to love him.  If you injure someone you dislike, you will find yourself disliking him more.   If you do him a good turn, you will find yourself disliking him less.”

I BESEECH YOU, THEREFORE, BRETHREN, BY THE MERCIES OF GOD, THAT YOU PRESENT YOUR BODIES A LIVING SACRIFICE, HOLY, ACCEPTABLE TO GOD, WHICH IS YOUR REASONABLE SERVICE.  AND DO NOT BE CONFORMED TO THIS WORLD, BUT BE TRANSFORMED BY THE RENEWING OF YOUR MIND, THAT YOU MAY PROVE WHAT IS THAT GOOD AND ACCEPTABLE AND PERFECT WILL OF GOD.

Chapters one through eleven of the Apostle Paul’s letter to the Romans explores the mysteries of God’s plan for the redemption of sinful man.  The letter to the Romans is more of a doctrinal exposition of the Gospel than a letter, written to the Christian audience in Rome about the year 58 B.C.  The Apostle Paul has laid his foundation and now, beginning with chapter 12 of Romans, he turns to application of these theological principles.

Paul begins by using the word therefore which is a bridge or hinge connecting what has been said earlier with the conclusions which are to come.  Paul has the authority to command his audience to obey the precepts he is about to present but instead the word beseech is chosen.  This choice of word underlies the principle of our free choice. (Remember, the Bible is God’s words spoken to us and was written under the complete supervision of God, using man as his agent.  It is perfect.  Nothing can be added and nothing can be taken away.)

We are urged to present our bodies – meaning our whole selves – body and soul, to God.  Jesus Christ is the full, perfect and sufficient sacrifice for the sins of the world and here Paul is asking us to be a living sacrifice.  We are urged to dedicate all that we are to God:   to make a choice as to how we are to live.

The first step of Alcoholics Anonymous calls for surrender and acknowledges the powerlessness of the alcoholic.  This is followed by an admission that only a power greater than ourselves could restore sanity and finally, a decision to turn the will and the lives of the alcoholic over to the care of God.  What the Apostle Paul is saying i Romans 12 is, we must surrender to the will of God, based on the knowledge of the theology that Paul has laid before us in Chapters 1 through 11.  This foundation does make a difference, because what we believe determines how we behave.

The Apostle Paul explores conformity to this fleeting temporal world we live in.  Instead of adapting to this world we can and should – by surrendering to the will of God – be transformed by the renewal of our minds.  Our outward expression is what is represented by our inner being –  the regeneration of our sinful nature.  We are urged not to be conformed which is external and does not express what is on the inside.  It is putting on an act and accepting a pattern of life that is imposed on us from without; a manner of life that is unstable and changing.  Paul calls for a decisive commitment and a maintenance of that commitment.  William MacDonald explains that the word conform is used here as the society or system that man has built in order to make himself happy without God; a world that is hostile to nonconformists; a world that is self centered, self pleasing, self indulgent, self concerned and indifferent to the needs of others.

Renewal of our minds is a continuous process – an essential change in the character of our thinking.  This is the process of new life that emerges from the new birth by the Holy Spirit.  The word of God, most especially through the Bible, is not merely to inform but to transform.It is not merely about feeling and doing but meditation and study which will lead to discernment and desire to do that will of God.  This ultimately leads to the transformation and renewing of our minds.

Verse 2 ends by saying that with our renewed minds we will be able to test and prove the perfect will of God.  This gift of discernment  is an increased power or ability to perceive what it is God’s will we should do – a stripping away of this temporal sinful world to be replaced by eternal truth and life.

another quote from my favorite, C.S. Lewis:  It may be hard for an egg to turn into a bird:  it would be a jolly sight harder to learn to fly while remaining an egg.  We are like eggs at present.  And you cannot go on indefinitely being just an ordinary decent egg.  We must be hatched or go bad.

(33) Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God!  How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out!

(36) For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen

All we have studied in Romans since I began this blog can best be summed up by citing William Macdonald who explains the concluding doxology (praise to God) as looking back over the entire Epistle and the divine wonders that have been unfolded.  Paul has expounded the marvelous plan of salvation by which a just God can save ungodly sinners and still be just in doing so.  He has shown how Christ’s work brought more glory to God and more blessing to men than Adam lost through his sin.  He has explained how grace produces holy living in a way that law could never do.  He has traced the unbreakable chain of God’s purpose from foreknowledge to eventual glorification.  He has set forth the doctrine of sovereign election and the companion doctrine of human responsibility.  And he has traced the justice and harmony of God’s dispensational dealing with Israel and the nations.  Now nothing could be more appropriate than to burst forth in a hymn of praise and worship.

