Romans 15:16-21 So, Paul says that he has been given a grace from God, but what exactly was that grace? If we choose to neglect or ignore the gift that Christ has given to us, what are we really saying? How was Paul serving Christ? How do we serve Christ? What is the offering that the believer presents to God when he or she exercises his or her spiritual gift? How did Paul's writing of Romans relate to this offering? What was it that made his offering acceptable? How does the person who transcribed Paul's dictation to the Romans play a role in this? What did Paul have to give up in order to know Christ? In what way did he rediscover this? What was the evidence that Paul was gifted with an apostleship to the Gentiles. How can we know what our spiritual gifts are? Did Paul think there was something wrong with building on the foundation laid by another person? Why was Paul's strategy of going into virgin territory important? (61 min)

Keywords Gifts, Grace, Boasting

Romans 15:14-15 Having concluded the main instructional aspects of his letter to the Romans, Paul begins to address matters of a more personal nature. In these verses he begins to address the question of why he has written this letter at all. How is Paul's relationship with the church in Rome different from most of the other churches to which his New Testament letters were written? How does Paul know the condition of the church in Rome? What is his settled opinion of them? How can we know that Paul was not merely flattering the Romans? If the church in Rome was doing so well, then why did Paul even bother writing this letter? How did Paul view God having laid on him the responsibility Gentile world? Do you view your own spiritual gifts in the same way that Paul did? (62 min)

Keywords Grace, Knowledge, Praise, Flattery, Romans

Romans 11:2-10 In this passage Paul continues explaining why we know that God has not rejected Israel. He offers to us the historical evidence in the account of Elijah's complaint to God about Israel. What had prompted Elijah's complaint? What did God say was going to happen in Israel after Elijah's return? What was the basis for God preserving alive a remnant in Elijah's day? Why does Paul change the future tense of God's words to the past tense? What was the basis of God's choice to preserve a remnant in Israel in the days of Paul? What are the two categories of which Paul speaks in this passage? In which of these two categories do we know that Paul classifies faith? What does this passage teach, and what does it not teach? (55 min)

Keywords Choice, Grace, Remnant, Hardening, Faith, Works

Romans 7:1-6 In this passage Paul continues to explore the subject he introduced in chapter six. Note the three times beginning in chapter six where he asks the question, "Do you not know?" These provide a sort of outline of Paul's discussion of the believer's relationship to sin. What question is Paul addressing in these verses in chapter seven? What is the point of the illustration Paul uses? How do we need to be careful in interpreting illustrations in the Bible? What is Paul referring to by the "law" in this passage? What does Paul associate with the law in Romans? What is the believer's relationship to the law? How did this happen? What is the purpose for which this happened? What subject does Paul introduce in this passage that he will expound more fully in chapter eight? (51 min)

Keywords Law, Grace, Sin

Romans 6:12-16 In this passage Paul transitions from the idea of being dead to sin and alive to God to another way of looking at things, being a slave to sin or a slave to obedience. What is our "mortal body?" What two things does Paul's imperative about not letting sin reign imply? What are the "members" of our bodies? What does Paul mean by talking about presenting our members? What promise does Paul offer the believer? What is the question Paul confronts in this passage? What does it mean to be under the law or under grace? What common knowledge did the Roman believers possess that was rooted in ancient slavery practices? Why are there only two options open to us? (50 min)

Keywords Sin, Obedience, Righteousness, Sin, Law, Grace

Romans 5:15-21 In this lesson we back away a bit from our passage in order to make sure we can see the whole forest, rather than only the trees. What is a protasis and an apodisis? How is that important in understanding this passage? What are the three ways in which Paul illustrates the difference between Christ and Adam? Many people understand that Paul teaches that Adam is a "type" of Christ. However, two chief questions remain: How is Adam a type of Christ? And why is it important that Adam is a type of Christ? Who are the two all important characters in Paul's grand panoply of human history? Who is missing from Paul's grand story, and why is that significant? How do Paul's remarks about the coming of the Law tie in to His point about Adam as a type of Christ? (58 min)

Keywords Types, Adam, Christ, Death, Grace, Law

Romans 5:1-5 Paul now moves us on from consideration of how a person is saved or justified through faith. There are many other things about our life after justification. Yet in moving on, of what must we not lose sight? What does Paul have in mind when he says we now have peace? What is the broader sense of this word? What does it mean that we now stand in grace? How is it that we have come to be in such a position? Can someone cease to stand in grace? What is Paul talking about when he speaks of the glory of God in which we hope? (52 min)

Keywords Peace, Justification, Grace, Glory

Romans 4:13-17 In these verses Paul begins to explain how it is that those who believe like Abraham believed are Abraham's descendants. What is the promise made to Abraham that he believed? What are the two categories that Paul presents for our consideration? What is the consequence of confusing these categories? What is it that the Law brings about? Why can it not bring about the inheritance of the promise? Why must the inheritance come by faith? What is it that is "in the presence of God?" What did Paul have in mind when he spoke of God giving life to the dead? Why is it important that God calls into being that which did not exist? (58 min)

Keywords Works, Faith, Law, Grace, Wrath, Inheritance, Promise

Genesis 3:16-24 The Seed of the Serpent and the Seed of the Woman. Mandates for mankind. The woman’s desire and the man’s mastery. The hardship of dominion over creation. The triumph of Grace in the consequences of sin. Adam’s transformation.

Keywords Adam, Eve, Seed, Serpent, Fall, Sin, Grace