Lesson 2: Romans 1:1-7

This morning to our second study like I said Romans chapter 1 verses 1 through 7 and basically from this point forward we're gonna be slowing down and we're going to just be trying to chew off a little bit of the first three chapters of Romans each week till we get through the first three chapters of Romans. So today Romans chapter 1 verses 1 through 7. If you have your study guide, your booklet, that would be found on page 7.

So the opening greeting of the Book of Romans is longer than any of the other opening greetings of Paul's letters. So if you look at Paul's other epistles, 1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians, Galatians, and so forth, you would find that their opening greetings are not so long. I believe Titus is maybe second or third in length, I think Galatians is second or third, I think one of those two has second and third place, but Romans is significantly longer than any of the other opening greetings.

You just simply have to ask. It's not random, right? Paul is a very logical thinker. He's got a purpose behind everything he's doing. And of course, he's writing as a divinely inspired individual, so that also adds to the sense of there has to be a reason for these things. Why is it that Romans has this lengthier introduction, this lengthier opening greeting, and we can say there are really two reasons for this.

You can see there your first two blanks, A and B, there on page 7, because he had not visited them yet. So that's the first reason, because he had not visited them yet. And if you stop to think about that statement, it does make sense, doesn't it? If you were writing a letter to a friend that you had already gotten to know quite well, you wouldn't probably feel the need to give a lengthy introduction here, you know, my name is Max Strawbridge and I went to RTS Jackson and I, you know, sort of, making sure people know who you are and what you're about because your friends already know that about you so it would kind of be almost a little weird they would think why are you writing all these details about you know who you are and what you're about we already know that get to your point and so that's part of the reason it's just that simple fact he had not yet visited them but tied to this reality of him not having visited them yet, there is this second and closely tied reason, which is because he outlines important truths about the gospel.

He outlines important truths about the gospel. So that's that second, that's that B there. He outlines important truths about the gospel. And again, that's kind of tied to his having not visited them because he's outlining these important truths about the gospel because he knows that they haven't yet at least heard his take on the gospel yet. They haven't yet heard him explain the gospel because he hasn't visited them. So it's tied to that first reason. So he had not visited them and he's outlining important truths about the gospel.

So that's A and B there under point one on page seven. But dropping down to point two, what two titles does Paul give himself in verse one? And then we're gonna define these two titles. What two titles does he give himself in verse one? Exactly, a servant and an apostle.

So, A, a servant there, under point two, and we could define a servant, and I'm sure there's lots of different definitions, I just, this is mine, you know, one under authority of their master, right? A servant is under the authority of his or her master. That's what a servant is. So that's the first thing, we see that he's a servant.

Yeah, we're a slave, right? Doulos, right, is our Greek there. So servant or slave. And I know that obviously we live in our age and our context. We understand probably something of why the translators generally don't want to translate it slave, but it's the same word. And frankly, I actually think it helps capture just the reality of you're really a slave.

I mean, you're really, you know, you are committed. This is your master, right? I mean, there's something powerful. in that term. But secondly, we see that he's the Apostle. He's an Apostle, right? An Apostle, does anyone know kind of just a very, very basic definition of an Apostle?

Yeah. Scent one, actually. Yes, scent one. Literally, just the most bare bones, it just means scent one. That's what it literally means. It means a scent one. That's what an Apostle is. He's a scent one. So that, yeah, it's literally just what the Greek means, sent one. So having seen these two titles that he gives himself, servant and apostle, I think it would be helpful for us now, point three here, to look at the significance of each of these.

And I think we can say of servant, first, a servant implies a master, right? I know it's simple, right? But a servant implies a master. I mean, you can't have a servant if there's no master. So it implies a master. Servant implies a master. And of course, and having said that, a servant implies master.

Paul is acknowledging that he's totally under King Jesus. He's totally under Master Jesus. I mean, that's what he's saying here. I am totally under the authority of another. and that another is Jesus Christ. That's his king. That's his master. That's his Lord. Which is just an incredible thing to think about. So much, as you know, is captured in there. We could spend a significant amount of time on that.

