Roaming Through Romans Lesson 3: Romans 1:7-18

Thank you for reminding me that we didn't quite finish. So here we are. Turn to page 11, actually, and we'll start on verse seven of Romans chapter one. So page 11, beginning underneath that portion that says, Romans 1, seven in bold. So God did two things for the Christians in Rome to make them different. And that would be these two things that he did for them.

He loved them and he called them. Because verse seven says, to all those in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints. Loved by God and called to be saints. I think it's of some significance, the ordering of these words, loved by God and called to be saints. It doesn't say he called them and then he loved them. but rather that he loved them, therefore he called them. That the reason God calls us to himself is because he loves us, that he actually loves his people. Not because there's anything in us that would be of worth or note, but because he is a God who loves his people for his own glorious namesake.

And so I referenced there underneath B, you'll see a little I there. So what made the Christians in Rome different than Non-Christians in Rome, of course, it was nothing. It was just God setting his electing love upon them. And I have Deuteronomy 7, 6 through 8 there as a reference to that same point.

But on to point 2 there on page 11, we learn here that God called them to be saints. Now what does the word saint mean? The word saint simply means holy or set apart. That's all the word saint means is holy or you could say set apart. So he says to all those in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints. Now I want to ask you this question. Do you know any saints? Yes. Yes, right? We know a lot of saints.

You don't actually, in fact, have to be a Roman Catholic to know saints, because a saint, contrary to what certain ideas that we might have in our culture suggest, a saint is actually anyone who's a believer in Christ Jesus. Everyone who's trusting in Christ Jesus alone for their salvation, every Christian is a saint. For example, One good place we could see this would be, so many places really, it's actually almost everywhere, probably is everywhere the word saint is used, I would guess, in the New Testament, but one helpful place we can see that, for example, would be Ephesians chapter one, verse one. It says, Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus, by the will of God to the saints who are in Ephesus and are faithful in Christ Jesus. So he's writing to the saints in Ephesus, right? That's the context.

Ephesians 1.1.

And then in Ephesians 6.1, writing to the saints in Ephesus, he addresses children, children of believers. Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. So even a child who is of a believer in Christ Jesus is set apart.

And so saints are not just some special class of Christian, but all Christians are set apart and holy in Jesus, in Jesus. So Paul then closes the greeting with these words, grace and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, what is grace? Grace could be defined, I'm sure, in many ways, but I've always loved the saying unmerited favor. It's God's unmerited favor towards sinners. It's his unmerited favor. We don't deserve it, and yet he favors us anyways. That's grace. unmerited favor. And of course the text tells us from where does it come? It comes from God and Jesus. God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. So God and Jesus. Which of course is obviously suggesting the deity of Christ which we've already seen.

What is peace? Well we could say peace is reconciliation with God. peace is reconciliation with God. Sometimes perhaps we hear the word peace and we think of sitting on a beach on an island somewhere drinking some drink that we enjoy drinking, but that's really not the peace that the Bible is talking about. It's talking about reconciliation with God.

It also implies something. Peace implies alienation with God. If we need to have peace with Him, it implies that at one time we did not have peace with Him. If peace is something that God is graciously giving to us, it implies that there was a time in which we had not received this, that we were alienated from God.

You could think of Ephesians chapter 2. It talks about how we were alienated from the Commonwealth of Israel, alienated from God. Ephesians chapter 2, beginning in about verse 12 through 17 or so, but implies alienation with God and our reconciliation. So it's got this twofold thing.

It's implying alienation, but it's also, if we've received peace, it's also are reconciliation with God, by God, in Christ Jesus. So your two blanks there are alienation and reconciliation. So it's reconciliation with God, by God, in Christ Jesus. We see that it's reconciliation with God, by God, when we turn to Romans chapter five, verses one and two, where we read, therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace. with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. So this peace that we have with God is by God in Christ Jesus.

We haven't made ourselves at peace with God. In other words, we haven't done something to reconcile ourselves to God. God has done something to reconcile us to himself. And that something is, he has reconciled us to himself in his son, Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ has taken on the penalty our sins deserve so that we could have a right relationship with God.

