The above online version of the book Render unto God the Things that Are His: A Systematic Study of Romans 13 and Related Verses is also on “The Biblical.
Table of contents
- Romans The Introduction, Salutation, and Theme of Paul’s Letter to the Romans | leondumoulin.nl
- Render Unto God the Things that are His
- Devotionals
For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. So they are without excuse.
Romans The Introduction, Salutation, and Theme of Paul’s Letter to the Romans | leondumoulin.nl
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. Wiersbe, The Bible Exposition Commentary , vol. A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary , vol. Mounce, Romans , vol. By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance.
And he went out, not knowing where he was going. So Abram went, as the Lord had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. And there he built an altar to the Lord and called upon the name of the Lord. Ministry With Minors Application. Special Events Weekly Events. How is God going to judge those who knew the Law? How will God judge the people who never had the opportunity to hear the Law of God? In the previous verse Paul has concluded that all men, both Jews and Gentiles, are equal before God.
However, there is one evident difference: Paul deals with this problem in verses 12— He points out that God has spoken to all men, some through the Jewish Law and some through the law of conscience, and so all men must answer to him. The Greek text of this verse reads literally: What does it mean for the law to be written on your heart?
How can reminding ourselves that we are law-breakers help us to grow in grace? How can it keep us from being too judgmental of others? What is your biggest takeaway from studying this passage further this week? In this case, however, the connection with chap.
The final section of that chapter vv. By the time we reach 2: But to whom were the intervening verses directed? Some think Paul was for the moment addressing his remarks to certain Gentiles known for their superior morality. Others think the verses refer to anyone, Jew or Gentile, who was inclined to judge others.
What can you do to be more consistently aware of the kindness and patience God has shown you? How might such and awareness change the way you relate to the lost people God has placed in your life? When the Lord does come, it will be both surprising and catastrophic: This simile was used by Jesus Matt. The day of the Lord describes end-time events that begin after the Rapture and culminate with the commencement of eternity.
In the middle of the 70th week of Daniel the Antichrist will turn against the people of God in full fury Dan. What judgment awaits the people whose works reveal their faithlessness? What judgment awaits the people whose works reveal their faith in God? Why are each of these eternal rewards good news for the Christian? How can you demonstrate your gratitude that God is impartial? What words or phrases indicated good news in these verses? Paul was not teaching salvation by character or good deeds. God judges according to deeds, just as He judges according to truth.
Why is God patient with us? Why are we not to judge others? The word translated have no excuse is often used in a legal sense. Paul has already used it of the Gentiles 1: The Jew is in just as indefensible a position as are the Gentiles. When he condemns somebody else he condemns himself. What do we communicate about ourselves when we judge other people for their sins? What do we communicate about God? Is homosexuality greater than any other sin? How do you think most Christians would answer this question? America is no longer a nation under God and is experiencing the consequences of failing to operate under God and abide by His principles.
Although the First Amendment guaranteed freedom from civil government, many churches chose to become state churches through incorporation shortly after the ratification of the Constitution. Unconstitutional actions by the President of the United States have further invited churches to unite with and place themselves under federal government control. The Bush administration also invited churches to address national disasters under civil government direction. Churches, Christians, and pastors should be the first to help others; but they should operate only under God and His principles, never with or under the control of civil government.
Doing one thing that subjects a church to the state creates a legal entity. An entity, other than a natural person, who has sufficient existence in legal contemplation that it can function legally, be sued or sue and make decisions through agents as in the case of corporations. Because of the First Amendment which recognizes and implements the biblical principle of separation of church and state, churches can still choose to be spiritual entities and no church is required by any civil law to become a legal entity.
Some Christians interpret certain scriptures to mean that Christians and churches are required by God to submit to civil government in all things or to submit to civil government in all things except for the preaching of the gospel of salvation. This book analyzes Matthew What those scriptures teach concerning submission by individual Christians and churches to civil government is the subject of this book.
