Romans Made Easy
By Joyce Webb 2009
This is a Bible study for the book of Romans in the New Testament. You can read the Bible verses first, and then read here for the explanation or re-wording of the verse.
Introduction:
Paul was a Jewish man who became a follower of Jesus’ teachings. He went to many cities to preach to them.
This book of Romans is a letter that Paul wrote to the church group in Rome.
Romans Chapter 1 Verses 1-7
Paul tells the people in the church at Rome who he is. He is an apostle (a person who has a calling to speak for God about Jesus).
Paul tells what the gospel (good news) is. It is about Jesus. Jesus is God’s son. Jesus came as a man. Jesus was Jewish, born into the family line of King David. Jesus was God’s son. We see he was God’s son because God raised up Jesus from the dead by the Holy Spirit.
Here we see the Trinity (3 in 1)– God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit.
God has given the Jewish people the job of telling the Gentiles (non-Jews) about Jesus.
Jesus was a Jew. He lived among his own people, the Jews. The Jews are the ones who saw Jesus live, and die, and be raised again. The Jews saw Jesus go up into heaven into the clouds. The Jews are the ones who first started telling others about Jesus. Peter was told by God in a vision to go tell the Gentiles (non-Jews) about Jesus.
So the gospel about Jesus came through the Jews. Many of the Jews did not believe that Jesus was God’s son. The Jews that did believe became known as Christians. People were called Christians whether they were Jews or Gentiles (non-Jews).
Most Jewish people today do not believe that Jesus was God’s son.
Paul said to the church at Rome, “You have been called to belong to Jesus. God loves you and has called you to be his people.”
In the Old Testament, God told Abraham if he followed God, that God would give him so many children and grand-children that he would be a big nation of people. God said that they would be His people.
God chose them to be His people, not because they were special, but because God wanted to use this group of people to send His Son, Jesus, into the world as a human baby. He would use Abraham’s family line.
God told the Jewish (Hebrew) people that they were not to be like the other nations around them. They were not to worship idols (shapes of men or animals), but they were to worship God only. They were not to marry people from the nations around that worshipped idols.
The Jewish Hebrew people were to be a “peculiar” people. Exodus 19:5, Psalms 135:4, Deuteronomy 14:2 Peculiar means strange, unusual, different from others. It also means belonging to only one person or thing.
The Jewish Hebrew people were to be different from the nations around them. They belonged to only one God.
They were to keep themselves from the evil ways that their neighbors were doing.
That is why sometimes the Jewish people felt that they were “above” other people. They were “special”.
They were “special” only because God called Abraham and made a promise to him. But Abraham had to obey God for the promise to happen.
Through history the Jewish Hebrew people did not always obey God.
Then God let other nations come in and take over.
God has never given up on the Jews/Hebrews. He will still keep His promise to Abraham. God will bring things into the lives of the Jewish people that will make them turn to God for help and they will turn from their sins.
God told Abraham in Genesis 22:18, “In thy seed (children-family line) shall all the world be blessed.” God would bless the whole world through Abraham’s line. Jesus came through Abraham’s line. In Jesus the whole world is blessed because the whole world can become the “people” of God.
Paul said to the church at Rome, “You have been called to belong to Jesus. God loves you and has called you to be his people.”
Paul is saying that now because of Jesus, all people are called to be God’s people.
Paul had been preaching to Gentiles who worshipped idols. He told them that God wanted them to be his people, too. Not just the Jews are God’s people, but the Gentiles are to be God’s people, too. This is good news. If you are not Jewish, then you are a Gentile. That means most of us are Gentiles.
If a person is one of God’s people then all of the blessings of God are his. He can go to God’s heaven. God will take care of him. It is a good thing to be one of God’s people.
To be one of God’s people we have to hear the “news” that we can be one of God’s people. The Gentiles did not know this.
After we hear that we can be one of God’s people, then we have to believe it.
God tells us what will happen if we believe or if we do not believe. Those who believe can have their sins forgiven and go to heaven. Those who will not believe will not have their sins forgiven and since sin can not be in heaven–they will not be able to be in heaven.
