by Lee Yih | Apr 24, 2023 | Articles
I just had an unusual Bible Study in Romans Chapter 16. Normally, when I think of Romans 16, in my mind, it is a “Flyover” Chapter. By that I mean, it is something that is skipped, or at least on a relative basis, something that I do not put the same emphasis on as I have on the other, more theological portions of Romans. I have taught the Book of Romans many times in my 50 years of being a Christian, and truth be told, I have never given much shrift to Chapter 16, until recently. I ask myself, what is there in Romans 16 worth spending time on? In a recent study in Romans, I tried something different with this chapter by having the guys put together and present a 10-minute talk from any portion in Chapter 16 that they found worth discussing. The topics they uncovered were eye-opening. These included things like “How to handle people who cause dissension in our churches” (vs. 17-19), what it means that they will soon crush Satan under their feet (vs. 20), what it means to be “established” by God and the reference to “My Gospel” (vs. 25) and the meaning of “obedience of faith” in vs. 26. But the most profound lesson was gained by thinking about all the names mentioned in the first part of the chapter. Thirty-five persons are named in this conclusion. There were nine persons with Paul in Corinth when he wrote – eight men and one woman, Phoebe, and twenty-four persons at Rome who were greeted – seventeen men and seven women. Besides these, there were...
by Lee Yih | Nov 6, 2022 | Articles
There are obvious examples of God’s partiality to Israel in the Old Testament. Surely God was partial when he led Israel through the Red Sea unharmed but then destroyed the Egyptian chariots that tried to follow. Surely God was partial when he dropped food (manna) upon Israel in the wilderness, something no other people had ever experienced. Surely God is partial with us when we learn about “Election” in Romans 9, through the teaching that He loved Jacob but hated Esau. Yet the statement that there is no partiality with God is surprisingly spread throughout the Bible, mostly contained in warnings. I found such warnings in Deuteronomy, II Chronicles, Job, Psalms. Proverbs and Malachi in the Old Testament and Acts, Romans. Galatians. Ephesians, Colossians. I Timothy, and James in the New Testament. We all, like Israel before us, have a tendency to relax in our vigilance against sin. This is so because we enjoy a special relationship with God as a result of the love shown by the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. But this is one of the biggest mistakes that we (and Israel before us) make in our assumptions about God’s love. The Bible warns us that there is one thing that God is not partial with, and that is His attitude toward sin. In the case of sin and rebellion, God’s Holiness trumps everything, including His own love. If we take any lesson from the Old Testament, we should see that it is a trap to think that the relationship we enjoy with God through the work of Jesus negates God’s Justice against sin. It...
by Lee Yih | Feb 21, 2022 | Articles
Romans 2:6, “Who will render to every man according to his deeds”, is one of the most important, yet mostly ignored verses in the Book of Romans. I remember an encounter with this verse in a Bible Study in Boston where I was an invited guest. Things were getting uncomfortable as we moved through this chapter, reading about the judgment of God falling upon hypocritical believers, and how we store up wrath for ourselves when we are stubborn and unrepentant before God. Then reading verse 6, it summarizes what has been said and introduces further principles of judgment – detailing glory, honor, and immortality for doing good, and wrath, indignation, and tribulation for doing evil. Suddenly the host broke the tension by saying, “Don’t worry, grace is coming!” referring to Romans 3:21ff. I have heard people refer to Romans chapter 2 as a “Flyover” chapter because leaders hurry through the material to get to the “good stuff.” As a result, important concepts about no partiality with God (vs. 11), Paul introducing justification by works (vs 13), God seeing and judging our deepest secrets (vs. 16), and how believers’ actions blaspheme the reputation of God among non-believers–all get short-changed. It’s as if nothing matters for our Christian walk once we fully realize that we have been saved by grace. The rest of the chapter says that circumcision, and by implication, baptism, is worthless if we don’t practice the Law and that is something that further encourages us to say, “Don’t worry, grace is coming!” To say this, is the wrong approach to the important theological truths being introduced in Romans...
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