Romans 1:1-17

 Homiletics                                                Study:        Romans from Guilt to Grace                             

Lesson    01                                            Passage:    Romans 1:1-17

Content (List of Topics or Events)

Paul’s Calling, Gospel Truth and Greeting (1-7) 1. Paul, a servant set apart for the Gospel (1:1) 2. The Gospel: (2-4) a. Promised through prophets b. Earthly Son, a descendant of David c. Spirit-appointed Son of God with resurrection power, Jesus Christ our Lord 3. Grace and apostleship calls Gentiles to obedience from faith in his name (5) 4. Gentiles called belong to Jesus Christ (6) 5. Salutation to all in Rome loved by God and called His holy people… Grace and Peace from God the Father and Lord Jesus Christ (7)

Paul’s Letter Purpose (8-15) 1. Thank God for your reported faith (8) 2.  God is my witness; I remember you in my prayers (9-10a) 3. Paul’s prayer to come to the Roman church (10b) 4. Paul’s longing to impart spiritual gifts; to make you strong and mutually encourage our faith (11-12) 5. Paul reminds the Roman church of his plans to come many times but was prevented until now, looking forward to the harvest in Rome like with other Gentiles (13) 6. Paul’s obligation to preach the Gospel to Greeks and non-Greeks, wise and foolish (14) 7. Paul’s eagerness to preach in Rome (15)

Paul’s Gospel Enthusiasm (16-17)  1. Paul not ashamed of Gospel… power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes (16) 2. Gospel reveals God’s righteousness. Righteousness by faith from first to last (17a) 3. It is written, “The righteous will live by faith (17b)

Divisions (Main Blocks of Thought)

Paul’s Calling, Gospel Truth and Greeting	Romans 1:1-7
Paul’s Letter and Purpose	Romans 1:8-15
Paul’s Gospel Enthusiasm	Romans 1:16-17

Subject Sentence (Summarizes the contents of the Divisions – No more than 10 words)

Paul, a Gospel servant, describes faith’s salvation power to Rome

Aim (Main Teaching Point of the Passage)

CTATL that God wants all (Jew and Gentile) to come to Him in faith.  The gospel is God’s life and salvation provision through Jesus Christ.

Application Questions

What calling has God set you apart to do? Have you recognized this calling and acted on it?

How do you recognize the faith in others and encourage them?

How is God’s salvation power lived out boldly in your life? How does it affect others?

Principles to Remember

God calls His servants to ministry

Faith is visible

Faith is God’s righteousness revealed

Characteristic of God

Foundation of Righteousness

Theme

Gospel is God’s love bringing salvation to all who believe; we are called to be visible, bold and infectious.

 

Romans - Introduction

Paul's letter to Rome's believers presents a well-reasoned and powerful explanation of the essential doctrines of the Christian faith.  

1. Bible Reveals God to Humanity
2. Romans New Testament Placement
3. Romans Structure and Context

PRINCIPLES:

• Through the Bible, God reveals Himself to humanity. 
• Through the Bible, the Gospel presented faithfully and clearly.
• Through the Bible, God calls people to believe in Jesus and live transformed lives.

APPLICATION QUESTION: 

• How will we use this year’s study of Romans to know and love God more?
• How will this year’s study bring lives to the truth of the Gospel?
• The Gospel is God’s truth to mankind; How will I study, learn more, allow this study to be used for God’s glory.

CHARACTERISTIC OF GOD:  Truth

THEME: The hope for abundant life, the hope for a restored creation under Christ reflects the power of the gospel and God’s mighty work through Jesus.

Theme

Throughout the homiletical process, we have carefully examined the passage from multiple perspectives. We have gathered observations, developed Content Statements, identified Divisions, written a Subject Sentence, discovered the Aim, reflected through Application Questions, identified timeless Principles, and discovered the Characteristic of God revealed within the text.

As each step contributes to our understanding, another discovery quietly begins to emerge. Individual observations that once appeared unrelated gradually unite into one central message. That message is the Theme.

How Theme Became Part of This Process

The concept of Theme was not original with me. It was introduced during my second-year homiletics studies at Bible college.  In college, we started with the theme and built out the message from it.

In the context of my studies, we were answering the question: "What is the central idea I plan to share?" The Theme was closely associated with preparing a Bible lesson or message.

As I continued studying Scripture and refining the homiletical process, I realized the theme had to be a part of the process and must be part of the process. Not first, as I was taught, but as the final step in our homiletics.

 

The Theme did not originate with my lesson. It originated with God's Word. My responsibility was not to create the Theme as I was initially taught, but my responsibility was to discover it in the Scripture studied.

