 Ma'am, you were on mute. Thanks, Sid. Sorry, my mic was muted. Welcome everyone for today's session. Even before we could start, can I request one of us to please lead us in prayer? Jeffina, would you like to pray? Anyone else would like to pray? Brother Abu Bakr, would you like to pray? Yes ma'am. Yes. Thank you, we glorify your name for this hour. Thank you for our class. Thank you for our teacher. Thank you for the student. We bless your name. CP that is sorted in Jesus' name. We commit our class into your hand. Father, have your way. Take proper control. Teach us yourself from above in Jesus' name. I pray. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Thank you. I'm just setting my camera right. Okay. So how was your weekend? How did you all spend your weekend? Okay. I see a complete silence there. Ma'am, weekend well well in ministry. Your weekend went well. Wow. That's nice. Nice to hear and also see how you serve along with your dad said. That's nice. Okay. So today we are going to study on the book of which many scholars believe that it is the greatest book in the entire Bible. Which is that book? It is the book of Romans. Yes, brother. Thank you. It is the book of Romans. The book of Romans is also known as the book of justification. Okay. Please make a note. Okay. Let me discuss on this book. There's so much to learn and share from this one book. I would request you all please make a note. So the book of Romans is known as the book of justification. So what do we know? Who's the author of this book? And what do we know about this author? Class, let's keep it interactive. Just unmute, share, talk. Don't worry. It won't be a wrong answer. Just share what you know. Ma'am Paul. Yes, Apostle Paul was the author. Okay. So what do you know about Apostle Paul? He is a Jew writer who changed his name to an entire name from Shawol to Paul. Okay. Anyone else would like to add? Ma'am from a Christian persecutor. He became a Christian preacher and missionary. Super. That is one of my points that I would want to share. That's really nice. Thank you from a persecutor to a preacher. That's nice. Yes, Brother Lubega. You would like to share? He was a member of something like that. He was a member of, sorry, I didn't get that. He was among the 70, he was in a group of the 70 scholars who were in Jerusalem. Okay. Okay. Thank you for sharing that. Well, the book of Romans was the first of many books written by Apostle Paul. So Paul wrote at least 13 letters of 13 letters. That is the epistles of 27 books in the New Testament. So the books range in size. Okay. Some some letters like the letter to Philemon was about one chapter and the other books were about 16 chapters or less than that varies. Okay. So all of these books are the epistles or the letters we call it to the individuals or to the church, including, including with a greeting or the message was all about greeting or addressing or exhortation admonitions or some of them, some of the letters were about the doctrinal instructions and personal information. And it ended with a salutation. I wanted to see through from the book of Acts like initially he was addressed as Saul of Tarsus and then later he continued with the name of Paul. So what is this Saul and Paul? Did he change his name after his encounter with Jesus or how did this name change happen? Yes, brother. Go ahead. I think he was, I think he was both a Jew and a Roman citizen because in Jewish he was called Saul. But when you look at his Roman citizenry, this is Paulus, something, something like that, Paulus, which means I think Paul. I think there was. Thank you. Thank you. Yes. That's right. That's right. So Saul was his Jewish name and Paul was his Roman name. So both was his name, nothing to do with the encounter, but then both were his name. So Paul was born in Tarsus. We see that in the book of Acts chapter 22 verse 3, that was his original name being Saul of Tarsus. And Paul was also born as a Roman citizen. In the same chapter, when we continue to read down, we see that Paul was a Roman citizen and Paul was a Jew from the tribe of Benjamin. These are certain things that we need to remember. Paul was a Jew from the Benjamin tribe and he was educated in Jerusalem under under the leader Gamaliel, a teacher of considerable reputation in both in secular and in religious world. And he was fluent in at least three languages, which were the common language that they spoke during that time. Anyone can share. Aramico. Okay. One of the language, which are the other two? Greek. Yes. One more to go. The others of what? Latin. Okay. Sid, what do you say? Hebrew. Hebrew and brother Lubeika said Latin. Good. All are right. Okay. He was fluent at least three to four languages. That's what the history says. One was Greek, Hebrew, Aramaic and possibly he also knew Latin. So he was trained as a Pharisee. When we read the book of Philippians, we see that he was trained as Pharisee. And we also see he's been groomed for the Sanhedrin in the book of Galatians. We see that. And Paul became zealous opponent of Christianity. Oh, we know that because he was the key