One of the challenges of jumping into a sermon series is trying to figure out how to address everything that I want to address within a given passage because of the richness and depth of God’s word. There is a part of me that wants to spend a few weeks on only a few verses diving deep into scripture. But unfortunately, that is not an option in this season for this passage. But with such complex passages as Romans 6:15-23 and Romans 7:1-13, I would be remise if I merely gave a 35 minute overview of the passage without giving detail to some of the more challenging sections. Especially because it is too easy for us at times to take verses out of context.
And so what I would like to ask you to do in preparation for Sunday’s sermon is to take a few days to study the passage for yourself. Spend some time reading Romans 5:12-8:39. Then go and look up some articles on Romans 7 from the TheGospelCoalition.org, DesiringGod.org, or Ligonier.org. Read some commentaries on Romans 7 from BlueLetterBible.com (I especially like David Guzik’s commentaries that you can find here).
The best thing that you can do before Sunday is coming in having meditated and studied God’s word to the best of your ability and then in prayerful submission to the Holy Spirit, be ready to hear from His word.