From where does it come? I guess we already kind of said this, right? Just like grace, it comes from God, the Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ. So grace and peace come from the same place. It comes from God to us. So these words, grace and peace, cannot be said of the unbeliever. They are underneath God's wrath and are alienated from God. If these words, grace and peace, can be said of you, it is because Christ Jesus took the penalty of your sins on himself. It is because Jesus has been raised from the dead for hell-deserving sinners such as you and me. These are costly words, grace and peace.

Jeff Bezos cannot buy them and neither can Elon Musk. Only God can buy these words for His people, and it costs more than a million worlds. It costs His infinite, eternal Son to come down and take on flesh and shed His blood for the sins of rebels who hated Him and wanted nothing to do with Him.

So let me ask you, are you rich? Do you not have more than every unbeliever in the world put together? You are wealthy if you have Jesus. Do you? So if you have Christ, You are rich. You are wealthy. You have grace and peace with God, something that no unbeliever, no matter how wealthy they may be in this world, possesses.

But moving on to our next lesson, beginning on page 13, we're going to start now to look at verses 16 through 24. Now, you'll think to yourself, perhaps, well, what happened to verses 8 through 15? Well, we're going to skip verses 8 through 15, and you can read why there. I quote a familiar man to us all, Guy Watters. Essentially, here is the reason we're going to skip verses 8 through 15.

Not because they're not incredible. They're very, very good. I personally actually like them quite a bit. I find them to be really wonderful in many ways. The reason we're skipping them is because we have a limited amount of time, and because while they are definitely God's Word, they're not integral to the argument overall that Paul is making here in chapters 1 through 3.

They're a thanksgiving, they're a greeting, they're wonderful, but they're not integral to the overall argument that he's trying to make. By God's grace, I'm hoping we can catch something of the overall argument that Paul is trying to make in these first three chapters. So if I was preaching, I would not be skipping anything. But in this context, I feel it would be helpful for getting through the material to skip those verses. So it's essentially a greeting, and we're going to pass over it at Thanksgiving.

Romans 1, beginning in verse 16 and 17, then now, We read here, 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. For in it, the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, the righteous shall live by faith.

So Paul begins by sharing that he is not ashamed of the gospel. Now, why isn't he ashamed of it? Well, he tells us why he's not. He says, because it is the power of God unto salvation. That's why he is not ashamed of it, because it is the power of God for salvation. And because it is the power of God for salvation, he has nothing to be ashamed about when he tells people about the gospel.

And going alongside of this point is, despite how people may feel, Paul knows that this is what they need blank blank. This is what they need most. This is what they need most. So he's not ashamed of it because he knows that even if somebody is offended when he is telling them about Christ and the way of salvation, he is actually telling them exactly what they need most. They need Jesus. They need to be saved. Paul notes, point two here, Paul notes four important things about the gospel. Four important things about the gospel. It has in view salvation. That's the first important thing he notes, is it has in view salvation. For I'm not ashamed of the gospel, for it is a power of God for salvation.

This implies that human beings cannot blank themselves, save themselves. That's right. Human beings cannot save themselves. Therefore, we need salvation from outside of ourselves. We need saving from blank to blank. We need saving from God to God. Now, what do we mean by saving from God to God?

Well, we'll see in a moment when we get to verse 18, for the wrath of God is revealed. God is bringing wrath upon all the people that are not saved. We need salvation from the coming wrath, from God himself. God has a wrath that he will be dispensing upon all who do not know him and do not obey the gospel, and so we need to be saved from that wrath. We need to be saved from God himself.

Chapter 5, verse 9 of Romans also states this same reality. But we also are not just saved from him, we're saved to God. We're saved to God. Just as one passage to make this point, Romans chapter 5, verse 10. For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his son. So we're actually brought from underneath his wrath to a right relationship with him. We're brought from, we're saved from God unto God, to him.

And I have another passage there that makes this same point, 1 Peter 3.18.

It has in view, so it has a view of salvation, but secondly, it has in view, B, it has in view the blank power of the spirit of Christ, the resurrection, that's what goes in that blank, the resurrection power of the spirit of Christ. So how do we see that salvation has in view the resurrection power of Jesus Christ? Well, this word power, because it says there in chapter one, verse 16, For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation. What is the power of God for salvation?

Well, he used that word power once before already. It was back in chapter one, verse four, in the context of Christ's resurrection. Look there at chapter one, verse four. And was declared to be the son of God in power, according to the spirit of holiness, by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ, our Lord.

