A high-level outline of the Book of Romans, Part 6

Pastor/Teacher
John Farley
Wednesday,
October 14, 2009

The first eleven chapters of the book of Romans are primarily doctrinal, and the rest, from chapter twelve to sixteen, are primarily practical, explaining the practical implications of the doctrine and exhorting the believer as to how to apply the doctrine.

Rom 1:1-15 -
the salutation of the letter, followed by a general introduction to the theme of the letter.

The Gospel proper is described from Rom 1:16 to Rom 4:25.

Rom 1:18 through the end of chapter 1 is all about how the Gentiles need salvation in the worst way.

But the Jews need it just as badly, despite the fact that they had the Law, and that is what Paul takes up in Romans 2.

So Paul goes about stating that it was very advantageous to have been a Jew, Rom 3:1-8.

There is not one righteous among the human race - the whole world is declared to be guilty and totally depraved.
Romans 3:9-20.

From Rom 1:18 - Rom 3:20 he deals with the plight of unregenerate, unrighteous unbelieving mankind.

But from Rom 3:21 forward he deals with the undeserved favor and destiny of whosoever places his destiny wholly in Christ by believing.

From Rom 3:21-31, Paul introduces his magnificent good news - we are justified by grace as a gift from God through faith in Christ.

Romans 4 teaches that God has always dealt with man and blessed him in terms of faith and not works.

Romans 4 teaches that the gospel of justification by grace through faith is in agreement with the Old Testament scriptures.

He lays out the argument in Romans 4 using Abraham that his justification was by grace through faith not of works.

Rom 5:1-2 is itself a mini-outline of the first 8 chapters of the book of Romans.

The eternal security of the believer is Paul’s primary theme in Romans 5-8, and every other doctrine he teaches is a branch off the main stream of eternal security.

God the Holy Spirit has given us Romans 5, 6, 7, and 8 in order that we might be assured of our future complete glorification in Christ.

We saw that Romans 5 lays out the three big reasons why we have absolute eternal security.

First, in Romans 5:1-10, Paul introduces these three themes of eternal security tied to each member of the Trinity.

The first reason the believer is secure is because it is God’s work and not his.

Second, God the Holy Spirit places us into the Lord Jesus Christ and we are in union with Him forever.

Third, and finally, the Holy Spirit has been given to us and indwells us as a seal of our eternal status, Eph 1:13.

Next, in Romans 5:11-21 (the rest of chapter 5), Paul deals with our union with Christ who is our head.

But now every believer has been taken out of Adam and placed into Christ.

Romans 6 and 7 are dealing with objections raised by the critic debater who shows up quite often throughout the first eleven chapters of Romans.

Romans 6 deals with the charge that any grace oriented pastor who preaches the gospel correctly will have made against him - that we are teaching antinomianism.

Romans 7 is a very personal chapter where Paul explains how he tried to keep the law in his post-salvation life, and how disastrous that was, and what he discovered as a result of that futile striving.

Romans 8 gives the solution, namely a Christian walk by means of the power source of the indwelling Holy Spirit.

In Romans 3, 4, and 5, Christ died for our sins and believers are alive forever in Christ.
In Romans 6 we discover that the sinner died with Christ.

The key to understanding Romans 6 and Paul’s answer to the charge of antinomianism is to master the doctrine of Retro-active Positional Truth.

Rom 6:2 May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it?
Rom 6:3 Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death?

At the moment of salvation, God the Holy Spirit baptized you. He placed you in permanent union with the Lord Jesus Christ.

In Romans 7, Paul deals with the Mosaic Law. He shows its purpose and its limitations.

His main point in this chapter is to show that just as the Law could not justify sinful man, the Law cannot sanctify the believer either.

Paul is going to tell us in Romans 7 the shocking truth that the law came in so that the sin would increase!

The Law, then, is a hindrance and an obstacle to sanctification.

First, in Rom 7:1-6, Paul returns to the subject of retroactive positional truth, that the believer died with Christ.

Now as Paul teaches in Romans 6, if you are a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, you have already died to the realm of sin.

Here in Romans 7 Paul says that the believer also died to the law. He works out the implications of dying to the law.

In Rom 7:7-25, Paul gives a personal account of a horrible struggle of the born-again man who tries to force the flesh to obey God’s Law.

In Rom 7:14-17, the emphasis is on practicing what is hated - the inability to overcome the wicked temptations of the old sin nature.

In Rom 7:18-21, the emphasis is on the failure to do the desired good.

Therefore, the help must come from a source outside of self.

The end of Romans 7 is a cry of utter despair and a new view of Christ, as the One through whom is found deliverance from sin’s power and from the Law that gave it that power.

The struggle that Paul describes in Romans 7 can be avoided by the walk of faith in Christ’s work on the Cross as well as the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit.

Not only does the death of Christ free you from the guilt and penalty of sin, the death of Christ also frees you from the power of sin and the condemnation of the law.

God in Christ is completing His great work in us.
How He does so is the subject for Romans 8.

Phi 1:6 For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.

Romans 8 describes the Holy Spirit’s work in the believer, leading to the final goal or purpose, the glorification of the beloved in Christ.

In Rom 8:5-9, Paul tells us that the Holy Spirit gives us a new mind.

In Rom 8:10-11, Paul tells us that the Holy Spirit will raise up even our mortal bodies, and therefore deliver the body from sin, as the spirit is already delivered.

In Rom 8:12-13, Paul tells us that while we are still here, the Holy Spirit will enable us to crucify the deeds of the body, and we are the ones who do that.

Rom 8:14-17 teaches that the Spirit does this by giving us assurance, the Spirit of adoption.

Rom 8:18-25, the Spirit does this by giving us a grand view of God’s great ultimate purpose.

Rom 8:26-27, Paul shows how the Holy Spirit helps us to pray.

Rom 8:28-39 is the great finale, summing up the whole theme of chapters 5 through 8.

He has worked out our eternal security along three lines:
It is God’s work.
We are absolutely secure because of our unbreakable union with Christ.
The Holy Spirit is at work in you, and He who began a good work in you WILL complete it.

Romans 8:28-30 describes God’s great purpose for the believer: conformity with Christ.

Notice again the jump from justification all the way to glorification in Rom 8:30!

This is a celebration of the believer’s eternal security!
No one can rob me of this salvation.
I am absolutely secure.