LIVE ZOOM CLASS

 

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LIVING BY THE PROMISE:

ROMANS 7–8 AND THE OLD ADAM WHO REFUSES TO DIE

 

A four-week follow-up to Gerhard Forde’s Where God Meets Man

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After asking where God meets us, this class asks what happens to the sinner who has been met by God in Christ. Romans 7–8 gives us the grammar of the Christian life: not moral progress as self-salvation, but the death of the old Adam, the promise of no condemnation, life in the Spirit, and hope under the cross.

 

Week 1 — The Divided Self

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Romans 7: “I Do Not Do What I Want”

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Main theme:
The Christian is not someone who has mastered the self, but someone who has been exposed by the Law and driven to Christ.

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Key texts:
Romans 7:7–25
Galatians 2:19–20
Psalm 51

Romans 7 describes the human being under the Law: wanting the good, seeing the good, even agreeing with the good, and yet unable to produce the righteousness God requires. This is not merely a problem of ignorance or weak effort. It is the bondage of the old Adam.

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Forde connection:
God meets us where our religious projects collapse. The Law does not improve the old Adam. It kills him.

 

 

Week 2 — The Cry for Deliverance

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“Who Will Rescue Me?”

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Main theme:
Faith begins not in achievement, but in the cry of one who cannot save himself.

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Key texts:
Romans 7:24–25
Luke 18:9–14
2 Corinthians 12:7–10

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Paul does not end Romans 7 with a program, a technique, or a ladder of spiritual ascent. He ends with a cry: “Who will rescue me from this body of death?” The answer is not found within the self. The answer is Jesus Christ.

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Forde connection:
The Gospel is not advice for religious improvement. It is an announcement that Christ has done what sinners cannot do.

 

Week 3 — No Condemnation

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Romans 8: The Promise That Creates Faith

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Main theme:
The Christian life is founded on a verdict: “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”

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Key texts:
Romans 8:1–17
John 8:31–36
Galatians 5:1

Romans 8 does not erase the struggle of Romans 7. It answers it. The sinner who cannot justify himself is justified by Christ. The Spirit does not come as religious enthusiasm or self-mastery, but as the life created by the promise.

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Forde connection:
The Word does what it says. The promise does not merely describe a possibility. It creates faith.

 

Week 4 — Groaning, Hope, and the Final Word

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Nothing Can Separate Us

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Main theme:
The Christian lives under the cross, still amid weakness, suffering, and groaning, but held by a promise stronger than death.

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Key texts:
Romans 8:18–39
2 Corinthians 4:7–18
John 11:17–27

Romans 8 does not promise escape from suffering. Creation groans. The church groans. The believer groans. But the groaning is not the final word. The final word is God’s promise in Christ: nothing can separate us from the love of God.

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Forde connection:
God meets us at the cross, not above it. The Gospel does not deny death, weakness, or suffering. It speaks the promise precisely there.