Class Notes: 3/30/2022

The book of Romans part 39

https://youtu.be/1xVufYDYCC4

We are in a verse-by-verse study of the book of Romans and are now working on verse 7.

Rom 1:7; "to all in Rome beloved of God called saints or holy." the next sentence starts with "Grace" this is translated from the nominative singular of the noun "charis".

Before w stopped last time we noted that this is one of the words that is used in God's Word to describe God's plan. God's plan functions exclusively on a policy of grace that includes saving grace, logistical grace, super-grace, ultra-super-grace, dying grace, and eventually surpassing grace. All of these are various phases or stages of God's plan.

Next is "to you," a dative plural indirect object from the personal pronoun "su," referring to believers today just as much as to the Roman believers that Paul wrote to at the time.

The dative of indirect object means that God especially blesses those who are mentioned. The reference brings up the concept of the privilege of aristocracy again. Because of their union with Christ Church Age believers are spiritual aristocracy so they have spiritual privilege.

"and peace" - the nominative singular of "eirene." The word means also "prosperity." The conjunction "kai" introduces the result that comes from what precedes it.

Prosperity from God's blessing is the basis for everything in God's plan. This is the purpose for God putting the believer into His plan. His purpose is to bless and prosper the believer on the basis of His grace.

Next we have a prepositional phrase that reveals the source of all of these things: "from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ." The Holy Spirit is not mentioned in this salutation.

God the Holy Spirit is not mentioned in compatibility consistent with His function during this dispensation. This is because during the Church Age God the Holy Spirit's entire objective is to glorify the Lord Jesus Christ.

"from God our Father, the preposition "apo" translated from plus the ablative of source of "theos" translated God and "pater" translated "Father," a descriptive genitive, and a possessive genitive plural pronoun "hemeis" translated "our."

This tells us that the first person of the Trinity becomes the Father of all who believe in Jesus Christ.

"and the Lord Jesus Christ," a continuation of the prepositional phrase. Kurios" is used in a special way. The Romans understood that the word meant ultimate authority. The word reminds us that all authority is vested in the Lord Jesus Christ and that He is the source of all of our blessings and that He is in ultimate controller of everything.

So our expanded translation of Rom 1:7: "To all who are in Rome, dearly loved by God, called holy privileged royalty: grace and prosperity to you from God our Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ."

This brings us to verse 8 Verses 8-10 are a prayer on behalf of the Roman believers.

"First," the Greek word "protos" is used to indicate the beginning of the content of his message to the Roman church, and before Paul starts, there is prayer. He is going to express some thanksgiving to God for the Roman believers who he has never met.

"I thank" is the present active indicative of "eucharisteo" that is an unusual word for thanksgiving that means feel an obligation to thank. This word has the same root as the word "eucharist" that is used to describe the celebration of the Lord's table.

Here Paul is saying he has an obligation to the believers at Rome. He uses the pictorial present tense to describe something that is presently occurring.

This is his expression of what can be described as doctrinal and historical thanksgiving. The active voice: Paul produces the action of the verb. Also there is the declarative indicative indicating that this is a genuine gratitude that is based on Bible doctrine not just normal protocol.

"my God" is the object of his thanksgiving. The dative of indirect object is "theos", plus the dative of advantage with a possessive genitive from the pronoun "mou" translated "my" emphasizing God the Father as the only one toward whom the believer should direct thanksgiving

All thanksgiving must be related to God. Thanksgiving must be based on knowing God through doctrine resident in the soul as described in Psa 100:3,5; "to know that the Lord himself is God."

We can only "know" the Lord by means of metabolized Bible doctrine in our stream of consciousness.

"through Jesus Christ" is the only way we can approach God in prayer. All prayer goes through Jesus Christ. "Dia" plus the genitive of "Iesous Christos. All prayer must be according to correct protocol so all prayer must go through Jesus Christ our High Priest in order to be properly presented to God the Father.

"for you all" is "peri" plus the genitive of "panton" and "hymon." The plural pronoun refers to the Roman believers, and where thanksgiving exists there must be a reason and now Paul states that reason.

"because" is translated from the causal conjunction "hoti." Paul is going to explain the reason for his thanksgiving is "your faith" translated from the nominative singular from the noun "pistis" that refers to several things. It is correctly translated "faith," but it has meanings other than our understanding of the word faith in the English language.

It not only refers to the function of the faith-rest technique but it refers specifically to that portion of the function of faith that expresses positive volition toward doctrine.

Positive volition toward doctrine is the aspect of the faith rest technique that is require for faith aka doctrine to be assimilated into the "nous" aka the mind (the left lobe of the soul) and then transferred to the "kardia" aka the heart (the right lobe of the soul) where it becomes epignosis or spirit taught doctrine that is available for application.

It means faith in relationship to the function of the Grace Apparatus for Spiritual Perception (GASP) that is God's system that is the only way anyone can learn God's Word of truth. It refers to the fact that the Roman believers were positive to and therefore consistently learning God's Word of truth.

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