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Thank you for tuning into First Today. I am Patrick Cooley. I pastor Northport Methodist Church in Northport, Alabama. You can visit the podcast website at firsttoday.us, and you can reach out if you have any questions or comments or would like to know more, to connect at firstdate.us. And if you have my phone number and you want some to some fleshing out of the material here in Romans, please don't hesitate to reach out and call me, and we can work out a time to get together or just have a good discussion.
Patrick:So a number of things here before we get going on on Romans. Gonna do the format this time a little different. Well, actually, not a little different. Very, very much differently than we than I've done for James, Galatians, 1st and second Thessalonians, and 1st and second Corinthians. Those, if you've been watching if if watching.
Patrick:If you've been listening, if you've been following, you know, under the notes section for each part, there are huge amounts of notes. So how I had been doing these things from James all the way through 2nd Corinthians is, essentially exegeting the text, going through, making summaries, kind of a a teaching a teaching summary of these. James, for instance, had 41 pages of notes, and that's that's a lot. So, and that was the, I think, the shortest one. Corinthians were even more, so on and so forth.
Patrick:And so I didn't really wanna do this same thing with Romans. And so what I've decided to do with Romans is do it much more conversationally, I guess. Much more as if, like, you were sitting in a room with me on a bible on a weekly bible study as as we go through Romans together. And so there may be a few more uhs and stammers here that I don't, get to edit out. So forgive me for that one.
Patrick:But, that see, that will require, if you want to know more, or you want to dig even deeper into it, that will require you to reach out to me. So again, if you want anything fleshed out or kind of deeper, reach out. If there's something I say that doesn't make any sense, reach out. They won't be in the notes like it has been with the, what, 6 books that have come before, Romans. So that's one thing.
Patrick:Romans is, I think, the most important text outside of the gospels and which include Acts of the New Testament. Because it's in Romans that Paul begins really fleshing out some of the things that he has said and taught to the Galatians and to the Thessalonians and to the Corinthians. And Romans is really sort of the cornerstone of doctrine and the establishment of Christian doctrine. I've preached before that we're here as gentile Christians primarily because Paul founded in the grand scheme of things, the gentile church. And and I think that's a very, very important thing to to keep in mind.
Patrick:This is why, of of all of the churches I've served so far, the first Bible studies I ever lead have always been Romans, because that's how important I think Romans is. But it's also interesting because we often and what I have found is that we very often don't really read Romans the way that it should. And so this is this is point number 2. So point number 1 is this is going to be much more conversational. I will be available to flesh things out.
Patrick:If there are any sort of questions, just do not hesitate to reach out. The second thing has to do with the primary lens through which you study or we study scripture. Very often and let me let me explain that a little bit, better. For me, the primary source of, the the primary thing we should be using in Bible studies, and as we study and as we learn and as we engage scripture is the scripture itself. We can spend tomes and tomes, reams and reams of paper, on, exegesis and calling into question this, that, or the other, and delving into sources and asking ourselves, well, was this really part of the traditional text or not, or do do we need to remove that, or do we need to add this other thing and, you know, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.
Patrick:I approach Romans here, and and as I have the other text so far, what we have is what we have, period. What we have is the text of Romans, period. And so let's engage the scripture that we have and allow the scripture itself to direct our conversations or direct our gaze to to other things and to the theology and to the doctrine that the Holy Spirit wants us to focus upon. Very often, what we do is we engage scripture in our bible studies primarily through the lens of a particular tradition. We we allow our doctrine to inform our reading of scripture as opposed to allowing scripture to inform our doctrine.
Patrick:And I think that's very very important. The Calvinist will allow his or her Calvinism to temper that person's reading of what Paul talks about, for instance, in Romans, where he talks about those God foreknew, He predestined to be conformed. Okay? They allow that as opposed to letting the text inform what that is actually saying. So I hope that's not confusing.
Patrick:So I guess this is one reason why my bible studies tend to take a lot of time in the grand scheme of things because I try to let the text speak for itself, as opposed to allowing again our whoever our pope of preference is, if we're a neo Calvinist Piper or MacArthur or Bodie, Bachman, etcetera, or, Justin Peters, or if we are a, prosperity gospel person, the Olsteen or, Copeland or or, Beth Mayer, fill in the blank, whoever your particular pope is. Very often, we allow them to influence what scripture the meaning that we get out of scripture. And I don't think that is a good practice. Actually, I know that's not a good practice. We've got to let scripture inform our tradition.
