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FROM THE PASTOR'S STUDY

Topic: Message Outlines: Chapter 9 (Include Audio)

Romans 9:1-5 (4)

by Darrel Cline
(darrelcline biblical-thinking.org)

Chapter # 9 Paragraph # 1 Study # 4
August 5, 2008
Lincolnton, N.C.
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(422)

Thesis:   High privilege does not guarantee anything.

Introduction:   In our studies of Romans 9 we have seen that Paul is presenting himself as a mirror of the love of God. We have focused our attention upon the reality of Paul's, and Christ's, willingness to endure an unending Death for the sake of the Jews. We have seen that Paul has presented a crucial reality of the experience of godliness: that great joy and extreme grief can coexist in our hearts. We have seen that we have been called to love like that, being unafraid of the grief and being unwilling to make pleasant experience an idol.

This evening we are going to look into Paul's description of his "kinsmen according to the flesh". It is our goal to attempt to understand both what Paul says is true of them and why he says it. Clearly, the description focuses upon "privilege". Just as clearly, the description focuses upon the tragedy of just how ineffectual "privilege" turns out to be. The question is this: what is driving Paul's declaration that his kinsmen were missing the Life in spite of the privileges?

The answer swirls around the content of the rest of chapters 9-11 -- chapters that highly exalt God's fundamental part in bringing men to Life. It seems to boil down to this: if men were not brought to Life by being nestled down against the highest of privileges, what does it take? With that question in mind, let us at least begin to consider Paul's description of his kinsmen.


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