But then thinking about our other title, Apostle, well, Second, a sent one, which is what apostle means, a sent one implies a sender, right? You can't be a sent one if someone doesn't send you. Somebody has to send you if you're going to be a sent one.

And so that's describing that Paul is saying here, he is going where Jesus tells him to go, he is saying what Jesus tells him to say, he is a sent one underneath the authority of the sender. He is going about saying what the sender has asked him to say, doing what the sender has asked him to do, And so in these two titles that Paul is acknowledging of himself in verse one, that he is a servant and an apostle, he's acknowledging that he is totally under the authority of King Jesus, that he is sent by King Jesus, that he is speaking on behalf of King Jesus. There's just so much here about his utter commitment to Christ because Christ has committed himself to Paul and made Paul his own. So it's hard almost to even move on beyond these two titles because there's so much more that we could say, but for the sake of time I think we can say we've captured enough. So moving on to point four here, how did Paul get to become an apostle? How did he get to become an apostle according to verse one? called, right?

Yeah, called by the will of God, right? He's called to be an apostle. He's called to be an apostle. And the reason I bring that up is simply because this wasn't merely a job, you know, and we all know, of course, from Acts 9, right, when the apostle Paul was converted, that it's not as though he was woke up and, you know, I really was I've been enjoying my life as a Pharisee and a scribe and I'm thinking maybe I want to change it up. Maybe I'll become an apostle. That's not how this happened. He was called by God himself to be an apostle. Fifthly, point five here, Paul was set apart for the gospel of God.

What does the word gospel mean? Okay, I know there's a million different definitions we could give. The definition I always like to give, simply because it is so easy to remember, is God saves sinners. God saves sinners. So the word gospel means God, well, actually it means good news, I guess is what I meant there, because I have two blanks. So I was wondering, what was I going for there? Two blanks? I always find it, it does mean, Catching myself off guard. We're going to blame that on the issues at the house.

So gospel, it does mean good news. That is what it means. And I always define the good news of it as God saves sinners. But good news is the definition of gospel, good news. And I think I talked about this a little bit last time, but I run over it here just a bit again on the bottom of page seven. The gospel is first and foremost fact, not feeling. I always like to stress that because we need to know what Jesus has done for us. That is a fact that ought to, of course, produce a feeling, but it's not first and foremost a feeling.

And so we read here at the bottom of page seven, it is good news about what God has done, not good news about what you have done or must do. Jay Grassamachian captured this well when he wrote, I love this quote, what I need first of all is not exhortation but a gospel, not directions for saving myself but knowledge of the way God has saved me.

Have you any good news for me? That is the question that I ask of you I know your exhortation will not help me, but if anything has been done to save me, will you not tell me the facts? Right? So if Jesus Christ has really come into this world to save me, will you please tell me?

That's what he's saying. I don't need you. I mean, we know, of course, there's a place for commands. The Bible is full of commands. But what I need first and foremost is something that somebody else can do for me. Right? You can tell me all day the exhortations. You can tell me all day the commandments, and I need to hear those, and you need to hear those, we need to hear those, but imagine you're an unbeliever. You can tell me all day the Ten Commandments, and I will not be able to keep them. I need somebody to do something for me that I can't do for myself.

I need the facts of the work of Jesus Christ, which is exactly where Paul will be going here in just a moment this morning. But whose gospel was it that Paul had been set apart to proclaim? We're not going to turn to those various passages, but they're in Galatians that would help expound this a bit more, but the gospel that Paul preached was blank blank God's gospel. God's gospel, right? The gospel that Paul preached wasn't his own ideas. Again, he didn't just say, you know, I like these things, so I'm going to say this is the gospel. No, it was God's gospel. It was God's message of redemption that he had entrusted to people like Paul and Peter and so forth, and even down to us this very day, to proclaim. So it's God's gospel. Point seven there on page eight. Did the gospel exist before Jesus came? And if so, where did you learn about it? So we have two questions here. Did it exist before Jesus came? Did the gospel exist? And the answer is yes, the gospel existed. Now we're going to explain that a little bit, but the answer first there in A is yes on point seven.

