Lesson 36: “Beloved of God, Called to Be Saints”
Romans
Purpose: To remind class members that they are children of God and to encourage them to live worthy of their divine inheritance.
LESSON DEVELOPMENT
1. We are justified by faith in Jesus Christ.
2. We can be reborn and become joint-heirs with Christ.
3. We should live as becomes Saints.
Scripture Discussion and Application
Last weekend, of course, was General Conference. What are the purposes of General Conference? [Among many acceptable responses, emphasize that Conference doesn’t necessarily teach us anything that we haven’t been taught before, but it reminds us of what we know, and maybe something old strikes us in a new way and we recommit to living some aspect of the gospel.]
I attended another conference this week at the University of Utah, on race and the Church, a conference that was not sponsored by the Church but at which two General Authorities – Elder Sitati and Elder Snow – spoke. I learned of a recent study conducted by the Church, which concluded that only 20% of Church members are aware of an important source of official Church teaching, and that of those few people who are aware, only 20% of them have actually read those teachings.
I don’t want anyone I’m responsible for in any way – including this class – to be among the vast majority of Latter-day Saints who are ignorant of this source, so we’re going to talk briefly about it now. I can’t do anything about whether or not you’ll be among the informed few who actually read these materials – that’s up to you – but at least I can be sure you know they exist.
[Introduce the Gospel Topics essays, walking class through finding them at lds.org, emphasizing the official nature and the support of the First Presidency for these essays. Discuss “Race and the Priesthood” briefly, noting that the essay teaches what we know about the rise of the priesthood restriction, and about the 1978 revelation. Teach the disavowal.]
lds.org –>Scriptures and Study–> Gospel Topics–>Race and the Priesthood
“Today, the Church disavows the theories advanced in the past that black skin is a sign of divine disfavor or curse, or that it reflects unrighteous actions in a premortal life; that mixed-race marriages are a sin; or that blacks or people of any other race or ethnicity are inferior in any way to anyone else. Church leaders today unequivocally condemn all racism, past and present, in any form.”
Despite this formal disavowal, including its clear dismissal of the idea that black skin is the sign of a curse, there are some people in the Church, perhaps some in this room, who still believe that blacks are descendants of Cain, and that Cain’s curse was a black skin, that his curse was inherited by his children – despite are fundamental doctrine that men are punished for their own sins and not for someone else’s – and that this curse was lifted in 1978. They point to some verses in the Book of Abraham as support for their belief in this discarded doctrine. That belief is wrong, and should be eliminated from your thinking, despite how long and how passionately it was taught in the past. We can talk about that another week, if you like, but only when you are able to explain the distinctions among Cain and Cainan and Canaan, and when you have studied the meaning of the phrase “right of the priesthood” – not “right to” but “right of” – as it appears in the Book of Abraham and in the Doctrine and Covenants.
This introduction is not quite the diversion that it might seem – the idea that all are alike unto God, and that all of us are children of God, who can become joint-heirs with Jesus Christ, is the theme of our lesson today.
Trivia question: How many books are there in the New Testament? [27]
Do you know why they appear in the order they do, in the New Testament? They aren’t arranged chronologically, like a history book – what governs their order? [Briefly discuss some of the genres of the New Testament – gospel, epistle, apocalypse – and note that the epistles (except for Hebrews, which is a special case) are grouped by author, then arranged according to length, with Romans, the longest, first.]
Romans is the longest of the letters written by Paul to the churches outside of Palestine.
This letter is different from Paul’s other epistles in other ways: Most of his epistles are written to churches that Paul himself founded during his missionary tours. Paul had not founded the church at Rome, though – in fact, at the time he wrote to Rome, he had not yet visited Rome since his conversion to Christianity.
He did know Saints at Rome, though. Take a look at Chapter 16. We won’t read it aloud, but glance through it. How many people does he seem to know in the church there?
What might be at least some of the reason for mentioning all those friends individually?
