Bethany Community Church - Andrew Mills

Romans is written from a communal perspective, so our western mindset can cloud our understanding of this book.
(We are WEIRD: Western, Educated, Individualistic, Rich, Democratic)

"What we fail to understand is that the ancient world was far more collective in its thinking, filtering the world through the needs of the group rather than the individuals."
Beverly Roberts Gaventa

When we hear the word "righteousness" we interpret it almost exclusively as individual and moral with religious meaning and having a negative connotation.

Righteous in Greek is dikaiosyne and presents the idea of doing what is right within social, political, personal, and religious contexts. We would translate this word as Justice.

Romans is centrally concerned about justice. In this letter Paul asks us to think about justice a lot and to think about it differently, since the life, death, resurrection, and exaltation of Jesus makes all the difference in our thinking about justice. Justice is the central and pervasive theme of the letter to the Romans-the justice of God, the just ruler, the just person, the way of justice in relationships, society and the world. It would therefore not be unreasonable to call Romans a treatise on justice.
Douglas Harink

We need to understand that Paul is talking about groups – not individuals. He is calling us to justice and just living, not personal sanctimonious self-righteousness

This passage shows us:
- Sin as Power
- Adam and Christ are contrasted
- Large collectivist vision of salvation

Sin is a power, like an entity:
- a thing
- a reality
- a power

To put it sharply and succinctly, throughout these three chapters 5-7, we meet suprahuman powers by the names of Sin and Death. Taking advantage of the disobedience of Adam, Sin and Death make their way into the world an establish themselves as its rulers…Sin and Death are defeated only by God’s action in Jesus Christ.
Beverly Roberts Gaventa

It is useless to tell people not to sin while they remain captive under the power of sin.

Sin is a ruler that needs to be dethroned.

Through Adam death affected us all, but now through Christ there is life for all.

There are two ways of living and being led, the reign and rule of sin or the reign and rule of grace through Jesus Christ.

We can say yes to Grace and no to the reign of sin

APPLICATION
Grace is the shape of God's kingdom

Here are two questions for you to wrestle with
- Are you receiving grace?
- Are you sharing grace?

A clear sign someone isn't receiving or sharing grace is when they are focused on someone else's sin.
- When they are focused on legalism and rules
- When they lack joy

Ask yourself, who is God inviting you to give grace to?

Challenge
Say yes to receiving and sharing grace this week