 

Theme Description

The Theme is the overarching spiritual truth that emerges from the passage and unites everything discovered throughout the study. It captures the central message God is communicating through the Scripture and provides a unified understanding of the passage as a whole.

In many ways, the Theme represents the culmination of the interpretive process.

Once the Theme was discovered, every lesson, Bible study, message, lecture, or sermon naturally grew out of the truth already revealed within the passage. The lesson grows out of the Theme, and the Theme grows out of the Scripture.

 

Subject Sentence, Aim, and Theme

Some may confuse the Subject Sentence, the Aim, and the Theme because each summarizes an important aspect of the passage. Although they are closely related, each answers a different question and serves a distinct purpose within the homiletical process.

·       The Subject Sentence summarizes the movement of the passage.

·       The Aim identifies the purpose of that movement.

·       The Theme expresses the unified message God is communicating through the passage.

Together they answer three important questions.

·       Subject Sentence: What is happening in the passage?

·       Aim: Why is this passage saying it?

·       Theme: What is God saying through it?

 

(An extract from "Walking through God's Word")

 

 

Characteristic of God

The Characteristic of God identifies the primary truth about God's character, His work, or His ways most clearly revealed within a passage of Scripture.

Sometimes that revelation is best expressed by a single word such as Holy, Just, Faithful, or Sovereign. At other times, a brief descriptive phrase more accurately captures the way God faithfully works among His people.

The goal is not to force every passage into a predetermined list of theological attributes. Rather, it is to allow the passage itself to reveal the characteristic God has chosen to emphasize.

Why Identify the Characteristic of God?

Every passage reveals God.

On occasion in our study, His holiness stands at the forefront. At other times His justice, grace, wisdom, patience, compassion, sovereignty, or faithfulness becomes the dominant emphasis. In still other passages we discover the faithful ways in which God works among His people. Although several characteristics may be present, one usually stands out above the others as the primary revelation of the passage.

Identifying that characteristic helps us keep our attention where Scripture consistently directs it—not merely toward biblical truth, but toward the God from whom that truth flows.

With this understanding, we expand our approach and study of the Bible. Instead of asking only, "What does this passage teach?" we also begin asking, "What does this passage reveal about the God who inspired it?" That simple shift transforms Bible study from an academic exercise into the joyful pursuit of knowing God more deeply.

Our Bible study and the identification of God’s character are an important part of our homiletics process.  It is helpful to learn more about our living God. God is the source of every truth we discover.

This is what the Lord says: “Let not the wise boast of their wisdom or the strong boast of their strength or the rich boast of their riches, but let the one who boasts boast about this: that they have the understanding to know me, that I am the Lord, who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight,” declares the Lord. - Jeremiah 9:23-24 NIV

Every step of studying God’s Word leads us closer to the God who has spoken – so that we may love Him and follow Him more faithfully.

 

(An Extract from "Walking through God’s Word")

 

Principles

Principles are concise statements of timeless truth that emerge from careful observation, thoughtful reflection, prayerful dependence upon God, and faithful study. They help us move beyond the historical setting of a passage and recognize truths that remain relevant across cultures, generations, and circumstances.

Principles carry significance; it is essential that we discover them faithfully. The goal is never to impose our own ideas upon the passage, but to allow God's truth to emerge naturally from the text.

One of the great dangers in Bible study is searching for truths that support our opinions or confirm what we already believe. Our homiletics need to guard against that tendency by allowing Scripture to speak first.

Principles emerge from observation, Divisions, the Subject Sentence, the Aim, and Application Questions; they remain anchored to the passage rather than personal preference.

We do not create Principles to support our conclusions. Instead, we patiently observe, thoughtfully reflect, prayerfully seek God's wisdom, and allow enduring truths to emerge naturally from the passage itself.

Every Principle should grow out of what God has already revealed—not out of what we hope to find.

Principles emerge from the Divisions of a passage; each Division will normally yield one primary Principle. Rather than collecting numerous truths within a single Division, we seek to discover the principal truth God is emphasizing through that movement of thought.

A passage with three Divisions will often produce three Principles.

The Holy Spirit illuminates the text, guides our reflection, and often impresses specific truths upon our hearts. Different believers studying the same passage may recognize different Principles while remaining faithful to the text. One believer may be impressed by a Principle related to faith, another may recognize the call to obedience, another may be drawn to God's faithfulness, while someone else may see a truth about spiritual growth. If those Principles emerge naturally from the passage, remain faithful to its meaning, and harmonize with the whole of Scripture, they may all be legitimate.

While the Holy Spirit may impress different truths upon different believers, He will never lead us away from the meaning of the passage He inspired.

