Epistles of Paul 67

In a last study, we covered a basic introduction to the Book of Romans.

The Book of Romans was written in the winter of AD 55 to 56 from Greece.

The section there is Acts 20 verse 2. While Paul had gone to, more specifically in Greece, to Corinth. It was written about four or five years before Paul went to Rome as a prisoner, around about year AD 59 to 61. There's a basic theme of the Book. It basically covers God's plan of salvation. In other words, it shows God's plan to redeem man from the wages of human sin. We all mankind, we all went off the track. And that is basically covered from the first eight chapters. Then chapters 7 through 11, it explains God's dealing with the Jews and East. That's Paul's concern and God's concern for them. And then the last few chapters from chapter 12, it's to exhort the brethren to grow and answer, and for Paul to answer, questions that they had.

The first three chapters of Romans are rather interesting because Paul starts by writing to the Gentiles about their previous incorrect education, as far as who God is. And Paul tells the Gentiles that because of that, they got nothing to brag about. Then Paul addresses, in chapter 2, or later in chapter 2, Paul addresses the Jews. And because they had the law, some of them could feel superior because they had the law. But again, Paul addresses them and says, they also have nothing to brag about. And he's basically saying, you have the law, but you don't keep it. So that was those first two chapters. And the third chapter, he then Paul puts Jews and Gentiles, all of us in our place, saying that we all have gone astray and we need to repent and change. So let's start reading in verse 1 of chapter 1. We read Paul, a bond servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated to the gospel of God. So we have here in first place the word bond servant. You are probably aware that is a Greek word which translates is is dulos, which is correctly translated as a bond servant. In other words, a slave of God. We are slaves of God, bought with a price. Just like slaves in the old days of slavery in many countries.

For instance, there was slavery in Portugal, in Brazil. It's not just in the States. There was slavery in many countries. And as we see, there was slavery also in the days of Christ and in Rome. So as slaves in old days, we are also slaves, but we have been bought and paid for.

How? With the very life of Christ, he sacrificed. You know, brethren, the more we think about this and the more we meditate about it, the more we realize how much God through Christ has done for us. And he has the full right to tell us what to do.

So Paul says as a bond servant of Christ. So he's a bond servant. We are bond servants of Christ. But yet Paul is saying called to be an apostle. An apostle is one who is sent. He was sent with the Gospel, in other words, to good news. In other words, he was divinely commissioned and empowered to preach the Gospel. So Paul, a servant of Christ, a bond servant of Christ, divinely empowered, in other words, as an apostle, and separated and chosen to preach the Gospel of God.

Now, sometimes people get a bit confused. And they say, oh well, there's different Gospels. There's the Gospel of God. There's the Gospel of Christ. There's the Gospel of the Kingdom. And it uses various terms. Is it different Gospels?

No. The Gospel is the message, is the good news of the Kingdom of God. And how you and I get into that Kingdom, into God's Kingdom, to be part of God's family, is through Jesus Christ. And that is the message that Christ brought. It is the message that God sent to us through Christ. So there's no contradiction there. So now continue in verse 2, which he promised, that's the Gospel of God, which he promised before through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures.

Now, the Old Testament, obviously these prophecies that's referring here would have been in the Old Testament. The Old Testament is full of prophecies concerning Christ and the good news and the Gospel. There's prophecies about the Kingdom of God, prophecies about the Millennium, prophecies about Christ's return, prophecies about Christ's sacrifice. There is a professor of the Old Testament scriptures in a book of biblical prophecy, Professor J. Martin Payne. According to him, there are 58 prophecies in Old Testament about Jesus Christ and his sacrifice, 56 prophecies in Old Testament about Christ's Second Coming, 47 prophecies in Old Testament about the Millennium, and 574 verses in Old Testament that somehow point to or describe or refer to the coming of the Messiah.

And so, as it says here, which he promised before through these prophets in Holy Scriptures. So, these prophecies were promised by God. And let's just quickly look at Galatians chapter 3, Galatians chapter 3 verse 8, Galatians chapter 3 verse 8, which reads, "...and the scripture foreseen that God would justify..." He has a very important word, justify, we'll talk about it a little bit more about it later on today.