God Betrayed offers a more comprehensive look at all the issues involved. The human authors were prophets, priests, kings, apostles, shepherds, generals, a doctor, court officials, and other occupations. Hebrew is a Semitic language written from right to left, each word based around three consonants, with a grammar and vocabulary very different than English, but much in common with other ancient languages.
Parts of Daniel and Ezra, and a few words and verses elsewhere, were written in Aramaic. Aramaic was the lingua franca of the ancient near east until superceded by Arabic. It was very similar to Hebrew. There are a few Latin words, too, and also a few Egyptian and others in Job. The actual original parchments and papyri have long ago perished, but the inspired Word has been preserved by God through the ages. Jesus promised that His Word would never pass away Matt. We call this Providential Preservation. There are no lost books, sentences, words or even letters.
Nor will any yet be found, otherwise they would have been lost until now. Scripture is the means of salvation and the main means of revelation in this age. Its very nature requires its preservation. Satan has tried to destroy it, but the Bible is an anvil that has worn out many hammers. There are over 5, Greek manuscripts and over Hebrew manuscripts of the Bible, plus ancient translations and quotations. Since the Bible is a complete unity, it is very serious to tamper with it.
God warns against this in Rev. Some English translations are based on the minority of ancient manuscripts which are faulty. They tend to subtract portions such as Mark A few ancient manuscripts tend to add to the real text, such as the Codex Bezae. But the vast majority of manuscripts agree almost in complete detail, so it is wisest to stick to the middle and neither add to on the right side or subtract from on the left side.
Nor may we substitute other words. This is known as the Septuagint. Other Greek translations followed. The Jews also produced paraphrased translations of most of the O. Most were done after the time of Jesus. The Samaritans translated the Pentateuch into their language, with alterations. Some were better than others, and all are useful for study by scholars. There have been more translations of the Bible into English than into any other language.
First there were bits and pieces by Bede and medieval monks. Then John Wycliffe translated the Bible from the Latin in the 14th century. The 16th century saw many other fine translations, especially the Geneva Bible. The Authorized Version of , known as the King James Version, has been the most popular one in history, even with its various slight revisions. The New King James Version is a slight revision and is very good.
The New International Version is now the best-selling translation. There have also been Jewish and Catholic translations. Overall, over translations have appeared. The Bible is the Book of God. It was inspired by God, written by God through the instrumentality of various human authors, and is primarily about God. It talks about Man, salvation, animals, the cosmos and other topics, but mainly about God. Its ethics come from God. Its stories tell how God has worked in history.
Its songs sing to and about God. Specifically, it is a book about Jesus, the only mediator between God and Man. Praise God for His Word. He is the real God, the God who really exists. He exists eternally without origin or change. He has necessary existence, not conditional or contingent existence. He has perpetual existence in and of Himself. He has pure existence, compared to whom everything else is but a shadow.
God not only exists, He lives. A stone exists, a person lives. God is the living God, as opposed to the false and dead gods of pagan religions. He is life itself, self-life. He has life in Himself, not from another. He is the source of all life. He has aseity, or life in Himself John 1: He has permanent and perpetual life. God is pure life. Therefore He is immortal.
He had no birthday, therefore no father or mother; He has no death-day, therefore no undertaker. God is the creator of everything else Gen. Creator of all, created by none. He is the first cause of everything else, but caused by nothing. God is certainly not the creation of Man. Man did not create God by imagination, nor by projecting himself to the cosmos, as atheists suggest. Nor is God self-created. He simply exists and lives of Himself. The Creator is not the Creation.
Idolatry worships the Creation rather than the Creator Rom. He is separate from His Creation. We are not part of God. God is everywhere, but is not everything. He has a separate and divine substance that is fundamentally different from the universe. Monism is also wrong to suggest that all things are one, i.
Romans 1 and Psalm 19 state that God has made His existence known to all men. He is a fool who tries to deny this Psa. Therefore, there are no real atheists or agnostics. They already know God exists. They are merely lying in order to try to run from God.