And then B, you would learn about it in the blank blank. Well, let's look back at chapter 1 verses 1 and 2, Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel which he promised beforehand, so he had already promised this gospel beforehand, through his prophets in the holy scripture. So where would you learn about this gospel if you were living before Jesus Christ came? in the holy scriptures right in the holy scriptures which would be of course the old testament right holy scriptures that's what goes in a blank there you would learn about it in the holy scriptures so in the old testament while they did not have the gospel in its more full articulation and fuller revelation like you and I do today who live on this side of the cross in resurrection with a copy of God's Word in the way that we have it today and it's completed canon. they did still have the gospel.

It was still the good news that there would be a Savior to come who would redeem them from their sins. And they understood that in some level of fullness, not to the same level that you and I do, but they did understand it. The gospel clearly, Paul is saying here, was preached beforehand through the prophets in the holy scriptures.

Why is the Bible called the Holy Scriptures in verse 2? Well, because they are the most, this is coming from another guy and I mentioned him here, but because they are the most excellent book, so they're set apart because they're the most excellent book, they are inspired by the Holy Spirit, so they're holy because they're literally inspired by the Holy Spirit, and they contain the perfect rule of holiness of life. So they tell us the way to live a holy life. So for these reasons, it's called the Holy Scriptures.

So, moving on to verses 3 and 4 now. Who is the main character of the gospel? You can find this in verse 3. Who's the gospel about, according to verse 3? Concerning his son, exactly. Concerning his son. So this is super helpful because we tend to think, just as human beings, that the gospel is mostly about me, but it's actually mostly not about me. It's mostly about Him, who Jesus is, what Jesus has done.

And then of course, as you all probably all heard that saying before, and I don't know who it's originally attributed to, but it's one of those things that have been said by a lot of people, but the point at which I come into play in the story of the gospel is my sin, right? That's what I get to contribute to the story of the gospel, right? I don't contribute, you know, good works. I don't contribute, you know, I didn't die for my sins. I wasn't raised for my sins.

Jesus did it all. The only thing that I really have to contribute in this story of the gospel is it was for our sins, as I think it's 1 Corinthians 15, three or so says it. But he died for our sins. So that's the extent to which it's really about me. But point being, it's not really about me. It's really mostly about Christ and what he has done for me.

So it's concerning his son, he puts it that way in verse three. We learn three things about the main character of the gospel in verses three and four. So we're going to learn a few things about the main character. The first thing we learn is admittedly a mouthful.

The gospel has to do with the blank blank blank blank blank. I probably should have Exactly. I probably should have done less blanks there, but take that up with the editors. But the gospel has to do with the eternal, that's our first blank, pre-existent, eternal, pre-existent, Son of God.

So, the eternal, pre-existent Son of God. And I've got a lot of scripture references, and I just, I hope that, you know, we'll be understanding just that we love the, I would like to be able to turn to all those places, but I don't know that we will be able to do that. So you can see the references there though that would help back this claim that the gospel is about the eternal pre-existent Son of God. The Son of God did not become the Son of God at His incarnation. Instead, the second person of the Trinity has always been the Son in relation to the Father. This is important because it shows us that the gospel has to do with, and I love this, the person who is on the highest plane of reality. It is not only God's gospel, but its subject matter is God, God's eternal son.

In other words, you better listen up because this topic is from God blank, from God himself, the gospel is from God himself, about God blank, about God himself. So it's from God himself, about God himself. So what John Murray is getting at here is that the gospel, it's sort of like a trumpet blast or like an alarm in a good way, not in a scary way, but like we need to listen up because Paul has just told us in verse three and four, and we'll expound this a bit in a moment, but this gospel, this good news, is literally about the most important person in the world, right?