So it is that same resurrection power that he has just spoken about in chapter 1 verse 4 that he says is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes. In other words, what you and I need is a resurrection power. We need to be brought from death to life if we're going to be saved. It's not something we can do. We need it, this resurrection power. Now whose power is it according to the text? What does chapter 1 verse 16 say? Whose power is it? Power of God. Yes, the power of God.

You know, I was reading recently in this old Southern Presbyterian, James Henley Thornwell, and he had something like a, probably a, so keep this in mind if my sermons ever get too long, which they do, I admit. Thank you for your endurance. But I was reading the other day, I think it was something like a 40 or 50 page sermon on this verse in James Henley Thornwell. I don't know how long it took him to preach it, but I'm sure it took him a lot.

I would have fallen asleep probably. I'd have been like Eutychus. Remember an axe when it falls out the window? But anyways. Anyway, so – but he has this – and he largely just talks about this word power, and one thing that he brought out is it is interesting to think, why doesn't he say...

Why does the Apostle Paul not write, for I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the mercy of God for salvation to everyone who believes, for it is the grace of God. Why does he describe the gospel in verse 16 as being power? Is that kind of interesting? I never thought about it until he asked the question, but it's thought-provoking, I believe, anyways. Why would he use the word power? Why would he say the mercy of God for salvation, the grace of God for salvation?

And Thornwell points out that Paul does the same thing in 1 Corinthians chapter 1. He talks about the power of the cross, the power. So what he brings out, and I think he's right about this, is while of course it wouldn't be wrong to refer to the mercy of God for salvation or the grace of God for salvation, but when the power is being specifically harped upon, which is a theme in Paul, it's getting at this idea that We need omnipotent power.

There is something so great about our sin that mere mercy can't save us. Mere grace can't save us. We need grace, but we need a grace that is coupled with infinite strength. Does that make sense? We need a grace that's beyond just a love without power.

All of us have probably had a situation where we've shown We've wanted to be gracious or helpful or merciful to somebody in need, but we didn't have the power to do what we wanted to do As much as we wanted to help our friend in need as much as we desired to see that loved one healed of some sickness we we had the mercy in our heart, but we didn't have the power to accomplish anything and Well, by highlighting the power, it's reminding us that this is a God who really does accomplish salvation because He's not only merciful, but He's got this power that is able to grip the greatest sinner and pull them out of the greatest pit and rescue them by His power, by His power, not ours. So that is something worth thinking about. So it's God's power here that's being stressed. Waters, Guy Waters, writes, it is this power that makes the gospel and blank in saving message, and effective, and effective in saving message. Without this power, it's not effective. A man cannot be saved apart from the power of God in Jesus Christ. So it's what makes it effective. What we need is nothing less than the supernatural, omnipotent power of the resurrection to save us.

Top of page 14. The third thing, so we've seen that this gospel has in view salvation, this gospel has in view power, and thirdly, see here at the top of 14, this gospel has in view that it is for everyone who blank, everyone who believes, everyone who believes this gospel, for everyone who believes. You cannot receive Christ and His benefits if you do not place your blank in Him.

What do you think? Trust. Yeah, your trust, your faith. Yeah, trust or faith. Either one of those in Him. You have to be trusting in Him, faith in Him. What if you have a friend that you're maybe visiting with that you know, and they tell you that they have faith Christ, but they also have faith in other gods, because they think that there's different ways that we can get to heaven, that it doesn't really matter which, you know, God you trust in.

I mean, is that gonna... is that saving faith? No, it has to be faith in Jesus alone, right? It's got to be faith in Christ alone. That's the only faith that saves. We can't have faith in different deities. It doesn't matter how sincere our friends are, and that can be hard, right?

When you're sitting across talking to somebody, a real human being that you love, and you care for their souls, and they say, you know, I just don't really think that you know, I have faith in some other God, or I just don't really think faith is that important, or you're thinking this is eternal matters here, you need to have faith in Christ. It can't just be anybody or anyone, it's gotta be the Jesus Christ of the Bible.

The gospel is, fourthly, it has in view this, the gospel is for blank, for everyone, for everyone, because it says it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes. Now by saying it's for everyone, I'll have this clarifying comment right below it. The gospel is for all blank of people, all types of people. Because it says it's for the Jew first and also to the Greek. So for all types of people, Jews and Gentiles.