player in the death of the first martyr. Who was the first martyr? Stephen. Stephen. We see that again in the book of Acts last week. Stephen was the first martyr. And he was the key player in that incident. And, and he also became a lead persecutor of the church. And he received the letters from the authority to imprison all the Christians. And that's why with that letter, he headed towards Damascus. And we later, we know the story of how he had a personal encounter with Jesus. He also participated in a lot of tortures at trials and the death of many Christians. And he was the instrumental for scattering of the, of scattering the seed of the New Testament church where people, you know, they were scared of him and they flee to different places. With that, we also see after his encounter with Jesus, we see that Paul was a persecutor now become a preacher. Paul was a good candidate for salvation. And sometimes people that resist, you know, we see from his lifestyle, we can say that people that resist the most becomes the most zealous for the truth. We see in Acts nine how Paul transformed from being a persecutor to become a preacher and just not a preacher like the common man. But then he was very zealous to carry the word to the utmost part of the world. Despite even if it, you know, even if it cost his life, he was on the journey to share and teach the word. And yes, we are studying on the book of Romans, but then we need to know a little bit background about Paul. So where do we see the background? Yes, we see from the book of Acts. So when we turn to Acts nine in this experience and this preparation to the ministry. So Paul was confronted on the road to Damascus. Paul was confronted by Jesus while he was he was on his way to kill all the Christians there. Paul was after that incident, you know, Paul was commissioned by Ananias. He had to meet him. And then we know the story how his site was restored back to him. Paul preached briefly in Damascus. He just shared his experience with Jesus's encounter with Jesus, with the people, the Christians who were there and who were meeting in the underground churches. And he spent about three years in Arabia. Then he attempted to join the disciples at Jerusalem where he met Barnabas. This is the first time that Paul is meeting Barnabas at Jerusalem. And later after a lot of commotion and he's been rejected and a lot of death threats. He returned to Tarsus, all the disciples and all sent him to Tarsus. And, you know, and there he continued to be a tent maker. And we don't know much what happened there. But after about, you know, some scholars says 10 years, some of them says 14 years. But after 14 years or after 10 years, 10 to 14 years, he was remembered by Barnabas. God made Barnabas to recollect about Paul when there was a need at the church of Antioch of Syria. So here we see in the later chapter, we see in the later chapter of Book of Acts, we see how Barnabas went in search of Paul. Went in search of Paul to bring him so that he can assist in the ministry. That's how God sends, God sends to each of us, somebody like Barnabas, to call us back into the ministry. And later part, when we study the Book of Acts, Acts 11, we see how Paul assisted Barnabas in laying the foundation of church at Antioch. Then we also see how Paul accompanied him in the ministry. He went on the first missionary journey with Barnabas and he collected the offering for the famine relief. And then we see how, you know, Barnabas, John Mark and Paul went on the first missionary journey. And when we were studying on the Gospel of Mark, we learned about John Mark how he was so scared with the things happening around him and he was not ready or prepared enough. So he had to leave Paul and Barnabas off the way in the first missionary journey and he returned back, which brought a drift in the second missionary journey between Paul and Barnabas. And he had an argument of which they both were separated and they went towards a different journey. So we, yeah, the Acts, the Book of Acts says that Paul and Paul took Silas and also Timothy and he went on the second missionary journey to the places as a follow up to where they ministered in the first missionary journey. And later we also see Barnabas taking John Mark and going towards the journey on a different way. But yes, not much of what Paul and not much of what Barnabas and John Mark would have gone, those are not been recorded. But then the places that Paul visited and Paul ministered to the churches and to the individuals are been recorded as the epistles to us has been added as an epistle in the New Testament. We see the different missionary journeys. The first missionary journey, yes, was initiated by Barnabas. And the second missionary journey, as I said, they all took Silas and Timothy and in the third missionary journey. Yes, it was a follow up and also the extension. This time, Paul takes Silas and Timothy and he broke new ground in the place called Ephishes. So this journey ended up with Paul and his team in Jerusalem presenting a relief offering for the Gentile Church. At the end of Book of