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We merely build upon what God has already revealed about Himself in Natural Revelation by bringing Special Revelation. Indeed, a God whose existence needed to be proved would not be the true God. It is an insult to God to attempt to prove His existence, for that doubts the fact that He has already made His existence known.
Man already knows God exists, but he must acknowledge this openly in order to come to know God personally Heb. But God is personal. Not exactly like we are personal, but more than we are. Specifically, as we shall see later, God is actually Tri-personal in the Trinity. God is a He, not an It. God is also a He, not a She. He is personal in that He speaks, feels, thinks, remembers, recognizes, etc.
God is Incomprehensible but Not Inscrutable. God has told us He exists and also gives us the privilege of knowing Him personally. Agnostics and Deists are wrong to say God cannot be known. Yet we can never know everything about God. Finite Man can never know all about the infinite God, not even in eternal Heaven. It would take a second God to know God fully. His attributes are beyond full knowledge Eph. God is incomprehensible to us Job There will always be something about God that only God knows Rev. Nor will we know God as God knows Himself. Man in sin does not know God 2 Thess.
The basic message of Ecclesiastes is that life has no meaning, only vanity, without knowing God. God created Man to know Him, and Man has a dreary existence without knowing God. God has allowed Himself to be known personally. This is only possible through Christ Matt. Knowing God is eternal life John God is perfect Matt. He is complete in every way. He does not need to be fed. He does not need Man. He lacks nothing in any way. He has perfect life and existence, and does not grow. He is absolute perfection. Therefore, God is perfectly happy in Himself.
God is not lonely. He did not create Man because He was lonely. There was perfect happiness, fellowship and love within the Trinity. Nothing outside of God is ever perfect in the sense God is perfect. Yet we find a degree of perfection when we are in the right relationship with God as we ought to be, lacking nothing, Happy at last. God is Essentially Different from Us. There are two truths, which must be kept in balance. On the one hand, God created us in His image Gen. Therefore we resemble God in part. God thinks, we think. God feels, we feel. Specifically, we are to imitate certain attributes of God, which we call the Communicable Attributes.
We are to be holy, truthful and loving, for God is holy, truthful and loving.
Render Unto God the Things that are His
We do not nor ever can have self-existence, infinity, eternity, immutability, omniscience, omnipotence or omnipresence. These are Incommunicable Attributes. God is not of the same quality as Man. We greatly err in supposing that God is altogether such a one as we are Psa. Even our similarities with God point to the essential differences we know, God knows; but we know by learning, God knows all things already perfectly, and so on.
God exists as only God exists, which is to say God alone is God. God cannot be defined. To define is to limit, but God cannot be limited. Specifically, when we speak or think about God, we cannot fully grasp Him. Therefore, we cannot define God. Yet we can still speak and think of God in part. That means we can describe God. To be precise, God describes Himself to us.
He reveals part of Himself to us description , but not all of Himself definition. He condescends to describe Himself to us in human analogies, such as metaphors like fire, a fortress, etc. He also uses anthropomorphism, or speaking after the manner of Man. God does not literally have arms, legs, a head, etc. He even compares Himself at times with animals wings of a hen, an eagle, a lion, etc. But God is not an animal, nor a Man. God also uses anthropopathy, or describes Himself in terms of human emotions such as love, grief or anger.
But the emotions of God are far greater than ours. So, Biblical descriptions are valid. Philosophic definitions always leave something to be desired e. God told Adam to name all the animals, but did not allow him to name God. Names carry a kind of identifying definition in them. Just as God swears by Himself because there is no one higher, so He describes Himself best by analogy with Himself.
God is self-defined, He gives several names in Scripture. Some are used many times, others only rarely. Each is a short description of Himself. Often they are used together. And there is a name of God which only God Himself knows Rev. It is the plural of a variety of short Hebrew words, such as EL Ex. There is a corresponding term in the New Testament in Rev. This is the most personal name of all, more a personal name than a title. Sometimes it is shortened to YAH Ex. It speaks of God as the One who Is. It is His covenant name.
