May 4, 2019

Romans 3The Question and Answer Chapter (15)

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Romans

✤ The gospel of justification

✤ Salvation for Jew and Greek alike

✤ Faith in Jesus Christ

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✤ In Paul’s day most letters were written by a professional scribe called an amanuensis. Sometimes the sender was illiterate, but generally an amanuensis was used to guarantee letters would be grammatically sound and legible. Tertius was Paul’s scribe, and he inserted his own greeting at the close of the letter.

✤ As a professional, Tertius collected the necessary materials for writing. This was not always easy since bulk paper production was unknown. Although vellum or parchment (processed polished animal skins) were available, they were expensive.

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✤ Papyrus from Egypt worked best. The cut plant was pressed in layers and became as tough as today’s paper. It was produced in scrolls by gluing together sheets and rolling them end-to-end on a stick. One roll was called a volume and was generally 35 feet long.

✤ When Tertius began working on Romans, he had a fresh scroll and a pen with brown or black ink. Scribes wrote on the side of the papyrus where the fibers ran horizontally, the fiber lines serving as a guide.

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Matthew on papyrus

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Temple Scroll

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Psalm fragment

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!11St. Catherine’s monastery where Codex Sinaiticus was found 1859

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Job 9

It is a work of faith to calmly repose in God in the darkest hour—however severely tried and tempest-tossed, to feel

that our Father is at the helm. The eye of faith alone can look beyond the things of time and sense to estimate the worth of

eternal riches.

–Ellen White, Gospel Workers92, p. 26.1

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Feeling is not faith; the two are distinct. Faith is ours to exercise, but joyful feeling and the blessing are God’s to give.

The grace of God comes to the soul through the channel of living faith, and that faith it is in our power to exercise.

–Ellen White, Christian Experience and Teachings of Ellen G. White, p. 126.1; EW 72

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Romans 3

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The principle that man can save himself by his own works [in other words,

righteousness by works of law] lay at the foundation of every heathen religion; it

had now become the principle of the Jewish religion. Satan had implanted

this principle. Wherever it is held, men have no barrier against sin.

–EGW, DA 35

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Paul has already shown that the Gentiles have violated the law revealed to them in nature and conscience (Rom. 1).

Likewise he has proved that the Jews have violated the law revealed to them in the OT and particularly in the Ten

Commandments (ch. 2). Jew and Gentile alike are in need of justification. But the law has no power to justify. It can only

expose the sinfulness of sin in its true colors. Justification can be obtained in only one way.

–SDA BC on Romans 3:20

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There is no contradiction between the statement in ch. 2:13, “the doers of the law shall be justified,” and this passage, “by

the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified.” The former emphasizes the fact that only those will be justified who so completely commit themselves to God that they are

willing to do whatever He commands—thus not being merely “hearers of law.” The latter emphasizes the equally true fact that good works of obedience can never purchase salvation. They can, at best, be but evidence of the faith by

which justification is received.

–SDA BC on Romans 3:20

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As used in the NT with reference to human beings, justification indicates the act by which a person is brought

into a right state in relation to God. By this act God acquits a man who has been guilty of wrongdoing or treats as

righteous someone who has been unrighteous. It means the cancellation of charges standing against the believer in the

heavenly court. “If you give yourself to Him, and accept Him as your Saviour, then, sinful as your life may have been, for His sake you are accounted righteous” (SC 62; see on chs.

3:28; 4:25; 5:1).

–SDA BC on Romans 3:20

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