Formed in God’s Story: Romans 9–16

Join is in person or by podcast for twelve sessions in the second half of Romans.

Update 2025-09-11: Added final pocasts, and full notes.

Where does the gospel take us? What kind of world is created as the Spirit of God sets us right through trust in his Anointed? What kind of community develops as people do right by each other as the expression of faithfulness to God, mirroring the way God in Christ did right by his earthly realm out of his faithfulness to us?

Romans 9–16 explores these questions. We are no longer a divided, warring people, for those who were not God’s people are now called God’s people. We offer ourselves in God’s service, to love each other sincerely, sharing meals together as the Father’s family, embodying the transformation that comes to the world as we recognize God’s Christ is our Lord.

In August/September 2025, we’re exploring these chapters together, with two sessions each Wednesday evening. The notes are available as a single PDF  covering Romans 9-16, or as separate PDFs for each week along with the podcasts below .

Previously, we covered Romans 1–9.

The next installment of Formed in God’s Story  commences 22 October 2025, covering the book of Isaiah.

A sample

In Romans 9–16, Paul sets out the practical implications of gospel, what it looks like to live as God’s people in the world today. The biggest pastoral issue in the house churches in Rome was conflict between Jewish Christians and gentile Christians. The emperor had expelled Jews from Rome for a time (Acts 18:2). As they returned, they did not find gentiles living the way Jews had always lived—following the regulations of the Torah. The gentile Christians were demeaning the Jewish Christians with their irrelevant traditions, while the Jewish Christians were unwilling to eat with gentile Christians who were eating non-kosher food.

This rejection-of-the-other is the main issue in Romans 9–16. Paul argues that we cannot divide ourselves up like this if God has called us together in the Messiah.

This issue still divides the church today:

  • Some Christians view the nation of Israel as the barometer for everything God is doing in the world. Supporting the nation of Israel and ensuring Israel has a future is crucial for the fulfilment of Biblical prophecy and the return of Christ.
  • Other Christians view the nation of Israel as irrelevant. The new covenant in Christ means that the church has replaced Israel as the people of God, so a preoccupation with Zionism and Israel as a nation misunderstands the gospel.

Somewhere between those two extremes is the truth. Paul argues that God never rejected the Jewish people: he remained faithful to them by sending them the Messiah. A hardness of heart means that God’s people rejected the Messiah God sent them, but what God has done has expanded (not replaced) the people of God. The people of God in Christ includes all who respond to him with faithfulness: Jew and gentile (Romans 1:16; 2:9-10; 3:9, 22, 29; 9:24; 10:12; 15:27).

Paul spends three chapters explaining the significance of Israel in the story of God, with the goal of drawing Jews and gentiles together around Christ. We’ll spend the next three weeks listening to what Paul says in Romans 9–11. Then we’ll discuss how these chapters shape our view of national Israel today and how the promises of God are fulfilled in Christ.

In Romans 12–16, we’ll see what Paul thinks it looks like for us all (Jews and gentiles) to function as the community of the Messiah (Romans 12). We’ll hear Paul explain how we who recognize Christ as king are to live in relation to the governments of this world (Romans 13). We’ll listen to Paul’s pleas for us to share a table and eat together as a unified community in Christ, even while we still have our different convictions about how to please God (Romans 14), because it’s the gospel that unifies the world in Christ (Romans 15–16).

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The Formed in God’s Story series has previously covered:

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Author: Allen Browne

Seeking to understand Jesus in the terms he chose to describe himself: son of man (his identity), and kingdom of God (his mission). Riverview Church, Perth, Western Australia

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