(An Extract from "Walking Through God's Word")

Application Questions

 Application Questions

Before Application Questions become questions for a class, a Bible study group, or a congregation, they are first questions for ourselves. Our natural tendency is often to think about someone else who needs to hear the passage or how we might someday teach it. While those considerations have their place, they should never become our starting point.

The first question should always be: What is God saying to me?

Application Questions provide a regular spiritual check-in and check-up. They invite us to pause before God's Word, honestly examine our lives, and respond in obedience to what He is teaching us. Every passage of Scripture gives us another opportunity to ask whether our attitudes, priorities, decisions, relationships, and actions reflect the truth God is revealing through His Word.

Rather than examining Scripture to see what it says about someone else, we invite Scripture to examine us.

Application Questions are opportunities to respond personally to God's Word. They provide a regular spiritual check-in and check-up, inviting us to allow Scripture to examine our hearts before we seek to explain it to others.

Before becoming teachers of God's Word, we must first become students of God's Word. Before God's truth flows through us to others, it must first accomplish its work within us.

Application Questions move us from observation toward personal reflection. They are not designed merely to test knowledge but to encourage transformation. God's Word was not given simply to increase information; it was given to instruct, correct, encourage, guide, and change us.

We do not study Scripture primarily for the benefit of those we may someday teach, counsel, encourage, or lead. While others may benefit from what God teaches us, Scripture is first intended to shape our own lives.

As we prayerfully reflect upon God's Word, the Holy Spirit often reveals areas requiring growth, obedience, repentance, encouragement, faith, trust, or renewed commitment. This ongoing work of transformation is part of what Scripture describes as sanctification.

Each time we open God's Word, we are given another opportunity to check in with the Lord. Scripture, both encourages us where we are growing and lovingly reveals attitudes, habits, priorities, or actions that still need His transforming work. This continual pattern of self-examination keeps our hearts teachable and our lives responsive to His leading.

Application Questions become one of the tools God uses to help us participate in that process. As we honestly engage these questions, we place ourselves beneath the authority of Scripture and allow God to examine our hearts, refine our character, strengthen our faith, and conform us more fully to the image of Christ.

Good Application Questions move us beyond information toward sanctification.

 

(An extract from "Walking through God's Word")

Aim

The Aim identifies the purpose of the passage and what it seeks to communicate. While the Subject Sentence summarizes the text movement, the Aim seeks to understand why that movement exists. It helps us recognize what the writer appears to be seeking to accomplish through the passage and what response the material seems designed to encourage.

This distinction is foundational to the homiletical process. Before asking what a passage means for our lives, we first seek to understand what the inspired writer intended to communicate through it. Only after that purpose begins to emerge are we prepared to consider the passage’s implications for our own lives and for those we may eventually teach.

Guiding Principle

The Aim does not describe what we want the passage to accomplish; it identifies what the biblical writer appears to be accomplishing through the passage itself.

Role of the Aim

Many students assume the Aim is simply a lesson objective or a statement describing what they hope to accomplish while teaching. Although the Aim will eventually influence both teaching and application, it begins somewhere else. It is not first about what the leader wants to achieve but about what the passage itself appears to be trying to accomplish.

The Aim is therefore not what we want the passage to say. It is what the passage appears to be doing through its movement, emphasis, and progression. This distinction keeps us anchored to the text rather than allowing personal preferences, favorite topics, or predetermined conclusions to shape our interpretation.

Discovering the Aim

The Aim is not something we invent after reading a passage. It is something we discover through careful observation, thoughtful organization, and prayerful reflection. As observations are gathered, Content Statements are developed, Divisions are identified, and the Subject Sentence is written, the writer’s apparent purpose often begins to emerge naturally.

Our responsibility is not to assign purpose to the text but to discover the purpose the inspired writer appears to communicate.

Writing an Effective Aim

Once the writer’s apparent purpose has been discovered, the student must express it clearly. Although there is no single formula for writing an Aim, effective Aim statements are usually concise, specific, and firmly rooted in the passage.

Testing the Aim

Once an Aim has been written, it should be tested against the passage. An Aim may sound biblical, encouraging, or useful and still fail to reflect the distinctive purpose of the text being studied. Testing helps ensure that the statement arises from the passage rather than from the student’s personal interests or expectations.

Why the Aim Matters

The Aim matters because it gives direction to the remainder of the homiletical process. Once the writer’s apparent purpose has been identified, the student is better prepared to ask how the passage should affect life, what enduring truths it communicates, what it reveals about God, and what unifying message emerges from the study.

Summary

The Aim identifies the apparent purpose of a passage and serves as the bridge between structural development and deeper reflection, helping us understand not only what the text says but what it seeks to accomplish.