The Apostle Paul knew the mysteries of God as well as any man but Paul confesses to be at a loss  – the more we know, the more we understand that we do not know.  So Paul is overwhelmed and worships God as he contemplates the divine plan.  I love C.S. Lewis’s (surprised by joy) thoughts on this subject.   Amiable agnostics will talk cheerfully about ‘man’s search for God’.  To me as I then  was, they might as well have talked about the man’s search for a cat.  Our views of God are all skewed by our backgrounds, our biases.  God exists independently of our views of Him and it is impossible to know God’s mind except as God reveals it to us.

God is the creator of all things.  He means to be known and loved and has revealed himself through his creation and has spoken to us through the Bible.  All of redemption history, all of matter comes from God.  God is our source.  Jesus Christ, true God and true man, is our mediator and no one comes to God except through Him.  All creation is under the sovereignity of God and works back to Him.  AMEN

(13) For I speak to you Gentiles; inasmuch as i am an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry, (14) if by any means I may provoke to jealousy those who are my flesh and save some of them.   (15) For if their being cast away is the reconciling of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead?  (29) For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. (30) For as you were once disobedient to God, yet have now obtained mercy through their disobedience, (31) even so these also have now been disobedient, that through the mercy shown you they also may obtain mercy.  (32) For God has committed them all to disobedience, that He might have mercy on all.

Luke records in several places in the Acts of the Apostles that Paul has been chosen to minister to the Gentiles.  After Paul has been struck blind on the road to Damascus, Jesus appeared in a vision to Ananias, a disciple at Damascus, and told him to go and lay his hands on Paul

(Acts 9:15) But the Lord said to him, “Go, for he is a chosen vessel of Mine to bear my name before Gentiles, kings and the children of Israel.”

In today’s reading, The Apostle Paul is addressing the Gentiles in Rome.  Paul magnifies his appointed position as apostle to the Gentiles stating that this was his role in God’s plan.  Paul further writes that the acceptance of the gospel by the Gentiles would not only bring them salvation but Paul’s ministry to them might provoke such envy among the Jews that they would imitate or even better, appropriate, the gospel and be saved.  This regeneration of Israel is “life from the dead”.  Paul further states that even though Israel has rejected Jesus Christ as the fulfillment of the Scriptures, God has not rejected Israel.  (verse 29)

Paul’s use of you in verse 30 is referring to Gentiles who might doubt that God has included Israel in a glorious future.  The Gentiles are warned that they have also been disobedient and they are not to be over inflated with pride in their present position of reconciliation to God through free grace, justified by faith.  God has not given up on His chosen people and has a plan for their salvation.  All have been disobedient and this serves to magnify God’s mercy.

I tell the truth in Christ, i am not lying, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Spirit, (2) that I have great sorrow and continual grief in my heart. (3)  For I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my countrymen according to the flesh, (4) who are Israelites, to whom pertain the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the service of God, and the promises; (5) of whom are the fathers and from whom, according to the flesh, Christ came, who is over all, the eternally blessed God.   Amen.

The Apostle Paul expresses his deep affection for his people, Israel.  He appeals to Christ and to his own conscience, enlightened by the Holy Spirit, as witness to his sincerity.  He would submit to be treated as “accursed” if he could rescue his nation from the destruction about to come on them for their unbelief.  Paul lists the advantage Israel has been given as being the chosen, the covenantel people of God.  Despite centuries of divine preparation for the coming of the Messiah, Israel has rejected the gospel.

Paul has been faithful in going first to the Jew but has been rebuffed  by disbelief and has declared himself as apostle to the Gentile.  In Romans, chapter 9, the Apostle Paul makes liberal use of Old Testament quotations both to emphasize the faithfulness of God  and the failure of Jewish unbelief.

(35)WHO SHALL SEPARATE US FROM THE LOVE OF CHRIST? SHALLTRIBULATION, OR DISTRESS, OR PERSECUTION, OR FAMINE, OR NAKEDNESS, OR PERIL, OR SWORD?  (37)YET IN ALL THESE THINGS WE ARE MORE THAN CONQUERORS THROUGH HIM WHO LOVED US.  (38) FOR I AM PERSUADED THAT NEITHER DEATH NOR LIFE, NOR ANGELS NOR PRINCIPALITIES NOR POWERS, NOR THINGS PRESENT NOR THINGS TO COME, (39) NOR HEIGHT NOR DEPTH, NOR ANY OTHER CREATED THING, SHALL BE ABLE TO SEPARATE US FROM THE LOVE OF GOD WHICH IS IN CHRIST JESUS OUR LORD.

