Condemnation and Inclusion {Romans 1-4}

  For my first swing at teaching the Bible I decided to start with Paul's letter to the Romans. Although my reasons for doing this have, since then, expanded my original intent was based off of Paul's opening statements in the first chapter. You may have read some of my views regarding this at the Cascade Presbyterian blog; so I'll state them briefly here. Paul's epistle to the Romans was written by way of an introduction. He had not yet been to Rome, and wanted to travel there for the sake of expanding his journeys to Spain. That being the case, Paul wanted to establish the cause and goal {namely the Gospel} for his journeys in the Roman church.
  During the course of teaching I've come to realize that the justification of Jesus Christ plumbs the very depths of human depravity. Simply put, the lowest you can descend is the depth to which you can be saved by faith in Jesus Christ. His redemption is more boundless than our depravity. That is why Paul spends so much time establishing the moral failure of the Gentile and the religious failure of the Jewish community. If mankind were redeemed immediately after the Fall we would not have a full understanding of the depth, height, and breadth of God's redeeming affections.

For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation. 

(Romans 5:6-11 ESV)

Merry Christmas!

 ~Matt and Becky

Breaking Radio Silence

Hi Everybody!

  Sorry for not updating this very much lately.....obviously I have been busy, but I ought to spend more time on here. In any case, my wife and I are making a last minute trip down to Ukiah to go to the memorial service of a mentor and friend of mine who passed away last week. It has been touching to dwell on the time he invested in my life, and the fruit that I see from his ministry to me over 5 years ago coming to to maturity in my life as a married man and a college minister. That being said, I don't have any bible stuff to put up here this week. But next week I'll post a run through of Romans 1 through the first half of chapter 4 to update you on what I've been teaching during the Tuesday night bible studies.

On a random note Rainn Wilson, the comedic actor behind Dwight Schrute of NBC's "The Office" has recently released a book and a website called "Soul Pancake". Long story short: it's a forum to discuss what Wilson considers to be "life's big questions." As long as things like these are being discussed in earnest I think we ought to be involved as Christians. I mention this website specifically because of it's light hearted approach to searching for meaning.....it's a good opportunity for candor at the very least.

Blessings to all of you during this Advent season