January 30, 2019 Bible Study Recording

Introduction

The theme of this chapter should be examined in conjunction with the preceding and following chapters, as it does not introduce an entirely new subject. The theme of Romans Chapter 3 is justification by faith alone. No one can approach God based on their deeds. The theme of Romans Chapter 4 is about emulating the faith of Abraham. Let us examine these two verses:

(Romans 4:23-24) Now it was not written for him alone that it was imputed to him, but also for us, to whom it shall be imputed, who believe in Him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead.

Jesus was delivered to be crucified for our offenses and raised for our justification. Abraham's faith was written for us who will be justified, who believe in God who raised our Lord Jesus from the dead. Jesus was delivered to be crucified because of our offenses, and resurrected to justify us. This passage concludes Romans Chapter 4, which naturally leads to the theme of Romans Chapter 5.

It is crucial to understand that this justification is related to the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Therefore, this chapter is about entering into grace through Jesus Christ. What are these graces? This chapter elucidates this theme. Once we grasp this theme, the entire Romans Chapter 5 can be coherently understood.

Why do we sometimes struggle to comprehend what we read? It is because we fail to grasp the central theme and the author's intended message. In essence, Romans Chapter 5 describes: through the Lord Jesus, we enter into the grace we now have by faith.

We Need Grace Throughout Our Lives

This grace enables us to continually proceed towards eternal life. However, the Christians in Rome were progressively forgetting that this is grace, and the same applies to some of our brothers and sisters today. It is not just that you require grace when you first believe in the Lord, but that we need grace throughout our lives. Without grace in our lives, we cannot persevere.

Some people, as they progress, begin to feel inadequate, believing that they do not deserve grace. The truth is, you have never been good enough. Some may say, I haven’t done well enough, I am not worthy. I find this peculiar because you overcame your worst moments, so why the inadequacy now?

Why did Paul write the Book of Romans to the Christians in Rome? Because, like some of our brothers and sisters, they were forgetting that it is grace. We always need grace.

They might also say, Alas, I have not done well enough, I am not worthy. This is the first problem. The second problem is that the Roman Christians are very much like Christians today. How so? They are constantly confessing sins. Today, Jesus Christ suffered and resurrected for our offenses to justify us, and we ought to live in the power of the resurrection. The reason some Christians feel they have lost their strength is that they are entirely works-based! Some Christians might say, I am inadequate, I am terrible, so I must constantly repent! But the need is not constant repentance; it is constant entry into grace. Do you understand?

(Romans 5:20) Moreover the law entered, that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound.

This implies that our sins today require continuous grace to be dealt with. Is there anyone among us who is perfect? Before I believed in the Lord, I was constantly searching for perfect individuals, looking for those who had attained complete virtue, but I never found them. I have observed that Christians never talk about attaining complete virtue; instead, they speak of obtaining grace. This led to a great perplexity: Christians either become constantly works-based or start indulging in the desires of the flesh.

(Romans 6:1-2) What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?

In fact, this entire chapter tells us that Jesus Christ pioneered a path for the resurrection of the body. A woman named Mary conceived Jesus through the Holy Spirit, and He grew up just like us. Except for His conception by the Holy Spirit, He was a human being of flesh and blood, just like us. Therefore, He felt pain when He was nailed to the cross, He felt hunger without food, and He experienced tears and sorrow.

Today, we must recognise that there is a man, Jesus Christ, who pioneered a path of resurrection from the dead for us, and that resurrection is for our justification.

When we read the Bible carefully, we will find it very interesting. Only faith is our initiative; everything else is passive. God justifies you, God accounts you righteous, and through Jesus Christ, you enter into the grace that is now, and the Holy Spirit pours the love of God into our hearts.

(Romans 5:8-10) But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.

These are all things that God does for us. We must understand that we must rely on God's grace throughout our lives.

We Must Often Count God's Blessings

Today, let us count God’s blessings. The year 2018 has passed. Have you counted the graces you experienced this year? The year 2019 has also passed in the blink of an eye. Have you mindfully counted the blessings of this month?

The graces we experience are not because we are good enough, but because God treats us graciously and because we have chosen to believe. We can enter into God’s grace through Jesus Christ, who became flesh to save us, died on the cross for us, and rose from the dead for us.