"...and the scripture foreseen that God would justify and was make right within the Gentiles by faith preached the gospel, preached the good news to Abraham beforehand saying, in you all the nations shall be blessed." You see, so that is part of the gospel that all nations will be blessed through Abraham and his seed, which is Christ.

So, that is right there at the very beginning part of the gospel. One example. Look at also at first Peter chapter 1, first Peter chapter 1 verse 10, 11 and 12. And it says, "...of this salvation the prophets have inquired and searched carefully, who prophesied of the grace that would come to you." You see, so this gift of gracious kindness from God to us through Christ was prophesied. And today these prophets acknowledge that this message that they were inspired to write down was not for their generation, but for us in the latter times.

So, let's continue reading. "...of this salvation the prophets have inquired and searched carefully, who prophesied the grace that would come to you, searching what or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ, who was in them." Interesting. "...the Spirit of Christ that was in them," which obviously is God's only Spirit, which is the Spirit of God, is the Spirit of Christ, the same Spirit, who was in them, "...was indicating when he testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow." To them, that is, to these prophets in Old Testament, it was revealed that known not only to themselves but to us, they were ministering the things which now have been reported to you through those who have preached the gospel.

It was the good news. The gospel of the kingdom to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven things which angels desire to look in. And so, we can see that there were a lot of prophecies in the scriptures and a lot of prophets that were desiring to understand more, and even angels desired to understand more.

But even without the New Testament, there was enough knowledge in the Old Testament for salvation. Many things, for instance, stated in the New Testament were already mentioned in the Old Testament. Surely, we expanded or made clearer in the New Testament. And therefore, for that, we read in 2 Timothy chapter 3. 2 Timothy. 2 Timothy. 2 Timothy.

2 Timothy chapter 3. We read in verse 15 through 17, but particularly verse 15. And that from childhood, you, that's Timothy, Paul writing to Timothy, you have known the Holy Scriptures. Which one were the Holy Scriptures at that time? It was the Old Testament, what we call the Old Testament, which are able to make you wise for salvation. The Old Testament was able to make one wise for salvation through faith, which is in Christ Jesus, through Christ Jesus. Old Scripture, and in this case, when he was referring to Scriptures, he says, is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. That the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.

And so, there was enough in the Old Testament, there was enough information in the Old Testament for salvation. Indeed, there were men that were converted that never saw a word of the Scriptures.

It is a blessing for us to have the Bible. For instance, how much of the Bible did Abraham read? Or Isaac? Or Jacob? Or Job? You see, God revealed his way to them one on one. He revealed it. They probably had to write things down. But today, we are blessed to have the Scriptures. So, even those in the Old Testament only had what we now call the Old Testament. And many of them didn't even have the complete Old Testament at that time when they lived, because it was still being put together. But they had enough for salvation. But we are blessed that we have the Bible on our laps. So, continue back in Romans chapter 1 and now verse 3. So, talking about Paul, the servant of Jesus Christ, called, was sent to preach the Gospel. The Gospel which he promised long ago. Verse 3, concerning his son Jesus Christ, our Lord, who was born of the seed of David according to the flesh.

You see, Christ was a physical human being. He was completely physical. He was born of the seed of David according to the flesh. He was in the flesh. He was physical. But he was also the Son of God. So, that's why it says then in verse 4, declared to be the Son of God with power. All right, let's take it first. Just declare to be the Son of God. Christ was physical, as we saw, but he also was divine through the Spirit. Now, we can see in Mark chapter 1, verse, I beg your pardon, in Matthew chapter 1 verse 1 through 16, we can see the lineage of Joseph, Matthew chapter 1 verse 1 through 16. And it says, the book of the genealogy of Jesus crossed the Son of David, the son of Abraham, and then it goes through the whole genealogy. And then we read in verse 16 down to his, let's call it, his stepfather, Jacob, by your pardon, Joseph. It says, and Jacob begot Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who's called Christ. So it shows here a genealogy aligned for legal purposes through the legal father, not the literal father, but the legal father. But his bloodline is through lineage, physical lineage, comes through Mary. And that's in Luke chapter 3. In Luke chapter 3 verse 23 through 38. Luke chapter 3 verse 23 through 38. And it says now Jesus himself began his ministry and about 30 years of age, being, as it was supposed, the son of Joseph. But in other words, he was actually the stepson of Joseph.