It's not like a subjective thing, like, I like this guy a lot, and you like him a lot, maybe. This is an objective statement, like, this is about God who became man. This is about the most important person who's ever walked the globe. So we ought to listen up. It's kind of like how sometimes if you ever studied, you know, ancient history, like, Alexander the Great did this, so I probably should listen because he was a great man. But of course, he's just a man. Even if you think he's a great man, he's just a man. But this is the greatest man, person, who's ever walked the globe, because he's the God-man. And so the point is, it's really important, we need to listen to it, because it's about God himself, and it's from God himself. So, That's the first thing we learn about this main character is that he's the eternal son of God. So how do we see that?

Well, it says, "...concerning his son who was descended. So he already was his son. I know this might be a little bit hard to see, but if we can slow down, he's saying in verse 3, the gospel is concerning His Son, the Second Person of the Trinity, who was already His Son, pre-existent, He's always been the Son. He didn't become the Son in the Incarnation. He's already been the Son. He, God Himself, the Second Person of the Trinity, then who was in time descended?

So he was the son, he's pre-existing eternal son, and then at some point this glorious God himself who made you and me said, I'm gonna come down. He made us and said, I'm gonna come down. I'm gonna come into this world. That's what you see happening in verse 3. The eternal son of God who was descended from David. So that's point B here. The gospel has to do with the This is what goes in our blank there for point B. Humiliation. Humiliation. The gospel has to do with the humiliation of the Son of God.

So it has to do with his glorious, eternal pre-existence that's unimaginably, like, we can't fathom it. Then it also has to do with his, this When we think of the Nicene Creed, for example, we've been saying that on Sunday mornings. It's just amazing, right? Think of the Nicene Creed.

It states for the first half of paragraph two who Jesus Christ is as a eternal pre-existent Son of God. He's God of God, Light of God, Very God of Very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father, right? All these glorious things.

And then it says, and for us and for our salvation He came down. I might be slightly misquoting it, but if I am, it's only ever so slightly. So that's what this is saying in less words here in the Scriptures, is this Son of God, then was descended according to the flesh. according to David, according to the flesh. This Son of God, who is the eternal pre-existence of God, He came down and was humiliated. He came down and became one of us.

The gospel has to do with the humiliation of the Son of God. And I have a couple of references there, you know, Westminster Shorter, Catechism 27, and so forth. But, in other words, there would be no gospel without the blank. There would be no gospel without the incarnation. That's what's being captured here. Without the incarnation, without the humiliation, of Jesus Christ, there would be no gospel. God had to come down for there to be this great gospel, and praise the Lord He did.

Now, what does the incarnation mean? This means that the Eternal Son condescended and blank blank blank took on flesh. That's what the incarnation means, that He took on flesh. Have y'all ever had chili con carne? What is chili con carne? It was my pastor would say always growing up, who'd try to help the kids in the audience understand, in the congregation, understand what does incarnation? Chili with meat. Chili con carne is just chili with meat.

Well, the incarnation is God taking on flesh, being, taking on, if we could put it this way, meat, right? Taking on flesh. So that's what the incarnation is. It's the Son of God took on flesh. That's the incarnation. Did the eternal Son of God become God's Son when He was incarnated? No. No. Now, that's just wrong. He's already the Son of God. So, top of page, whatever this page is, nine, did the Eternal Son of God cease to be God when He was incarnated? So, did He cease to be God when He took on flesh? And the answer is also no. He did not cease to be God when he took on flesh. A there under point three on page nine, he became what he was blank without blank to be what he blank. Okay, ready?

He became what he was not. That's your first blank there. He became what he was not, which was man, right? He became man, which he was not. He became what he was not without ceasing your second blank there, without ceasing to be what he was. So its blanks are not, ceasing, was. He became what he was not without ceasing to be what he was. So he became what he was not, meaning he became... God became man. He became what he was not, which was man. Without ceasing to be what he was, which was God. This is the glory of the Incarnation. This is the unfathomable mysteries of the God that would do this to save his sinners, save his people.

