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The Men’s and Women’s Bible Studies at our church are both studying Paul’s epistle to the Romans, and both groups are using this book by Tim Keller from the excellent God’s Word for You series from The Good Book Company. I have used a number of books from this series and always found them helpful. This volume covers chapters 1-7 from Romans, and an accompanying volume covers chapters 8-16.
The books in the God’s Word For You series are accessible (easy to understand, not technical) commentaries. They are designed to be read devotionally or to help with teaching or preaching a passage. Each commentary walks through a book of the Bible, paying careful attention to the text, and giving the original historical, cultural, and biblical context while offering clear and grounded application for the Christian today.
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BOOK CLUB ~What Is Wrong with the World? The Surprising, Hopeful Answer to the Question We Cannot Avoid by Tim Keller
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Each chapter of the book tackles a specific passage from Romans, in two parts. Helpful “Questions for Reflection” are included at the end of each section.
Keller asks what is it about Romans that has proved so life-changing and history-shaping? He responds that it is because Romans is about the gospel. He tells us that reading and reflecting on this letter today, we should be prepared to have our hearts shaped and our lives changed by God’s gift of righteousness, just as so many others have been in the past.
I highly recommend the God’s Word for You series. Here are twenty helpful quotes from this book:
- Obedience flows out of faith; it is a consequence of saving faith, not a second condition for salvation.
- The gospel will always cause offense, because it reveals us as having a need that we cannot meet.
- The main problem of our heart is not so much desires for bad things, but our over-desires for good things, our turning of created, good things into gods, objects of our worship and service.
- It is an unavoidable fact that the Bible says that homosexuality is a sin.
- Condemning others while excusing ourselves is what allows us to hang onto both our self-righteousness and our sin.
- A self-righteous person will acknowledge the existence of God, but sees no need for him.
- Paul is saying that works matter—not as the basis for salvation, but as the evidence that someone has the faith that saves.
- Moralism is extremely common, and always has been. It is the biggest religion in the world today.
- If you let anything become your meaning in life—power, comfort, approval, possessions, pleasure, control—you are violating the command against idolatry.
- Salvation did not begin with you deciding to seek God, but with him choosing to seek you.
- The “fear of God” does not mean a servile, cringing fear of punishment. It means, rather, an inner attitude of awe, respect, and sober, trembling joy before the greatness of God.
- The gospel says that God has developed a perfect righteousness, and he offers it to us, and by it we are accepted. This is the uniqueness of the Christian gospel; and it reverses what every other religion and worldview, and even every human heart, believes.
- God is both the Judge, who cares enough about his world to set standards and hold us accountable to them; and the Justifier, who has done everything necessary to forgive and restore us.
- What you boast in is what fundamentally defines you; it is where you draw your identity and self-worth from.
- We have no hope of eternal life except that God has promised that in Christ we can be made righteous.
- Christian hope is not a hopeful wish—it is a hope-filled certainty.
- Suffering drives us to the one place where we find real hope, real confidence and certainty: God.
- Joy is the great marker of the justified person. It is unique to Christianity, because it does not depend on your circumstances or your performance.
- Our union with Adam as our federal head is physical, but our union with Christ as our federal head is by faith. God unites us with Christ when we believe in him.
- Paul is not saying that Christians cannot commit individual acts of sin, nor even that they cannot struggle with habitual sins. He is saying that they cannot go on abiding in the realm of sin. They cannot continue in it deliberately, without distaste or diminishment.
- My Book Reviews. Enjoy nearly 600 of my book reviews on Goodreads. Read my recent review of Romans 8-16 For You by Tim Keller.
- Study, Savor and Share Scripture: Becoming What We Behold. My wife Tammy has published a book about HOW to study the Bible. The book is available on Amazon in both a Kindle and paperback edition. She writes “Maybe you have read the Bible but want to dig deeper and know God and know yourself better. Throughout the book I use the analogy of making a quilt to show how the Bible is telling one big story about what God is doing in the world through Christ. Quilting takes much patience and precision, just like studying the Bible, but the end result is well worth it.”
What Is Wrong with the World?: The Surprising, Hopeful Answer to the Question We Cannot Avoid by Tim Keller
From the Amazon description:
v“During his tenure as founding pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City, Timothy Keller explained on a weekly basis how the Bible provides the most comprehensive and sophisticated response to the fundamental questions of life. In What Is Wrong with the World?, based on a series of teachings given at Redeemer, Keller answers the title’s pressing question by revealing that the only thing that can account for the world’s pain and chaos is what the Bible calls sin. This clear-eyed and ultimately hopeful book reveals how sin is not simply a “bad” thing we do but something much more subtle and complex, affecting our relationships, our thinking, and every aspect of our existence. And only when we recognize sin for what it is can we find the profound, life-transforming answer our souls long for.”
This week, we look at Chapter 3: Sin as Leaven. Here are a few quotes from the chapter that I found helpful:
- The way yeast works in bread is the way sin works in us.
- Sin is most powerful when we don’t even see it, when we’re not troubled about it, and when we’re offended by the idea that we’re a sinner in the first place. This is when the predator is most effective—it takes us over from the inside, from the motives of our heart.
- Jesus also tells us that if we do not master our sin, it will spread relentlessly.
- We can’t isolate sin in one corner of our heart, expecting it to remain separate, unaffecting other areas of our life.
- No matter what form it takes, sin flourishes when ignored.
- The essence of sin is the proud denial of grace.
- When we deny that we’re sinners who deserve nothing from God yet have been given everything when Jesus died for us, we deny the very idea of grace and blame both our problems and our lack of faith on God.
