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Zion Lutheran Church
Marshall, Michigan

Confessional + Evangelical + Sacramental + Liturgical---------------Est. 1848

  
 
     

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2008 Pentecost Sermon Series

St. Paul's Epistle to the Romans

Rev. Roger James

This letter is truly the most important piece in the New Testament. It is purest Gospel. It is well worth a Christian's while not only to memorize it word for word but also to occupy himself with it daily, as though it were the daily bread of the soul.

It is impossible to read or to meditate on this letter too much or too well. The more one deals with it, the more precious it becomes and the better it tastes.

-Martin Luther

From: Preface to the Letter of St. Paul to the Romans

LSB Lectionary
Epistle Reading
Date of
Sermon

Audio Recording
(Mp3)


Download
Pastor's Notes in Microsoft Word
Rom. 1:8-17

Proper 3A
Pentecost 2
May 25, 2008
SERMON_2008_05_25.mp3
Rom. 3:21-28
Proper 4A
Pentecost 3
June 1, 2008
SERMON_2008_06_01.mp3
Rom. 4
Proper 5A
Pentecost 4
June 8, 2008
SERMON_2008_06_08.mp3
Rom. 5:6-15

Proper 6A
Pentecost 5
June 15, 2008
SERMON_2008_06_15.mp3
Rom. 6:12-23

Proper 7A
Pentecost 6
June 22, 2008
SERMON_2008_06_22.mp3
Rom. 7:1-13

Proper 8A
Pentecost 7
June 29, 2008
SERMON_2008_06_29.mp3
Rom. 7:14-25

Proper 9A
Pentecost 8
July 6, 2008
SERMON_2008_07_06.mp3
Rom. 8:12-17

Proper 10A
Pentecost 9
July 13, 2008
SERMON_2008_07_13.mp3
Rom. 8:18-27

Proper 11A
Pentecost 10
July 20, 2008
SERMON_2008_07_20.mp3
Rom. 8:28-39

Proper 12A
Pentecost 11
July 27, 2008
SERMON_2008_07_27.mp3
Rom. 9

Proper 13A
Pentecost 12
August 3, 2008
SERMON_2008_08_03.mp3
Rom. 10

Proper 14A
Pentecost 13
August 10, 2008
Rom. 11:1-32

Proper 15A
Pentecost 14
August 14, 2008
SERMON_2008_08_17.mp3
Rom. 11:33-12:8

Proper 16A
Pentecost 15
August 24, 2008
SERMON_2008_08_24.mp3
Romans 12:8-21

Proper 17A
Pentecost 16
August 31, 2008
SERMON_2008_08_31.mp3
Rom. 13:1-10

Proper 18A
Pentecost 17
September 7, 2008
Recording not available
Rom. 14:1-12

Proper 19A
Pentecost 18
September 14, 2008
SERMON_2008_09_14.mp3
 

 



Romans: Other Resources

Preface to the Letter of St. Paul to the Romans
by Martin Luther, 1483-1546

 Translated by Andrew L. Thornton, OSB, PhD, a Roman Catholic monk of St. Anselm Abbey in Manchester, New Hampshire, and associate professor of German at St. Anselm College.

Martin Luther's Bible Commentary on Romans



 Translated by Andrew L. Thornton, OSB, PhD, a Roman Catholic monk of St. Anselm Abbey in Manchester, New Hampshire, and associate professor of German at St. Anselm College.

Bookofconcord.org

 

 Here you will find the complete text of The Book Of Concord as well as helpful explanations that facilitate greater understanding of the Lutheran Confessions. If you are not familiar with the Book of Concord, or Lutheran doctrine or history, we suggest you start with the "Brief Introduction" found in the "Introduction and Explanation" section in the left sidebar.
The Romans Revolution:
White Horse Inn Program Resources from 2006		 The theme of the White Horse Inn's nationally syndicated broadcasts in 2006 was "The Romans Revolution."

"Study Outline of Romans:
Basic Outline of Romans with Thematic Quotations"

James L. Boyce,
Emeritus Professor of New Testament & Greek
Luther Seminary

"Martin Luther on Romans: Lectures on Romans and Selected Texts" (Microsoft Word)

 James L. Boyce,
Emeritus Professor of New Testament & Greek
Luther Seminary

"Martin Luther and the Bible"

Dr. Cameron A. MacKenzie is a p
P rofessor of Historical Theology,
Concordia Theological Seminary,
Fort Wayne, IN.

