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We started this journey in Romans 11 where Paul affirmed that God was able to graft the Jews back in to the spiritual tree from which they had been broken off due to unbelief (See Romans 11.23). However, God's ability to bring them back to Himself was contingent upon their belief and continuance in the faith. From this thought springboard we proceeded to explore some things that God can do as well as some things that He cannot do. We close this miniseries with an extremely positive note as we examine one other affirmation about what God can do.

Paul wrote: “But this…  ( Click for more )

This miniseries about what God is able to do is relevant to every human being alive on our planet! However, the fact that I in particular am writing this series is also relevant. What enables me to write about or to know what God is able to do? Why should you believe anything I say about God, His character, or His actions? What special insight do I possess that would prompt anyone to even consider my thoughts on the matter?

First off, I disavow the possession of any privileged information, or any special insight into the heavenly realm that is not commonly available to anyone…  ( Click for more )

Have you ever heard someone way, “God can do anything”? Perhaps this type of comment comes from the fact that the Scriptures teach that God is all powerful. However, being all powerful does not imply that He can literally do anything. God has limitations! The difference between God's limitations and man's limitations is this: God's limitations are self imposed whereas man's limitations are imposed from without. This short miniseries will consider what God is able to do as well as what He is not able to do.

We begin our study by looking at one of the five biblical texts…  ( Click for more )

The core question is this: Does the requiring of action(s) on the part of a believer invalidate the principle of grace? Or to put it another way, can there be legitimate conditions to salvation without doing violence to the concept of grace? Or to ask it yet another way, if I must do something to obtain salvation, have I “worked for my salvation” and thereby made void the offer of grace? Today's devotional will look at selected phrases from Romans 11 and thereby provide a biblical response to the vital questions we have just posed.

Please note that the chapter under…  ( Click for more )

“I say then, has God cast away His people? Certainly not! For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. God has not cast away His people whom He foreknew. Or do you not know what the Scripture says of Elijah, how he pleads with God against Israel, saying, 'LORD, they have killed Your prophets and torn down Your altars, and I alone am left, and they seek my life'? But what does the divine response say to him? 'I have reserved for Myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal.' Even so then, at this present time there is a remnant…  ( Click for more )

“For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ…” (Ephesians 3.14).

The point of this devotional message is not to look at the things for which Paul prayed on this occasion. Rather, it is to look at the phrase “I bow my knees…” and some of the implications of this phrase. The point of the phrase is not to depict a sanctified position of prayer, but rather to indicate the sanctified attitude of prayer displayed by Paul. This does not deny that Paul literally bowed his knees in prayer, for that seems to be the case –…  ( Click for more )

Paul’s burden in Romans ten is to point out the problem which continued to block Israel from God’s many blessings, up to and even including salvation itself. They continued to seek to establish their own righteousness and allowed their knowledge of God’s righteousness to go unheeded. This problem lay at the root of the rest of their problems concerning God and salvation. Paul expands that point in the middle and latter verses of the chapter.

Perhaps some thought (as many today), that it was some spectacular personal accomplishment that would bring them into God’s…  ( Click for more )

Verb tenses say more than we frequently notice. In fact, sometimes the entire point of what God says can be missed by failing to notice such seemingly insignificant matters. Today's message extends that principle and demonstrates just how important it is in understanding and applying the Holy Scriptures to our lives. We begin by quoting Romans 10.5 from the King James Version: “For Moses describeth the righteousness which is of the law, 'That the man which doeth those things shall live by them.'” (emphasis mine; jb). The American Standard Version substitutes the word…  ( Click for more )

Paul was not calloused in his message; rather, his heart was tremendously and perpetually affected by how Israel was reacting to the truth of the gospel. Read the following words and feel the pathos in them: “Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved. For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God.” (Romans 10.1-3).

If Paul's desire…  ( Click for more )

There was a fundamental truth that Israel according to the flesh had to accept in order to be saved, and it was Paul's intent to put that truth continually before them. In today's message, we will identify that fundamental truth, a truth which many reject yet today.

First, however, what do we mean when we speak of a fundamental truth? We do not mean what others assign to the term; we are capable of defining our terms and we ought to be extended that courtesy. A fundamental truth is one which must be accepted in order to proceed/progress. When a fundamental truth is neglected…  ( Click for more )

“I tell the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Spirit, that I have great sorrow and continual grief in my heart.” (Romans 9.1-2). With these words, Paul forms what A. T. Robertson calls a “triple oath.” Our focus today will be to examine this triple oath and the feelings that were behind such affirmations.

