LEADER:
Father, thank you for the gospel treasure found in the book of Romans. We have mined its depths this year and have come to realize that we have only begun to scratch the surface of this gospel masterpiece.
ALL:
Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are your judgments and how inscrutable your ways! For from you and through you and to you are all things (Rom. 11:36).
LEADER:
Lord, we will never be able to savor how good the gospel truly is unless we first grapple with the pervasiveness of our sin. Help us continue to soberly wrestle with the extent of our depravity and our overwhelming need for grace.
ALL:
Our minds are debased; our hearts impure; our passions disordered; our throats an open grave; mouths filled with curses and bitterness; we do not know the way of peace and there is no fear of God before our eyes (Rom. 1:24-32; 3:10-18).
LEADER:
We exchanged your truth for a lie and have worshiped petty idols and because of this your wrath has been revealed against us (Rom. 1:18-23)—"the love of God in friction with injustice…the fair grace of God in collision with manifest selfishness.”
ALL:
“For there is no distinction: …all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23). And therefore, we are rightfully deserving of our due payment: “For the wages of sin is death” (Rom. 6:23).
LEADER:
No amount of good works, righteous deeds, endless penance, or futile attempts to keep your law can save us. “For by works of the law no human will be justified…since through the law comes knowledge of sin” (Rom. 3:20).
ALL:
“But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law…through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received…as a gift…by faith” (Rom. 3:21-25).
LEADER:
Having been justified by faith, we now have access to your grace which enables us to stand firm; your joy that sustains us through the suffering of life; and your love has been poured out into our hearts through your Spirit which fills us with hope (Rom. 5:1-5).
ALL:
We have been united with Christ: baptized into his death and raised in his resurrection and therefore, set free from the dominion of sin. We are now dead to sin and alive to God! (Rom. 6:1-11).
LEADER:
We are no longer condemned but instead eternally loved! We have received the spirit of adoption by whom we now cry out, “Abba! Father!” The same Spirit that intercedes for us in our pain as we eagerly await the return of Christ (Rom. 8:1-17).
ALL:
Nothing can separate us from your love, not death or life, for we are more than conquers. Instead, you are working all things, including our suffering and pain, for our salvation—for we are known, predestined, called, justified, and will one day be glorified (Rom. 8:18-39).
LEADER:
In view of these innumerable mercies, help us to give you our every day, ordinary life—our sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before you as an offering of worship, pleasing and acceptable to you (Rom 12:1-2).
ALL:
Grant us the grace to love genuinely: to think of others more highly than ourselves; to serve the body of Christ with our gifts; to bless those who curse us and see themselves as our enemy; to welcome those weak in faith instead of arguing over opinions (Rom. 12-15).
LEADER:
Oh, may we not be ashamed of the gospel, “for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes...For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith (Rom. 1:18),” so may we live in light of this power and proclaim this message to every man, woman, and child.
ALL:
Father, fill us with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit we may abound in hope (Rom. 15:13). Strengthen us with this gospel message to bring about our obedience of faith to the praise and glory of the eternal, immortal, invisible, and only wise God, Amen (Rom. 16:25-27)!