Last Sunday, many brothers and sisters shared their testimonies. One sister shared that she was in debt for more than 200,000 yuan, but now she has paid off all her debts. She had gone through much hardship in the previous six months to a year! But thank God that even for such a person, God has compassion and saves her. She began to change continuously in the first half of the year, drawing on God's grace by faith. Our God is faithful, and her finances have been completely turned around!

Later, I gradually understood that it is difficult for many people to draw on grace because they are works-based and are controlled by the spirit of religion. Some of our brothers and sisters do not speak very clearly and do not do things well, and they have a lot of problems. To say that they are not good enough, they really are not good enough. But God treats them graciously, and by faith, through our Lord Jesus Christ, they enter into the grace that is now.

We Must All Make the Right Choices

What should we do today? Should we focus on what is not good enough, or should we focus on God's grace? Today, I tell our brothers and sisters that we should run this heavenly path through the Lord Jesus Christ, constantly experience victory, put to death the evil deeds of our flesh through the Holy Spirit, and believe that God is our salvation forever.

(Romans 5:21) That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.

(Romans 5:8) But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

God died for us when we were still sinners, and died on the cross for us, bearing all our offenses. This is great grace! In the Bible, Paul spoke of Adam and Christ, and of the offenses of the righteous, and then all died. Then, because of the righteous deeds of the righteous, all lived again. What is this about? Later I understood that these people did not have choices before. In fact, Abraham also had weaknesses. At that time, Jesus Christ had not yet come, but they did not look to their own deeds, but to the Savior Jesus Christ who was to come.

Our weaknesses today are no different from Abraham's weaknesses in those days. Today, our Lord Jesus Christ has died for us, resurrected for us, and manifested His power in us. What kind of choice should we make? In the Old Testament, people were very weak; in the New Testament, if we forsake grace and take the path of being works-based, we will still become weak Christians.

In the past few days, I have discovered that many Christians are experts in the Tao Te Ching. They are based on upholding morality, and they turn many things into a morality. They are based on morality, and the essence is being works-based. They began to criticise and judge many things, judge others, and were judged themselves, and they lost grace and became powerless. Therefore, the most fatal thing for Christians is to believe in a powerful gospel that has become powerless, and to believe in a gospel of grace that has become a gospel of morality.

For example, some brothers and sisters in a church saw that a sister was pregnant, and they would not allow the sister to have an abortion. If you ask me what to do, I would not interfere too much; you can do what you want. But they would not allow it; they would impose these moral concepts on this girl. As a result, this girl was forced to give birth to this child. The child was born and needed to be raised. When the child was two years old, the mother hugged the child and jumped off the building.

This girl had been thinking about committing suicide all along because no one could really help her. She could not support herself, let alone raise a child. She was living a very painful life! But the people in her church said, You can't die! The child's mother said, I can't live anymore. These people said, You can't die. What will happen to the child if you die? How bad are these people, using this kind of thing to bind people? The mother hugged the child and jumped off the building. This was her way of solving the problem. Could God not save her? If we bind people with morality for a lifetime, and are works-based, how can we save these sinners? While we were still sinners, God died for us, and God's love was manifested to us.

Choose to Trust Our God Forever

Even if we have many problems, can't God save us to the end? No one can save themselves by themselves. Even when we believe in the Lord halfway, we rely on God; when we believe in the Lord for one-third of the time, we also rely on God; when we first believe in the Lord, we also rely on God. Even if we are about to leave this world tomorrow, we must still rely on faith in God today. Isn't that so? So, as great as our faith is, we should act accordingly; don't impose these moral rules on people.

In fact, our faith, from the time of Romans to today, has been a contest between a powerful gospel and a powerless gospel. Many people believe in a powerful gospel that has become a powerless gospel, and they believe in a powerless gospel as an orthodox rule.

(Romans 5:20) Moreover the law entered, that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound.

This is not to let us deliberately live in sin, but today we are not good enough, and today you and I are not perfect people. Our God is really good. When we were still sinners, God died for us, and God's love was revealed, and the Holy Spirit poured God's love into our hearts.