Acts, we also see Paul's arrest, death and other traditions. So when we talk about the death and the arrest and death, yes, the Romans were very good at it. In fact, under the reign of Nero, let me share the presentation that I have here. Please give me a minute. Is it projected? Are you able to see? Yes, ma'am. Okay, so let me go to the presentation. Okay, the book of Romans we see and here I kept here. So the Christians were persecuted under the Roman Emperor Nero. So some Christians were attacked by the wild beast. This is the Colosseum, which is present in Rome. And all the people of Romans have been seated here watching what's happening to the believers, what's happening to the Christians, the new set of Christians who believe on Jesus. So the Roman Emperor thought these new set that is growing very rapidly are being a threat to them. They were asked to worship the Roman gods. They were asked to do the customs which the Roman did, the traditions they asked to follow to worship the Roman and the Greek gods, which the Christians, the new believers who believed in Jesus refused to do so. So in accord to that, you know, they were punished, they were arrested, they were persecuted, arrested. And then they were, you know, they made a spectacular watch to the people so that they thought by doing so they will bring an end to Christianity. So they caught all the Christian believers, they led the wild beast to come and attack them, as we see in this picture. And also we see some of them were crucified. I just selected this picture. I'm not too sure whether all three incidents happened together at one time or it happened in three different ways. But then here in this picture, I could cover all three different trials which the Christians underwent during the Roman Emperor Nero. So we see the Christians were attacked by the wild beast and we see some of them were crucified on the cross and some of them were lit as a torch in this place. And this is some of the ways where the Christians were tortured in those days in the time of Paul and Peter. So what did they do? The history says that Paul's death was unknown but the tradition holds that he was beheaded in Rome and thus died as a martyr for his faith. So we see that his death was part of the executions of the Christians ordered by the Roman Emperor Nero, which the reason was for following the great fire in the city. This incident happened about 64 AD but then what we see here is some of the tradition says that the fire was set by the Romans itself. But they blamed the Christians just for the reason to persecute them to kill them. So they thought they will bring the end to the leaders so they caught Peter and Paul. So Peter as he was the leader, so they actually wanted to crucify Peter. So Peter we see that as he requested that his cross will be upside down as Peter personally felt that he was unworthy of being crucified just in the same manner as they did to Jesus. So he requested them to crucify him upside down when he received the sentence of death. And yes, both of them was a martyr in the Christian church. They died this way during the reign of Nero. Yeah, so this is what I want to share. So with this we see that some incidents that was happening even in our time, we see that the history been repeated. It's not something new, but then there's a history being repeated in our time as well. So just to go back to go back what happened before Paul was beheaded. He was arrested in Jerusalem by the Romans. So Paul was arrested in Jerusalem by the Romans and he stood trial before the Sanhedrin. And we see he was rescued. Paul was rescued by Rome and sent to Syria where he stood trial in front of different leaders like Felix and Agrippa. And his sentence to death was delayed of over two years. And Paul was realizing his inability to get a fair trial. So we see that he appeals to Rome in Acts 25. He appeals to Rome and we also see how Paul traveled to Rome as a prison on ship. And we see the shipwreck scene and how they were rescued on the island of Malta and how he ministered to people there. Some of the things may not be understood then to Paul, but later when we read the book we see how God's hand was upon Paul. How God continued to minister even in the prison. Even when Paul was in the prison, the spreading of gospel was not stopped. Even when he reached the island of Malta, the very instant of a wiper, they thought that Paul may die, but then through that God's name was glorified. He could reach the gospel to the people of Malta and he could minister to them, see healing in the people who were there. And then Paul also, we also see that how Paul ministered to the soldiers in the ship. They started believing him. The prisoner became the leader, dictator in the ship, what needs to be done, what needs, you know, how we can rescue everyone. You know, he took the leadership even there. God always made him the head and not the tail. And also in Rome, Paul was put in his own rented house and even there how he continued to minister to people who personally visited him. He continued to write letters from that place. You know, the