I read this the other day, and I'm definitely going to quote it at some point, but it's incredible. In the pulpit, I mean, I don't know when. But many men throughout history have tried to become God, but only one God has ever become man. Many men in history have tried to become God You can just think of the Caesars and that they've all been trying to become God and you know what they did they failed But there was there was a God and there is a God who said I'm gonna become a man.

That's just incredible That's what we're reading about here. So thus in verse 3 we meet the blank blank the God man That's what we meet in verse 3. We meet the God man. We meet the God man in verse 3 and again Just to help us see it for a second, how do we see that in verse 3? Well, how do we meet the God-man?

Because concerning his son, that's a reference to his eternal pre-existence. His eternal pre-existence. Concerning his son. And then it's a reference to his humiliation, to his incarnation, who was descended from David according to the flesh. This is God at the start of verse 3. The eternal pre-existent Son, that's God. And then the latter half of verse three sets out that this God became man, who was descended from David according to the flesh. This is the God-man in verse three.

Now, the gospel has to do, but then there's one other thing the gospel has to do with according to our text. The gospel has to do with the exaltation of the Son of God. And this is found in verse four. The exaltation, I blanked there. The gospel has to do with the exaltation of the Son of God. Look at verse four.

So we've seen that he's God. We've seen that he was descended according to the flesh, which means he was incarnate, that he is humiliated. And then we read this, verse 4, his exaltation, So verse 4 then turns our attention to his exaltation. This great God comes down in humiliation. Then this great God, we don't, he doesn't say all this right here, but we know of course that he dies for our sins and so forth. This great God comes down, he's humiliated, he becomes a man, and then we read in verse four that he is resurrected from the dead, he is exalted. So he comes from exaltation to humiliation back to exaltation. So that's the sort of the way the verses are structured.

So in other words, there would be no gospel without the blank, the resurrection, and implied in the resurrection is the ascension. Again, there's no gospel without the resurrection, because what does verse 4 say again? "...and was ascended to be a declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead. The resurrection from the dead is essential to the gospel. All of these components are essential to the Gospel. And again, the Resurrection, it's also, of course, including the Ascension, but he speaks specifically of the Resurrection.

So, this is almost certainly, from my recollection of this study, I will tell you on the front end, this is the most theologically complex study we have. And I know it's dense. Could that have something to do with me? Certainly. I'm imperfect. But I also think sometimes it has to do with the subject matter. There are certain topics that you just can't really begin to try to unpack because of the magnitude of the topic without some level of brain explosion, right? So I was never good at math, but I'm sure if you go far enough in math, that'll happen. For me, that's like, you know, Basic algebra, but for other people that might be a little bit further along like calculus 4 or whatever But at some point topics become complex on and of course that's comparing you know That's just got this is even more glory.

You know more complicated than even those things because it's it's God And more glorious more wonderful, but my point is I know these are like brain breakers, but they're they're really good so in conclusion verses 3 & 4 teach us three things about the gospel and The gospel has to do with the blank son of God in his pre-existence, the eternal son of God in his pre-existence. The gospel has to do with the eternal son of God in his pre-existence.

In what way? Well, that means that God has to do with that because apart from the eternal son of God, the work that Jesus did would have been the work of mere man. It can't be someone less than God. It has to be God to make redemption possible. And we could explain that in more detail, and I wish we could right now, but We actually will later, though, I think, in the study.

So, the Gospel has to do with the eternal Son of God and His preexistence. Second, the Gospel has to do with the humiliation of the Son of God and His incarnation. So that's our blank there, the humiliation of the Son of God and His incarnation. And third, the Gospel has to do with the exaltation of the Son of God and His resurrection. So the eternal Son of God in His pre-existence, the humiliation of the Son of God in His incarnation, the exaltation of the Son of God in His resurrection. And then to quote another man, these verses express the heart of the gospel in a nutshell by expressing the history of Christ in a nutshell. Well, application. What does this have to do with me, right? What does this have to do with me?