You might remember from earlier lessons that the Jewish Christians had been ordered to leave Rome in A.D. 49, by the emperor Claudius. Paul writes to the Romans in A.D. 56 or 57 – and obviously, from the list in Chapter 16, we can see that the Christians have returned to Rome. Claudius had been assassinated, and his edict against the Jews has been lifted, and they have returned to the capital.
In all that time, Paul had been traveling among the churches, and establishing new ones, in the eastern end of the Mediterranean – Turkey and Greece and Macedonia. Now, however, he wants to go to another mission field – what we know today as Spain. That is going to be an expensive mission, though, and he hopes that the Saints in Rome will furnish money to outfit him for his expedition. He doesn’t come right out and ask them to do that, but he hints at it repeatedly throughout the epistle.
Paul’s epistle opens with the usual formalities – he introduces himself to people who don’t know him, he gives a prayer of thanksgiving that God has sent his Son, and that the Son has sent Paul.
Then Paul introduces the theme of his entire epistle, with a passage that is familiar to all of us.
Romans 1:16-17
16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.
17 For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith.
(The JST clarifies that it is faith on the name of Jesus that matters here.)
Who receives salvation through the gospel of Christ? (Paul refers to Jew and Greek, or Jew and Gentile – what equivalent phrase do we most often use in latter-day scripture? [nations, kindreds, tongues and people])
Paul repeats this idea in Romans 2. He says, in verse 6, that God “will render to every man according to his deeds,” and then lists a few deeds that will be rewarded with “glory” and “eternal life,” and some deeds that will be rewarded with “tribulation and anguish.”
Romans2:10-11
10 But glory, honour, and peace, to every man that worketh good, to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile;
11 For there is no respect of persons with God.
What does it mean to say that God is or is not a respecter of persons?
We aren’t so much concerned about the distinction of Jew and Gentile in the modern Church. What kinds of distinctions do people of our day, people in the Church, sometimes have a problem with?
What can we do to combat these unrighteous distinctions in our own lives and ward and families?
Paul taught the Romans that we – all of us, Jew and Gentile, ancient and modern – need to be “justified,” a word closely related to “justice” and “judgment.” Why are we all subject to that judgment?
Romans 3:10-12, 23
10 As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one:
11 There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God.
12 They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.
…
23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.
What do we need – and, notice, I say “what do we need,” not “what do we need to do,” to be justified?
Romans 3:24-25
24 Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:
25 Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God.
Let’s translate that into modern English – what does Paul say we need in order to be justified?
What is “grace”? [favor/mercy/strength/help/general blessing]
Some Christians emphasize grace: the simple declaration of a belief in Jesus Christ is enough to bring us within the salvation of Christ, and that grace prompts Christian behavior. Other Christians are said to emphasize works: certain sacraments (baptism, for example) are required for salvation, and it is grace that makes those sacraments valid.
As Latter-day Saints, we don’t have an either/or view of grace and works. What evidence is there that we believe in the grace of Jesus Christ? What evidence is there that we also believe in the necessity of works?
How does our understanding of the Plan of Salvation, the purpose for morality, affect our understanding of faith and works?
One of our Articles of Faith lists “first principles and ordinances” of the gospel. What is the difference between a principle and an ordinance? Which one is closely allied to grace? Which one is closely allied to works?
Paul talks about the first ordinance of the gospel, baptism, as if it were a death, burial, and resurrection.
Romans 6:3-4
3 Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?
4 Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
What did Paul mean by that? How is baptism both a death and a resurrection?
Paul continues this theme in Chapter 8. This is a long passage, but I really dislike what I’ve had to do today, taking one or two random verses at a time. Let’s read Romans 8:1-17, which talks of the death of the old, carnal, sinful men and women, and being raised to the new, righteous, spirit-filled men and women we should be following conversion to the gospel.
Romans 8:1-17:
1 There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.
3 For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:
4 That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
5 For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit.
6 For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.
7 Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.
8 So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.
9 But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.
10 And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.
11 But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.
12 Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh.
13 For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.
14 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.
15 For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.
16 The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:
17 And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.
What are some of the eternal rewards that come through following Jesus Christ?
What are some of the rewards we enjoy right now, in mortality, through following Jesus Christ?