SPCK
Paul for Everyone Romans part 1 - The Double "Law" and the Miserable "I"
Paul for Everyone Romans part 1 - The Double "Law" and the Miserable "I"
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Double “Law” and the Miserable “I” ROMANS 7.21-25 When you do a complicated mathematical sum, you end up by drawing a line across the page and displaying the result, or, if you like, your ‘findings’. The same thing happens after a lengthy judicial review of some complex quest…
Paul for Everyone Romans part 1 - Looking Back on Life under the Law
Paul for Everyone Romans part 1 - Looking Back on Life under the Law
by SPCK - N T Wright
Looking Back on Life under the Law ROMANS 7.13-20 Try reading this passage out loud, quickly. Unless you have a very smooth tongue I can guarantee you’ll trip up at some point. I remember this being given to a choirboy to read out in church, in an Advent carol service in fact. Po…
Paul for Everyone Romans part 1 - When the Law Arrived: Sinai Looks Back to the Fall
Paul for Everyone Romans part 1 - When the Law Arrived: Sinai Looks Back to the Fall
by SPCK - N T Wright
When the Law Arrived: Sinai Looks Back to the Fall ROMANS 7.7-12 The house was quiet when the workmen arrived, and when someone came to the door they assumed it was the owner himself. They had come to install a new alarm system on the doors and windows. The owner had been anxious…
Paul for Everyone Romans part 1 - Dying to the Law
Paul for Everyone Romans part 1 - Dying to the Law
by SPCK - N T Wright
Dying to the Law ROMANS 7.1-6 I have done my best, in this book and the others like it, to use illustrations which will help my readers get to the heart of the point in each passage. Some reviewers have questioned both the wisdom of this attempt and my skill in achieving it, but …
Paul for Everyone Romans part 1 - Where the Two Roads Lead
Paul for Everyone Romans part 1 - Where the Two Roads Lead
by SPCK - N T Wright
Where the Two Roads Lead ROMANS 6.20-23 One of the things you have to learn when you move house is which roads lead where. I was Christmas shopping the other day in the new town where we have just settled, and as I drove out of a car park I saw a long queue of cars backed up down…
Paul for Everyone Romans part 1 - The Two Types of Slavery
Paul for Everyone Romans part 1 - The Two Types of Slavery
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Two Types of Slavery ROMANS 6.15-19 One of our newspaper columnists came up with a bright idea for achieving two purposes at once. British society (in common with many others in the Western world) is facing a worrying rise in youth crime. Many young people have no jobs, no pu…
Paul for Everyone Romans part 1 - The Call to Holy Living
Paul for Everyone Romans part 1 - The Call to Holy Living
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Call to Holy Living ROMANS 6.12-14 We ended the last section with a picture of someone moving house, changing from one landlord to another. Let’s extend that a bit, and imagine that I am a smallholder living out in the countryside, about a thousand years ago. My little farm s…
Paul for Everyone Romans part 1 - Leaving the State of Sin through Baptism
Paul for Everyone Romans part 1 - Leaving the State of Sin through Baptism
by SPCK - N T Wright
Leaving the State of Sin through Baptism ROMANS 6.1-5 Everybody knows Jesus’ spectacular story of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15.11–32). The younger son twists his father’s arm for his share of the property, goes off and spends it all, and comes home, he thinks, in utter disgrace. The…
Paul for Everyone Romans part 1 - The Triumphant Reign of Grace
Paul for Everyone Romans part 1 - The Triumphant Reign of Grace
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Triumphant Reign of Grace ROMANS 5.18-21 God has done it; God will do it. That is the message of this dramatic little passage, summing up the whole story of the letter so far. That might sound strange, since the word ‘God’ doesn’t occur in these verses. But what Paul has done…
Paul for Everyone Romans part 1 - The Big Picture in Shorthand: Adam and the Messiah
Paul for Everyone Romans part 1 - The Big Picture in Shorthand: Adam and the Messiah
by SPCK - N T Wright
The Big Picture in Shorthand: Adam and the Messiah ROMANS 5.12-17 The sculptor was pleased with his work. It was a fine statue, and it looked good in the town square. The subject had lived in the little seaport all his life, and had become well known through organizing the coastg…
Paul for Everyone Romans part 1 - Jesus' Death Reveals God's Love and Guarantees Final Salvation
Paul for Everyone Romans part 1 - Jesus' Death Reveals God's Love and Guarantees Final Salvation
by SPCK - N T Wright
Jesus’ Death Reveals God’s Love and Guarantees Final Salvation ROMANS 5.6-11 I have heard it said – one hears all sorts of strange things in church – that John’s gospel is all about the love of God, but Paul’s letters are all about law, justice and hard, sharp things like that. W…
Paul for Everyone Romans part 1 - Peace and Hope
Paul for Everyone Romans part 1 - Peace and Hope
by SPCK - N T Wright
Peace and Hope ROMANS 5.1-5 I recently heard of a famous comedian who had been a familiar figure on radio and television for many years. His quick wit and endless supply of jokes guaranteed him a big audience. But when he died, the published obituaries told a darker story as well…
Paul for Everyone Romans part 1 - Abraham's Faith - and Ours
Paul for Everyone Romans part 1 - Abraham's Faith - and Ours
by SPCK - N T Wright
Abraham’s Faith – and Ours ROMANS 4.18-25 When my family and I emigrated to Canada in the early 1980s, we frequently thought about the early pioneers, arriving in a new and unknown country with no idea what they would find, what the weather would be like, what crops might grow, o…
Paul for Everyone Romans part 1 - Abraham is the Father of All Believers
Paul for Everyone Romans part 1 - Abraham is the Father of All Believers
by SPCK - N T Wright
Abraham Is the Father of All Believers ROMANS 4.13-17 I had an angry email today from a Jewish Christian who objected strongly to something I had said, very cautiously, about the current problems in the Middle East. (I lived and worked in Jerusalem some years ago, and I still hav…
Paul for Everyone Romans part 1 - Abraham the Father of Both Uncircumcised and Circumcised
Paul for Everyone Romans part 1 - Abraham the Father of Both Uncircumcised and Circumcised
by SPCK - N T Wright
Abraham the Father of Both Uncircumcised and Circumcised ROMANS 4.9-12 One of the most solemn moments of a wedding ceremony comes when the bride and groom give or exchange rings. I have taken many weddings in my time. I have also stood there as a proud father for the weddings of …
Paul for Everyone Romans part 1 - God's Covenant with Abraham
Paul for Everyone Romans part 1 - God's Covenant with Abraham
by SPCK - N T Wright
God’s Covenant with Abraham ROMANS 4.1-8 Imagine a four-year-old boy who has lost his parents in a terrible war. He is old enough to understand, and to grieve, but nothing like old enough to fend for himself. Some distant relatives look after him for a while, but they haven’t got…
Paul for Everyone Romans part 1 - The God of Both Jew and Gentile
Paul for Everyone Romans part 1 - The God of Both Jew and Gentile
by SPCK - N T Wright
The God of Both Jew and Gentile ROMANS 3.27-31 One of the things that regularly confuses Christians when they cross from Britain to North America, or vice versa, is that, as a friend of mine put it, ‘they sing the right hymns to the wrong tunes’. Sometimes there are quite differe…
Paul for Everyone Romans part 1 - Jesus' Death Reveals God's Covenant Justice