Well, three on page 14, Paul goes on to talk about the righteousness of God. According to Guy Waters, the righteousness of God is the righteousness that God attributes to man as opposed to man's own righteousness. It is what God gives to the sinner in the divine courtroom, and thereby alone grounds God's legal or forensic declaring the sinner to be righteous. Well, what does Guy mean here? All Gaia is getting at is this, that we are declared righteous because we receive the righteousness of Christ by faith.

I'll say that again. We are declared righteous because we receive the righteousness of God by faith. It's forensic. It's a courtroom term, this justification. It's a declaration of what we are, not in ourselves, but what we are in Christ. He is our righteousness.

And that's what Guy is getting at here in that quote. This is proven by texts like Romans 3, 21, and 22, where we're headed in the long run with this study. Romans 3, verses 21 and 22, listen to how it tells us that we are declared righteous. It says, although the law and the prophets bear witness to it, the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. So it's a righteousness apart from the law. It's the righteousness of God, he says, chapter 3, verse 22, through faith in Jesus Christ.

So we might say the righteousness of God refers to the blank which his righteousness requires him to blank. The righteousness of God refers to the blank, the righteousness, which his righteousness requires him to require. The righteousness of God refers to the righteousness which his righteousness requires him to require.

Now we're going to unpack that I know it sounds confusing and maybe it is a little bit, but I think it's really helpful. And here's why. We'll unpack it and see. So what this statement declares is that God is righteous and cannot blank his standard, lower his standard of how righteous a person must be in order to be considered truly righteous in his presence. So the first thing that this statement is affirming for us, that this righteousness is referring to the righteousness which God's righteousness requires him to require, what that is getting at first off is that God cannot lower his standard. The righteousness that he requires is his own righteousness. It's got to be perfect, in other words.

And so he can't lower his standard in order to allow someone into his presence. And hopefully we understand that here in this room, but I know that as you dialogue with other people outside of this room, you will hear that idea that, well, I'm a pretty decent person. God will let me into his heaven. No, he won't. He'll cast you where you deserve to go.

You and I, and this person, this made-up person that we're imagining here, they deserve God's eternal wrath. Because their righteousness has not been at the level of God's righteousness. That's what God is requiring. He can't lower his standard because you think that you're a decent person and you're sure you're better than Betty Sue. You know, it doesn't, you can't work that way. That's not the way God works. So That's the first thing that this statement is helping us to unfold and understand.

But then it goes on, God's being righteous seals our blank, our condemnation. God's righteousness seals our condemnation in and of itself, apart from mercy, because we're not righteous. So God's being righteous seals our condemnation because we are not righteous. Seals it. we're done. But then God's attributing his righteousness to us seals our justification, that's that second blank there, justification because we are counted righteous. So his righteous standard seals the fact that we are condemned if we can't find a righteousness and there's no hope for us.

But then at the very same time, Because God attributes, because He counts us as righteous in Jesus, it seals our justification, it seals our acceptance, because we are counted as righteous. So do you think the righteousness of man could ever make it to where God had to accept us?

Why or why not? Exactly. Are we all far short? No, we could not, right? There's no way we could ever achieve the righteousness that's required. And then what does your answer to this question teach you that you need? Well, it teaches us that we need a righteousness outside of ourselves, doesn't it? So if it's true that our righteousness could never achieve what is necessary to be in a right relationship with God, if it is true that our righteousness could never achieve perfection, which is true of all of us, then what does it declare that we need? We need a righteousness from outside of ourselves. We need a righteousness that we cannot produce in ourselves.

Roman numeral four there, what comforts and encouragements can you have as a Christian if you are looking to the righteousness of God by faith for salvation and not your own, not your own righteousness? There's so many encouragements, can't we take from this fact? It means we can have confidence, can't we? We can have security, we can have assurance. because my salvation is not based on me, it's based on Jesus. So assurance is a fruit, a blessing, a kindness from God when we're looking to Jesus. You're able to serve the Lord more out of joy than out of simply fear of condemnation. You could serve them with joy because you're secure in Jesus and so you can serve with that heart of gladness, of joy.

Thankfulness. That's great. Yes, thankfulness. Thankfulness because our salvation is completely the work of Jesus, the work of another. Feel free if y'all have any other particular things that you immediately think of. There's obviously plenty of blessings that we can probably all think of, but are there any particular ways that you find comfort or encouragement in knowing that your salvation is not based on your righteousness but on Christ's? That's a good one. Yeah, Christ is always interceding for us. Yeah. That's good. Yeah, He's still pleading His mercies on our behalf. That's great.

