Law...

I think that the somewhat confusing sections about the Law are best clarified in chapter 9. The Law reveals sin and makes guilt "evident". God has been revealed so that there is not an excuse. The futile in thinking did not give thanks and praise where it was due. The Law is enacted. Man fails once again, but God gave the promise to His chosen people. Yet, their minds, in a slightly different manner, became just as futile. Interesting thought...

I guess for me the question has always been, "If there is a promise, why do I get a chance and how did they fail?" FAITH. The law lost its wonder. It became routine. Law shifted from ability to be free in an active relaionship with God and His Law (think Psalm 119) to list of cultural guidelines for conduct that God will bless. Work your way in.

"What shall we say then? That Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, attained righteousness, even the righteousness which is by faith; but Israel, pursuing a law of righteousness, did not arrive at that law.
Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as though it were by works. They stumbled over the stumbling stone, just as it is written,

"BEHOLD, I LAY IN ZION A STONE OF STUMBLING AND A ROCK OF OFFENSE,
AND HE WHO BELIEVES IN HIM WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED."

The final answer for everything in my life the past month has been "Pursue God". I have been failing in my own strength. So often my life boils down to an unconscious, "Do this..." formula so that you can keep the good things in your life. If I do, I feel as though I have earned them. The truth is that I should be in a pursuit that is for knowledge of Christ and a relationship (genuine) that all of the things and people I love can be taken and I will still be counted rich due to the "surpassing greatnes" of knowing Jesus and being found in Him.
Sadly like the Jews, and this is what I think turns people off to Christ, I make my life about the pursuit of righteousness. Don't get me wrong: Righteousness is good, but it must not be the end goal. When it is the end goal, for me it turns to self-righteousness. Righteousness in the Law... I expect my righteousness to be attained by my action (not so blatantly though). This is where my toes get crushed. I can't work my way in. The "pagan's" honest pursuit of God pushes past my pursuit of pleasing God to keep my toys. The sacrifice has been made. God sees us as Christ. This opens the deal to all and not just to "God's Chosen People". Paul lays the foundation to say that since some righteousness failed the faith test the door is now open to you as well. He has not completely rejected them, because that would go against his character. THey still have their promise, but You are now a part of the promise. Because of that....be living sacrifices. I think that Romans is clearly addressed to a people that need to know the "deal" and are needing clarification about how they can participate in a game that has already started in a very philosophical society. They need to be able to answer the challenges given them... How can you be a part of this? Think being dealt into a Monopoly game. Some aren't happy at the new players, but the Romans are getting caught upto speed. Their faith is being proclaimed which means that questions will be asked. Hard ones.

I know this is slightly rambling, but I wanted to throw out what popped into my head. Some stuff finally made sense to me. I think the question I finally had to ask was "If they are Romans, who cares about Israel?" Anyone who wants to lay claim to the promise of Christ is the answer.
have a good day gents.

Who Am I?

Gus, in response to your post, I just want to agree that that is one of the hardest passages to swallow. That God chose to harden pharoah's heart is a humbling thought because I look at all the I have done and I consider the depth of my sin and I think that of all people it is my heart that deserves to be hardened. And yet God softens it more with each day. I will never understand why except that He says that He loves me. There is no logical reason that I can become comfortable with. He loves me because he loves because he loves me because he loves me, on into infinity. How can I keep from trembling and falling on my face when I consider that my heart deserves to be hardened and yet it was softened by the saving work and full expression of God's love in Jesus Christ, my Saviour? Humbling is an understatement when you consider the reality of our undeservedness and the fullness of God's love despite it all.

Solving a problem...

So I must confess that I have had an unusually hard time reading Romans. No passion. I have been disappointed about that. So I tried something "new" for me and it is becoming habit. I read one of the sections (so neatly divided) of Psalm 119. It is all about love for both God's commands/word and God being active. It is helping to center my mind before reading Romans. Also I find that more and more I want the words of Christ directly, so I am reading through Mark as well. My big question is "Who is this Jesus?" followed by, "How can I imitate Him?" I guess I am a gospels addict now, but, hey, Romans is about the law redemption and life through Christ.. I feel justified (sorry for the pun). Sorry for no really profound thoughts, but I just wanted to share.

Judgment

Judgment is a concept in the Bible that confuses me. I feel like I need to read some type of book that helps explain it well because right now I am getting confused reading about it in Romans 2. Pretty much all I have grasped so far is that I should not judge. I feel this in the very bottom of who I am and have pain associated with times when I have tried to judge others. The times I have tried to judge others have always resulted in disaster. Recently I confronted some of my friends because I thought they were gossiping about one of our other friends and to be honest I felt ashamed later. These guys are Christian guys who I confronted and afterwards I got the feeling that they thought I was trying to be superspiritual. I felt like they were getting defensive and then I felt myself getting defensive as my pride was confronted. It was like I pointed at one of their sins and they pointed striaght back at one of mine. Sitting here now I am thinking, what does it profit us if we spend our time pointing at each other's sins?
Romans 2:1-2 says, "Therefore you are unexcusable, O man, whoever you are who judge, for in whatever you judge another, you condemn yourself; for you practice the same things. But we know that the judgement of God is according to truth against those who practice such things." I think of how often I judge others throughout the course of my day. I must purge this from daily thinking. I must replace it with something though. Perhaps this could involve focusing on the beauty of God's image in others instead of their faults which I am always also guilty of. I fail to purge judging from my thought life and then wonder why it is so hard for me to love certain people. Surely there is a lot to love. That person is made in the image of God. The failure is mine. How duplicitous the Bible says that I am and how true I am finding that to be.
This first part of Romans is tough reading and maybe someone could enlighten me more on what all this "law" stuff is about. I am trudging through it and trying to piece it all together. It's fun once I get to Romans 7 and 8 because I've heard so many sermons on those chapters but before that I feel a lot more lost. Maybe we could all share some insight on some of the more confusing topics...the law, circumcision, judgment with some reference to specific verses would be awesome. Seamas, I haven't heard anything about the new perspective on Paul thing. It would be cool if you could fill us in.