First, we turn our attention to the oath itself. “I tell the truth in Christ...” is Paul's affirmation of doctrinal purity; all that he had written before was true and incontrovertible. The…  ( Click for more )

Yes, I admit I like racing; I watch grown men turn left at breakneck speed lap, after lap, after lap. Maybe its my alter ego that compels me to lose myself in such things. Many a race, in fact the most exciting races, has been won in a photo-finish. In the 1959 Daytona 500, it took NASCAR officials three days to confirm that Lee Petty had edged out second place finisher Johnny Beauchamp by a scant two feet! For some old-time race fans, that “victory” is still disputed!”

The victory of which Paul wrote to close out Romans 8, is a victory of a very different…  ( Click for more )

Verb tenses - they say more sometimes than all the other words of a sentence. Such was the case when Paul affirmed, “For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8.38-39). In particular, we will look at the affirmation, “I am persuaded...”

The word persuaded simply means to be convinced, or to trust. But, our focus just now is on…  ( Click for more )

“What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies.” (Romans 8.31-33; emphasis mine, jb).

The word “just” and its cousins (justify and justification) are not uncommon words in everyday usage. We talk about justifying margins on our word processor, or we speak of “justifiable homicide,” or we might say regarding an…  ( Click for more )

The word if isn’t always conditional; sometimes it affirms a rule. For instance, I might say, if we heat the water to 212 degrees Fahrenheit, it will start boiling. In this sentence and in the past tense, it has the same meaning as the word since. Since we heated the water to 212Fahrenheit, it started boiling. There is no maybe about it; the rule is preceded by the word if and it forms a positive affirmation of fact.

Paul was beyond the questioning stage when he wrote these lines: “What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He…  ( Click for more )

Theology without an application is just so much palaver. Likewise, the gospel without application is not the gospel at all. It only becomes Good News when it is applied. This miniseries is about what I am styling as the ultimate application. Consider the following text, lengthy though it might be, and see if you don’t agree that this is THE gospel’s ultimate application.

“What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give…  ( Click for more )

And We Know (3 of 3)

We know what He will do because we know what He did! That is the crux of Paul's argument as he affirms that “...all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.” (Romans 8.28). What did He do? He proved His love beyond all human expectations or potential! The proof that He yet works incessantly on our behalf lies in a knowledge of how He worked in the past!

I am convinced that God will labor just as hard for one soul as He will for a million. His love is without dimensions when it…  ( Click for more )

The past is, from a purely human viewpoint, the best predictor of the future. In the world in which we live, the future of things (such as housing sales, the weather, a baseball team's performance, entertainers, automobile reliability, human behavior, etc., etc.) that matter to us are predicted using the past.

The past is not a perfect predictor, but it is the best that we have. The disclaimer that appears on investment portfolios (“Past performance not a guarantee of future performance”) spells out in no uncertain terms the uncertainty of using the past to predict…  ( Click for more )

“And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.” (Romans 8.28-30).

The question of the moment (at least within the focus text), is this: “How do we know that all things work together for good?”…  ( Click for more )

Since beginning this series on the book of Romans, I have had requests for an outline of the book. It is presented here for your study and usage. It is brief, but I think it is reasonably accurate. Like all outlines of the Bible, as one's knowledge of a book's contents change, so should the outline. Call it a working outline if you will and may God bless it to your use.

Paul's greeting and opening remarks (1:1-1:15)

The Thesis Statement of the book of Romans (1:16-1:18)

Manifest evils of man apart from God (1:19-4) …  ( Click for more )

Today’s message will be a bit different in that it will make some needed points about the central text we have been studying for the last four days; first we present the text: “Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God. And we know that all things work together for good to…  ( Click for more )

The fact that the Spirit makes (and keeps on making) intercession for the saints is a key point of our text. For similar reasons, it is important that we recognize that He does this “according to the will of God.” (see Romans 8.26-27). These two verses provide the immediate and direct context for a verse that is all too often misunderstood and misapplied. Our devotional today will take a quick look at this much maligned verse and attempt to set it aright in our minds. Our method will be by simply allowing the context to speak!

The extended text reads: “Likewise…  ( Click for more )

Read the verbs that pertain to Deity's actions in Romans 8.26-27. To make these words stand out they are cited from the King James Version, the reason to become obvious presently.

The Spirit also helpeth our infirmities... The Spirit itself maketh intercession... He that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit... He maketh intercession for the saints...” (each point of emphasis mine; jb). I absolutely do not apologize for using the revered version of 1611; its beauty is surpassed only by its usefulness in sincere Bible study (as this message will well…  ( Click for more )

Thank God for Unanswered Prayers was a huge number one country hit for Garth Brooks in the 1990’s. The entire basis for the song is the fact that we just don’t always know what is best for us, even in our prayers. Beyond that, it is also an indisputable fact that God always knows what is best. That is precisely Paul’s point in Romans 8.26 when he says, “For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought…” If we knew how to pray perfectly and we knew what to pray for, we would have much of the battle won. However, we are human! We do not know…  ( Click for more )