Page 15, the top there, point number 4. We read three important things about the righteousness of God in verse 17. Let's consider these three things. We're going to see three important things about God's righteousness in verse 17. The righteousness of God is blank. It is revealed. So look there at verse 17, for in it, the righteousness of God is blank, is revealed. Righteousness of God is revealed. Okay. We're going to see why this is important. Well, who is it who decides to make the righteousness of God known to us? Who decides to make the righteousness of God known to you? God, God makes it known to you, right? So God makes it known to us.

And what this means is, apart from his revelation, we cannot know the way of salvation. We would be groping in darkness, right? If he did not reveal it to us, we're completely at his mercy to reveal it to us. And I have a passage here to that effect, Matthew 11, 25 and 26, that the father graciously reveals salvation to His own through His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.

When and where was the righteousness of God revealed? Well, according to Romans 3.21, we could say it is revealed in Jesus in history, because it says, verse 21 of chapter 3, but now, that means now, at this juncture in human history, but now the righteousness of God has been manifested, has been revealed, apart from the law, although the law and the prophets bear witness to it. So the righteousness of God is revealed in Jesus in history. When Jesus Christ came, the righteousness of God came in Christ, He fulfilled the law in history. The righteousness of God, B, this is one of the other important things we're gonna see about God's righteousness according to verse 17. So we've seen that it's revealed, but also we see the righteousness of God is from faith for faith.

This means that it is from faith from first to last, which is just another way of saying that it is through faith blank for your blank life. It is through faith alone that this righteousness is through faith alone for your blank life, for your entire life. In other words, your whole life as a Christian is one of faith. That's what I'm getting at here.

That's what Paul is getting at there when he says from faith for faith. So for in it, the righteousness of God revealed from faith for faith. What does that mean from faith for faith? It's been a long lot of ink has been spilled on that. And what Guy Waters is saying, and what I'm affirming as well, is that what he's really simply getting at is it's from faith to first to last.

It's your whole life is a life of faith. You trust in Jesus and you keep trusting in Jesus. That's what I'm convinced and Guy is convinced that he's getting at. Do you start the Christian life by putting your faith in Jesus, but then finish the Christian life by your good works?

I know, right? And that's really important because I would suggest that if we were honest, I will speak for myself. I have had seasons of my Christian walk where, while theologically I've known that is not true, I have functionally lived like I had to be saved by my works. So functionally, theologically, we probably in this room, you know, and if we don't, that's okay, we're learning, we're growing together. Theologically, we may all in this room be able to say, oh, of course I start my faith and of course my works don't save me after I become a Christian, but what about when you sin? Right? How are you saved then? All of a sudden you've got to work get yourself out of the pit that you got yourself in to save yourself. No, you don't, right? And again, we can, you know, I think we could probably all relate to that attitude and it's a temptation. It's a real temptation.

That's why I love Galatians 3, 1 through 3 so much. I love this because Paul just, you know, does what Paul does, writing by divine inspiration, and he just totally throws down. So if you look at Galatians chapter 3 verses 1 through 3, Let me ask you only this, did you receive the spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? And all of a sudden, no, we heard it by hearing with faith, not by works of the law. But then he goes on to say this in verse three of Galatians three, are you so foolish having begun by the spirit? Are you being perfected by the flesh? So he's saying, you know, Galatians, that you were saved by God's grace, but now you're trying to live like you're going to be perfected by your works.

You know, that's silly. That's what he's saying. You know, that's not how this works. And that's how we can operate as well. And so, you know Just just I don't know that's just something to think about for us but see here, so We've seen two important things about this righteousness that it is revealed that it is By faith alone and then see here. The righteousness of God is not blank.

It's not new. It's not new. It's not new now How does Paul prove? that what he said in Romans 1, 1 and 2 is true in Romans 1, 17. So how do we know that it's not new? How do we know that he's proving something he stated back in the first two verses of this book? Look what he said in verse 2. Well, we actually kind of have to have 1,

2. Chapter 1, verses 1 and 2. Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures concerning his son. So he said back in verse two that this gospel concerning his son was declared in the Holy Scriptures. Now, we said this last time or two times ago, but what would the Holy Scriptures have been to the Apostle Paul when he was writing this? What portions of the Bible would he specifically have been referencing?

