Expository Notes on the Bible (Constable)

• The challenge to professing believers 8:31-47
  Jesus next addressed those in His audience who had expressed some faith Him (v. 30).8:31 The mark of a true disciple is continuation in the instructions of his or her teacher. A disciple is by definition a learner, not necess...
• Outline
  I. Introduction 1:1-17A. Salutation 1:1-71. The writer 1:12. The subject of the epistle 1:2-53. The original recipients 1:6-7B. Purpose 1:8-15C. Theme 1:16-17II. The need for God's righteousness 1:18-3:20A. The need of all pe...
• 1. God's principles of judgment 2:1-16
  Before showing the guilt of moral and religious people before God (vv. 17-29), Paul set forth the principles by which God will judge everyone (vv. 1-16). By so doing, he warned the self-righteous.2:1-4 "Therefore"seems more l...
• D The benefits of justification 5:1-11
  Paul's original readers would have had another question because of what he had written in chapters 1-4. Is this method of justification safe? Since it is by faith, it seems quite unsure. Paul next gave evidence that this meth...
• E. The universal applicability of justification 5:12-21
  Paul's final argument in support of justification by faith was a development of his previous emphasis on the solidarity that the saved experience with their Savior (5:1-2, 9-10). In this section (5:12-21) he expanded that ide...
• IV. THE IMPARTATION OF GOD'S RIGHTEOUSNESS chs. 6--8
  The apostle moved on from questions about why people need salvation (1:18-3:20), what God has done to provide it, and how we can appropriate it (3:21-5:21). He next explained that salvation involves more than a right standing...
• A. The believer's relationship to sin ch. 6
  "Subduing the power of sin is the topic of Rom. 6."172
• 1. Freedom from sin 6:1-14
  Paul began his explanation of the believer's relationship to sin by expounding the implications of our union with Christ (6:1-14). He had already spoken of this in 5:12-21 regarding justification, but now he showed how that u...
• 2. Slavery to righteousness 6:15-23
  In the first part of this chapter Paul explained that Christ has broken the bonds of sin that enslave the Christian (vv. 1-14). In the second part he warned that even though we are free we can become enslaved to sin by yieldi...
• B. The believer's relationship to the law ch. 7
  Paul followed a similar pattern as he unpacked his revelation in this chapter as he did in the former one. He began chapter 6 by explaining that we are no longer the slaves of sin because of our union with Christ (6:1-14). He...
• 1. The law's authority 7:1-6
  7:1 "Those who know law"--the article "the"before "law"is absent in the Greek text--were Paul's Roman readers. They lived in the capital of the empire where officials debated, enacted, and enforced laws. They of all people we...
• 3. The law's inability 7:13-25
  In verses 13-25 Paul continued to describe his personal struggle with sin but with mounting intensity. The forces of external law and internal sin (i.e., his sinful nature) conflicted. He found no deliverance from this confli...
• 5. Our eternal security 8:31-39
  The apostle developed the fact that God will not lose one whom He has foreknown in this climactic section, and he gloried in this great truth."Nowhere in the annals of sacred literature do we find anything to match the power ...
• VI. THE PRACTICE OF GOD'S RIGHTEOUSNESS 12:1--15:13
  In contrasting chapters 1-11 with chapters 12-16 of Romans, perhaps the most important distinction is that the first part deals primarily with God's actions for humanity, and the last part deals with people's actions in respo...
• 3. Conduct in view of our hope 13:11-14
  Paul's thought moved from identifying responsibilities to urging their practice. What lies before us as Christians provides essential motivation for doing so.13:11 "This"refers to the duties urged earlier, not only in this ch...
• 4. The importance of accepting one another 15:7-13
  This section concludes Paul's instructions concerning the importance of accepting one another as Christians that he began in 14:1. In this section the apostle charged both the strong and the weak.15:7 "Accept"repeats Paul's o...
• Bibliography
  Alford, Henry. The Greek Testament. 4 vols. New ed. Cambridge: Rivingtons, 1881.Allen, Kenneth W. "Justification by Faith."Bibliotheca Sacra135:538 (April-June 1978):109-16.Auden, W. H. For the Time Being. London: Faber and F...
• The contrast between the message and the messenger 4:7-15
  Paul presented many paradoxical contrasts involved in the sufferings and supports of the Christian to clarify for his readers the real issues involved in serving Jesus Christ."This passage, which is about suffering and death ...
• The new creation 5:16-17
  5:16 Paul now illustrated how Christ's love had changed his viewpoint. Since his conversion, he had stopped making superficial personal judgments based only on external appearances (cf. v. 12). Previously he had looked at peo...
• Bibliography
  Allen, Kenneth W. "Justification by Faith."Bibliotheca Sacra135:538 (April-June 1978):109-16.Andrews, Mary E. "Paul and Repentance."Journal of Biblical Literature54:2 (June 1935):125.Barclay, William. The Letters to the Galat...
• The new man 4:20-32
  Paul turned from how not to walk to the positive responsibility Christians have to live in holiness.4:20 In contrast to unsaved Gentiles, Christians' minds are no longer dark, they are no longer aliens from God, and their hea...
• Paul's greater goal 3:8-11
  3:8 Paul had regarded his advantages over other people as what put him in a specially good position with God. However, he had come to realize that absolutely nothing apart from Jesus Christ's work on the cross was of any valu...
• 3. A popular saying 2:11-13
  To encourage Timothy further to endure hardship Paul cited a commonly accepted and used quotation that encouraged believers to remain faithful to their Christian profession (cf. 1 Tim. 1:15; 3:1; 4:9; Titus 3:8). It may have ...
• 1. Faithfulness in public ministry 2:14-18
  2:14 This verse is transitional. Timothy was to keep reminding his "faithful men"of the things Paul had just brought back to his own recollection (i.e., vv. 3-13, but especially vv. 11-13).Furthermore, he should warn them aga...
• E. The Son's Solidarity with Humanity 2:10-18
  The writer next emphasized the future glory that the Son will experience to heighten his readers' appreciation for Him and for their own future with Him. He did this by reflecting on Psalm 8. He wanted his readers to apprecia...
• 3. Living with the promise in view 4:1-6
  Since Jesus Christ has gained the victory, Peter urged his readers to rededicate themselves to God's will as long as they might live. He wanted to strengthen their resolve to continue to persevere. He resumed here the exhorta...