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OT: As you continue to read through the Psalms this week, you may want to note the various references to:

• Zion, the city of God, which is pointing ultimately to the church, the city with foundations (see Hebrews 11:10; 12:22-23)
• God arising in his power and might, the very earth quaking before him, as he puts all his enemies to flight
• The Psalmists continuing to cry to God for help to overcome their enemies
• God as helper
• Prayer and praise as a sacrifice

NT: We end the book of Acts with Paul still teaching and preaching about the Kingdom of God. We start then with the letters where God’s revelation becomes most clear. In Romans, after initial greetings and introduction, Paul gives us the clearest explanation that we have in the Bible about God’s way of salvation. In the first five chapters his explanation develops something like this:

• God’s is angry at sin and all have sinned, Jew and Gentile
• Being a Jew and having the Law does not save you – you’re still a sinner
• You can’t be made right by obeying the Law – all the Law does is show us how bad you are.
• We are made right with God not by what we have done but by putting our faith in what God has done in Jesus – that is, freed us from our sin by taking the punishment for our sins upon himself
• There is no point in us boasting then because salvation is not based on anything we have done but is simply received as a gift by faith
• And this is the only way that anyone – Jew or Gentile – can be saved
• This was even shown by Abraham who received God’s promise not by his own good deeds but by faith and was so made right with God
• And we can receive the promise in the same way
• There are now so many benefits to this new relationship with God through faith in Christ
• Adam’s sin brought death and condemnation into the world
• Christ’s obedience brought forgiveness and the opportunity of a right relationship with God