The Unsearchable Riches of Christ: Commentary Series

There is therefore now NO CONDEMNTION to them which are in Christ Jesus.  Wow … what a grand truth!  How can this be?  Open your Bibles and let’s bask in praising Jesus Christ for what he’s done for us.

Self is the conclusion of Romans 7.  We are our own worst enemy, so to speak.  So, who provides the victory over self?  Jesus Christ.  Oh, may God help us to get out of our own way and allow Him to rule!

The law of God has its proper place.  Prior to being saved by the grace of God through faith in Jesus Christ the law was our schoolmaster teaching us and leading us to Christ (Galatians).  Now that we have Christ and Christ has us, we are free from that law to serve Him in spirit and not in the oldness of the letter (Romans 7:6).  What does that mean?  … We are free to serve Him because we want to, not because we have to.   

We pause our verse-by-verse study through Acts to reflect on what we’ve learned thus far.  So far, we’ve seen preaching delivered to the Jews, the Samaritans, and the Gentiles.  Furthermore, we’ve seen 3 cases where individuals hear the preaching of Jesus Christ.  We must compare each case to fully understand how God is working during this transitional period of the church’s history.  Open your Bibles and let’s study the word of God.  

Peter is called upon to preach the gospel to the Gentiles, and it is here we learn that there are no dietary restrictions governing the church.  Praise God, pork and shrimp are on the menu!  This is quite the enjoyable chapter, so open your Bibles and let’s study the word of God.

The Christian life is more than just knowing a set of facts.  Our head knowledge must be coupled with a heart desire to follow, please, and obey God.  It’s the only way we will ever yield ourselves appropriately as He desires for us to do.  So, what does your heart want?  What does your heart desire?  Oh, may God help us with this truth!

Our standing with Jesus Christ, upon believing on Him, is that we have received imputed righteousness and been declared justified by Him (Romans 4-5).  That is fixed, constant, and unchanging.  Praise God!  Our state though, can vary from day to day simply because of how WE CHOOSE to live.  Let’s allow the scripture and the first half of Romans 6 to teach us this truth. 

The chapter continues with details concerning the days following Paul’s conversion and immediately shifts to Peter.  Two miracles are performed by Peter and the second of those miracles is particularly interesting because he raises Tabitha from the dead.  There are a good many resurrections that take place throughout scripture.  Are they connected?  Can we as the church learn anything from their stories?  Open your Bibles and let’s find out.

Saul of Tarsus (also called Paul) is quite the individual as an extremely zealous and devout Pharisaical Jew.  Just read his own testimony in Philippians 3:4-6 for proof.  So, it seems only natural that a unique man like Paul would have a unique conversion.  That’s exactly what we witness here in Acts 9.

Belief of the gospel and salvation becomes the focus of this message.  Along with that we take a quick look at the 2,000 years of the church’s history and where our Bible’s text comes from.  Why must we do that?  Because verse 37 demands that we do.  Follow along with us to find out why.

The persecution of the early church ramps up and the church scatters.  The first stop, as indicated by Jesus in Acts 1:8, is Samaria and many believe the gospel.  However, their receiving of the Holy Ghost is delayed until the apostles come to lay their hands on them.  Why?  Open you Bibles and let’s find out.

Two men and two races of people are discussed at the close of this chapter.  The first Adam produced a race of sinners who die.  Thank you, Adam.  But the last Adam, Jesus Christ, produces a race of people free from sin and justification of life.  THANK YOU, JESUS! 

Stephen preaches Israel’s entire history and connects it directly with Jesus Christ.  Wow, what preaching is contained in this chapter!  Open your Bibles and get comfortable because we have a lot of scripture to examine. 

Well, another round of trouble for the early church presents itself among the widows.  Like all problems, dealing with them correctly takes wisdom and being filled with the Holy Ghost.  One such person is Stephen.  Open your Bibles and let’s learn together a valuable lesson from God’s word.

Just how much does God love the world?  What kind of relationship does He desire to have with all humanity?  Romans 5 begins to answer those very questions, and not only that … we see just what God did so that a relationship with Him could exist.  Oh, what a wealth of truth exists in this chapter.

There are many wonderful truths in this section of scripture where several “fillings” are mentioned, and Peter takes an opportunity to preach obedience.  Ultimately the major lesson here is that whatever we seek to be filled with will determine our obedience to God.  Open your Bibles and let’s study God’s word.

“Family” is the focus of this message.  The church is a family, and just as all families have trouble the church is not immune.  So, open your Bibles and let’s see what we can learn from God’s word about how a family deals with trouble.

Three key words (counted, imputed, reckoned) along with two specific people (Abraham and David) are brought to our attention in this chapter.  Abraham and David are both sinners, as the Old Testament presents, but both were counted righteous.  How?  Why?  Open your Bibles and let’s allow the scripture to answer those questions while also teaching us how we too can have Jesus’ righteousness credited to our account.

Fact … all the world has sinned.  Fact … there is nothing man can do to rectify the consequences of sin.  BUT PRAISE GOD that He desires to justify us freely by His marvelous grace!  This offer may be free, but the price required for our sin is far from being free.  It required the death of the innocent – specifically Jesus Christ the righteous.  Open your Bibles and let’s examine what Christ paid for us that we might be justified freely.

“One accord” is the phrase that summarized the early church.  It’s a prevailing truth in the first 4 chapters and only existed because the church was centrally focused on Jesus Christ.  Does that phrase describe the church after chapter 4?  No.  Does that phrase describe the church today?  No … simply because our focus is on everything other that Jesus Christ, and Him alone.