But he actually was the son in law of Eli. Joseph was the son in law of Eli, the son of Mattat, etc., etc. So it shows now the lineage of Mary. So we therefore understand clearly through that that Christ was a Jew of the line of Judah. In Hebrews chapter 7 and God states that as well. Hebrews chapter 7 verse 14. Hebrews chapter 7 verse 14.

We see, for it is evident that our Lord, that's Christ, arose from Judah. So he was of the line of Judah, of which tribe Moses spoke nothing concerning the priesthood. So Christ was a Jew. He came through Judah. He was not of the tribe of Levi. Now, continuing back in Romans.

So it says in verse 4, declare to be the son of God with power. This is important because he was declared to be the son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead. In other words, he became the son of God with power by the resurrection of the dead.

In other words, Jesus became with power when he was resurrected from the dead. We are now the sons of God today, but we're not the sons of God with power. Through the resurrection, the same thing will happen to us. We will then be given, if we qualify, and we hope so that we all do qualify, we will then be given a glorified body. And we will be the sons of God with power.

In the look Colossians chapter 18, Colossians chapter 18, I beg your pardon, chapter 1 verse 18. Colossians chapter 1 verse 18. We read, we read, and he is the head of the body, the church. So Christ is the head of the body of the body of Christ, which is the church. Who is the beginning? The first born from the dead.

Christ was the first born from the dead. He was the first that was born from the dead and became a spirit being. Now, yes, there were other resurrections, which were temporary resurrections like Lazarus. I'll be a bigger part of this. Not Lazarus, but sorry, the name slips my mind now. My apologies. But there were others. There's the child that was resurrected by, by, man, my names are now slipping my mind. They were resurrected by Elijah. Elijah's that boy that was resurrected. And others were resurrected. But they were only resurrected temporarily. They then died. But Christ was the first born from the dead, which basically means we would then be second or third born or whatever it is. But he is the first born from the dead. That does not mean that will not be the first fruits, but it just means that he is the first born from the dead. Now, continuing then in verse five, through him we have received grace and apostleship for obedience to the faith among all nations for his name. So through him, through Christ and through God, we have received grace. And it says, yeah, grace and apostleship for obedience to the faith among all nations for his name. So through him, we have, yeah, Paul in his introduction saying he and those that were with him, he is apostle and those that were with him, we received grace. Now, what is this grace? It's grace that brings us to salvation. If we look at Titus chapter 2, Titus chapter 2 verse 11. Titus chapter 2 verse 11, for the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. So the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. So the grace, the kindness that God has given to us, given as his son, he died for us, that is a kindness from God for salvation. And continue then reading, through him we've received grace and apostleship. So Paul received that responsibility to be sent for the publication, for the information, for the distribution of that good news, of that grace to the Gentiles. Look at Acts chapter 9 verse 15. Acts chapter 9 verse 15, we see that Paul was sent to the Gentiles and to kings. Let's look at Acts chapter 9 verse 15. But the Lord said to him to Paul, Go, make a part of his soul, said to Ananias, the Lord said to him, Go, for he, Paul, was then soul, is a chosen vessel of mine to bear my name before Gentiles, kings, and the children of Israel. So that was the reason, the mission, that Paul was sent, that was his apostleship, to go to the Gentiles and to kings, and then to the children of Israel. So continuing reading, therefore, in verse 5, then he says, an apostleship for obedience to the faith. Now, obedience is an absolutely necessary consequence of genuine faith for all nations. Again, then he says, among all nations. So all nations will ultimately receive this gospel, and they are receiving now the gospel, the good news, for salvation to all nations. And it's also obedience to the faith. So this salvation requires obedience. And then he says, for his name's sake, you know, for his name. In other words, for what Jesus Christ did, for what God does, and in other words, we honor God, and we honor Christ, Christ in whose name it is being preached. And for this, if we look at Acts 15 verse 14. Acts 15 verse 14.