It means lord, master, ruler, owner. Coming to the New Testament, we find several names as well. It was used in ancient Greek literature. This is the word in the Greek O. It means lord, master, owner. In Greek it could mean sir or master when speaking of a dignitary. There is only one God and only one Lord I Cor. God is Lord of all. Two other similar words are used in the N. God, then, reveals Himself in a variety of short names that describe Himself to us.
This is because God is true. He is the true God, in contrast to the many false gods. He is the real God. He is also Truth itself. Indeed, God cannot lie Titus 1: He always keeps His promises. His Word is inerrant and infallible. He does not deceive. He is trustworthy and, dependable, solid and sure. He likens Himself to a rock. There is only one God, and He is Lord over all. But that does not mean that He is to be identified with the gods of non-Christian religions. Romans 1 says that they worship idols of all sorts.
Some are physical images of stone or wood. All pagan gods are idols Psa. They are all false gods, not the true God. For example, Allah is not Jehovah. Even the Canaanites worshipped a false god named EL. What then are these false gods? On the one hand, negatively, they are no-gods, non-divinities, nothings. On the other, they do have an identity. They are demons in disguise. Pagan religions are merely denominations of one world-wide Satanic religion. Vishnu is a demon, Krishna is a demon, Baal is a demon, Isis is a demon, etc.
The Jews give lip service to the one true God, but in rejecting Christ they fall short of knowing the one true God. Through Christ alone we know God.
The Trinity is the Mystery of Mysteries. The doctrine of the Trinity is the greatest mystery in the Bible. It is revealed, but not fully revealed. Nor will it ever be fully comprehended by Man even in Heaven. It is vastly deep and high, and inspires holy awe in those who approach it rightly. But it has been rejected by many cults, some liberals, and even some Pentecostals, such as the United Pentecostal Church, not to mention Jews and Moslems. There is no perfect analogy to the Trinity in Creation, so the doctrine is taught by Special Revelation and not by mere Natural Revelation.
Yet no one place in Scripture discusses it at length. It is learned by comparing text with text. Still, some places are of particular importance in setting forth the Trinity, such as the Baptism of Jesus Matt. All three members of the Trinity are sometimes mentioned together, such as 2 Cor. The first truth of the doctrine of the Trinity is that there is only one God. The Lord our God, the Lord is one. There has always been only one God and will always be only one God.
The doctrine of the Trinity does not teach that there are three gods. The unity of God disproves polytheism that there are many gods, such as in Hinduism and henotheism one favorite god among many others. All Members of the Trinity are Equal. The Bible also teaches that there is something plural within God.
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They share the same one divine nature, the same substance of deity. Thus, all are equal, for one infinite being cannot be larger than another infinite being. There is no hierarchy or subordinate natures within the Trinity. Each one is fully God and has all the attributes of full deity. Each one is God and with God John 1: The Son is equal with the Father John 5: The latter reflects and reveals the first.
The Members of the Trinity are Not Identical. The three divine members share the same nature, but have distinct persons. They are not three in the same sense that they are one, so there is no contradiction here. There is only one Father, one Son, and one Spirit Eph. It was the Son, not the Father nor the Spirit, who became a man. It was the Spirit, not the Son nor the Father, who came at Pentecost. The atonement was presented to the Father, not to the Son or the Spirit. Jesus prayed to the Father in John 17, not to Himself.
The Father spoke to Jesus at His Baptism; this was no ventriloquism. Some groups reject the idea of the Trinity but accept the deity of Christ, saying there is no difference between the three at all. But it is not Biblical Trinitarianism. Scripture repeatedly speaks of God as the Father. This one is not just Father of Christians, but the Father of the Son.
He was Father to the Son from all eternity. The Father received the atonement from the Son, who represented Man.
Devotionals
Later we will discuss the deity of Christ more fully. Over Bible verses prove the deity of Jesus Christ e. He was worshipped as God. There are three divine persons, but only one is Son. The Son is Eternally Begotten by the Father. The distinctive feature of the Second Person of the Trinity is that He alone is eternally begotten. He is God the Son within the Trinity. This eternal begetting is indicated in John 1: In theology, it is called Eternal Generation. It is eternal; there was never a time that He was not the Son.