Well, first, it sets forth the blank of God, the grace of God. This sets forth the grace of God. How does it set forth the grace of God? Well, it shows you that God cared enough for his people to become a man and die for their sins and then rise from the dead. That's a display of his grace towards us, that he would care about us in this profound way. It sets forth the power of God, B. It sets forth the power of God because it shows that God was able to raise the dead because Christ was raised from the dead.

Therefore, You who have this Jesus in you, working in you, have that same power in you. Not in yourself, but the power of the resurrected Lord Jesus Christ is at work in the children of God. It's an incredible thing, this same power. So that's what the grace of God. So that's what the power of God. So that means when we're fighting our sins, when we're battling our wickednesses. We're not alone. The power of God is at work in us.

And then thirdly, C here, it sets forth the love of Christ, that he would love us so much that he would come down and go through all of this, leaving the quartz of sapphire and gold In the very presence of his eternal father, he would leave all of that and he would come down to a manger and ultimately to a cross and a grave because he loves his people. Jesus loves you. So Christ was raised from the dead here, as we have here, D. Christ was raised from the dead, so you should rise up tomorrow for him. Christ was raised from the dead, so you should rise up tomorrow for him.

This is a great quote from Augustine. Man's seeker was made man, that he, ruler of the stars, might nurse at his mother's breast. that the bread might hunger, the fountain thirst, the light sleep, the way be tired on its journey, that truth might be accused of false witness, the teacher be beaten with whips, the foundation be suspended on wood, that strength might grow weak, that the healer might be wounded, that life might die.

That's what we're reading about here in our first couple of verses. I had this little brief aside from the margins in my Bible. I don't know if this was my own meditations on the verses, so I can't claim it. Although it's in my Bible, and if I took it from somebody, I don't know from whom I stole it. But it's in the margin of my Bible, and I liked it, so I just put it here. Verse 1 teaches us that God owns the Gospel. He's the one who owns it. Verse 2, the Scripture contains the Gospel. Verse 3, the Son is the content of the Gospel.

Top of page 10 here, verses 5 and 6, What two things does Paul mention he received in verse 5? What did he receive in verse 5? Grace and apostleship. Yep, so he says he's received grace and apostleship. So that's your little blank there, grace and apostleship.

From whom did Paul receive these things? according to verse 5, I think it tells us, through whom we receive grace. So, yeah, Jesus Christ, exactly, yeah, you kind of have to go back to verse 4 a little bit, but read from there, Jesus Christ our Lord, through whom, so from Jesus Christ, he received these things through Jesus Christ. He received grace and apostleship from Jesus Christ, or through Jesus Christ. And you can think about that by contrasting it with Acts 9, because that's where he received that grace and apostleship, right? He received that salvation by grace and that call to apostleship in Acts 9. So through Jesus Christ.

For what purpose did Paul receive these things? What tells you here? to bring about the obedience of faith. So to bring about the blank of faith, to bring about the obedience of faith. That's why Paul received these things, this grace and apostleship, to bring about the obedience of faith. But what in the world does that mean? What does the obedience of faith mean?

Murray captures it this way. Faith is regarded as an act of obedience, commitment to the gospel of Christ, a wholehearted devotion to Christ. So the obedience of faith, according to John Murray, is simply responding to Jesus Christ in faith is, we could say, an act of obedience. When a person is who doesn't know Jesus begins to believe in Jesus. They're simply doing what they're supposed to do. They're listening to the gospel message and they're responding in faith. It's that obedience of their trusting in Jesus. And then they're also continuing to do that throughout their life. They're continuing to listen to what God tells them to obey.

And actually the obedience of faith or wholehearted devotion to Christ and his gospel is an important theme that bookends Romans. It's funny as the phrase obedience of faith is only found twice in those exact words in the Bible and the other time is at the end of the book of Romans. So in Romans chapter 16 Verse 25 and 26, we read this, Now to him who is able to strengthen you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ according to the revelation of the mystery that was kept secret for long ages, but has now been disclosed and through the prophetic writing has been made known to all nations according to the command of eternal God to bring about the obedience of faith. So bookends, actually, this phrase kind of bookends the Book of Romans. So why does Paul want to bring about the obedience of faith? Why did he want to bring about the obedience of faith?