Acts 15 verse 14. Simon has declared how God at first visited the Gentiles to take out of them a people for his name. So they are, we are, being chosen for his name, for Christ's name, to actually to be, in a sense, God's name, and to be children of God. Verse 6. Among whom you also are called of Jesus Christ. You are the called of Jesus Christ. Among all nations, therefore, among all nations, among you, among all these nations, and particularly you, the Romans, were at that time a leading nation. And you say among you also are the called of Jesus Christ. In other words, the apostles were sent to the uncircumcision and the called, we are called for a very special calling. We are called for a high calling. Look at Philippians chapter 3 verse 14. Philippians chapter 3 verse 14.

Read, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call in Christ. The upward call is a very high calling. It's a very special calling in Christ Jesus. We, it's a very high calling. Sometimes we just think, oh well, we are called and... But brethren, I think sometimes we forget that we are called to be, let's call it, the very leaders at the top of God's government, immediately after Christ and that top echelon of leadership in the millennium and throughout eternity. I don't think, I sometimes don't think myself, I fully understand or comprehend the high calling that this is. And we need to be meditating more on that because it is a high calling. Now, continue in verse 7. To all, now is finished basically greeting the introduction and now in verse 7 says, To all who are in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints. Now, the interesting thing is the words to be are in italics, so called saints. We are called saints. We are holy. Saints set apart, separated, holy because God's only Spirit dwells in us. And so that is something very special. And then it goes on, Grace to you and peace. That's his normal salutation, grace and peace from God, our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ. And you can see the Holy Spirit is left out because the Holy Spirit is not a person. So it comes grace and peace from God, our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Verse 8. First, I want to thank God through Jesus Christ for you all that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world, obviously being the Roman world. At that time it was a Roman empire, so your faith is being spoken out through the whole world, your evidence of what you're doing. One of the things that was happening was that the Jews had been expelled out of Rome, and now a number of them were returning to Rome. And those that were in Rome, which was mostly a Gentile church, they were seen as having faith because initially the church was perceived as a sect of the Jewish community. And we know at the beginning Paul would go to the synagogue, and then he went to people's individual homes. Later on, it became that. So it had a very close connection to the Jewish community, and that required faith, particularly in the headquarters of that Roman world. Verse 9, For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit.

I serve God with my spirit. And again, yeah, Paul is talking about the spirit of man in man, which is also mentioned in 1 Corinthians, the spirit of man which is in man. And our spirit, the spirit of man, is coupled with God's only spirit. And that way we are able to receive God's only spirit, and we are able to understand and accomplish the purpose of God, so that we may have the relationship with God. And so he says, For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit, with my whole being, in the gospel of his Son, the gospel, the good news that Christ brought, the gospel of his Son, that without ceasing, I may make mention of you always in my prayers. So he prayed constantly for the different churches, and he is also mentioning, he's praying for the Romans. Verse 10, Making requests if by some means now at last I may find a way in the will of God to come to you. He wants to come and visit them, for I long to see you that I may impart to you some spiritual gift so that you may be established. So an apostle or a minister of Jesus Christ going to visit a congregation or being present at a congregation is a way that God, through that minister, is imparting a spiritual gift to the church. And he says, so that you may be established. In other words, to establish them, to be established, to be built up. And now in verse 12, he says, that is, that I may be encouraged together with you by the mutual faith, both of you and me. Paul is not putting himself up on a, let's call it, on a spiritual pedestal, but he's saying, hey, I benefit from, I will, I Paul will benefit from you and you will benefit from me. So he's saying, hey, we benefit from each other. And that is so important for us to consider the value of Christian fellowship, because it's like, you know, we build one another up, we encourage one another, that mutual faith is so important. One builds another up. Verse 13, now I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that I often plan to come to you. Yes, he has desired often to come to them, but he was injured until now. Until this moment he was not able to go there. That I might have come, that I might have some fruit among you also. It was important to me. It was important that spiritual gift that he's talking about, just as among the other Gentiles that I've had opportunity. So maybe there was some circumstances that just didn't work out, and therefore he was eager to come there. Or maybe there were some problems that cropped up, that he had planned, and then he had to change the trip, and maybe those problems were caused by Satan.