ministry did not stop with the trial of Paul, but it just continued. You also see, even in this place, how Paul continued to write the epistles. He wrote first Timothy, Titus during this period. And we also see how, you know, at all times, how personally he could meet people, visit people, minister to them and God continued to talk to people through Paul. And the book of Romans, to whom was this book written? Anyone from the class? And what was the purpose of writing the book? I think it was written to the Christians who were in Rome. And it was basically written for either dogfino papas or to prepare his visit to Rome. Correct. While we learn from the book of Romans itself that Paul wrote this book to the believers who made up a church, who built a church in Rome and were living there. And Paul had never visited this Roman church before, but he's writing a letter to them and expecting to visit them sooner. And he had a great respect for this church and even they had a great honor for Paul. And yes, but it is not difficult to see why the Christians from the Roman church met Paul with such great affection while he finally came to Rome as a captive. And what was the very purpose of writing this book? To show that salvation is to both Jews and Gentiles alike. Yes, you're right brother. While we see that there was a debate about the purpose of writing this book, Paul wrote this book well, a couple of things that has been noted, I would like to share it here. We know from the book of Acts that the church in Rome and existed for some time, that it was made up of Jewish and non-Jewish followers of Christ. But at one point, the Roman Emperor Claudius had expelled all the Jewish people from Rome. And then because they had a kind of fear like where these Jewish Christians are increasing, so he expelled them. And then about five years later, after the death of Claudius and the edict that he issued expired, and then we see the Jews, including the believers, allowed to return back. And they did. And when they did come back, they found a church that had become very non-Jewish in custom and in practice. So this created a lot of tension in the church believers, so that Paul's day, the Roman church was divided between the Jewish and non-Jewish people. And there were a lot of tension and disagreement happening between them. They were debating about the traditions, about the circumcision or about the Sabbaths that they kept and they celebrated and many other traditions they always debated between themselves. So Paul is writing this letter to accomplish few things. And he wanted this church to be united on a very practical ground. So he was hoping that the Roman church would become a staging ground for his mission to go even further west all the way to Spade. So we see that these circumstances are what motivated Paul to write out his fullest explanation of the Gospel, the good news that he wanted to share with them about the life of Jesus' death and resurrection. One thing when we see that whichever letter we read, despite the situation, there is one message that Paul is reiterating it again and again and again. That is the Gospel of Christ. Very clearly. No matter what problem he is addressing, but he is addressing about Jesus' life, death and resurrection. So with that, the letter is designed to have four main movements or parts that is there in this book. So what is that? One, we see to prepare the future visit. Second, we also see to strengthen the foundation of the church. How? So chapter one to chapter eight, we see to strengthen the concept of salvation is by faith. And chapter nine to 11, he emphasizes the spiritual heritage over the natural heritage in God's tree of faith. And chapter 12 to 15, he focuses on the practical expression of the Christianity that must be resulted in faith. So it is one thing to be doctrinal sound and it is another thing to put our faith into practice and demonstrate God's love in practical ways. And the last chapter 16, he is greeting Phoebe and also the other saints in the church. Yeah. And this letter was taken by Phoebe to the church in Romans. So what is the main message of this book? Anyone from the class, what is the main message? What do we learn from the book of Romans and why is it, scholars say it is one of the greatest theological book that we need to know. I think you said it is a book of justification when you are beginning the lesson. Yes. Yes. That's right, brother. So the key verse in the book is the righteousness of God. The words righteousness and justification occurs over 60 times in this book. The righteousness with God becomes the main theme of this book. That being said, we also see a leader in the church. Martin Luther was also impacted by the very verse on chapter 1 verse 17, which says that just shall live by faith. This verse impacted Martin Luther towards the Reformation in the church. So as we study the chapters from chapter 1 to 4, it talks about the righteousness that is required for us. And from chapter 5 to 8, we see righteousness been received, how we can receive the righteousness. Paul lets us know that the