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!
None is Righteous
February 23, 2020 • Pastor Bill Riedel
This Sunday we start a new chapter in Romans and round out the argument that the Apostle Paul has been building since chapter 1. If we are ever going to hope to understand the beauty and glory of the gospel, we need to first understand the need every one of us has for a Savior. Romans 3:1-20 can serve as a diagnostic test for our own souls. It is incisive, helpful, and universal in its application.
The Spirit Not the Letter
February 16, 2020 • Pastor Bill Riedel
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 Secret is Out
February 10, 2020 • Pastor Bill Riedel
As Paul continued to develop his eagerness to proclaim the gospel, he turned toward addressing the religious in Rome. This passage is a stark reminder to every one of us that we will one day stand before God. All that we are and all that we have done will be revealed and clarified. God is just, and all people, however religious or irreligious will stand before Him. We will be responsible for what we know and how we have lived that out.
Twisted
February 3, 2020 • Pastor Bill Riedel
We have seen a progression so far that Paul was eager to preach the gospel in Rome because it is the power of God to save, and because the wrath of God is being revealed. Last week we came to understand that God's wrath is often the opposite of the way we think about it, and that it shows up in God turning us over to our desires, giving us what we want apart from Him. This week that explanation continues and we will see that the symptoms in our lives are that things get twisted up. Our own separation from God shows up in twisted sexuality, twisted minds, and twisted religion. We will work together this week to find clarity on what Scripture has to say about these culturally sensitive issues, and see where we can find hope.
Without Excuse
January 27, 2020 • Pastor Bill Riedel
We saw last week in Romans 1 that Paul was not ashamed of the gospel, but was eager to preach it in Rome, the capital city, because the gospel is the power of God for salvation for all who believe. This week we will see that another reason for his eagerness is that the wrath of God is being revealed in the lives of people who don’t believe in Christ. All people, across all ethnicities and cultural backgrounds, are caught up in twisted worship that has dulled our hearts to the One True God. The result is that we are twisted, and it shows up in our lives through twisted sex, twisted minds, and twisted religion. This section will frame up the next three weeks in our study together. This week we will focus on Romans 1:18-23, which lays the foundation for understanding God’s wrath and the impact of idolatry in our souls.
Not Ashamed
January 20, 2020 • Pastor Bill Riedel
After the long greeting to start the letter, Paul moved quickly into expressing his heart and longing for the Christians in Rome, and his desire to see them face-to-face. Verses 16-17, in particular, give us the main reason for the writing of Romans, and the overarching theme of the entire book. It’s also something we desperately need to hear and be reminded of. Paul tells us that he is “unashamed of the gospel”. I think the only reason he would use language like that is because at some point(s) he was tempted toward the opposite. The gospel of Jesus Christ has always been, and will always be, profoundly countercultural. It was risky to be a Christian in the first century. It’s costly now to follow Christ, and it doesn’t line up with broader cultural narratives that we are surrounded by every day. Our passage for Sunday gives us the reminder that we all need of why we can be unashamed of the gospel and what that will look like in the lives of those who are in Christ Jesus.
To Those in Rome
January 6, 2020 • Pastor Bill Riedel
As we start the new year, we also will start a new series in Romans. Martin Luther said of this book, “This Epistle is really the chief part of the New Testament and the very purest Gospel, and is worthy not only that every Christian should know it word for word, by heart, but occupy himself with it every day, as the daily bread of the soul. It can never be read or pondered too much, and the more it is dealt with the more precious it becomes, and the better it tastes.”
This week we begin with Romans 1:1-7, which is one long sentence that lays out the most theologically rich greetings that I can imagine. We see the purpose of the letter very early in the first chapter: the good news of what God has done for us in Jesus Christ.