Exerpt: "But what Luther found in Romans, he found in the Bible as a whole, both Old and New Testaments, because he believed that God had inspired prophets and apostles to write the books of the Bible over centuries of time for the sake of His people. But what did people need? Fundamentally, they needed Christ the Savior. To bring us a sure and certain message about the saving work of Jesus in all of its consequences and ramifications for self-understanding and life, God had given the Scriptures. Luther not only believed this and valued it for himself; he devoted his life to bringing this Bible message to others." -Dr. MacKenzie
   
   


Related Issues, Etc. Broadcasts
With Selected Quotations from Luther's Preface

Chapter & Topic
Selected Quotes
Issues, Etc.
Broadcast or Article

Chapter 1: Introduction and God's Wrath

In chapters 1 to 3, St. Paul has revealed sin for what it is and has taught the way of faith which leads to justice.

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter 2:
The Law and God's Judgement

Original Sin (mp3)
Rev. Steven Parks of University Hills Lutheran Church-Denver, CO

Further Resources & Reading:

Original Sin from The Augsburg Confession

Free Will from The Augsburg Confession

Original Sin from The Defense of the Augsburg Confession

Free Will from The Defense of the Augsburg Confession

Sin from The Smalcald Articles

Original Sin from The Epitome of the Formula of Concord

Free Will from The Epitome of the Formula of Concord

Original Sin from The Solid Declaration of the Formula of Concord

Free Will from The Solid Declaration of the Formula of Concord

 

Chapter 3:
Righteousness Through Faith (Alone)

"The Disturbing Legacy of Charles Finney" by Dr. Michael Horton
Chapter 4:
Abraham Justified by Faith (Alone)

Now in chapter 4 he deals with some objections and criticisms. He takes up first the one that people raise who, on hearing that faith make just without works, say, "What? Shouldn't we do any good works?" Here St. Paul holds up Abraham as an example. He says, "What did Abraham accomplish with his good works? Were they all good for nothing and useless?" He concludes that Abraham was made righteous apart from all his works by faith alone. Even before the "work" of his circumcision, Scripture praises him as being just on account of faith alone (cf. Genesis 15). Now if the work of his circumcision did nothing to make him just, a work that God had commanded him to do and hence a work of obedience, then surely no other good work can do anything to make a person just. Even as Abraham's circumcision was an outward sign with which he proved his justice based on faith, so too all good works are only outward signs which flow from faith and are the fruits of faith; they prove that the person is already inwardly just in the sight of God.

St. Paul verifies his teaching on faith in chapter 3 with a powerful example from Scripture. He calls as witness David, who says in Psalm 32 that a person becomes just without works but doesn't remain without works once he has become just. Then Paul extends this example and applies it against all other works of the law. He concludes that the Jews cannot be Abraham's heirs just because of their blood relationship to him and still less because of the works of the law. Rather, they have to inherit Abrahams's faith if they want to be his real heirs, since it was prior to the Law of Moses and the law of circumcision that Abraham became just through faith and was called a father of all believers. St. Paul adds that the law brings about more wrath than grace, because no one obeys it with love and eagerness. More disgrace than grace come from the works of the law. Therefore faith alone can obtain the grace promised to Abraham. Examples like these are written for our sake, that we also should have faith."

Chapter 5: Grace, Mercy, and Peace in Jesus Christ

 

In chapter 5, St. Paul comes to the fruits and works of faith, namely: joy, peace, love for God and for all people; in addition: assurance, steadfastness, confidence, courage, and hope in sorrow and suffering. All of these follow where faith is genuine, because of the overflowing good will that God has shown in Christ: he had him die for us before we could ask him for it, yes, even while we were still his enemies. Thus we have established that faith, without any good works, makes just. It does not follow from that, however, that we should not do good works; rather it means that morally upright works do not remain lacking. About such works the "works-holy" people know nothing; they invent for themselves their own works in which are neither peace nor joy nor assurance nor love nor hope nor steadfastness nor any kind of genuine Christian works or faith.

