Romans 1-8: Theories On The Basics Of Christianity

Improved Essays
If you are like me, you have heard at least a dozen theories on the basics of Christianity from different preachers. I was raised in a Christian school and had the privilege of hearing preaches of all different denominations and ways of thinking give their opinions of the world in a Biblical context. The problem seemed to be that many of them had different opinions. I found that Romans 1-8 is a good place to start uncovering God’s truth for areas such as: the natural world, human identity, human relationships, culture, and what my worldview should be.

One of the greatest truths that I cling to concerning the natural world is found in Romans 4. Through the testimony of Abraham, the entirety of Romans chapter four points to the fact that
…show more content…
There are preachers who preach that humans are worthless rags, while others preach that they are near equal to God himself. Besides those two complete opposites, there are many people in between. The Romans 3:10-18 makes it clear that humans are not righteous on their own. However, in the following verses it makes it equally as clear that Christ has made us righteous through our faith in Him. God is always faithful to us. I think it is important that we view ourselves unworthy if God calls us worthy. God thought we were worth sending His Child to die for. If we think about how much Jesus loves us, it makes impossible to one: not love him back, two: not love ourselves, and three: not love others. When we find our identity in Christ, we begin to look at ourselves differently, as well as other differently. Finding the identity of humans in Christ should alter the way treat …show more content…
When we begin to find our identity in Christ, it should cause us to value other people more, and it should make us treat others better. “The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children (Romans 8:16 NIV)”. We are sons and daughters of God. That means that we are also brothers and sisters. We are all on an equal playing field with the mission of loving God. That is important to remember. The bible instructs us in several places to love others and put them above ourselves. It is important to do that while remembering that we are not in a competition against one another. Once we realize we are not in a competition against others, it becomes easier to treat one another as brothers and sisters rather than

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Romans 1-8 Summary

    • 871 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Romans 1-8 was written by the Apostle Paul, between the years of 56-57 A.D. During the book of Romans chapters 1-8, there are several topics covered; to include The Natural World, Human Identity, Human Relationships, and Culture. Paul’s word inspired numerous of believers to understand the true fundamentals and foundations of the Christian faith by informing them salvation is obtained through faith in God. “Paul teaches about the sinful nature of all men in the eyes of God, justification by faith in Jesus Christ, freedom from sin, and victory in Christ” (Smith).…

    • 871 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Chapter one of Practicing Christian Doctrine conveys the aspects and principles of theology and the Christian life. Theology is the study of the things of God. Part of theology is the discipline of learning scripture in order to faithfully speak about and understand God. Scripture helps us understand the ideals of the Christian life, such as discipleship, faith, and love. Scripture equips us for faithful living and teaches us wisdom and understanding. John Wesley said “No source of theology can be independent of scripture.” Another aspect of theology is dogma and doctrine. Christian dogma is the set of beliefs that are essential to the faith. Furthermore, dogma is held to the highest level if authority and trustworthiness. Vital teachings…

    • 1221 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Gaudium Et Spes Analysis

    • 1108 Words
    • 5 Pages

    First," Gaudium et Spes declares that every human being without exception is created in the image of God and is called to know and to love God." (GS, 12) As a living, breathing image of God, the human person has a fundamental and undeniable dignity that can never be taken away, should never be violated, and which others are supposed to respect. Man was created to be holy by God. However, man has set himself apart from God and tried to achieve goals on his own. Sin does many things to us. It breaks up relationships between ourselves and God. Sin also divides our body and soul. It has been said many times by many people, we distinguish the sin from the sinner. Jesus taught us to love everyone. It is something that has become more apparent to me as I continue on in formation. A nursing home placement that really changed my life helped me learn this. An elderly gentleman was talking to me and he was rather rude. I later found out that no one came to visit him on his 90th birthday. His rudeness wasn't directed toward me, distinguish the sin from the sinner. We, as humans, are very social in nature. As the world becomes more and more complex, we have a interdependence on each other more and more. God creates humans to be together. Human community reflects Trinitarian community. We are called to be neighbor to each other: even to forgive our…

    • 1108 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Followers Of Christ

    • 1118 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Followers of Christ need to expect to live out of their comfort, world life and, set fourth the works of the Father. People tend to wear the label of Christianity, proclaiming their faith yet, staying put in the world, tending to only themselves. The books in the Bible of James and Colossians each describe the trials, faults, and temptations Christians would face in order to live by His name. Also the books say that the Lord 's unconditional love is needed to be returned to others through love and service. Followers of God 's word need to help bring the world closer to the Father by doing His works.…

    • 1118 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Judeo-Christian Theory

    • 1963 Words
    • 8 Pages

    America is an intriguing nation with several unique ethnicities, backgrounds, and religions throughout the fifty states. Regardless of the above statement more than a few people have questioned if America is or is not a Christian Nation. Depending on a person’s individual stance on the matter, they usually correspond to one of two generalistic theories about America. Theory one: America was founded by agnostics, deists, and atheists as a non-religious nation with little to no Christian heritage. These people point to the establishment clause of the Constitution or the Treaty of Tripoli as proof of a Non-Christian America. Theory two: America is a Christian Nation that was founded on Judeo-Christian principles with an all-out Christian heritage.…

