ST NICOLAS, NEWBURY

HOME GROUP QUESTIONS

FROM SUNDAY 21 OCTOBER 2007

ROAMING ROMANS SESSION 4: ROMANS 3:1-20

1. To understand what Paul is saying in chapter 3, we'll need to back up a bit. So start by reading Romans 2:17-29.

2. From the way Paul writes about his fellow Jews, what do they think it is that gives them an advantage over the Gentiles when it comes to their relationship with God?

3. How does Paul set out to undermine what he sees as their false confidence?

4. We can imagine Paul's Jewish readers responding along the lines of 'What's the point in being a Jew at all then?' Now read Romans 3:1-8.

5. How does Paul answer the question he poses in verse 1?

6. Verse 3 deals with another objection to what Paul has been saying. What is it? How does Paul answer?

7. Yet another objection comes up in verse 5. What is this one? How does Paul deal with it?

8. How do you think what Paul is saying about his fellow Jews here applies to people in the church today?

9. How are we to explain the apparent contradiction between verse 1 and verse 9 of chapter 3?

10. Now read verses 9-20. How do Paul's quotations from the Old Testament here fill out our understanding of the nature and consequences of sin?

11. What is the main point in verse 20 that Paul is leading up to?

12. On Sunday I illustrated this passage by talking about sin as being like a disease, with the Jews relying on a vaccination which, unfortunately, they hadn't administered properly. Is this a helpful picture?

13. Pray for those who are called to help people understand just how much they need the gospel of Jesus. And take some time to bring to God any known to you who seem to be particularly resistant to what the gospel has to say about the problem of human sin.

David Stone
21 October 2007