Romans 1:13 | Womens RD Bible Study

In Romans 1 Verses 13-17 is the Gospel. Today we will be discussing verse 13.

Father God thank you so much for sending your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ to be a propitiation for our sins! In Jesus name, amen. 

13 Now I would not have you ignorant, brethren, that oftentimes I purposed to come unto you, (but was let hitherto,) that I might have some fruit among you also, even as among other Gentiles.

Paul is letting the Roman believers know that he sincerely cares about their spiritual understanding of the gospel of the grace of God. He doesn't want them to be ignorant - but ignorant of what? Their standing with God first of all and who they are NOW in Christ. Why is it important to understand these things? Because with this clear understanding, we can then choose to walk in the Spirit, instead of after the flesh, and then Christ is living in and through us. This brings glory to God, helps unbelievers come unto Christ (as they see Christ living in and through us and as we share a clear gospel message) and enables us to serve other believers in love and charity (like helping them to be established and edified in sound grace doctrine and ministering to them in their time of need).

Paul had purposed to be with them in person. However, even though he wasn't able to be with them in person at that time, God used this as an opportunity for Paul to write this monumental epistle that has been establishing believers in sound grace doctrine ever since it was written! Amazing!

He wants to have fruit among them. Well, what is the fruit? The fruit is edification. I talked about this in our previous study but I want to talk a bit about the importance of Bible study. 

Here is the thing. God has provided man with His glorious word, fully preserved in the English language in the King James Bible. It is so precious to God that He says that He magnifies His word even above His very own name!

Psalm 138:2 KJB “I will worship toward thy holy temple, and praise thy name for thy lovingkindness and for thy truth: for thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name.”

And God knows that it takes time for us to grow in wisdom and understanding. We can only understand one doctrine, idea and concept at a time. 

Isaiah 28:10 KJB "For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little:"

But man also has to choose to want to learn and grow spiritually. Most people on the planet today have never even read the whole Bible including many people who object to it and criticize it. Out of the people who have read it, very few of them read and study it rightly divided. Out of those who do rightly divide, only a few really meditate upon the verses and really apply it to their lives (living out the grace life).

First, in order to properly understand God's word we must be saved - We can read the Bible even before salvation and it can bring us to an understanding that we are sinners in need of a savior, and then choose to believe the gospel (Christ's death, burial and resurrection as atonement for our sins) but we won't understand deeper spiritual concepts beyond the basics without God's spirit in us. At salvation we then have God's spirit in us to help us understand spiritual things. Without His spirit in us, we cannot understand the things of God. 

1 Corinthians 2:14 KJB "But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned."

Next, we must put off the old man, which doesn't like to study the Bible and make the choice to study. Our flesh would much rather spend hours on Facebook or YouTube, watching streaming movies, listening to music, reading books, playing video games, going out shopping, etc rather than spend even a little bit of time in Gods word. I personally know people who have been saved for many years that NEVER read the Bible- they might attend church during the Holidays or watch a Christian movie here and there but they cater to their flesh all the time instead of taking even a little bit of time to study God's word. 

Hebrews 11:6 KJB "But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him."

We need to also study God's word God's way, which is rightly divided. The flesh REALLY doesn't like that because most people in Christendom are not studying the Bible rightly divided and the flesh doesn't want to be different from them - that means suffering! In fact many people in Christendom choose to actually corrupt the word of God so as to please their own flesh -- whether it be for money, fame, popularity, control, to be self-righteous, to "not rock the boat" among their family and friends, to try and get healing from God, or even just to cater to their own emotions. 

2 Cor 2:17 KJB “For we are not as many, which corrupt the word of God: but as of sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God speak we in Christ.”

Then, not only are we to study the word of truth rightly divided, but we need to be established in the foundational doctrines of Romans and really meditate upon the verses that we read throughout scripture as well so that it is not just head knowledge but goes to the heart and we truly believe it and apply it to our lives. But the flesh hates this too! It wants to skip around to more "exciting" books in the Bible or to verses that don't even apply to us today but that sound comforting to our flesh (we learn from the whole Bible but not all of scripture is written specifically to us today; its good to read all of scripture as well but we are not to neglect our being established in the foundational doctrines of grace that are specifically written to us today).

Also, right dividers often start out getting lots of head knowledge but we can get "puffed up" and tend to not have a lot of grace at first when we are telling others about rightly dividing. We need to have patience and grace towards others. 

So the fact that you are even studying Romans right now is really great, it means that you are putting off the old man and choosing to walk in the Spirit and to be established in sound grace doctrine. This is God's will for us today!

Gal 5:17 says, "For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would."

In order to have fruit among believers they must be properly established and edified in sound grace doctrine. 

Dear Lord thank you so much for the gift of your precious, holy word. I pray that we may all have a clearer understanding of just how important your word, rightly divided, is to us. Amen.

Video: