Gluten Free & God Seeking: Have You Seen the Practical Church Life in Romans 16?

Sunday, December 23, 2012

Have You Seen the Practical Church Life in Romans 16?

I didn't fully understand the ending of the book of Romans until I read chapter 30 of the Life-Study of Romans. This paragraph in the beginning of the chapter on page 355 helped me understand where Paul was coming from:

None of Paul's other epistles has such a long conclusion as does the Letter to the Romans. Why is the conclusion so long? ... However, Paul was wise and deep, knowing that after the section on transformation he still needed to present the ultimate conclusion of God's gospel--the practical church life. Furthermore, he did not write about the church life in a doctrinal way, but in an exceedingly practical way...In Romans 16 the words "church" and "churches" are used five times (Lee, Witness. Life-Study of Romans. Anaheim: Living Stream Ministry, 1975, Print).

All the people listed in chapter 16 were obviously members of the church in Rome. In Acts it is clear that the New Testament believers all simply met as the church in their city. They were simply the called out ones (Greek meaning of the word church) that were meeting in a particular city. This is the way God led these early believers to meet. From evil, vile sinners in chapter 1, Paul leads us through all the stages of sanctification until we become the church (Page 363-364).

I have to be honest, without these messages I know I wouldn't have seen the progression in this book nor that its goal is for sinners to become sons for the Body of Christ (Chapter 12) and for the church life (Chapter 16).