Next St. Paul makes a digression, a pleasant little side-trip, and relates where both sin and justice, death and life come from. He opposes these two: Adam and Christ. What he wants to say is that Christ, a second Adam, had to come in order to make us heirs of his justice through a new spiritual birth in faith, just as the old Adam made us heirs of sin through the old fleshy birth.

St. Paul proves, by this reasoning, that a person cannot help himself by his works to get from sin to justice any more than he can prevent his own physical birth. St. Paul also proves that the divine law, which should have been well-suited, if anything was, for helping people to obtain justice, not only was no help at all when it did come, but it even increased sin. Evil human nature, consequently, becomes more hostile to it; the more the law forbids it to indulge its own desires, the more it wants to. Thus the law makes Christ all the more necessary and demands more grace to help human nature.

The Augsburg Confession: Justification (mp3, 2/26/09)

Rev. Joseph Fisher of
Pilgrim Lutheran Church-West Bend, WI

Rev. Mark Buetow of
Bethel Lutheran Church-Du Quoin, IL

Rev. Peter Kirby of
Zion Lutheran Church-Carlinville, IL

Further Resources & Reading: The Augsburg Confession: Justification

 

Chapter 6:
Killing Adam and Constraining the Flesh, Part 1

 

 In chapter 6, St. Paul takes up the special work of faith, the struggle which the spirit wages against the flesh to kill off those sins and desires that remain after a person has been made just. He teaches us that faith doesn't so free us from sin that we can be idle, lazy and self-assured, as though there were no more sin in us. Sin is there, but, because of faith that struggles against it, God does not reckon sin as deserving damnation. Therefore we have in our own selves a lifetime of work cut out for us; we have to tame our body, kill its lusts, force its members to obey the spirit and not the lusts. We must do this so that we may conform to the death and resurrection of Christ and complete our Baptism, which signifies a death to sin and a new life of grace. Our aim is to be completely clean from sin and then to rise bodily with Christ and live forever.
Chapter 7:
Killing Adam and Constraining the Flesh, Part 2		 In chapter 7, St. Paul says, "The law is spiritual." What does that mean? If the law were physical, then it could be satisfied by works, but since it is spiritual, no one can satisfy it unless everything he does springs from the depths of the heart. But no one can give such a heart except the Spirit of God, who makes the person be like the law, so that he actually conceives a heartfelt longing for the law and henceforward does everything, not through fear or coercion, but from a free heart. Such a law is spiritual since it can only be loved and fulfilled by such a heart and such a spirit. If the Spirit is not in the heart, then there remain sin, aversion and enmity against the law, which in itself is good, just and holy.

"The Wretched Man in Rom 7"

Part 1 MP3

Hour 2 MP3

Dr. Kim Riddlebarger of The White Horse
Chapter 8:
Killing Adam and Constraining the Flesh, Part 3
 In chapter 8, St. Paul comforts fighters such as these and tells them that this flesh will not bring them condemnation. He goes on to show what the nature of flesh and spirit are. Spirit, he says, comes from Christ, who has given us his Holy Spirit; the Holy Spirit makes us spiritual and restrains the flesh. The Holy Spirit assures us that we are God's children no matter how furiously sin may rage within us, so long as we follow the Spirit and struggle against sin in order to kill it. Because nothing is so effective in deadening the flesh as the cross and suffering, Paul comforts us in our suffering. He says that the Spirit, [cf. previous note about the meaning of "spirit."] love and all creatures will stand by us; the Spirit in us groans and all creatures long with us that we be freed from the flesh and from sin. Thus we see that these three chapters, 6, 7 and 8, all deal with the one work of faith, which is to kill the old Adam and to constrain the flesh.
Chapter 9:
The Eternal Providence of God, Part 1

In chapters 9, 10 and 11, St. Paul teaches us about the eternal providence of God. It is the original source which determines who would believe and who wouldn't, who can be set free from sin and who cannot. Such matters have been taken out of our hands and are put into God's hands so that we might become virtuous. It is absolutely necessary that it be so, for we are so weak and unsure of ourselves that, if it depended on us, no human being would be saved. The devil would overpower all of us. But God is steadfast; his providence will not fail, and no one can prevent its realization. Therefore we have hope against sin.