Because he wanted to impart to them a spiritual gift.

So that was his desire, just like he did two other Gentiles. In other words, because Romans was mostly a Gentile church. So verse 14, I am a debtor both to Greeks and barbarians, both to wise and to unwise. In other words, I am a debtor both to those that are cultured or knowledgeable in the Greek culture, and those that the Greeks would consider are uncultured, barbarians, as far as their cultural value system. Maybe they would not tell those people were not able to speak the Greek language. But what he's saying is, I'm a debtor to everybody. He's going to preach the gospel to all men, wise and unwise. And remember, Paul had mentioned in 1 Corinthians chapter 1, let's just look at it there, 1 Corinthians chapter 1, 1 Corinthians chapter 1, verse 27. Well, let's start in verse 26. For you see your calling, brethren, that you, not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things that are mighty, and the basings of the world, and the things that are despised. God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing, the things that are.

God has chosen us, not the wisest ones on the earth for sure, to confound the wise. And so God is going to make out of us precious stones with glory, with wisdom, but in the meantime, we're not. And so Paul is saying he's prepared to serve Greeks, the ones that are cultured in the Greek culture, and the ones that are not cultured in the Greek culture, both the wise and the unwise.

Verse 15, so as much as it is in me, I am ready to preach the gospel to you who are in Rome also. I want to preach to you that are in Rome. And so he wrote this epistle to encourage them as well. Verse 16, For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. Now we can see the gospel of Christ. Earlier on, he was talking about the gospel of God, but it's the same gospel as I mentioned. It was the gospel that Christ preached, was the gospel of the kingdom of God. Well, let's just confirm that. Let's just look at Mark chapter 1. Mark chapter 1 verse 14.

Mark chapter 1 verse 14. Now, after John was put in prison, as John the Baptist, Jesus came to Galilee preaching the gospel of what?

Of the kingdom of God, and saying the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand, repent, and believe in the gospel, the gospel of the kingdom of God. This is what Christ preached. Now, this is at the beginning of his ministry. Now, let's look at another scripture in Luke chapter 8. Luke chapter 8 verse 1. This is when he is training his apostles. Look at chapter 8 verse 1. And it says, and I came to pass afterwards that he went through every city and village. You see, Christ went through every city and village preaching and bringing the good news, the glad tidings, it was the gospel of the kingdom of God. You see, so he started his ministry preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God and his training program to the twelve apostles, because he says at the twelve were with him. His training program was to train them as well about preaching or the preaching of the gospel of the kingdom of God. And if we just turn back to Mark 16, when at his resurrection he gave to the disciples marching orders, Mark 16 verse 15 and 16. Again, that's after his resurrection. He said, go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. What gospel? How is the gospel that he had been preaching? And the gospel let he train them, as we saw in Luke 8 verse 1. And then he says, and he who believes and he's baptized will be saved.

And so, yeah, we see Christ preached the gospel all the way from the beginning of his ministry, during his ministry, and even after he resurrected, he commissioned the apostles to preach the gospel, the gospel of the kingdom. Going back to Romans now, verse 16, for I'm not ashamed of the gospel of the good news, for it is the power of God to salvation. The gospel is the power of God for salvation. You see, it's this gospel, this good news, gives us the motivation and gives us the capability to repent. And we might gotta make that commitment and believing in him, and being baptized, and receive God's only Spirit that is going to help us, and give us the strength to change. In other words, it gives us God's power through this gospel for salvation, for the final end result for us to be in the kingdom of God. And this message, we know it was sent to the Jews first. We know it was sent to the Jews first. Initially, Christ was preaching to the Jewish in the Jewish areas, and but afterwards we can see that it was preached also to the Gentiles. We see that in Acts chapter 10, the situation of Cornelius in Acts chapter 10, Acts chapter 10, we see the situation here of Cornelius and his family being called. And then Peter had a vision, we read there in verse 9, he had this vision, and he saw a great sheet bound at the four corners, ascending to him, and in it were all kinds of four-footed animals of the earth, wild beasts, creeping things, and birds of their hair. And a voice came to him and said, rise, Peter, kill, and eat. But Peter said, no, not so, Lord, for I've never eaten anything common or unclean.