Gentlemen,

To clear up any confusion, "Seamas" is the correct spelling - but I'll answer to other names (within reason, of course).

Irony of ironies, I'm teaching a bible class on Romans starting next Sunday - it's very cool that we are starting with this amazing book. Honestly, it might be cool to use one of the spare months floating around in the coming years to return to Romans after reading the gospels - that would be really interesting. But we've got plently of time to figure that all out.

The issue in Romans that is currently fascinting to me is the role of Israel in the history of salvation. The ways in which they are important, and unimportant, to Christians living with the Spirit is a fascinating question. I haven't figured it out. Not to jump into being pretentious and theologically nerdy - but is anyone else here familiar with the whole New Perspective on Paul thing that's running around seminaries these days? Just curious to hear other people's thoughts...

Paul is the man, Romans is a sweet book, and I'm stoked to read the whole freakin bible with you all.

Peace in Jesus,
Seamas

Howdy:
David, I am Gus. I don't think we've met, so here is our virtual meeting: Howdy. Also, lets try to get the other guys on board with this; I know that Matt and Jake want to do it, they just need to get on. Josh Sink might want to do it and what about shamus? Shaymus? Shaemus? The Sha-man.

ROMANS
Since coming to Japan I have had a hard time actually getting deep into the word. but as i've read, here are somethings for further exploration:
LAW: I want to have a better understanding of the law. Rom 7:8 says "For apart from the law, sin is dead". This principle goes deep, I think. Also, Paul clearly presents the questions of our postmodern society in a very blunt manner. He asks, "Is there injustice with god" in Romans 9:14 talking about God's decision to show mercy upon whom he has shown mercy. And Romans 9:19, "So then, He shows mercy to whom He wills and He hardens whom He wills. You sill say to me, therefore, Why then does He still find fault? For who can resist his will". Oh my, that is almost exactly the question I was presented with time and time again in Germany. And I would say, "oh well uhh..." but Paul is pretty straight forward. He basically says, who are you to challnege God. Sometimes that argument even makes me a bit uneasy because I know that if I tell it to someone they probably won't buy it. but then again, who am I to challenge God? I think that I don't have the big picture understanding of his sovreignty, becuase when that comes into focus, passages like this in romans 9 will make sense. But to understand an infinite sovreign God through finite human means .... I suppose that is the beauty of metaphors. Though it is still a challenge.

Confessions...

Verse 21 in Chapter one has been stuck in my head.

21For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.

I have been reading The Confessions of St. Augustine and the first chapter of Romans ties in well with the quote I want to share:

"The promise of satisfaction in worldly loves is an enduring lie that moves the soul to unfaithfulness to its proper lover. We listen, because it is a pleasent untruth, until we are defiled."

It has been a so true in my life. I have known God yet refused to give thanks or glorify him. My pursuit of worldly loves has come up empty. I walked around much of the summer with "love deeply" and "give thanks" written on my wrists and I have seriously thought about tattooing them there. I am so excited for the challenge of the next 7 Years. Good grief. It is such a long time. Yet so worth it in the end. Let us press on to know the LORD (Hosea 6:1-3).

Set Apart for the Gospel

Romans 1:1 I think sets the tone for our seven years. "Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the Gospel of God." The group of us doing this are certainly in a way "set apart for the Gospel" since we are setting apart seven years of our lives in commitment to it. I think it's much bigger than that though. And what makes it so much bigger is the small things. Doesn't it sound cool to say, "I'm set apart for the Gospel."? But really how set apart are we? Are we still watching movies where we laugh at crass humor as if Christ would laughing right alongside us if he were watching the movie with us. In reality he would probably be weeping over the sin that is mocked in movies that we view as "not a big deal" to go see. This is just one example of small things in our lives that are really huge things that are keeping us from such sweet fellowship with our Savior. If we are going to claim to be set apart for the Gospel of God then the time we spend pursuing Jesus should reflect that both in its length and intimacy.
It's funny that this is the first verse of our seven years. Maybe God is wanting to teach us through this time what it means to be "set apart for the Gospel of God". Seven years from now I cannot even begin to imagine what we will have to look back on. I dare not even be presumptuous enough to ponder. God, give us one magnificent obsession...lead us on and we will run after you.

The rules

Alright Guys, here is how the bible study works. Its a seven year commitment, so gird your loins:
-We will start with Romans and study romans for a month. It starts today on the 13th, so we will change to a new book the 13th of every month. We will alternate choosing which book to study.
-We will study 9 books a year. For seven years, that is 63 books. So, to make 66, we will combine the following books into one month: {2John 3John Jude} and {Titus Philemon}. So, if you choose those, you choose them as a group.
-For the first six months (through January 12th) we study five books. For the month of study starting January 13th, we will review those five books.
-For the next four months (Feb 13-June 12) we will study four more books.
-The 11th month (June 13-July 12) we review those four books
-The 12th month (july 13-aug 12) we will review all books that have been studied. So at the end of the first year, we will review 9 books. At the end of the 2nd year, we will review 18 books. By the end of the 7th year, we will review all 66 books, ... and then have a party, or something like that.
-With this technique, every year, we will study 9 books; spend 1 month in addition review for those 9 books (one month for the first 5 and one month for the second 4), and spend one month reviewing all of the books we have studies.
-We will review the first 9 books more than the others (makes senes because we will review them for 7 years), so remember that when we pick the first 9 books to study.
God Speed,
Gus