The Old Testament. And now what does he do at the end of verse 17 of Romans chapter 1? The end of verse 17. What does he quote? He quotes the Old Testament. The righteous shall live by faith. Habakkuk chapter 2 verse 4. He quotes the Old Testament. Habakkuk 2 verse 4. So what he's doing here is he's proving that what he said back in chapter 1 verses 1 and 2 is true. that the Old Testament was concerning the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, and he says it was always by faith, Habakkuk 2,

4. It's not a new idea that Paul just came up with one day. So, number five there on page 15, in Romans 1, 1 through 17, Paul speaks of our necessity of righteousness, that's that first blank there, so he speaks of our necessity of righteousness. He then goes on to prove our blank of righteousness, our lack of righteousness, chapter 1 verses 18 through 20, through 320. Then in 321 we see the blank of righteousness, the gift of righteousness. So I'm trying to give us a quick overview again of what he's doing First he says you need to be righteous Then he says you're not righteous, but then he says there's been a gift of righteousness and that comes in Christ So this is again trying to help us see where are we headed in the long term over the next several weeks?

This is where we're headed Well now let's let's just maybe maybe we can get through verse 18 and just call it after you know Yeah, let's just try to see we get you verse 18. I'm realizing this lady's Bible study because this is just a lot of content and we're going to have to think about what we're going to want to do long term.

We're going to want to draw this thing out and we're going to say, let's stop at our set date and then let's pick back up in the fall with the rest of it. We can discuss that another time, but I just realized there's just a lot here. When I originally worked through most, I've reworked it for this study, but when I originally kind of wrote this, it was for like a It was for a long time that I would it was a couple hours. It was a couple hours. So Different context.

So anyways Let's just start on verse 18 a little bit here Romans chapter 1 verse 18 Paul begins here by showing that God reveals his wrath to all ungodly and unrighteous people Why would Paul begin this section by talking about wrath? ungodliness and unrighteousness Now, let's try to answer that Unless we know the blank news, we cannot appreciate the blank news. Y'all might know this one. Yep, exactly. Bad and good.

Unless we know the bad news, we cannot appreciate the good news. And if I ask the question and I think it's pretty self-explanatory, but what does this have to do with the gospel? I think we kind of know, right? The gospel tells us that we are sinners, and then it tells us that Jesus is the Savior, right? It tells us the bad news so that we can appreciate the good news of Jesus. Yeah, I always like to give the example that a man doesn't go to the hospital unless he knows he's sick. And we're not going to go to Jesus unless we know we need him, right? That's when you go to see the doctors.

Verse 17 and 18 both use the word revealed. There's a connection between 17 and 18. They both use the same word revealed. What's revealed in verse 17 and what's revealed in verse 18? Righteousness and wrath. Yep. So in verse 17, the righteousness of God is revealed, and then in contrast to that, you see in verse 18 that the wrath of God is revealed. When we contrast verses 17 and 18, top of page 16 here, when we contrast these two verses, 17 and 18, they teach us something very important.

We need God's blank to be given to us because his blank is coming for us. We need his righteousness to be given to us because his blank, his wrath is coming for us. That's why we need God's righteousness, because his wrath is coming. And unless we can be found righteous in his sight, his wrath will come upon me and it will come upon you. That's why we need this righteousness so desperately.

And we have it in Jesus, and so we're safe, but that's why we need it. What does God's wrath mean? Well, I said this in a previous lesson. This is my own definition. There are others, but this is mine. As stated in an earlier lesson, God's wrath might be defined as God's righteous reaction to all unrighteousness. His righteous reaction to all unrighteousness.

And I think rather than try to do too much, let's go ahead and stop there. I know there's a few more minutes, but I'd rather us be able to try to, it's just so much, let's just enjoy it. Let it sit on our hearts and minds, but we'll stop there. I made a note, so I'll start us off at the right point next time we're going.

I guess, do we have any particular questions or anything y'all would want to try to think about? I mean, I don't know the answer, but I can pretend. No, but I would tell you. If I don't know the answer, I'll tell you. But if there's anything specific, though, that y'all had in mind, we can... Well, let me pray for us, and I look forward to jumping back in it next week. Thank you so much for your time.