    • 1963 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Superior Essays

    I think that C. S. Lewis explains this very well. In ‘Mere Christianity’ he wrote that we start out as an ‘ordinary self’, which we know in our religion as ‘natural man’, or an ‘enemy of God’. That natural man or ‘enemy of God’ discovers morality, or what is good for society. We find things that are within our desires and interests that go against the good of society and realize that we must delete those from our life. We also find things that are good for society that are not among our desires to perform, and realize that we must add them. Because our starting point is self, or the natural man, we are going to become upset at some point at the amount of sacrifice that goes into being part of society. You will either develop a martyr syndrome or give up being part of society if self is your focal point. Christ says to lose yourself to gain eternal life. The true love of Christ…

    • 1693 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Christianity is one of the oldest forms of religion still practiced to this day. Its original purpose was to gain follows of the "son of god" Jesus Christ, who was to show these followers the path to a moral, peaceful life. However as the religion grew people began to obsess with its ideals, and empires began forming around or against it. With Christianity eventually spreading throughout the majority of the ancient eastern world it was no doubt that opposition would follow. Typically…

    • 1148 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Romans 3:23-24 says, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus” (NIV.) Paul highlights our need for Christ. The translation, “Righteousness is given through the faithfulness of Jesus to all those who believe” seems to fit the context of what Paul is trying to communicate to the church.…

    • 775 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    The book of Romans shows us such a great amount about such a large number of parts of the Christian life. It talks about how we should view the natural world, our identity as people, our relationships, culture, civilization and a lot of other important subjects. It really has so much information in it that some people miss all of it because they do not go deeper into it like they should. It also goes further into detail about condemnation, justification, sanctification, and vindication.…

    • 796 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    I beleive that the search of meaning and fulfilment is found only in God. Using the Judeo-Christian understanding of God I would agree that philosophers and like Aristole and Plato, have works without the sacred texts and prophets to assess what they beleive about life and the mind/body problem, however I beleive mans understanding would be different than Gods understanding. Humans are attractive by nature to evil/sinful ways instead of good and righteousness. This is best understood by the pear anaolgy by Augustine. The pear shows the “brokenss” of man and that is our desire to flee from God and all that is good. We are full of selfishness, greed, lust and many other forms of evil. In our passions, we reject God. If free will is present, which…

    • 590 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The tendency to regard oneself as worthy of preferential treatment is universal in scope. The entire range of personal conflict, which reaches all the way from minor squabbles to international wars, reflects the misguided idea that we are better than they or that they have done something against us. So Paul counseled us to “live in harmony with one another” (v. 16). This unity is less the result of accommodation to the other person’s point of view than it is the result of arriving at a mutual understanding of God’s way of thinking. Like spokes in a wheel that converge at the hub, the closer we are to God the closer we come to one another. Paul admonished his readers not to be proud since it is pride more than anything else that destroys the harmony of the…

    • 578 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Christianity is the number one organized religion of the world. More of our population chooses to belief in some sort of higher power than those that choose to believe in nothing. What is it about having something bigger than ourselves to look to that a majority of our earthly population have chosen a path of belief? What in particular is there about God that makes us want to follow Him, to have faith in Him? Through the four Gospels we learn of Jesus’ works among man, as a man and savior. We see his teachings and good works and learn more of God through Jesus, his son. This paper will explore God and His relationship with humanity through his son Jesus.…

    • 956 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Superior Essays

    The video by Frontline, “From Jesus to Christ, Part 1: The First Christians” is about the beginning of Christianity. It talks about the story of Jesus and his followers. According to Meriam-Webster’s dictionary the term Christianity is defined: “the religion derived from Jesus Christ, based on the Bible as sacred scripture, and professed by Eastern, Roman Catholic, and Protestant bodies.” Christianity today is the biggest religion in the World. According to infoplease.com the religion is estimated to have 2.1 billion members, which is about 33% of the world population. In this paper I will talk about the video and reflect on what I thought of the video.…

    • 1012 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Christianity became the greatest religion of the Roman Empire right under the Empire’s eyes. Probably the biggest “mistake” of the Romans was to disregard Christianity as one of its kind and underestimating it as another sector of Judaism (Spielvogel 170). The religion began in Judea, east of the Mediterranean, a region where Romans kept watchful control of. If it depended on Roman rule, Christianity would not have flourished past its place of origin. However, trade played a significant role in the spreading of the Christ’s word outside of Judea’s walls. The Gospel writers and other devout followers, like Peter, went on to become martyrs and die in turn of bringing the teachings of Christianity to other people. Paul, specially, was a champion in diffusing the word of God. According to Spielvogel, “the structure of the Roman Empire itself aided the growth of Christianity” (170). Paul and other apostles traveled with groups along Roman trade routes and established small Christian groups along the way. Soon, private homes became social spaces where families shared meals, as part of their Christian practice. Spielvogel says that these were early Christian groups that met to celebrate the sacrament of the Eucharist, which signifies the celebration of Jesus’ Last Supper (169). Usually the woman or man of the house were in charge of these houses. However, it was very common for the authority to be a woman.…

    • 852 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Our Union With Christ

    • 1984 Words
    • 8 Pages

    The biblical evaluation we can use with this issue is when we become united with Christ we become identical to him. The biblical perspective one needs is to represent oneself as Christ on earth. For identity to take place, we must be united with Christ spiritually. For example, “This new identity is not something we achieve by converting ourselves or by trying to enter into it. It is given to us graciously by God, apart from and outside of ourselves” (Union with Christ, Horton). Since God chooses us, then our goal is to be like Him, and do what He pleases. Our biblical evaluation should always be the desire to be like God, and to get closer to Him. Moving on to the next step, which is historical development.…

    • 1984 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Superior Essays