Last week we saw that all of us will face God in the end and that all of our secrets will be revealed because God shows no partiality. This week turns squarely toward the most religious of those in the church at Rome. Paul exposes the emptiness of religious practice that misses the heart of God’s Law, over-focused on the letter of the law and missing the spirit of it. This text hits home for those of you who grew up in church or have bought into more legalistic forms of Christianity. It’s a good corrective to remind us that we cannot save ourselves, even with the most careful moralism.
The Spirit Not the Letter
Romans 2:17-29
February 16, 2020 • Pastor Bill Riedel
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Romans: The Heart of the Gospel
Hope Against Hope
March 15, 2020 • Pastor Bill Riedel
This Sunday we stay in our series in Romans and close the chapter with Romans 4:16-25. It is an incredibly timely text for us. This passage takes us into a further exploration of Abraham and Sarah’s life and shows us how to respond when we are living in the gap between the hopes we have and the reality we experience. How do we respond when the promises of God feel distant? What does it mean to have faith when things are uncertain and scary? How can we have hope when we get knocked down over and over again?
Faith Counted as Righteousness
March 8, 2020 • Pastor Bill Riedel
As we begin a new chapter in the letter to the Romans, the argument turns to the Hebrew Bible to support the idea that it is God's grace alone through faith alone that we are declared righteous in God's sight. Over the next two Sundays, we will explore the story of Abraham and see how it points ahead to what was accomplished through Christ.
Redemption in Christ Jesus
March 1, 2020 • Pastor Bill Riedel
Some have said that the first paragraph of this section is the most important paragraph ever written, and Luther called it the center of the whole Bible. After spending 2 1/2 chapters setting the stage with the intense need we have for a Savior, the text takes an abrupt turn to show us that there is great hope!