Today, let us begin to run this heavenly path and constantly overcome. Although we still have weaknesses today, we believe that God will surely lead us to overcome until we become sanctified, making us more and more like the Lord Jesus Christ. Who dares to say today that they are sinless? Who is not accounted righteous by God because of faith? In the past, we could run to today, and today we can rely on grace to run to eternal life.

Running Towards Eternal Life on Grace

Brothers and sisters, today we must come to know a thing, that although we are not good enough, and are still sinners, we are now a little better than we were then, and this is grace. Furthermore, God has poured out the Holy Spirit, who raised Jesus Christ from the dead, into our hearts, so that we may receive the power of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. If we entered into this grace back then, relying on the grace of Jesus Christ, then today shouldn't we rely even more on the grace of Jesus Christ? This is what the Apostle Paul said: beginning in faith, unto faith. No one can believe in Jesus today and become a saint tomorrow.

Some time ago, I was talking about the issue of breaches, and some pastors said to me: You must be careful, you have many breaches. Then I said to them: If there are breaches, what should we do? They said that demons can enter. I thought, that must be frightening. Which one of us is perfect?

Who doesn't have breaches? The key is not whether we have breaches, but that we have God's grace, so that demons cannot reign in us. This is sin. And Jesus has already solved it for us. Jesus has suffered for our transgressions. That is to say, even if the breaches on us are like sieves, we still belong to Jesus Christ, and in the future, we will surely become more and more like Jesus Christ.

Even though I am a servant of God, every time I think about some obvious mistakes I made in the past, having been a Christian for so long, I still didn't know God or recognize Him. Yet God has always been gracious to me. God's love and grace are truly immeasurable. I thank God. Today, if your life is not good enough, do not be afraid. Begin to turn back to God, begin to run in the direction of Jesus Christ. Our Lord Jesus will save us forever.

We must be people of faith, learning to rejoice in hope of the glory of God through faith. The Holy Spirit that God has given us, through the miracles and wonders manifested by the Holy Spirit, including those among us who have experienced great financial turnarounds, or including those who are still living in poverty and destitution, and those who have been deceived and manipulated, these events happening to our brothers and sisters, this choice was made by yourselves. You deserve to experience these things, but God's grace will still save you.

Recently, I have had a deep feeling in my heart. Some brothers and sisters said: Can I pray for this person? I said: Yes. But they said to me: But that person does not believe in the Lord. I said: It doesn't matter, we give this person grace. Because our God gives grace in this way.

Recently, I criticized some of our leaders. These leaders came up and asked the other person: Do you believe? And when the person said no, they would say: Forget it if you don't believe. What kind of talk is that? We didn't say we believed just because someone asked us if we believed, did we?

Our God is magnanimous, our God is so gracious. We must often release God's grace. Don't come up asking if you believe. After the other person says they don't believe, don't get stuck there. You can ask: Do you desire to receive grace? I believe they do! Do you desire to be healed? I believe they do! Then you can say: Our Lord Jesus is the God who heals you, I invite you to experience it!

Because our God has given us the Holy Spirit, pouring out His love on us, so that we may receive grace. Today, your performance or finances may have turned around, or you may have been healed in your body, but what have you deserved? In fact, none of these things are your ability, all of these are God's grace.

If we relied on God's grace in the past, then shouldn't we rely on God's grace even more today? Originally, God was going to manifest wrath upon us, originally we only deserved God's wrath, but because of Jesus Christ, relying on the blood of Jesus Christ, because we have a faint of faith within us, God will remit His wrath upon us. Originally, we were enemies of God, but today, through Jesus Christ, the Son of God died for us, and we were reconciled to God. Isn't this the grace of God? Having been reconciled, shouldn't we be saved even more through the resurrection of Jesus Christ? If God wants to save, He will save us to the end.