Well, let's look again back at verse 5. "...for the sake of his name among all the nations. So in your little blank there, A, under point four, so point four, page 10, A, so why does he want to do this? For the sake of his name among all the nations. That's why he wants to do this. For the sake of his name among all the nations.

Paul did not want the gospel to go forth, I think this is really important, for his own sake. So Paul didn't want the gospel to go forth for his own sake so that he could become popular, right? So that he could be famous around all the churches and, you know, thought well of. That was not his motivation. This is also, I think, very helpful. See here on page 10. Paul did not want the gospel to go forth, first and foremost, for the sake of others. Isn't that profound?

For the sake of others. That was not his ultimate motivation. It wasn't even for the sake of others, first and foremost. It certainly wasn't for his own sake. It wasn't ultimately for the sake of others either, but rather It was for the sake of the name of Christ. In other words, he wanted it to go forth so that God would be glorified.

As we see here on page 10.d, the most important thing about spreading the gospel is the honor and glory of Christ. As John Piper famously said, missions exist because right worship doesn't. That's why missions exist, because right worship doesn't, because God's not getting the glory to do his name. And as a brief aside, this really will help us in sharing the gospel, because when you're trying to share the gospel with other people, it can be easy to get discouraged when they don't respond how you had hoped they would respond.

And that's appropriate to an extent. It should definitely break our hearts and sadden us when people with whom we are trying to tell about Christ don't respond to him. But at the same time, our ultimate motivation is, am I glorifying God in this action? Was I being faithful to God in this action? So even when they don't respond, I can say at least internally, I long to see this person repent and trust in Jesus, but I know that I was doing this for your glory, oh God. And insofar as I was faithful to you, I know you were glorified. And so praise be to your name.

So your goal in life should be the goal of Paul, to be faithful to your master, Jesus Christ, That should be our goal in life and all of our life. So how will this keep you from compromise and capitulation in the world and in the church? In other words, if this is our motivation to glorify God, that should keep us from trying to win the world by becoming like the world. It should keep us from wanting to try to do things simply for ourselves or even letting other people kind of rule our motives and our decisions. We should be doing things for God.

How do you, you know, we're not really going to answer this question, you know, but I think we could quite easily. But, you know, we see the church doing this. We see our own selves doing this, of course. We see other Christians doing this. Not being driven by being faithful to Jesus, not being driven by what glorifies God, will lead us to trying to make all sorts of bad decisions.

Bottom of page 10, according to verse 6, what must happen for you to belong to Jesus according to verse 6? Called, exactly. You must be called, right? So you're called to belong to Him. Top of page 11, do you belong to yourself? Are you your own? What does this text teach? We are not our own, right? He says you belong, you're called to belong to Jesus Christ. So point A there, you know, we belong to Jesus Christ. That's who owns us.

If you've ever gotten a book out of a library, now thankfully you all have all probably gotten a book out of a library before. If we're coming to the day and age where people would say, why what? But, you know, they'll often have a stamp on it, right? And they'll say, you know, this book is the property of such-and-such library. We might think of ourselves like that. That's, of course, telling you that this book belongs to this library.

Well, God has stamped His name upon me, and His name upon you, and He's saying, you belong to me. You need to live like that, right? We need to try to emulate that, which again, we fall so far short. But one of the things that belonging to Jesus looks like is when we know that we're not doing what we're supposed to be doing, We repent. That's one of the things that belong. It's not that we sin less necessarily as Christians. It's that when we see our sin, we repent of our sins, and we strive to live for Christ.

Let's go ahead and close there for the sake of time. We'll just pick back up at verse 7 next week, and we'll see if we can get through it But thank y'all for your attention. There's a lot in this text, so I do appreciate y'all bearing with me as we try to work our way through some really complicated, but hopefully, well, it is glorious, that's for sure, but glorious, but hopefully we can sense that as we go through it. Let's pray.