Some Evangelicals deny this. But Jesus was Son before the Incarnation. In fact, the Incarnation is the historical or Economical display of the eternal or Ontological nature of the Trinity. Just as a human father has the same nature as his son e. The Father alone begets the Son. There is no divine mother, no, not even the Spirit. There is only one Holy Spirit Eph. He is personal, for He speaks, feels, thinks, is grieved, has joy, etc. He convicts of sin, regenerates sinners into saints, indwells believers, etc. But first of all, the Holy Spirit is God. To lie to the Spirit is to lie to God Acts 5: The Spirit is God Isa.
He is every much eternally God as are the Father and the Son. All three are equal in power, glory and majesty. It is not the same as the eternal generation of the Son, which comes from the Father, not the Father and the Spirit. The Spirit eternally proceeds from both the Father and the Son. It is difficult to ascertain just what this procession is.
It is akin to eternal breathing, thus an eternal spiration. This was reflected in the Spirit coming in a special way on the Day of Pentecost. He reveals the Father and the Son, and stays in the background. He brings the elect to Christ, who brings them to the Father. All in all, the members of the Trinity work together for their mutual glory, which is a display of their perfect unity and diversity. God fills all time and dwells in the realm of eternity Isa. He is the Ancient of Days Dan. He is not only older than the universe, He is eternal. He never had a beginning.
He is from everlasting to everlasting Psa. He is, was and always shall be Rev. We cannot fully grasp just what eternity is, though, for we are not eternal. We are limited by time; God is not. God is eternal in His love and other attributes. He gives eternal life, which is not merely endless life but eternal in its quality.
God is not limited by time; neither is He limited by space. He is omnipresent, or present everywhere at the same time. God is not only big; He is sizeless. There is no place where God is not. He is a circle whose center is everywhere and whose circumference is nowhere. The entire universe cannot contain Him Acts The universe, therefore, is not infinite, but God is.
He is everywhere, but especially in Heaven. Also, He is imminent, or near all of us. He is also transcendent, or high above us Isa. God is spirit, not a spirit John 4: This refers to His being, not the Holy Spirit. God has no material body. His substance is pure and uncreated spirit. He is invisible to us now, but one day we will see Him.
Being pure spirit, He is one in being, not having parts. The attributes of God are not parts of God, but qualities of His whole being. The Mormons are wrong to say God has a physical body. No, but God the Son became a man and took on a fleshly body John 1: God is perfect, and therefore never changes Mal. There is no shadow of change in His being James 1: Nor can He change for the worse, for that would mean He is not perfect. He is not growing, either. This does not mean He is stagnant, though. He is perfect in life. And God does not change His mind or decrees. He is the same yesterday, today and forever Heb.
Everything else changes, but not God Heb. He is absolutely pure. He is absolutely morally pure. It is not that He became pure by purification, but is pure by nature. He is totally just. His will is Law for all His creatures, but there is no higher law to which God is subject.
Also, because we are not holy, God is angry. He is filled with wrath and fury, far more than we can imagine. God is so holy that He cannot break His own Law. It is the height of blasphemy, then, for any mere sinful creature to accuse God of doing anything wrong. Being angry against sin, God will punish all unrepentant sinners in eternal Hell. We can never be as holy as God, but should strive to obey Him in all things without hesitation or question. God is King of Kings. He is the absolute ruler of the entire universe. He is the just totalitarian potentate of everything, and is subject to nothing and nobody.
He is absolutely free and independent. He does whatever He wants to Psa. He owns everything and does whatever He wants to with it. He rules as King over all Psa. He is the supreme judge, above whom there is no appeal. Therefore, no one can accuse God, for He is the potter and we are the clay Rom. Is it not His right to do whatever He wants to with His universe? God is omnipotent, or all-powerful. He is God Almighty.