And then a voice spoke to him again the second time saying, because he went there three times, as we see in verse 16, it says, what God has cleansed you must not call common.

Common. So he's not talking about unclean, specifically talking about common. And he pondered about that. And when he met Cornelius, we see then in verse, yeah, we see that he wondered about that vision, because we can see that in verse 17. He was wondering what it meant. And then we see in verse 28, then he said to them, you know how unlawful it is for a Jewish man to keep company with or go to one of another nation. But God has shown me, Peter, that I should not call any man common or unclean, any man. So he's actually talking, this vision, was about not calling people unclean. And then we can see the same thing in verse 44, through to verse 48 of chapter 10 of Acts, where it says, while Peter was still speaking, the Holy Spirit fell upon those who heard the word. Because you, Peter, this was the first time that he go into Gentiles and he was reluctant to to baptize and to even lay hands on them. But now God was showing, hey, I'm giving them the Holy Spirit. And when he saw that, then in verse 47, he said, can anyone forbid water that these should not be baptized, whoever received the Holy Spirit, just as we Jews have. And so we can see that initially the gospel went to to the Jews, but then it went to the Gentiles. So that's what we see in verse 16 and 17. So the gospel, let's read again, verse 17. Verse 16 said to the Jews, verse 17 to the Greek, verse 17, for in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith. The gospel message reveals the righteousness of God. Now the righteousness of God probably should, some people say, should be maybe the righteousness from God. And the word righteousness is a Greek word 1343, dikaihasudai, which basically means a way in which a man may attain a state or a condition of being approved, of being right with God. It was of conforming to God's law and character. Now interesting, the same Greek word, the same Greek word with the same root, see this one is Greek 1343, but we see that same Greek word 1344, 1345, 1347, which is translated justify or justification. So justification is being made right with God, and one of the themes of this epistle is being made right with God. Justification. In other words, ultimately salvation, because only God is righteous, and we've got to become righteous like he is, but it's not our righteousness. It's God's righteousness. We know very well scriptures like Matthew 6 33 that say, seek the kingdom of God first and his righteousness. And when we look at the Beatitudes, one of the Beatitudes, Matthew 5 verse 6, he says, hunger and thirst for righteousness. So it clearly is not our righteousness, because we've got to hunger and thirst for it, but we ought to seek his righteousness, which is God's righteousness. In other words, the righteousness from God. So continue to read in verse 17, for in it the righteous of God, in other words, through this gospel of salvation, the gospel of the kingdom of God, in it the righteous of God is revealed from faith to faith. Now, we could interpret from faith to faith in various ways.

Maybe we got a little bit of faith, a beginning faith, but we want to have a deeper faith. Also, when we receive God's early spirit, we have the faith of Christ in us, because faith is a gift of God's early spirit. When we read in 1 Corinthians 12, verse 7 through 11, it talks about various gifts of the Holy Spirit, and in verse 9, it clearly says faith is one of those gifts of God's early spirit. So, you know, we receive extra faith through God's early spirit, so from faith to faith. It also could be talking about from the old type of belief of faith, the Jewish, just the law only, to the new faith, because Christ came to exalt the law, Isaiah 42, 21. Christ came to magnify the law, so it is this new faith, this new belief from faith to faith, and so it could also be from just pure physical faith to spiritual faith. The bottom line is that we're talking about an ever-increasing faith, is that faith, we should be growing in the faith, and then it says, for it is written, the just shall live by faith. The key word here is live by faith, not just believe, in this way of life, but live it. Not tell the people and criticize others, you are doing this wrong and you are doing that wrong, but we had to live our faith.

We are to live God's law, the spiritual intent of the law, and this epistle, this epistle of Romans, tells us how to live by faith in a new way, how to keep God's law with the help of Jesus Christ, the help of God's only Spirit. The Jews didn't understand that spiritual application. They were trying to do it on their own. They were simply looking at it from a spiritual, a vampire, from a pure physical point of view. We must go beyond that. And so, from Yah on words, Paul is going to talk a little bit more about living according to that righteousness of God, how to live by faith, and that we'll cover next week.