We have been studying Romans, Chapter 8, where the Apostle Paul has dealt with sinful man and physical death, spiritual death and eternal death.  In Romans, Chapter 8, Paul addresses the issue of sin and says that sin has been atoned for through the death and resurrection of Christ.  The called die to their old sinful nature and the law and live in the new, which is in Christ and the Spirit, by the free grace of God.

Sunday’s reading is Paul’s ecstatic declaration of the final triumph through Christ and the Spirit.  The Apostle Paul speaks with amazement at the depth and breadth of the love of Christ for man.  Paul says ALL THINGS  are not so great a display of God’s love as the gift of His Son to be the atonement for the sin of man.  With that manifestation of God’s love, how can we think that anything can turn aside or do away with that love?

ROMANS 8:31-32

(31) WHAT THEN SHALL WE SAY TO THESE THINGS?  IF GOD IS FOR US, WHO CAN BE AGAINST US? (32) HE WHO DID NOT SPARE HIS OWN SON, BUT DELIVERED HIM UP FOR US ALL, HOW SHALL HE NOT WITH HIM ALSO FREELY GIVE US ALL THINGS?

(28) And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. (29) For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. (30) Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified: and whom He justified, these He also glorified

The letter to the Romans was written by the Apostle Paul to the Christians in Rome in A.D. 55-57. The truth of Romans 28 is based on God’s sovereignity.  This is taught from the beginning to the end of the Bible.  The Apostle Paul is not saying that all things work together for good but that God is working in all situations.  God is in control of all things.

Paul uses the words ,We Know,  five times in Romans.  The Greek word Paul uses here translates to sure knowledge which one has beyond a doubt – an intuitive knowledge that the Holy Spirit makes real.  All things work together is a comprehensive expression.  Paul tells us that nothing is idle.  Everything works together and there is no discord in seemingly disparate things.  All things work for good – for eternal good – and we may not understand that purpose.  All things work for God to those who love God.  This last is about the character of the called.

There is a wonderful story about a survivor of a shipwreck, marooned on a deserted island.  he prays to God for deliverance and sets about building a shelter and forages for food and drink.  One day, returning from his hunting he sees smoke in the distance and arrives at his shelter to find everything burned to the ground.  His response is anger at God for not answering his prayers.  The next day, a ship arrives at the island and he is rescued.  when asked, the captain of the ship tells our man that the smoke rising from the island drew them to what was seemingly a deserted island.

Paul writes that we are ALL sinners and the central thesis of Romans is that we are not justified by the law – there is nothing we can do that will ever be good enough to merit heaven – but that we are justified by faith.

ROMANS 1:16-17

FOR i AM NOT ASHAMED OF THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST, FOR IT IS THE POWER OF GOD TO SALVATION FOR EVERYONE WHO BELIEVES, FOR THE JEW FIRST AND ALSO FOR THE GREEK.  FOR IN IT THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD IS REVEALED FROM FAITH TO FAITH; AS IT IS WRITTEN “THE JUST SHALL LIVE BY FAITH”.

one of our readers – without access to a bible – requested i post the pertinent scripture.  so, here goes from the new king james version.

(26) Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses.  For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.  (27) Now, He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God.

We are the ones with groanings which cannot be uttered.

The Apostle Paul wrote the letter to the Romans in preparation for his visit to the Christian community in Rome as exposition of the gospel that he had been preaching for twenty years.  This towering letter argued the great truths of salvation in logical fashion, supported by the Old Testament scripture.  Paul wrote of the doctrines of righteousness, law, sin, justification and sanctification.

In verses 26 – 27, Paul teaches the ministry of the Spirit and His work of intercession for the Christian who is limited while in the human body.  Paul preaches the compensation factor of the power of God.  We do not know our real needs nor do we know God’s will respecting ourselves and others.  We are informed in verse 27 that the Spirit helps us and takes our unintelligible groaning in petition to God in accordance with the will of God.

welcome readers.  the intent of this blog is to provide insight and context to the biblical verses read in the roman catholic churches on sundays during the calendar year.  kit.