G’day Church,
We’re having lunch together after church this Sunday, which will be a great time together as church family and an easy invitation to introduce friends and family to church. Reflecting on our encouragement in Gospel Partnership from Romans 16, we’re using our lunch as a fundraiser, with all proceeds going to support K serving with CMS in South East Asia and Lauren serving with ES at Flinders Uni. You can make a contribution via cash on the day, or use this link to make a credit card payment. Please feel free to contribute whatever you feel comfortable with. If it’s just $5 each to cover the cost of the sausage and salad, that’s great. If you’re able to be generous in support of these two wonderful servants of the gospel, that’s great!
If you’re keen for some more of the Romans Q&A from last Sunday, read on. Otherwise we’ll see you on Sunday!
Cheers,
Simon
As part of our wrap up of Romans on Sunday we had a Q&A session that tackled some of the great questions that came in, but we weren’t able to go anywhere near answering all of them. You can catch up on the questions that we did tackle by listening to the podcast here, but I also indicated that I’d have a go at responding to some of the other questions in this email. Lots of these questions could take a whole sermon, so I’ve set myself the task of responding in three sentences or less, which means we’ll almost certainly find some of these answers a bit unsatisfying:
- Q: Reading from Romans 16:7, Are Andronicus and Junia actually apostles? Are there apostles today?
- A: At the simplest level ‘Apostle’ simply means ‘sent one’ so it can be used in a generic sense of those recognised as sent on a mission (see passages such as John 13:16 with the word ‘messenger’, or Acts 14:4, 14 in reference to both Paul and Barnabas and 1 Thess 2:6-7 in reference to Paul, Silas and Timothy), so it is quite reasonable to understand Andronicus and Junia in this sense and in this sense we describe people today as apostles. On the other hand, Jesus (eg Luke 6:12) and the wider NT (eg Acts 9:26-27) use the term Apostle in a technical sense of the 12 vested with particular role as the authorised witnesses to Jesus and his teaching and so in this sense the role of Apostle is limited to them.
- Q: On the back of Romans 14, a secondary issue came up: Why do we celebrate Easter and Christmas, but not Pentecost and Jesus’ ascension.
- Christians have celebrated a number of significant events in Jesus’ life and ministry at different times and in different ways that are often helpful but not obligated. We ought celebrate the fact that Jesus came in the flesh (Christmas), died and rose to new life (Easter), reigns on high (Ascension) and has given us his Spirit (Pentecost) much more than just once a year! Perhaps the main reason we place emphasis on Easter and Christmas as festive seasons is because of the opportunity to engage with our surrounding culture who still pay some attention to these moments in the calendar.
- Q: From Romans 11:11-12, 26, what does it mean that the Jews will be fully included and saved?
- The sermon from August 11 mentioned that these passages are an assurance that all is not lost for the Jewish people: many of them will yet be saved through faith in Jesus. Paul has redefined who Israel are – not just those of biological descent of Abraham, but those who share his faith, so whether Jew or Gentile, under the sovereign hand of God, all Israel will be saved in this way: through the work of God to soften hearts and turn us to faith in his Son, Jesus the Messiah.
- Q: Reflecting on Romans 10:17, what about the person who has never heard the gospel? Will they be saved, or face the same judgment as those who have heard and not repented?
- It is understandable that we might struggle with the idea that people are condemned even if they’ve never had the chance to hear about him. But passages such as Romans 1:18-20 and John 3:17-18 make it clear that we are condemned by our rejection of God as God, regardless of whether or not we have believed in Jesus. Even aside from Jesus we all have enough knowledge of God that we are without excuse and stand condemned, while the significance of hearing and believing the gospel is that this is the opportunity to receive God’s grace in salvation.
- Q: Reflecting on Romans 12:2, how do you test the will of God?
- The point being made in Romans 12:1-2 is that a foundational aspect of our worship of God in response to his grace is to seek a renewing of our mind, which Paul has described through chapters 5 to 8 as a work of the Spirit who applies the gospel and unites us to Christ to unwind the impact of sin on the way we think (called the noetic effects of sin, for those who are interested). 12:2 is not telling to test the will of God (as if we put his will under the microscope and either approve or disapprove of it), but rather that as a result of our Spirit-empowered, gospel-informed mind-renewal, we’ll be able to discern what is consistent with God’s will in the midst of a world that is so inconsistent with God’s will.
- Q: Why does God choose to harden hearts, and does a person’s heart remain hard? (from Romans 9)
- Romans 1:18-32 describes the wrath of God revealed against human rebellion as a ‘giving over’ to our sinfulness – which is another way of describing what the Bible calls a hardening of heart. In the example of Pharaoh (Rom 9:16-17) we have an example of every human heart – that is hardened towards God and which God gives over to hardness. So the wonder is that any hard heart can be softened to the gospel, and it is all God’s work to do it (having mercy on whomever he will – 9:18), so Paul’s conclusion is that we can live in hope that no-one is beyond the merciful work of God to soften their heart, however hard it may seem to us.
(OK, so there were some very long, multi-clause sentences there with brackets and commas, but I think we stuck with ‘three sentences or less’)
Thanks for such great questions! Let’s keep wrestling hard to understand God’s word that we might be transformed by the renewing of our minds, motivated and equipped to live our whole lives for his worship in response to his grace!