Class Notes: 5/19/2022

The book of Romans part 49 Romans 1:14

https://youtu.be/LTyhZwbcGDA

In our verse-by-verse study of Romans 1 last time we finished verse 13 and were looking at some principles that come from the verse.

Rom 1:12; "that is to receive encouragement together with you through each other's doctrine both yours and mine.

Rom 1:13; I do not wish you to be ignorant, brethren, as frequently I intended to come face to face with you, (but was prevented until now), that I might have some production among you, just as also among other Gentiles."

Rome is now open to Paul's teaching. Up until now it had not been.

This Roman epistle was to be an introduction to Paul's teaching in Rome, and was to be the transition doctrine and experiential application necessary for acceleration into spiritual maturity.

Rome is open but Jerusalem is closed.

Shortly after writing this letter Paul must decide between Rome and Jerusalem, between doctrine and emotion.

It was Paul's bad decision to disobey God and to go to Jerusalem that contributed to his delay.

When you have a choice to make between doctrinal truth and how your emotional feelings, never go with how emotional feelings.

Only God knows the open and the closed doors. Therefore the greatest issue in our lives is God's guidance.

What appears to us to be an open door may be a closed one and what appears to be a closed door may actually be open.

The only way we can be rational about it is to have enough doctrine in our thinking for the Holy Spirit to lead us through the correct door.

In the devil's world God's platform for the dissemination of doctrine must be a priest nation. Only God knows the priest nation and where it is going next.

Since Israel God always operates through and always had a priest nation.

Israel was God's priest nation from the time of Moses until the crucifixion of Christ and now we have gentile priest nations.

The fact of the priest nation is verified in Exod 19:6; the exception is stated in Hosea 1:9; In this case the northern kingdom was being removed but the Southern Kingdom remained the priest nation.

Loss of priest nation status comes from negative volition to doctrine
Rom 1:18-32;

The United States as a priest nation is following the same pattern of maladjustment to God's justice as expressed in Rom 1:18-32;

Production from the teaching of Bible doctrine by pastors and the positive response to the teaching from God's royal family that God has subdivided into local assemblies is required for the establishment and maintenance of a priest nation.

This brings us to Rom 1:14; When we look at the original Greek and the English in this verse we can see an excellent example of how the English translation inverts the word order from the Greek so we will note that and then follow the NASB word order in our exegesis.

I am" is translated from the present active indicative of the verb "eimi" that is the Greek verb "to be." This is a retroactive progressive present that denotes what has begun in the past and continues as the present reality.

It expresses extremely strong continuous linear action that indicates that Paul has a way of life that is based on doctrinal viewpoint. The active voice: Paul produces the action of the verb. The indicative mood states the fact.

With this is the Greek noun "opheiletes," that means an obligation or responsibility that is based upon a sense of honor. From that sense of honor comes a sense of duty or responsibility, obligation or indebtedness toward others. So the first phrase is "I am indebted, obligated or responsible"

Remember in God's system the sense of honor is directed toward God as personal love, and the sense of duty is directed toward people as impersonal love. This is the power from doctrinal viewpoint that changes history.

The next phrase specifies those that Paul obligated to. "both to the Greeks, and to the barbarians" "Greeks" is translated from the word "Hellen" that designates Greek the Greek civilization that is comprised of Greek states bound by a common custom, culture, religion, race, etc.

The second category that is mentioned is " barbaros." Transliterated barbarians refer to all of the other gentile people. In a sense these groups are antithetical but they are similar in the sense that both groups are unbelievers.

Thy are all unbelievers who Paul feels the obligation or responsibility to evangelize.

The Greeks became the name of the Gentiles who accepted Hellenistic culture. It originally meant Greeks, but eventually after Alexander the Great conquered the world it became related to the culture that was spread through the Greek conquests. So this word "Hellen" became not simply someone who was a Greek, it referred to those who had adopted the Greek culture.

To the Greeks the languages of other people sounded strange and vulgar, so they called these people barbarian because from the Greek perspective they spoke with unintelligible sounds and is sounded like they stuttered, because in their view they didn't have the advantages of the Hellenic languages.

So Paul is describing gentiles who are considered " civilized and those who are uncivilized" and he is obligated to both.

The next phrase is translated "both to the wise, and to the foolish" the dative of indirect object masculine plural from "sophos", refers to the believer who has made the maximum adjustment to God's justice through their consistent and persistent function under the ministry of the Holy Spirit with positive volition to the communication of God's Word of truth.

It is a technical word that is used to describe the born again believer who has advanced from the point of salvation all the way to spiritual maturity.

"Sophos" is the word that God's Word uses to describe the mature believer who consistently deploys doctrinal truth under the ministry of God the Holy Spirit.

In this case it describes those who Paul is teaching who have been positive so they have received spiritual advantage. It is to the advantage of every believer to advance to spiritual maturity and is advantageous for them to keep on applying doctrine.

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