only hope for a man is if God himself provides for man's righteousness. And it demonstrates that Christ has acquired this on our behalf by his work on the cross and that we have the access for this gift of righteousness. How? How do we have the access for the gift of righteousness? It's only by faith in Jesus Christ and the work that he did on the cross. And from chapter 9 to 11, we see righteousness rejected. Here we see how Paul expresses his love for his own Jewish people. And how they were used of God to preserve a seed and the word of God for the rest of the world. But he also makes it clear that God has one tree of faith made up of both Jews and Gentiles. And the Jewish branches that rejected Christ were cut off of the tree of faith. And the Gentiles who received Jesus as the Lord and Saviour were grafted into the tree of faith. How well he explains it here. So the way into the tree is through faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ. He also says the way out of the tree is only through the unbelief. So our unbelief removes us from the tree of faith. Despite you may be a Jew or a Gentile, you have no access into that if we have unbelief. And from chapter 12 to 16, we see that the righteousness been revealed. Here we see that Paul turns a major doctrine of Bible into the implication of the doctrine. And he allows us to focus on how these things we call it as faith should affect our life. Well, Paul focuses on the practical side of Christianity. And what it actually means to display the righteousness of Christ in our relationship with each other and the world. So with that, we can go towards the unique feature. So what is the unique feature? What are some of the unique features that we find in this book? Yeah, y'all can refer your notes and give out some points. So the class is very quiet. I would request y'all to please go through, brush up the notes. So as you all share, you would know, okay, these are the things that has been shared in the classes already present in our notes. Okay. So yes, we talk about justification. It is the process by which God declares us not guilty based on the acceptance of the finished work of Jesus on the cross. We also see propitiation, which has been noted in Romans 3 25. Propitiation. Can I request one of us to read Romans 3 25 said you'd like to read. Can I read? Yes, please. Romans 3 25. God gave Jesus Christ to the world. Men's sins can be forgiven through the blood of Christ. When they put their trust in him, God gave his son Jesus Christ to show how right he is. Before this, God did not look on the sins that were done. Yeah, thank you. So in our NKJB version, it says, and when God said forth as a propitiation. That means Jesus is a mercy seat. Propitiation means Jesus is a mercy seat. So it's a process by which God removes the due punishment for us and because of the sprinkling of Christ's blood on our behalf. We also see the third point here redemption in this book in the same chapter verse 24 redemption being justified freely by his grace through the redemption. That is in Christ Jesus. We see it's a process again by which Jesus Christ paid the debt that we owe freeing us from the bondage to sin and death. We also see sanctification in this book Romans chapter five verse two sanctification. We have been sanctified in Christ. It is a process by which the Holy Spirit of God takes the level of our experience in Christ up to match our position in him. We also see the glorification of Christ in Romans chapter eight verse 18. We see the glorification of Christ. Again, it is a process, but it is an act of God by which man completes the process of full redemption with his whole spirit, soul and body, which overcomes the effect of sin and death. Yeah. So what makes the book of Romans so special? What experience do we get when we read the book of Romans? One of the key verses that we see when we read the book of Romans is, you know, as we read the book of Romans, we also get to walk the Roman roads of salvation. Okay, some of the key verses that we see through this book is Romans 323 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. So what do we see here? All people on earth are sinners. Why is Paul writing the statement to make sure the Jews in the church felt that they were perfect and there was a tension between the Jews and the Gentiles in the church. So here Paul is bringing them listen. All people on earth are sinners, sinners separated us from God and keeps us from fulfilling our destiny and he brings them all on the same level ground. And he says that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. And again in Romans 623, the first part we see that, yeah, we see that for the wages of sin is death, for the wages of sin is death. So what do we learn here? We see that the scripture verse says the penalty for sin is death. Death that is referred here is both physical and spiritual. So there's an, there's also an eternal death that is separation from God himself. So he is bringing an awareness to both of them, Jews and Gentiles. And in chapter 5 verse 8, we see that God demonstrates his own love