Today, all of our brothers and sisters, regardless of which spiritual level you are at, you still need God's grace. I think this fifth chapter of Romans should be clear to everyone today. One sister loves money very much, is deceived by others, and often makes foolish decisions herself. We still need to give her grace, because God is such a God. This is what Paul said:

For if the many died by the one man’s trespass, much more did God’s grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many. Nor can the gift of God be compared with the result of one man’s sin: The judgment followed one sin and brought condemnation, but the gift followed many trespasses and brought justification. For if, by the one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ! Consequently, just as one trespass resulted in condemnation for all people, so also one righteous act resulted in justification and life for all people. For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous.(Romans 5:16-19)

Do Not Be Self-Righteous

Can you understand? God has already counted us as righteous. Today, let us no longer be self-righteous, do not think that we are great. It is only because God counts us as righteous. What choice should we make today, having received such grace? Maybe you have made the wrong choice again today. Can making the wrong choice abolish God's faithfulness? Can it abolish God's grace? It cannot! God longs for us to make wise choices.

Today, let us make a choice. No matter what stage of life we are in, maybe we are still doing many sinful things, maybe we still love money very much, maybe we still have many problems inside, we owe a lot of debts outside, our whole life is simply a mess. Today, turn back to God, no longer relying on the law, no longer relying on moral concepts, not because you deserve it, but because our God loves us in this way.

The Lord Jesus died for us when we were still sinners. If you were still a sinner yesterday, choose to turn back to God today, and enter into the grace of God through faith. I tell you, there is no financial situation that cannot be turned around, no disease that cannot be healed. The Bible mentions: because of His poverty, we become rich; because of His wounds, we are healed; because of His suffering, our transgressions are forgiven; because of His precious blood, we are called righteous. Isn't this great grace?

The God Who Turns Sinners

Do not rely on the law and moral concepts, not because you deserve it, but because God loves us in this way. When we were sinners, He died for us. If you were still a sinner yesterday, turn back to God today, and experience God's grace through faith. There are no finances that cannot be turned around, no diseases that cannot be healed. What does the Bible say?

But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed. (Isaiah 53:5)

but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. (1 Peter 1:19)

And who can claim to be a man without sin? Towards the end of Paul's ministry, he said: I am but the worst of sinners. (1 Timothy 1:15)

Why did he call himself the worst of sinners? I don't quite understand, but I know that the more Paul knew God, the more he recognized the filth on himself, and the more he needed God's mercy and grace. My favorite hymn is Cry Out for Your Mercy. We really need God's grace and mercy. If we often think we are good people, then we are sinners. If we often think we are sinners and need the cleansing of God's precious blood, then God will blot out all our transgressions and count us as righteous.

The law was brought in so that the trespass might increase. But where sin increased, grace increased all the more, (Romans 5:20)

God lets us know that we are just sinners. We cannot rely on doing the law to stand before God. There are really many laws, and we cannot fully do them all. By relying on the Holy Spirit poured out in us, we can receive the power to overcome the sin on us, to overcome our flesh.

so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Romans 5:21)

God does not expect people to die, but hopes that people will have eternal life and enter into His presence. Today, a brother chatted with me and said: Believing in the Lord is like writing a program. God has already written the Bible. You just need to copy and paste it, but many people are unwilling to do even this. They like to go their own way, establish their own righteousness, and do not want God's righteousness. That is why Paul wrote letters to the Romans.

Looking to Grace, Regaining Hope

Today, we rejoice in looking to God's grace, and joyfully hope for God's glory. Not only that, but we also rejoice in tribulations. Is it just the tribulations suffered because of Jesus? It is also the price we pay for our sins. Whenever we are willing to look to the grace of Jesus, we have hope. Today, let those in despair rekindle hope. God wants to save us and restore us to the image He created us in.

Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.(Romans 5:4-5)

Our hearts turn back to God, saying: God, I love you! There is not a day that we do not need God, not a day that we do not need God's grace. This is what Paul meant in writing to the Romans. We must imitate the faith of Abraham. In his era, he had not yet seen Jesus Christ come. In our generation, Jesus has already come for two thousand years. Shouldn't we overcome our carnal habits even more, continuously relying on the Holy Spirit to enter into God's grace, and live a victorious life?

We are baptised into Jesus, so that our old self may die, and continuously imitate Jesus' appearance, so that Christ may continuously work in us through the power of the Father. Therefore, we must be united with Him in His resurrection, so that we can be freed from sin, and not let accusations continue to reign in us. We must live out the image that Jesus created us in!

Hello.
Let us begin the translation.