Meagan Arthur

Romans 3:21-26
The righteousness is apart from the law. I assume this is talking about the earthly law,
and not God’s law. The “But” takes us back to the last verse, “For by works of the law no
human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.” So
this is discrediting the law in question, saying that obviously works do not save you, but
more specifically works by this law. Going on, it says that righteousness may be achieved by
faith. Pretty much what I am getting from this is that we as Christians are justified during
judgment by God’s righteous grace, which is a gift. The later verses are saying that God
could not have given his Son or have forgiven our sins without his righteousness, and in turn,
we are not able to imitate those things in our treatment of others without God’s righteousness
in us. I notice that there are two different laws, “the law” and “the Law”. My bible takes me
to Acts 10:43, which kind of says that this divine Law is the one we will be judged upon. I
think that this teaches us two main things about the gospel: the first is that no one is
deserving of grace. This seems like an obvious statement, but it is an important and
fundamental part of the gospel. By saying that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of
God”, this passage takes all glory off of those who are sinful and would boast and puts it on
God, for God is the one that made the divine sacrifice to be able to give us forgiveness. The
second thing is the concept of the Law and of judgment. He is “just” and is also the
“justifier” of those who have faith in Jesus. By having this faith, we are help accountable to a
way of life and we put ourselves up for judgment against Christ. However, these two
principles go hand in hand, because we have faith so much that we do not need to fear
judgment, because we know we have been given the gift of grace.

Romans 5:1-11
The first part of the passage tells us everything that we gain by having faith in Christ.
We gain peace, because we know our inevitable “end” (eternal life) and we know that God
will reside in us and with us forever. This peace is “through Christ” as it says in the passage,
because without Christ’s sacrifice we would not have this peace and forgiveness. We also
gain his grace, which is what in essence causes the peace and our security in eternal life. We
gain hope in the eternal life he has promised us and in the end of sadness and suffering, and
we gain joy through our sufferings, because we know that every trial we endure is a tool in
God’s plan to bring us to him to live forever in heaven. This is in reference to the suffering,
endurance, character, and hope train, because these are all part of God’s plan to bring us to
him. The next part of the passage puts into perspective the difference between a good person
and a righteous person. A good person is someone who tries to do good and kind by others.
This could also describe a righteous person, but there is not only so much more to the latter,
but there is a distinction. A righteous person is able to make people angry, cause hatred, and
more for the truth he believes, and I think that is the point Paul is trying to make here by
saying that fewer would be willing to die for a righteous person (although Christ died for all
sorts of people). In the end, the passage is saying that by Christ’s death, we have been
reconciled with God, and without Christ, that reconciliation could not have taken place. The
gospel is clearly presented here, as by this reconciliation (that was needed because of our sin)
we shall be saved by “his life”. This part took me to 2 Corinthians 4:10, which in essence
says that not only were we saved by Jesus’ death, but we were saved by his life.

1 Corinthians 15:20-28
Meagan Arthur

This passage puts the theme of “one man” on my mind. Because of one man, all were
made to sin, and because of one man, we are able to be saved. I know that Christ was
completely human, and it confused me at first as to why Paul would stress this so much here.
But I realized that it shows that Christ was tempted by everything we are tempted by, and he
went through the same struggles that we go through, and he still remained sinless and perfect,
demonstrating the great distance between our sinful nature and his perfection. “Each in
order” shows us that Christ was already resurrected, and “by his second coming” we will be
brought up from the dead as well. Paul says “the last enemy to be destroyed is death”. Death
was brought into this world by sin, and I think that this is more saying that the last enemy to
be destroyed is sin, and Satan. I don’t think it means death in the physical sense, but it means
death in the spiritual sense. This passage showcases what the gospel says about what will
happen after life on earth, and what will happen when Christ comes again. It shows us that
God is the ruler of everything, and will continue to be the ruler of us even after the last
enemy has been crushed, and all this will be in submission to him.

Ephesians 2
This passage has obvious significance and is an obvious building block of the
Christian faith. It simply lays down the fact that people are sinners by birth, and evil by
nature. “Among whom we all once lived” shows that ALL were born to sin and to commit
acts against God, and that ALL deserve death for their trespasses. “It is by grace you have
been saved” shows us that there is not one way we can earn our salvation, and there is not
one act we can commit to ensure our eternal life. It is completely by God, and God’s grace,
that we are made alive again. No one can boast of their salvation because saving ourselves
isn’t something that we can do—it is all God’s doing. We are “created for good works” but
we are not saved by our good works. This is an extremely important part of the gospel as it is
disputed so much. It doesn’t make sense to us that a gift so big could be given to us for
nothing in return. The next part of the scripture tells us to be unified together as believers.
This tells as that we were a chosen race, ready made for the tasks that God will assign to us—
together. There are so many examples of this (most recently, our Mexico mission trip). We
are all part of the “household of God” and we are all meant to be together eternally—we are
meant to have fellowship.

1 Peter 1:3-12
This passage shows us that we are born again for something and for a reason (in this
case, we are born again for our hope and our place in heaven). It is saying that we have a
divine inheritance, by God’s grace, which is eternal life. It also brings into question the
subject of testing our faith—if our faith weren’t tested, would it truly be faith at all? A faith
that is tested and has endured trials is one that is true, because it survives all things. People
always say things like “it is by faith alone you have been saved”. This is true, but I don’t
think that faith is such a small thing or task. It is a big thing to have such a faith in Christ that
you would follow him no matter what, through everything. It is because of this that we have
our divine inheritance, and that our place is being “guarded” in heaven. The prophets before
us (as it says in the end of the passage) were “serving us” by predicting of our grace, and the
grace that was to save us under the new covenant. This grace is what I think makes up the
idea of the gospels and it is the reason we are able to obtain salvation.