Romans Chapter One Lesson 7
Review:
1:9 For God, whom I serve in my spirit in the preaching of the gospel of His Son,
is my witness as to how
unceasingly I make mention of you,
Notice
that the sphere of his service is first spoken of as internal then
external;
- The internal:
"in my spirit"
- The external: "in
the proclamation of the gospel, [euvagge,lion] of His Son"
When he says "in
my spirit"
speaks of his human spirit;
Body
= ability to relate through the 5 senses to the world around you.
Soul
= part of being made in the image of God = self-consciousness; intellect, volition; [separates
us from other creatures]
Human
spirit = gives us the ability to relate to God; [comes with regeneration at
salvation]
What
Paul is saying when he says, I serve in my
spirit, is that I make sure the
communication link is open and operative between Him and me and then I can
fully function in the areas He desires of me in proclaiming the great good news
of the Gospel.
Do
we not see the same thing in 1:9-10a as we did in Eph 6:18?
In verses
- He restates his desire that at long last he "may succeed in coming to you."
- From our context we have a clear statement of Paul's
expressed will.
- He has an intense desire to go to
- His motivation is honorable.
- There is to be mutual encouragement.
- We also see in the context [v.13] that he had often
planned to come, but had been prevented thus far from coming to
- What we must conclude is that at this point it is still
not God's will for Paul to go to
- What we must remember, is that God sees the end from the
beginning; He has the big picture! We
only see just a very small speck of the picture.
Observations: The Will of God and the will of man!
1. The will of man does not occur in a vacuum!
- Their purpose however is very different.
#1 God desires
submission for the enthronement of Christ.
We
understand the will of God through the Word of God from which we acquire
spiritual wisdom and understanding.
Spiritual
wisdom and understanding must affect our daily life.
- There is an interesting sequence here in these verses;
1st
is knowledge that is spiritual wisdom and understanding; then its walk and then its fruit
bearing.
Need
to know God's word so that we can walk with Him and be able to serve Him.
#2 Satan
seeks submission to his will for the enthronement of himself.
- As the god of this age, he seeks to accomplish this
through his many counterfeits of truth designed to sidetrack the believer from
the truth and the plan of God.
- must remember several characteristics of Satan as you
think about him.
Satan is not OmPo but he is very powerful;
he is not
OmSc but he is a genius;
he is not
OmPr but it often appears so since he commands a vast
army of fallen angels, demons.
Several observations on how he seeks enthronement
of himself in our life, that is to get our eyes off of Christ and on him.
1.
He is the great Counterfeiter and has been from his fall.
2. A false gospel.
Gal 1:6-9 (many forms, all works oriented and negate the person and work
of Jesus Christ on the cross)
3. False doctrines.
1 Tm 4:1;