An Introduction to the Theology of St. Paul

In this study we hope to get a "big picture" view of some of the theological themes in St. Paul's epistles. This will be most helpful background information for the upcoming study of St. Paul's epistle to the Romans. We will attempt to follow roughly the outline of this topic in the Navarre Study Bible on Romans and Galations. However, the book is not required for the class. Bring a Bible if you can. This class will be a little more intense than the Philemon study and we might do a lot of flipping between Paul's epistles so you might want to review where they are in your Bible. Here is a useful memory tool I use - "Really Cool, God Eats Peanutbutter Cookies with Tea" - for Romans, 1&2 Corinthians, Galations, Ephesians, Philippians, Colosians, "the T Epistles:" (1&2 Thessolonians, 1&2 Timothy, Titus). Philemon is last, sorry, nothing seems to follow Tea that would be memorable to me.

Outline

I) Man Without Jesus
  1. Sin
    1. Of our origin: Rom. 5:18-19
    2. Enslaves us: Rom. 6:17-18
  2. The Flesh
    1. Militates itself against God: Rom 8:7-8
    2. Bends us toward sin (concupiscence), the ally of sin: Rom 7:14-20
  3. Death
    1. The result of sin: Rom. 6:23
  4. The Law
    1. Give power to sin but also reveals it to us as our teacher: Rom. 7:7-8; Rom. 2:13
    2. Our custodian/pedogogue to faith: Gal. 3:23-26
II) Man With Jesus
  1. Grace
    1. Justifies us: Rom. 3:24
    2. By it we receive the gift of faith: Eph. 2:8-9
  2. Faith
    1. The fruit of faith is obedience: Rom. 16:26
    2. Works by way of love:
    3. Without it, it is impossible to please God: Heb. 11:6
    4. Makes our works meritorious: Gal. 6:9-10; 1 Cor. 15:58; 1 Cor. 16:14; Rom. 3:28
  3. The Death of Christ
    1. Makes us Righteous - not just a legal standing of right: Rom. 5:19; 2 Cor. 5:17-21
III) Conversion of Man
  1. To become adopted as children of God: Rom. 8:29; Gal. 2:19-20
  2. Given the Holy Spirit as gift and guarantee: Rom. 5:5; 2 Cor. 1:22
  3. Our suffering is redemptive in imitation of Christ's suffering: 2 Cor. 4:7-12; Col. 1:24; Phil. 2:17; Phil. 3:8-11
IV) The Church (Types/Metaphores)
  1. One in unity: 1 Cor. 1:10-13; 1 Cor. 10:17
  2. A people of God: Eph. 2:1-7
  3. The body of Christ: 1 Cor. 12:12-13
  4. The Building of Christ: Eph. 2:19-22