Romans Chapter 1 Verses 8-9
Paul tells the church at Rome that people in other places know about them. People know that they have faith in God.
Paul said that he prays for them, the church in Rome, everyday.
Romans Chapter 1 Verses 10-12
Paul tells the church at Rome that he wants to come visit them. He wants to help them grow in understanding about the things of God.
Romans Chapter 1 Verses 13-15
Paul tells them that he had planned to come to see them many times before, but something happened each time that he could not come.
Paul said that he felt he needed to teach all people, those who have much learning and education, and those who do not have learning or education.
Romans Chapter 1 Verses 16-17
Paul said that he was not ashamed of the gospel. He was not embarrassed. He did not feel shy or afraid to tell the good news about Jesus.
The words about Jesus are full of power. These words about Jesus can save everyone who believes. They can be Jew or Gentile (non-Jew). These words tell us how we can be right with God.
It is through faith that a person has life that makes him righteous (in right standing with God).
There are many religions in the world. Some of them say you must say prayers so many times. Or that you must bring offerings of food or money. Or you must do good things to help others. Or you must pray to an idol (shape of a man or animal).
Some religions say you are okay the way you are. They say the more you get to know yourself deep in your mind, the closer you can be to become God-like.
God tells us what we need to do to be “okay” (right) with God.
It starts with faith in the true God of heaven.
Romans Chapter 1 Verses 18
God is against all sin.
God’s anger will be shown to all people who have sin.
God’s anger will be shown to all people who push away the truth.
Romans Chapter 1 Verses 19-20
Paul said that all people know deep inside of them that there is a God.
God has put that “knowing” in every person.
From the time the world was made, people have seen the earth and sky and all the wonderful things in the earth. They can see God’s power. God has shown Himself to them in the things they see. They have no excuse for not knowing that God has to power to make the world and everything in it.
Romans Chapter 1 Verse 21
Paul said that they knew God, but they would not worship Him. They would not say God made this world. They would not give thanks to God.
They would not give Him honor and respect. They would not say, “You are God.”, “You are above me.” “You are over me.”
Romans Chapter 1 Verses 22-23
They thought they were wise in their own thoughts and ideas about who God was or what God was.
In the end, their minds became dark (no truth) and became confused (mixed-up).
They said they were wise, but they became fools.
They would not worship (pray to) (honor) the ever-living God.
They chose to worship idols that look like people or animals or snakes.
Romans Chapter 1 Verse 24
So God let them go on and do whatever things they wanted.
In the end, they did things to each others’ bodies that were sinful, unclean, shameful and degrading (not showing respect or honor, value, or worth ).
Romans Chapter 1 Verse 25
They would not believe the truth about God. They chose to believe lies. They worshipped things that God made— but not the God who made them.
Romans Chapter1 Verse 26
That is why God left them. He let them alone with their shameful, unclean, sinful desires (wants).
That is why men and even (also) women turned against the natural way (the way of nature) to have sex. They chose to have sex with each other. This is against nature.
Romans Chapter 1 Verse 27
And the men turned from having sexual acts with women which is natural (the way of nature).
They “burned with lust”–were “hot” for each other.
Men did shameful, improper (against nature) things with each other. Because of it they suffered within themselves the punishment they deserved (rightly worthy of).
Romans Chapter 1 Verses 28-29
They did not like to acknowledge (admit, confess) that God was God. So God gave them over to having a reprobate mind (evil, sinful, twisted from what is natural). They do things that are not good for them.
Their lives became full of every kind of evil and sin. They were full of hate, greed (selfish), envy (jealous), murder, fighting, deception (fooled and tricked people), mean, and talked gossip.
Romans Chapter 1 Verses 30-32
They are backstabbers (when they are not with you, they say and do things against you), haters of God, refuse (will not) obey, proud, brag about themselves. They make up new ways of sinning. They are without natural feeling. They do not forgive others.
They know what God has said, that there will be punishment of death for what they are doing, but they do it anyway. And they try to get other people to join them.