toward us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. So here we see that God set his love upon us in spite of our sinful condition. Here we see Paul bringing a need like how important, what is our condition, what is our place we are in and how we need God. Because of God's great love for us, he provided a plan for our condition to be saved. So God in his holiness could not simply ignore our sin, but then he sent his only begotten Son, John 3 16 to die and pay our death in our place. In that we also move on to chapter 6 verse 23 again, for the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life and Christ Jesus our Lord. So what we see here Christ died on the cross to pay the penalty for our sins, that he became our sinless substitute. So that in order to receive that gift, we must reach out and accept the eternal life as the gift. We also see in Romans 10 verse 9 to 10. Okay, as we have very less time, so I'm just going through the scriptures Romans chapter 10 verse 9 to 10. What we see, if you confess with your mouth, the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. What we see here Christ died on the cross. He made it possible for us to receive the forgiveness of sins. So this gift of salvation is given to those who call on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and those who agree and accept him as the Lord and Savior. And as we conclude this book, as we conclude this book, I would like to know why this book was so special. Yes, we see many scholars, many leaders who ever have meditated and read the book of Romans have been convicted, have been impacted. Yes, even Martin Luther was impacted by the very verse chapter 1 verse 17 which says that just shall live by faith. So it was the book of Romans that inspired him to have a personal relationship with God, to build the personal faith and put the seed in his heart that triggered the reformation. And it was in Luther's commentary on the book of Romans that stirred the heart of John Wesley and caused him to receive Jesus in a personal way. Yes, we also see the truth has been found in the book of Romans that have served as the basis of faith for all who call upon the name of the Lord. To many leaders. So I would request each one of us to please go through the book of Romans so that we each of us may be impacted by the word. So that we may be justified, we made righteous and be sanctified in the Lord. I said in a different order first we may be justified, sanctified and be made righteousness in the Lord. So I leave it open for the class to discuss, share what you learn from this book. Please go ahead. So that's the book of Romans that we end this book and we can prepare for the next book tomorrow on first Corinthians. So leave this time open for a class to share your learning from this book. What a back to do was there anything new that you learned? What touched you? Paul, would you like to share? Yes, please go ahead. Just unmute and speak up. What? One is righteousness and two is redemption. Yes, brother. Sid, you would like to share something? John, I hope that I'm audible. Would you like to share something? Lyndon, Paul, John, Paul, Sally. Would you like to add, share? Ma'am, can I say something? Yes, Sid, please go ahead. Ma'am, the most fascinating thing about the book of Romans which I like. Like there was an author by the name of Mr. G. K. Chestern. He wrote in his book, he wrote in his book like if there is a situation for the Christians, like they are in a desert and they are very of downtrodden situation. And only the one book is available from the Bible, which book they will choose is the book of Romans. Because unlike the rest of the New Testament book, it is not just focusing on the dry theology, but it is also focusing on the revival of the Christian history we have faced. Okay. Okay. Okay. Thank you, Sid. Anyone? Jeffina, you are very quiet. Are you able to hear? Can you unmute and talk to us? Okay. Okay. I hope this class was helpful, revealing a lot of insights from the book of Romans. And I, because you're very silent, I hope that you all have got the message, you all understood. Yeah, I see some of the messages here, that's the way you commute, but I would like you to post messages, ask questions, keep the session interactive so that it's live and interesting. Okay. As the time is up, let's bring this class to a close. Can I request one of us to please dismiss us in a word of prayer? It's a wonderful lesson. We also pray for the person who has taught us, who has been a person, who has taught us the Holy Spirit, who guide us well in the hand of the Spirit, because the Bible says that we want to lift up our hands, so shall receive the Spirit that will correct us, will correct us, remind us, and we can teach us a lot as we're going to push the, as we're going to close the lecture a lot, to pray that tomorrow we may be in peace, but not in peace, and to pray in the mobile phone, just pray so everyone can see. Amen. Amen. Amen. Thank you, Brother Lubega, for praying. Thank you each one for joining in today's session. See you all tomorrow. God bless. Thank you.