{"id":16911,"date":"2011-09-03T13:35:00","date_gmt":"2011-09-03T18:35:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/?p=16911"},"modified":"2011-09-03T13:35:00","modified_gmt":"2011-09-03T18:35:00","slug":"nt-sunday-school-lesson-36-romans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/2011\/09\/nt-sunday-school-lesson-36-romans\/","title":{"rendered":"NT Sunday School Lesson 36: Romans"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Ms\"I have to confess that Romans is perhaps my favorite book of scripture. Given the way that most Latter-day Saints think of Romans, that marks me as at least strange, if not perverse. It also means that I will have to restrain myself to keep the notes for this lesson to a reasonable length. To do that I have selected a few verses that I think get at the heart of Paul\u2019s message and focus on those. I have also appended an outline of the book as a whole so that you can perhaps understand Paul\u2019s overall message better.<\/p>\n

Chapter 1<\/em><\/p>\n

Verse 7: Why does Paul describe the saints in Rome as \u201cbeloved of God\u201d? Doesn\u2019t God love everyone? If he does, why describe any particular group as beloved? In verse 1 Paul said that he was called to be an apostle. In verse 6, he tells the saints in Rome that they too have been called, and in this verse he tells them to what they have been called: to be saints. What does the word \u201csaint\u201d mean? What does it mean to be called to be a saint? When do we receive that calling? How do we fulfill it?<\/p>\n

Chapter 3<\/em><\/p>\n

Verses 9-10: What does it mean to say that both the Jews and the Gentiles are \u201cunder sin\u201d? In verse 10 Paul quotes Psalms 14:1 and 53:1. How can Paul be serious when he says that no one<\/em> is righteous? For example, isn\u2019t President Monson righteous? Compare these verses to verse 23. What is Paul\u2019s point?<\/p>\n

Verses 19-20: The JST changes verse 20 in this way: \u201cFor by the law is the knowledge of sin; therefore by the deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified.\u201d According to these two verses, what does the law teach us? What does it mean to be justified? Justified before whom? Why can\u2019t the law justify us?<\/p>\n

Verse 28: \u201cWithout\u201d in this verse means \u201cseparated from,\u201d \u201coutside of,\u201d or \u201capart from.\u201d (Compare the use of the word \u201cwithout\u201d in the hymn, \u201cThere is a Green Hill Far Away.\u201d) The word translated \u201cdeeds\u201d could also have been translated \u201cworks.\u201d Using that information, put this verse in your own words. Can you explain what Paul is saying? Compare this verse to 2 Nephi 25:23. Are Paul and Nephi saying different things? If so, explain how. If not explain why not. (See also Luke 17:7-10 and Mosiah 2:21, as well as 2 Nephi 31:19.)<\/p>\n

Chapter 4<\/em><\/p>\n

Verses 1-3: Paul\u2019s argument in these verses is that in Genesis 15:6 we see that Abraham\u2019s faith counted as righteousness before<\/em> God gave him a law to obey. Therefore, obedience to law is not what makes one righteous. If obedience doesn\u2019t make one righteous, what does? Is obedience, then, irrelevant according to Paul?<\/p>\n

Verses 4-5: What does verse 4 tell us about those who work for a wage? How is that relevant to\u00a0 Paul\u2019s discussion of our relation to the law? In verse 5, who is Paul speaking of when he mentions the ungodly? Who justifies the ungodly? (Compare Romans 5:6.)<\/p>\n

Chapter 5<\/em><\/p>\n

Verses 1-2: What kind of peace with or in relation to God do we have? How has Christ given us peace with God? What is grace? What does it mean to say that we stand in grace (verse 2)? Paul says that we \u201crejoice in hope of the glory of God.\u201d What does that mean? Does it have anything to do with eternal progression?<\/p>\n

Chapter 6<\/em><\/p>\n

Verses 1-2, 11-15: Does Paul believe that the doctrine of salvation by grace and not by works means that we can do whatever we please if we have been saved? Explain why not.<\/p>\n

Chapter 8<\/em><\/p>\n

Verses 1-2, 4: If I don\u2019t have to obey a set of rules, what do I have to obey?<\/p>\n

Verse 13: What does \u201cmortify\u201d mean? How is Paul using the word \u201cflesh\u201d? (See the first clause of verse 9 for help answering that.) What does Paul mean when he speaks of killing the flesh? Is he speaking of asceticism or self-torture?<\/p>\n

Verses 15-17: What is the promise to those who, through faith in Christ, live by the Spirit? What does it mean to say that this promise is conditional, that to receive it we must \u201csuffer with him\u201d? How do we do that?<\/p>\n

Chapter 12<\/em><\/p>\n

Verse 1: What mercies of God has Paul just described (chapters 9-11)? What does it mean to present our bodies a living sacrifice? (Compare Omni 1:26.) Why is doing so our \u201creasonable service\u201d? Christ made his body a living sacrifice. Is Paul asking us to imitate him? How would we do so since, presumably, we are not expected to suffer as he did in Gethsemane or be crucified? Do the things that follow in this chapter and the next chapters tell us what it means to make ourselves a living sacrifice? What does that suggest about \u201cgood works\u201d? Why do we do them, for example?<\/p>\n

Verse 2: What does it mean to be \u201cconformed to this world\u201d? How would we avoid that? (See Alma 5, especially verse 14.) What can transform us? As used here, the word translated \u201cmind\u201d has a different meaning than we usually associate with mind. It refers to how we orient ourselves in the world, whether that orientation is explicitly conscious or not. What does the word \u201cprove\u201d mean as it is used here? Why do our \u201cminds\u201d have to be renewed in order for us to know what is good, pleasing, and perfect according to the will of God? Does that help us understand why the law cannot save us?<\/p>\n

Given what you have read of Paul, how would you explain the relation between works, grace, and salvation? If someone who is not LDS challenged you, saying that LDS don\u2019t believe in salvation by grace, could you use Paul to explain why that is not true?<\/p>\n

Here<\/a> is my outline of Romans (others are, of course, possible). Perhaps it will help you better understand the letter as a whole.<\/p>\n

Please comment on this at Feast upon the Word<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have to confess that Romans is perhaps my favorite book of scripture. Given the way that most Latter-day Saints think of Romans, that marks me as at least strange, if not perverse. It also means that I will have to restrain myself to keep the notes for this lesson to a reasonable length. To do that I have selected a few verses that I think get at the heart of Paul\u2019s message and focus on those. I have also appended an outline of the book as a whole so that you can perhaps understand Paul\u2019s overall message better. Chapter 1 Verse 7: Why does Paul describe the saints in Rome as \u201cbeloved of God\u201d? Doesn\u2019t God love everyone? If he does, why describe any particular group as beloved? In verse 1 Paul said that he was called to be an apostle. In verse 6, he tells the saints in Rome that they too have been called, and in this verse he tells them to what they have been called: to be saints. What does the word \u201csaint\u201d mean? What does it mean to be called to be a saint? When do we receive that calling? How do we fulfill […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":16912,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1671],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16911","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sunday-school-lesson-new-testament"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/Ms1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16911","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16911"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16911\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16916,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16911\/revisions\/16916"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16912"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16911"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16911"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16911"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}