But here we must shut the mouths of those sacriligeous and arrogant spirits who, mere beginners that they are, bring their reason to bear on this matter and commence, from their exalted position, to probe the abyss of divine providence and uselessly trouble themselves about whether they are predestined or not. These people must surely plunge to their ruin, since they will either despair or abandon themselves to a life of chance.
Chapter 10:
The Eternal Providence of God, Part 2
Chapter 11:
The Eternal Providence of God, Part 3
Chapter 12:
Guidance on Liturgy and Service		 In chapter 12, St. Paul teaches the true liturgy and makes all Christians priests, so that they may offer, not money or cattle, as priests do in the Law, but their own bodies, by putting their desires to death. Next he describes the outward conduct of Christians whose lives are governed by the Spirit; he tells how they teach, preach, rule, serve, give, suffer, love, live and act toward friend, foe and everyone. These are the works that a Christian does, for, as I have said, faith is not idle.
Chapter 13: In chapter 13, St. Paul teaches that one should honor and obey the secular authorities. He includes this, not because it makes people virtuous in the sight of God, but because it does insure that the virtuous have outward peace and protection and that the wicked cannot do evil without fear and in undisturbed peace. Therefore it is the duty of virtuous people to honor secular authority, even though they do not, strictly speaking, need it. Finally, St. Paul sums up everything in love and gathers it all into the example of Christ: what he has done for us, we must also do and follow after him.
Chapter 14: In chapter 14, St. Paul teaches that one should carefully guide those with weak conscience and spare them. One shouldn't use Christian freedom to harm but rather to help the weak. Where that isn't done, there follow dissention and despising of the Gospel, on which everything else depends. It is better to give way a little to the weak in faith until they become stronger than to have the teaching of the Gospel perish completely. This work is a particularly necessary work of love especially now when people, by eating meat and by other freedoms, are brashly, boldly and unnecessarily shaking weak consciences which have not yet come to know the truth.
Chapter 15: In chapter 15, St. Paul cites Christ as an example to show that we must also have patience with the weak, even those who fail by sinning publicly or by their disgusting morals. We must not cast them aside but must bear with them until they become better. That is the way Christ treated us and still treats us every day; he puts up with our vices, our wicked morals and all our imperfection, and he helps us ceaselessly. Finally Paul prays for the Christians at Rome; he praises them and commends them to God. He points out his own office and the message that he preaches. He makes an unobtrusive plea for a contribution for the poor in Jerusalem. Unalloyed love is the basis of all he says and does.
Chapter 16: The last chapter consists of greetings. But Paul also includes a salutary warning against human doctrines which are preached alongside the Gospel and which do a great deal of harm. It's as though he had clearly seen that out of Rome and through the Romans would come the deceitful, harmful Canons and Decretals along with the entire brood and swarm of human laws and commands that is now drowning the whole world and has blotted out this letter and the whole of the Scriptures, along with the Spirit and faith. Nothing remains but the idol Belly, and St. Paul depicts those people here as its servants. God deliver us from them. Amen.
Luther's Conclusion We find in this letter, then, the richest possible teaching about what a Christian should know: the meaning of law, Gospel, sin, punishment, grace, faith, justice, Christ, God, good works, love, hope and the cross. We learn how we are to act toward everyone, toward the virtuous and sinful, toward the strong and the weak, friend and foe, and toward ourselves. Paul bases everything firmly on Scripture and proves his points with examples from his own experience and from the Prophets, so that nothing more could be desired. Therefore it seems that St. Paul, in writing this letter, wanted to compose a summary of the whole of Christian and evangelical teaching which would also be an introduction to the whole Old Testament. Without doubt, whoever takes this letter to heart possesses the light and power of the Old Testament. Therefore each and every Christian should make this letter the habitual and constant object of his study. God grant us his grace to do so. Amen.

This translation was made by Bro. Andrew Thornton, OSB, for the Saint Anselm College Humanities Program. (c)1983 by Saint Anselm Abbey. This translation may be used freely with proper attribution.

Please direct any comments or suggestions to:

Rev. Robert E. Smith
Walther Library
Concordia Theological Seminary
E-mail: CFWLibrary@CRF.CUIS.EDU

Surface Mail: 6600 N. Clinton St., Ft. Wayne, IN 46825 USA
Phone: (219) 481-2123 Fax: (219) 481-2126

 

 


 


Zion Lutheran Church, 135 West Green Street, Marshall, Michigan 49068
Phone: (269) 781-8982, Fax: (269) 781-3711