Patrick:We have to let scripture inform what we believe, not allow our belief to inform our scripture, which we then end up just using to either ignore where our belief doesn't line up with what scripture says, or we twist scripture into it saying something that it actually doesn't say. So so number 1, this will be a much more conversational, freewheeling type of, Bible study for Romans, which the door is open again if you have any further questions or want things fleshed out any more than than they are. And, secondly, we're gonna deal with the scripture that we have. I'm gonna I I do my best not to allow the the doctrine to filter the reading of the scripture. So now what that necessarily means is that, there may be something that sparks a nerve, and I I think that's a that's something you need to keep keep keep an eye on.
Patrick:One of the reasons why I don't like teaching revelation is because people have become emotionally involved in that. And if you try to say that, well, nowhere in Revelation does it say this or this, or that isn't what the text says that this means based on where it is in the text and what has come before, etcetera, people get really really good. Their knickers are getting a twist about it because they've, you know, read how Lindsay, they've read, David Jeremiah, they've read, Tim LaHaye and Jenkins. And so they allow that to inform, their reading of scripture again as opposed to allowing the scripture to speak for itself. And that's so important because if we bring ourselves into it first and foremost as our primary way of engaging scripture, then we may in fact, be missing out on what the Holy Spirit wants us to learn.
Patrick:Case in point, back in in James, the very very first series. In James chapter 5, for my entire life, I have been taught, probably like a lot of you, that James says to somebody, if you're sick, go to the elders and have them pray for you and lay hands on you, and and you will be healed, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. And I've always taken that had always taken that to mean or to be talking about physical sickness. But the text itself tells us that that's not talking about physical sickness. Because he begin James begins his letter by saying that those that are suffering physically and those that are sick physically and and are undergoing trials should take those should take that as a blessing and as a test of their faith.
Patrick:James 5 is actually talking about spiritual sickness, the the effects of sin on us, other people's sin affecting us, and our own sin affecting us. That's what the text says. Now, do we do we bring in other things or not? That's the question. I don't think that it's a good idea to to bring in anything else other than, as best as we can because sola scriptura or scripture only is a very difficult thing to achieve because we all bring into it baggage.
Patrick:We all bring into it we all bring into reading scripture and into scripture itself filters. And so we even though I don't think we can completely weed it out, we have to be cognizant of it, in in order to let the text speak for itself. Not using Calvin, not using Piper, not using Kenneth Copeland, not using your favorite preacher from your childhood, not using what your parents say it means. We've got to let the scripture speak for itself. And and so that's that's part number 2 of this approach.
Patrick:So, I'm looking forward to it. I'm looking forward to starting up with Romans. And, I'm I'm at, what, minute number 13 here. So I don't think we're gonna jump into it on this episode. I just wanted to have this kind of introduction to it.
Patrick:I guess the third thing and the last thing I want to say is I will be using, due to the with the permission of the Lachman Foundation, from this point forward on the First Day podcast, the primary source is going to be the NASB, the New American Standard Bible 2020. So, so that's gonna be the primary source. What I normally do in Bible studies is I will have a critical text, a Texas Receptus, a majority text, and a Vulgate. And and we'll and and look and look at these scriptures from each one, particularly or or particularly when there's some variations between, wording or between, kind of the the topic or the theme, because there are sometimes some differences between the critical apparatus, the majority apparatus, the Texas Receptus, and the Vulgate. So I'll there will be times we'll be using other, translations in addition to the NASB 2020.
Patrick:So, if since it's gonna be more conversational, if you wanna, run out there and get you a whole get hold of a copy of the NASB 2020 or or use it on your, your your bible, your phone bible. That way you can follow along word word for word, if if you want to do that. Or not telling you you gotta go out there and buy a new Bible, you wanna keep using your King James or your new King James or your NIV or your CSB or your NRSV, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. You are more than welcome to do that. But, but just to let you know, I will be using the NASB 2020.
Patrick:So until next time, I am Patrick Cooley, pastor of Northport Methodist Church and owner and host of this, The First Day podcast. Please like and subscribe, and I look forward to, in the next episode, jumping into Romans chapter 1. Blessings and goodbye for now.